Room 311: The Murder That Haunts Chattanooga

A Close Encounter with True Crime History

Today, I would like to do something a little different and talk about a case a little closer to home for me personally. For those of you just joining us or new to the podcast, we usually cover true crime stories with a start, middle, and end, with a culprit to discuss in great detail. But even though today’s case is still a true crime story to a certain extent, I wanted to cover this because it represents a time in my life where I probably came the closest I will (hopefully) ever be to an actual, real-life, historic murder scene.

So, with all that being said, where are we going in today’s case? And what exactly happened?

I recently decided to take a little trip to look at the pretty fall leaves changing colors, and there are few better places to do that in the South than Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s a gorgeous city, and it was there that I came across a story that is probably very well known to most locals, but was entirely new to me before my stay.

Discovering Chattanooga’s Haunted Gem: The Read House Hotel

During my trip, I stayed in a hotel that’s over 152 years old and is the longest continuously running hotel in the Southeast. I didn’t choose the hotel—my partner did. She picked it because, first, she got a good deal with credit card points, but the main reason is that she was looking for a place that fit both of our vibes. It’s elegant, it’s spooky, and it has a great story.

For those familiar with this living legend, you may already know which hotel I’m talking about, but let’s go all the way back to the beginning to help piece it all together.

It was in 1847 that future Chattanooga Mayor Thomas Crutchfield Sr. opened the Crutchfield House. This humble hotel was situated right across the street from the Union Depot and was an answer to the town’s biggest source of business: imports. This meant there was a constant flow of businessmen, trade, industry, and just people in general in and out of Chattanooga, and Thomas Crutchfield had the business acumen to open up a hotel in the most convenient place possible. Because of that, the Crutchfield House grew into a thriving business venture and provided a comfortable life for him and his family.

From the Civil War to Celebrities: A Storied Past

But almost from the get-go, the Crutchfield House became embroiled in conflict. Darker times were still on the horizon, but within years of opening, the hotel made its first real brush with death.

The first and only president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, ended up staying at the hotel on his way back home after resigning from the United States Senate. Already seething with animosity over the growing divides in American politics, and even among the American people, Jefferson Davis then stood up in the Crutchfield House’s dining room and gave a speech, arguing that the southern states of America should split and form their own republic where they would be able to govern themselves.

But rather than finding a favorable ear, Jefferson Davis found himself staring down the wrong end of a pistol.

In the crowd at the hotel that night was future Congressman William Crutchfield, who just so happened to be the son of Thomas Crutchfield Sr., the hotel’s founder, and brother to Thomas Crutchfield Jr., who now owned and ran it. Tennessee, William told Jefferson Davis verbatim, would not be “hoodwinked, bamboozled and dragged into your Southern, codfish, aristocratic, Tory-blooded, South Carolina mobocracy.”

An explosive and heated argument then erupted between the two men, which came a hair's breadth away from resulting in a duel, where one, if not both, would have likely ended up dead. But despite William’s passionate words and fiery beliefs, the Crutchfield House would eventually find it had no other choice than to fly the Confederate flag only a few years later. During the Civil War, when Confederate troops filled the streets of Chattanooga, the hotel was seized and turned into a military hospital.

Hundreds of men lost their lives, slowly and painfully, in rooms that had once been the lifeblood of the community, and in dining rooms that had once clinked with the sound of cutlery. The Crutchfield House survived these dark days, but a fire would burn the hotel to the ground a few years later. The family decided that ashes were all that should remain of that chapter of their lives.

It was then that John T. Read stepped in to change the course of the Crutchfield House. During the Civil War, he’d acted as a surgeon, but before then he and his wife had owned and run their own hotel in McMinnville, Tennessee. Their hotel, just like the Crutchfield House, had recently burned down, forcing the Reads to move to Chattanooga about a year before the same thing happened to the Crutchfields. When the Crutchfields turned their backs on the Crutchfield House, the Reads were there to take up the mantle and bring in their own experience and expertise.

John built the Read House Hotel on the site where the Crutchfield House once stood. It was bigger and taller, now a three-story, 45-room hotel right across from the Union Depot. It remained that way for generations until 1925, when the original building was torn down and rebuilt with more modern and lavish amenities. Since then, the ten-story building has changed hands and been purchased by big industry names like Best Western, Radisson, and Sheraton Hotels.

It’s hosted political figures like Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Winston Churchill. Celebrities like Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, and even Al Capone stayed there, though we’ll get back to him a bit later because it’s now that we can really get into the heart of today’s story: Room 311.

Room 311: The Dark Heart of the Read House

After historic events like the Civil War and the Great Depression, it’s safe to say the Read House has seen more than its fair share of bloodshed and misery, but nowhere else in the hotel is that statement truer than it is for Room 311. Room 311 is the backdrop for some of the most horrific and brutal events to have ever happened at the hotel, and it just so happened to be a few doors down from where I stayed on my trip to Chattanooga.

All through the night, my mind kept wandering back to Room 311, just down the hall from me, and I couldn’t stop imagining what the walls in that room would say if only they could speak.

As accounts go, it was shortly after renovations in the 1920s that tragedy struck the hotel yet again. Her name was Annalisa Netherly, and as the story goes, Annalisa lived in the hotel during 1927 and was supporting her extended stay by working as a lady of the night.

It’s here that accounts divide, but they converge back on the same chilling ending.

One version of history tells us that Annalisa had been staying at the hotel with her lover when he discovered she had been seeing other men on the side. Furious and jilted, her lover—sometimes called her husband—came back into their room to find Annalisa soaking in the bath. He grabbed a knife and slit her throat, cutting so deeply that he almost decapitated her.

The other version has Annalisa at the hotel with her lover, only to discover he had taken a mistress. Heartbroken, Annalisa locked herself in their room and took her own life.

With either version, all that awaited Annalisa in Room 311 was a brutal and bloody death, but that, almost unbelievably, is not where Annalisa’s story ends.

According to some guests, including Al Capone who stayed in Room 311 while en route to his trial for tax evasion, there is nothing remarkable about the room or even the bathroom where Annalisa allegedly met her end.

But for many others, their experience in Room 311 has been entirely different. Many guests end up checking out early or asking to move rooms in the middle of the night. They claim that while in the room, Annalisa won’t let them rest.

It’s said that Annalisa particularly despises men, especially if they smoke. If a guest matching that description checks into Room 311, Annalisa does her best to antagonize them. Like something out of a Stephen King novel, the lights in the room are said to flicker on and off by themselves. Taps will start running seemingly at random. Strange noises and shadowy figures stalk guests through the night.

At reception, instead of a key card, hotel staff hand you an old-fashioned metal key for a manual lock on the room door. If you ask, they’ll tell you it’s to help keep Annalisa in.

Brave Enough to Stay?

I, fortunately, didn’t stay in Room 311 when I was at the Read Hotel, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel Annalisa’s lasting memory and legacy stalking the halls or lingering over the hotel like a dark shadow. Check in if you dare to brave a sleepless night or a terrifying encounter with whatever paranormal entity now calls dreaded Room 311 home.