Portals to Hell (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Eastern State Penitentiary - full transcript
Jack and Katrina travel to Philadelphia to gain unprecedented access to never-before-investigated areas of Eastern State Penitentiary. The team searches for the truth as they explore the ...
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
I literally just saw someone
walk down the hallway.
Come on.
Holy.
Is this place a portal to hell?
-This is **** nuts.
He believes that you're demonic,
so this should
really piss you off.
So we are in Philadelphia,
215 area, my hometown.
City of Brotherly Love.
Yep, and we are heading
to Eastern State Penitentiary,
probably the best known haunted
location in Philadelphia.
We get to investigate places
that nobody
has ever investigated before
at Eastern State Penitentiary.
And it looks the most
ominous thing you ever seen.
What's crazy to me is they did
that on purpose because --
- Really?
- Yeah.
They wanted it to look
like this medieval castle
because they wanted to strike
fear in the hearts of people
who were thinking
of committing crimes.
It was operating
till the '50s, right?
- '70s.
- '70s, holy.
So it's --
It's really not that old.
There's people that were in here
that are still alive.
When they finished construction
around 1829,
Eastern State Penitentiary
was hailed
as the most modern building
in America.
Mm-hmm, but it was also leading
a couple really dark practices
including solitary confinement,
to the point where they would
even put hoods over your face.
- Wow.
- But that's what they believed
would help these
prisoners reform.
Lot of people died here.
That's why people feel
there's a portal there.Yeah.
It makes sense that
all of this trauma,
all of this death and despair,
is held within
these prison walls,
and if they're there,
so concentrated,
could they open up
that doorway? Yeah.
- Interesting.
- And there it is.
Oh!
I mean, this place is massive.
Look at these walls.
Massive.
It looks crazy.
Can you imagine, though?
You're sentenced to prison,
and this is what you see.
It's pretty amazing, this place.
It is known as one of the most
haunted places in America.
People have been pushed,
scratched,
chased by, like, dark shadows.
People have actually described,
like, an intelligence.
It's no joke in there.
I'm nervous.
So before we take a tour,
we're gonna chat with Zak,
who is a recent witness
to something here.
- Zak.
- Zak, nice to meet you, Zak.
Come into our humble abode.
He's wanted to link up with us
before we began our tour
so we don't make
the same mistake he made.
You don't get much more of
an ominous warning than that.
Just a couple months ago,
my buddies called me up,
and they said they wanted
to do, like, a ghost tour
over at the Eastern State
Penitentiary.
So I was, like, you know,
I kind of lived in the area
my whole life.
I mean, I knew about the prison,
but I never actually came,
so I wanted to, you know,
check it out and see, you know,
see what it was like.
So we were over in,
I think it was cellblock one.
I was standing in the room
by myself.
The guys were outside the cell,
and there was, like,
a door you can shut.
So at the time,
I felt something on my back.
Now, I looked back, and I
thought maybe it was the wall
or something
that I backed up against,
or maybe my shirt
was folded up or something,
but then when I turned back,
I heard, like, a giggle,
and it sounded
like a child giggle.
That was creepy,
and right after that, I heard,
"Watch your back."
So I turn over to where
the door is,
and at first I saw the face
and two dark eyes.
- Ooh.
- But the door was closed?
But the door was closed,
and that's when, like,
the fear just...
I literally couldn't sleep
that night.
I was still thinking in my head,
like, you know,
me being a skeptic, I'm like,
"What did I see? I mean..."
Your mind playing tricks
on you? Exactly, exactly.
- Right.
- Is it a reflection?
So after that, we're going
through the prison,
and they had this one section
that talked about
how the prisoners,
when they were out
of their cells,
they had these masks on them.
I guess they didn't want
the prisoners to see each other
or know who they were.
when I saw a picture
of this mask,
right then and there, like,
that was what I saw. Really?
- It terrified me to know.
- Yeah.
It's the one that kind of looks
like a scarecrow mask, right?
- Exactly, yeah.
- It's got the eyes.
Whatever that was,
whatever reached out to me
was straight out
of the pits of hell
because it just gave me a fear
that I can't even describe
and put into words.
And the story he told, you could
tell, really has shaken him up.
Hearing a child laugh,
feeling like something was,
like, touching him.
That, to me,
is an intelligent haunting.
That's not just some
residual shadow
that just kind of moves
around in the background.
I mean, I hope to document
something that's unexplainable
so it can give validation
to the loads of people
that have come here
over the years
and had these experiences,
but I'm kind of just excited
to be here
because we get to
investigate brand-new places
that nobody's been in before.
So we are just about to meet --
I don't even know
if I'm getting myself.
We're about to meet
Aaron and Matt --Aaron and Matt.
...who are gonna
give us a tour.
The logical next step is
to get a better understanding
of the history of this place.
It's very much raining
out there.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
You guys could not pick a better
day to visit a haunted prison.
All right.
It never fails to strike me
that you're in Philadelphia
and then suddenly,
these 20-foot walls.
- "Here is a fortress."
- Yep.
And then, once you're on
the other side of these walls,
it's like you're in
a whole other place.
- Totally.
- It's...
I think we'll start
in the central rotunda.Okay.
That's arguable the most
important room in the building.
Okay, great.
How long was this place
operating for?
From 1829 to 1971.
Oh, wow. Okay.
What was the thought
process behind the city,
just to go,
"Ah, we'll just abandon it?"
Well, the prison was, you know,
it's 15th decade of operations.
it's falling apart.
It hadn't even been
30 seconds into the tour
and the sound gear
starts to malfunction?
A sign of things to come
or just a coincidence?
So it's kind of eerie.
Central rotunda, guys.
So is this, like, the main hub
of the cells?
Yeah. We call it
the center for short.
The idea was that
the original cellblocks
would shoot out like
the spokes of a wheel.
The guard standing here
in the 19th century
could maintain
total surveillance
of hundreds of prisoners
at all times.
Every direction you look at,
every cellblock,
there's different reports --
prisoners seen,
shadow person over here,
somebody being grabbed
over there.
Didn't Al Capone
say that his cell --Yeah.
He was being haunted
while he was here? That's right.
How many people came through
this place
in the 150 years
it was operating?
We know of approximately
85,000 people
that were incarcerated here
in its total history.
And how many deaths
were reported here?
Well, the historic site
knows of over
1,400 prisoner deaths
inside the building.
Wow.
This place really
was everything.
It was a hospital.
It was a psychiatric ward.
It was a prison.
It was a torture chamber
for a lot of people.
So these people
were locked away.
They didn't have communication
with anyone else,
but still there's the skylight
in the cellblocks --
- Yeah.
- ...called the Eye of God.
But instead of a religious
awakening, you just go crazy.
- Yeah.
- You just go mad.
-I mean, they broke people.
They broke people's minds
and souls, you know?
Something's emitting a pretty
significant radio wave.
Do you guys get that here a lot,
or have you heard of that,
like, crazy spikes in people's
equipment, like, with EMF
and just other things that maybe
don't make sense for this place?
Yeah.
There shouldn't be anything
that's interfering
or causing those spikes.
Let's go inside of the cell.
This was a prisoner's world
for the most part --
8 1/2x12, approximately.
Prisoners lived in here
23 hours of a day.
- Wow.
- Wow.
Now, the building was designed
to be bright,
healthy, well-ventilated,
but it was actually really
cold, dark, dank, and foul.
