Eastern State Penitentiary Investigation

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Date: January 29, 2005


Moon Phase: Waning gibbous


Weather: Overcast, 22 degrees F, snowed lightly throughout the night


Solar Weather: Unknown


Investigators present: Hillary M., Randy G., Paul M., John M., guest investigator Nicola


Equipment: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Extech IR thermometer, Olympus D-370 digital camera, 2 Panasonic IC recorders, Sony stereo cassette recorder, night vision scope, Sony camcorder w/ nightshot, 2 Sony digital Video cameras with night vision with IR extenders, Kodak digital camera, Minolta Digital camera, Olympus digital voice recorder and IR Thermal temperature gun.


History: A thorough history of this building can be found at http://www.easternstate.org/.

  This brown stone behemoth sits on several city blocks in the middle of Philadelphia. It was opened in 1829 and was used continuously until its closing in 1971. The building stood abandoned for several years, and was almost destroyed, before the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority began renovating it and opening it up for historical tours.
This building has been rumored to be one of the most haunted sites in the country.            Besides the usual prison drama, which so often leaves its mark on the environment, the building also holds the emotions of the men forced to live here in silence. When the building was first opened, the men incarcerated here were not allowed to speak or make any noise. The guards were not even allowed to speak, and had to wear soft fabric over their shoes so that their footsteps would not break the silence. It was believed that this mandatory silence would help the prisoners (some were only guilty of minor offenses such as stealing horses) to reflect on their sins and find redemption through God. More often though, the lack of human contact drove these men to madness.
  The building is huge, having several cellblocks protruding from the central rotunda like spokes on a wheel. The entire complex is surrounded by a thirty-foot stonewall which is several feet thick. This wall keeps the noise of the city streets out, and holds the intense cold in. Many areas of the prison have yet to be renovated, and are therefore dangerous and off-limits to visitors.

Investigation: We arrived at the prison at 8:00 p.m., and met our guide, Fran, whom immediately gave us a very thorough tour of the facility. We took control pictures as we went. During part of the tour, I returned to the rotunda alone. The rest of the group was gone for about 15 minutes. During that time, I sat in silence and tried to get a feel for the place. Although I did get a mild feeling of being watched, I was surprised at the peace I felt there.
  When the rest of the team returned to the rotunda, we split into two groups. Randy, Nicola, and I (team 1) took the odd-numbered cellblocks, and Paul and John (team 2) took the even-numbered cellblocks as follows:

Team one -

9:49 p.m. Cellblock 1 - Randy got a possible EVP of a man whispering. This is also where Paul got the "face picture" while on a day tour in 2001. You can see it here (add link to picture).

10:10 p.m. Cellblock 7 - We heard a cooing sound coming from the balcony, but noted that it could have been a pigeon or other bird. All except the first ten yards or so of this cellblock is off-limits. As I turned to leave the cellblock at the end of the recording session, I thought I saw a figure dash past the doorway, in the rotunda.

10:34 Cellblocks 3 and 5 were off-limits, so we moved to death row. The only thing notable was that we kept getting static breaking through on the two-way radio, almost as if in response to our questions. We called Paul and John on the radio, but they did not report getting any static breaking through.

11:20 Cellblock 4 - Since we still had time until meeting team 2, we decided to go into cellblock 4, which is supposed to be one of the most haunted areas of the prison. Nicola led the way as we walked down the block. I was a few steps behind her and to her right, and Randy was several steps behind me. As we approached the lit cell which is used as a model (about halfway down the block), I tried to begin recording, but my recorder wouldn't work. All of a sudden, I heard a loud noise right in front of us, causing us to freeze in place. It lasted about five or six seconds, and sounded like a loud shuffling or sliding. I was about to ask Nicola if that was she, but then she turned around and looked at me…I could tell from the look on her face that it wasn't. Then it stopped. I asked Nicola "What was that?" She stated, "I don't know, but it came from directly in front of me. Because of the light from the model cell, we could see clearly, but we saw nothing. I asked Nicola if she got the noise on tape, but she said that her recorder was malfunctioning before it happened! We both agree that the noise sounded like someone trying to get out of the cell in front of her. It was so loud and close, that we fully expected to see someone come charging out of the cell and run down the cellblock. A few seconds after the incident, both our recorders began working again.

Team 2 -

10:00 p.m. Conducted recording session in cellblock 2, with nothing to note.

10:25 p.m. Cellblock 4 - John got a picture of ecto next to Paul. Usual cold weather protocol of holding breath for several seconds before shot was followed.

Cellblocks 6 and 8 were off-limits.

10:40 p.m. Cellblock 10 - Nothing unusual to note.

10:50 p.m. Death Row - John obtained a picture of a pink orb moving through a cell.

11:15 p.m. Cellblock 2 - John saw a shadow move toward the rotunda two separate times, about 5 minutes apart. Both times he felt a sharp drop in temperature. Both times Paul recorded a slight drop with the IR thermometer.

  At about 11:45 p.m. we all met back at the rotunda and decided to take a lunch break in the prison gift shop. At midnight, another guide, Dave, came to relieve Fran. At 12:15, Dave escorted us into the infirmary. John got a picture there of what looks like ecto-mist moving through the doorway.
  Just before 1:00 a.m. the six of us went into cellblock 4 for a recording session. Then, we conducted a session in cellblock 1 at 1:20. At 1:30, we headed up to the second and third levels of cellblock 12. This is one of the newer cellblocks, and it was used to house the most violent prisoners. We spent almost an hour in this cellblock. During this time, Randy, Paul, and John were on the third tier, and all witnessed shadows moving at the far end of the block. They also felt an intense feeling of being unwelcome. At one point, John's camera batteries (which were brand new) went dead, and he felt a presence standing very close to him, less than an inch away. Paul took a picture of him and got an orange orb over his head. This same orange orb was captured on digital camera three separate times. After our time in cellblock 12, we decided to go back to the only heated room in the prison (space heater) and try to thaw out.
  Once we were thawed, we returned to cellblock 4. During our session there, John witnessed a shadow moving across the windows on the second floor at the end of the block. Next, we conducted recording sessions in cellblocks 10 and 2, with nothing unusual to note. At 3:48, we returned to cellblock 4 for one last session. Frozen and tired, but not disappointed, we left the prison at 4 a.m.


Conclusion: Upon reviewing the video on two infrared cameras, we found nothing anomalous. We got one or two possible EVPs, and several pictures of moving and colored orbs. What we enjoyed most about this investigation, though, was the strange things that we saw, heard, and felt. Although some of us had brief moments of intense "feelings", for the most part, we found the prison to be surprisingly peaceful.
It was a long, frigid, exhausting night, but was well worth it. As a matter of fact, we can't wait to go back! A word of warning though, it takes a lot of passion (or maybe just insanity) to last eight hours in that prison in the middle of winter. Even some of our equipment froze in the cold. Although we can't necessarily declare that a place is definitely haunted after only eight hours, I think we all agree that there is definitely a high level of paranormal activity within the walls of Eastern State Penitentiary.

We would like to thank our guides, Fran and Dave, for being so helpful and allowing us to warm up by their heater.

Submitted by Hillary Murdoch