Most innkeepers don't want their guests to be scared. Michael and Elise Lakey of Jefferson promise theirs will be. Now they're believers. A smoky haze often appears in the hallway of the 24-room hotel, they swear, and then disappears.
Lights turn on doors close by themselves.
It's been a great marketing hook, too. This Halloween weekend, the Texas chapter of the Travelers Protection Association is putting up most of its 60 attendees at the Jefferson while it holds its annual meeting in town. Carole Barbee, an officer with the Hurst based charity says she picked the Jefferson Hotel -precisely because of its reputation. And she claims to have first-hand knowledge. Seven years ago, she says, she was awakened there at 3 a.m. by what sounded like someone passing her door.