A lot of people report
overwhelming pressure
on their chest,
shortness of breath.Hmm.
They're saying that there is
just this anxiousness and weight
that is sitting on them.
Everything that's happened here
and all the different
layers of history
of what this building has been
is just so much to process.
It's really just...
It's almost like
a paranormal playground.
I think our next stop
should be cellblock three.
If you guys are after illness,
death, dying,
that's where it's gonna happen.
It was the hospital.
- Ooh.
So the red cross on
the headgate lets you know
that you're entering
the hospital.
- This is a special location --
- Oh, yeah.
...because this is not
a place people gain access to,
and it's certainly not a place
that has been investigated
before, to my knowledge.
You're breaking
new ground here.Yeah.
Have you ever heard
of somebody complaining
about back problems
in this area? Back problems?
Yeah, yeah, back pain?
Yeah, I am.
So it's just to note it.
When we hit right around there
where it's taped off,
just extreme back pain, like,
right by my spine --
Oh, interesting.
...like I got hit really,
really hard.
So it could be one
of two things.
In my experience,
it's either picking up
on a sensitive level --
- Yeah.
...maybe what somebody used
to feel here,
or it's my body
interpreting something
being around us right now.
- Yeah.
Have you ever heard
of somebody complaining
about back problems
in this area?
- Back problems?
- Yeah, yeah, back pain?
Yeah, I am, extreme back pain,
like, right by my spine.
It's either, like, picking up
maybe what somebody
used to feel here --
- Yeah.
- ...or it's my body
interpreting something
being around us right now.
This is a place
where a lot of pain was felt.
It felt like somebody had hit me
really hard
very close to my spine.
It was immediate, and then
it dissipated pretty quickly,
and it just felt
very foreign to my body,
so I know that wasn't me.
Well, then, I think we should
step into the operating room.
So if somebody was
having back pain --Yeah.
...they might have gotten
surgery to our left over here.
- Okay, so it's right here?
- Yeah.
- Ooh, it's spooky in here, yeah.
- Yeah.
Look at that, jeez.
The operating room
was added in 1910.
By the 1960s,
they were doing up to
300 operations in here a year,
so it was very well-used --
- Wow.
...everything from
back surgery,
wound surgery from a fight.
some stories took
a more sinister turn.
The story of John Frankford
comes to mind.
He was arguably the most famous
horse thief in Pennsylvania --Mm-hmm.
...but he dies inside
of Eastern State in 1896,
but what happens to Frankford
after he dies
is what's really interesting.
Frankford was dissected by
the prison's doctor,
Dr. John Bacon.
Bacon apparently was interested
in what the brain of a career
criminal looked like.
Basically, he helps himself
to Frankford's brain,
his internal organs.
One prisoner even saw
Dr. Bacon
actually walking down cellblock
seven with a metal pail
filled with Frankford's innards.
So much for City
of Brotherly Love.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah.
- Desecrated bodies.
- Yeah.
Think about the blood
that's been spilled here.
- Wow.
- There were explicit examples
of physical abuse
inside the wall.
One of the prisoners
dies in a device
known as the iron gag.
The iron gag
was a five-inch long metal
prong forced into the mouth,
and it pressed down
on the back of the tongue.
It was kind of like
a horse's bit.
A chain on either side
continued down
to a pair of leather gloves.
The person's hands were cuffed
into the gloves,
and it could be cinched as tight
as they wanted it to be.
Cellblock three kind of
seems like the bloodbath.
Yeah.
We are currently walking up
to death row.
We've been given access
to the second floor of death row
which no one has done
an investigation of yet.
Obviously death row,
most violent, worst of
the worst were kept here.
As a result of that,
the paranormal activity
that people report
is very violent.
There is a sense
of being threatened,
audio recordings of things
that are threatening,
"I'll kill you,"
very threatening,
ugly things from something
that doesn't want them there,
something aggressive.
Man, the tour was just like
a big giant history
lesson/paranormal brief.
Yeah, I'm excited to find out
what you guys pick up.
I'm stoked on this place.
To be able to investigate
an area where no one has done
a paranormal investigation,
it's pretty cool.
We're gonna have this place
all to ourselves.
I'm just excited.
I'm real excited to get stuck
into this night investigation.
Whoa. What just happened?
Well, that's creepy.
Should we just roll with it?
The lights just cut out on us.
So our gear has been really
erratic the moment
we've walked into this building.
-Ooh.
We're getting some REM-Pod
action here right now.
So the REM-Pod emits, like,
its own magnetic field that,
if anything comes and like,
interferes with it,
it will emit a signal,
and we're getting some
pretty significant
electromagnetic interference.
I can't really explain that,
unless there's something in here
emitting a pretty
significant radio wave.
Something's here.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
The?
Okay, okay.
Is this how you'd like
to communicate with us,
through the REM-Pod?
This is **** nuts.
Are you okay with us being here?
We're here looking for ghosts,
and we seem to have just had
a conversation with one
that was utilizing the REM-Pod
to answer yes or no questions.
There is absolutely
an energy disruption
that appears to be communicating
intelligently with us.
We're getting crazy going on.
Something was using
the REM-Pod for,
like, yes or no answers.
I mean, I kind of was,
like, taken.
I'm not really in, like,
investigation mode. Yeah, yeah.
And I was just a bit like, uh...
Are people here, still?
Nope, we're all alone.
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
Are people here still?
Nope, we're all alone.
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally just saw someone
walk at the end of the hallway. Come on.
And it sounds like people
talking.
Sounds like music.
I saw something move
in this region.
I looked like something
like this just went across.
This is an old radio.
Oh, this looks like some kind
of historical exhibit.
- Is this it? Is this it?
- Yeah.
Was that literally a switch
you had to touch?
Yeah, but was that
on the whole time?
That's what we were hearing
at the end of the hall.
Now it's not even working.
That's pretty creepy.
But it might just be because
we've killed
the whole power to it.
You might have to hit play.Right.
You might have to actually
get in there.
I can't get in there
with my hands.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
And are you who I just saw
at the end of the hallway?
We were just wrapping out,
and then all of a sudden
in this space,
kind of between this bench
and that door,
it looked like something in here
went from the left side
of the hallway to the right,
and then shortly thereafter
we heard music
coming out of that cell.
Yeah.
That's really weird.
We've got to go meet
with that witness, so...
- Yeah.
- We're gonna stay on it.
Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Well, let's get going.
All right. Cool.
So we're gonna meet with Amy.
She's had a pretty
crazy experience
that she wants to meet
with us and share.
I mean, it feels weird
that we're leaving right now.
Right, I know, but we have
to meet this witness.
I know.
- Hi. Are you Amy?
- Hi. Yeah, I'm Amy.
Oh, hey. I'm Katrina.
Thanks for meeting with us.
Hey. How's it going?
I'm Jack.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So Amy is an employee
at Eastern State Penitentiary,
and she works their Halloween
event every year.
What we do is, we scare
and we do abductions.
We randomly put a hood
over people's heads.
We put them into a real
abandoned cell,
but I went into a cell all alone
for about a minute or so,
and, uh...
something was growling
in the corner.
- Hmm.
- Wow.
Then a shadow walked by,
and then a full force
pushed me back.
You got pushed?
I got pushed,
and then I ran out.
It's definitely
in cellblock one, like,
towards, like, the end.
- How long ago did this happen?
- A few weeks ago.
- Oh, this is so recent to you.
- It's recent.
