Spooky Sites

Prior to his stint at Alcatraz, Al Capone enjoyed a stay at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary in 1929. Lucky for him, the conditions at the prison had improved somewhat since its early days. The most expensive and advanced prison of its time, Eastern Pen opened a hundred years earlier, in 1829. It used the then-revolutionary concept of solitary cells that permitted no contact whatsoever among prisoners. Physical punishment was considerably milder here than at other prisons of the day (Sing Sing for example), but nevertheless included a few horrific and dreaded tortures. Until 1903, new prisoners were even escorted to their cells with a mask over their head, ostensibly to reduce the likelihood of escape. The overwhelming solitude and nightmarish punishments drove many a prisoner to insanity. Things had changed quite a bit by the time Capone arrived (and experienced the first of many visits from the ghost of one of his victims), but other prisoners had already reported many eerie occurrences. Guards noticed disquieting sounds and sights right up until the place was shut down in the 1970s, and even today, the staff is fairly open about the Pen being occupied by supernatural presences. "Terror Behind the Walls" is the prison's award-winning Halloween event – if you aren't already creeped out by the prison during daylight hours, you will be after one of these tours.

In San Jose, part of California's unrelentingly modern Silicon Valley, intrepid tourists can check out the Winchester Mystery House. The history of this place is fascinating by any standard. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune (more than $20 million), began building this labyrinthine home in 1884. She had been told by a spiritual medium that her family was cursed because of its involvement in the manufacture of a weapon that had caused countless deaths. Indeed, it was this curse that caused the deaths of both her infant daughter and her husband. The only way to avoid succumbing to the curse was to appease the spirits by building a house where they could reside. Sarah believed that if construction ever stopped on her home, the spirits would kill her – additions, repairs and upgrades continued 24 hours a day until she died in 1922. The resulting behemoth has somewhere around 160 rooms, although no one's really sure, and the spirits that Sarah placated (along with Sarah herself) are reportedly still inhabiting them. 

New Orleans has several beautiful and fascinating cemeteries, but none are as notorious as St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Because of the city's location at and below sea level, traditional underground burial wasn't feasible. Hence, above-ground vaults and tombs were the norm and, as everyone knows, these are much easier for unhappy souls to escape from. Probably the most well-known of these is Marie Laveau, the queen of voodoo. She led a mysterious life, and although details are scarce and sketchy, one thing is for certain: even after her death, there were numerous sightings of her on the streets of New Orleans. And the sightings haven't stopped. You'll recognize her tomb by the XXX's chalked on it and the offerings left by faithful believers. Definitely unsettling.

About 40 miles east of Bentonville, AR (birthplace of Wal-Mart, incidentally), lies the town of Eureka Springs. Founded in 1879 as a Victorian resort where various ailments could be cured or alleviated by taking the healing waters, the town was thriving by the end of the year. The Crescent Hotel opened in 1886 to accommodate wealthy visitors and at the time was considered the most luxurious hotel in the country. But by 1937 it had fallen into disrepair and was purchased by a scam-artist named Norman Baker, who used the once glorious building as a "hospital" for cancer patients - the rooms he used as a morgue are sufficiently spooky to rattle most people. And as for the rest of the hotel? Well, reports from staff and visitors of shadowy apparitions and unexplained sounds are frequent and vivid. There are unquestionably some strange goings-on here. 

The final entry on our list is Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, KY. It started out in 1926 as a tuberculosis hospital. At the time, TB was rampant, especially in the southern US, and people afflicted with the disease suffered lengthy and painful periods of convalescence. If they survived at all, that is. Because antibiotics were unknown, TB was frequently fatal, and Waverly had its fair share of deaths. The deceased were transported down the "body chute" (actually a tunnel) to a waiting hearse – it was thought that this more discreet method of body disposal would be less discouraging to the other patients. No records remain, but thousands upon thousands of people died here. Closed as a TB hospital in 1961, but reopened shortly thereafter as a geriatric care center, Waverly was subsequently ordered closed in the early 1980s due to patient abuse. Although it's been spruced up in recent years, the decades of pain and suffering, not to mention death, left their mark. Visitors report all sorts of inexplicable occurrences. Perhaps a few unsettled souls never left...