Eastern State Penitentiary: A Haunted Place In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wikimedia Commons The famous mobster Al Capone was once held in this prison.
At the height of its use, Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania crammed 1,700 prisoners into its cells, including the infamous Al Capone in 1929. But as early as the 1940s, both the guards and the inmates found trouble — in the form of the unsettling spirits that supposedly roamed the halls.
Though this penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the entire world, the guards there were known for ruling over the prison — and its notorious prisoners — with an iron fist.
It was a first-of-its-kind true “penitentiary,” a prison specifically designed to inspire regret in the hearts of its prisoners. The strict discipline employed at the prison and the methods by which guards enacted punishments are part of what explains the supposed haunting of the prison’s halls.
FacebookA peek inside Eastern State Penitentiary, believed to be one of the most haunted places in the world.
Ghostly manifestations experienced by the prisoners included evil cackling, ghostly faces in cellblocks, and eerie voices echoing in the halls. It is often reported that Al Capone was tormented by the spirit of James Clark, a man he allegedly ordered dead in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The site was abandoned as a prison in 1971 and now the only things left are the ruins — and the alleged spirits of those who were tortured there.
Like many other haunted places on this list, you can visit these crumbling halls and the “spirits” who haunt them on a ghost tour to this day.
