Home for the Holidays

PHILLY SPOKES
Eastern State Penitentiary Prison - Famous Philadelphia Fright
The Eastern State Penitentiary prison has been the dwelling place for an untold number of inmates who were immured in silence, cut off completely from the rest of humanity and tortured into insanity by isolation, in the name of reform and rehabilitation, throughout its 142-year history. The prison was built around the idea that being isolated from society and each other, prisoners would be forced to turn to God and repent. This new concept in penology required the construction of a large new facility for housing prisoners. The prison, the largest building in the United States at the time, contained 450 cells by the time it was completed. The prison welcomed its first prisoner in 1829.
The rule of the prison was silence and the guards were required to cover their shoes with heavy socks to muffler their tread. According to the rules of the Pennsylvania Systems, prisoners who violated the rules, by refusing to obey orders or attempting to communicate with other prisoners, were to have ‘privileges’ revoked suck as blankets or meals. However, some guards took discipline into their own hands with measures such as ‘the Iron Gag’ – the most feared torture. The Iron Gage involved a device placed over the tongue and attached to the wrists, which were bound behind the back; the slightest movement of the hands caused excruciating pain. At least one inmate died this way.
By 1913 it became impossible to keep prisoners in isolation at this facility.
Prison Haunts
Whispers and rumors of ghosts had echoed from the prison walls for many years before the penitentiary was actually closed down. Anyone who had spent any time in the place was certain that something super natural was taking place at the Eastern State Penitentiary. On the prison’s last day, the guards spoke of the sounds of footsteps in the corridors, pacing feet in the cells, eerie walls that drifted from the darkest corners of the complex and dark shadows that resembled people flitting past now-darkened doorway and past windows and cells. Those who left the penitentiary on that final day had become convinced that a strange presence had taken over the building and most breathed a sigh of relief to be gone.
First Ghost - Victim of Valentine’s Day Massacre??
The first reported ghost here was never an inmate at Eastern State Penitentiary; it was the spirit of Jimmy Clark, one of the victims of the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Al Capone but was also the act that finally began the decline of Al Capone’s criminal empire. He had just gone too far and the authorities, and even Capone’s adoring public, were ready to put an end to the bootleg wars.
Perhaps the strangest bit of history in regards to the Massacre involved the fact that Capone had not seen the last of one of the men killed on that fateful day. In May 1929, Capone slipped out of town to avoid the heat that was still coming down from the massacre and to avoid being suspected in the deaths of several of the men believed responsible for the killing of the Moran gang. While in Philadelphia, he and his bodyguard, Frankie Rio, were picked up on charges of carrying concealed weapons and were sentenced to a year in prison. They eventually ended up in the Eastern State Penitentiary. Capone soon became known as the prison’s most famous inmate as he continued to conduct business from his cell with luxurious rugs, oil paintings, exquisite decorations, and radio playing.
It was while he was here at the prison that Capone first began to be haunted by the ghost of Jimmy Clark. While in prison, other inmates reported that they could hear Capone screaming in his cell, begging “Jimmy” to go away and leave him alone.
Boo!
One of the most commonly reported specters in the prison is encountered by staff members and visitors alike among the older cell blocks. The phantom is always described as being a dark, human-like figure that stands very still and quiet. The sightings never last for long but each person has encountered the apparition state that it gives off a feeling of anger and malevolence. Could this be a prisoner who has remained behind in protest of the humane treatment that he and so many others received in his cruel and brutal place?
Another of the penitentiary’s most frequently seen spirits is a ghost that stands high above the prison walls in a guard tower. It has been assumed for many years that this is the spirit of a former guard who is still standing his post after all of these years. Maybe he is now compelled to spend eternity watching over the walls that held so many prisoners in days gone by.
Looking for a Scare?
By 1971, when the prison was closed, the edifice had been declared as National Historic Landmark, and Eastern State Penitentiary entered into its next incarnation, as an arts avenue.
Since the 1990s, Eastern State Penitentiary has hosted tours (hard hats required), arts exhibitions, theatre performances, and haunted-house events around Halloween. The site is also home to some horror and science-fiction films such as the madhouse scenes in The Twelve Monkeys.
The Eastern State Penitentiary is located at 22nd and Fairmount Ave. Tours are available Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, April through November. Please see their web site for further information about special events and tours.
More Philly Ghosts?
The Ghost Stories of Philadelphia, PA, by Tim Resser, takes a closer look at the Eastern State Penitentiary ghosts and other spirits and spooks around America’s most historic and most haunted city.
This account includes some never-before-heard tales and others that have resurfaced centuries later. Stories about America’s foremother, Betsy Ross, the spiritual test of Temple University’s founder Reverent Russell Conwell, City Tavern, The Peal House, Independence Park, Washington Square, the Pennsylvania Hospital, St. Peters Church, and Mad Anthony Wayne, are highlighted. Resser demonstrates how looking at history through the lens of ghost lore brings new insights to light, giving texture to characters flattened by time and history lessons. He creates a vivid picture of a time so often overlooked for its large presence on the stage of American history.
Resser’s book was influenced by the The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, a 90-minute, candlelight walking tour of Independence Park at Society Hill. Tours start daily at 7:30 pm in the Signers Garden at 5th and Chestnut Streets, April through November. For reservations and information, visit www.ghosttour.com.

Karen Toner for