May 10th 2014 Investigation
May 10th 2014
Investigation at Eastern State Penitentiary
(The EVP recordings are on their own separate page)
Prologue and Interlude
I arrived at Eastern State Penitentiary on Saturday, May 10th 2014 at about 1:50 in the afternoon. It was an incredibly muggy day. The sky hung heavy with dark clouds and a stiff breeze heralded the storm that was moving swiftly towards the city. I drove to the end of 22nd street and had to stop because the street ended at the southeastern corner of the prison walls. I saw a wall in front of me about forty feet high with a guard tower on top of it and the sign for the Eastern State Penitentiary. The outside walls of the prison were massive. I looked to the right to see if traffic was coming and then saw the huge expanse of wall that marched down the entire block, punctuated only by the entry gate tower. I realized that this investigation was going to include a bit of footwork.
Eastern State Penitentiary is the first prison of its kind that was built in the US and it covers an 11-acre stretch of land that extends over an area of four street blocks. It is completely surrounded by a high wall and crenelated towers punctuate it here and there. There are many books written about the history of the structure so I won’t go into that. It is what they call a “preserved ruin”; much of the structure has fallen into decay and it is being left in that state. Inside, renovations have been made to parts of it and especially the ceilings got a renovation or two. Otherwise, broken windows and brickwork are everywhere. It is dusty, filthy and magnificent. And forbidding. Very forbidding. That day a reunion was being held at the prison for former inmates and guards and many of them had come with their families to be there. Tom thought it might stir things up a bit for us and it seems to have done so.
The rest of my group showed up and around 3:00 pm we made our way into the inside for a self-guided day tour. Tom, Chris and Julie had been here before so this was nothing new to them, but for me this was an incredible adventure. I knew this was going to be a place I wouldn’t easily forget when I walked up the stairs into the courtyard and was greeted by the feeling of two hundred invisible, sullen, angry and somewhat intrigued spirits standing there, simply observing the tourists as they walked in and out at free will. A very heavy feeling of bleakness and discouragement came at me in waves and I continued on into the main entry where the self-guided tour started.
It was a good thing we didn’t hang out in the courtyard too long, for as soon as we walked into the building the heavens opened up and the rain came pouring down. Thunder rumbled and shook the building as we started to explore. Surprising drips of rain ran down the backs of peoples’ necks as it dripped through the roof in places. The rain was so loud and it seemed to wash away those first impressions I had gotten in the courtyard.
In my years of investigation, there is one thing I pay attention to when I come to a new place: How I feel and the images that strike me when I open myself to impressions in the first three minutes of being in a place. Tom went along with me and heard me saying “oh wow” and “oh, so many of them” “it feels so heavy and oppressive” and “they are sad, they are angry, they are wistful.” These first impressions came back to me as the evening wore on later and much of what occurred to me personally seemed to be a direct result of those impressions.
We went through many of the cell blocks: 4, 10, 7, 12, 1 and out through 9. I poked my head into many of the cells and took pictures. Some of the cells had a neutral feeling. Others seem to have something less than friendly lurking in them. Tom told me “Just wait til tonight when it’s dark and you walk past all these open cells, it’s very creepy”. I could only imagine. Many cells had rusted bed frames in them and green bedside tables and a bare minimum toilet. Some were full of brick and dust where the ceiling and wall plaster had fallen in. Some even had trees growing into the brickwork. Hardly any had windows; these were isolation cells so many simply had a thin skylight-type window in the ceiling or high up in the wall with nothing to look out at. All of them had a metal grate (or brickwork where there used to be one) in the back to let fresh air through. I could only imagine how cold it was in the Winter and how hot in the Summer. Someone had a picture of purgatory in mind and then they built this place. Three-story high ceiling arced delicately above plaster walls and cell doors were spaced every ten feet or so apart. Al Capone’s cell is still decorated as it was when he was a tenant here with fine furniture and a real oriental carpet. There were some art exhibitions in some of the cells; the most interesting one I saw was an oriental “rug” made completely out of dust found in the prison itself and laid out on the floor in a pattern on flying swallows. It was designed to let other dust sift down on it from the building in future years, which will obliterate it over time. It was interesting and thought-provoking..
The investigation starts
9 pm was our meetup time at the front gate for the real investigation. This time we came back armed with recorders and cameras. We met Margee, a nice lady with a PhD in Psychology who is writing a book on why people like to do things that scare them and she was there to watch us go to work for a bit and ask us a few questions. The eight of us in my group split into two groups of four, as the Museum had lent us two of their staff to lead us around and let us into areas that are generally not open for public viewing. Generally they would sit in the hub and we would walk down one of the long hallways and do our thing.
Julie and her friend Therese are the photographers in the group (they both do really awesome work with the camera as far as ghosts are concerned) so once we all decided where to go, off we would march with them taking a ton of pictures and Tom and I generally behind them so as not to ruin their shots. I specialize more in EVP recording and can generally see, hear and talk to spirits directly so off I went, asking a ton of questions and hoping for some random answers. I had purchased a new voice recorder and had that in one hand and a camera in the other. Tom had his camera out and was snapping pics and telling me where he was getting impressions of spirits. A funny moment happened when he realized that there was no electrical problem with his camera as he feared, he had simply forgotten to take the lens cap off.
