I've finally been given some leway from the powers-that-be to share a few of the hauntings at the prison where I work. So here goes . . .

I guess I should start with the first ones first, but I need to lay a little bit of ground work:

The institution I work at is in Fort Worth, Texas and was originally a United States Public Health Service insane asylum and drug detox hospital for the military and merchant marine. Work began on it in 1935 and it was completed in 1937. I know a few of the old PHS staff who used to work there as early as the 1960's, and from what they've told me, it was a shop of horrors! The surgeons would perform electro-shock therapy, lobotomies and expermental surgery (cutting people open and seeing what they could find). Not a vacation spot to say the least. The Federal Bureau of Prisons took over the facility in 1971, and soon found various old 8mm film of many of the aforementioned proceedures being conducted. They also found several fluid-filled jars containing brains, hearts, eyeballs, etc. Sounds like a Frankenstein movie, doesn't it?

Now that I've laid some groundwork, here's my story:

Back in 1999, I'd been working there for a few years already, but I hadn't had any spectral encounters . . . yet. I'd heard a few stories from some of the older officers, but figured they were just that, stories. On this particular day I was working as the compound officer. Being the compound officer, I was responsible for checking the underground tunnel system on my shift (4pm to midnight). I was supposed to make sure inmates hadn't gotten out of their housing units and gotten into the tunnels to escape, fight or have . . . well . . . uh . . . s(e)x. Anyway, it was about 10:45 p.m.'ish, and I was walking through the tunnels and all of a sudden I heard the Buddy Holly song, "That'll Be The Day", playing throughout the tunnel system. I thought to myself, "I guess Cox (our communications specialist at the time) left the radio on in his office (he had an office in the tunnels). So, I went down to his office, but the music wasn't comming from there. Normally, the closer you get to the source of the music, the louder it'll be, right? Well, the music seemed to be the same volume throughout the entire tunnel system, so it didn't seem to be comming from the office. I didn't really know what to make of it, and it wasn't scary or anything, so I completed my tunnel check with some music to keep me entertained to boot. After I was finished, I reported what I heard to my shift lieutenant, who was an old crusty sort of guy. The lieutenant asked if I'd been drinking on the job. I said, "H(e)ll No!!!". He asked if I'd taken any medication during my shift and I had the same response to that question, as well. He said there was no way I could have heard music down there if Cox's radio was not on. I told him I know what I heard, and he just said, "Whatever".

The next night when it was time to do the tunnel check, I asked one of the other compound officers (we'll call her Linda) working that night if she'd come into the tunnels with me to be my witness if anything happened. I had to plead my case to Linda for a few minutes and convince her I was not going to try any "funny business". She finally agreed, and when we got down into the tunnels, what do you think happened? NO MUSIC! Everything was just perfect, nothing weird going on . . . until we got under Number 4 Building (one of the housing units). I was turned around, locking the grill (in prison, a door with bars on it is called a grill) behind us so we could proceed to the rec area, and "WHAM!!!". We hear a loud door slam shut in what was back then the inmate clothing room. We looked at each other and I asked Linda, "Did you hear that?". She just nodded her head with her eyes as big as silver dollars. Now, this was 11 p.m. and the clothing room staff had long been gone for the day, but I got on my handheld radio and called the control room officer and asked if any clothing room staff were in the institution. He told me no, there were none working at the time. He asked why I wanted to know, so I told him I heard a strange noise comming from the clothing room. He proceeded to give me the jeering ghost sounds, "wooooooo", and soon all of the other officers joined in .

I asked Linda if she wanted to check it out and she agreed. We checked the clothing room, but found nothing suspicious.

I realize this is not too spooky, compaired to some of the other stories posted on this site, but it was the first of many hauntings to happen to myself and my fellow officers. Trust me, the stories get better. I'll post those later when I have more time.

Later.

Did the song remain the same all the time, boss,or did the tune ever change?

Oh, BTW, I'm Baaaaa-aaaack.

Stupid changing of the guard, I just gave up and reregistered with a #2 in the name to get in.

Enjoyed your stories, Bossman. Keep them coming!

quote:

Originally posted by shutterhunter2:
Did the song remain the same all the time, boss,or did the tune ever change?

That's what I was wondering too, Newbie.

Was the song on a loop or something B-Man?
It kind of reminds me of the movie Christine, with the old fifties music and all.

quote:

Originally posted by shutterhunter2:
Did the song remain the same all the time, boss,or did the tune ever change?

That was one of the strangest things about the incident, sorry, I forgot to mention it. The song seemed to play over and over, like it was on some sort of replay mode. I originally thought it could have been a cd player, but the only place it could have been located was the communication tech's office, and it wasn't comming from there.