And ever since then,
I've been experiencing insomnia,
and when I do sleep,
I get night terrors,
things like that.
That's why I'm kind of tired.
Um, yeah.
Amy was getting emotional.
Her eyes were welling up.
I mean, you're getting
an apparition.
You're getting
an auditory sound,
and you're getting
a physical contact.
That's an intense experience.
What do you think, if you had
to put your best guess on it,
whatever this thing was?
I believe it was just angry,
like, a prisoner
that was incarcerated
that's just angry
that it's there still.
It was terrifying,
extremely terrifying.
And I think her story
is pretty compelling
because there's also a lot
of elements that tie
into what Zak experienced
which I find really interesting.
Neither of them are sleeping
since their experience.
Both of their experiences
happened
within a similar time frame,
so within
the last couple months.
Eastern State has already
proven to be insanely active,
and if the night investigation
goes anything
like what just happened,
we're gonna be in
for a wild one.
So for a little update,
we are setting up our equipment
for ye old night investigation.
I'm excited to see
how the investigation
unfolds tonight.
How does this angle look?
I would angle it up a bit.
I want to see less of the floor.
- How's that?
- Let's try that.
We have Michelle joining us,
and Michelle is
a psychic bloodhound,
I think, as she calls herself,
and she's gonna help us
divide and conquer this place.
We have a lot of ground
to cover.
We have numerous areas
of significant activity.
We're getting pretty close.
All the cameras are
pretty much set up.
We have our equipment
ready to go.
Michelle, who is a dear,
dear friend of mine,
we're gonna do
a walk-through with her
so we can figure out where
exactly are the hot spots
and what she's picking up
on that
could help our investigation.
Hey, all clear.
We need you guys
in the surveillance hub
right now for
a production meeting.
All right, guys.
We're about to begin
our night investigation.
We've got a lot of ground
to cover here.
Please always have a flashlight
with you at all times.
This place has a lot
of safety hazards.
We have Michelle here.
We brought her out because
there's a lot of experiences
here that we think she could
help us narrow in on,
and then we can start
our investigation from there.
Do not tell her anything
and she works
better that way, too.
She works so much better
without any influence.
What's your process?
I just let my nose
sort of lead me
to where it feels
most interesting.Mm-hmm.
And then once I zero in on it,
I start to peel back through
just the perception of heavy
or cold or hot,
and I will say that
from just standing here,
it's definitely haunted.
And I will say that from just
standing here,
it's definitely haunted.
How do vibes normally
come to you?
For me, it tends to be a mix
of tactile and visual.
It's here.
- Occasionally it's auditory --
- Okay.
...but I have much more
sensation, pressure, heat, cold.
Michelle is a psychic medium.
She got a PhD.
She's a well-respected
investigator.
There's something down here
that I want to poke at.
I don't know what it is yet.
We're gonna go to all the areas
we're gonna be mainly
conducting the investigation,
and we're just gonna see
what she picks up
and go to where we're
gonna get the action.
This area has never been
invested for the paranormal.
Oh.
When I walked in through here,
I saw people being
forcibly disrobed.
There were explicit examples
of physical abuse.
Desecrated bodies,
think about the blood
that's been spilled here.
There's one that wants
to say that,
"They didn't always
try to heal us here,"
that, "this is where
you came to die."
So this is
a new place, too, Michelle?
This is -- Yeah.
This doesn't feel like
it's been trafficked.
Yeah, I saw...
someone standing right here.
He was a little taller
than this.
I walked up
and human shape
standing about this tall.
There's something
about this cell, but I don't...
There's something dark
in this one.
I will say that.
I don't know if
it's wandered over here
because it's more comfortable.
Is there something
inhuman up here?
Oh, and yet the harder
I push for it,
the harder it feels
like something's pushing back.
So was it brought in here by
someone or was it already here?
That's a good question.
It's got a predatory feel to it.
Audio recordings of things
that are threatening,
"I'll kill you,"
very ugly things
from something aggressive.
Is it always in this building?
I get the sense that it can move
if it wants to,
but it's strongest here.
I don't know.
This place has...
This looks like something
out of a horror movie,
like, scarecrow or something.
It's like he's got a potato
sack over his head.
I don't know what's up
with that.
He's bound, so it's got to be
a prisoner, like,
a flour sack or a potato sack.
It's, like, burlap and...
Oh.
Yeah. They would place
their prisoners in this.
So you just got sick
to your stomach?
Yeah, yeah.
Whenever that was done,
you knew you weren't
coming back the same.
I can tell right off the bat,
like, there's a change
in the pressure
just through the door,
so that's interesting.
I keep seeing somebody
sitting like this, just sitting.
I get a sense of somebody
trying to communicate
with the things here, too.
So Michelle and Katrina
have gone inside of a cell
here in cellblock one.
There are echoes of experiences
that present-day people
have had in here.
This is one of the cells
where two people
have had physical contact.
I felt something on my back.
I felt, like, a full force
just push me back.
Because there's a mix of, like,
fear but also excitement.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I'm blown away
by Michelle's work.
The details and the locations
match eyewitness testimony
relating to Zak
and also relating to Amy
in the places where
they had that experience.
I think this was a portal
to hell for living people.
Like, people came here,
and they entered hell.
Like, it was horrible here.
Thank you so much
for everything. Yeah, thank you.
- Oh.
- So things got really dark.
Like, you know,
Michelle was picking up on
where there was
experimentation done on people.
And, I mean,
even if you're a prisoner,
I don't think anybody
deserves that,
and Eastern State,
just, it feels so sad.
- What are you seeing?
- Camera six.
That's cellblock one.
What'd you see? Something.
- See that light right there?
- Yeah.
Something blocked that out
for a second.
Want to back it up?
Yeah, 'cause that went dark
for a second,
and then it popped up.
There it goes.
So our IR light on the camera
we have in cellblock one,
it's reflecting off
of something down there,
so it's showing up as white.
At some point a couple
minutes ago,
something moves in front of it.
Three, two, boom, boom.
Okay, that is very strange.
You know what?
Let me go down there real quick.
- Okay.
- Tell me when I hit it.
So this is the camera.
So is it reflecting off of this?
Keep going down.
- Keep going?
- Keep going.
- This?
- Right there.
Tell me, am I covering it
right now?
Okay, now you're starting
to cover it.
Yep, covered it.
I have no idea what would have
crossed over here to do that.
A large figure blocked
this reflection out.
I think it's, like,
reflective tape or something.
And it's in the exact spot
where people keep having
their experiences.
I have no answers for you.
We literally have footage
of something covering light
for a second and then moving on.
Whatever blocked that out,
I have no clue.
We literally have footage
of something
covering light
for a second and then moving on.
Whatever blocked that out,
I have no clue.
- All right. Let's roll.
- Okay.
So we're gonna be
investigating the hospital wing.
Surgery first or just hallway?
So I guess we would go
wherever we would get
the most
intelligent communication.Yeah.
And I think Michelle was feeling
that more down the hallway.Yeah.
Let's go post up
on the bench down here.
Yeah. That's a good idea.
So we're using a GeoPort
right now.
It hands a radio wave bag
of Scrabble letters,
and some people think
that spirits will utilize
this and kind of
throw it back at us.
If anything is here
that wants to connect,
now is your time to do it.
Can you tell us who you are?
Do you have a name?
"Who are you?"
I heard that.
This is Jack.
I'm Katrina.
"Who is it?"
Can you tell us what this area
of the building was used for?
