Old Joliet Prison Investigation

The building was designed by W.W. Boyington (Chicago Water Tower architect) and Otis L. Wheelock in the Gothic style. Built with inmate labor and limestone that was quarried on-site, it was the state's second oldest prisons in Illinois and built to house 1800 inmates in 1858. In 1864, the ages of inmates ranged from 10-68 years old. By 1878 it housed nearly 2000 people. A former hospital was built in 1895. A dining hall was built in 1903. Prior to that prisoners ate in their cells.

A women's prison, located across the street, was built in the 1890's in the same gothic castle-like style as the main prison. During the Civil War, the prison served as POW housing, which was significantly better than some of the prison camps located in Chicago. While conditions were better than some of the other encampments, indoor plumbing was only added to the prison as recently as the 1940s! The facility closed in 2002.

The woman's prison featured regular cells and solitary confinement cells in the basement of the building. When a new women's prison was built in Dwight, IL, the women's prison was being used for sex offenders. Unspeakable treatment, including sexual abuse is alleged to have happened to women in the women's prison building by guards.

The North Segregation Building has the distinction of the original building constructed here. On May 22, 1858, fifty-three inmates, fifty men and three women, were transferred from the Alton Penitentiary due to terrible conditions. The most dangerous men and those insane were confined here. Inmates sent here would spend a total of twenty-three hours a day in their cell. They received meager rations of two ounces of bread and a cup of water every 24 hours.

Other methods of punishment here were handcuffing inmates to their cell doors and making them stand for twelve hours.

There was a prison riot in 1917 where seven buildings were set ablaze.

The prison is currently a tourist attraction with informational kiosks located in the main parking lot. You may recognize the exterior from the beginning of the Blues Brothers movie when "Joliet" Jake Blues is being released from prison.

During its time of operations, the Old Joliet Prison has seen some famous inmates. Leopold and Loeb, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, James Earl Ray and Baby Face Nelson all spent time in the prison.

Address: 1125 Collins St., Joliet, IL60432P

Phone: 815-723-5201

Hauntings: There was a report of a “Singing Ghost” that has been heard in the past. It all starte4d around July 14, 1932 when the curious sounds of singing began to filter through the neighborhood and around the prison. It seemed to stem from the old prison cemetery and literally thousands of people came to experience this strange singing sound. Some skeptics and neighbors said that it was nothing more than an incarcerated live prisoner called William Lalon Chrysler who used to sing on his way to his jail duties at a nearby quarry.

Apparently the very first to encounter this strange singing were the Dudek family who lived on Juniper Street. Their property was adjacent to the Old Convict Cemetery. The sounds continued night after night between the hours of 11:30pm and 12:00am. Throngs of people from Joliet came to experience this and some even camped out or had picnics there.

Another very old tale dating back to the 1860s was told by a Joliet man that was walking home one evening through the old Convict Cemetery when he spotted a prisoner in striped fatigues apparently digging a grave. There were no other inmates in sight and no prison guards as well. The man went to the prison to report this and was told that all inmates were accounted for and that no one was outside at the time. When the man returned the next day he found no fresh graves anywhere!

On another occasion, two men passing near the cemetery reported seeing a ghost sitting on a grave marker.

After the death and burial of the horse thief George Chase, whose head was removed after his execution, locals turned in reports of a headless spirit seen wandering the prison burial grounds at night. Some claimed that, despite the lack of a pair of lips, the apparition produced a tuneless and eerie whistle (keeping in mind that this was more than sixty years before the Singing Ghost appeared). Others flipped the story completely, saying it was Chase’s body-less head that haunted site. You could see his phantom face, they claimed, floating over the graves at night in search of its body.

There have also been reports of shadow play, cell door slamming, people being pushed and touched and numerous other paranormal encounters.

The GRS investigated the Old Joliet Prison on May 18, 2022 and the team included: Mari Huff, Mike Wright, Mike Rosario, Chuck Williams, Paul Adams, Andrew Puccetti, Mike Garrett and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: Since we had access to six different buildings throughout the evening, most equipment used was handheld such as Melmeter with telescopic probe, REM Epod, Sony Nightshot camcorders, digital recorders, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, K-II Meters, Phasma Box, and Paranormal Puck 2b.

Experiments performed: Phasma Box sessions were conducted in the Segregation Building and the Hospital; Paranormal Puck 2b session was conducted in the Cafeteria and a Quiet Time EVP session was conducted in the East Cell Block.

Personal experiences:

Mari Huff: During the investigation of the Old Joliet Prison I was in a group with tour guide Quinn, and GRS members Charles Williams, Mike Garrett, Andrew Puccetti and Michael Wright. I was using a Melmeter, a K-II Meter, and an iPhone camera. My K-II Meter reacted several times in the hospital and in the courtyard of the prison. When we were in the courtyard several members of the group had our K-II meters light up at the same time and location. While in the hospital several members of the group experienced “spider web” type feelings on their faces, and it felt like there were fingers running through our hair. I took some photographs, but did not notice any anomalies. My duties were to use my meters and camera to try to capture paranormal evidence.