By the way, its become an initiation for the rookie officers to conduct a tunnel check alone at night. Most of them come from there looking pale, some are sweating and their skin is clammy to the touch with what I would call a "weirded-out" look on their face. Many of them don't want to talk about what happened while they were down there.

Shutter, glad to see you made it!

Ha, ha, shutter's a newbie, ha, ha.

quote:

Originally posted by bossman1603:
Ha, ha, shutter's a newbie, ha, ha.

Or you could say shutter's a virgin, LOL!!!


Great story bossman!!! Keep it come'n Love!!!

(Remember that song???)

>^..^<

Waaaa

I want my senior status back.

Looking at the rest of you I'm not the only one who had ro re-register.

Oh well, this makes the third time I've had to start anew.

Just for the record, First time in late Oct 2005 durring the first American showing of a Most Haunter Live. Only commented a few times and drifted off. Returned in June of 2006 because of a personal experience that renewed my interest here, couldn't remember name or password so registered as my true web persona. Now, because of the sale and the new and "Improved???" Travel Channel kept telling me that I didn't exist.

I had to REALLY work with mod_ben to be able to keep my original screen name, I really didn't want to change it, and it's the "principal" of the thing!!! Poor mod_ben is probably really tired of hearing from me, LOL!!!

I still don't like that I lost all my posting history, but oh well you can't win them all!!!


>^..^<

That is way cool bossman, too bad since it's a prison you can't take a camera in there to catch some ghosts.

quote:

Originally posted by ang74:
That is way cool bossman, too bad since it's a prison you can't take a camera in there to catch some ghosts.

Yeah, the Bureau has a policy of absolutely NO cameras on the prison grounds.

I have some more stories to tell, one about last night . . . yeah, I had another experience at work last night, but I'm DOG TIRED right now. I just got home from work and need to get some sleep. If my wife will let me have the computer tonight I'll post some more.

Good night, y'all.

Ok, I'm awake and rested now . . .

Another incident that happened a few months after the one in the tunnels with the music was as follows:

This particular night I was again working as the compound officer. It was about 10:45 p.m.'ish (same bat time, same bat channel), and I was walking around the compound searching the bushes near the chow hall looking for contraband the inmates might have stashed around those bushes. I was also killing time until 11:15 p.m. when I was supposed to bring the inmates who worked on the bakery shift to the chow hall so they could start baking the bread for the next day. Anyway, I had to use the restroom (when nature calls, you just gotta go), and the chow hall had the nearest restroom. I unlocked the front door, entered and locked the door behind me. There, I proceeded to the restroom. Once I was done with "my business", I walked toward the front door and heard what appeared to be someone moving tables around on the west side of the chow hall. I thought to myself it could have been rats running into the tables (there are several fields around the prison grounds and rats are quite common in prisons anyway). But then I heard footsteps, so I stopped and listened. The footsteps continued for a few seconds then stopped. I figured it was my echo, so I continued on toward the front door. Once I started walking toward the door, the strange footsteps continued, along with a "swishing" sound, not unlike that made when someone is walking while wearing corduroy pants. Well, I stopped and listened for a second, and the sound continued for about 15 seconds, then stopped. I thought to myself, "ok, rats don't wear shoes OR corduroy pants." Just then I heard a man cough. I know that sounds weird, but it was a distinct COUGH. Right then I KNEW someone was in there messing with me, so I picked up my handheld radio and called the reservation officer, who we'll call Reggie, to see where he was. He was supposed to be out with the perimeter patrol officer conducting the light check (see how many lights were out on the institution's high-mast light poles). Reggie answered and I could hear Robert, the perimeter patrol officer, talking in the background, so I knew it wasn't Reggie in the chow hall with me. I thought to myself, "I bet its the lieutenant." So, I picked up my flachlight and went searching for him. I called out, "Ok lieutenant, I know you're in here. You can come out now, its not funny anymore." No response. I checked EVERYWHERE in the chow hall, but couldn't find him. Just then, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I realized that whoever was in the chow hall with me wasn't Reggie, and probably wasn't the lieutenant, becasue he was so clumsy, I would've seen him by now, and there was no one else it could have been. Upon comming to that conclusion, I RAN to the front door. I probably looked like Barney Fife fumbling with my keys trying to unlock the door. Finally unlocking it, I rushed out and slammed it shut and relocked it. I tryed to regain my composure and conducted the food service inmate worker movement. Once that was done I briskly walked over to the lieutenant's office. I found him in the "property room", where we keep all contraband items confiscated from the inmate population. He had property all over the floor, out in the hallway, otherwise, it was EVERYWHERE, so, I figured he'd been there for awhile. I asked if he had been in the chow hall a few minutes ago. He responded, "No, bud." He was a giant redneck of a guy from Kentucky who called everybody "Bud". He could tell I was a bit shaken-up and asked what was wrong, so I told him what had happened. He just looked at me, and with a straight face said, "You know that chow hall's haunted, don't ya, bud? Everybody knows that." I waited for him to start laughing, because when this particular lieutenant was trying to mess with someone, be couldn't keep a straight face about it. He never started laughing . I asked, "You're serious about this?" He nodded his head yes. I said, "Well, that's the LAST time I go into the chow hall after dark alone." He told me to ask around to the various food service staff about their encounters . . . so I called one of the food service supervisors outside and asked what they had seen or heard before. The one I was talking to said that when he was in there alone he would sometimes hear phantom footsteps and hear what sounded like two or three people having a conversation in the dish-washing room. When he'd go check it out, he would never find anyone or anything that had caused it . . .

