Eastern State Penitentiary, Part l

In the late 1700s, the original Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was located directly behind Independence Hall.

Conditions at this jail were appalling. Women and children were imprisoned with murderers and thieves in disease-ridden dirty pens. Rape and robbery were common occurrences.

Jailors made no effort to protect the prisoners from each other. Instead, they sold alcohol to the prisoners. Food, heat, and clothing all came at a price. It was not uncommon for prisoners to die from the cold and starvation.

A group of Philadelphia’s concerned citizens came together to address this public embarrassment.

Dr. Benjamin Rush

Rush who was a prominent Philadelphia physician * as a young doctor in London followed a suggestion, Ben Franklin offered-- he crossed the English Channel to listen to the new Enlightened thinking being shared in French parlors.

In 1787, he proposed several radical changes to be used at the Walnut Street Jail. Rush had come to the conclusion that crime was a “moral disease” and that to reform prisoners they needed a prison where they could get in touch with their spiritual side and then repent.

He felt this was the only way they would ever be rehabilitated.

His suggestions were put in place at the Walnut Street Jail. Prisoners were separated by sex and crime, and vocational workshops were held to occupy their time. Much of the “jailor” abusive behavior was abolished as well.

But the concerned citizens found these reforms were not enough--in part because of Philadelphia’s population including the criminal element was increasing rapidly.

Construction on the neo-Gothic Eastern State Penitentiary began on Cherry Orchard outside Philadelphia in 1822. This new prison had a revolutionary design never seen before.

Seven cellblocks were built in a spoke design surrounding a middle wheel or central hub. The building opened in 1829 with central heating, flush toilets, and shower baths in each cell. These cells actually had more modern accommodations than what President Andrew Jackson had at the White House.

Based upon Rush’s beliefs, each prisoner was housed in insolation in one of these cells 24/7. This model was good from the standpoint that prisoners could not escape. They were fed through a small hole, and they did chores such as shoemaking and weaving all in their cells.

Prison reformers from all over the world came to observe Eastern State’s new concept. Over 300 of these reformers took this idea back with them and developed prisons based upon this model.

* Benjamin Rush in 1776 was a member of the Second Continental Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ten years later, he pushed for the ratification of the federal Constitution. He was an outspoken abolitionist and later earned the title, “ father of American psychiatry” for his observations about the “diseases of the mind.”

Looks Better on Paper

But not everyone was enchanted with Eastern State. Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, was highly critical. He stated keeping prisoners in a small cell 100 percent of the time with just their thoughts was a greater inhumane torture, than physically torturing them.

"I am persuaded that those who designed this system... do not know what it is they are doing... I hold the slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body."

By 1913, most agreed with Dickens. Eastern gave up the idea of “isolation and penitence.”

Prisoners now shared cells and worked together. They were even allowed to play organized sports.

By the 1920s, Eastern designed initially to hold 300 prisoners was holding over 2,000. To meet the overcrowded conditions, more and more cells were built.

Unfortunately, several of these cells were built underground without windows, lights, or plumbing. Eventually, solitude wasn’t about redemption, but punishment.

By the 1960s, Eastern State was falling apart. In 1971, it was officially closed. Over the 142 years, it was open the prison held over 75,000 inmates--including the gangster Al Capone.

In 1964 it was declared a National Historic Landmark. In 1994, it was reopened as a historic site and museum, this is when more of the hauntings began to be noticed…

Read Eastern State Penitentiary, Part ll where I share several stories about the ghosts that reside in this decaying building.

Padre Pio’s Angel

“Prayer is the best weapon we possess. It is the key that opens the heart of God.”

                                                                                --Saint Pio

Padre Pio was born in 1887. He was a son of a poor farmer in Pietrelcina, Italy. He grew up to become a Franciscan monk. *

As a young boy Pio had encountered an angel that he continued to communicate with and draw counsel from, as he grew older.