"Hospital."
I heard, "There is no portal."
I just **** heard,
"There is no portal."
- Did you hear that?
- Yeah.
If that was you can you make
that noise again?
Yeah.
I heard that knock.
That wasn't any of us?
- No.
- Where'd it come from?
- Behind us.
- How far behind us?
Like, right over here?
- Is that meant to do that?
- Okay.
I totally turned that **** down.
Yeah.
That was actually
weird because I turned that
all the way down.
- Yeah.
And this is a knob.
You have to --
- Like, it doesn't just...
- Yeah.
Can you make that noise again?
What?
What?
Austin, what? What?
I was gonna get a shot
of you guys
through the door,
and I walked in.
It was just, like, people
just whispering at me.
It was like...
- You all right, dude?
- No.
That scared the living crap
out of me.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
...Austin?
I don't want to be
on camera for this.
- Show us what happened.
- It's right there.
- The one with the glass?
- Yeah.
Whispering as you walked by?
I was gonna get a shot
of you guys,
a wide, going through the door.
I thought it would look cool,
and I went right here,
and all of a sudden it was just,
like, somebody right here,
just, like, two people just...
- Let's try something.
- Okay.
I'm gonna play this back
in real time
and see if we got anything.
- **** that.
- What?
Austin, did you hear
what it said to you,
or just it was sounding like...
I have no idea
what they're saying, man.
I just heard it.
It was like it was
literally inches from my ear.
Listen one more time.
**** that.
- That was weird.
- Yeah.
Austin, our producer,
seemed to be shaken up.
This place is nuts, easily one
of the most haunted places
I've ever been, nonstop tonight.
I'm gonna head over to cell one
where Zak and Amy
had their experiences,
so I want to put myself
in that situation.
I want to go back
to that area.Okay.
You gonna go to death row?
- I guess.
- How are you feeling about that?
I'm not -- I don't feel good.
- I'm a little nervous --
- Yeah.
- ...being honest.
- Yeah.
Eastern State has such
a different energy.
It's just pure evil and anger.
I'm gonna do a couple
different things in here,
and I think one of it involves
you guys completely leaving me.
I want to see if I can
experience what Zak did
and Amy did,
so I'm gonna try
a couple different things.
I'm gonna be in here alone
without anybody else
except for my camera,
and I actually brought
a hood with me,
and I want to see
if putting that over my head
and being in here alone
in the dark triggers anything.
How far can you go
and still hear me, do you think?
I'm kind of, like, dreading
going back up to death row.
It's an intense hum of energy.
It freaks me out.
All right. Let's do this.
Jeez, that is ominous.
Okay, this is probably one
of the most awful feelings
I've ever had in my life.
I was just shut into
the prison cell.
I'm gonna try and experiment
right now to see
if I can trigger anything
that might be here.
I'm gonna sit on this bed
with a hood over my head.
At the same time,
I'm gonna have GeoPort going
so I can see if there's any
kind of communication that way,
and hopefully that will trigger
something to come through.
Okay.
Can you tell me
what your name is?
Why are you here?
I feel like everything
in me is like,
"Just leave.
Just leave. Just leave."
I think there's something
up here,
and I don't think, like --
Call it spider-sense-y.
I don't know, but it's saying,
"Just get the out of here.
Just get out of here."
I have felt
like something...
That just started
moving behind your head.
Yeah, it did.
That just started
moving behind your head.
Yeah, it did.
Why would that
just start moving?
And you didn't hear a gust
of wind come through, and look.
Now it's stopped.
And now it's stopping.
I'm getting the out of here.
Is this what it was like
to be here in Eastern State?
Did they put a hood
over your head?
Austin?
Okay.
I have to review the audio
that I got from there,
but it just feels like
you're in the middle
of a horror movie right now.
It's just so much to consume,
and I'm a little overwhelmed.
This place is twisted, man.
What happened?
Going up into death row,
we were just feeling
so, like, ugh.
- Mm.
- And the fricking light,
a light having off the ceiling
just starts going --
- Swinging, up in death row?
- Yes.
I got to ask to rule it out,
but is it the wind?
Okay, hypothetically,
could it have been the wind?
Sure, but we would have seen it
swinging when we walked in.
That's true, yeah.
But anyway,
what happened with you?
Tell me.
It's a really up feeling,
to be honest with you,
to have that door shut.
It's just, like, the room
just got progressively darker.
There's a lot of weird things
going on here.Yeah.
I'm pretty sure
this place is haunted.Yeah.
It's getting late.
The sun's coming up,
but we got to start
the review process
of the footage
and see if we got anything.
One, one.
- Hey, hey.
- What'd you find?
- We got some interesting stuff.
- Yeah?
This, to me, is the most
interesting footage
we got from the evening.
It goes out, then back.
If a light source is going on
and off like that, right,
a switch for example,
then it should come back on
just immediately as it came off.
But when you go frame-by-frame,
you have that little piece
of something
crossing over it in the middle,
and I think that's
the most important part
of this footage --Yeah.
...because all of us
were accounted for.
- We were all...
- We were all in the rotunda.
This is cellblock one.
We're talking about Amy's story.
Then a shadow walked by,
and then a full force
pushed me back.
I mean, maybe
that's validation for Amy
and what she experienced.
- Yeah.
But something blocked out
that light.Yeah.
Do you think you can make
that noise again?
- Was it any of us?
- No.
- Where'd it come from?
- Behind us.
How far behind us?
That does, like, kicks on.
It just turns back on.
I don't know.
I don't have an explanation
for that. And it's loud.
That's creepy.
It doesn't move.
We don't see it
physically turn. No, we don't.
But it doesn't mean that
whatever is there
can't manipulate it
electronically.Yeah.
I have no explanation for that.
As a expert in
all things sound...
- Something turned it back on.
- Yeah.
And it didn't have
any malfunctions
like that the rest of the night.
Mnh-mnh, nope.
So here is the door right there.
- **** that.
- What?
- You do hear something.
- Yeah, I heard --
- I heard that, too.
- Mm-hmm.
It could be whispers
that you heard
and it just didn't transfer
the right way through audio
for whatever reason.
Let's try that again.
**** that.
Actually, is it saying, "Exit"?
All I know is that it was
loud enough
and close enough for me to --
Literally it was like somebody
came up and was like...
- Mm-hmm.
- ...like, just right in my ear.
- Yeah.
- It wasn't wind.
I'll tell you that
for a damn fact.
That just started moving
behind your head.
That just started moving...
Oh, it's actually
a heavy light.Yep.
That's really cool.
I don't think wind would move
that unless it was really --Really.
...really, really,
really strong.
Yeah, and it was not really,
really strong.
We have some objective
evidence here
that we have no idea
how to explain right now.Yeah.
And they corroborate a lot
of what people
have experienced over the years.
I think there's tons
of stories left
to be discovered
at Eastern State.
I think we'd only scratched
the surface.Yeah.
My experience
at Eastern State Penitentiary
has kind of landed me at,
"I don't think it was
a portal to hell,
"but I think it's probably one
of the more haunted places
I've ever investigated."
- Yeah.
So with a place like
Eastern State Penitentiary
that's been haunted for so long
and has had such
a messed-up history,
I don't think there's any way
of shutting down that activity.
No, and I think, too,
that sadness
that we were feeling,
whatever is left over
from the horrible times
that happened there,
hopefully that can find
some way to move on.
- Yeah.
