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Topic: May 7th Moundsville Hunt (Read 219 times) |
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Brenda
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May 7th Moundsville Hunt
« Thread started on: May 14th, 2005, 6:13pm » |
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I will be posting interesting facts about Moundsville Prison and our overnight trip in the next couple days. I type slow. 
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| « Last Edit: May 14th, 2005, 6:15pm by Brenda » |
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Brenda Corple, Director
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Brenda
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Re: May 7th Moundsville Hunt
« Reply #1 on: May 16th, 2005, 02:44am » |
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You better get comfy, this is kind of long. I couldn't get it all in one post.
We arrived about 8 and drove around the prison and took some pics. A few of the members started showing up. We all went to Wendy's, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the prison to wait for the guard at midnight. It was a long cool wait but we got to meet members from the other two groups. There were 28 of us, 13 from Spiritseekers of Ohio.
The guard let us in a few minutes early, we grabbed our flashlights and started the tour. Our tour guide was a guard from 1982 til they closed in 1995. He was very informative. We walked in and out of the prison to get to places we needed to go. The night air was a little cool, it got down to 49. John and I were locked in a cell for about 5 minutes, what a way to spend Mother's Day. lol We finished the tour and went back to the lobby to get warm and grab our equipment.
Here is a brief history of the prison.
The prison is on the list of National Historic Register and was started in 1866. It took the inmates 10 years to build North Hall. It took union members over 30 years to build South Hall. It was nearly self-sufficient in the 1900s due to the income from the prison farm and inmate labor. In 1921 a prison coal mine was opened and in 1929 the prison doubled and expanded to over 10 acres.
998 inmates died here between 1866 and 1995 when the prison closed. Half were due to suicides and murders by other inmates and the rest were from illnesses and natural causes. Between 1899 and 1949, 85 inmates were hung and between 1951 and 1959, 9 were electrocuted.
The most dangerous criminals were housed here. Women were here also til 1947. Most served 1-10 year sentences. North Hall (The Alamo) housed the rapists, murderers and and others too dangerous to mix with other prisoners. They spent 22 hours a day in their 5' by 7' cell, which were steel boxes with no windows and a thick steel 2" or 3" door that looked at a wall or darkened hallway. The cells at one time when the prison was overcrowded held 3 inmates. In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled this as cruel and unusual punishment.
Maximum security inmates were frisked and allowed outside for an hour and 40 minutes a day in the enclosed barbed wire area, 4-5 at a time. Then they were frisked again, and allowed 20 minutes for showering (4 at a time) and use of the phone.
In 1986 on New Year's Day a huge riot broke out and lasted 42 hours. Three inmates were killed and 16 guards were taken hostage. The Captain's booth was overrun and the guards stripped of their keys. Offices were ransacked.
In June of the same year North Hall prison guards shot and killed 4 inmates who were ordered to shut their doors. After they refused, guards in riot gear approached North Hall and the prisoners showed homemade weapons. A warning shot was fired but one of the prisoners threw a bottle and the guards returned shots.
On Thanksgiving Eve 1986, two more inmates were killed. Those murdered were alleged Avengers motorcycle gang leader Danny Lehman and inmate Michael McMillion. The two were stabbed to death on one of the prison's tiers as they returned to their cells from a recreation period.
1987
William Yakubik was the next fatality in 1987. Inmate Mark Allen Parker was convicted of beating Yakubik to death with a weight bar during a recreation period.
The "Death cell." It was at the end of death row and it's the last place where a prisoner murdered another (with 17 stab wounds) before the old pen closed in 1995. The guy from cell 3 stabbed his "friend" in #17 on the way to the yard.
Con'td in next post
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| « Last Edit: May 16th, 2005, 02:46am by Brenda » |
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Brenda Corple, Director
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Brenda
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Re: May 7th Moundsville Hunt
« Reply #2 on: May 16th, 2005, 02:45am » |
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John and I decided to start our hunt at Death Row. 2 years ago when we were here on a day tour, it was just me, John and the tour guide. I was in cell #8 taking a pic and was goosed. I ran out to see John and the guide laughing. John had goosed me through a hole in the wall. He asked about the hole, it seemes the Avenger motorcycle member in that cell was very fnd of the inmate in #9. John started wiping his hand on his jeans. lol
There was fencing placed on the cells for the guards protection. The inmates were fond of throwing food, urine, water and whatever else they could throw at the guards. They were fed through openings called "beanpoles".
He grabbed a chair and I sat down and started videotaping, recording and taking some pics with my digital. Unless you had a lot of light a 35MM was not usable, it was just too dark.
We walked out to the North Yard and checked out the Wagon Gate. This is the oldest part of the prison (1867) and started as housing for the first 100 inmates who built North Hall. They slept on dirt floors with only a blanket and worked 12-16 hours a day. They cut and laid each stone by hand. When they completed North Hall they were moved in there. The Wagon Gate was then converted back to an entrance for wagons carrying in food, supplies and prisoners. The Wagon Gate was also used to hang the first few prisoners. Then the hangings were moved to the Death House which housed Old Sparky the electric chair (built by an inmate). The Death House has been torn down and replaced with a barbed wire area that the maximum security prisoners used as an exercise area.
