Stone Lion Inn

I’ve wanted to attend a murder mystery for a while now. My husband was game too; he just wanted to make sure I didn’t figure out «Who done it» too early. I tend to ruin a lot of TV shows and films by guessing, usually correctly, who did what and why. I also skip to the end of books after reading the first chapter. But that’s on me. The Stone Lion had a Groupon and we figured why not.
Tip #1: book early. Weekends fill up fast, especially if you want to stay in the Stone Lion or the Peacock. When you call to make reservations, make sure you can stay in the Stone Lion; this is where all the action happens
Tip #2: get into character/​do a bit of research… if you dare. The Stone Lion Inn has been featured on Ghost Hunters. Get into the mood, if you can handle it, and watch the episode. We stated in the Kentucky Suite, which is supposed to have a lot of activity. Personally, I think if there were any spirits, our late night/​early morning partying scared them off. As for character… read your character information and everyone else’s. Keep a cheat sheet with you for the dinner so you can remember what your character is and does. Get your costume together and try to get all the pieces. The hubby’s character had a cane… which was odd… but memorable to everyone else.
Tip #3: loosen up/​just go with it. The first 20 minutes are really awkward. Just own your character and go with it. Remember, everyone else is just as afraid of looking like an idiot as you are. You will likely never see anyone from here again. So be eccentric. Commit to the role and go for Oscar.
Tip #4: enjoy the after party. While at the Stone Lion, long after the body was carried away and the doors shut, the after party started. The group that stayed was fun: lots of music, libations and silliness. Again, go with it.
Tip #5: explore the grounds. This is an old house with lots of history and maybe a few long time tenants. The bedrooms are filled with odd knick-​knacks and décor. The library is amazing. And the upstairs is quite creepy. The basement seals the deal with the body chute.
Tip #6: thank the hosts. Everyone that puts this together works really hard. The owner writes the scripts. The evening hostess is so believable you have a hard time breaking character. The chef creates some really nice dishes. They work in harmony to give the guests an experience to remember.
It really saddens me that this place and experience has such a low rating. But if you follow the above, and just go with it, you will have a five star experience.

This place is AWESOME!!! If you want to plan a really fun, special date or grab a bunch of friends for a cool and different night out, come here! You have to plan ahead to join in the murder mystery, but I promise you it’s worth it. It’s interactive and you get to dress up and act in character – they give you info sheets and character bios prior to your dinner and then give you additional clues when you arrive. There are different story lines set in the 20s-​40s, ours was 1948. There were about 30 people at my dinner, which I thought was a lot but apparently the groups are usually even larger. I did the Sheraton Dinner Detective murder mystery dinner over Valentine’s Day, and this one was a million times better. The house is super cool and historic, and the charismatic owner comes to breakfast and regales you with stories about the place. We stayed in the Cora Diehl room, the one that’s supposed to be the most haunted, but nothing to report there. The people complaining about the food are stupid – you’re not paying for the food, you’re paying for the event and experience. The food is ok, not amazingly gourmet but not bad. Definitely bring your own wine too, it’ll make you have more fun and loosen up! They don’t have a liquor license to serve their own. Can’t wait to come back!

I was a little skeptical about a murder mystery going into this. But we did a private group on a Sunday afternoon, so most of the people knew each other. However for over $ 50, I was shocked for how disappointing the food was, and incomplete the story was for the actual murder mystery.
The food is more like rice a roni from one of those packages at walmart. It is all food I wouldn’t even serve guests in my home. It probably cost them $ 50 total to feed 20 people.
The story cards we all received were just random information about our characters that actually didn’t even come into play in the story! We just sat in a circle, read about 20 – 30 «clues» and then were separated to solve the mystery. SPOILER: it was so backstory accidental murder that no one ever gets right. Seriously, she told us no one got it right.
What fun is that? I’ll never go back. What a waste of $ 50+

