Seattle Tour Is Right Down Mystery Fans’ Dark Alley

SEATTLE —  For some, it’s a tour to die for.

Mystery buffs--out-of-towners and locals--get an earful of grisly city history on Private Eye Tours. And proprietor Windsor Hatten, a semi-retired private eye, says about 10% of those who ride his blood-red tour bus wind up as customers of his detective business.

Hatten has taken about 5,000 people on the 90-minute tour through downtown, Queen Anne Hill to the north and the International District to the south.

In addition to the just plain curious, he reports a surprising number of kids and writers. Hatten, who offers tours any time of day or night, says Halloween and the middle of the night are especially popular.

The first stop is near Key Arena, home of the Seattle SuperSonics, where Hatten tells the tale of the mysterious murder of Mrs. Lee. Born in China and once a general in the Chinese Army, Lee moved to Seattle with her husband and ran a restaurant at the Seattle Center.

Soon after she hired Hatten to do surveillance on her husband--he apparently was preoccupied with the stock market--Mrs. Lee turned up dead.

The case is still unsolved.

Other tour stops include former bordellos, a mansion where signal lights once beamed to indicate Canadian boats could safely dock with rum during Prohibition, and the site of the 1995 Pang warehouse arson fire, in which four firefighters died.

What makes the tour so much fun is Hatten himself, tossing out tidbits from his store of little-known facts of Seattle. He also points out tourist spots such as the Pike Place Market and good views of the city.

Hatten, a private investigator since 1958, remembers when there were only seven or eight private detectives in the state. He has personally investigated more than 25,000 cases and says he brought 90% of them to a successful conclusion.

“The biggest change in the business is the use of computers,” Hatten said. “But you have to remember that they are just a tool. They save a lot of legwork but you still have to go out and beat the bushes to be successful.”

A founder and life member of the Pacific Northwest Assn. of Investigators, he gives lectures at the University of Washington law school and community colleges.

Although Hatten still does some investigating and consulting for his firm, Windsor and Hatten Legal Investigators, he started the tour in 1996 when he found himself at loose ends after semi-retiring.

“All the sites we go to I picked because I have some connection to them,” Hatten said.