The first cell block we walked into was number 4. Last time Quiet Hour Paranormal had been here Tom and one other person in the group heard successive slamming of cell doors in this block while others in the group heard nothing at all. He was hoping for a repeat. As he and I walked down the middle of the hall he noticed a shadow standing down by the open door at the end and asked me what I saw. I stopped, looked, and then looked again. What I saw was two legs from the feet up to about half-thigh, transparent smoky black, right in front of the door on a metal ramp that was there. The person who was standing there was shifting his weight around; I could see shoes and dark trousers and him shifting back and forth. Intrigued, I went closer. Sometimes the legs would disappear somewhat so they either got very light grey or I could only see them up to the knees, but he was standing there. I felt a tugging through my body as if I was being urged to go closer. I called Julie over to get some pics. As soon as she stood next to me I was covered in goose bumps and at that exact moment she exclaimed “OH! I’m covered in goose bumps! I love it!”. She could not see the gentleman but she had an impression of him being somewhat stocky. I agreed and then went in for a closer look. The apparition began walking towards us slowly. It is very weird to see just legs walking towards you, especially when they keep fading in and out and shrinking and growing in size. He stopped about 7 feet away. She kept shooting pictures and I kept asking him questions in the hopes he would answer something. I again felt a tug as if someone were pulling me towards the door so I asked him what he wanted. He said very clearly to me the word “Play”. I understood he wanted me to go outside with him. I thanked him but told him no, I would not go with him, I was doing something else. At that point he started to dissipate so we wandered back. Therese tried laying out a few trigger objects she had brought with her; one was a ball that was half yellow, half black so one can tell if it’s been moved or not.
Cell block 7 – Therese finds a ghost friend
Therese had found a cell during the afternoon tour that intrigued her. It was the third one on the right as you went into the big hall. She was telling us she kept seeing a figure move around in her pictures so she and Julie had me come over and see if I felt or heard anything. I didn’t, but that is just how it is sometimes. During the course of the night time investigation she returned twice to that area to get further pictures and take recordings.
Cell Block 12 – up the stairs above the Halloween Shop – EVP and a big bye bye!
We climbed the steps to the third floor of cell block 12. The first and second floors of this block are used for the Terror exhibit that the museum runs around Halloween. We tromped over plywood floors and up two sets of stairs that spiraled up a weird triangular stairwell. We landed in a fairly large room with three windows in it which was across from the catwalk with the cells off of it. This section contains some of the artifacts found in the prison; there are shoes and newspapers and other objects left behind by the inmates. These cells may be stepped into so I promptly chose one on the left side and stepped in. It was quiet; the rain had stopped for a moment and a warm breeze came in through the window. I started an EVP session and asked the spirit who was in that room if he could tell me his name. He did, actually: When I returned home and listened to my recordings I could hear clear as day “Ed Russell”. I could imagine lying in this cell and listening to the wind and rain outside as the prisoners who occupied this cell must have. It felt cozy but not in a nice way. Julie came and was startled to see me standing there in the dark, as she had no Idea I was in there because I was being so quiet. Tom had told us this was a really active area and I did have the feeling that something was following me around as I took pictures and recordings. As we left the area and headed towards the steps I clearly heard a man call out “Bye byeeee!” in a friendly voice. I didn’t catch it on the recorder, unfortunately. What I did catch was the voice of a man named Ed Russell who introduced himself to me. I have added the EVP of him telling me his name below.
Cell Block 10 – space time continuum, automatic writing and the orange ghost in the GTMO exhibit – There is a ghost in me!
We moved on to cell block 10.
When we started up into this cell block I felt compelled to hurry ahead to see what was there; I hadn’t really explored this one during the day and there was a sense of someone there. I went about three quarters of the way up when I hit a wall of something I can only describe as a pool of dreamy slowness. My face and extremities started going numb and I felt like I’d had two glasses of wine so I stopped and stood there with my eyes closed and my hands stretched out to the cells on either side of me, swaying slightly. The people in my group behind me were talking but I paid no heed to what they were saying. It was a pleasant, odd feeling of being two bodies occupying one space that were vibrating at two different frequencies. I was not alarmed; I was simply curious and waiting to see what would happen. Julie asked me what was up and I told her to come over and feel it, I couldn’t describe it. She walked up to me and said “OH… wow…I feel it too” so we both stood there, slightly swaying and telling each other how it felt. She told me she expected to not be surprised if she suddenly levitated and started flying around the room. We agreed we felt the same thing. Therese then walked towards us. She hadn’t heard our conversation since she and Tom had been talking so when she came up to us she also described feeling something really weird and indescribable. Tom came over and felt nothing, but he was giggling and asking me if I’d read the sign on the wall right at the point where the weird feeling started. I laughed and said I had. It was a placard explaining how prisoners and guards dealt with the issue of sexuality and mainly masturbation, which was highly discouraged among the inmates. I don’t think the subject of the sign had anything to do with the energies we were standing in, but it was quite amusing. As I was talking to Julie, a black shadow came out of the cell to my left and cut diagonally across the hall, past Julie, to disappear into a cell behind her. She said she saw my eyes tracking it, so she knew I had seen something real. I was amazed that something that fast could pass right by me, pass within 6 inches of her, and one wouldn’t feel a breeze of its passing. I had never been that close to a visible shadow before and I was quite excited about it.