- But Eastern State Penitentiary,
a pretty crazy place.
- Yep, absolutely.
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
I literally just saw someone
walk down the hallway.
Come on.
Holy.
Is this place a portal to hell?
-This is **** nuts.
He believes that you're demonic,
so this should
really piss you off.
So we are in Philadelphia,
215 area, my hometown.
City of Brotherly Love.
Yep, and we are heading
to Eastern State Penitentiary,
probably the best known haunted
location in Philadelphia.
We get to investigate places
that nobody
has ever investigated before
at Eastern State Penitentiary.
And it looks the most
ominous thing you ever seen.
What's crazy to me is they did
that on purpose because --
- Really?
- Yeah.
They wanted it to look
like this medieval castle
because they wanted to strike
fear in the hearts of people
who were thinking
of committing crimes.
It was operating
till the '50s, right?
- '70s.
- '70s, holy.
So it's --
It's really not that old.
There's people that were in here
that are still alive.
When they finished construction
around 1829,
Eastern State Penitentiary
was hailed
as the most modern building
in America.
Mm-hmm, but it was also leading
a couple really dark practices
including solitary confinement,
to the point where they would
even put hoods over your face.
- Wow.
- But that's what they believed
would help these
prisoners reform.
Lot of people died here.
That's why people feel
there's a portal there.Yeah.
It makes sense that
all of this trauma,
all of this death and despair,
is held within
these prison walls,
and if they're there,
so concentrated,
could they open up
that doorway? Yeah.
- Interesting.
- And there it is.
Oh!
I mean, this place is massive.
Look at these walls.
Massive.
It looks crazy.
Can you imagine, though?
You're sentenced to prison,
and this is what you see.
It's pretty amazing, this place.
It is known as one of the most
haunted places in America.
People have been pushed,
scratched,
chased by, like, dark shadows.
People have actually described,
like, an intelligence.
It's no joke in there.
I'm nervous.
So before we take a tour,
we're gonna chat with Zak,
who is a recent witness
to something here.
- Zak.
- Zak, nice to meet you, Zak.
Come into our humble abode.
He's wanted to link up with us
before we began our tour
so we don't make
the same mistake he made.
You don't get much more of
an ominous warning than that.
Just a couple months ago,
my buddies called me up,
and they said they wanted
to do, like, a ghost tour
over at the Eastern State
Penitentiary.
So I was, like, you know,
I kind of lived in the area
my whole life.
I mean, I knew about the prison,
but I never actually came,
so I wanted to, you know,
check it out and see, you know,
see what it was like.
So we were over in,
I think it was cellblock one.
I was standing in the room
by myself.
The guys were outside the cell,
and there was, like,
a door you can shut.
So at the time,
I felt something on my back.
Now, I looked back, and I
thought maybe it was the wall
or something
that I backed up against,
or maybe my shirt
was folded up or something,
but then when I turned back,
I heard, like, a giggle,
and it sounded
like a child giggle.
That was creepy,
and right after that, I heard,
"Watch your back."
So I turn over to where
the door is,
and at first I saw the face
and two dark eyes.
- Ooh.
- But the door was closed?
But the door was closed,
and that's when, like,
the fear just...
I literally couldn't sleep
that night.
I was still thinking in my head,
like, you know,
me being a skeptic, I'm like,
"What did I see? I mean..."
Your mind playing tricks
on you? Exactly, exactly.
- Right.
- Is it a reflection?
So after that, we're going
through the prison,
and they had this one section
that talked about
how the prisoners,
when they were out
of their cells,
they had these masks on them.
I guess they didn't want
the prisoners to see each other
or know who they were.
when I saw a picture
of this mask,
right then and there, like,
that was what I saw. Really?
- It terrified me to know.
- Yeah.
It's the one that kind of looks
like a scarecrow mask, right?
- Exactly, yeah.
- It's got the eyes.
Whatever that was,
whatever reached out to me
was straight out
of the pits of hell
because it just gave me a fear
that I can't even describe
and put into words.
And the story he told, you could
tell, really has shaken him up.
Hearing a child laugh,
feeling like something was,
like, touching him.
That, to me,
is an intelligent haunting.
That's not just some
residual shadow
that just kind of moves
around in the background.
I mean, I hope to document
something that's unexplainable
so it can give validation
to the loads of people
that have come here
over the years
and had these experiences,
but I'm kind of just excited
to be here
because we get to
investigate brand-new places
that nobody's been in before.
So we are just about to meet --
I don't even know
if I'm getting myself.
We're about to meet
Aaron and Matt --Aaron and Matt.
...who are gonna
give us a tour.
The logical next step is
to get a better understanding
of the history of this place.
It's very much raining
out there.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
You guys could not pick a better
day to visit a haunted prison.
All right.
It never fails to strike me
that you're in Philadelphia
and then suddenly,
these 20-foot walls.
- "Here is a fortress."
- Yep.
And then, once you're on
the other side of these walls,
it's like you're in
a whole other place.
- Totally.
- It's...
I think we'll start
in the central rotunda.Okay.
That's arguable the most
important room in the building.
Okay, great.
How long was this place
operating for?
From 1829 to 1971.
Oh, wow. Okay.
What was the thought
process behind the city,
just to go,
"Ah, we'll just abandon it?"
Well, the prison was, you know,
it's 15th decade of operations.
it's falling apart.
It hadn't even been
30 seconds into the tour
and the sound gear
starts to malfunction?
A sign of things to come
or just a coincidence?
So it's kind of eerie.
Central rotunda, guys.
So is this, like, the main hub
of the cells?
Yeah. We call it
the center for short.
The idea was that
the original cellblocks
would shoot out like
the spokes of a wheel.
The guard standing here
in the 19th century
could maintain
total surveillance
of hundreds of prisoners
at all times.
Every direction you look at,
every cellblock,
there's different reports --
prisoners seen,
shadow person over here,
somebody being grabbed
over there.
Didn't Al Capone
say that his cell --Yeah.
He was being haunted
while he was here? That's right.
How many people came through
this place
in the 150 years
it was operating?
We know of approximately
85,000 people
that were incarcerated here
in its total history.
And how many deaths
were reported here?
Well, the historic site
knows of over
1,400 prisoner deaths
inside the building.
Wow.
This place really
was everything.
It was a hospital.
It was a psychiatric ward.
It was a prison.
It was a torture chamber
for a lot of people.
So these people
were locked away.
They didn't have communication
with anyone else,
but still there's the skylight
in the cellblocks --
- Yeah.
- ...called the Eye of God.
But instead of a religious
awakening, you just go crazy.
- Yeah.
- You just go mad.
-I mean, they broke people.
They broke people's minds
and souls, you know?
Something's emitting a pretty
significant radio wave.
Do you guys get that here a lot,
or have you heard of that,
like, crazy spikes in people's
equipment, like, with EMF
and just other things that maybe
don't make sense for this place?
Yeah.
There shouldn't be anything
that's interfering
or causing those spikes.
Let's go inside of the cell.
This was a prisoner's world
for the most part --
8 1/2x12, approximately.
Prisoners lived in here
23 hours of a day.
- Wow.
- Wow.
Now, the building was designed
to be bright,
healthy, well-ventilated,
but it was actually really
cold, dark, dank, and foul.
A lot of people report
overwhelming pressure
on their chest,
shortness of breath.Hmm.
They're saying that there is
just this anxiousness and weight
that is sitting on them.
