Oct 31, 2009 12:13 am US/Eastern
South Florida Ghost Stories: La Concha Hotel
KEY WEST (CBS4) ―
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The La Concha Hotel is the tallest building in Key West, and it's also a building with many ghost stories tied to it.
CBS
We continue our South Florida Ghost Stories with a look at a building in Key West at the center of it all. For the many people that walk Duval Street in Key West, they may see La Concha, the tallest building in town. They may know some of the stories behind this famous hotel, but what they don't know are the stories inside of it.
The night life is quite the scene for people looking for a good time, but this two by four mile island is also full of mystery.
"You come to this town and there is a spirituality about this town that you do not understand," said Brant Voss, Owner of the Original Ghost tours on Key West. "There are so many death stories. The death stories that are in this hotel are amazing."
From sightings to voices, the accounts are endless. "There are spirits everywhere. We are outnumbered by spirits at least 40 to 1," said Voss to
CBS4's Jorge Estevez.
Voss says the view wasn't the only thing that attracted people to the top floor.
"If you are going to kill yourself, where are you going to go, to the the tallest building in town," said Voss.
It was from the top floor where a lawyer jumped to his death in the 80's.
"Sometimes you can hear arguments or irrational talking on that 7th floor," said Greg Jenkins, author of Florida's Ghostly Legend's and Haunted Folklore.
Jenkins writes about the happenings at La Concha and believes the spirit world is endless.
"You cannot die when you pass away. Your body will go to the earth and be returned to where it came, but your spirit goes on," said Jenkins.
One spirit that goes on to this day is the most famous death, a young man named Brent, who came to visit his waiter friend who was cleaning up after a New Year's Eve Party at La Concha.
"He did what a good friend should do, he asked his friend if he could help out in anyway," said Jenkins. With a cart full of glasses to help his friend clean up, Brent backed into the manual elevator, the doors opened but the elevator hadn't arrived yet.
"So when this door slid open, he looked over his right hand shoulder and stepped into the elevator shaft and fell 7 stories to his death," described Voss.
Since then, it has been reported that Brent has been "seen" walking the halls with his cart. "When it comes to ghostly figures sometimes, they want to come back and want to do the same thing," said Charles Young, General Manager of La Concha Hotel.
Young has heard countless tales from his guests. "One of them said, they saw a human figure rustling through their luggage," said Young. Other guests have seen images on the ends of their beds. "They call me and say, 'Am I crazy, or is this something I saw?'" said Young.
The stories of voices and the guest rooms that mysteriously get straightened with no record, happen on the fifth floor. "I don't know what it is about our fifth floor. It's not like I put out bread crumbs or anything like that," said Young.
No, it's not like that, and we can't explain it, but sometimes, the things you can't explain are better left alone doing whatever it is their spirit tells them to do.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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