Padre Pio

Despite Padre Pio fragile health he devoted his adult life to building homes for the sick, handicapped and elderly.

People who knew the Padre reported that he could speak and read languages he did not know. He told these witnesses his guardian angel translated these for him.

Other monks in his order heard singing in harmony. The Padre told them that these voices were angels escorting souls to heaven.

Padre Pio believed that people could send their angels to him to request help and that he could send his angel to them in order to help.

Father Alessio Parente was assigned to help the frail Padre to chapel each morning. Parente often slept through his alarm clock and was late. He began to hear a knock on his door and an insistent, “Alesso, Alesso, come down.”

When he later apologized to the Padre for his tardiness Pio told him that he needed to get a new clock for he could not continue to send his angel to wake him up every day.

An English friend of the Padres a man by the name of Cecil was involved in a bad car crash. Before the telegram arrived to inform the Padre of his injuries and request his prayers Cecil received a telegram at the hospital--it assured him that Padre Pio was praying for him.

Later when Cecil asked him how he knew about the accident so quickly the Padre replied. “Do you think angels go as slowly as planes?”

The mother of a seriously ill infant also sent a request for prayers to the Padre. At the moment she sent her request her child shivered as if someone had touched him. He then recovered quickly which baffled his doctors and he was sent home from the intensive-care unit.

When Padre Pio died in September of 1968 several American tourists in Italy saw angels in the night sky, they disappeared as the sun came up.

* Padre Pio was made a saint. For 50 years he was a Verified Stigmatist, which means he bore the 5 wounds of Christ.

Scotland: Haunted Airfield

Biplane

This airfield located at Montrose in Scotland has two ghosts. * The first is a biplane pilot who was killed in a crash during WWl in 1913 and the second was an RAF officer who was killed in a crash at the field during WWll.

First World War

The ghost of an unnamed biplane pilot made his most dramatic appearance in 1916. At this point, several pilots and the commanding officer of the base had already seen his ghost.

Late one night a marauding German plane was spotted in the area. A Hurricane was sent up to intercept the invader. After searching for thirty minutes without any luck, the Hurricane returned to the base.

The commander decided not to light the entire airfield concerned the enemy plane might still be nearby. There was only a row of twin lights to show the Hurricane’s pilot where to land. This was not a concern because this man was an experienced airman who had landed under worse conditions.

Several dozen men on the ground watched as this pilot came in for a landing. But to the surprise of the onlookers just as the Hurricane touched down, the pilot suddenly opened up the engine and took back off.

Hurricane

The ground crew thought he must have not aligned correctly and would just circle back around. Sure enough, the plane approached the field once more. This time the pilot had his navigation lights on.

But the same thing happened once more. As this went to land, the pilot pulled up at the last moment and roared away.

The ground crew had no idea what was going on but decided they best light the entire field. The Hurricane pilot then made a perfect landing.

As the pilot came to a stop, he slid the hood open and shouted, “The fool! Who was the fool who cut me off?” Confused one ground crew member told him no one had cut him off.

The pilot now angry argued, “Of course someone did. Why do you think I went around again? A madman in a Tiger Moth balked at me just as I was touching down.”

The flight commander told the pilot that no one else was flying and that there wasn’t a biplane at the base.

This practical pilot had trouble believing he had seen a ghost--it seems the phantom biplane pilot was just trying to keep his hand in the action.

Pilots spotted the ghost of this biplane pilot once again in 1940. They were at Montrose resting after the Battle of Britain.

Second World War

In 1942, a flight commander was killed in a crash a short distance from the Montrose base.

Montrose during WWll

This crash was chalked up to engine failure and promptly forgotten but as it turned out not for long. The pilot of this plane was a very unpopular commander. He often meted out punitive punishments to the men that served under him.

Just before the crash, he had a heated argument with a Fitter who was working on the plane he was slated to fly. The flight commander told him that he going to report him. The Fitter felt he was being picked on and became extremely angry.

