"While I try not to cover recent tragedies on the Notorious 313 tours out of respect for surviving family members, I do deviate from this if the death or tragic incident is high-profile in nature, which Chris Cornell's death is.”
But whether the room, cited in a police report obtained by The Detroit News, will be available is unclear.
Initially, MGM corporate declined to comment on whether the room would be available.
On Monday, the Free Press called the hotel front desk and requested to book Room 1136 and was granted the reservation. But when a reporter tried to check in to the room the following afternoon, he was told the room was unavailable and was offered a different room instead.
A front desk representative said the room could not be guaranteed at any time.
It is not unusual for hotels to keep rooms unavailable where celebrities have died. When Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel suite at the Beverly Hilton, the room was taken out of rotation following the wake of requests from guests and fans to stay there.
It was eventually reinstated, but with new furnishings and content.That won't be happening any time in the near future, according to hotel officials grappling with publicity in the aftermath of Cornell's suicide.
Regardless, Cornell’s death – now a part of Detroit music history – brings to the city a new avenue of dark tourism, a burgeoning area of travel that centers on the macabre.
From natural disasters to the death trail of serial killers, dark tourism borders curiosity, morbidity and exploitation.
“Ghost and sinister history tour offerings have exploded in recent years and are popular worldwide,” says Karin Risko, director of City Tour Detroit. “Detroit is a latecomer to this genre, which is surprising considering Detroit is older than the also French-founded New Orleans, considered by many to be the most haunted city in the United States, and we've had more than our share of tragedies and misfortunes.”
Risko's company offers the Notorious 313 Sinister History Tour, which rivals the regular city tours in popularity.
She says Cornell’s death may be an inclusion this year.After the shocking news that Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell hung himself in Room 1136 at the MGM Grand Detroit after playing a sold-out show at the Fox Theatre, the hotel was flooded with calls.
Fans wanted to book the room.
'An enduring fascination'
Many big cities like Seattle and Detroit offer ghost and similar dark tourism tours, where people visit paranormal and tragic landmarks.
“There would appear to be an enduring fascination we have as humans in the evil we are capable of a species,” says Professor John Lennon of the Glasgow Caledonian University, who is an expert and lecturer in the matter. “This is not a new phenomenon; there are elements of the ancient, modern and post-modern here.”
Sites like concentration camps, he says, attract large numbers of visitors annually. “Visitors stare fixedly at evidence of the very worst we are capable of.”
In Seattle, for instance, a popular dark tourism site is a former gambling den in Chinatown where 13 Chinese-Americans were killed.
Another Seattle tour, Stalking Seattle, revisits grunge history and landmarks, including that of Soundgarden. A stop includes Cobain’s former house where he was found dead above his garage, which is no longer there.
What draws fans to visit spots connected to their favorite artists, but also sadness and death?
“That’s how they can get as close as possible to that rock star of theirs who meant so much to them, and was singing directly to them,” says Charity Drewery, operator and owner of Stalking Seattle. “A lot of these people never saw Nirvana live, but they remember seeing Kurt’s house on MTV (after he died). It’s these things you see on TV and where these people you admire have been.”
Most people who take her tour, she says, are from outside of the Puget Sound area — people who are traveling and taking time during their trips to see these landmarks. In the summer, Stalking Seattle tours are often sold-out months in advance.
A growing segment
While many cities around the world, like Prague or older European cities, have offered such tours for decades, Detroit’s pocket of dark tourism is still developing but on the rise.
Famous spots around Detroit that draw out dark tourism include the Historic Fort Wayne, which offers guided tours of places where soldiers and servants have passed away. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant has ghost tours around Halloween, and there are a number of cemetery tours that explore the likes of Elmwood and Woodlawn.
Often, people explore Detroit cemeteries on their own because of their historic nature and architecture.
The Leland Hotel,where people claim to experience paranormal activity, especially around the abandoned fourth floor, also draws guests hoping to experience something out of the ordinary. When mobster Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, crews searched the basement for his body.
Same goes for Detroit’s Masonic Temple. Many times, dark tourism is an attempt to witness a spirit or experience the environment surrounding a person or group’s final moments.
Then there’s the myth of The Nain Rouge, or “red dwarf,” which people claim to have spotted before tragic events occurred in Detroit. It is said to haunt the city. Nain Rouge supposedly was spotted before the 1805 fire, which destroyed most of the city, before the 1763 Battle of Bloody Run and before the 1967 Detroit riots. The story has prompted the tradition of the Marche du Nain Rouge, where Detroiters gather to “banish” the evil creature.
Haunted attractions: 10 of metro Detroit's spookiest spots
Outside of Detroit, dark tourism brings people to the Traverse City State Hospital, a former psychiatric asylum, Mackinac Island—which has a stark history—and the historic Holly Hotel.
Royal Oak resident Jessica Knapik is a fan of dark tourism and has traveled throughout the country visiting several sites. So far, she has visited the Villisca Ax Murder House in Iowa, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Massachusetts and the haunted Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, among other places.
Knapik has also done several "escapes" and weekend trips.
"I definitely gravitate towards offbeat or haunted places," she says. "Why sit in a bar or restaurant you've been to a million times when you could get the adrenaline rush or thrill of touring a place that is possibly haunted."
While the MGM Grand is the latest site to spark interest in dark tourism, the city is no stranger to celebrity deaths.
In 1926, illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini was said to give one of his final performances at the Majestic Theater on Halloween, making the venue another dark tourism landmark. The performance was actually at the Garrick Theatre, but fans still gravitate towards the Majestic.
At Tiger Stadium in 1971, Detroit Lion wide receiver Chuck Hughes died on the field of a fatal heart attack. There was just over a minute to play in a game that would be won by the Bears 28-23.
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