As for last night, actually, it was early this morning about 2:30 a.m. I was counting the inmates on one of the housing units in #4 Building (yes, the one that sits on top of the old clothing room) with an officer we'll call Joe. As I prepared to count this particular range (hallway to the civilians out there), I checked the restroom to see if any inmates were in there. I had to check each stall. Once cleared, I turned off the light. I did the same thing in the shower area, checking each stall. All the showerheads were turned off and the stalls were empty, so I turned off that light and began my count while Joe watched at the end of the range to make sure no inmates came from their rooms whil I was counting. I counted the inmates in that range and while I was walking back to where Joe was, I could see light shining trough the shower windows from the high-mast lights outside, spilling out onto the floor of the range where I was standing. Then I saw a large dark human-shaped form walk through that light from the shower area enterance over to the shower stalls. I stopped and made a gesture for Joe to come over to the shower area. I asked him if anyone had come over to the shower area, and he said no, they hadn't. I told him what just happened, so we turned on the lights and entered the shower area, checking each stall. Inside the third stall, the water was turned on . I turned and looked at Joe, who was wide-eyed and staring at me. He said, "Let's get the f**k out of these showers!" Needless to say, we got out of there pretty quickly and tried to complete the rest of the count as best we could. After we called in our count, Joe joked that at least he was a clean, hygienic ghost.

I'll post some more experiences later.

WOW Bossman!!! That is WILD!!!

That makes for good reading!!!

You may have to "see" the ghosts...but at least you don't have to "smell" them...LOL!!!


>^..^<

Hey Bossman.
I sure enjoy your stories. Wow you
have a lot of experiences. Then again
it would make sense considering you
work in a haunted prison. I am glad
that they gave you the go ahead to
share these stories with us. I was
just telling my husband about the dream
you shared with us. The one where they
were dumping the ashes out in the grass
or something like that. Anyways Thanks
for sharing your stories Bossman.

Here are a couple of stories about what happened in our prison hospital:

About three years ago, I was working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift in our prison hospital. On one particular night, I had just relieved the evening watch officer and was walking to my office to get ready for the first count of the shift. I hadn't even made it to my office when I saw an inmate walking down the hall past the nurse's station toward the elevator. Most of the inmates know they need to be out of the t.v. rooms by midnight and to be back in their assigned hospital rooms by that time to prepare for count. I told the inmate, "Hey, its count time. Go back to your room." The inmate continued to walk away from me, and went around the other side of the nurse's station. I knew he wasn't going to his room, because we were not using the rooms on that side of the hospital. I said, "Oh, h.e.l.l. no, you're not gonna walk away from me!", so I went around the other side of the nurse's station to cut him off. When I got around there, he was gone. I searched all the rooms on that side of the hospital, the t.v. rooms and even went upstairs on the elevator to see if he'd tried to go upstairs. I couldn't find him. I finally decided that maybe he'd gone back to his room, so I got the nurse and we began our count. We counted the inmates and all of them were where they were supposed to be. I noticed that not one of them matched the inmate I saw on the other side of the hospital, so I checked the photo's of all the inmates assigned to there, and again none of them matched the inmate I saw. I described the inmate to the nurse. I told her he was about 5'10", 170 lbs with medium dark hair. I never saw his face because he was walking away from me, but his skin tone made him appear to be hispanic, but he could have been white. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "That was Inmate Hernandez, he died about two months ago!"

Another incident in our prison hospital happened about six to eight weeks later. I had to use the restroom, so I went upstairs to use the abandoned nurse's station's restroom because I didn't want to stink out the nurses by using their restroom, if you know what I mean .

