Houston Hotel at the Center of an Assassination Plot Embraces the Author With a Special Weekend

The Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, the springboard from which bullets were fired in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has long held touristic interest. Now, a Houston hotel is hoping to garner attention from a fictional assassination in which bullets flew from the window of a fourth floor room.

It’s all thanks to fledgling author Timothy Gene Sojka, whose home base is the Houston ‘burb of Cypress, and his entertaining novel Payback Jack. In the book, a political hit is made from the Sam Houston Hotel.

The book is well written, entertaining while intriguing, and comes with a twist that will make some on one side of the political spectrum grin with pleasure.

Sojka has teamed up with The Sam, as it is affectionately known, for a book signing this Saturday, April 24, at the hotel where he will also lead tours of the fourth floor from where the murderous shot is taken in the book. Sojka will sign copies of his thriller from 11 am to 1 pm when he then will escort fans on a tour of the hotel’s fourth floor. The book signing then resumes at 2 pm and continues until 4.

The Sam that plays a lead role in the first chapter of Payback Jack is the dilapidated, forgotten hostelry that slid into oblivion during the Houston economic bust of the 1980s. At that time, the hotel was said to be haunted.

Fast forward to a new decade, the hotel, which was built in 1924 as a downtown Houston landmark, is today a member of the Curio Collection by Hilton and boasts all the class and amenities one might expect from the brand. While the footprint and architecture of the structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, remain unspoiled, the guest rooms reflect a modern elegance as would be expected from the Curio Collection.

In celebration of the book signing, The Sam is offering a special package available this Friday and Saturday. The nightly rate of $149 includes complimentary valet parking and a bottle of Gnarly Head 1924 wine in honor of the year the hotel was built.

Reservations can be made here.