Everything that's happened here
and all the different
layers of history
of what this building has been
is just so much to process.
It's really just...
It's almost like
a paranormal playground.
I think our next stop
should be cellblock three.
If you guys are after illness,
death, dying,
that's where it's gonna happen.
It was the hospital.
- Ooh.
So the red cross on
the headgate lets you know
that you're entering
the hospital.
- This is a special location --
- Oh, yeah.
...because this is not
a place people gain access to,
and it's certainly not a place
that has been investigated
before, to my knowledge.
You're breaking
new ground here.Yeah.
Have you ever heard
of somebody complaining
about back problems
in this area? Back problems?
Yeah, yeah, back pain?
Yeah, I am.
So it's just to note it.
When we hit right around there
where it's taped off,
just extreme back pain, like,
right by my spine --
Oh, interesting.
...like I got hit really,
really hard.
So it could be one
of two things.
In my experience,
it's either picking up
on a sensitive level --
- Yeah.
...maybe what somebody used
to feel here,
or it's my body
interpreting something
being around us right now.
- Yeah.
Have you ever heard
of somebody complaining
about back problems
in this area?
- Back problems?
- Yeah, yeah, back pain?
Yeah, I am, extreme back pain,
like, right by my spine.
It's either, like, picking up
maybe what somebody
used to feel here --
- Yeah.
- ...or it's my body
interpreting something
being around us right now.
This is a place
where a lot of pain was felt.
It felt like somebody had hit me
really hard
very close to my spine.
It was immediate, and then
it dissipated pretty quickly,
and it just felt
very foreign to my body,
so I know that wasn't me.
Well, then, I think we should
step into the operating room.
So if somebody was
having back pain --Yeah.
...they might have gotten
surgery to our left over here.
- Okay, so it's right here?
- Yeah.
- Ooh, it's spooky in here, yeah.
- Yeah.
Look at that, jeez.
The operating room
was added in 1910.
By the 1960s,
they were doing up to
300 operations in here a year,
so it was very well-used --
- Wow.
...everything from
back surgery,
wound surgery from a fight.
some stories took
a more sinister turn.
The story of John Frankford
comes to mind.
He was arguably the most famous
horse thief in Pennsylvania --Mm-hmm.
...but he dies inside
of Eastern State in 1896,
but what happens to Frankford
after he dies
is what's really interesting.
Frankford was dissected by
the prison's doctor,
Dr. John Bacon.
Bacon apparently was interested
in what the brain of a career
criminal looked like.
Basically, he helps himself
to Frankford's brain,
his internal organs.
One prisoner even saw
Dr. Bacon
actually walking down cellblock
seven with a metal pail
filled with Frankford's innards.
So much for City
of Brotherly Love.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah.
- Desecrated bodies.
- Yeah.
Think about the blood
that's been spilled here.
- Wow.
- There were explicit examples
of physical abuse
inside the wall.
One of the prisoners
dies in a device
known as the iron gag.
The iron gag
was a five-inch long metal
prong forced into the mouth,
and it pressed down
on the back of the tongue.
It was kind of like
a horse's bit.
A chain on either side
continued down
to a pair of leather gloves.
The person's hands were cuffed
into the gloves,
and it could be cinched as tight
as they wanted it to be.
Cellblock three kind of
seems like the bloodbath.
Yeah.
We are currently walking up
to death row.
We've been given access
to the second floor of death row
which no one has done
an investigation of yet.
Obviously death row,
most violent, worst of
the worst were kept here.
As a result of that,
the paranormal activity
that people report
is very violent.
There is a sense
of being threatened,
audio recordings of things
that are threatening,
"I'll kill you,"
very threatening,
ugly things from something
that doesn't want them there,
something aggressive.
Man, the tour was just like
a big giant history
lesson/paranormal brief.
Yeah, I'm excited to find out
what you guys pick up.
I'm stoked on this place.
To be able to investigate
an area where no one has done
a paranormal investigation,
it's pretty cool.
We're gonna have this place
all to ourselves.
I'm just excited.
I'm real excited to get stuck
into this night investigation.
Whoa. What just happened?
Well, that's creepy.
Should we just roll with it?
The lights just cut out on us.
So our gear has been really
erratic the moment
we've walked into this building.
-Ooh.
We're getting some REM-Pod
action here right now.
So the REM-Pod emits, like,
its own magnetic field that,
if anything comes and like,
interferes with it,
it will emit a signal,
and we're getting some
pretty significant
electromagnetic interference.
I can't really explain that,
unless there's something in here
emitting a pretty
significant radio wave.
Something's here.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
The?
Okay, okay.
Is this how you'd like
to communicate with us,
through the REM-Pod?
This is **** nuts.
Are you okay with us being here?
We're here looking for ghosts,
and we seem to have just had
a conversation with one
that was utilizing the REM-Pod
to answer yes or no questions.
There is absolutely
an energy disruption
that appears to be communicating
intelligently with us.
We're getting crazy going on.
Something was using
the REM-Pod for,
like, yes or no answers.
I mean, I kind of was,
like, taken.
I'm not really in, like,
investigation mode. Yeah, yeah.
And I was just a bit like, uh...
Are people here, still?
Nope, we're all alone.
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
Are people here still?
Nope, we're all alone.
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally --
Did you just see that?
Did you just see that?
Who's down that hallway?
I literally just saw someone
walk at the end of the hallway. Come on.
And it sounds like people
talking.
Sounds like music.
I saw something move
in this region.
I looked like something
like this just went across.
This is an old radio.
Oh, this looks like some kind
of historical exhibit.
- Is this it? Is this it?
- Yeah.
Was that literally a switch
you had to touch?
Yeah, but was that
on the whole time?
That's what we were hearing
at the end of the hall.
Now it's not even working.
That's pretty creepy.
But it might just be because
we've killed
the whole power to it.
You might have to hit play.Right.
You might have to actually
get in there.
I can't get in there
with my hands.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
And are you who I just saw
at the end of the hallway?
We were just wrapping out,
and then all of a sudden
in this space,
kind of between this bench
and that door,
it looked like something in here
went from the left side
of the hallway to the right,
and then shortly thereafter
we heard music
coming out of that cell.
Yeah.
That's really weird.
We've got to go meet
with that witness, so...
- Yeah.
- We're gonna stay on it.
Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Well, let's get going.
All right. Cool.
So we're gonna meet with Amy.
She's had a pretty
crazy experience
that she wants to meet
with us and share.
I mean, it feels weird
that we're leaving right now.
Right, I know, but we have
to meet this witness.
I know.
- Hi. Are you Amy?
- Hi. Yeah, I'm Amy.
Oh, hey. I'm Katrina.
Thanks for meeting with us.
Hey. How's it going?
I'm Jack.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So Amy is an employee
at Eastern State Penitentiary,
and she works their Halloween
event every year.
What we do is, we scare
and we do abductions.
We randomly put a hood
over people's heads.
We put them into a real
abandoned cell,
but I went into a cell all alone
for about a minute or so,
and, uh...
something was growling
in the corner.
- Hmm.
- Wow.
Then a shadow walked by,
and then a full force
pushed me back.
You got pushed?
I got pushed,
and then I ran out.
It's definitely
in cellblock one, like,
towards, like, the end.
- How long ago did this happen?
- A few weeks ago.
- Oh, this is so recent to you.
- It's recent.
And ever since then,
I've been experiencing insomnia,
and when I do sleep,
I get night terrors,
things like that.
