Constance Hatchaway

### Fate

Lives in comfort from blood-money until dying in 1927. Becomes ghost and prowls the attic of the mansion looking for new victims.

**Constance Hatchaway** or **The Black Widow Bride** is a character from the Haunted Mansion who is connected to the backstory of Tower of Terror via the Hightower family.

## History

### Biography

#### Background

Constance Hatchaway was born in Money County, California in 1851. In 1869, an 18-year-old Constance married a meek but fairly wealthy farming-heir named Ambrose Harper in Secret County, California. Through unknown circumstances, Constance murdered Ambrose with an axe and subsequently decapitated him. Constance stored the head within a hatbox and went on to inherit Harper's wealth and estate, establishing a modus operandi for Constance in decapitating wealthy men for their inheritance while keeping their heads as trophies.

In 1872, Constance made another kill in the form of eastern banker Frank Banks. In 1874, Constance married an asian diplomat known as the Marquis de Doome whom she likewise killed while presumably becoming the **Marchioness de Doome**. Constance's next known kill was in 1875 in the form of Reginald Caine, a gambler, railroad baron and gourmand. By this kill, Constance was seemingly affiliated with a mysterious figure of unknown identity whom kept the hatboxes containing her husband's heads and who was an apparent accomplice to her crimes.

#### The Haunted Mansion

Constance made her last known kill in 1877 when she married George Hightower, a wealthy world-traveller from Newport Beach. Constance and George left California together and moved into an antebellum mansion overlooking the Mississippi River in the French Quarters of New Orleans, Louisiana. Constance would go on to murder George with an axe-blow to the skull before severing his head to add to her collection. Following this murder, Constance inherited George's estate and stashed the trophies and evidence of her crimes within the attic of the mansion.

While known to at-least some as, "The Black Widow Bride", Constance was never convicted of her various murders. At some point, her hatbox-wielding accomplice died and had his own head stuffed within a hatbox under unknown circumstances. Constance herself lived off her blood-money to a ripe age before dying of natural causes in 1927. Upon her death, Constance's ghost would reside in the attic of the Haunted Mansion where she relished in her past crimes while looking for new prey.

## Tower of Terror connections

### Tower of Terror

George Hightower shares his surname with Harrison Hightower III, the owner of the *Hotel Hightower*. Furthermore, both were wealthy American men in the latter-end of the 19th century and in the meta of things, both were added in 2006, globe-trotting collectors turned ghosts, and played by Disney imagineers (Rick Rothschild and Joe Rohde respectively).

### Other connections

#### Camp Discovery

A 1931 edition of *First International News* mentions heightened supernatural activity in the manor since the death of its previous owners. Given how Constance only died in 1927, four years prior to the newspaper, it is very possible that they were referring to her.

## Appearances

### Haunted Mansion

Constance makes two main appearances in this attraction. In the stretching room, she is visible on a portrait as an old woman which stretches to reveal her sitting atop George Hightower's tombstone. Constance also appears in the attic as a ghost who makes twisted jokes about her past while threatening guests. Throughout the attic are her mementos and photographs of herself along with her grooms whose heads vanish from the images. In the queue for the Magic Kingdom version of the attraction, a wedding-ring is engraved in the pavement.

### Main Street Penny Arcade

The fortune-teller Esmeralda holds tarot-cards with the stretching-room portraits on them.

## Behind the scenes

Constance originally appeared in the mansion as an unnamed ghost bride with a candle, alongside the Hatbox Ghost and hatboxes containing undead heads which popped out while yelling wedding vows. In the Stretching Room, Constance's widow depiction also originally appeared with an unused script having her referred to as **Abigail Patecleaver**. The two characters were not linked for most of the mansion's history and with many non-canonical stories and fan head-cannons reimagining the bride as being a tragic victim figure rather than the implied murderess.

In 2006, the widow and the bride were turned into the composite-character of Constance Hatchaway. This refurbishment brought new backstory into the Haunted Mansion with the attic scene being reworked to visually tell Hatchaway's history with the manor.

## Trivia

* Constance is voiced by Kat Cressida who also voiced Sally Shine in the queue for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in *Disney's California Adventure*.
* Constance's performance model Julia Lee was born on Halloween.
* In a popular feminist-theory reading of the Haunted Mansion, Constance's murders represent acts of combatting and de-throning the patriarchy.
* Harrison Hightower III would have been 42 when George and Constance married. Constance would have been 48 when Hightower was killed by Shiriki Utundu.
* Constance is similar to the character Trader Sam from the Jungle Cruise as they are both animatronic characters from mainstream Disney attractions who made professions out of decapitating people and who are connected to the story of Tower of Terror. In this sense, Constance is also somewhat similar to the Yeti from *Expedition Everest* who is an animatronic theme-park villain introduced in 2006 and reimagined from a classic Disneyland animatronic villain while connected to the Tower of Terror's backstory.
* Constance's second husband Frank Banks shares his surname and familial occupation with the Banks family of Mary Poppins.
* Constance's original character-designer Marc Davis is referenced in-universe as having been a denizen of Buena Vista Street.

## Gallery

With her first groom, Ambrose.Alongside her second husband, Frank Banks.Wedding photos with the MarquisConstance and ReginaldAs a meet 'n' greet character
## References

1. ↑ http://findingmickey.squarespace.com/other-hidden-dca/buena-vista-street/15183357