I went up there and unlocked the nurse's station and entered, locking myself in. Then I locked myself inside the restroom. While I was "doing my thang ", someone came into the nurse's station. I never heard the door unlock, they just opened the door and walked in. I announced myself from inside the restroom, but got no response. I head someone walking around the nurse's station as if they were looking for something and I even heard what sounded like papers being shuffled and items moved from one counter to another. I again announced myself and again go no response. After a few minutes, I head whoever it was open the door and walk out. They never unlocked the door while leaving or locked the door behind them once they were gone. After I was done with my business, I walked out into the nurse's station and tried the door handle. It was locked. I unlocked it, walked out and relocked it back and went downstairs. I found the two shift nurses in the downstairs nurse's station. I asked which one had just been upstairs, and they looked at each other and back at me and said, "Neither one of us." I said, "Alright, quit playing with me. Which one of y'all came up there while I was in the restroom?" Again they looked at each other and gave me a weird look, saying, "Honest, we've been down here the whole time!" Then one of the nurses asked me, "You mean you actually USED the upstairs restroom? NO ONE uses that restroom anymore, especially on the late shift! Too many weird things happen up there!" They told me about a few times when they were using that particular restroom hearing people walk past the nurse's station, wheelchairs rolling past the door, people talking out in the hallway, etc.

Needless to say, I DON'T use that restroom anymore when I'm working in the hospital!

Is it still being used as a prison? If not I wanna go in there with ya around midnight!! hehe Would ya do it??

Love your stories Bossman! Is this still operating as a mental health facility or is it a incarceration facility?

I live in San Antonio. One day soon, Turtle, Deblovscats, kelsey and few more (bud's ) are going to do a Texas ghost hunt. We would love to see the buildings. On the freedom side of course!

Bossman, your stories are so good. You really need to consider publishing them.

quote:

Originally posted by goddessoftheghosties:
Is it still being used as a prison? If not I wanna go in there with ya around midnight!! hehe Would ya do it??

Sorry, goddess, you have to have a federal security clearance to get in, which means you have to be employed with the Bureau of Prisons or one of the other federal law enforcement agencies (F.B.I., D.E.A., U.S. Marshals, etc).

Yes, it is still being used as a federal prison.

Mooch, you can come into the parking lot and check things out, but make sure to conduct yourself in a non-suspecious manner or you'll be escorted off the property at gunpoint. It is an active federal prison, after all. We have to keep an eye out for terrorists and individuals trying to throw contraband over the fence.

Ang, when I retire, I'm planning on writing a book about my career and the ghost stories WILL be included.

Hey, I just remembered something that happened early in my career . . .

Way back in 1989 I was working for the Bosque (pronounced: boss-key) County Sheriff's Office. I was working as a jailer at the time. It was a regular "Mayberry"-type agency where we knew just about everyone in the county. In fact, there was only one officer per shift in the jail, it was so "Mayberry".

This is also one of my fist encounters with something that I would term paranormal in nature.

Anyway, here's the story:

One of our patrol deputies answered a call regarding this guy standing in the parking lot of the local hardware store in the town of Meridian, Texas. Once the deputy arrived, he subdued the suspect, and while searching him, found marijuana, thus arrested him for possession.

Once the deputy got him to the jail, he was processed and put in a single-man cell due to his apparent unstable mental issues. Almost immediately he stripped off his inmate cover-alls and got into the shower (all the cells had showers in them at that jail). It quickly got to the point that this guy was staying in the shower all day except for when he was eating or sleeping, so we started calling him "Aquaman", yes, like the superhero from the Super Friends cartoon show.

While he was in the shower he would rant about all kinds of things. Two of the most common rants he would say was that the drug dealers and the farmers in Texas were "in cahoots" to take over the world. The other thing he would rant about was he said he was an alien from another planet that had used up their water supply and he was sending the shower water to his space ship in orbit to take home for his people. Yeah, I know . . . sounds weird, doesn't it? Don't worry, it gets better. Anyway, since I was the only officer on the shift, I would go talk to Aquaman just to have something to do to pass the time. I would listen to his rants and every now and again insert a "you don't say", or a "well, I can see why you'd think that", thinking to myself, "what a kook!".

The sheriff and several of us officers were trying to find out from him if he had any nearby family who might be willing to come visit him, thinking it might calm him down. Well, our sheriff called around to some of the surrounding counties asking questions and when he talked to the Hamilton County Sheriff, he told our sheriff that he remembered the guy, saying, "Yeah, I remember that guy. He was in our jail for awhile. He was always in the shower and saying he was sending the water to his spaceship in orbit to take home to his people." The Hamilton County Sheriff said the guy's last family member had died just before that and that's when he went off the deep end. He said they really didn't have any charges to hold him on and the state hospital wasn't interested in taking him, so they let him go. I guess from there he wandered over into our county.

On one particular day, I was making my rounds in the jail and he stopped me, saying, "Sir, I just wanted to let you know I appreciate you taking time out of your shift to talk with me. Thank you for treating me like a human. The other officers never wanted to be bothered with me, but I think you're a good officer and I thank you for it. I just wanted to let you know I'm tired of living and I'm going to go ahead and die."

