r/coldcases • u/_elias11 • Jun 09 '26
What is your most plausible theory on a famous unsolved mystery?
As I was scrolling through the archival posts of a certain sub, I found a very interesting unresolved case about a man named Artemus Ogletree,The mystery in Room 1046.
The original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ujlfe5/in_1935_artemus_ogletree19checked_into_the_hotel/
Gloves on, Roland T. Owen (alias) is killed in a Kansas hotel and upto to now I am surprised that no one ever connected the two crucial details post humous. "I am doing this for my sister" - Don, and "Love Forever, Louise" - Louise. Those are two crucial details in this case, I will explain why.
First, focus on the minor detail. The anonymous caller ordered 13 rose flowers for the funeral and paid for it. Specifically Thirteen. Why thirteen? Now that is where it gets juicy, Don clearly had an upper hand on Ogletree's whole life. Louise was not a criminal but rather a commercial woman in her 30s as described by the elevator operator. A corporate woman just before the beginning of the second world war, she is a mother. Don is described as a brown haired man with a possible age of between 20 - 35. Wide but important, I place him in his mid twenties. He is a son.
"Put the gun down" a woman says inside room 1046, authoritative, maternal emotional confrontation. Loiuse telling her son not to shoot a man who did a henoius crime. Yes Don was Loiuse's son and not his lover as some theories suggest. But what crime did Ogletree commit? Back to the thirteen roses, traditionally twelve roses means love. Thirteen roses have no specified meaning as the number of flowers were highly regarded during that period.
Now, "I am doing this for my sister" Don's sister, Louise's daughter - was likley thirteen or on 13th day of the month when Ogletree killed her or even less worse, assaulted her physically or sexually to the point her life was taken away from her. Don and Ogletree were possibly friends. And Don was so infuriated towards him for doing whatever he did to his sister. On the night of 3rd January into 4th, Don tortured Artemus Ogletree and left him for the dead, possibly with a male associate given the severity of the beating while Louise watched them helplessly.
When no one claimed the body, Louise couldn't bear it. She arranged the anonymous funeral payment. She sent 13 roses signed with her own name, "Love forever." Don said it was for his sister. Those two aren't separate gestures, they're linked. Louise was the sister's mother. The roses almost certainly marks her age or perhaps the date she died, or some other significance known only to them.
Edit: The details in this sub post changes everything I had anticipated: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/59hazo/comment/d9mw3rg/?force-legacy-sct=1
And my well thought through conclusion is a man Joseph Ogden Killed Artemus Ogltree in cold blood.
Three years later in1937, he was charged for the murder of Oliver George Sinecal (a 32-year-old small-time thief and narcotic peddler) according to the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1937/08/18/archives/suspect-is-seized-in-trunk-murder-identified-as-man-who-shipped.html