Capitol Hill Thug Denver The Capitol Hill Thug, also known as the Capitol Hill Slugger, was a man known for a series of attacks and eventually murders of women in the early 1900s. Women of varying ages were attacked in the Capitol Hill area. The attacks were characterized by lone women, who were walking in the street, being attacked from behind and hit over the head with what Denver police and The Denver Post thought could be anything from a lead pipe to a sandbag. Usually the women were hit once in the back of the head, with a few exceptions. None of them were sexually assaulted, and very few were robbed, making police question what the motive of the attacker was. Many of the victims claimed that their attacker had the unusual floral scent of violets. This was a clue the police thought would lead to an arrest. In the end, it never gave them any answers.

Today, however, it may provide a warning to women walking the streets of Denver that his ghost is near. The attacks began in June 1900 and continued until January 1902. Three of the women attacked died from their injuries. The three fatal attacks were Lillian Bell, Josephine Unternahrer, and Mary Short. Both Short and Unternahrer were attacked on the night of February 22, as was a third woman by the name of Emma Johnson. On February 25, 1901, only a day after The Denver Post wrote an article offering a $100 reward to anyone who had either information or was able to give up the thug "dead or alive," a man named Albert Cowan was arrested. He was arrested only as a "suspicious character" and was one of many men arrested on suspicion of being the thug. All police accounts of Cowan presented him as a mentally unbalanced man who did not seem to trust anyone.

However, this did not hold much stock with the public because all of the men arrested were claimed to be insane in some way by the police. Another thing that did not hold was Cowan''s physical description. One victim, Emma Carlson, was able to give a description of her attacker, and neither Cowan''s appearance nor his clothing was a match. One report in a newspaper claimed that a witness saw the attacker wearing what looked like a police uniform. However, witnesses against Cowan began to come forward, including a man named W. H. Lowe, who sent a letter to the police. Lowe wrote that while living in Las Vegas, Cowan was known as Bug House Davis.

Lowe also claimed that Cowan would often rave that the world would be better off without women and in a few years they would be killed off. However, Cowan told police that he had never been anywhere near Las Vegas and did not know who Lowe was. Cowan''s trial began on March 26, 1901. Witness Albert Frederick was on hand to testify that he had caught Cowan in the act. Frederick''s story was that a woman passed him as he was crossing a vacant lot. After she had passed him, he heard her scream and turned to see a man hovering over her with his arm lifted holding something shining in his hand. Frederick claimed that he moved on from the woman as he did not want to become involved in the fight. Shortly after, a man he identified as Cowan passed by him.

Frederick''s story would be cross-examined by Cowan''s defense and was later dismissed. It came out that Frederick was a morphine addict, and people suspected that he chose to come forward as a "witness" only to claim the reward, which had gone up to $900 by then. Additionally Cowan had several witnesses of his own who provided his alibi as well as testimony against the city''s charges of insanity. Cowan was eventually released and charges were dropped. After his arrest, the thug, who had lain low during the trial, attacked again. This time when police came to arrest him, Cowan was found in his apartment sound asleep. Cowan eventually left the city of Denver, and while the attacks continued for a short while, they eventually stopped. The Capitol Hill Thug was never brought to justice.

There are theories that the Capitol Hill Thug still roams the streets today. Kevin Pharris, haunted-tour guide and author of The Haunted Heart of Denver, said in his book that he frequently would bring his tours through areas where some of these attacks occurred. On three occasions people walked through something similar to a cold spot, but instead of cold air it was a strong floral smell. This by itself could be nothing, but Pharris believed it to be the ghost of the thug because, in addition to the scent, the women in his group began to feel very uncomfortable as well.