That's why I'm kind of tired.
Um, yeah.
Amy was getting emotional.
Her eyes were welling up.
I mean, you're getting
an apparition.
You're getting
an auditory sound,
and you're getting
a physical contact.
That's an intense experience.
What do you think, if you had
to put your best guess on it,
whatever this thing was?
I believe it was just angry,
like, a prisoner
that was incarcerated
that's just angry
that it's there still.
It was terrifying,
extremely terrifying.
And I think her story
is pretty compelling
because there's also a lot
of elements that tie
into what Zak experienced
which I find really interesting.
Neither of them are sleeping
since their experience.
Both of their experiences
happened
within a similar time frame,
so within
the last couple months.
Eastern State has already
proven to be insanely active,
and if the night investigation
goes anything
like what just happened,
we're gonna be in
for a wild one.
So for a little update,
we are setting up our equipment
for ye old night investigation.
I'm excited to see
how the investigation
unfolds tonight.
How does this angle look?
I would angle it up a bit.
I want to see less of the floor.
- How's that?
- Let's try that.
We have Michelle joining us,
and Michelle is
a psychic bloodhound,
I think, as she calls herself,
and she's gonna help us
divide and conquer this place.
We have a lot of ground
to cover.
We have numerous areas
of significant activity.
We're getting pretty close.
All the cameras are
pretty much set up.
We have our equipment
ready to go.
Michelle, who is a dear,
dear friend of mine,
we're gonna do
a walk-through with her
so we can figure out where
exactly are the hot spots
and what she's picking up
on that
could help our investigation.
Hey, all clear.
We need you guys
in the surveillance hub
right now for
a production meeting.
All right, guys.
We're about to begin
our night investigation.
We've got a lot of ground
to cover here.
Please always have a flashlight
with you at all times.
This place has a lot
of safety hazards.
We have Michelle here.
We brought her out because
there's a lot of experiences
here that we think she could
help us narrow in on,
and then we can start
our investigation from there.
Do not tell her anything
and she works
better that way, too.
She works so much better
without any influence.
What's your process?
I just let my nose
sort of lead me
to where it feels
most interesting.Mm-hmm.
And then once I zero in on it,
I start to peel back through
just the perception of heavy
or cold or hot,
and I will say that
from just standing here,
it's definitely haunted.
And I will say that from just
standing here,
it's definitely haunted.
How do vibes normally
come to you?
For me, it tends to be a mix
of tactile and visual.
It's here.
- Occasionally it's auditory --
- Okay.
...but I have much more
sensation, pressure, heat, cold.
Michelle is a psychic medium.
She got a PhD.
She's a well-respected
investigator.
There's something down here
that I want to poke at.
I don't know what it is yet.
We're gonna go to all the areas
we're gonna be mainly
conducting the investigation,
and we're just gonna see
what she picks up
and go to where we're
gonna get the action.
This area has never been
invested for the paranormal.
Oh.
When I walked in through here,
I saw people being
forcibly disrobed.
There were explicit examples
of physical abuse.
Desecrated bodies,
think about the blood
that's been spilled here.
There's one that wants
to say that,
"They didn't always
try to heal us here,"
that, "this is where
you came to die."
So this is
a new place, too, Michelle?
This is -- Yeah.
This doesn't feel like
it's been trafficked.
Yeah, I saw...
someone standing right here.
He was a little taller
than this.
I walked up
and human shape
standing about this tall.
There's something
about this cell, but I don't...
There's something dark
in this one.
I will say that.
I don't know if
it's wandered over here
because it's more comfortable.
Is there something
inhuman up here?
Oh, and yet the harder
I push for it,
the harder it feels
like something's pushing back.
So was it brought in here by
someone or was it already here?
That's a good question.
It's got a predatory feel to it.
Audio recordings of things
that are threatening,
"I'll kill you,"
very ugly things
from something aggressive.
Is it always in this building?
I get the sense that it can move
if it wants to,
but it's strongest here.
I don't know.
This place has...
This looks like something
out of a horror movie,
like, scarecrow or something.
It's like he's got a potato
sack over his head.
I don't know what's up
with that.
He's bound, so it's got to be
a prisoner, like,
a flour sack or a potato sack.
It's, like, burlap and...
Oh.
Yeah. They would place
their prisoners in this.
So you just got sick
to your stomach?
Yeah, yeah.
Whenever that was done,
you knew you weren't
coming back the same.
I can tell right off the bat,
like, there's a change
in the pressure
just through the door,
so that's interesting.
I keep seeing somebody
sitting like this, just sitting.
I get a sense of somebody
trying to communicate
with the things here, too.
So Michelle and Katrina
have gone inside of a cell
here in cellblock one.
There are echoes of experiences
that present-day people
have had in here.
This is one of the cells
where two people
have had physical contact.
I felt something on my back.
I felt, like, a full force
just push me back.
Because there's a mix of, like,
fear but also excitement.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I'm blown away
by Michelle's work.
The details and the locations
match eyewitness testimony
relating to Zak
and also relating to Amy
in the places where
they had that experience.
I think this was a portal
to hell for living people.
Like, people came here,
and they entered hell.
Like, it was horrible here.
Thank you so much
for everything. Yeah, thank you.
- Oh.
- So things got really dark.
Like, you know,
Michelle was picking up on
where there was
experimentation done on people.
And, I mean,
even if you're a prisoner,
I don't think anybody
deserves that,
and Eastern State,
just, it feels so sad.
- What are you seeing?
- Camera six.
That's cellblock one.
What'd you see? Something.
- See that light right there?
- Yeah.
Something blocked that out
for a second.
Want to back it up?
Yeah, 'cause that went dark
for a second,
and then it popped up.
There it goes.
So our IR light on the camera
we have in cellblock one,
it's reflecting off
of something down there,
so it's showing up as white.
At some point a couple
minutes ago,
something moves in front of it.
Three, two, boom, boom.
Okay, that is very strange.
You know what?
Let me go down there real quick.
- Okay.
- Tell me when I hit it.
So this is the camera.
So is it reflecting off of this?
Keep going down.
- Keep going?
- Keep going.
- This?
- Right there.
Tell me, am I covering it
right now?
Okay, now you're starting
to cover it.
Yep, covered it.
I have no idea what would have
crossed over here to do that.
A large figure blocked
this reflection out.
I think it's, like,
reflective tape or something.
And it's in the exact spot
where people keep having
their experiences.
I have no answers for you.
We literally have footage
of something covering light
for a second and then moving on.
Whatever blocked that out,
I have no clue.
We literally have footage
of something
covering light
for a second and then moving on.
Whatever blocked that out,
I have no clue.
- All right. Let's roll.
- Okay.
So we're gonna be
investigating the hospital wing.
Surgery first or just hallway?
So I guess we would go
wherever we would get
the most
intelligent communication.Yeah.
And I think Michelle was feeling
that more down the hallway.Yeah.
Let's go post up
on the bench down here.
Yeah. That's a good idea.
So we're using a GeoPort
right now.
It hands a radio wave bag
of Scrabble letters,
and some people think
that spirits will utilize
this and kind of
throw it back at us.
If anything is here
that wants to connect,
now is your time to do it.
Can you tell us who you are?
Do you have a name?
"Who are you?"
I heard that.
This is Jack.
I'm Katrina.
"Who is it?"
Can you tell us what this area
of the building was used for?
"Hospital."
I heard, "There is no portal."
