The Hauntings of Eastern State Penitentiary

It’s a massive building. All stone, rising from the ground like an old fortress, built to keep people inside. It has housed some of the most scary criminals, like Al Capone for example. Hard boiled criminals shut away for a long time. The people outside these walls will never know. Perhaps they are happy about it. As long as they are locked away, they say. They deserve it all, they say.

In the court system it is said that the punishment is suppose to fit the crime. One can wonder if the criminals got a punishment worse than the crime itself. This is Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia.

Haunted Isolation

When the prison opened in 1829 they brought isolation to new heights. Not only were they to be separated from people from the outside. In this prison, the idea was that they would be separated from everything. The prisoners that were sent there, really did everything in isolation. They lived alone, worked out alone and ate alone. Even when they were transported from place to place they were doing it all alone. The guards covered their heads so the prisoner would not be seen or could see. Everything was done in isolation.

But this was a long time ago, right? It was to people in a different time. They wouldn’t do this to people today, right? Well, the prison didn’t close its doors until the seventies. They had to do something with the isolation because of overpopulation from 1913. Too many prisoners to keep them separate. But is wasn’t necessarily to the better.

Museum of Ghosts

One should think that when you get your judgement, that is it. This is your punishment. But no, once inside the prison walls, the punishment for minor offences can get you in a lot of problems, and in a lot of pain. One example of the punishments that were around was to chain the tongue of a prisoners to his wrist.

Today it’s more like a museum, were we can walk over the faith of these people on ghost trips to a few coins, capitalism at its best. The hauntings however, is said to be there for free. The most normal things we can hear is the laughter of some that isn’t there, shadowy figures sneaking over the walls. And footsteps that never reaching you. Because even in death, the prisoners in kept in isolation. They are not to see, and not to be seen, ever again.

Originally published at https://moonmausoleum.com on September 2, 2020.