{"id":1425,"slug":"elite-cafe-and-coulter-building-folklore-area-phenix-city-alabama","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["On the evening of June 18, 1954, Albert Patterson walked across the parking lot between the Coulter Building and the Elite Café and was shot three times. He was the Democratic nominee for attorney general of Alabama, and he had just won the nomination on a promise to break the vice machine that had spent decades making Phenix City — the Chattahoochee-town annex to Fort Benning's payroll — famous as the wickedest city in America. Patterson crawled toward the Coulter Building and died on the sidewalk.","The assassination is the verified spine of this file. It forced the cleanup Patterson had campaigned on: the killing shocked the state into direct intervention in Phenix City, and the town's open gambling-and-graft era ended in the aftermath."]},{"heading":"The reported presence","paragraphs":["What persists on the site is a sighting, not a name. Guide authors Higdon and Talley recount a gentleman in an old-fashioned suit seen in the parking lot and on the sidewalk around the two buildings — a figure the retellings identify only as possibly Albert Patterson.","The file keeps the cautious version: a documented assassination, an apparition reported at the spot, and a tentative identification that stays tentative."]}],"name":"Elite Café and Coulter Building Folklore Area","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_CRIME_SITE","type_label":"Historic Crime Site","cats":["HAUNTED_PLACE"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites"],"desc":"Historic crime site in Phenix City; research record.","full_desc":"A historic crime site in Phenix City, Alabama, Elite Café and Coulter Building Folklore Area is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Historic crime site in Phenix City; research record. Its signature presence is Possibly Albert Patterson — the figure the file’s accounts keep returning to. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend, every one filed as account rather than fact. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.","address":"1501 Fifth Avenue","city":"Phenix City","county":"Russell County","state":"Alabama","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":32.30081,"lon":-85.17398,"coord_kind":"COUNTY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Two adjacent buildings and shared exterior apparition tradition, recorded at area level. The guide’s assertion that Patterson’s assailant was never caught needs criminal-history verification and is excluded.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":40.6,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":665,"type":"APPARITION","description":"The guide recounts a suited male apparition outside. The lore gives it a name — Possibly Albert Patterson — which is what turns a report into a resident. The site in Phenix City, Alabama gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. 'Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. It is the sighting the place is known for, and it hasn't stopped.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Possibly Albert Patterson","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.5,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-vi/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The guide recounts a suited male apparition outside. The reports at Elite Café and Coulter Building Folklore Area are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-vi/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"Possibly Albert Patterson","claimed_identity":"Possibly Albert Patterson","verified":null,"summary":"The guide recounts a suited male apparition outside. Possibly Albert Patterson is what the reports name it. The reports at Elite Café and Coulter Building Folklore Area are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. 'Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI' carries the account. A named spirit outlasts an anonymous one; the file's name is Possibly Albert Patterson.","behavior":"The guide recounts a suited male apparition outside.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-vi/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-vi/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}