Because we had no heat in our room, we had to go home that night instead of spending the night. Stone Lion Inn gave us credit for the room to be used within one year. We tried to do that but they were occupied every time we asked about it. We, also, had family illness and my brother was in the hospital then died of cancer so we weren’t able to try to use the credit for several months. I called and asked if the credit of the room could be extended for one week (for the first week of December, 2014) and I was told no. I explained that we’d tried to use it but they were always booked up then my brother became ill and we were busy with helping his family. We didn’t understand why the room credit couldn’t have been extended for one more week so we could use it. We didn’t understand why it couldn’t have been extended for one more week so we could use the room credit instead of losing it. So we ended up paying for a room in the Stone Lion Inn which we didn’t use due to no heat in our room.

I do not understand all the bad reviews for this place. I went with my boyfriend and another couple, and we all had a blast and said we’d love to do it again. We all used Groupons and the process went very smoothly. Yes, we had to book a couple months in advance, but when I bought the Groupon it didn’t expire for about a year and a half, so we had plenty of time even though the dinners fill up quickly.
We all stayed in the White Peacock, which was about a mile away from the Stone Lion. It was further than we thought (we thought everything was on the same property and walking distance), but no big deal. We thought both the White Peacock and Stone Lion houses were awesome — very old, historic and unlike anything I’d seen before.
I will say the dinner was not «gourmet» — it was fine, but nothing special. It was a bit confusing with so many people and so many clues in solving the mystery, but we still had a lot of fun. The facilitator (Robin?) was great. She was great at her character and kept everyone laughing and engaged. Afterward, we went out to a wine bar that the owner suggested to us with about 10 others from our dinner. It was a pretty quiet place and we were all hyped up from dinner, but we sat outside so we didn’t feel so intrusive. Breakfast the next morning was again — nothing amazing or gourmet, but decent food. I liked hearing about the history of the house, but would have liked more of the ghost story-​type stuff than the history of Guthrie. All in all though, we had a great time! I hope we’ll be back.
As for people complaining about the conditions of the rooms and not having blow dryers and amenities… what did you expect? The houses are at least 100 years old. The point is for them to be historic. We didn’t expect a five star hotel experience with room service and amenities, and it surprises me that anyone would. I showered before I came and got ready in our room, which did have outlets both in the room and bathroom. The furniture and such was old (obviously), but it was still very clean, tidy and comfortable. We loved the atmosphere of the room and thought it added to the whole old-​timey experience.

