Latest / Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast / The Haunted Halls of Eastern State Penitentiary

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The Haunted Halls of Eastern State Penitentiary · Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, where we are across
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the country and around the world. You are listening to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Ghost Stories and the Unusual Pernamore Podcast. I'm indeed your
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  Speaker 1: friendly neighborhood investigator, Joe the Ghost Guy. I think everyone's
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  Speaker 1: going to have a wonderful day. time with this episode
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  Speaker 1: I have in store. So without any further ado, let's
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  Speaker 1: get into it.
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  Speaker 2: Shall we? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a.
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  Speaker 1: City built on revolution. a city built on freedom. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: in amongst the streets stands a fortress that was built
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  Speaker 1: for exact opposite. A 30-foot stone wall, iron doors, dark corridors,
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  Speaker 1: and thousands of cells designed to keep human beings completely alone.
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  Speaker 1: This is Eastern State Penitentiary. When it was opened in 1829,
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  Speaker 1: it was unlike any other prison in the world has
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  Speaker 1: ever seen. Its revolutionary system was built around isolation, prisoners isolated,
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  Speaker 1: were kept alone in their cells, separated from one another
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  Speaker 1: in belief that solitude would force them to confront their
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  Speaker 1: crimes and become a.
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  Speaker 2: Penance.
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  Speaker 1: But something happened inside those walls. Something that history cannot
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  Speaker 1: completely explain because After more than a century of imprisonment, suffering, illness, violence,
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  Speaker 1: and death, some people began saying that the prison wasn't empty.
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  Speaker 1: Not really. They said something remained. Something that walked in
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  Speaker 1: the corridors. Something That washed from the darkness. Something that
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  Speaker 1: did not want visitors to leave. The most terrifying question
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  Speaker 1: is this. What if the halls of the eastern state
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  Speaker 1: didn't just imprison the living?
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  Speaker 2: What if they trapped the dead too?
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  Speaker 1: Imagine standing before Eastern State at night. The city is
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  Speaker 1: still alive around you. Cars pass. Streetlights glow. People walk
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  Speaker 1: the sidewalks. But behind those enormous stone walls, There is
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  Speaker 1: another world, a world that is frozen in time. The prison,
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  Speaker 1: it was designed with seven original cell blocks radiating from
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  Speaker 1: the central hub like spokes of a wagon wheel. Its
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  Speaker 1: gothic architecture was deliberately intending.
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  Speaker 2: While the interior.
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  Speaker 1: Was indeed to inspire religious reflection. Every prisoner had a cell.
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  Speaker 1: Every cell had a door. Behind every door, it was isolation.
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  Speaker 1: No casual conversation. No ordinary human contact. no freedom to
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  Speaker 1: simply walk away.
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  Speaker 3: For some prisoners, a solitude lasted years, and others, their
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  Speaker 3: final memories were created inside those walls.
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  Speaker 2: The prison eventually.
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  Speaker 4: Housed nearly 85,000 people during its long history.
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  Speaker 5: Think about that number. 85,000 lines. 85,000 stories.
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  Speaker 4: 85,000 people who entered through those gates but did not
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  Speaker 4: necessarily leave them the same way. Some left alive and some.
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  Speaker 1: There was something terrifying about the abandoned prison. It was
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  Speaker 1: simply the darkness. It wasn't the broken windows. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: just rust iron. It's silence because prisons are once filled
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  Speaker 1: with human sounds, footsteps, chains, shouting, Prayers.
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  Speaker 2: Crying.
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  Speaker 1: Metal doors opening and closing. Guards calling orders. Prisoners begging.
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  Speaker 1: And then, one day, the sounds stopped. Eastern State.
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  Speaker 5: Eastern State of Christian homes in 1972. after more than
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  Speaker 5: 140 years of operation. For years, portions of the abandoned
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  Speaker 5: prison stood empty, and.
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  Speaker 2: Gradually, needs began. Weeds pushed through stone and entered through
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  Speaker 2: its broken roots.
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  Speaker 1: Iron rusted, and the darkness filled its cells. But according
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  Speaker 1: to the stories told by guards, the prisoners, the workers,
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  Speaker 1: the visitors, something else, the voices, the steps, the shadows,
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  Speaker 1: and the sensations, that someone is standing nearby watching. Eastern
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  Speaker 1: State official historic site acknowledges that the reports of mysterious
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  Speaker 1: visions and eerie experiences date back as far as the 1940s.
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  Speaker 1: Among these frequently reported phenomena were shadowy figures, strange voices, footsteps,
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  Speaker 1: and unexplained sensations. Cell Block 12 is the most associated
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  Speaker 1: with mysterious voices and laughter. Cell Block 6. was connected
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  Speaker 1: with reports of shadowy figures moving along the walls, and
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  Speaker 1: Cell Block 4 has some infamous reports of ghostly voices.
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  Speaker 1: But one story stands above many of the others. A
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  Speaker 1: story about a man who entered one of those cells
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  Speaker 1: and claimed that something entered in him. The maintenance worker
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  Speaker 1: was working inside cell block four. The prison was old.
