From The Journal Record
Murder for hire
BY BRIAN BRUS
THE JOURNAL RECORD

OKLAHOMA CITY - An eerie feeling has settled over the Stone Lion Inn in
Guthrie - thanks to the popularity of TV shows about hauntings, people
are horribly interested in the house's past, but actual ghost-hunting
guests are failing to materialize.
  
Instead, owner Rebecca Luker has been forced to seek most of her profits
by killing people.
  
"Interest is up, but actual travel to Stone Lion to see ghosts is down,"
she said. "Unless you want a murder mystery. That's were most of my
business has been for 20 years. People really enjoy a good mystery, but
it's a different kind of mystery altogether.
  
"For the most part, that end of it isn't making us any money," Luker
said about the ghost hunting. "It's gotten us a lot of attention for the
Stone Lion Inn and we've gotten a lot of phone calls and e-mails from
people who want to know about the ghost stories, but I don't feel like
it has increased our visitations that much," she said, referring to the
profitable, earthly visitations of customers.
  
The three-story Greek Revival Victorian-style mansion was built in 1907
by F.E. Houghton, a wealthy man who needed the extra room for a growing
family of 12 children. Houghton invested in rich oak paneling, leaded
glass bookshelves, ballrooms, "pocket doors" that slid into walls, three
fireplaces, and a second staircase. The third floor housed the main
ballroom and play area with toy storage, where most of the unexplained
phenomena currently take place.
  
In the 1920s, the mansion was converted to a boarding house, and then
briefly a funeral home. The Luker family bought the mansion in 1986 and
renovated it as a bed-and-breakfast inn.
  
During the house's funeral home years, "an entity or two may have stayed
behind," Luker said, or a transient border might have passed away as
well. The more likely source of the house's hauntings are the Houghton
children, who were reported to have enjoyed sneaking into the playroom
after their parents went to sleep.
  
Luker said early historical research pointed to an 8-year-old named
Augusta, who was reported to have died when a maid accidentally
overmedicated her for whooping cough. Additional records turned up since
then are unclear about the child's identity, but the name has stuck.
  
The little girl's ghost has been seen twice by one of Luker's sons, and
toys have inexplicably been found strewn about the playroom upstairs.
Guests have reported strange apparitions as well, including footsteps
pattering down the stairs. Other incidents have ranged from phantom
cigar smoke to electrical appliance glitches.
  
That's the sort of activity that attracts individuals and groups such as
the Oklahoma Paranormal Research & Investigations, which helped connect
the Sci-Fi Channel TV show Ghost Hunters with Luker. Other shows
dedicated to spirits and similar paranormal matters have highlighted the
mansion as well.
  
"The Oklahoma PRI people were so excited about this, and they said,
'You're going to get so many phone calls and so much is going to happen.
It's just going to go crazy,'" she said. "But it didn't. It really
didn't.
  
"We've gotten a number of phone calls since the big ghost TV boom hit,
from amateur sleuths who want to come in and do an investigation in the
evening," Luker said. "And I'm usually happy to let them do that during
the week, as long as they're careful with the house.
  
"We had a group from Dallas come in a few weeks ago," she said. "They
took the whole house for two nights and rented everything we had because
they wanted to ghost hunt," she said. "It was actually pretty nice to
get a break, but I would have made more money if I had done one of my
murder mysteries instead."
  
When the Lukers first opened the mansion, the B&B concept was slow to
take off, so Luker started holding murder mystery parties to attract
overnight visitors. The parties soon proved to be more profitable than
the original business plan.
  
Now she holds dinner parties for 20-40 people at a time - sleeping over
is not required - with mysteries she writes herself. Luker prefers to
write period pieces appropriate to the 1920s to 1940s. Clients are
invited to dress appropriately but not expected to attend in full
costume; Luker said a few simple accessories can help set the mood.
  
Each guest is given an interactive part to play; one is later identified
as the victim and another as the killer.
  
Luker has even developed her product to the point that she can take it
on the road away from the Stone Lion. She's hosted many groups and
organizations, and recently she booked a murder mystery for
ConocoPhillips, for example.
  
"I put two children through college and graduate school and law school,
by killing people ... which I remind my ex-husband, the FBI agent," she
said. "It just proves that crime pays."
  
As much as she loves playing a part in keeping dead alive at Stone Lion
Inn, she doesn't believe the ghost business will ever support itself.
  
Her pet theory about why that is involves even more otherworldly
mechanizations from a frighteningly mysterious realm.
  
"Actually, I think a lot of our business has nothing to do with ghosts
at all. It's political," she said. "Under a Democratic government, I
make a hell of a lot of money, but when Republicans get in, everything
goes."