Mike Rosario: For this investigation, we traveled to the Old Joliet Correctional Facility located in Joliet, Illinois. This took off on Wednesday, May 21, 2022, at approximately 8:15pm with Dale Kaczmarek, and a few other members of the GRS team. Evening weather was a bit warm, with skies cloudy and calm. Equipment used in this investigation were my K-II Meter; a Philips VoiceTracer Digital Voice Recorder, and a DVC 4K Ultra HD 48mp Night Shot Digital Video Camcorder.

For this investigation, I was accompanied by mostly Dale, Paul, Tim, and Amanda, but we did have other GRS members present around the site that did their own individual investigation. I began by doing my usual K-II sweeps around the prison. I remember it being around 1.5mG at its highest reading on the first and second-floor levels of the main buildings, where we started first, and made our way to the outer facilities, like the medical ward, with a reading of 20.2mG at its highest (very high). We had done our EVP sessions in several jail locations for about a good four hours, even with our Phasma Box. I have never been here before, just as the Joliet Museum. This was an essential investigation for me because I really wanted to come here. It is all part of history, and I was honored to be given the chance to investigate this amazing part of Joliet, and movie history!

Upon reviewing all of my evidence, I did not capture any video, but did get some audio evidence. There was evidence containing some noise contamination, but it was decipherable, however. The evidence taken is below:

~ “Mikey.” (Location: Death Row Cells)

~ “Get up!” “Out!” (Location: Death Row Cells)

~ “My shirt or “My spirit.” (Location: Death Row Cells)

~ “Cook.” (Location: Cafeteria) (Possibly Walter)

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a unique experience at a very historic abandoned jail famously portrayed in the movie, The Blues Brothers. The team was split in two with my team consisting of: Paul Adams, Mike Rosario and I along with Ghost Head Soup members Tim Schmuldt and Amanda Pilgreen. The other team consisted of team leader Charles Williams, along with Mike Garrett, Andrew Puccetti, Mari Huff, Diane Oksanen and Mike Wright. This was due to the place being so large and we wanted to cover all the buildings we had access to.

Later in the evening it got very cold inside the East Cell Block and outside to the point where I went back to my car to warm up a bit. We did pickup what I believe to be some intelligent responses using the Phasma Box and the Paranormal Puck 2b.

The word “homicide” came through the Paranormal Puck 2b in the Cafeteria, so I asked who got killed and the word “cook” came through. The Segregation Building was very active in my opinion with multiple words coming through the Phasma Box. Included in those intelligent responses was, “I’m hungry.” This might have been due to the very meager rations that the inmates were fed every 24 hours.

A number of names also came through using the Paranormal Puck 2b in the Cafeteria. That area was one of the spookiest areas in the building in my opinion. Paul, Mikey and I along with a guide roamed that area. It was creepy!

Evidence collected:

Cook jprison.MP4 – while conducting a Paranormal Puck 2b session in the kitchen area, the word “Homicide” came through, so a question was typed in, “Who got killed?” The device responded with, “Cook.”

Get up out jprison.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in Death Row, the device said, “Get up out.”

I’m hungry jprison.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Segregation Building, a question was asked, “Who are we talking to?” The device responded with, “I’m hungry.” (A sign right outside of this building told of inmates only receiving two ounces of bread and a cup of water every 24 hours. No wonder someone said, “I’m hungry!”)

Mikey jprison.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session in Death Row, a faint disembodied voice says, “Mikey!”

My spirit (shirt) jprison.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in Death Row, a loud male voice comes through and says either, “My spirit” or “My shirt.”

Nothing jprison.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session, a question was asked, “What the Hell did you boys do this time to end up in here?” A faint voice was heard to say, “Nothing.”

Paul jprison.MP4 – Williams is setting up his camera when in the background a whispery voice says, “Paul.”

Try to remember jprison.MP4 – Williams and others are talking when a voice talks over them and says, “Try to remember.”

Weird noise jprison.MP4 – a strange growling sound was recorded.

Words spoken by the Phasma Box: Segregation Building – get up out, I’m hungry, my spirit (shirt), I’m shivering, I’m building it; Hospital – false alarm, I got shot, go figure & step back.

Words spoken by the Paranormal Puck 2b: Cafeteria – Debbie, computer, Peter, magic, had, between, homicide, cook, trail, logical, year, make, come, turn, justice, rocket, French, geek, legs, Walter, Japanese, elf, Jack, silly, tape, Howard, yank, car, bedside, rate, chills, kept, printed, hammer, dollars, poltergeist, V, gasp, top, only, being, Sandra, pride, rolled & rent.

Conclusions: If it wasn’t for the cold that I experienced, I could have investigated more of the building. It literally cut me like a knife and I can’t be sure that it wasn’t caused by a nearby spirit as most others did not experience that icy cold even those who were wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts at the time.

This was a very creepy place but especially the Kitchen area and the Segregation Building. The East Cell Block was also very interesting with several people claiming to have seen shadows in both the Kitchen and Segregation Building. I saw nothing at the time but perhaps wasn’t facing the proper direction when this quick shadowy shape was spied.