From The Estes Park Echo. December 3 (P.1):
OVERLOOK HOTEL BURNS
Famed Colorado Resort Hotel Goes Up in Flames
"Arson Possible," Says County Police Chief Clinton
By Robert T. McCord
A hotel that had been in the U.S. book of official historical landmarks since 1961 burned to the ground last night forty miles west of Sidewinder. The Overlook Hotel, famous for its location and notorious for some of its guests, owners, and alleged owners, was demolished to smoking rubble (see photos, page 2 and 3) in less than four hours.
Sidewinder Fire Chief Morton Ricks said, "There was nothing we could do but let it burn." Route 7, the Upland Highway, is closed during the winter months.
Surviving the fire were Winnifred Torrance, 27, wife of John Torrance, who was hired by Overlook manager Stuart Ullman as winter caretaker, her son Daniel, age 5, and Richard Hallorann, who has been head chef at the Overlook for the last five years.
Torrance is believed to have perished in the blaze.
County Police Chief Robert Clinton says that both Mrs. Torrance and Hallorann blamed the fire on a faulty boiler that exploded, in turn exploding the furnace. But arson has not been ruled out. Clinton went on to say "We haven't been able to figure out why this man Hallorann was there." Clinton explained, "and..."
FAMED COLORADO LANDMARK DESTROYED
Overlook Hotel Burns
Mystery Man at Scene
By Hal Collier
...explained, "and so far, he's declined to say anything about his role in the affair." Fueling speculation of unknown and possibly bizarre circumstances is the fact that Mrs. Torrance was not only hospitalized for exposure, as originally reported, the Post has learned from a reliable source that she had been badly beaten and is now in the Estes Park Community Hospital where she is listed in "fair condition." The Post's source said that while Mrs. Torrance was suffering to a minor degree from exposure that she was also being treated for shock and "she looked as if..."
From The New York Times, December 4 (P. 36):
COUNTY POLICE SILET ON RESORT HOTEL ARSON POSSIBILITY
Mystery Remains in Fire Which Claimed One Life
Special to the New York Times
...as if she had been beaten with a hammer," according to a source quoted in the Denver Post.
The mystery man in this case, a 61-year-old journeyman chef named Richard Hallorann, has not been available to newsmen, and there is increasing speculation that he may be charged with arson, homicide, or both. He has no prior police record. The Overlook's manager, Stuart Ullman, told reporters that he was "utterly mystified at Mr. Hallorann's appearance at the Overlook" on the night of the fire. He went on to say that he "found impossible to believe" that Hallorann could have been involved in any way.
He said Hallorann was a "fine man."
This is not the first time the Overlook Hotel, which was built in 1909, has been in the news. In 1958 reputed gangland overlord Vito "The Chopper" ...
From Newsweek, "Crime" column, December 10 (P. 29):
A BLAZING-AND MYSTERIOUS-FINALE
FOR A NOTORIOUS RESORT HOTEL
"The Chopper" Gienelli was assassinated in a powerplay which many feel centered around Mafia gambling interests. Two years after Gienelli met his death in a hall of shotgun fire, Charles Grondin, his heir apparent, was nearly killed by a gunman in a posh San Francisco restaurant. Grondin died in his bed of an apparent heart attack in 1969, but no autopsy was ever performed. It was less than a month after Grondin's death that Horace Derwent, with whom Grondin's name had often been linked, took to the top two floors of his posh Las Vegas resort hotel, The Lucky Bones. Derwent died there last year at the age of seventy-seven. The Overlook had a long and strange history, beginning with the death of the original builder's son...
From Time, "The Nation" column, December 10 (P. 19):
THE MYSTERIOUS FLAME-OUT OF
A COLORADO GRAND HOTEL
...builder's son in a bizarre accident which occurred when the boy tried to stop his pony over a pile of lumber. The hotel has also had more than its share of murders, and onepsychic who had gone there for a holiday in the mid-fifties, stepped into the lobby, looked around and bolted, leaving his baggage behind. He would not go back for it but...
From The Estes Park Echo, December 12 (P. 1):
HALLORANN RELEASED FROM CUSTODY
Police Satisfied Cook Had No Part in Blaze
Refuses to Speak to Reporters
By Robert T. McCord
...but only brushed by them, got into his rental cat, and drove away. County Police Chief Robert Clinton was not much more helpful, saying only that "Hallorann has been ruled out as a suspect, and furthermore, we have no suspects, having come to the conclusion that no arson was involved in the fire which levelled the Overlook Hotel on the night of December 2."
