Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA

Reports of paranormal experiences began to trickle out from the inmates and guards in the 1940s. One of the more interesting ghostly stories of Eastern State happened to perhaps its most famous inmate - Al Capone. Other prisoners were said to hear Capone constantly screaming and begging with an unseen entity to be left alone. Capone himself reportedly said that the spirit "Jimmy" was none other than James Clark - one of the men murdered in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre that Capone was believed to be behind. It is even said that the spirit of "Jimmy" continued to haunt Capone well after his time in Eastern State Penitentiary, up until his death in 1947.

The spirit that tormented Capone was hardly the only the ghost believed to haunt the walls of the prison. The sounds of disembodied screams, footsteps, talking, whispers, laughter and even crying are still commonly reported to this day. As is the case with black shadowy figures that are seen running down the hall or even darting from cell to cell. The most active area of the prison is reportedly Cellblock 12, but people have reported other strange encounters in Cellblock Four, Six and 15 (Death Row), as well as the Infirmary. There have even been sightings of a ghost, believed to be a guard, who haunts the Central Guard Tower and continues to keep an eye on the cellblocks.

Click On Photo For Larger View

Date: August 29th, 2008

Members Present: John C. Fowler; John Cannon; Jeff Robbins; Jimmy Graver

Guests: Brian Glockler

Time: 9:00 pm to 3:00am

Temp (Average): 72-74°F

Humidity: unknown

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Wind Speed: unknown

Weather: Rainy

# of Pictures: 425

Hours of Video: 02 hours, 48 minutes, 59 seconds + MINI DV COMING SOON!

Hours of Audio: 14 hours, 17 minutes, 05 seconds

Equipment Used:

See Equipment List

Findings:

Coming Soon!!

Personal Experiences:

Cell Block 4
Around 1:00 AM Jeff and John Cannon (myself) teamed up to conduct some EVP as well as temp, EMF and photo documentation within cell block number 4. We decided to sit down and place the digital recorder in the middle of the walkway in between both of us while I took EMF temp and some video with my small ir lapel cam. We began to conduct some EVP work while checking our other equipment readings; all of a sudden Jeff asked if I saw that. I asked him what and he told me it was some sort of half greenish ball, I informed him I did not. This went on a few more times and I still did not see what he was seeing as he said the shape had changed a bit. I thought he was just seeing things based off of the green exit sign approximately 10 yards away from us. He asked me to move some of the equipment and flashlight around thinking it might have been that, but I had no green lit equipment with me. As I looked at my equipment I heard him say I swear I see something on that wall. I raised my head and turned it to the right only to finally see what he saw. The doorway was the normal 8 foot high door with a gap of around 7 feet till the stone wall met the bottom of the very tall window. The image I saw was around 4 inches in width and very faint and approximately 6 feet tall. I visually checked the doorway and window to see if there was light coming in from them somewhere and there was not. Jeff and I looked at each other with a “what the heck was that look on our faces” only to see the greenish entity appear once more and this time it was brighter than the exit sign and was no way reflecting or coming in from the window or door. The light then began to move down the wall towards the floor. As it reached the floor we grabbed our gear to check it out only to have it fade away before we got it. We checked the outside for any signs of other light, but could find none.
I noticed the other team in a corridor about 100 yards away and radioed them to shine any light they had down towards the doorway thinking it might have been them. Upon investigation of their lights none of them could have made that light and none of them had green. With Jeff and I fully confused we went back to HQ and check out my small IR lapel cam and unfortunately it did not catch anything which was very discouraging. The rest of the team tried to figure what it could have been and it never did come back the rest of that night, the rest of the team found nothing. ~ John Cannon & Jeff Robbins

Cell Block 12
Jeff and I (John Cannon) then decided to head up to cell block 12 to retrieve our equipment and some lite EVP work. We headed up with the one female tour guide who was required to be with anyone who wanted to be in cell block 12 due to insurance purposes. Upon reaching cell block 12 we made our way down the left side collecting the equipment we had set-up when all of a sudden the strong aroma of maple syrup filled the air. Now the female guide had told us early in the night about such smells people experienced, but I had written it off early in the night. Myself, Jeff and our guide smelled it and thought it was very weird, but again I really didn’t think much about it. We made it down to the other end and collected the rest of the equipment and did some EVP work. We started walking down the other side of the cell block only to meet the maple syrup smell again. I began to sniff the floor, cells, railings anything I could and it faded away. I walked a few more steps only to smell it again and when I stood still it faded once more, I walked a few more steps only to smell it again which led me to believe we were following a moving smell of maple syrup. I can’t explain it and I can’t even begin to try as I did everything I could to figure out where it was coming from.
As the three of us stood there discussing it an air compressor kicked on in one of the lower levels probably from the Terror Behind the Walls haunted house they do every year. It caught us off guard a bit I will be honest about that, but then we all heard the sound of something heavy and something metal being dragged across the floor. We walked out of the cell block and head back down to HQ where we discussed what we had experienced with the rest of the team.
Could it have been some one messing with us, very doubtful as there is only one way in and out and we were stationed at the entrance of the prison. Can I explain what we saw….no, am I going to say that we experienced something……yes. ~ John Cannon & Jeff Robbins

Notes:

I think its very interesting that the employee we talked to and was one of our two guides said: "No employee has ever seen a ghost or anything like that at E.S.P."

©2008 - 2011 Midnight Watchmen. All contents are copyrighted by The Midnight Watchmen.

Nothing may be used or reproduced without the express written consent of The Midnight Watchmen.