Alcatraz – Prison of the Dead

Prisoners in Alcatraz were often told there was only one way out of the maximum security prison – death.  And many of those who were condemned to live out the rest of their days in the hellish conditions of the prison would find that even death would not separate them from this prison of misery.

If haunted places are populated with spirits who are angry about events that took place during their lives, it seems Alcatraz would be the perfect place for an entire city of ghosts.  Those who were taken here were either the worst of the worst or were considered of high risk to escape.  Of the thousands who passed through the doors of Alcatraz prison, not one escaped successfully with their lives.  But the days of Alcatraz being a place of misery and imprisonment are over.  And even while it was open, prisoners and staff reported seeing a monstrous phantasmal beast that would stare out at them from the darkness with glowing red eyes.  The creature would be later seen along with the reports by caretakers of the site accompanying mysterious howls and even visions of people that should not and could not have been there.  It seems that there really is no escape for some people from Alcatraz.

And the reports of ghosts are not merely limited to those from the 1900’s.  A chilling man dressed all in black attire typical of the 1800’s is said to walk calmly through Cell Block D stopping occasionally in his path and turning to look at visitors with eyes that glow with a fire that would be expected to be seen in the pits of hell.  Prisoners in cell block D were completely isolated and kept in rooms containing only the barest components required to survive.  Reports from the day tell that many people went insane during their stay in the place.  And some even reportedly saw the man in black with the eyes that could stop a man’s heart dead in its tracks.  There is a chilling tale that a during the night one prisoner in Cell Block D began screaming bloody murder.  When the guards told him to keep down he declared that he was not alone in his cell and that someone was with him.  When the guards investigated they found the man huddled on the floor insisting that something had been in his dark cell with him.  After they left him the screams continued until mysteriously falling silent.  As the story goes, he was found the next day dead in his cell.  The official cause of death was fright, but there were marks on his throat that suggested it could have been strangulation.  There was no way the wounds could have been self inflicted.  Guards later would recall that the description of the man that had been in the cell with him had been vague, but he had mentioned glowing red eyes.  Was it this same figure that would be still spotted to this day wandering through the halls and always staring with a fiery knowledge of things unfathomable by the living?