Eastern State Penitentiary

The Eastern State Penitentiary, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was built in 1829. However, there was a meeting in 1787 held at Ben Franklin’s house where the original idea for the penitentiary was brought up. Opening its doors in 1829, it operated for a whopping 142 years, finally closing its doors in 1971. At its completion, it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever erected in the United States. Furthermore, many believe ESP revolutionized “separate incarceration”. What does that mean? Originally, ESP was designed to hold about 250 prisoners, each occupying a solitary confinement cell for their entire sentence. However, solitary confinement, torture, and inventive punishments became the norm. Its doors held dark secrets and criminals like Al Capone, Willie Sutton, and Big Joe. And even more, believe that the secrets and darkness that once inhabited the active penitentiary still remain today.

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If you believe that the more evil or hateful energy a place has, the more likely it is going to be haunted…it should come as no surprise that one of the most allegedly haunted buildings in America is a prison. But ESP wasn’t just a prison, but a place of significant physical and mental torture. Some of the most heinous punishments that we have recorded had names like the mad chair (which would restrict the person’s movement for days at a time), an iron gag, and something called “The Klondike” which was a dark cavern built under Cellblock 14 where prisoners were sent to and starved for extended periods.

The various cellblocks, while empty for 50+ years, can still be quite noisy. For example, Cellblock 12 may be of interest to our witchier-prone readers as it's known for cackling, echoing, and whispering. Typical human clamor, except there, hasn’t been any human clamor except careful walking tours and some investigations. Hopping over to Cellblock 4 may be perfect for non-believers that need some kind of visual proof as ghostly apparitions and bodies are commonly seen. The Cellblock you couldn’t find me visiting would be #6, which is known for curious and chaotic shadowy figures that dart in and out of cells, along the walls, and seemingly interact (or at least interested in) the human visitors.

One thing I find interesting is the number of auditory experiences in the prison. Because the prison was so focused on isolating prisoners, inmates were never allowed to speak, whisper, sing, hum a tune, or make any excessive noise like knocks. Prisoners that refused or even accidentally broke these rules would be brutally punished, for example, by having their tongues chained to their wrists. However, it should be noted the focus on solitary confinement and the complete dedication to allow inmates to be totally isolated all but collapsed in 1913 due to crowding.

But tourists aren’t the only ones who had experiences. In fact, several inmates had experienced this while the prison was active. The most infamous of all, Al Capone, even claimed to be haunted. He claimed he was actively haunted by James Clark, who was a victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. His ghost must have traveled a long way, as that was in Chicago. Capone had ordered his shooting. 

However, it isn’t all scares and spooks. Ben Bookman, a tour guide of ESP, notes "Most people making TV shows come in looking for ghosts. That's not the story we tell. Inmates were real people. These were people's lives. Seventy-thousand people spent time here. We're not going to glorify it, and we're not going to make fun of it.”

Interested in learning more? You can visit for yourself. And, interestingly enough, tours have been going around since I’ve been born (1994)!

Thanks to Jen Rafferty for this blogstonishing suggestion and kicking off the month!

The blog header is a lithograph of ESP and is licensed under This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.