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  Speaker 1: The locks were ancient. and his job was to work
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  Speaker 1: on them. One day, while dealing with an old lock,
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  Speaker 1: he examined something he couldn't explain. According to the account,
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  Speaker 1: he suddenly felt an overwhelming force. Something seemed to grip him.
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  Speaker 1: He reported something unable to move. And then came the terror.
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  Speaker 2: Faces.
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  Speaker 1: Tormented faces. Appearing where there should have been nothing but
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  Speaker 1: old stone walks. The experience became one of the most
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  Speaker 1: famous paranormal stories associated with Eastern State. Now imagine that.
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  Speaker 1: You're standing alone in an abandoned prison. No one around you.
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  Speaker 1: No footsteps. no voices. You turn around on a wall.
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  Speaker 1: You see a face, not painted, not carved, not reflected,
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  Speaker 1: a face, a.
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  Speaker 2: Human face, staring directly at you. It's gone. You look again.
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  Speaker 2: There's nothing. Then you hear breathing.
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  Speaker 1: Not yours. Someone else's. And suddenly the prison doesn't feel
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  Speaker 1: empty anymore. There's another legend. A figure seemed high above
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  Speaker 1: in the prison. A guard standing slightly in one one
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  Speaker 1: of those towers. The figure doesn't wave, doesn't speak, doesn't move.
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  Speaker 1: It simply watches. Imagine seeing that silhouette against the night sky,
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  Speaker 1: a human shape, standing where no living bird should be.
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  Speaker 1: You stare. It stares back. you look away, that looks again.
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  Speaker 2: That's gone. Was it a trick of a light? A shadow, maybe?
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  Speaker 6: A person?
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  Speaker 1: Or something left behind from the decades when guards stood
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  Speaker 1: watch over thousands of prisoners? No one could say. And
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  Speaker 1: that's what makes the stories Because sometimes the most terrifying
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  Speaker 1: ghosts aren't the ones that attack you. It's the ones
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  Speaker 1: that simply watch. And then there's a story about one
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  Speaker 1: of America's most infamous criminals. Al Scarface Capone. Capone really
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  Speaker 1: was in prison in Eastern State in 1929 after being
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  Speaker 1: arrested in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed unlicensed revolver. He
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  Speaker 1: received one year sentence spent roughly seven months in Eastern State.
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  Speaker 1: His cell became famous. Newspapers report describing the furniture, the rugs,
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  Speaker 1: the artwork, and the radio. And the darker the legend discerns,
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  Speaker 1: something else.
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  Speaker 2: A ghost.
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  Speaker 1: According to the story, Compound began hearing something a man
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  Speaker 1: named Jimmy. At night, Capone reportedly screaming for Jimmy to
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  Speaker 1: leave him alone. Who's Jimmy? says the guards. The legend
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  Speaker 1: identifies him as James Clark, a man connected to the
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  Speaker 1: violent world surrounding Capone. And according to the haunted story,
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  Speaker 1: Jimmy was dead. But somehow, he had followed Capone into prison.
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  Speaker 2: Jimmy!
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  Speaker 1: Imagine the prison at night. The guards have finished their rounds.
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  Speaker 1: The corridors are dark. The prisoners are locked away And
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  Speaker 1: somewhere inside the building, Al Capone is awake. At first, perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: he hears footsteps.
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  Speaker 2: Step.
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  Speaker 1: Something like this. Walking towards the cell. Capone listens. All
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden, the footsteps stop.
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  Speaker 2: Silence. And then, a voice. Jimmy.
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  Speaker 1: Jimmy.
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  Speaker 2: Al Capone looks towards the door.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing.
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  Speaker 2: Footsteps. Begin again. Closer. Closer. And then Capone screams, Jimmy,
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  Speaker 2: leave me alone!
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  Speaker 1: The guards rush towards the cell. Capone is terrified, but
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  Speaker 1: there's nobody there. Only the gangster, alone, or apparently alone.
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  Speaker 1: Stories later claim that the ghosts continually torment King Capone
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  Speaker 1: after his release. Whether the story of supernatural folklore and
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  Speaker 1: distorted retelling of Capone's physical troubles or something stranger is
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  Speaker 1: impossible to establish with uncertainty, but the legend And today,
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  Speaker 1: the story remains one of the most famous ghost tales
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  Speaker 1: connected with the Eastern State Penitentiary. Now we come to
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  Speaker 1: one of those most infamous and notorious areas in the prison.
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  Speaker 1: Cell Block 12. Visitors and investigators. are reported hearing voices, whispers, laughter,
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  Speaker 1: sounds that appear to have some empty sections of the
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  Speaker 1: cell block. Imagine walking through the corridor. You hear something
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  Speaker 1: behind you. You turn. There's nothing. You continue. Then, someone laughs.
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  Speaker 1: A faint laugh. Somewhere above you, you look towards the
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  Speaker 1: second floor.
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  Speaker 2: It's empty. You call out, silence.
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  Speaker 1: Then another voice answered, not from above, not from behind.
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  Speaker 2: Directly beside you. You freeze.
