Mystery building of Oklahoma — From Black Jail to Samaritan Cult House
Guthrie, Oklahoma. A town full of evil locations. One of which is the Black Jail. Haunted by inmates and religious extremist it is the state’s first territorial prison. Later the Samaritan Cult House, with possible ties to murder and even terrorism.
Possibly several ghosts haunt the Black Jail with at least one confirmed death inside its dark walls. And the negative energy stored inside this 2-story building comes from a very long, old and terrifying history.
Black Jail
In 1892, 15 years before Oklahoma even became a state, Black Jail was constructed with 18-inch thick walls of dark limestone and brick. The supposed inescapable jail was the first Federal Prison in the Midwest of the United States. This building located at the intersection of 2nd Street and Noble Avenue, received its infamous name, from its inmates.
The Black jail could house 90 prisoners, with a solitary confinement in its basement. The material used for the construction of this 2-story building offered no insulation from the cruel Midwest weather. In the summer inmates suffered from dehydration because of the extensive heat that couldn’t leave the thick, dark walls. While in winter, a damp and cold sensation made prisoners have flu and respiratory infections.
Among the prisoners, the most well-known in American history was the Dalton Gang and Bill Doolin. The Dalton Gang was also known as The Dalton Brothers because 3 of its members were brothers, Gratton, Bob and Emmett. Doolin was the founder of the Wild Bunch; a gang specialized in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches.
Bill Doolin was among the 14 inmates that escaped on July 5, 1896. But on August 24, Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas killed Doolin and had his body buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
From Black Jail to the Nazarene Church
Still, Oklahoma wasn’t a state, the Jail was shut down and the remaining inmates were transferred to another federal prison. The building that was one of the most feared federal prisons of the United States was abandoned for a while. But soon the Nazarene Church bought the property and started renovating the building to accommodate its members. Soon it became one of the most prosperous churches in the area. The Nazarene Church occupied the old prison until the early 1970s when the congregation moved to another location.
From Nazarene Church to Samaritan Cult House
For many years the Black Jail building remained abandoned. In 1991 a New Age group practitioners known as the Samaritans bought the old territorial prison.
The Samaritan Foundation was founded by Linda Greene. The cult traveled and followed Linda’s rules and instructions while she conducted rituals and seminars. Linda Greene signed the cult literature where she cautions believers not to talk on the telephone because vampires can gain access to them. She claimed many celebrities and political figures were different types of zombies. Linda taught her followers how to release pent up negative energy and release it correctly; one of her ways was sending any negative energy attached to a person into soy milk and then pouring it down the drain. She also believed barcodes harbored negative energy. The cult’s literature has reference to vampires and even the Antichrist. Greene also claimed in her writings that she was the Christ because she “willingly gave her soul so that all of yours could survive.”
All these were very secretive until 1993 when it came out to the public because of a court parenting battle. When a mother under the influence of the Samaritan Foundation took her 2 children, one at the age of 7 and the other 4; from Massachusetts to Guthrie, Oklahoma against the father’s consent. The father testified in court that the mother of the children presented a change of behavior after being in touch with the teaching from the Samaritan Foundation. She would place a circular drawing under groceries because the Foundation’s writings said the bar code, was evil. She also did the same drawing under children’s pillows. The court ruled in favor of the father, who took his children back to Massachusetts. And by the end of the same year, the Department of Human Services had condemned the Samaritan Cult House. When investigations went deeper into the property, police learned that more than 30 people were living inside and later it was completely shut down.
By 1994, Samaritan Foundation members decreased from 350 worldwide to 4; Linda Greene, her friend Julia Williams, her 4th husband Denis Greene, and her 5th husband, film-maker Allen Ross.
In late November of 1995, Linda’s 5th husband Allen Ross mysteriously disappeared. In December, police received a phone call from her 4th husband Denis Greene, who said Linda killed Ross and buried him in the crawl space under their house, with Julia William’s help. On the other hand, Linda Greene sent faxes to Guthrie’s police claiming that her ex-husband Denis killed Allen.
Meanwhile, the Ross family hired private investigators, and they consulted a couple of psychics. Both psychics, in separate occasions, claimed Allen was alive in Texas. The 1st said he had a mental breakdown and the second said he had a trauma or that he had been hit in the head. Both stated that Ross did not want to be found.
But years later, investigators found the body exactly where both Denis and Linda Greene told police it was buried, in the crawl space under their house. An autopsy determined that Allen received 2 shots, one in the head with a 9mm and castrated. To this day, nobody knows what actually happened to Allen Ross. The following year, in Berryville, Arkansas, Linda Greene died at the age of 50 of liver failure. According to her family, she drank excessively to stop the voices in her head. Her friend Julia Williams was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder, by helping to bury the body and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
To this day, it’s still unknown what type of rituals were actually practiced by this group inside the Samaritan Cult House or the Black Jail.
The current condition of the Black Jail
Black Jail or Nazarene Church or the Samaritan Cult House remains abandoned till date. But claims of paranormal activity have been traced back since its territorial prison days. Disembodied voices are heard on the 1st floor, in the basement area, and in the hallways. The sound of metal doors slamming shut, regardless of the fact that all but one metal door remains to this day.
It is even reported that sounds of coughing are heard occasionally from inside the old cells. Also, the sounds of children playing outside the Black Jail have been overheard by some of its neighbors.
A female wearing a long printed dress and a large hat with white gloves believed to be a member of the Nazarene Church is often seen here. A young woman’s voice is heard singing on the ground floor near the main entrance. People refer to her as the ‘Black Jail’s Lady.’ Her ghost appears on occasions, at dusk, outside of the prison walking the grounds and trying to cross the street of Noble Avenue walking towards the main entrance.
One of the most notorious and active ghosts from Black Jail is witnessed by several people appearing at his old cell window looking across the street. Several paranormal researchers believe the name of the ghost is James Phillips. According to the State Capital News Paper and prison records, Pillips murdered a local man. In consequence, he was the first white man sentenced to be hanged at the jail in the summer of 1907. Reported by guards, from his cell windows, Phillips was watching the construction of the gallows across the street of Noble Avenue, in which he was going to be hung later that same day. Then all of a sudden he abruptly fell backward onto his bunk, dying instantly without a sound or even a word of warning. Coroners determined that his death was because of heart failure, exactly quoting “He died of fright.”
But it appears that his spirit has no rest. Shortly after his death, guards, prisoners, and other witnesses claim to hear footsteps within his cell and along the hallway that leads to it. The sound of a man sobbing is also heard coming from Phillip’s cell.
The jail has been investigated by several paranormal research groups like the local; Ghosts, Haunts of Oklahoma and Urban Legend Investigations group(G.H.O.U.L.I) and even the famous Ghost Adventures crew and they came up with several Class A EVPs or Electronic Voice Phenomena which are capable of recording electronic sounds or voices interpreted as spirit voices.
In 2001, Christian Bauer released the documentary, “Missing Allen” and a whole MSNBC investigative report named “Searching for Allen” was also released. Despite all these, Black Jail and events surrounding it still remains a mystery to this day. Abandoned since the Samaritan Foundation left, the Jail today only attracts Paranormal Investigators curious to catch paranormal evidence from the other dimension.
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