Winnifred Torrance, wife of the deceased caretaker John Torrance, may have a statement...
From The Rocky Mountain News, December 13 (P. 7):
CARETAKER'S WIFE ABSOLVES OVERLOOK CHEF
Only Crime was Saving Our Lives, Winnifred Torrance Says
...a statement released today which says that Richard Hallorann, mystery man in the blaze that levelled one of Colorado's oldest and most famous resort hotels, had nothing to do with the fire. "There was no arson," Mrs. Winnifred Torrance said in her statement. "The fire was not set. The only crime Mr. Hallorann committed was saving the lives of myself and my son. And if he's convicted of that, I'll be glad to serve his time." Mrs. Torrance gave her statement from Estes Park Community, where she is recuperating from shock, exposure, and what appeared to be the effects of a severe assault.
"There was no assault," Mrs. Torrance said, responding to the only question she would answer "in our hurry to vacate the hotel before it exploded, I fell for most height of stairs."
Her five-year-old son, Daniel, did not meet with reporters and speculation continues ...
From Newsweek, "Periscope" column. December 17 (P. 16):
THE PSYCHIC CONNECTION
...speculation continues concerning the hotel fire and why the investigation of Sidewinder County police officials was so abruptly dropped. Insiders say that the share of FBI assistance at the site was quickly rebuffed by County Police Chief Robert Clinton, acting with the approval of the Sidewinder County District Attorney. By far the most intriguing development was the comment made by insider who said, "They are sitting on a psychic powder keg. No one is sure what we are dealing with here, but we know for sure that cook didn't get up here by carrier pigeon." The same source went on to...
From The Denver Post, December 19 (P. 20):
SIDEWINDER DA DENIES NEWSWEEK STORY
Says Overlook Hotel Case is Closed
...on to say, according to Newsweek, that "we've heard enough from the boy and his mother to make what went on up there look as big as the Bridey Murphy case." Sidewinder DA Morton Rudge scoffed at the charges in a conference held in a Speculator, the Sidewinder County seat, yesterday.
"It's amazing what these New York reporters will make up if you give them the tools to do it with." Rudge said, "I believe they are using a defective boiler to rake up the whole seventy years or so of Overlook dirty laundry."
Rudge went on to say that Hallorann had not been held in connection with the fire because "there was not the slightest scrap of evidence of any doing on his part." He also distributed the transcript of an interview with Harvey Watson to reporters. The interview was obtained with Watson, the Overlooks fulltime caretaker, by a DA's office investigator at Watson's place of off-season employment at a dude ranch in California.
According to Watson, it was not equipped with the automatic cut-off which became mandatory on later models.
Asked again to speculate on what might have brought Hallorann all the way from Florida, Rudge declined to answer, saying, "if a man has been absolved of wrongdoing, his movements need not concern the District Attorney's office."
Asked if he believed the Overlook had been haunted, Rudge cracked a rare smile and replied, "I suppose every large hotel has got a ghost or two."
He declared the case officially closed, saying that in matter of factual reporting and good taste, the Colorado press had left the...
From The Estes Park Echo, December 21 (P. 8):
MRS. TORRANCE DISCHARGED
Says She and Her Son Plan to Fly Back to New Hampshire in Near Future
...left the Estes Park Community Hospital late yesterday afternoon. Asked about her plans, Winnifred Torrance said she had accepted the hospitality of a Sidewinder family, the Durkins, for a period of recuperation. She said her only plans following that were to fly back to the New Hampshire home of her mother with her five-year old son and "to begin mourning my husband. He was a fine husband and wonderful father, and it will take time to get used to the idea he isn't with me anymore."
When asked about rumors of a secret grand jury session to investigate the Overlook fire, Mrs. Torrance said that, as far as she knew, they were just rumors. She said no one from the District Attorney's office has asked her to stay in Colorado and she has no plans...
From Resort Magazine, January 25 (P. 62):
OVERLOOK COMBINE CALLS IT QUITS
...no plans to rebuild, according to Albert Shockley, who was a member of the Overlook's Board of Directors. "I imagine we'll hold the land," he said, "as we do have three years of a five-year option left to run. But I think I can say with confidence-sorry confidence, as our hopes for the Overlook were so high-that we will let the option lapse.
It's my belief that the Overlook Hotel has pass turn the American scene for good."
Thanks to Jett for the tip.
