Whiskey Pete’s is a famous hotel casino that is not exactly in Las Vegas, but nearly 50 miles south-west of the Strip in Primm, Nevada. Although the casino hotel and its reputed spectral presence did not exist, in a physical sense, at the same time, it is said to be haunted by its namesake, Pete MacIntyre.
MacIntyre was known to all as Whiskey Pete for his less than legitimate business practices. Pete’s tale is one of a business man who fell on hard times and resorted to bootlegging to make a living. During the Great Depression of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, he owned a gas station on what is now Interstate 15, but vehicular travel between California and Nevada wasn’t exactly a big thing in those days, especially considering the substantial economic decline. Fortunately, he had another talent that made him a lot more money, albeit forbidden by local authorities.
Whiskey Pete was a moonshiner. He had several caves in the area in which he distilled his own whiskey and sold it on the sly to discerning locals out of his gas station. Thus he became known as Whiskey Pete. Although he died in 1933, his presence was so historical in the area that Ernest Jay Primm established a hotel and casino in his name in 1977.
The area was then known as Stateline, but Primm’s developments expanded so much so that it was renamed Primm, Nevada and now plays host to Whiskey Pete’s, Primm Valley Resort and Buffalo Bill’s.
As the legend goes, Whiskey Pete requested that upon his demise he be buried standing straight up with a bottle of his own bootleg moonshine grasped in his hands. Many years later, after Buffalo Bill’s and Whiskey Pete’s were already built, a bridge connecting the two hotel casinos was scheduled to be built. During the construction of that bridge, the workers had the misfortune of accidentally exhuming Whiskey Pete’s unmarked grave. It was strongly believed to be the body of Pete MacIntyre for the position in which it was found – upright, bottle in hand. His remains have since been laid back to rest in one of his old moonshine caves in the nearby hills.
Ever since the inadvertent exhumation of the moonshiners corpse, his spirit is said to haunt Whiskey Pete’s casino. Time and time again, guests have reported the eerie sensation of being watched while gambling in the casino. As guests look around to see if anyone is watching, they find an aged man who looks like someone out of an old western film staring at them. They look away and look back, or simply blink their eyes, and the apparition vanishes.
There are also reports of the Bonnie and Clyde Death Car exhibit being haunted by the not-so-departed soul of Clyde Barrow. Clyde and his girlfriend Bonnie were gunned down in the car in Louisiana in 1934. The infamous, bullet-riddled death car, along with the shirt Clyde was wearing at the time, were once on display at Whiskey Pete’s, but are now exhibited at Primm Valley Resort next door. We could not dig up any reports of anyone actually seeing the ghost of Clyde Barrow, but some have said they feel an unnerving presence when looking up close at the shirt especially, but also the car. It’s certainly not enough information to say the exhibit is haunted; noteworthy at best.
There are also rumors that the notorious crime lord Al Capone’s famous bullet-proof car, also on display in Primm, is haunted, but these speculations warrant a lot of skepticism. This particular car was never involved in any real gunfights. When the owner of the hotel acquired the villainous wheels, he wanted it to look more like an authentic mobster car so had it delivered to the back of the hotel and shot it up himself with his own guns.