Well, after hearing all of the other nonsense he'd spilled out of his mouth the rest of the time he was in our jail, I didn't think much of what he had just told me, so I told him he was quite welcome and I thanked him for the compliment and finished out my shift without thinking too much about what he'd just told me.

The next day I arrived to work and talked to the day-shift sergeant when I got to the booking room. I could tell something was bothering him, so I asked what was wrong. He said, "Remember Aquaman?", and I said, "Of course", and he then said, "He's dead." I just stared at him, then after several seconds, I said, "Come on, Sarge, quit messing with me." He just stared at me and said, "I'm not playing with you, he's really dead. I found him on his bunk about noon and he was dead." I looked up, then down, then looked at the Sarge and told him my conversation with "Aquaman" the afternoon before. The sergeant turned as white as a piece of paper! He was silent for SEVERAL seconds, then asked if I was messing with his head. I told him I wasn't and that I was telling him the stone-cold truth. He looked at me and said, "Well, better get started on your affidavit this afternoon, because you know you're going to have to talk to the Texas Rangers about this."

I worked on my affidavit that evening and the next day a Texas Ranger from Waco arrived at our jail. I was called in early and interviewed by the Ranger for about two hours. After the interview he said, "Well, son, I don't think I would have acted any different if I had been in your shoes, especially after all that crazy stuff he'd already told y'all." I was cleared of any wrongdoing, and the Ranger sent the body to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy. They looked him up and over, inside and out and ran every poison test they could run, but found NOTHING that could have killed him! The medical examiner determined that he must have willed himself to die.

Every time I remember that incident I get shivers up my spine .

About four months ago I was training a rookie officer. We were counting the inmates on the housing unit where the shower incident happened (mentioned above). I was backing his count, meaning I was standing at the end of the range to make sure no inmates came out of their rooms while he was counting. Anyway, once he was almost done counting, a strange noise caught my attention near the washers and dryers the inmates use to do their laundry, located near where I was standing. I looked at the appliances and one of the dryer doors poped open and swung completely open! When the rookie completed his count of the range he saw me staring at the at the clothes dryer. He said, "What are you looking at?" I said, "That dryer door just opened by itself." He responded, "No it didn't." I said, "It sure as h**l did! I just saw it do it!" He got wide-eyed and said, "Let's get the h**l out of here!" I said to him, "We have to finish the count. Besides, if you're going to work in this joint you're going to need to get used to stuff like this, 'cause it happens all the time." I went to search the dryer to make sure the inmates hadn't rigged it with wire or something to make it open like that. The rookie said, "Hey, dude, don't get too close to that thing." I said, "Calm down, I'm just going to check it out and make sure the inmates didn't mess with it." He was pretty concerned about me getting anywhere near it. I guess I sould be grateful he was so concerned with my safety, but I did find it a little funny, watching him shift from foot to foot in that little "scary jig" some people do when they experience their first haunting. Anyhow, I didn't find anything that pointed to the dryer being tampered with, so I told the rookie it must have been a real haunting. He was nervous the rest of the shift! He kept looking behind his back everywhere he went and had a nervous shake about him for the rest of the time I saw him.

Guess the spirits wanted to help
break in the rookie too. Bossman, I
am surprised that he stayed for the
rest of his shift. It sounds as if
it was almost too much for him.

Yeah, jamor, I wondered if he was going to stay around. He still works there, but he's not working the midnight-to-8am shift (what we call morning watch). He's working the day shift now, although weird things happen on day/watch at this place, too . . . which leads me to my next story :

Now, I didn't experience this first hand, but I heard it from Linda (who was in the tunnels with me when we heard the strange noises coming from the old clothing room, mentioned in one of the incidents above) and one of the lieutenants I trust. Anyhow, like I said, it was on day/watch, and Linda and the lieutenant were on the second floor of the prison hospital looking for some files stored in the old nurse's station on the second floor (yeah, the haunted one). Linda checked one of the closets, but it was locked. She could see the deadbolt engaged between the door and the door-jam. She tried all of her keys, but none of them would open it, so she looked in the shelves right next to that closet. The lieutenant came into the nurse's station and asked her if she'd checked the closet, pointing to it. She told him she had already tried it, but it was locked and she didn't have the key for it. The lieutenant tried the door and guess what? It openend right up without even using a key. Linda said she told the lieutenant, "That's it. I knew weird things happened on this floor at night, but now their happening in the day time, too?! I'm out of here!", and she left the lieutenant to continue the search alone. I asked the lieutenant later about the story and his was the same version. Now, they might be "feeding me a line", but to my knowledge these too people have never lied to me, especially about something like this.

This is one of the weirder hauntings of my career . . .

