Weird Island

10. HAUNTED HOTEL: The Biltmore

Episode Summary

The Biltmore name evokes grandeur, but in Providence, RI it also evokes something else: hauntings, murder, disappearances, the excesses of the roaring ‘20s, and even Satanic rituals. To Visit: Graduate Providence (previously the Biltmore) | 11 Dorrance Street, Providence, RI

Episode Notes

Episode Source Material:

Rumors:

History:

Episode Transcription

Hi! You’re listening to Weird Island, and I’m your host, Sara. Each week I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up, from my tiny little state of Rhode Island. This week, I’ll be telling you about hauntings, murder, disappearances, the roaring ‘20s and mob bootleggers, disappearances and even Satanic rituals -- all tied to the iconic Providence Biltmore Hotel.
When I moved to Providence in College, I didn’t know how to get anywhere. Leaving campus felt like heading out into the wilderness, and I really never got my bearings in downtown. Of course, now you can get anywhere with your phone, but at first I didn’t have one that was smart and could tell me where to go. But my friends and I had one mantra--If you’re lost, look for the Biltmore. The red, glowing hotel sign was our north star. If we could just get to a place where we could turn in a circle until we could spot those letters, stretched across one wing of the L-shaped, 18-story building, then we could chart our course back to Kennedy Plaza, where the bus would deliver us home.
The hotel is iconic in Providence, but of course the name Biltmore isn’t exclusive to this location. It adorns at least 10 other historic hotels across the country, having been inspired by and alluding to the famously grand Biltmore Estate. But this name that evokes grandeur, well in Providence it also evokes something else--hauntings, murder, the excesses of the roaring ‘20s, and even Satanic rituals.
The Biltmore opened its doors in 1922, and the opening was marked with a huge celebration. The front page story in the Providence Journal reported that it would be the most elaborate social event ever to be held in the city. Over 1,000 people would attend, and there would be a glamorous banquet and ball in the elegant ballroom that would later host the city’s annual Debutante Assembly Ball, at which the most eligible young women in Providence were presented to society each year. Designed by architects Warren and Wetmore, famous for having designed NYC’s Grand Central Terminal, the Biltmore was described as being “by far the most modern structure in Providence.”
The need for a new, modern hotel had been under discussion since as early as 1915, but WWI slowed the progress. In 1918, the Chamber of Commerce was able to reignite the effort to provide a hotel on par with those in other modern cities, like NY, that would appeal to the businessmen and industrialists that found their way to the flourishing city. Providence was one of the richest cities in America in the early 1900s, and it needed a hotel that showcased that.
Chamber of Commerce head Arthur L. Aldred solicited Providence business owners for subscriptions of preferred stock, and by May of 1920 roughly $2.5MM had been pledged, in what The National Organization of Chamber of Commerce Secretaries referred to later that year as “the greatest single achievement of a Chamber of Commerce in the United States.” This monumental feat of funding likely indicates how much of a stake local businesses had in the construction of a first-class hotel.
And it was with these and additional funds that the Biltmore was constructed and later opened by NY entrepreneurs and owners John Bowman and Louis Wallick in 1922.
Diverging now, skipping tracks, from the reported history to the purported history -- I am taking you into an alternate universe of rumors and myths. And to do that, we need to revisit the banquet scene on that opening night.
A man named Johan Leisse Weisskoft might have been among the guests at the party. Said to be a wealthy, self-indulgent businessman, Weisskopf was rumored to be among the early financial backers of the hotel, and he wasn’t a silent figure during its design and construction. Rumors claim Weisskopf was a “proud Satanist,” and he saw the new hotel as a way to familiarize Puritan New Englanders with the joys of his religion. The expansive, L-shaped roof of the hotel was the perfect place for chicken coops that would supply the sacrifices for weekly masses. And hot springs were dug in the basement for purification rituals - and maybe even filled with human blood on occasion. There was also the Bacchante Orgy Pit - a bar and restaurant more formally known as the “Bacchante Room” in which exclusive guests were served by waitresses who were completely nude. Perhaps Weisskoft wandered through the 1,000 guests who celebrated that night, eagerly anticipating how many new Satanists he might bring into the fold.
He may have also rubbed elbows with some other unsavory figures -- members of the local mob. Because, remember, this huge party was happening in 1922, and prohibition had been in effect since January of 1920. But what’s a party without alcohol?