I was shocked by how bad the food was. We went in a group of six (two had to back out hours before because their 3-​month old baby was admitted to the emergency room and the owner offered no condolences, refund, or reschedule options — though, after hearing our experience, they wouldn’t have wanted to reschedule). When we arrived, we eventually found the inn-​keeper — it’s not that she wasn’t nice, it’s just that she wasn’t warm –she just seemed «over this whole thing». I was shocked because the owner says she moved from Santa Fe and seemed classy and has money, but she skimps too much on this inn trying to have too high of a profit margin.
Our «gourmet seven course dinner» started with appetizers (LITERALLY frozen taquitos, breaded cheese sticks, and mini quiches from Sam’s — I’m ABSOLUTELY not exaggerating a bit!) I haven’t seen or eaten a taquito in over twenty years and would have hoped to never again. I just checked Sam’s Club’s website and a 4 lb box of taquitos costs less than $ 12 and we didn’t even eat an entire box. A 60-​count box of mini-​quiche costs less than $ 11 and there were probably 20 put out for the entire group (which didn’t even get eaten!) A box of 55 – 65 cheese sticks costs less than $ 10, so the entire appetizer for 20 people cost about $ 12 and was disgusting. Dinner was salad, prepared/​boxed soup, cornish game hen (4 hens for less than $ 13), frozen veggies (5 lb bag for less than $ 6) that were soggy when prepared, and rice. IF the game hen had better accompaniements, it would have been «OK», but as is, it was no less than inedible. Dessert was cheesecake — not bad, but not great. I understand that homemade cheesecake is difficult to make and look pretty, so understand that this was purchased already made — a 12-​portion frozen cheesecake at Sam’s costs less than $ 11, so that’s less than $ 20 to feed all 19 of us. Remember that we bring our own alcohol so that’s now where the upcharge is. Breakfast the next morning did start with coffee and OJ. Then, we had two pieces of bacon, a slice of quiche, one orange slice, a mini cinnamon roll, and a serving of an apple crumble/​streusel. Throughout our entire stay (cocktail/​appetizer, dinner and breakfast), the ONLY food item that was not frozen, pre-​made, packaged or preserved was our one orange slice each. Don’t misunderstand that we each got an orange (one whole piece of fresh fruit), we each got one orange SLICE! In researching these prices, I’ve learned where she got her inspiration for the lie on the website of «gourmet» food — the boxes of mini cinnamon rolls at Sam’s are «gourmet» and a box of $ 16 costs less than $ 6.00. The rooms were not nice — one of the rooms that is downstairs and has been converted to a room clearly took a closet and turned it into a shower stall as the «shower» is not even in the bathroom, but in the bedroom. The honeymoon/​wedding suite was spacious, but not prettily done. It’s a shame — I LOVE historic buildings, good food, unique entertainment. This idea was fabulous, but I literally wouldn’t go back if it was free. I know that this has been written up and my in-​laws have been years ago and said the food was better. My mom has read past articles that praising the inn. I think the likely cause is that the owner has likely grown tired after 20+ years of owning this house and entertaining. I do assume that the quality at one time was better, but I’m totally embarrassed that this is a landmark/​tour spot/​representation of Oklahoma. We have come so far in our 100 years and are so pleased to have friends and family come visit our state and OKC and witness their great shock with pleasure at what a great «gem» we have here that is so contrary to anyone’s expectations of Oklahoma. I hope that her standing as an Oklahoma landmark is reconsidered because it literally is embarrassing. As far as the mystery, I’m sure it’s creative, but she needs to have multiple stories to accommodate various group sizes because our story had 40+ characters and we were 20, so every one of us read two parts and many read three. It was too hard to follow, and the killers were not even present (the players didn’t show up, so another character read a brief clue about them that no one picked up on), so we didn’t get many clues, etc from them. I don’t want to take away from her creativity as a writer/​creator, because I think the stories could be neat. I just think that she needs a refresher to excite her about this whole gig again. Maybe it’s a fluke that we happened to book a weekend that was all Sam’s frozen food, but I just can’t imagine that when we have no recent extreme weather that would preclude her from grocery shopping and cooking.

It’s too bad I couldn’t give zero stars to the Stone Lion Inn.
I had prepared my costume and dialogue for the character I was going to be for the murder mystery. However, just a few days before the event, the mystery was changed. The reason given was that some of the people in attendance had already performed the other mystery. This was disappointing because as I said, I had already prepared and had my costume.
My friends and I stayed at the inn and the only amenity in the room was a box of Kleenex. No hair dryer, no glasses, no outlet in the bathroom to plug a hairdryer into, no coffee, etc. The place was filthy. The curtains were so old they were rotting off the rods. The water from the tap was not drinkable. Good thing we brought wine and glasses from home. The furniture was stained, the sheets weren’t clean. We stayed in the honeymoon suite so we could get a bigger space and there was an old baby nursery in the suite??? In the light fixture, there were burned out bulbs, there were dirty, wadded up sweaters and other clothing items in the wardrobe, paint cans in the closet — where do I stop? It was as if someone were playing a joke on us!
Do yourself a favor and skip this place. I am surprised they can be licensed at all with all of the crazy electrical issues and no emergency exits. Maybe the owner is related to a city employee. Just gross!!!