About three years ago I was working the 4 p.m. to Midnight shift, what we call Evening Watch. I was working in the Special Housing Unit (SHU), where we house inmates who are being punished for violating the prison's rules, those who need protective custody and inmates who are mentally disturbed and are waiting to be transfered to Springfield, MO. (the Federal version of a state mental hospital).

Anyway, it was about 10:30 p.m. and an officer we'll call "Billy" and myself had just finished making the shower run for the inmates. Billy walked over to the visiting room to buy a Coke out of the machine just a few yards from the SHU and I decided to take a short break (about 30 or 40 seconds) to take a bite of my sandwhich before taking the restraints (handcuffs, leg-irons and belly-chains) back to the locked cage where we store them. I had shut the door that led to that cage, but had not locked it because I was going right back there in just a few minutes. Anyhow, I looked up and saw an inmate standing at the end of the range (a hallway is called a range in a prison, remember?). He was standing in the doorway with the heavy steel door slightly open and he was just looking around, "checking everything out". I thought it was an inmate who had somehow gotten out of his cell, so I yelled at him, "Hey, what are you doing?!". He looked RIGHT AT ME and backed out of the doorway and closed the door . . . he freakin' CLOSED THE DOOR!!! I got on the phone and called the control picket officer who controls all of the cells in that building. I asked if he had opened any of the cells, but he said he had not. I asked where Billy was, and he told me he was walking back to the SHU. I told him, "Tell him to get his a$$ back in here, 'cause we have an inmate out of his cell!!!" Billy came running back into the SHU and I ran down the range and kicked the closed door open. It flew open with a loud "BANG!!!" and all the other inmates came running to their cell windows to see what the comotion was. I got to the area where our restraints cage was located, but there was no one there. I raidoed the control picket to check every camera and Billy and I raced upstairs. At the time, we weren't using the second floor to house inmates, but we checked it anyway, because that's the only place the inmate could have gone. We couldn't find him. We came back downstairs and conducted an emergency count to the inmates in their cells, but EVERYONE was accounted for! We went back upstairs and checked again. Again we found nothing, so we counted the inmates again. Again, they were all accounted for, so I pulled out our bedbook, which has the photo of every inmate assigned to that area and checked the photo to every inmate in the SHU. Again, every inmate was accounted for. I called the control picket officer again and asked if caught any of what I saw on video. He checked, but found nothing. By this time all the inmates were behaving very upset. Many of them were on their knees praying, some were walking in circles inside their cells, rubbing their heads, as if not being able to comprehend what had just happened and some were actually crying and bawling. One was an old mafia hitman who was REALLY freaking out. He took out his pencil and started drawing crosses all over his cell's walls. He kept screaming out, "No, no, no!" Could it have been the spirit of one of his past victims? Anyway, I phoned the shift lieutenant and told him what happened. He just camly said, "Well, those kinds of things happen here." I replied, "You're telling me!" I asked if I should make a written report about what happened, but he said, "Not unless you want to be under investigation by the "shrinks" and placed on home-duty for a while. They may even decide to find you unfit for duty bacause they don't believe in ghosts or hauntings." This particular lieutenant has had numerous haunting incidents happen to him, so I know he understood what I was telling him.

Hey bossman whats going on? anyways i just wanted to say WOW!!!!

Well, the institution has been jumping a bit with paranormal activity lately . . .

About a week and a half ago my co-woker, Joe, was working in the prison hospital on the Midnight to 8 AM shift. He was doing some paperwork in the unit officer's station when he looked up and saw the light turn on, then quickly turn off in the laundry room across the hall from his office. He walked across the hall and checked if anyone was in there. Upon investigating the room, he found nothing amiss, he went back to his office. Once he sat back down in his chair, the light again turned on then back off in the laundry room. Joe just sat there watching the room, then he said he saw what appeared to be a woman float out of the laundry room. He said she continued to float down the hall then disappeared around the corner of the nurse's station. He said after seeing that, he just sat there for a few minutes and said a prayer for himself. He said it was pretty unnerving making his rounds the rest of the shift.

About a week ago I was working in the prison's control center updating the institutional roster when I heard what sounded like footsteps come from the back of the control room up to the front and just past the computer desk where I was working. I just stopped what I was doing, listened as the footsteps continued and reluctantly looked over to my left side where the footsteps seemed to stop. I said out loud, "Look, its bad enough y'all mess with us inside the prison, but you really shouldn't be in the control room and I'm kinda busy right now, so why don't you go somewhere else to play". Well, I guess he/she listened, because I didn't hear any other unexplained noises for the rest of the shift.

Some of the nurses have hinted to having been haunted, but I'm having trouble getting them to tell me what happened. They will only say that someting weird happened that they cannot explain away and that they don't want to talk about it just yet.

