Memorable Investigations

PARANORMAL POLICE
HEADQUARTERS

Official Site of
the Ghost Detective

THE
PARANORMAL
POLICE
HEADQUARTERS

Memorable Investigations Page 3

December 2001. We are among the
first investigators to gain access to
the abandoned Eastern State
Penitentiary in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. We spent a cold, wild
night in the former prison.

Among our experiences included odd
sounds in the former hospital ward,
motion detectors going off on death
row, and something banging in a cell
next to where I was standing.

The images on this page are all from our Eastern State
Penitentiary investigation of 2001.

EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

Above: the central rotunda area. The prison opened in 1829 and was based upon the
Pennsylvania System of reform in which prisoners were isolated from one another in
individual cells and had minimal contact with other persons. Inmates exercised in small
yards outside of their cells. These times were coordinated to prevent inmates from
exercising together and communicating. Inmates taken from their cells were forced to
have a hood placed over their head. The prison continued to house inmates, including
death row inmates, until 1971 when it was closed and abandoned.

The rotunda served as a central point with cell blocks radiating outwards like the spokes
on a wheel. The rotunda served as a vital gathering point on our investigation and helped
us maintain our orientation in the vast complex.

Above: View of crumbling cell blocks in the former hospital ward of the prison. At one
point we captured loud banging sounds from inside of one of the old cells in this section.

Left: Another view of a cell block.
During our investigation the prison
was in a state of disrepair.

There was a lot of debris, dirt, dust
and airborne particles. Not
surprisingly, we captured a lot of orb
photos.

You will note in most of the photos in
this section contain some type of orb
phenomenon.

I took these pictures with a 35 mm
camera - the type that has the flash
relatively close to the lens. This
arrangement causes particles close
to the lens to be illuminated and
appear as orbs in locations that are
dusty, dirty, damp, etc. Eastern
State Penitentiary was certainly all
of those things!

Above: Death row. Death row inmates were housed here in a more modern block with
electronic cell doors. The actually death chamber was located at another facility. In this
section we set up cameras at opposite ends of the block with motion detectors. We each
then sat in one of the old death row cells. At least twice while sitting in the cells
something caused the motion detectors (passive infrared detectors) to be activated and
alarm! One of the most intense moments of any investigation I have ever been on!