Tormented Spirits Are Haunting Old Joliet Prison: Ferak Column

JOLIET, IL - On Friday night, I joined more than two dozen other brave souls who went behind the limestone walls of the 1858 Old Joliet Prison for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Over the past month, the popular Chicago Hauntings group has been leading paranormal and ghost hunting tours at the Old Joliet Prison on Collins Street.

The Joliet Area Historical Museum made a wise choice partnering up with the Chicago Hauntings tour group. How popular are the Paranormal Tours? The calendar indicates that the Old Joliet Prison paranormal tours are continuing through Dec. 3 and are sold out.

On Friday night, there were two different paranormal groups visiting the prison for the 90-minute experience. I joined the 8 p.m. group.

Are there spirits still trapped behind the limestone fortress that the Illinois Department of Corrections closed back in 2002? The answer is yes. But why is this?

There are a variety of factors at play, including the limestone, a nearby cistern, the forces of evil and so much sadness and misery on the prison property, our guides explained.

Additionally, there were a number of violent deaths at the Old Joliet Prison over the years, including murders and beatings within several of the buildings we visited Friday night.

We heard about one prisoner who was dismembered in the old segregation building and his body parts were scattered throughout the upper level of the unit. Elsewhere, there was the notorious murder of the warden's wife during the early part of the 20th century, and the real culprit was never determined.

At one point, our flashlight-carrying group packed into a tight circle in the gymnasium building. We were told that the prisoner shower stalls contained a strong smell of blood from a number of violent beatings that had happened here.

Eventually, our Chicago Hauntings tour guide pulled out two of her dowsing rods. She held them out in her hand. She asked the haunted spirits to point the rods toward those of us on the tour group that the troubled spirits wanted to communicate with.

Sure enough, the spirit forces within the room moved the dowsing rods and pointed them toward the direction of my teenager, who came along for the experience. (I found a YouTube video that I put at the bottom of this story to show you how a dowsing rod operates.)

One takeaway from my experience: these are not friendly ghosts.

When we were inside the segregation unit, our Chicago Hauntings guide picked up a spirit's voice responding angrily to one of her questions by telling her to "(expletive) off."

The Facebook page for the Old Joliet Prison Paranormal Tours and Investigations has posted a 6-minute video from Friday night's paranormal tour showing one of our spirit box sessions inside the prison's hospital building.

At about the 2-minute mark on the video you can listen to below, you can hear our guides recording the sounds of some prisoners rioting.

"Are you guys rioting again?" our guide asks.

"Get some video," one of the spirits responded.

"I am. I am," our guide remarked.

At another point on our tour, the guides picked up another curious paranormal response. Given we were at the Old Joliet Prison, the tormented voice made perfect sense.

"Get me out!" he exclaimed.

Based on Friday night's experience, I came away convinced that there are lots of disturbed and lonely spirits still trapped behind the creepy walls of the Old Joliet Prison. About the only thing they have going for themselves is that they're living here rent-free.

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor

Originally published in 2018