I just **** heard,
"There is no portal."
- Did you hear that?
- Yeah.
If that was you can you make
that noise again?
Yeah.
I heard that knock.
That wasn't any of us?
- No.
- Where'd it come from?
- Behind us.
- How far behind us?
Like, right over here?
- Is that meant to do that?
- Okay.
I totally turned that **** down.
Yeah.
That was actually
weird because I turned that
all the way down.
- Yeah.
And this is a knob.
You have to --
- Like, it doesn't just...
- Yeah.
Can you make that noise again?
What?
What?
Austin, what? What?
I was gonna get a shot
of you guys
through the door,
and I walked in.
It was just, like, people
just whispering at me.
It was like...
- You all right, dude?
- No.
That scared the living crap
out of me.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
...Austin?
I don't want to be
on camera for this.
- Show us what happened.
- It's right there.
- The one with the glass?
- Yeah.
Whispering as you walked by?
I was gonna get a shot
of you guys,
a wide, going through the door.
I thought it would look cool,
and I went right here,
and all of a sudden it was just,
like, somebody right here,
just, like, two people just...
- Let's try something.
- Okay.
I'm gonna play this back
in real time
and see if we got anything.
- **** that.
- What?
Austin, did you hear
what it said to you,
or just it was sounding like...
I have no idea
what they're saying, man.
I just heard it.
It was like it was
literally inches from my ear.
Listen one more time.
**** that.
- That was weird.
- Yeah.
Austin, our producer,
seemed to be shaken up.
This place is nuts, easily one
of the most haunted places
I've ever been, nonstop tonight.
I'm gonna head over to cell one
where Zak and Amy
had their experiences,
so I want to put myself
in that situation.
I want to go back
to that area.Okay.
You gonna go to death row?
- I guess.
- How are you feeling about that?
I'm not -- I don't feel good.
- I'm a little nervous --
- Yeah.
- ...being honest.
- Yeah.
Eastern State has such
a different energy.
It's just pure evil and anger.
I'm gonna do a couple
different things in here,
and I think one of it involves
you guys completely leaving me.
I want to see if I can
experience what Zak did
and Amy did,
so I'm gonna try
a couple different things.
I'm gonna be in here alone
without anybody else
except for my camera,
and I actually brought
a hood with me,
and I want to see
if putting that over my head
and being in here alone
in the dark triggers anything.
How far can you go
and still hear me, do you think?
I'm kind of, like, dreading
going back up to death row.
It's an intense hum of energy.
It freaks me out.
All right. Let's do this.
Jeez, that is ominous.
Okay, this is probably one
of the most awful feelings
I've ever had in my life.
I was just shut into
the prison cell.
I'm gonna try and experiment
right now to see
if I can trigger anything
that might be here.
I'm gonna sit on this bed
with a hood over my head.
At the same time,
I'm gonna have GeoPort going
so I can see if there's any
kind of communication that way,
and hopefully that will trigger
something to come through.
Okay.
Can you tell me
what your name is?
Why are you here?
I feel like everything
in me is like,
"Just leave.
Just leave. Just leave."
I think there's something
up here,
and I don't think, like --
Call it spider-sense-y.
I don't know, but it's saying,
"Just get the out of here.
Just get out of here."
I have felt
like something...
That just started
moving behind your head.
Yeah, it did.
That just started
moving behind your head.
Yeah, it did.
Why would that
just start moving?
And you didn't hear a gust
of wind come through, and look.
Now it's stopped.
And now it's stopping.
I'm getting the out of here.
Is this what it was like
to be here in Eastern State?
Did they put a hood
over your head?
Austin?
Okay.
I have to review the audio
that I got from there,
but it just feels like
you're in the middle
of a horror movie right now.
It's just so much to consume,
and I'm a little overwhelmed.
This place is twisted, man.
What happened?
Going up into death row,
we were just feeling
so, like, ugh.
- Mm.
- And the fricking light,
a light having off the ceiling
just starts going --
- Swinging, up in death row?
- Yes.
I got to ask to rule it out,
but is it the wind?
Okay, hypothetically,
could it have been the wind?
Sure, but we would have seen it
swinging when we walked in.
That's true, yeah.
But anyway,
what happened with you?
Tell me.
It's a really up feeling,
to be honest with you,
to have that door shut.
It's just, like, the room
just got progressively darker.
There's a lot of weird things
going on here.Yeah.
I'm pretty sure
this place is haunted.Yeah.
It's getting late.
The sun's coming up,
but we got to start
the review process
of the footage
and see if we got anything.
One, one.
- Hey, hey.
- What'd you find?
- We got some interesting stuff.
- Yeah?
This, to me, is the most
interesting footage
we got from the evening.
It goes out, then back.
If a light source is going on
and off like that, right,
a switch for example,
then it should come back on
just immediately as it came off.
But when you go frame-by-frame,
you have that little piece
of something
crossing over it in the middle,
and I think that's
the most important part
of this footage --Yeah.
...because all of us
were accounted for.
- We were all...
- We were all in the rotunda.
This is cellblock one.
We're talking about Amy's story.
Then a shadow walked by,
and then a full force
pushed me back.
I mean, maybe
that's validation for Amy
and what she experienced.
- Yeah.
But something blocked out
that light.Yeah.
Do you think you can make
that noise again?
- Was it any of us?
- No.
- Where'd it come from?
- Behind us.
How far behind us?
That does, like, kicks on.
It just turns back on.
I don't know.
I don't have an explanation
for that. And it's loud.
That's creepy.
It doesn't move.
We don't see it
physically turn. No, we don't.
But it doesn't mean that
whatever is there
can't manipulate it
electronically.Yeah.
I have no explanation for that.
As a expert in
all things sound...
- Something turned it back on.
- Yeah.
And it didn't have
any malfunctions
like that the rest of the night.
Mnh-mnh, nope.
So here is the door right there.
- **** that.
- What?
- You do hear something.
- Yeah, I heard --
- I heard that, too.
- Mm-hmm.
It could be whispers
that you heard
and it just didn't transfer
the right way through audio
for whatever reason.
Let's try that again.
**** that.
Actually, is it saying, "Exit"?
All I know is that it was
loud enough
and close enough for me to --
Literally it was like somebody
came up and was like...
- Mm-hmm.
- ...like, just right in my ear.
- Yeah.
- It wasn't wind.
I'll tell you that
for a damn fact.
That just started moving
behind your head.
That just started moving...
Oh, it's actually
a heavy light.Yep.
That's really cool.
I don't think wind would move
that unless it was really --Really.
...really, really,
really strong.
Yeah, and it was not really,
really strong.
We have some objective
evidence here
that we have no idea
how to explain right now.Yeah.
And they corroborate a lot
of what people
have experienced over the years.
I think there's tons
of stories left
to be discovered
at Eastern State.
I think we'd only scratched
the surface.Yeah.
My experience
at Eastern State Penitentiary
has kind of landed me at,
"I don't think it was
a portal to hell,
"but I think it's probably one
of the more haunted places
I've ever investigated."
- Yeah.
So with a place like
Eastern State Penitentiary
that's been haunted for so long
and has had such
a messed-up history,
I don't think there's any way
of shutting down that activity.
No, and I think, too,
that sadness
that we were feeling,
whatever is left over
from the horrible times
that happened there,
hopefully that can find
some way to move on.
- Yeah.
- But Eastern State Penitentiary,
a pretty crazy place.
- Yep, absolutely.