Hey Bossman, I do not know how you do
it working day in and day out at a place
as haunted as that. I do not know if I
could handle it. I know I would like to go on
a hunt, but not alone. And of course with
someone who knows what they are doing. I have
had a few experiences,but never anything like
the ones you have.

I guess I'm somewhat used to it now. I suppose if they were going to harm any of us, they would have done it by now.

That is true. Guess they are just having
fun scaring those they can.

Hey, y'all, we just had a new lieutenant transfer in from Florida and he's what I'd call a "ghost-nut" and he seems to be a pretty cool dude to boot! He's had experiences with hauntings at numerous federal prisons throughout his career and has even lived in a couple of homes that he says were truly haunted. I think I'll see if he's interested in joining our little family and maybe he'll share some of the things he's gone through.

Oh, yeah, by the way, I had another experience during the last week of May. I was working the control center while doing some paperwork and I looked up and saw what appeared to be an officer walk from the administration building over to the window of the control center. When this "person" walked up to the window, he just vanished! The guy was wearing an officer's uniform but his face didn't have any "human-like" features, it was just a gray blob of sorts. I called one of my fellow officers who I know has been haunted there as well, and she said she had experienced a similar thing a few months earlier!

I realize this sounds stupid-crazy, but here's the latest incident that happened at the prison . . . I walked into the men's restroom in the administration building and I smelled what appeared to be bar-b-q brisket being cooked on an open grill! Being from Texas, I know what bar-b-q smells like and there's not anything in the world that smells quite like it.

I thought the smell could have been coming through the air conditioner ducts, but I checked everywhere I could think of where the smell could have originated from, but I couldn't find any bar-b-q.

I wonder if the ghosts were having a summer party .

Well at least someone was eating good...LOL

But what a STRANGE place to smell BBQ!!! hahaha


>^..^<

I agree with ya, deb, that's a pretty weird place to smell BBQ. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere, but I think I'll leave it be.

Mmm I could go for BBQ right now

Hey, everybody, I'm back!

Sorry I was gone, but my life's been a bit busy lately.

Anyway, the institution's been getting pretty haunted lately . . .

Several officers on the graveyard shift have seen inmates who walk into the restroom only to not come out again. A couple of days ago an officer we'll call Jay, and I were counting the inmates and when we went to clear the restroom of any inmates who might have been in there, we heard the toilet flush and then we heard the sound of someone wearing shower shoes walking to the entrance of the restroom, but no one ever came out. I looked at Jay and he just gave me this funny look. I asked if he wanted to go in and check, but he said, "Be my guest." I went in to find the inmate, but there was no one there!

Inmates have reported the woman who walks the units looking for someone with coffee to spare.

One of the perimeter patrol officers reported someone riding a horse across the reservation (the prison grounds outside the fence). He said the rider and horse were traveling southwest near the creek between the prison and the local high school nearby, but he just faded away after only traveling a dozen yards or so!

Glad to be back and look forward to talking with y'all again!

Glad to see you back bossman!!! Look forward to more stories!!!

>^..^<

Jumping in here a little late but prisons and whorehouses seem to compact the most pain and emotions in one place. They reek of both intelligent and repetitive hauntings both. I have often said I would rather find out I had cancer then I was going away to prison for a long time. You may be cured of one but the scars and stigma of prison would never go away for me.

A buddy of mine had a ghostly encounter two nights ago.

We were conducting a count of the inmates on the graveyard shift. 'John', my buddy, walked down this particular hallway and counted the inmates. When he returned and told me the total number of inmates he counted, so we could match out totals, he said there was inmate standing in the corner of the alcove, like he was trying to stay out of the way. He said it startled him at first, but then noticed that he wasn't being aggressive (at this time he thought it was a real, live inmate). He said that once he noticed he was being passive, he (John) looked away for a second, then turned to look at the inmate again, he was gone. I asked John to describe the inmate. He said he was tall, slender of build and african-american. He also said he was wearing a jacket and a beenie-cap. I asked him if he was sure. He reafirmed what he saw. I told him that must have been the old inmate we called "Slim". Slim used to live on that housing unit about five or six years ago before he had a stroke and died. I had a good rapport with him. He came by my office and talked to me about two or three times a week. He knew he was terminally ill and that he would most likely die in prison before he was released. He told me that when he died he would come back and check up on me from time to time to see if I was OK. I guess he did!

Well, I encountered the "Coffee-Lady" . . . or at least who I believe was her. While we were counting the inmates on the housing unit where the inmates usually see her, I was about to begin counting one of the hallways. I had to stop because a semi-transparent older woman wearing a dress was coming down the hall. She stopped and appeared to notice us and took a couple of steps back and ducked into one of the inmate's room. The other two officers and I looked at eachother. I said, "Guess y'all are not going to check that out." They shook their heads. I told them, "Stay here. I'm going to go check this out." I quickly walked down the hall and threw open the door in question to only find the inmate assigned to that room asleep on his bunk.

