By Matt Hicks

With its cavernous corridors, damp empty cells and peeling walls, it’s unsurprising that this Philadelphia former prison is a popular destination for filmmakers and tourists alike.

Completed in 1836, the radial style and solitary confinement policy of Eastern State Penitentiary (E.S.P.) were a revolution in how Western society treated its criminals. However, not all were in favour of this new system, designed to encourage penitence and reform in its occupants. Charles Dickens remarked on the way such prisons represent a “slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain” and one can easily appreciate the torturous boredom of being locked alone in a small dark cell for most of the day. Enforced solitude aside, years spent locked within these grim, staid walls must surely have been punishment enough. It’s certainly not hard to imagine that some of the tortured souls this location has witnessed may still linger within its thick stonewalls.

After nearly one hundred and fifty years of use, E.S.P. ceased to be used as a prison in around 1971 and lay derelict for nearly two decades until preservation efforts began in the late 1980s. By 1991, the Eastern State Task Force began guided tours of the imposing and atmospheric location. Predictably, these have been a great success and this Halloween will see the return of their “Terror Behind the Walls” event, where visitors can experience a range of spooky Hollywood-quality special effects in some of the scariest areas of the prison. And for the first time this year, those bold enough will be let loose in pitch black areas of the prison with just a flashlight and their own imagination for company. However, not everything these brave visitors experience will be intended by museum staff, for the E.S.P. has a big reputation for real-life hauntings.

Notorious gangster Al Capone did time at E.S.P. and it’s claimed that it was during his stay that he was first visited by the ghost of one of his victims. It is said that he was often heard shouting for the ghost to leave him alone late into the night. Other former inmates and prison staff claim the prison is rife with paranormal activity. Even during its working life the prison was renowned for disembodied footsteps, strange echoing wails and dark, fleeting shadows. To this day the oldest parts of the prison are said to be inhabited by a dark shadowy figure associated with strong feelings of anger. The image of a guard is often seen in the guard tower, and people report invisible hands shoving them down the tower stairs.

Numerous paranormal investigators have spent time at the prison, but unarguably the most famous evidence of the location’s strange phenomena was captured by the Atlantic Paranormal Society. Many readers will be familiar with the footage of a shadowy, humanoid and apparently cloaked object moving towards the camera then darting away. Despite their best efforts to recreate it, the Atlantic Paranormal Society admit they can offer no logical explanation for what they filmed. It’s been suggested by others that the walkway on which the footage was filmed is too narrow for a human to turn at the speed seen in the film, making the likelihood of human simulation small. What we do know for certain is that cell block 12, where the TAPS footage was taken, is known as one of the most paranormally active areas of the E.S.P.

Some may argue that it is simply the impressive and spooky appearance of the E.S.P. that causes people to report strange occurrences there. However, similar reports of activity throughout the location’s one hundred and seventy year lifespan and the remarkable TAPS footage suggests that Halloween visitors to the prison should think long and hard about whether what they see is quite part of the planned tour.

References

http://www.easternstate.org

http://www.hauntednc.com/investigation_easternstate.htm

http://www.prairieghosts.com/eastern.html