It’s said that during Prohibition, the Biltmore was one of the most decadent places to get drunk. Wine was sold for a quarter a glass, unless you were a police officer or member of government. Then, you drank free. The raucous drinking may have led to things getting a little out of control, and rumors claimed that between 1920 and 1933 six police officers, one governor, one mayor and one cardinal were all separately implicated in the murders of as many as 9 people in the Biltmore. And today, those people are said to wander the halls as ghosts, locking and unlocking doors, interacting with hotel guests, dancing, and talking and laughing as if they’re still having their own parties. One ghost doesn’t join in on the parties, though, that of a man who lost all of his money in the stock market crash and leapt from a window in 1929. People report seeing someone falling past the windows in their room, but when they rush to look down, there’s no body below.
On top of the deaths, there are said to be guests of the hotel that disappear at night and are never found. The most recent and commonly referenced disappearance is said to be that of New Jersey tourists 42 year-old Erving F. Bishop and his daughter Emily, age 4, in 2008. Sites write that “Providence’s modern-day Satanists like to point out that the disappearances only began after new management took over,” cleaning the place up, forbidding sacrifices, and tearing down the chicken coops. Perhaps the Satanic rituals were protecting the hotel?
It’s all of these rumors and stories that resulted in the Biltmore being named America’s Most Haunted Hotel in 2000 by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The Biltmore may have also played a role in inspiring Stephen King’s Overlook Hotel and Robert Bloch’s Bates Motel. Paranormalists have claimed quote: “a surprisingly high number of good quality sightings are believed to be real -- as high as 25%” Not sure how that’s measured. But it had me asking, what pieces of these stories are real? And what pieces are just that--stories?
Well, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the Satanic ties are probably not real. There are actually no records I could find of anyone named Johan Leisse Weisskoft. It’s possible he may have existed, but there are no records, but even if that were the case, Satanism as a religious practice began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in 1966. So, people weren’t identifying as proud or practicing Satanists as early as 1922. If anything, it’s possible Weisskopf could have been an occultist, and one source claims he may have been a follower of Aleister Crowley--an eccentric English occultist and practitioner of Magick. Just before the hotel was built, between 1914 and 1919, Crowley was likely living in a hotel in New York City and was part of NY’s pro-German movement. Is it possible he and the German-sounding Weisskoft crossed paths? Maybe, if Weisskopf was even real.
One of the supposed Satanic ties is real though. You know those chicken coops on the roof, supposedly built to supply sacrifices for weekly masses? Well, they were actually there. But they were the brainchild of someone else - hotel manager Louis Wallick. In the decade after the hotel opened, it received national attention for the vegetable garden and poultry farm on the roof of the hotel’s tower. Wallick started it as a hobby, but it flourished well into the 1930s. Chickens and ducks provided fresh eggs that were served to guests. Vegetables were grown. There was a large cutting garden with fresh, beautiful flowers. Wallick even had plans for a small dairy herd on the roof, but that never came to fruition.
The rumors about the Bacchante Room were also based in reality. It’s said the Bacchante Room featured nude waitresses, serving drinks to exclusive guests like Louis Armstrong, Douglas Fairbanks and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. And the Bacchante Room did definitely exist. But the nudity was an exaggeration. Instead, the Bacchante Girls, famous throughout the country for their beauty, were dressed in skirts that were sheer… from the knees down. Which was pretty stand-out at the time. The Bacchante Room was on the second floor of the hotel, and it featured a sunken bar, piano music, and a glass floor underlit with pink lights that showcased the girls’ legs. The room also had “discreet service.” When someone wanted to be served, all they had to do was push a button on the table to summon a Bacchante Girl. And what about those famous guests? Well, yeah, that was probably pretty likely. The Biltmore’s Garden Room featured Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Dorsey among other popular musicians. Perhaps they got a drink in the Bacchante Room after performing. John F. Kennedy and his Navy buddies stationed at a training center in RI, were also known to visit the Biltmore on weekends to party at the Bacchante Room.
And when it comes to partying, alcohol is key. But the hotel was built during Prohibition. What about those rumors about illicit alcohol being served at the hotel? Well, in the 1920s, Rhode Island was considered the most anti-prohibition state in the union. In fact, it was one of only two states that didn’t ratify the 18th amendment. With 400 miles of coastline, Rhode Island was perfectly set up for smuggling alcohol. Boats souped up with new aircraft engines to outrun the Coast Guard could go out a few miles into international waters, where they would link up with foreign registered ships packed with alcohol from Canada and the Bahamas. And federal agents were known to enjoy that smuggled alcohol alongside regular crowds at speakeasies that popped up all over the state. In 1922, a Prohibition Bureau agent claimed liquor was openly served at over 700 places in Rhode Island, and he said that everyone he confronted admitted it was the first time they had been approached about breaking the law. So, yeah, they were probably serving alcohol at the Biltmore - and maybe it was free for police, because that would keep the cops happy and the hotel out of trouble.
