Once you step inside the gates of the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, you pass into a place that houses things that most of us don’t encounter in our everyday lives. The astonishing paranormal activity inside offers an experience that may change your way of thinking forever, and will remind you that just because you can’t see something, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. But be warned, this facility is not for the faint of heart.
The West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville opened in 1876 and closed in 1995. Long before you enter its gates, the gothic-style fortress is impossible to miss. And the things that lie inside are impossible to forget.
For nearly 120 years, this prison has seen riots, fires, nearly 100 executions and far more deaths by other means. The Department of Justice named WVP one of the top ten most violent prisons in the country.
Among the many executions, most by hanging, several were botched. In 1931, a particularly large prisoner named Frank Hyer was accidentally decapitated. Witnesses have apparently seen a headless apparition that was either Hyer, or inmate R.D. Wall, who was decapitated by his fellow prisoners.
Nearly 50 prisoners committed suicide in the prison. Several more were killed, and during one of the riots, one was even burned alive. Not to mention the number of men who visited "Old Sparky," the colloquial name prisoners and staff gave to the facility's electric chair, and the prisoners who were tortured by the guards in a device called the "Kicking Jenny," of which only 50 percent survived.
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All these events and deaths have left paranormal activity that even the most die hard skeptic would have trouble explaining.
Inside the penitentiary, witnesses have reported seeing a shadow man and other apparitions, heard the clanging of chains, screams, voices and footsteps. Some have also reported feeling like there were in a place filled with people brushing past them, but hearing and seeing no one. The most haunted areas include the Chapel, shower cages, death row, the Sugar Shack (a recreational area) and the North Wagon Gate, where the hangings occurred before Old Sparky was brought in.
Another phenomenon witnessed involves the circular cage that prisoners passed through as they entered the main prison area. Several times, witnesses have seen it turning on its own, as if prisoners are still arriving at the facility.
So, if you have the bravery for it, visit the prison and bear witness to things that just might change your perspective on what you think you know about this world.
West Virginia Penitentiary is located at 818 Jefferson Avenue in Moundsville.
For more information about West Virginia Penitentiary, including a complete history, tour times and prices, visit their website here.
Have you visited Moundsville Penitentiary? Feel free to comment below and describe your experiences there.
To learn more about West Virginia, check out this road trip you can take to visit the state’s most abandoned places.
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