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  Speaker 1: Because you know there is nobody there. Eastern State is
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  Speaker 1: simply frightening because people claim to be haunted. It is
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  Speaker 1: frightening because its real history is already horrifying itself. Prisoners
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  Speaker 1: experience isolation. punishment, despair. Some died inside. Others suffered psychologically.
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  Speaker 1: The prison's own historical materials acknowledge that the innumerous suffering
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  Speaker 1: that occurred behind these walls for more than 140 years
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps That is why the ghost stories feel so powerful.
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  Speaker 1: Because when you walk through Eastern State Penitentiary, you aren't
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  Speaker 1: walking through an imaginary haunted house. You're walking through a
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  Speaker 1: real place where thousands of human beings lived through some
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  Speaker 1: of the darkest moments. The ghosts may not be real,
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  Speaker 1: but the suffering was, and sometimes that's even more frightening.
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  Speaker 1: Now imagine yourself inside Eastern State after sunset. The longest
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  Speaker 1: visitors have gone. The last of the visitors were gone.
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  Speaker 1: The gates were locked. The city and outside begins to quiet.
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  Speaker 2: You walk.
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  Speaker 1: Through the central hub. Your footsteps echo. You hear another
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  Speaker 1: set of footsteps.
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  Speaker 2: You stop. They stop. They walk. You stop again. Silence. Silence.
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  Speaker 1: One step behind you. You slowly turn. There's nothing. You
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  Speaker 1: continue towards cell block four. The air feels colder. You
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  Speaker 1: see the old cells stretching into darkness. One cell door
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  Speaker 1: is open. You don't remember seeing it open before.
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  Speaker 6: Inside.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing. Just a stone floor. A small window. A
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  Speaker 1: rusted picture.
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  Speaker 2: You turn around. And there is a man. Standing at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the corridor.
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  Speaker 6: Emotionless.
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  Speaker 2: Watching.
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  Speaker 1: He's still there.
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  Speaker 2: Take one step towards him. He disappears. You hear a whisper. Leave. Leave.
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  Speaker 1: The corridor seems longer than it did before. You reach
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  Speaker 1: the central hub. You look behind you.
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  Speaker 2: There's nothing. Then you hear the sound of a prison
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  Speaker 2: door closing.
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  Speaker 6: Boom.
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  Speaker 1: Doors began slamming throughout the cell blocks. One after another.
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  Speaker 6: The prisoners.
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  Speaker 1: Begin locked away for the night. There is no prisoners anymore.
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  Speaker 1: of Easter State Penitentiary are there anymore. Easter State Penitentiary
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  Speaker 1: closed decades ago. The prisoners are gone. The guards are gone.
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  Speaker 1: The voices of daily prisons. Life is gone. But the
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  Speaker 1: stories remain. The shadowy figures Mysterious voices. Footsteps. The faces.
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  Speaker 1: The guard in the tower. And the legend of Jimmy.
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  Speaker 1: The ghost who supposedly haunted Al Capone.
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  Speaker 2: Mr.
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  Speaker 1: State himself. Doesn't claim those stories. Paranormal events. His official
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  Speaker 1: materials leave the question open. Is it haunted? No one knows.
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  Speaker 1: The uncanny is what makes prison so terrifying. Because someone
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  Speaker 1: tells you that ghosts are real. You come close to
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  Speaker 1: another to believe them. But then you walk through the
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  Speaker 1: state like it's your state and feel the temperature suddenly
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  Speaker 1: drop and you hear footsteps and into corridors or sense
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  Speaker 1: someone stand up beside you. There's no way to explain.
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  Speaker 1: You could tell yourself it's the wind. You could tell
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  Speaker 1: yourself it's an old building settling.
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  Speaker 2: Or an echo. Or imagination. Anything.
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  Speaker 1: Just anything except the possibility that someone is standing there
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  Speaker 1: in the darkness. Someone who has been there waiting. Someone
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  Speaker 1: who has been waiting since the doors first closed. Who
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  Speaker 1: doesn't know the prison shut down. Someone who still believes
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  Speaker 1: that the guards are coming. Someone who still knows and
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  Speaker 1: believes that the prisoners.
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  Speaker 2: Inside.
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  Speaker 1: Someone who still fears and footsteps. Someone who still waits
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  Speaker 1: for the next door to open. And perhaps someone stayed
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  Speaker 1: inside Somewhere deep inside Easter State Penitentiary, a voice still whispering.
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  Speaker 2: A voice been whispering for nearly 200 years. Don't leave
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  Speaker 2: me here.
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  Speaker 1: Don't leave me here. Then, a final sound. An iron
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  Speaker 1: cell door slams. This Easter Saint penitentiary lost inside their freedom.
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  Speaker 1: But according to the legends, many received.
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  Speaker 2: According to legends, they never lost their cells.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what's scary about Eastern State Penitentiary. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you enjoyed our wonderful story tonight. And don't forget to
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: click subscribe. And you'll know who to go to.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: And this has been your family neighborhood investigator.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Don't forget to subscribe. Yes, yes, yes.