safe.
There are many other stories of sightings on the fifth floor. One hotel patron said he woke from a deep sleep in the middle of the night feeling as if someone were staring at him from a chair across the room. He jumped out of bed to confront the man, and there was a loud crash, as if a table or heavy chair had tipped over. He flicked on the lights; no one else was in the room, and no furniture had been moved.
The rooftop bar of the La Concha provides not only exquisite views of Key West and its breathtaking sunsets, but also a spectacular diving platform for anyone wishing to commit suicide in a gruesome way. Thirteen people have jumped to their deaths over the years from the La Concha rooftop.
On October 7, 1992, Fred Butner, a well-known local attorney, took the plunge onto Duval Street. His former secretary, Susan, supposedly had reported him to the Florida Bar Association for negligent and illegal practices. Knowing his business and his reputation would be destroyed, he decided to take his own life, but he was vindictive. He was going to ruin Susan while he was at it. He wrote several extortion notes that seemed to come from her and that he carried on his person, and he planted an envelope with payoff money in her car. He even carried a tape recorder with him as he entered the hotel, announcing his arrival on the tape and supposedly telling Susan, “I have what you want.” Then, he yelled, “No! No!” and the last sound on the tape recorder was his body hitting the pavement below. A subsequent investigation exonerated Susan.
In 2006, Michael Bachand, a troubled Orlando man, came to Key West and went up to the rooftop for a drink. He ordered a glass of chardonnay and walked outside to a spot overlooking the swimming pool. He drank his wine in a few gulps, set the glass on the wall—and did a half gainer onto the pool deck below, which was also the roof of The Original Key West Ghost Tours store.
Shortly after that, drinking chardonnay at the rooftop bar became a bit of a problem. When someone ordered chardonnay, glasses would often get knocked out of their hands or plastic cups split in half. Down on the pool deck, trays of drinks were often tipped out of servers’ hands, but only female servers. Perhaps Mr. Bachand was distraught over a love affair gone sour.
Even more bizarre after this event were the happenings in the Ghost Tour’s store. The chandeliers began to rattle, and lights in the store would go out one by one, leaving the place in darkness. A violent wind often blew through, scattering T-shirts and books; doors slammed shut and opened again; and a creepy shadow was occasionally seen wandering throughout the store and up into the ceiling. Things also seemed to occur just outside the store. Brant had parked his truck on Fleming Street in front of the store one evening. As he started to get out, the manually operated windows began going up and down and the doors locking and unlocking. He was able to jump out of the truck, but as he did, the battery exploded, setting the truck on fire.
While these happenings were negative and sometimes violent, there was also a female presence in the store that seemed to be trying to protect everyone. Who this presence was, no one knew.
Eddie Ellington had been a tour guide for the Original Tours for several years. He was uniquely qualified—he was a medium. Because of his gift, when he was in the store, he was intimately aware of everything going on and seemed to be able to quiet much of the negative activity.
Unfortunately, Eddie died in 2008. He had no family but had told Brant that he wanted to be cremated and buried someplace in Key West. When he died, Brant made the arrangements for Eddie’s cremation. Afterward, he was given the box of Eddie’s ashes and wondered where Eddie would most want to be buried. Then, a thought came to him: why not the store? Eddie’s life had revolved around it, and the tours and his presence always seemed to reduce the negative energy and activities. So, that’s what Brant did. Eddie now sits on a shelf right behind the counter, keeping watch over everything.
And, truth be told, not much goes on there today. In fact, The Original Key West Ghost Tours store is now a pretty quiet place, but La Concha’s fifth floor still remains active—and who knows when some sad soul will take the plunge from the rooftop.
CHAPTER 2
Hard Rock Café
KEY WEST
ADAM “PIERCE” BERG WAS WORKING LATE. He was the maintenance man, and there was always something that needed to be done that he couldn’t attend to while customers were there. Tonight he was changing light fixtures in the bar. It was 2:45 A.M., long after the staff had left and over an hour before the cleaning crew came in. He had heard the bizarre stories from bartender Niki Padron and others, so he was a little uncomfortable about being alone in this old house. But Pierce was more worried about all the revelers outside on the street. He didn’t want to be disturbed, so he locked himself in and activated the security system.
He was screwing in a bracket when he heard a noise, or thought he did. He stopped and listened. Someone was whistling, and the whistler seemed to be in the bar on the far side of the room. Pierce’s spine began to tingle, and goose bumps formed on his arms. Frightened, he yelled out, “Knock that crap off!” The whistling stopped.
Pierce went back to work, a little shaken, but moments later he heard footsteps on the front stairs just outside the bar. The whistling started again from the same area. Completely unnerved, Pierce grabbed his tools and raced out the front door without even turning off the security system. The alarm blasted the quiet of the early morning. A police patrol just happened to be passing down Duval Street and immediately flipped on its emergency lights. The officers nabbed a shaking Pierce before he even got to the street.
Pierce still works at the Hard Rock Café. He’s a waiter now and doesn’t do maintenance anymore. He refuses to work after hours.
When it comes to paranormal events, Key West’s Hard Rock Café is an active place. Mandy Dunn, the sales and marketing manager, was in the third floor office one evening about ten, working on reports. The bar and dining areas downstairs were still crowded with patrons. As she worked, someone began whistling a little tune over and over. The whistler was very close. She knew no one else was up there, but she called out, “Who’s there?” No one answered, but the whistling stopped. Curious, she checked the security cameras covering the third floor. She was the only one captured on film.
Niki Padron often sees shadows moving around the bar area while she is cleaning up after closing time. Glasses move along the bar. Chairs and stools move by themselves with footsteps usually accompanying this activity.
My wife, Sue, and I visited the Hard Rock midday when business was slow. Don Estep, the general manager, gave us a tour and told us a lot about the building. William Curry had come to Key West from the Bahamas in 1847 as a small boy. His family was penniless when they arrived in Key West, but William had become the island’s first millionaire, making his fortune salvaging shipwrecks in the pirate-infested waters around the Keys. He died in 1896, the richest man in Florida. He had married and had a family, and in 1888 built what was to eventually become the Hard Rock Café for his son, Robert, as a wedding gift. The original house had fifteen to eighteen rooms—no one is quite sure—and a basement, which was unusual for Florida, especially Key West. None of the staff likes to go into the basement, now used only for storage.
Legend says that Robert fell on hard times through bad investments, gambling, and bad luck. After his wife and family left him, he hanged himself in what was the bathroom of the master suite on the second floor, part of which is now the ladies’ restroom. Women customers have reported stall and entry doors opening and closing, whistling, footsteps, and even taps on the shoulder as they walked down the hall.
One manager kept seeing a man walking up the stairs and into the wall at
