The Wealthy Denver Socialite Whose Love Triangle Sparked a Historic Double Murder

Colorado’s Brown Palace Hotel, a Denver landmark since 1892, has a lot of history. One of the unfortunate events that took place in the hotel involved a wealthy woman, a love triangle, and double murder.

Who Was Colorado’s Isabel Springer?

In 1907, attorney, banker, and businessman John W. Springer married Isabel Patterson Folck, a woman twenty years his junior who has been described as "a beautiful, audacious young woman who developed an addiction to nightlife, narcotics, and adventure."

Because of his busy schedule and business dealings, John often left Isabel at their home, the Highlands Ranch Mansion, by herself while he traveled out of state. However, Isabel’s penchant for nightlife eventually found her spending many nights at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Isabel would also strike up extramarital affairs with two men, Tony von Phul, a St. Louis man whom she’d known prior to marrying John, and Harold Francis Henwood, a business partner of her husband.

Unfortunately, this love triangle, as many love triangles often do, would culminate in tragedy.

A Double Murder at Colorado’s Brown Palace Hotel

On May 23, 1911, after threatening to show her husband love letters Isabel had written to him, Tony von Phul arrived in Denver to meet his lover. On the same day, Henwood visited Isabel at the Brown Palace, who told him about the affair with von Phul and her desire to end it.

The following day, Henwood shot and killed von Phul in the hotel’s Marble Bar, as well as another man, George Copeland, who was an innocent bystander.

Read More: Who Was Rattlesnake Kate And Why Is She Famous In Colorado?

The Springers would file for divorce the following day, and Isabel would pass away just six years later at a charity ward in Chicago.