We did the Murder Mystery. It was fun. The food was OK at best, not great. They don’t serve alcohol, so you have to bring your own. Why is it getting one star? Well, the pricing for one, and the customer service for another.
We were alerted to the Murder Mystery via GroupOn. We, along with some friends and family, all purchased the GroupOn for $ 30 per person in July — half of the normally $ 60 per person fee. When we called to book the evening, we were told that the earliest opening was in December, and even though the GroupOn expired in September (they did the GroupOn knowing they were booked through the expiration period, something we’re discussing with GroupOn), they would still honor the GroupOn.
Once we finished the evening — which included spending an additional $ 100+ for «period appropriate» clothing, my wife told me that they didn’t ‘honor it” — they gave us the value of the GroupOn as a discount, but we still had to pay the difference. So on top of the $ 30 per person GroupOn, we paid an additional $ 30 per person onsite. In addition, we brought two bottles of wine from our cellar as well.
Needless to say, this is the first and last time we’ll ever do this at the Stone Lion Inn. The sad part is that during the evening, I was thinking that this would be a great «team building» event for retreats. Basic customer service could have made this place much more money just in onsite traffic, plus I was planning on talking with their management about licensing the program to be used in out-​of-​Oklahoma retreats.
Instead, I can’t even get the «management» to address their business tactics. The fact that they did the GroupOn knowing they were booked during the «valid period» is unethical at best.

It’s a shame to only give this place one star, but some things just really rubbed me the wrong way. … I went to Stone Lion Inn for the murder mystery dinner, then stayed the night at hotel, then did the breakfast the next morning. I’ve got to say first that the murder mystery dinner was a lot of fun! The actress who led the event was really funny and in character the whole night, and she did a great job keeping everything together. The food was not the best I’ve ever had, but there was plenty of it, and it was good overall. No complaints there. The way the murder mystery was solved was suspenseful and entertaining, and I met some fun people that night, which made things even better. … As for the lodging, the rooms were lacking (only one floor outlet, no blow dryers or irons or other amenities, and not super clean) considering the high price of the stay, but the room was survivable. The owner needs to work on the rooms, but this isn’t my primary complaint.
My biggest issue is with the breakfast, and in particular, the owner. The breakfast is advertised as a time when guests hear ghost stories and get information about the history of the hotel. But it’s not, there was VERY little information about these things. Instead, the owner completely dominated the entire breakfast with narcissistic, selfish talk about herself. It was the most self-​indulgent, arrogant display of about .5oz of power I’ve ever seen. It started with some blatantly racist remarks — she pulled in the cook (who happens to be Black), and started joking with her in front of everyone about how racist the cook is, how the cook «plays the race card,» and how the Black cook’s comments are «the origin of racism» (ignoring the whole legacy of oppressing, raping, murdering, and enslaving an entire race). This was IMMENSELY insulting and uncomfortable for me. And she wouldn’t stop. Even after the cook was dismissed, the owner kept calling the cook «racist.» The power differential that was present, and the way this was being exploited, was sickening to me. After this, the owner proceeded to tell the group story after story about how she saved, or came to the rescue, of all sorts of people in small towns. She saves immoral carpenters by bailing them out of jail («you know how those carpenters are…»)… She plays White Savior by hiring black people (who she then acts buddy-​buddy with and humiliates)… She plays Rich White Savior by describing how she buys bed and breakfasts in small towns that are only known for whore houses, and turning the entire town around… Meanwhile, she inserts subtle slights here and there about all the married men in the town being lazy and unfaithful to their wives, etc. … And the examples continue. The theme: She demands a captive audience to listen to her endless rambling about how she has single-​handedly saved minorities and poor, uneducated people with her money (which she then uses and publicly embarrasses). Very insulting. After making a comment to her, publicly, about racism (which she conveniently ignored completely), I eventually walked out. But I should have done it sooner. She should be ashamed, because she tainted an otherwise unique and great experience.