The Wraith of Mount Cutler

 This is another sad and tragic tale of a woman who wanted to live life on her own terms.   In 1904, Bessie Kempter Bouton was a young well to do woman married to a much older man.  She left him and took up with a con artist and gambler named Milton Franklin Andrews.  They were often seen hanging around the Antlers Hotel together in downtown Colorado Springs drinking Absinthe.  One night they had a terrible fight and shortly thereafter checked out of the hotel separately.  Bessie body was discovered a few months later on Mount Cutler, naked with her face burned beyond recognition.  She had been poisoned and shot and robbed.  Initially she was buried as a pauper but was later identified by her extensive and expensive dental work.

Mr. Andrews was immediately suspected.  He was located in the area of the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs but before he could be apprehended, he disappeared.  For two years, the case went cold.

But once a scumbag, always a scumbag.  Milton Franklin Andrews reemerged in 1906 in San Francisco having spent 2 years abroad.   His attempted murder and robbery of an Australian jockey alerted the police to his presence.  Before he could be apprehended however, he shot his lady companion and himself.  You can read the whole gruesome tale here.

Bessie Kempter Bouton still haunts the Mount Cutler. First spotted in 1906 as a wandering young woman who shrieks before disappearing, she has been given the name the wraith of Mount Cutler.  A friend and I went looking for her on a pleasant summers morning in August. It was a lovely walk, 1 mile to the top with stunning views of the Broadmore's Seven Falls and of Colorado Springs.  We did not see a ghost but we did take an interesting picture of a rock that looked like the profile of a face.