We went down in the basement to the Sugar Shack. This is supposed to be a warm area but for some reason it was cool when were in there. The Sugar Shack was a room in the basement that was used as in indoor recreation room. When the weather was too severe (strong storms or terribly cold weather) the prisoners were sent into the Sugar Shack rather than the outdoor recreation yards. There were ping pong, pool tables, and they played cards. Close to 200 prisoners were pretty much left alone in this room, a guard would only periodically check in on them. They were concerned for their safety and peeked in once an hour. Even though no one was killed in the Sugar Shack, there was a lot of violence and injuries. Also, "other things" would happen in this room that gave it the nickname...definitely not pleasant to think about!
In this room we heard a heavy door slam 3 times and I caught a thick black shadow on video.
We stopped by the room that was first a contact visiting room. It has a lot of artwork done by the inmates. In the 60s it housed the death row inmates. It was also part of the original dining hall til the new one was built in 1987.
We heard a door slam in this area.
The new dining hall was the only section with central air and heat. They used to feed 500 inmates in about an hour and forty minutes. They say the food was really good, everything was cooked and baked by the inmates. There was a wall off to one side where the warden and other staff could eat in privacy. After the riot in 1986 the guncage was installed and weapons brought in.
Now on to the yard which is in 2 sections, North and South. The North yard is the oldest and had 8, 2-3 story buildings that were torn down in 1973. They housed a paint, mattress, whip factory and tailor shop. They put up another building that housed the sign, tag and print shop. About 300 inmates worked there full time. This building now houses the National Training Center for law enforcements and correctional training for guards.
There is also a chapel in the North Yard.
The administrative offices were on the first and second floors. The third and fourth floors were for the warden, deputy wardens and their families. A dark haired woman has been seen in the upper right window facing the yard.
We are now in the "The Hole". It is in the basement of a building that is known to have been the scene of several hauntings.
J.D. Walls was murdered and butchered on Oct. 8, 1979 by the several of the other inmates in this area. J.D. was a trustee of sorts who was liked by both the inmates and guards. He was overhead talking to the warden, telling the warden who was doing what and what some inmates had planned. They decided he was the warden's head snitch. Well, one day the prisoners decided to get their revenge, and they stabbed him several times with homemade knives while he was sitting in the bathroom on the toilet. Today his ghost supposedly wanders around that section of the basement.
We were told that you can hear footsteps overhead when noone is supposed to up in that room. People also get touched in this room, mostly when they are against a wall and noone could be behind them. The air gets so cold that your breath looks like snow and noone will work that area for Halloween.
I have a pic of an apparition sitting in that room.
cont'd in next post
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| « Last Edit: May 16th, 2005, 02:45am by Brenda » |
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Brenda Corple, Director
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Brenda
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Re: May 7th Moundsville Hunt
« Reply #3 on: May 16th, 2005, 02:46am » |
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Now we are at the last area of the hunt, the hospital and psych ward. We almost missed this area but happened to see steps and went upstairs. It was hard to figure out where some areas were after the tour, we are walking in the dark. There was a small room that hung over the first dining room where the guards stood with guns. There were large openings in the walls to shoot through. This floor seemed to be the warmest so we walked around here the longest to keep warm. There were mattresses, bed frames, tables and desks in there. In this area was the doctors office, exam room, nurses station, x-ray and laundry room. Inmates were temporarily housed here usually for 3-10 days. They were there for heart attacks, surgery, stabbings, pneumonia and other illnesses and injuries.
The Psych ward had many rooms and seem to go on forever. We saw all kinds of things up there, x-ray machines, dentist equipment, IV bottle holders and even an empty 9MM shell box in the hallway. There was a small room with 2 locked doors. I guess this was for patients that were out of control. They would inject them with Thorazine, put them in strait jackets and place them in the padded cells. One time a couple guys on a night hunt decided to scare some of their friends. They found one of the doors open and ducked inside, it locked. It took the guard over an hour to find the keys to get them out.
I hope you found this interesting. I would like to get the members together and find out if you would like to go do a day tour. It would have to be in a Saturday, my husband works on Sunday nights. It's a 3 hour trip down and the tours start at 10 and end at 4, Tues-Sun. It's an hour and a half tour and is $8. I will be discussing this at the meeting also. Also across the street is an Adena Indian Mound. It's 69' tall and 295' around the base. Another thing to check out. We wanted to hang around and go to the museum, we were just too tired after walking all night.
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Brenda Corple, Director
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Brenda
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Re: May 7th Moundsville Hunt
« Reply #4 on: Nov 9th, 2006, 10:27am » |
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This topic is about ghost hunting, go play some place else. NO SPAMMING!!!
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Brenda Corple, Director
I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on.
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sickmorrr
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