Therese does automatic writing so we decided she would hold one right there. Julie found a chair for her to sit on and Therese sprinkled some salt she had brought with her in a circle around her. Then she took up a pad of paper and a pencil and waited. I started asking the spirits questions and then she started getting answers. The first one was “Get out”. The second one was something about women are not supposed to be in there. We got “get out” again and then I asked if they were concerned because we women were in there or if they were angry… the answer that came back was “both”. Tom asked almost at the same time how many there were there with us and he got the answer “few”. Since we had been admonished to get out, we decided not to antagonize the spirits any longer and to leave.
In this cell block Therese started to get some interesting anomalies showing up on her pictures. From this point on the stuff she was getting shots of got progressively weirder and weirder: Streaks of colored lights, black masses and fogs and picture of objects that were outside the scope of her lens began to show up in her pictures.
Before we left the cell block we checked out one cell that had an art installation in it that was set up to mimic a holding cell in Guantanamo Prison; basically, a cell within a cell. Julie and Therese had had a feeling of a spirit in or around that cell, so they wanted to take pictures with me in them because I seem to draw the spirits to me. I had a weird vibe because of the thought of a cell within a cell, but the two convinced me to step inside to see if they could get a picture of an anomaly she had gotten a few shots of already. I went in and stood between the door and the chain link fence cell wall that was part of the installation. Suddenly all three of them were telling me to get out of there. They sounded pretty stern. I told them it was ok, I didn’t feel anything and they all admonished me that no, it was NOT okay and I needed to get the hell out of there. The reason was because the orange anomaly Therese had photographed behind the chain link fence was first now in front of it between me and the chain link fence, then in the next two shots you could see it come out and surround me and go through me. It was a little strange. I associated the color orange of the anomaly in the pictures with the jump suits the inmates at GTMO wear. There was a picture of these jumpsuits on a small placard to the right of the cell door that explained the art installation.
Cell Block 2 – nasty neighbors (and a man standing there when we arrived)
We moved one cell block to the north of Cell Block 10, which I hadn’t been in because it is only open to group tours during the daytime. This was cell block 2. When we had arrived at 9:00 p.m. and were first congregated in the hub area I had seen a figure of a man standing down at the end of this hall with his feet planted apart and his arms crossed over his chest. The blocks are very long so I could not see his face, but he looked like a real person standing there at the time. Therese and Julie took pictures with anomalies, streaks, blobs and shadows at the hub end of the block. Tom and I waited until they were done and took some shots ourselves. He and I got a few orb shots and nothing else. As they were taking a break from using their flashes and flashlights to look, I saw a white apparition flit across the hall halfway down, going left to right to one of the cells. Julie said she felt uneasy about what was in there. I felt nothing except excitement that I had seen another apparition. She asked me if I really wanted to go in there even with the feelings she was having. I said sure and started in. She told me to wait, that the whole group would stick together for this one because it felt bad. We started heading down the block. We passed the first bench in the middle of the floor and were heading to the second one when I was suddenly hit by a wave of nausea. I stopped in my tracks and started to feel waves of hate flowing towards me from the darkness ahead. Julie stopped as well. Tom felt nothing so he walked on. Therese stopped by Julie and me, as both of us were saying how bad we felt. Tom came back and then Therese told him to walk to the other end and she would take pictures. Julie was lighting up the block with an LED flashlight and the light was pretty bright. We could see nothing, but then I noticed shadows around the edges. Therese said as she was taking pictures of Tom he would be in them then disappear, though he had not moved more than one foot further away from her. It was like dark blobs of shadow were laying themselves down between him and us. Julie and I tried again to move forwards but the nausea hit again and the feeling coming from further down the hallway was horrible so we went back to the first bench again. There was something that was almost like a line that caused these feelings when you crossed it. As Tom and Therese walked down to the second bench, Therese hopped to one side of the hallway, brushing off herself and saying out loud “OOOH I’m walking right through it! You stay over there, you little sh*t!” presumably to the spirit that was causing such grief in that area. It was amusing in a totally non-amusing situation.
Julie and I felt so nauseous and uneasy and Tom and Therese were done looking in there so we decided to leave the cell block and move on. As soon as we left the hub door of the block the nausea passed and we both felt much better. I was suddenly not so excited about the apparition I had seen flitting across the hall. Tom supposed he had no problem with it because he is a man so they were leaving him alone.
The Operating room of Cell Block 3 and a few crazy neighbors down the hall
Next our tour guide Greg unlocked the gate to the infirmary wing. The roof is in such bad shape in this wing that the floor was totally flooded for the second half of the block from the heavy rain earlier. This block contains the operating room where Al Capone had his tonsils removed. We walked into the operating room to find a dank, dripping room with a huge operating light suspended from the ceiling in it. The light originates from the fifties and looks very alien hanging there from what used to be a skylight. The operating light was added when they determined that daylight wasn’t enough light to do operations by. This room felt very neutral to me. When we left and looked to the right, I could see a whole group of dark shadow people milling about at the far end of the hallway. This is the area where the patients with serious mental issues had been kept; I would have loved going down there to see and meet them but after our experience in Cell Block 2 I was just as glad to be told that it was too unsafe for us to walk down there.
