Roland T. Owen Research Paper

“There are currently more than 200,000 cold case murders in the United States alone, a number which rises by around 6,000 each year” (“Uncovered: Unsolved Murders By State”). Roland T. Owen’s case is tragically one of the 200,000 mysteries that have yet to be undone. His story began when he was a young man who was spending the night at the President Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. While fulfilling his stay, his behavior was viewed as odd by a maid and bellboys, but nothing went wrong until a few days later. This was when Owen was found at the death’s door and was sought out by a hotel employee. He later died in the hospital, never confirming the instigator of his fate and only saying “nothing” when asked. According to “The baffling case of Roland T. Owen’s mysterious death:”

This theory is not very evidently proven, but logic and common sense can tell a person that the idea of his profession being a spy, or along the lines of one, is not much of a stretch. All in all, even if he was not a spy while alive, it is apparent that Roland did not want to be found while hiding and his true murderer did not either. The final theory behind Roland T. Owen’s death is the one that is most believable and supported by evidence: he was working for a mob. This theory is highly complex, but the intricacy makes it so realistic that it could possibly be true. Starting with the actual crime scene: almost all evidence was removed, but there was a bottle of diluted sulfuric acid and a set of fingerprints left behind. According to “Who Killed Roland T. Owen in Room 1046,” the authors state, “Many organized crime informants have testified to using sulfuric acid after killing their victims either to dissolve the body or remove fingerprints making the body difficult to identify” (Navarro). Due to the sulfuric acid presumably being there to hide Owen’s identity, the crime does not seem like one of