And the alcohol likely led to the hotel’s rumored mob connections. Organized crime in Providence flourished from 1950 to 1980, but the Prohibition era is when organized crime really started, and violent crime increased. Frank Morelli formed the Providence Crime family in 1917, controlling the bootlegging and gambling operations in Providence.
And famous bootleggers Carl Rettich and Danny Walsh were early mobsters with Providence and Boston connections.
Prior to Prohibition, organized crime was mostly localized. There were crime families and turf wars, but there wasn’t as much of a need for far reaching criminal organizations. But with Prohibition, and the new need to move huge quantities of alcohol across the country, mobs needed connections in other places. In 1929, in Atlantic City, there was the first formal organization of crime families from multiple cities. Mobsters came together to divide up the country, set prices, and essentially launch national organized crime.
Bootleggers were the start, but the Providence mob continued to grow and flourish. And that requires its own separate, focused episode. But, it’s worth mentioning because Raymond Patriarcha--the legendary New England crime boss--did have some connections to the hotel. When Patriarcha was 8, he left school and got a job shining shoes and working as a bellhop - at the Biltmore. Later, criminal records would show Patriarcha was arrested for questioning in a murder--it was reported, but never confirmed, that he drove the victim from the Biltmore Hotel to the place where he was later killed. In the 60s, Patriarcha’s brother Joseph would host a wedding at the hotel. So, it’s just a handful of proven connections, but perhaps there’s enough there to say the rumors of the Biltmore’s mob ties are plausible.
Finally, the last stop on my mythbusting mission - the murders and disappearances. And I won’t spend a ton of time here, because, well, I can’t find any records of any of them, not the murders, not the stock market suicide, and not the disappearances. I’m sure some people have died at the hotel, but perhaps the stories weren’t as sensational as the rumors claimed. And the reported 2008 disappearance of New Jersey tourists Erving and Emily Bishop? I couldn’t find any facts to prove that happened at all. I looked at Rhode Island and NJ National Missing Persons Lists, and nothing. Maybe that just means that shortly after going missing, they were found. It’s entirely possible. Each year, more than 600,000 people go missing, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database. And the vast majority of those cases are resolved relatively quickly. But Rhode Island is actually listed as the state with the least missing people--only 20 unresolved cases. So, likely if there were many unsolved disappearances at the Biltmore, there would be some sort of record of it.
But, I think I might have an idea about where all of these rumors come from. There are Biltmore hotels all over the US, and some of them have been the location of crimes, deaths, and disappearances--like the Coral Gables Biltmore in Miami where a famous mobster was killed, or the Millennium Biltmore in LA, the last known sighting of Elizabeth Short of the Black Dahlia case. Perhaps over the years, the stories about one Biltmore hotel got mixed with the stories about another.
So not all of the rumors about the Biltmore are true, but it’s still a really cool landmark in downtown Providence with some great stories. Getting back to its actual history, after it was built, it was purchased by a number of different owners and went through some changes. In 1947, the Sheraton hotel chain purchased the location, running it until the 1970s. During that time, the hotel struggled. In 1954, Hurricane Carol flooded the Biltmore’s lobby with 8 feet of water that poured down the elevator shafts and carried couches that drifted until they hit the revolving doors. Later, in 1975, the hotel closed. But Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci was able to help in getting the hotel designated as a landmark to save it. And it reopened shortly afterwards, in 1976, after it was purchased by a partnership of local businesses including the Providence Journal. When it reopened, it had been renovated to feature a glass-enclosed elevator and the iconic Biltmore sign that lights up the Providence skyline today. Later, Mayor Buddy Cianci would actually live in the hotel’s presidential suite, which is located beside City Hall. In Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman brags to his sons about meeting the mayor in the Biltmore’s hotel lobby.
Today it’s no longer called the Biltmore--it’s the Graduate Hotel. But the Biltmore sign is still there on the roof, so the new owners must have known how much it means to Providence. And who knows? Maybe one day, it’ll be the Biltmore again.
Thanks for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a rating or review, or you can send me a note at Weird Rhode Island at Gmail.com. And if there’s a topic you’d really like to hear about, let me know! See you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!