Rockport, Texas - The ghost of a saloon girl haunts the hotel in a Mexican border town where she was shot by a jealous Texas cowboy in 1905.

According to local police records, 20-year-old Mary MacKenna was very much alive when she drifted into Ciudad Juarez - just across the border from El Paso, Texas - in the spring of 1904.

She’d spent the previous three years as a prostitute in various mining towns in Arizona, where appreciative clients had bestowed the nickname Cross-Eyed Mary on the girl with one mis-aligned eye.

Mary quickly settled into her new life in the saloon of the Bon Homme Hotel, a favorite hangout of wild Texas cowboys from across the border.

It was Mary’s misfortune to fall in love with Samuel Jackson, one of those wild cow-punchers. Soon after they met, Mary lost her heart to Sam’s twinkling blue eyes and his calvary mustache.

“The affair lasted several months,” says Jesus Garcia, the hotel’s current owner. “But Mary was a working girl and I guess it was inevitable that Sam would catch her in the act with another man.”

Again, according to police records, on July 15, 1905, Sam watched, unseen, as Mary and a client did the wild thing - Ciudad Juarez style.

When he couldn’t take anymore, Sam burst into the bedroom, just as the activity on the bed reached a noisy climax. The police records say (delicately) that Mary’s client “was shot in the hips,” then shot again as he begged for mercy.

Sam then turned his .45 on Mary, who also begged loudly for mercy before the cowboy shot her square between her mis-matched eyes.

His honor satisfied, Sam then ran to his waiting pony and galloped out of town.

Ever since that time, according to Garcia, Mary’s ghost has roamed the hotel - begging her heartless boyfriend for mercy.

“I’ve seen her several times myself,” Garcia said. “She has long dark hair and always appears wrapped in a blood-stained sheet - which is a terrifying sight.”

According to Garcia, over the years he and his staff have gotten used to seeing the dead prostitute, but lately her appearances have become more frequent, and she has scared some hotel guests out of their wits.

He says, “I think it’s time to call in a priest and get rid of her. She’s becom a very disruptive element in the hotel. I mean, it’s unnerving to guests when she suddenly appears in their room. She only appears for short periods of time and then she vanishes, but it is becoming more frequent, and once a guest sees her they almost always immediately check out and move to another hotel.”

At this writing, no exorcism has taken place at the Bon Homme Hotel, but Garcia said that “various arrangements are currently being made - we have talked at length with a holy father.”

Records show that Samuel Jackson didn’t escape justice for very long. He was shot by a Texas Ranger during a barroom brawl in El Paso.

Fittingly, he was first hit in the hip by a stray bullet. Then, as he tried to pull his gun from his holster, he was shot square between the eyes. - Dean Terry