Oh my gosh Bossman I just love your stories. They're just so cool. I can't believe so many paranormal experiences happen to you. It's amazing. I'm new to the message board but it seems everybody LOVES your stories. Well now I'm an addict!! LOL! Keep em' comin.

Hey, everybody, I'm back again. Sorry I haven't been around for awhile. Been dealing with some personal issues at home. I intend to be around somewhat regular again.

Well, the Coffee Lady has been busy. She's shown herself to a couple of my fellow officers. She won't talk to us (officers), but she has been letting us see her a little more often. She's been seen in the stairwells between the housing units and a couple of times she was seen walking the ranges (hallways are called ranges in prison). One of our lieutenants was making his rounds (checking up on all the officers on his shift to ensure their/our safety), and while he walked down the range he heard a woman walking in heels behind him all the way to the front door. He wears crepe-soul shoes, so it probably wasn't the echo from HIS shoes.

Its good to be back. Hope everyone's been doing well. Love y'all.

Well, they're back at it again . . .

A couple of nights ago an officer I'll call "Jason", and I were conducting a count of the inmates not too far past midnight. We counted one of the dorms and we both came up with twelve inmates.

Jason and I moved on to another hallway to count. He began counting down that hallway while I stood point to make sure no inmates came out of their rooms to interfere with the taking of the count. While I was doing this, some movement caught my attention out of the corner of my left eye. I turned to see what it was and it was an inmate walking past behind me. He was African-American, about 20'ish years old, 5'10" or 5'11", weighed about 160 or 170 lbs. He was wearing khaki pants and a white t-shirt, just like all the other inmates. When he almost got to the door of the dorm we had just counted he just vanished!

I waited for Jason to finish counting his hallway and then I walked back into the dorm and counted again. I came up with twelve inmates, so I counted again . . . and again I got the same number. I said, "Hey, Jason, count that dorm again and tell me how many inmates you see." He counted them and came up with twelve. I walked back in the dorm again and said, "Now listen up. I have a question and I want the truth. I promise that I'm not going to write up anyone or lock anyone up in the hole for interfering with count. I just want the truth. Did any of y'all just come from the restroom, walk behind me and come in here?" They all just looked at eachother and a couple of them laughed. One of them asked, "Are you serious, Boss?" I said, "He11 yeah I'm serious. I saw someone walk behind me and I could swear he came in here. Now please answer the question. Did anyone come in here after we counted?" At least nine of the twelve inmates said all at the same time, "No, Boss, the only people who've come in here are y'all two."

Jason looked at me all weird and stuff and started making ghost sounds, trying to make fun of me. One of the inmates called out, "We believe you, Boss. We've seen 'em too. Over the last couple of weeks."

Woooooo!

Hey bossman. I have a question. When you have these experiences do you feel anything (scared, bewildered, amazed, etc.)

When I firt started having these experiences roughly ten years ago or so, it really freaked me out. But over time I've learned to take them in stride. Some of these experiences still disturb me somewhat, though. The experience I wrote about above left me a little bewildered, but I didn't let it bother me or keep me from performing my duties.

Thanks for the comment, galover.

Thanks bossman. So do you have any recent ghost encounters that you would like to share with us?

quote:

Originally posted by galover14:
Thanks bossman. So do you have any recent ghost encounters that you would like to share with us?

Nothing that happened at work. Something happened at my house last week, though. I posted it under "Ghost Girl Giggle".

Cool. Did you hear the girl say anything except giggle or any other voices?

No, she just giggled and ran down the hall. Haven't heard anything out of her since, either.

This past Monday night the spirits were in high gear.

While I was working the control center I heard a female voice calling for help from the sallyport. At first I thought it might have been one of my fellow officers playing a prank, but I checked, and every one of the compound officers who were in a position to pull said prank were out counting the inmates on the housing units.

Later, the officer assigned to Austin Unit, one of our housing units, as well as the compound officer assisting him with the count of the inmates, reported smelling an intense odor of a skunk on the unit. This unit is three stories up off the ground. They said it dissapeared as quickly as it arrived.

A few minutes later, the officer assigned to San Antonio Unit, one of our other housing units in the same building as Austin Unit, reported seeing an inmate walk into his officer's station, then vanish right in front of him.

About an hour after that one of the compound officers reported that he saw an inmate run up the stairwell of number four building then vanish into thin air.

About three and a half hours later, still working in the control center, someone began knocking on the bullet-resistant glass of the control center, but there was no one there to do so.

Some of the staff members who live in staff-housing on the prison reservation (homes built on the prison grounds, outside the prison compound and perimeter fence) reported strange goings-on in their homes as well.

Not sure why, but the ghosts were having quite a party that night . . .