Heavyweight boxing champion Sid Foreman was murdered the night of the party at 6:48 p.m. At 6:52 p.m., partygoers ran out of napkins to go with their pizza.
Both catastrophes were treated with similar levels of concern by the group of 30 UF students who gathered in a lecture hall classroom for a Great Gatsby-themed murder mystery dinner.
A Private Inn, a UF club dedicated to “unraveling mysteries one clue at a time,” hosted the sleuthing soiree.
“Somebody in the room is the murderer, and somebody is a victim,” said the club’s president, 19-year-old UF nursing sophomore Neriah Cabral Duarte. “Every single person has their own role, their own objectives, and has to socialize with each other to figure out what happened.”
Murder at Gatsby’s Gala was the “grand finale” of the semester for A Private Inn, which became a UF organization in January. Cabral Duarte started the club after wondering how to find people who shared her love of mystery movies, like “Knives Out,” she said.
Cabral Duarte and her hometown friend Brenda Franklin posted flyers around campus promoting a group chat to discuss mysteries and true crime shows. The interest they received inspired the first unofficial murder dinner — “Til Death Do Us Part,” a wedding-themed mystery.
“The response was amazing,” Cabral Duarte said. “Seeing how everybody was able to, they didn’t know each other, but was able to communicate and laugh and even yell at each other — of course, in character — that’s what made me want to start the club.”
The club’s recognition goes beyond student popularity. At this semester’s UF Involvement Awards, A Private Inn won “New Student Organization of the Year.”
Cabral Duarte applied for the award for fun, but after arriving at the ceremony and seeing the other clubs she faced, she didn’t think A Private Inn had a chance of taking home the plaque.
“When they said our name, we were like, ‘There’s no way.’ We were giddy, we were so happy on stage,” she said. “That’s a memory that I won’t ever forget.”
Gatsby Gala attendees might have looked out of place walking across campus in floor-length ball gowns and feathered headdresses, but they fit in upon arriving at Matherly Hall. Cabral Duarte spent two hours decorating the basement lecture room with walls of golden streamers, balloons and cards with bloody handprints.
Planning a mystery dinner takes weeks of coordination. The club’s officers come up with a murder storyline from a mix of original ideas and Internet-sourced scripts. They then make RSVPs, assign roles and buy supplies.
Gili Omer doesn’t mind the work. The 20-year-old UF biochemistry junior and A Private Inn ambassador sees the club as a break from stressful academic-focused organizations, she said.
“It’s one of the only clubs that I actually look forward to,” she said.
Omer joined A Private Inn on a whim after seeing a Snapchat casting call for a Disney-themed murder mystery dinner, she said. After watching Minnie Mouse get exposed as a drug-dealing mastermind for murdering Prince Charming, she was hooked.
Before each dinner, attendees choose roles from a list sent via text. They must study a “background” page of their character’s clothing, quirks and accents before arriving.
“Mine was like, ‘Your character should have a floor-length sweeping gown, with the most extravagant beading and jewelry,’” said 18-year-old UF chemistry freshman Sophia Santiago. “I was like, ‘I have a black dress.’”
The Gatsby dinner was Santiago’s first A Private Inn event. Her love of murder mysteries — and lack of plans for the night — drew her to attend despite never having read “The Great Gatsby,” she said.
Santiago felt confident in her Poker face going into the night’s events but less confident about another requirement of her role. To play the aristocrat Chappy, Santiago would have to summon a British accent.
“It says very specifically that my character needs to say, ‘chuffed,’ when I’m proud and, ‘bloody hell,’ when I’m excited,” she said.
Yuan Tian, a 21-year-old UF accounting senior, adopted a looser interpretation of her character’s traits. To play Police Chief Curtis, she donned a flowy white dress with capped sleeves.
“I actually have a gun underneath my dress,” she joked.
Tian showed up to the dinner at the request of her friend Karen Zhang, a fellow 21-year-old UF accounting senior. Zhang decided on Tian’s behalf that they would both be attending, Tian said. The dinner was the first and last murder mystery party for the soon-to-be-graduating seniors.
Zhang convinced Tian to attend after she saw a flier in a group chat and thought it looked fun, she said.
“I used to be really into mystery books and solving crimes and stuff,” Zhang said. “I don’t think I’m that great at it. But I love escape rooms and little puzzles.”
The night began with each player receiving objectives ranging from, “Get to know everyone and their affiliations to Jay Gatsby” to, “When asked about the investment money, insist you plan to have some by the end of the night.”
The guests then chatted, picked fights and attempted blackmail. Some hovered near the table at the front of the room, which boasted traditional 1920s gala fare — five large Domino’s pizzas with Coke and Sprite. Others sought empty adjacent classrooms for shadier dealings.
About every 30 minutes, the club’s officers gathered attention to announce a new development — or new victim. Guests scanned a QR code to submit accusations throughout the night. At the end, everyone made their final guesses.
Only one Great Gatsby guest guessed the killer correctly. It’s a typical ending to an A Private Inn murder mystery. Only one of the club’s mystery dinners has ever ended in victory for the partygoers: at “Murder in Margaritaville,” attendees identified Life-Saving Sam as the culprit over Cabana Bob.
For A Private Inn Officers like Caroline Kwara, a 19-year-old UF English sophomore, watching people puzzle out the mystery together is the most satisfying part of each event.
Kwara and other officers huddled on chairs in a corner of the room throughout the dinner. They surveyed ongoings with the air of masterminds watching a carefully arranged domino tower fall in a chaotic — but entertaining — cacophony.
“You get to see your work pay off and see that they actually enjoyed what you came up with,” Kwara said. “It’s pretty nice.”
Next year, Kwara hopes to help the club host bigger events, like a murder mystery ball. She acknowledged that would be “super expensive.” But with the club’s increased funding next semester, a masquerade murder may not be entirely off the table.
Great Gatsby may have been the last event of the semester for A Private Inn. But unlike the night’s poor victim Sid Foreman, the club has a bright, albeit bloody, future.
Contact Zoey Thomas at zthomas@alligator.org. Follow her on X @zoeythomas39.
Zoey Thomas is a second-year media production major and the university administration reporter for The Alligator. She previously wrote for the metro desk. Other than reporter, Zoey's titles include espresso connoisseur, long-distance runner and Wes Anderson appreciator.