Cell block 2 – The gauntlet: Nausea, pummeling and a rescue
We decided since it had stopped raining that we would go outside to see the Hole and Death Row. This involved us having to walk down cell block two to the other end where the door to the outside was. Julie and I were not happy about this. We decided it would be ok if the guys sort of ringed themselves around us so we could move as a group. We headed towards the other end. As soon as we hit the bad area, Chris, Brian and Greg stopped because someone had asked Greg a question. The nausea hit me again with a vengeance. So there I was , all alone, and the spirits came towards me very quickly. I felt like I was being pushed and pummeled by a strong wind, like the way it feels when you are walking along a beach when the wind is strong. I could feel it pulling, pushing and tugging at me. I put my hands up around my head to protect it and because I was freaking out. I started saying “This is so bad, this is so bad” and I made a beeline for the outside door. My friend Brian saw me and carefully put his arm around me to protect me from the onslaught because he could sense the spirits that were there too but in my panic I thought he was a spirit grabbing me because I had not seen him approach me. I hurried out. It wasn’t quite Brian Harnois’ “Dude! Run” from the Ghost Hunters show but I suddenly understood why he had had that reaction. I was so grateful to Brian for caring and trying to save me from that but I was so freaked out I was all upset and angry. But I did appreciate the gesture and I thanked him afterwards. I knew we would have to go back through there to get back, but I also knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere unless I was stuck right next to one of my male friends!
Death Row – Weird how Death Row can be a reprieve after Cell Block 2
Greg took us to death row, which is a small cell block which was built parallel to the outside wall. There were big posters there explaining who the inmates there had been. One of them was famous for his crime and for being electrocuted as a consequence. He was not electrocuted at ESP; he was taken elsewhere when his time came. Therese called out and asked if she could be of help to anybody. And right at that moment I got a wonderful EVP recording: A child calling “Mom I’m here can you hear me?” (Recording below) I was wondering if this was a spirit of a man who had been incarcerated in these cells and had been thinking about his mother and was mistaking one of us for his mother. Spirits do seem to like coming back to us at whichever age they liked the best when they were alive. I was surprised at how quiet and calm death row seemed after hurrying through cell block 2. It was a nice reprieve. Ironic? Yes.
The Hole – Only shorties need apply
Greg then opened up the door that leads down to the Hole for us, a section of the prison that served as an access area to the heating pipes for the facility. The front part of it was converted to four isolation cells that are underground and totally in the dark. The ceiling height is 5’5”. Luckily, I stand at 5’3 1/2 so, while the ceiling was very low for me, I didn’t have to duck to walk along the corridor. The guys in the group are all 5’10” or taller, so they had to hunker down to get in and not brain themselves on the ceiling. Since it had been raining water had trickled down the steps and there were puddles on the floor. You could see the walls were covered in damp mold stains in the isolation cells themselves when we shone our lights inside. All in all, a place I could not imagine staying in with no light without going completely crazy. The cell doors no longer have doors on them, but water pipes do run across the bottom portion of each doorway. Claustrophobia-inducing? You bet.
Al Capone’s place and the Hub
We made our way back through cell block 2, this time without incident as the women stayed in the middle of the group of guys. We headed back to the Hub area to sit for a bit and to give others a chance to use the facilities. Therese wanted to go back to the cell that drew her in cell block 7 so she and Julie grabbed chairs and sat in front of that cell, taking pictures and recordings. Chris, Brian, Tom and I sat down in the Hub and talked about what all we had seen. Two of the group had left prior to us going outside, so now there were just 6 of us. I realized that I was really too tired to continue to look at anything else even though I would have loved to spend time in cell blocks 8 and 9. I did ask about the mirrors in the end of the corridor right before the branches that led to cell blocks 8 and 9; evidently they were designed so that anyone standing in the hub could also keep an eye on those two cell blocks. The mirror glass was replaced when they renovated the prison and nowadays you can’t really see the reflections that well. They are located right by where Al Capone’s cell is. His former cell looks very nicely decorated; he was allowed to have real furniture in his cell and listen to music. Some of the furniture that remains in his cell is original from the time he was incarcerated there. Interestingly enough I felt absolutely nothing when I poked my head into his cell earlier in the day so, considering I was very tired after tromping around four about 5 hours in the prison and was drained by all that I had happening to me during the investigation, I put off trying to investigate those last two cell blocks. They will be there next time.
Goodbye, Goodnight, Let’s Get Some Sleep
The group decided to leave half an hour earlier than planned. We were all tired and had gotten the opportunity to collect quite a bit of evidence, so we thanked Greg and the other woman who had taken Chris’ group around and took off. It took me an hour to leave the city of Philadelphia because I thought I had it down with the one-way streets. Evidently I didn’t and I ended up driving through most of the town until I found Route 95 again and the way back to the hotel.
Thoughts
I would say that Eastern State Penitentiary ranks right up there with the really haunted places I have investigated since 2008. I saw innumerable black shadows, one white nebulous figure, two partial apparitions and one full solid apparition. I captured a total of seven EVP, three of which are very clear and where the answers given by the spirits were pertinent to either what I was asking or what the situation was. I feel that there are some interactive hauntings of the facility as well as quite a few memory hauntings where actions taken or utterances made keep coming back as an echo. I only found one area where I felt that I was not wanted and in danger of being attacked by a spirit. Will I go back? Oh yes. Definitely.
