Her name confuses everyone, so let us settle it first. Dutch May Peters Prescott was a Flagstaff madam. Prescott was her husband’s surname, not her town. And her death in the summer of 1916 remains one of northern Arizona’s coldest cases: two bodies in a burning shack, a scene staged to look like a murder-suicide, and a town that decided not to look too closely.
Who was Dutch May?
Just over a century ago, near what is now the Grand Canyon Hostel on South San Francisco Street, stood three of Flagstaff’s so-called female boarding houses, the polite name for brothels in a town that had plenty. By most accounts, all three were owned and operated by Dutch May Peters Prescott. That put her among the wealthiest self-made women in Flagstaff, in the heart of the old red-light district on the Southside, the same blocks where the Southside’s layered history still shows through.
Her obituary describes a successful businesswoman who was well liked around town, in part because she tolerated no rabblerousing. The Coconino Sun put it this way: she “has lived here a good many years and has accumulated considerable property in the restricted district. She had the reputation of being peacefully inclined with no enemies.”
What happened in August 1916?
No enemies. The record disagrees. Sometime between Tuesday, August 29, and Wednesday afternoon, August 30, 1916, someone entered a small shack in the restricted district, behind a house that belonged to Dutch May. A smoldering fire had been set inside, and the smoke raised an alarm in town.
The official who raced over found two bodies. Dutch May had been shot through the head. Her newly wedded husband, Mr. Prescott, had his throat slashed ear to ear. Both bodies were badly burned. Someone had arranged the scene to read as a murder-suicide, and most of the town was not buying it.
Why was the case never solved?
Because nobody with power wanted it solved, if the whispers are to be believed. The town had little stomach for digging into deaths in the restricted district, and rumors circulated that the actual murderer was a highly placed town figure. The investigation went nowhere, and the speculation never had to survive a trial.
The ending is as bleak as the crime. When the families of Dutch May and Mr. Prescott were notified, both declined to claim the bodies. The couple rests in Potter’s Field at Citizens Cemetery. And some say that if you cut through that empty lot in the old district at night, you can still catch a whiff of burning wood.
Questions people ask
Was Dutch May Prescott from Prescott, Arizona?
No. She lived and died in Flagstaff. Prescott was the surname of the husband she had recently married, which is why her case keeps getting misfiled in the wrong town, including by search engines.
Where is Dutch May buried?
In Potter’s Field at Citizens Cemetery in Flagstaff, unclaimed by family. The same cemetery holds the mass grave from the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, which makes it one of the most story-dense grounds in Arizona.
Who killed Dutch May?
Officially, no one knows. Unofficially, the rumors pointed at a highly placed town figure, and the case was allowed to go cold. What the archives do and do not say gets discussed on the tour.
Hear the rest where it happened
Dutch May’s story is one thread in Flagstaff’s haunted history, and the blocks she owned are still there to walk. The Flagstaff Haunted History Tour, the city’s original ghost tour, runs nightly at 7 PM for $29, 75 minutes on foot. Prefer your history with a drink in hand? Spirits With The Spirits, our 21+ haunted pub crawl, makes three bar stops over two hours and now runs as a private booking for groups.
