Stranded in the punishment cell at Eastern State Penitentiary, it’s easy to imagine why rumors abound that this dilapidated prison is haunted.
It’s bitterly cold inside, pitch-black, eerily quiet and severely cramped; these cells were built to be uncomfortable. Inhabited by some of America’s most violent and aggressive criminals, they would house disobedient prisoners for as long as two weeks at a time, away from physical contact, sunlight and the most basic of conditions. If Hell was a place on Earth, this would be it.
But that’s not the only hell that prisoners endured during their stay at one of America’s most historic sites. Its stories of suicide, riots, disease, torture and murder are the stuff of legend and, if the rumors are true, some of its most tormented souls still reside within its gloomy walls. And we may have just met one.
What we filmed in a haunted prison might scare you.
Built in 1829, the penitentiary, in Philadelphia, was a breakthrough for its time: a social experiment that redefined America’s incarceration system, housing inmates in singular cells rather than groups. It was applauded for encouraging reform and rehabilitation. It was the largest and most expensive public structure ever built, and soon, other prisons followed suit.
But life inside was less than innovative. Inmates would spend their days in solitary confinement in order to encourage “penitence,” or regret. If, on the odd occasion, an inmate left his cell, a hood was placed over his head to ensure his anonymity. Ideally, no inmate would ever encounter another.
There were horrific punishments for those who rebelled. The water bath, where inmates were dunked in an ice-cold bath, then hung out to “dry” on the walls of the prison until ice formed on the skin. There was the mad chair, where inmates were bound so tightly, it cut off circulation to the limbs, warranting amputation. Then there was the iron gag, where an inmate’s hands were tied behind his back and connected to an iron collar in his mouth. A slight movement would trip the collar and cut into the inmate’s tongue, causing profuse bleeding, at times cutting the tongue off completely, and sometimes, even causing death. Then there was The Hole, a common nickname for the prison’s punishment cell. No toilet and little food and air were minor setbacks; it was the psychology of the torture that ruined these men.
Did we just find our first ghost?
The prison was officially closed in 1971, and left to rot for two decades. It was literally abandoned — and to this day, bed frames, wooden stools and mementos sit in the same spots they were left, reminders of its former existence.
Citing its historical significance, it was reopened to the public in 1991 and now serves as a museum and historic site. Dubbed a “stabilized ruin” after decades of neglect, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the country, and deemed a US National Historic Landmark.
Ghost stories abound to this day. During its 142 years of service as an active prison, 1,200 inmates died, more than 50 inmates committed suicide, and over a dozen were murdered by other inmates.
From the 1940s, inmates and officers reported “mysterious visions and eerie experiences.” In fact, notorious gangster Al Capone, who served time inside, is said to have been “transformed into a weeping and terrified mess who would send out bloodcurdling screams at night, shouting for ‘Jimmy’ to ‘leave me alone.’”
Since it was abandoned, ghost sightings have increased tenfold. Paranormal researchers flock here to find signs of abnormal activity. Likely the most definitive proof came when “Ghost Hunters” filmed an episode inside the prison in 2004, when they caught something more than just a little creepy in their footage.
“We’ve seen a lot of crap together, and this is something we’ve never seen,” said Grant Wilson, one of the show’s stars.
Watch closely.
It was in the same cellblock, Cell Block 12, that news.com.au experienced a metaphysical meeting. We were informed by staff that this area, known for “echoing voices and whispers,” was a hub of activity for unexplained phenomena. It was here, at midnight, that something strange occurred. Something this writer simply can’t explain.
Guided by paranormal pop culture expert Aaron Sagers, we spent the night roaming the peeling hallways of Eastern State, in pitch darkness, in the hope of finding something, anything, that might prove definitively that there’s more to this world than we might know.
Granted, we were skeptical. A Ouija board in Death Row, an electromagnetic field meter in Cell Block 6, dowsing rods — said to act as a conductor of hidden energy sources — in Cell Block 4 all turned up nothing. Attempts in the Operating Room and the Isolation Room turned up little more than static air.
But an Electronic Voice Phenomenon reader (or EVP, as the experts call it) in Cell Block 12 picked up something strange. Could it be a voice?
We’re not sure. But it’s something, and let me be clear, there was no fancy editing at play here.
One of the most popular urban legends to come out of Eastern State involves its locksmith, Gary Johnson, who refers to the building as a “giant, haunted house.” One day, Johnson was tasked to remove a lock in Cell Block 4. As he was doing so, he was overcome by a force so fierce, he was frozen.
“I had this feeling that I was being watched, real intensely,” he said.
“I turned and I’m looking down the block and I know there’s nobody there. A couple of seconds later and I get the same feeling, I’m really being watched. I turn around and I look down the block and I don’t see anything and as I start to turn down the block, this black shadow just leapt across the block.”
Then again, nonbelievers credit this experience to a minor heart attack.
Our own guide refused to step into certain places, most notably the Operating Room. Others reported roaming the third floor of Cell Block 12 and seeing all the iron doors closed, only to return seconds later to see them all open.
NPR’s Laurel Dalrymple was right when she suggested that “perhaps hauntings are a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Humankind is a curious species; we’re always looking for answers, for life beyond our limits. Could there be something, someone, in another dimension? Another galaxy? Another realm?
The truth is out there … somewhere.
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