The Arizona Files

In the heart of historic downtown Chandler stands a hotel with more than a century of stories tucked into its halls: The San Marcos Hotel — now the Crowne Plaza Phoenix–Chandler Golf Resort. By day, it’s a sun-drenched oasis of golf carts, weddings, and desert charm. By night? Locals say it belongs to someone else. In this episode of The Arizona Files, we investigate the true origins behind the ho...

Its story is a tangled narrative of murder, misfortune, and myth. The very ground is said to be cursed, haunted by the spirits of a 19th-century massacre that unfolded in a limestone cave beneath the town. Yet, a closer examination reveals a different kind of story—one of ambition, violence, and the slow, inevitable death that comes when the highway moves on. The central question of Two Guns is wh...

There are towns that rest upon the land... and then there's Jerome. More than a mile above sea level, it doesn't rest. It clings to the thirty-degree slope of Cleopatra Hill. A collection of weathered brick and timeworn timber that seems to defy gravity itself. As you walk through Jerome you feel a subtle sense of unease. As if the very ground beneath your feet is not to be trusted. This f...

It is not the call of a coyote or the hoot of an owl. It is a sound that scrapes at the very foundation of primal fear. Reports from over a century describe it with unnerving consistency: a “blood-curdling” scream, an “unearthly” screech that sounds chillingly like a woman in the throes of some “great distress”. This is the herald of the Mogollon Monster, Arizona’s homegrown variant of Bigfoot, a...