Investigation at Eastern State Penitentiary
(The EVP recordings are on their own separate page)
Prologue and Interlude
I arrived at Eastern State Penitentiary on Saturday, May 10th 2014 at about 1:50 in the afternoon. It was an incredibly muggy day. The sky hung heavy with dark clouds and a stiff breeze heralded the storm that was moving swiftly towards the city. I drove to the end of 22nd street and had to stop because the street ended at the southeastern corner of the prison walls. I saw a wall in front of me about forty feet high with a guard tower on top of it and the sign for the Eastern State Penitentiary. The outside walls of the prison were massive. I looked to the right to see if traffic was coming and then saw the huge expanse of wall that marched down the entire block, punctuated only by the entry gate tower. I realized that this investigation was going to include a bit of footwork.
Eastern State Penitentiary is the first prison of its kind that was built in the US and it covers an 11-acre stretch of land that extends over an area of four street blocks. It is completely surrounded by a high wall and crenelated towers punctuate it here and there. There are many books written about the history of the structure so I won’t go into that. It is what they call a “preserved ruin”; much of the structure has fallen into decay and it is being left in that state. Inside, renovations have been made to parts of it and especially the ceilings got a renovation or two. Otherwise, broken windows and brickwork are everywhere. It is dusty, filthy and magnificent. And forbidding. Very forbidding. That day a reunion was being held at the prison for former inmates and guards and many of them had come with their families to be there. Tom thought it might stir things up a bit for us and it seems to have done so.
The rest of my group showed up and around 3:00 pm we made our way into the inside for a self-guided day tour. Tom, Chris and Julie had been here before so this was nothing new to them, but for me this was an incredible adventure. I knew this was going to be a place I wouldn’t easily forget when I walked up the stairs into the courtyard and was greeted by the feeling of two hundred invisible, sullen, angry and somewhat intrigued spirits standing there, simply observing the tourists as they walked in and out at free will. A very heavy feeling of bleakness and discouragement came at me in waves and I continued on into the main entry where the self-guided tour started.
It was a good thing we didn’t hang out in the courtyard too long, for as soon as we walked into the building the heavens opened up and the rain came pouring down. Thunder rumbled and shook the building as we started to explore. Surprising drips of rain ran down the backs of peoples’ necks as it dripped through the roof in places. The rain was so loud and it seemed to wash away those first impressions I had gotten in the courtyard.
In my years of investigation, there is one thing I pay attention to when I come to a new place: How I feel and the images that strike me when I open myself to impressions in the first three minutes of being in a place. Tom went along with me and heard me saying “oh wow” and “oh, so many of them” “it feels so heavy and oppressive” and “they are sad, they are angry, they are wistful.” These first impressions came back to me as the evening wore on later and much of what occurred to me personally seemed to be a direct result of those impressions.
We went through many of the cell blocks: 4, 10, 7, 12, 1 and out through 9. I poked my head into many of the cells and took pictures. Some of the cells had a neutral feeling. Others seem to have something less than friendly lurking in them. Tom told me “Just wait til tonight when it’s dark and you walk past all these open cells, it’s very creepy”. I could only imagine. Many cells had rusted bed frames in them and green bedside tables and a bare minimum toilet. Some were full of brick and dust where the ceiling and wall plaster had fallen in. Some even had trees growing into the brickwork. Hardly any had windows; these were isolation cells so many simply had a thin skylight-type window in the ceiling or high up in the wall with nothing to look out at. All of them had a metal grate (or brickwork where there used to be one) in the back to let fresh air through. I could only imagine how cold it was in the Winter and how hot in the Summer. Someone had a picture of purgatory in mind and then they built this place. Three-story high ceiling arced delicately above plaster walls and cell doors were spaced every ten feet or so apart. Al Capone’s cell is still decorated as it was when he was a tenant here with fine furniture and a real oriental carpet. There were some art exhibitions in some of the cells; the most interesting one I saw was an oriental “rug” made completely out of dust found in the prison itself and laid out on the floor in a pattern on flying swallows. It was designed to let other dust sift down on it from the building in future years, which will obliterate it over time. It was interesting and thought-provoking..
The investigation starts
9 pm was our meetup time at the front gate for the real investigation. This time we came back armed with recorders and cameras. We met Margee, a nice lady with a PhD in Psychology who is writing a book on why people like to do things that scare them and she was there to watch us go to work for a bit and ask us a few questions. The eight of us in my group split into two groups of four, as the Museum had lent us two of their staff to lead us around and let us into areas that are generally not open for public viewing. Generally they would sit in the hub and we would walk down one of the long hallways and do our thing.
Julie and her friend Therese are the photographers in the group (they both do really awesome work with the camera as far as ghosts are concerned) so once we all decided where to go, off we would march with them taking a ton of pictures and Tom and I generally behind them so as not to ruin their shots. I specialize more in EVP recording and can generally see, hear and talk to spirits directly so off I went, asking a ton of questions and hoping for some random answers. I had purchased a new voice recorder and had that in one hand and a camera in the other. Tom had his camera out and was snapping pics and telling me where he was getting impressions of spirits. A funny moment happened when he realized that there was no electrical problem with his camera as he feared, he had simply forgotten to take the lens cap off.