It was believed that this Fitter holding a grudge had doctored the commander’s plane causing it to crash. A routine inquiry was held, but charges were never filed.

Shortly after the crash, men at the base began seeing the ghost of the flight commander. He was seen wearing a flight suit and goggles. Some felt he had returned to haunt the Fitter.

His ghost was seen so often that all the new men that arrived at the base were warned to watch out for his ghost at night.

One new man, a seasoned soldier when duly warned scoffed at the story. One night while he was on guard duty, he changed his mind.

He and another guard were charged with watching a plane that had landed on the airfield that day--it was parked near the base morgue. All was quiet, so his companion went around a corner to take a quick smoke.

Now standing alone the newcomer saw the doors of the morgue, which were always kept locked securely, swing open violently. A pale-faced man in a full flight suit and helmet stalked out.

The guard startled dropped his rife and watched as this figure walked across the airfield and vanish. The doors on the morgue then swung shut.

This guard did not mention what he had seen for several years. After the war he heard others stories about sightings of this ghost--he then shared what he had seen.

* This base was closed down in the 1950s.

El Silbón: The Whistler

The following folktale, which originated in the 19^th century, is often told in the rural parts of Venezuela’s vast Midwest plains. The scary and disturbing ghost described in this story is considered to be a harbinger of death.

The story always starts with a son killing his father. One version states that this son returning home one day found his father abusing his beautiful young wife. This so angered him he killed his father.

Another more disconcerting version states this son was a “spoiled brat” whose every wish was catered to by his parents. One afternoon he demands his father hunt for a deer--his favorite meat. But when the father does not find a deer and returns empty-handed, his son kills him and cuts out his heart and liver. He then has his mother cook them for dinner.

The mother finding this meat is tough starts to suspect something is amiss. She discovers these organs are her own husband’s innards and curses her son for eternity.

At this point, most versions of this story become similar.

The mother fetches a male relative--in most versions the grandfather-- and he ties the son to a tree--he then whips him--he finishes by rubbing lemon or hot peppers into the son’s wounds.

The grandfather then unleashes a vicious dog and orders it to go after his grandson. This dog pursues the son relentlessly.

La Leyenda del Silbon
by Dan Arte

His mother’s curse transforms the son into a ghost. He is condemned to wander the plains carrying a sack of bones on his back. Some versions state these are the bones of his father, others state these are the bones of his victims.

His ghost is described as being disproportionally skinny and extremely tall. He towers over treetops with his bag of bones slung over his back. 

The vicious dog chases him, continually nipping at his heels. He wears a tattered white suit and a wide-brimmed hat. It is said that few people who have seen him have lived to tell about it.

His ghost is known as The Whistler because of a tune he is heard whistling-- the basic seven notes, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. He sounds these notes slowly and draws each one out.

People are warned his whistle is deceptive. It is said that when people hear his tune-up close, they are actually safe for this means he is far away, but if they listen to him from afar, they best beware for he is actually close by.

Despite this warning, most people do not become concerned about his whistling when it seems far away, so they ignore it--this is a mistake for when they finally notice it is already too late.

It is often mentioned his ghost hunts down cruel men who cheat on their wives. His ghost also attacks drunks when they are fast asleep. A gruesome detail shared states his spirit uncovers their belly buttons and then sucks until the alcohol comes out of them.

In Central and South American ghost stories, this is a universal theme-- ghosts often punish drunks. 

El Silbon punishing drunks.

A frightening element in this story is The Whistler enters people’s homes at night. He lays his sack of bones on the floor and starts counting them. If no one hears the clatter of the bones or notices his presence, this means one member of the household will die.

It is always mentioned that there are ways people can protect themselves from his ghost. One way is just to remind him of his terrible crime and why he is cursed. Another way is to keep the items The Whistler is most afraid of handy--they include a whip, hot peppers, or a dog.