Location Description and History

Construction was started in 1905 and completed within two years. The Böttger Mansion is located a half block from Albuquerque's historic plaza where Albuquerque's heritage began in 1706. Charles Bottger was a wool exporter originally from Germany who made his fortune after migrating to New Jersey. He moved to New Mexico to be close to the Native American sheep ranchers and their wool supply. There were four original mansions in Old Town, and only the Bottger remains, intact, virtually as it was when built. Charles Bottger also owned a saloon west of the Mansion (now the parking lot) and a toll bridge over the Rio Grande River. His saloon advertised "Fine Whiskeys, Fine Cigars, Fine Women and Billiards." The Mansion was used as living quarters by three generations of Bottgers, then sold several times.

During the forties it was used as a home for a small colony of Buddhists. Later it was used as a restaurant downstairs, a boarding house and beauty salon upstairs. Throughout the years, the mansion has also had its share of famous visitors. In 1955, a young Elvis Presley, along with Bill Black and Scotty Moore, performed two shows in Albuquerque and stayed at the Bottger, leaving the next day for a show in Amarillo.
In the late 50's, a prominent Italian family rented the Bottger for a large wedding. Frank Sinatra was a guest, who performed in the courtyard after the wedding dinner was served.

In the 40's, the FBI's Most Wanted criminal, Machine Gun Kelly, was being hunted by lawmen everywhere. Kelly, his girlfriend and his gang were headed back to Memphis from California and checked into the Bottger under assumed names. They had dyed their hair and purchased new clothes to help conceal their identities. After several days, the owners became suspicious when they noticed that the group always sent a neighborhood boy out to purchase the meals and bring them back to the Bottger for consumption in the rooms. They decided to notify the police, but were overheard by one of the gang members. They quickly left just ahead of the law. However, they were captured shortly thereafter and imprisoned.

As far as paranormal activity goes, the mansion has a nice variety of unexplainable phenomena including strange sounds, cold spots, mysterious smells and even an apparition or two.

Yvonne Koch, a previous owner, confessed that she feels the ghosts more often than seeing them. She believes that there are six spirits at the mansion who include a native woman, who fell down the stairs to her death, as well as Charles and Miquela Bottger. Their daughter, Dorothy, is also believed to still be hanging around, having died from pneumonia after being locked out of the house. She is most often heard in the Linda Lee and the Carole Rose suites. No one has ever reported seeing her, but many, many guests report hearing her sigh from time to time. Some believe that she is Charles' granddaughter who died as a very old lady and lamented the fact that her children
intended to sell the property after her death. Could she also be responsible for the cold spots that have been felt by numerous guests while sitting in the chair in the lobby? At the mansion, she is referred to as the "Grandmother Ghost".

The "Lover Ghost" and the spirit of Charles Bottger

One morning a guest at the luxurious bed and breakfast came down from her room holding several pieces of a broken soap dish in her hands. The rattled guest swore she didn't break it, but claimed that it went flying across the bathroom and crashed into the opposite wall. Not an unusual occurrence for that room as the toilet lid in the downstairs bathroom has been known to move. The objects on top of it fly off and scatter across the room, leaving an occasional mess.
The southeastern room on the second floor, the Stephanie Lynn Room, seems to be one of the most active. One guest reported a "white fog" that came under the door and tried to enter her mouth. Other guests have reported the feeling of an unseen person breathing on their arms. The Lover Ghost reportedly joins young, pretty women in the bedrooms at night. There are several stories about his past visits in which he just wants to lie down next to the young ladies. When they turn on the light to see who has joined them, no one is there. However, it also seems that a female ghost likes that room as well. One customer of the Bed and Breakfast e-mailed SGHA, detailing the events that happened to her one evening.

"I was sound asleep, laying flat on my back. I actually felt it before I saw it. Before opening my eyes I was aware that someone was lying on top of me, and who ever this person was, they were quite heavy. For a split second, the moment before I opened my eyes, I thought that perhaps my brother had managed to sneak into my room and was trying to scare me. Then after a few blinks I saw it. A woman, completely white from head to toe, I could see her white hair floating about her. She was somehow, ghastly. I can't explain it really, she just was. I was overwhelmed with fear, I had to, needed to, wanted to scream! I opened my mouth to draw in breath. I felt my lungs empty, like I had fallen on my back and the wind was forced out. I could not scream because she had sucked the life breath from me. Then the weight began to lift, first from my chest then mid section. I began to gasp for air, starring wide-eyed at her face. Finally she completely raised herself off of me, and then.... she smiled. I will never get the picture out of my mind, the most horrid smile, and a look of satisfaction. She was gone. As soon as fear had subsided enough for my breath and my speech to return, I did scream! I sat awake for several hours, convincing myself that it was nothing more than a nightmare, but I never did go back to sleep".