The first cell block we walked into was number 4. Last time Quiet Hour Paranormal had been here Tom and one other person in the group heard successive slamming of cell doors in this block while others in the group heard nothing at all. He was hoping for a repeat. As he and I walked down the middle of the hall he noticed a shadow standing down by the open door at the end and asked me what I saw. I stopped, looked, and then looked again. What I saw was two legs from the feet up to about half-thigh, transparent smoky black, right in front of the door on a metal ramp that was there. The person who was standing there was shifting his weight around; I could see shoes and dark trousers and him shifting back and forth. Intrigued, I went closer. Sometimes the legs would disappear somewhat so they either got very light grey or I could only see them up to the knees, but he was standing there. I felt a tugging through my body as if I was being urged to go closer. I called Julie over to get some pics. As soon as she stood next to me I was covered in goose bumps and at that exact moment she exclaimed “OH! I’m covered in goose bumps! I love it!”. She could not see the gentleman but she had an impression of him being somewhat stocky. I agreed and then went in for a closer look. The apparition began walking towards us slowly. It is very weird to see just legs walking towards you, especially when they keep fading in and out and shrinking and growing in size. He stopped about 7 feet away. She kept shooting pictures and I kept asking him questions in the hopes he would answer something. I again felt a tug as if someone were pulling me towards the door so I asked him what he wanted. He said very clearly to me the word “Play”. I understood he wanted me to go outside with him. I thanked him but told him no, I would not go with him, I was doing something else. At that point he started to dissipate so we wandered back. Therese tried laying out a few trigger objects she had brought with her; one was a ball that was half yellow, half black so one can tell if it’s been moved or not.
Cell block 7 – Therese finds a ghost friend
Therese had found a cell during the afternoon tour that intrigued her. It was the third one on the right as you went into the big hall. She was telling us she kept seeing a figure move around in her pictures so she and Julie had me come over and see if I felt or heard anything. I didn’t, but that is just how it is sometimes. During the course of the night time investigation she returned twice to that area to get further pictures and take recordings.
Cell Block 12 – up the stairs above the Halloween Shop – EVP and a big bye bye!
We climbed the steps to the third floor of cell block 12. The first and second floors of this block are used for the Terror exhibit that the museum runs around Halloween. We tromped over plywood floors and up two sets of stairs that spiraled up a weird triangular stairwell. We landed in a fairly large room with three windows in it which was across from the catwalk with the cells off of it. This section contains some of the artifacts found in the prison; there are shoes and newspapers and other objects left behind by the inmates. These cells may be stepped into so I promptly chose one on the left side and stepped in. It was quiet; the rain had stopped for a moment and a warm breeze came in through the window. I started an EVP session and asked the spirit who was in that room if he could tell me his name. He did, actually: When I returned home and listened to my recordings I could hear clear as day “Ed Russell”. I could imagine lying in this cell and listening to the wind and rain outside as the prisoners who occupied this cell must have. It felt cozy but not in a nice way. Julie came and was startled to see me standing there in the dark, as she had no Idea I was in there because I was being so quiet. Tom had told us this was a really active area and I did have the feeling that something was following me around as I took pictures and recordings. As we left the area and headed towards the steps I clearly heard a man call out “Bye byeeee!” in a friendly voice. I didn’t catch it on the recorder, unfortunately. What I did catch was the voice of a man named Ed Russell who introduced himself to me. I have added the EVP of him telling me his name below.
Cell Block 10 – space time continuum, automatic writing and the orange ghost in the GTMO exhibit – There is a ghost in me!
We moved on to cell block 10.
When we started up into this cell block I felt compelled to hurry ahead to see what was there; I hadn’t really explored this one during the day and there was a sense of someone there. I went about three quarters of the way up when I hit a wall of something I can only describe as a pool of dreamy slowness. My face and extremities started going numb and I felt like I’d had two glasses of wine so I stopped and stood there with my eyes closed and my hands stretched out to the cells on either side of me, swaying slightly. The people in my group behind me were talking but I paid no heed to what they were saying. It was a pleasant, odd feeling of being two bodies occupying one space that were vibrating at two different frequencies. I was not alarmed; I was simply curious and waiting to see what would happen. Julie asked me what was up and I told her to come over and feel it, I couldn’t describe it. She walked up to me and said “OH… wow…I feel it too” so we both stood there, slightly swaying and telling each other how it felt. She told me she expected to not be surprised if she suddenly levitated and started flying around the room. We agreed we felt the same thing. Therese then walked towards us. She hadn’t heard our conversation since she and Tom had been talking so when she came up to us she also described feeling something really weird and indescribable. Tom came over and felt nothing, but he was giggling and asking me if I’d read the sign on the wall right at the point where the weird feeling started. I laughed and said I had. It was a placard explaining how prisoners and guards dealt with the issue of sexuality and mainly masturbation, which was highly discouraged among the inmates. I don’t think the subject of the sign had anything to do with the energies we were standing in, but it was quite amusing. As I was talking to Julie, a black shadow came out of the cell to my left and cut diagonally across the hall, past Julie, to disappear into a cell behind her. She said she saw my eyes tracking it, so she knew I had seen something real. I was amazed that something that fast could pass right by me, pass within 6 inches of her, and one wouldn’t feel a breeze of its passing. I had never been that close to a visible shadow before and I was quite excited about it.
