Globe, Ariz. (AZFamily) — It’s a hidden, haunted gem in the middle of one of Arizona’s oldest mining towns. The Drift Inn Saloon sits in downtown Globe, still in operation more than 100 years later. But what happened in a room above the bar haunts the patrons and owner to this day, causing unexplainable happenings with answers hidden somewhere in history.

The Drift Inn Saloon

“Rough and tough old west town, dirty cowboys,” said Megan Crawford. “That’s what I knew of the Drift Inn growing up.”

There’s no wild, wild west without the Drift Inn Saloon. “Lots of drinking, gambling,” said Crawford, who now owns the saloon.

The story begins more than a century ago. The saloon opened its doors in 1902 with a bar on the bottom, and above, was a different kind of business.”It was a house of prostitution,” Crawford said. Prostitution was legal in Arizona at the time, but secrets still lingered. “People are always interested in the unknown, right?” said Crawford, with a hint of a smile. It drew Crawford it, enough to purchase the saloon about six years ago.

The past is preserved in its walls, but perhaps the past still lurks in the present. “I didn’t really believe in the ghost portion of it until we got it, and then it charged my mind fairly quick,” she said.

Each chef has reported the same tale independently of one another. ”There’s a woman in the kitchen. She likes to speak your name. “She likes to grab your neck and your waist,” Crawford said. Barb, the bartender of nearly 30 years, is familiar with their 2 am arrival. ”You’ll feel them,” she said as she poured patrons drinks from behind the bar. “I’ve seen mostly men, not women. Stuff being thrown from the bar off the bar. Stools knocking over. Lots of weird stuff, spooky stuff,” Crawford said. But the spookiest comes in the form of murder in the former second-story brothel called the International House inside the walls of Room 18. “Joseph Ludwig was murdered in October 1906 in Room 18, and then 13 months later, in November of 1907, “Richard Veckland was murdered in the same room,” Crawford said. Both men worked at the nearby mine.

The Murder of Joseph Ludwig

Joe Ludwig was slain in Room 18, and the aftermath was particularly gruesome. “They took him about a mile up the canyon, his throat was slit, his heart was torn out and thrown under a bush, and then they blew him up with dynamite,” said Crawford. “They didn’t want anybody to know who he was.”

According to an archived article from the Arizona Silver Belt newspaper dated November 4th, 1906, it describes Ludwig’s murder as the worst in Globe history.

It describes Ludwig being found with a towel around his neck too, secured with a string.

At the time, the article said he was identified by a piece of a bill found with his remains that linked Ludwig back to certain locations and his place of employment – ​​the Big Johnny mine.

The chambermaid also found Ludwig’s bed in room 18 covered in blood.

No one could figure out a true motivation for murder, and a reward was issued for clues in his case, but nothing more came of it.

The Murder of Richard Veckland

That very next autumn, November 1907, Richard Veckland was discovered by police officers drugged, robbed of cash, and passed out on the street.”They asked him, ‘Where do you need to go?’ “He told them the International House Room 18,” Crawford said. “Sometimes after that, he also had his throat slit. The chambermaid found him at about 2 pm the next day.”But Veckland wasn’t staying at the International House. “So, nobody knows why he said Room 18?” said true crime correspondent Briana Whitney.

“Nobody knows, but I believe he was trying to tell them that the condition he was in was because of being in the International House in Room 18,” said Crawford. Two prostitutes and their handler were arrested for Veckland’s murder. One of the prostitutes, a woman Crawford said was named Elaina Mendoza, was convicted. Still, all charges were later dropped after Veckland’s toxicology came back showing no poison in his system, leaving both men’s murders unsolved to this day.

Inside the former brothel

Crawford led us upstairs to the former brothel above the saloon, up a dark staircase. This is where she and her family now live, subject to the spirits who call this home too.

“This is what the previous owners felt like was Room 18 because of the energy,” Crawford showed us, where she now keeps Christmas décor and storage to try and bring positive energy to the room. The rooms are all renumbered, but the abandoned brothel remains intact. ”This would have been the dining room,” she showed us, a creepy room that transports you back in time, an old dining room table set sitting on top of the original linoleum rug, which was hand-painted with a floral design.

“There is one spirit in particular that affects Crawford most.”I turned around, and clear as a day was a woman in white. “I thought there was someone in the building with us,” Crawford said. “Some seem to pass by for a fleeting moment.”You’re carrying groceries, and it looks like a cat is running up in front of you,” Crawford said.

“But there is no cat,” said Whitney.

“There’s no cat. Never had a cat,” she said.

“They also had to take action because of a consistent problem with their doors.”We went to Ace Hardware and got eyes and hooks because doors slamming all night long,” Crawford said. “Slam! Slam! Slam! There are almost 30 doors up there.”

Room 18 Murders Theory

“Though the Room 18 murders remain a mystery, Crawford believes she knows what happened in both cases, starting with the savvy ladies of the night.”I think they had a pretty good ring going on to rob people and take their money,” Crawford said . Then, some of their outspoken victims got caught in their scandalous web. “I think some of them made a big deal about it, and those were some of the ones who didn’t make it out of here,” said Crawford. “Why Room 18?” asked Whitney.

“That I don’t know,” Crawford said. She believed there was truth to that prostitute’s conviction before she was freed. ”The reason why she was taken to trial to begin with is because she was bragging or threatening other men, saying, ‘Do you see what happened to him? “I can do that to you too,” said Crawford.

The answers lie within the bones of this building, trapped in history but hidden no more. “I mean, what would this big ol’ building be without a ghost…right?” said Crawford.

To hear more of this spooky tale, listen to The Murders in Room 18 episode on the True Crime Arizona podcast.

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