This picture is from the first time I went for a regular tour. I didn't take any pictures when I went on the ghost tour. |
Halloween is upon us. It is my favorite time of year.
Growing up I always loved everything and anything scary. Naturally, I became a
writer. I like to incorporate a little ghostly presence in most of my mystery
novels because the unknown element is one that is frightening to me.
One of the questions I am asked the most is do I believe in
ghosts. I normally tell people I am an open minded skeptic. What I mean by that
is I don’t necessarily believe, but I am willing to accept there are a lot of
things in this world I cannot explain. However, when I travel I try to stay in
haunted locations and there is nothing I love more than a good ghost tour. In
fact, the Ninth Floor was inspired by
one particular ghost tour I went on. But that isn’t the story I am going to
tell you today.
Recently I went on a ghost tour of the Missouri State
Penitentiary, once known as the bloodiest 47 acres. It is infamous for the
inmates it held, the violence contained within its walls, and the more recently
for the ghostly sightings. Syfy’s Ghost Hunter, Travel Channel’s Ghost
Adventurers, and I am sure many more have all done investigations of this
former penitentiary to the same result—it’s haunted.
The tour started at 9:00 p.m. I arrived with my friend and
the tour started. At first it seemed there were too many people to really get
the full effect of the creepy, deserted prison at night atmosphere. I had been
on the history tour before and the ghost tour was just as good. Both times I
have been there the group was guided by a former prison guard who actually
worked within the walls. The stories they shared of what it was like inside are
riveting.
I didn’t see or hear anything noteworthy in the first half
of the tour. It wasn’t until we headed to the oldest building and were taken down
to “the hole”. We were directed to enter one of the cells. The first cell I
went into was too crowded so I moved to the next. It wasn’t crowded, only one
other person, but it also didn’t feel creepy and that was what I was looking
for. I went down the narrow hallway to the other row of cell door and entered
the first one. Immediately it felt different than the others. I didn’t let that
bother me—that was what I paid for.
The tour guide flipped off the lights so we could experience
solitary confinement. Immediately the room felt massive, though I knew it was
compact. It was disorienting so the first noise I heard I dismissed as an
overactive imagination. It was something like a growl that came from my right
hand side behind me. I shook off any fear and continued to allow the experience
to build. Next I heard what sounded like a yowl. The best and most accurate way
I can describe it is it sounded like a person pretending to be an angry cat. It
was quite loud and real sounding. It happened two times and the tour guide
asked who made that noise. No one answered. He repeated the question and still
no one confessed.
He turned the lights back on and we all came out. He asked
us again and this is where things get weird. The first cell I went in, the most
crowded one, didn’t hear anything. The cell next to me that only had two people
in it, also didn’t hear anything. It turned out only three of us heard the
sound at all: the tour guide, the man in the cell facing me, and me. It sounded to me like it came from my left
hand side, but while the two women in the cell to my left were frightened they
didn’t hear anything.
I can’t say whether or not it was a ghost, but I will say it
was one of the strangest experiences I have ever had.
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