I assumed that my younger sister had a nightmare or something, and had come into my room to sleep as she had done many times in the past. I heard five or six footsteps and then nothing. I waited, and waited, fully expecting her to say something to me along the lines of "I can't sleep or can I sleep in here?". Nothing came. I finally rolled over, and saw somebody dressed in a flowing white gown standing about 12 feet from my bedside. I have poor eyesight, and at the time wore glasses. I still assumed this to be my sister, and said something to the effect of, "What? You can't sleep? You can stay in here if you want to."

I then waited but the person said nothing to me and just stood there. I thought that my sister was sleepwalking so I rolled over again. I waited about a minute, and then rolled back over, and there was nobody there. I heard no footsteps leaving the room so I got out of bed, walked across the hall to my sisters room, and found her sound asleep in here bed. Stranger still, she was not wearing anything even remotely close to what the figure I saw in my room had been wearing. That was when I realized that I had just seen a ghost. Needless to say, I did not sleep very much the rest of the night."

There is a great deal of speculation concerning who this particular spirit is. Many believe that it is the ghost of Charles Bottger himself.

"Late that evening I was suddenly awoken from a deep sleep. I glanced over at the corner of my room, and saw what I thought was a woman crouched down, with her head buried in her hands. I have never heard such anguish coming from anyone in my entire life. It was dark in my room, so all I could see was a solid black silhouette. It looked like smoke, at least that is the best way I can describe it. I raised my head up, and after a few more seconds, grabbed my husband's arm, trying to wake him up.

I was terrified at the presence of this stranger in our room. I wanted to wake my husband who was sleeping next to me, but I couldn't move because I was so afraid. I simply couldn't move. I was so afraid that it was going to attack me that I tried to scream. Yet nothing came out. The only thing I could do was clamp my eyes closed, so I did. When I opened them up again a few minutes later, it was gone. I didn't get out of bed; instead I lay there until I fell asleep. Needless to say, I did not sleep well that night, so I was the first one up in the morning. I questioned everyone in the mansion about it that morning when they got upbeat all said that they had slept soundly and never got out of bed. I never really mentioned it again, but I now question whether the whole experience was a dream, but only one fact keeps me from thinking so is that I never went to sleep until after it was all over with."

Photographs

The two images taken at on the second floor, south side, reveal a interesting phenomena with refraction effects. Refracted light is light that bends as it travels from one substance to another or in this case, through something in the hall. The light coming from the edge of the doorway is clearly refracted in the first photograph. In the second photo, taken 12 seconds later, the refraction is greatly diminished. The angle and wavelength at which the light enters a substance and the density of that substance determine how much the light is refracted. The refractive index (or index of refraction) of a material is the factor by which the phase velocity of electromagnetic radiation is slowed in that material, relative to its velocity in a vacuum. When the wave impinges upon a particle of matter, the energy is absorbed and sets electrons within the atoms into vibrational motion.

If the frequency of the electromagnetic wave does not match the resonant frequency of vibration of the electron, then the energy is reemitted in the form of an electromagnetic wave. This new electromagnetic wave has the same frequency as the original wave and it too will travel at a speed of c through the empty space between atoms. The newly emitted light wave continues to move through the interatomic space until it impinges upon a neighboring particle. The energy is absorbed by this new particle and sets the electrons of its atoms into vibration motion. And once more, if there is no match between the frequency of the electromagnetic wave and the resonant frequency of the electron, the energy is reemitted in the form of a new electromagnetic wave.

The cycle of absorption and reemission continues as the energy is transported from particle to particle through the bulk of a medium. Every photon (bundle of electromagnetic energy) travels between the interatomic void at a speed of c; yet time delay involve in the process of being absorbed and reemitted by the atoms of the matter lowers the net speed of transport from one end of the medium to the other. Subsequently, the net speed of an electromagnetic wave in any medium is somewhat less than its speed in a vacuum.

The question is, what is the medium in these photographs that is causing the refraction?