Therese does automatic writing so we decided she would hold one right there. Julie found a chair for her to sit on and Therese sprinkled some salt she had brought with her in a circle around her. Then she took up a pad of paper and a pencil and waited. I started asking the spirits questions and then she started getting answers. The first one was “Get out”. The second one was something about women are not supposed to be in there. We got “get out” again and then I asked if they were concerned because we women were in there or if they were angry… the answer that came back was “both”. Tom asked almost at the same time how many there were there with us and he got the answer “few”. Since we had been admonished to get out, we decided not to antagonize the spirits any longer and to leave.
In this cell block Therese started to get some interesting anomalies showing up on her pictures. From this point on the stuff she was getting shots of got progressively weirder and weirder: Streaks of colored lights, black masses and fogs and picture of objects that were outside the scope of her lens began to show up in her pictures.
Before we left the cell block we checked out one cell that had an art installation in it that was set up to mimic a holding cell in Guantanamo Prison; basically, a cell within a cell. Julie and Therese had had a feeling of a spirit in or around that cell, so they wanted to take pictures with me in them because I seem to draw the spirits to me. I had a weird vibe because of the thought of a cell within a cell, but the two convinced me to step inside to see if they could get a picture of an anomaly she had gotten a few shots of already. I went in and stood between the door and the chain link fence cell wall that was part of the installation. Suddenly all three of them were telling me to get out of there. They sounded pretty stern. I told them it was ok, I didn’t feel anything and they all admonished me that no, it was NOT okay and I needed to get the hell out of there. The reason was because the orange anomaly Therese had photographed behind the chain link fence was first now in front of it between me and the chain link fence, then in the next two shots you could see it come out and surround me and go through me. It was a little strange. I associated the color orange of the anomaly in the pictures with the jump suits the inmates at GTMO wear. There was a picture of these jumpsuits on a small placard to the right of the cell door that explained the art installation.
Cell Block 2 – nasty neighbors (and a man standing there when we arrived)
We moved one cell block to the north of Cell Block 10, which I hadn’t been in because it is only open to group tours during the daytime. This was cell block 2. When we had arrived at 9:00 p.m. and were first congregated in the hub area I had seen a figure of a man standing down at the end of this hall with his feet planted apart and his arms crossed over his chest. The blocks are very long so I could not see his face, but he looked like a real person standing there at the time. Therese and Julie took pictures with anomalies, streaks, blobs and shadows at the hub end of the block. Tom and I waited until they were done and took some shots ourselves. He and I got a few orb shots and nothing else. As they were taking a break from using their flashes and flashlights to look, I saw a white apparition flit across the hall halfway down, going left to right to one of the cells. Julie said she felt uneasy about what was in there. I felt nothing except excitement that I had seen another apparition. She asked me if I really wanted to go in there even with the feelings she was having. I said sure and started in. She told me to wait, that the whole group would stick together for this one because it felt bad. We started heading down the block. We passed the first bench in the middle of the floor and were heading to the second one when I was suddenly hit by a wave of nausea. I stopped in my tracks and started to feel waves of hate flowing towards me from the darkness ahead. Julie stopped as well. Tom felt nothing so he walked on. Therese stopped by Julie and me, as both of us were saying how bad we felt. Tom came back and then Therese told him to walk to the other end and she would take pictures. Julie was lighting up the block with an LED flashlight and the light was pretty bright. We could see nothing, but then I noticed shadows around the edges. Therese said as she was taking pictures of Tom he would be in them then disappear, though he had not moved more than one foot further away from her. It was like dark blobs of shadow were laying themselves down between him and us. Julie and I tried again to move forwards but the nausea hit again and the feeling coming from further down the hallway was horrible so we went back to the first bench again. There was something that was almost like a line that caused these feelings when you crossed it. As Tom and Therese walked down to the second bench, Therese hopped to one side of the hallway, brushing off herself and saying out loud “OOOH I’m walking right through it! You stay over there, you little sh*t!” presumably to the spirit that was causing such grief in that area. It was amusing in a totally non-amusing situation.
Julie and I felt so nauseous and uneasy and Tom and Therese were done looking in there so we decided to leave the cell block and move on. As soon as we left the hub door of the block the nausea passed and we both felt much better. I was suddenly not so excited about the apparition I had seen flitting across the hall. Tom supposed he had no problem with it because he is a man so they were leaving him alone.
The Operating room of Cell Block 3 and a few crazy neighbors down the hall
Next our tour guide Greg unlocked the gate to the infirmary wing. The roof is in such bad shape in this wing that the floor was totally flooded for the second half of the block from the heavy rain earlier. This block contains the operating room where Al Capone had his tonsils removed. We walked into the operating room to find a dank, dripping room with a huge operating light suspended from the ceiling in it. The light originates from the fifties and looks very alien hanging there from what used to be a skylight. The operating light was added when they determined that daylight wasn’t enough light to do operations by. This room felt very neutral to me. When we left and looked to the right, I could see a whole group of dark shadow people milling about at the far end of the hallway. This is the area where the patients with serious mental issues had been kept; I would have loved going down there to see and meet them but after our experience in Cell Block 2 I was just as glad to be told that it was too unsafe for us to walk down there.
