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Event
Burlington County Prison Ghost Hunt
Burlington County Prison Museum has a dark and daunting past that eerily calls out to the living to reveal its secrets. These spirits have lured in several eager paranormal investigators, reporters and programs such as the Syfy Channels, Ghost Hunters and has been featured on Weird NJ
Event Start Time: 7pm
Event Finish Time: Midnight
Burlington County Prison saw more than a few public hangings since its founding in 1811 and has also been home to several notorious inmates including Albert De-Salvo, who was later known as The Boston Strangler. Perhaps his tormented spirit is why so many guests feel that they are being choked when investigating the dungeons.
One of the most active and prominent spirits at Burlington County Prison is Joel Clough. The 29-year-old refused to take no for an answer when he proposed to his lover. Unfortunately for her, Cloughs revenge took place in the form of her brutal murder. Several guests and staff members have captured EVPs from an unknown man referring to himself only as Joel.
The experienced and captured paranormal here will send a shiver down your spine. Full blown apparitions are often seen wondering these very dark halls, and EVPs captured here will show you how intelligent the spirits that reside here still are and how their interactions with the living are formidable.
Its a daily occurrence to hear cell doors slamming, disembodied voices coming from the top floor, as well as seeing shadow figures disappearing into walls.
Will you be brave enough to venture off into the prison for a lone vigil?
Burlington City, founded in 1677, was the first settlement in Burlington County, the capital of the Province of West Jersey and the county seat until 1796. The first jail was located in the basement of the courthouse. This was replaced in 1767 by a separate stone structure used until 1811 when the Burlington County Prison in Mount Holly was completed and ready for use.
When the county seat was moved to Mount Holly in 1796, the federal-style courthouse was newly completed the same year. It took another fifteen years, however, to purchase land for the prison site and have plans drawn up and approved by the freeholders.
The outside of the building has changed very little. The massive front door, the large hinges and the lock, which dates from 1819, are original. The interior vaulted ceilings of poured concrete, and the brick and stone construction are also much as they were when the facility first opened. The interior is painted to resemble the original whitewash. The cell doors are also original and many were fabricated in place.
Solidly built, this prison was in constant use until November 1965. Originally designed to house approximately 40 prisoners, the Burlington County Prison held over 100 inmates when they were moved to a converted armory that formerly stood behind the jail. Overcrowded conditions required yet another, larger prison which was erected in 1983, and is in current use. The cost of the 1811 prison would have paid about a third of a cell in the new jail.
When the prison was originally designed, each inmate was to have his/her own cell with a fireplace and a narrow, unglazed window placed above eye level. The rules of the jail directed that prisoners were to be bathed, deloused, and have their clothing fumigated, and that each cell should have a bible or prayer book to improve the soul. Individual cells, intended for felons or criminals, were arranged in sets of four, opening off a short hall at each end of the building. These blocks of cells were to house separate groups, e.g. habitual criminals, first offenders, or women.
The larger rooms on the main hallways were to accommodate the debtors, imprisoned for owing money. These were common rooms, sometimes holding three or four men at a time, although there are some records that indicate that up to 30 debtors were housed at one time in the jail. During the day, debtors were to be allowed to move about the jail, working at various cleaning chores or employed in the basement workshop.
The dungeon or maximum-security cell, was in the center of the top floor. That location was carefully chosen to prevent escape by digging, to minimize communication with criminals in the cell blocks, and to ensure constant surveillance by guards making rounds. This was the only cell without a fireplace. It is flanked by niches for guards or visitors and has one very high, very small window and an iron ring in the center of the floor to which the prisoner could be chained. As one might expect, tradition states that this cell is haunted. Supposedly, the ghost of Joel Clough, a murderer who spent his last night there, has paid tribute to his last earthly residence and to the vigilance of the prison guards in later years.
Until 1888, the jail keeper and his wife and family lived in two rooms on the first floor of the jail. The Keepers wife was expected to supervise the female inmates and the Keeper was to execute the Rules of the Jail as devised by the Prison Board, which was composed of members of the freeholders. The Keeper and his family lived in these quarters until the adjacent brick house, connected by a passageway, was constructed on the corner of Grant and High Streets.
In keeping with the intent designed into the structure, the basement level contained workshops where prisoners were expected to learn some useful trade, such as how to make brooms, baskets, or shingles. The concept didnt work, given the short time most inmates spent in the jail, and over time, the workshops became used as minimum security cells.
Another, less supervised pastime of the inmates that endured through the ages was prisoner graffiti. Depicting humor, despair, and a belated piety, several fine examples of this art have been photo-conserved and are on display throughout the building. The felons eating room, also in the basement, permitted controlled access to the exercise yard with its twenty-foot wall. Outside, prisoners could tend a small garden of fresh vegetables. In one corner of the yard, an area was set aside for the gallows, which were dismantled and stored between hangings.
Staple foods, linens, cleaning supplies, and craft materials were stored in the basement near the kitchen, baking, and washing facilities. Once a day, the prisoners were to be served a main meal of meat and vegetables. The other two meals were usually cooked cereals or grains. They had milk and cider to drink, as well as water. One of the inmates was made chief cook, preparing all prison meals, and that inmate slept in a basement cell next to the kitchen. Large washtubs were provided for laundry and regular baths for the prisoners.
As formidable as the prison seems, it was not escape-proof. The walls were scaled and the roof penetrated numerous times in its history. The preferred routes to freedom seem to have been through the roof of the jail , and along the yard wall or the roof of the passageway to a place of descent.
One notable escape occurred in 1875. Four inmates punched a hole through the ceiling of an upper corridor cell to gain access to the roof, went down the sloping front wall and down around the woodpile beside the prison yard gate. A fifth accomplice, too large to fit through the hole and incensed at being left behind, reportedly sounded the alarm. Despite a quick response by the warden, it seems that at least some of these escapees were never caught.
Some criminals were destined to spend their last days on earth in the Burlington County Jail. State law mandated that criminals convicted of a capital crime were to be executed in the County in which they were found guilty, and Burlington County was no exception. Several public hangings were conducted in the prison yard on a gallows erected for each occasion.
The last such execution was the double hanging of Rufus Johnson and George Small. The two men were convicted of murdering Florence Allinson of Moorestown, an English-born governess at a refuge for homeless children. Solved within days by the celebrated Burlington County detective Ellis H. Parker, the men were hanged on March 24, 1906, two months after the crime.
Solidly built, this prison was in constant use until November 1965. Originally designed to house approximately 40 prisoners, the Burlington County Prison held over 100 inmates when they were moved to a converted armory that formerly stood behind the jail. Overcrowded conditions required yet another, larger prison which was erected in 1983.
Whats Included?
Your ghost hunt at Burlington County Prison includes the following:
Access to the most haunted areas of this prison,
Psychic Medium Vigil* (if psychic present),
Group Vigils With Experienced Investigators,
Lone Vigils,
Use of our equipment which includes, trigger objects and EMF Readers,
Free time to explore this location and to undertake your very own private vigils,
Unlimited Refreshments, Including Coffee, Bottled Water and Soda,
Selection of snacks.
All deposits (if you have paid one) are NON REFUNDABLE should you not be able to make your chosen date. We can AT times transfer you over to another event / date.
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LocationBurlington County Prison Museum (View)
128 High St
Mt Holly, NJ 08060
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 16 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
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