The man checked into the Hotel President in Kansas City on January 2, 1935. He gave the name Roland T. Owen, paid for one night, and carried only a small black bag. The staff immediately noticed something off about him. He had a strange scar on his head, acted nervous, and refused to let anyone clean his room.

By the next morning, the hotel maid heard something that made her stomach turn. Inside Room 1046, Roland was arguing with another man. She only caught bits and pieces. Something about “waiting for someone.” Something about “not involving the police.”

By January 4, things got worse. The hotel operator noticed the phone had been left off the hook for hours. When a bellboy went to check, he found Roland sitting in the dark, barely alive. Blood covered the walls, the floor, and the bed. His wrists and ankles had been tied with cords. He had been stabbed, beaten, and his skull was fractured—but there was no sign of forced entry.

Someone had done this to him—and he had let them in.

The police rushed him to the hospital. “Who did this to you?” they asked.

Roland, still alive, still conscious, shook his head. “Nobody.”

“Did you try to kill yourself?”

“No.”

That was the last thing he ever said.

He died the next morning.

The police discovered something chilling—the name Roland T. Owen was fake. There were no records of him anywhere. No family. No past. The only clue? A mysterious woman called the morgue and paid for his funeral, saying, “He had his punishment.”

To this day, no one knows who he really was, who killed him, or why. Room 1046 remains one of the most unexplained hotel murders in history.

And the worst part?

Whoever did it… was never caught.