Cell block 2 – The gauntlet: Nausea, pummeling and a rescue
We decided since it had stopped raining that we would go outside to see the Hole and Death Row. This involved us having to walk down cell block two to the other end where the door to the outside was. Julie and I were not happy about this. We decided it would be ok if the guys sort of ringed themselves around us so we could move as a group. We headed towards the other end. As soon as we hit the bad area, Chris, Brian and Greg stopped because someone had asked Greg a question. The nausea hit me again with a vengeance. So there I was , all alone, and the spirits came towards me very quickly. I felt like I was being pushed and pummeled by a strong wind, like the way it feels when you are walking along a beach when the wind is strong. I could feel it pulling, pushing and tugging at me. I put my hands up around my head to protect it and because I was freaking out. I started saying “This is so bad, this is so bad” and I made a beeline for the outside door. My friend Brian saw me and carefully put his arm around me to protect me from the onslaught because he could sense the spirits that were there too but in my panic I thought he was a spirit grabbing me because I had not seen him approach me. I hurried out. It wasn’t quite Brian Harnois’ “Dude! Run” from the Ghost Hunters show but I suddenly understood why he had had that reaction. I was so grateful to Brian for caring and trying to save me from that but I was so freaked out I was all upset and angry. But I did appreciate the gesture and I thanked him afterwards. I knew we would have to go back through there to get back, but I also knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere unless I was stuck right next to one of my male friends!
Death Row – Weird how Death Row can be a reprieve after Cell Block 2
Greg took us to death row, which is a small cell block which was built parallel to the outside wall. There were big posters there explaining who the inmates there had been. One of them was famous for his crime and for being electrocuted as a consequence. He was not electrocuted at ESP; he was taken elsewhere when his time came. Therese called out and asked if she could be of help to anybody. And right at that moment I got a wonderful EVP recording: A child calling “Mom I’m here can you hear me?” (Recording below) I was wondering if this was a spirit of a man who had been incarcerated in these cells and had been thinking about his mother and was mistaking one of us for his mother. Spirits do seem to like coming back to us at whichever age they liked the best when they were alive. I was surprised at how quiet and calm death row seemed after hurrying through cell block 2. It was a nice reprieve. Ironic? Yes.
The Hole – Only shorties need apply
Greg then opened up the door that leads down to the Hole for us, a section of the prison that served as an access area to the heating pipes for the facility. The front part of it was converted to four isolation cells that are underground and totally in the dark. The ceiling height is 5’5”. Luckily, I stand at 5’3 1/2 so, while the ceiling was very low for me, I didn’t have to duck to walk along the corridor. The guys in the group are all 5’10” or taller, so they had to hunker down to get in and not brain themselves on the ceiling. Since it had been raining water had trickled down the steps and there were puddles on the floor. You could see the walls were covered in damp mold stains in the isolation cells themselves when we shone our lights inside. All in all, a place I could not imagine staying in with no light without going completely crazy. The cell doors no longer have doors on them, but water pipes do run across the bottom portion of each doorway. Claustrophobia-inducing? You bet.
Al Capone’s place and the Hub
We made our way back through cell block 2, this time without incident as the women stayed in the middle of the group of guys. We headed back to the Hub area to sit for a bit and to give others a chance to use the facilities. Therese wanted to go back to the cell that drew her in cell block 7 so she and Julie grabbed chairs and sat in front of that cell, taking pictures and recordings. Chris, Brian, Tom and I sat down in the Hub and talked about what all we had seen. Two of the group had left prior to us going outside, so now there were just 6 of us. I realized that I was really too tired to continue to look at anything else even though I would have loved to spend time in cell blocks 8 and 9. I did ask about the mirrors in the end of the corridor right before the branches that led to cell blocks 8 and 9; evidently they were designed so that anyone standing in the hub could also keep an eye on those two cell blocks. The mirror glass was replaced when they renovated the prison and nowadays you can’t really see the reflections that well. They are located right by where Al Capone’s cell is. His former cell looks very nicely decorated; he was allowed to have real furniture in his cell and listen to music. Some of the furniture that remains in his cell is original from the time he was incarcerated there. Interestingly enough I felt absolutely nothing when I poked my head into his cell earlier in the day so, considering I was very tired after tromping around four about 5 hours in the prison and was drained by all that I had happening to me during the investigation, I put off trying to investigate those last two cell blocks. They will be there next time.
Goodbye, Goodnight, Let’s Get Some Sleep
The group decided to leave half an hour earlier than planned. We were all tired and had gotten the opportunity to collect quite a bit of evidence, so we thanked Greg and the other woman who had taken Chris’ group around and took off. It took me an hour to leave the city of Philadelphia because I thought I had it down with the one-way streets. Evidently I didn’t and I ended up driving through most of the town until I found Route 95 again and the way back to the hotel.
Thoughts
I would say that Eastern State Penitentiary ranks right up there with the really haunted places I have investigated since 2008. I saw innumerable black shadows, one white nebulous figure, two partial apparitions and one full solid apparition. I captured a total of seven EVP, three of which are very clear and where the answers given by the spirits were pertinent to either what I was asking or what the situation was. I feel that there are some interactive hauntings of the facility as well as quite a few memory hauntings where actions taken or utterances made keep coming back as an echo. I only found one area where I felt that I was not wanted and in danger of being attacked by a spirit. Will I go back? Oh yes. Definitely.