The rest is informed (or perhaps not-so-informed) speculation.
She might have been a grifter known for conning men with her husband in railway cars. Maybe she was pregnant and fell into despair after giving herself an abortion. Perhaps she did herself in; she’d bought a handgun across the bay just the other day.
The authorities thought it was suicide. But they came to a decision quickly, and future generations of authors and crime buffs wondered if they missed a murder.
Whatever happened, the fate of Kate Morgan became Coronado’s most famous mystery, at least until last summer when another young woman’s death in the Crown City drew national attention.
Over the past couple of decades, several authors have pored over the Morgan mystery. One became so obsessed that he bought a gravestone for Morgan and wept over the tragedy of her short life. Meanwhile, ghost hunters still try to get a glimpse of her spirit at one of the grandest hotels on earth; they regularly book the room in advance on Halloween.
Read the entire Voice of San Diego article here.
