Back in October, I took my annual paranormal road trip to the East Coast. This time I focused mainly on the states of Pennsylvania and New York. While I will be spotlighting each place that I visited, I wanted to start off with my visit to the famously haunted Eastern State Penitentiary.
Background
First, a little background on the prison. It opened in 1829 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a state-of-the-art penitentiary drawing attention from countries all over the world for its revolutionary design. Unfortunately, prisons aren't great places to begin with, so it didn't matter how revolutionary they made it...at the end of the day, it was still a prison.
Over the 142 years it was in operation, Eastern State saw thousands upon thousands of inmates ranging from petty crimes to murder. It also housed some very notable inmates including Al Capone whose cell is still preserved just as he left it in 1930 as you can see in the picture to the left.
By the time the prison closed in 1971, it had seen death row inmates (though they were executed elsewhere), prison riots, murders, deadly illnesses, and more creating a negative energy that never really left.
My Visit
I visited Eastern State on a Saturday in late October, a perfect time to check out haunted places. I actually did not investigate the old prison, but I did do the self-guided tour where I found myself wandering the penitentiary alone for several hours which was perfect for me. I was able to check out some of the most haunted locations in the prison and even do some evp session without disturbing anyone or being disturbed in return. What I found was that the investigators who have been to Eastern State before me were not exaggerating, it is a very haunted old prison.
One of the most active locations, at least for me, was the cell pictured to the right. I spent quite some time here doing an evp and k2 session. The k2 was especially active during my time in this cell with it continuously lighting up in response to my questions. It never once lit up while I was talking, just in response to anything I said which I found interesting. I'm not sure who the spirit was in this particular cell, but whoever they were, they were chatting and did not come across as negative.
The photo to my left shows another location where I feel there was a lot of activity. This particular cellblock was closed off due to, as you can see, a lot of debris, but I was able to hang out for a bit at the spot where I took this picture. No one was over this way because it was kind of a waste of time for many, so the area was secluded. What I noticed in the area was what appeared to be a shadow person ducking in and out of the cell to the left about halfway down the cell block. I tried recording it but have yet to go through all of my footage to see if it appears. Fingers crossed it did!
Though I didn't spend a lot of time here, I did pick up on some paranormal activity and would highly recommend checking it out for yourself if you are ever in Philadelphia. Even if you don't want to pay the cost of a private investigation, just doing the self-guided tour for less than $20 can still bring you up close and personal with the spirits of Eastern State.