The Hawk

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Entertainment

Eastern State's new "experimentation room" finds formula for fright.

The building is daunting and eerie and was once home to some of the most notorious criminals the country has ever seen. Built to hold each prisoner in solitary confinement, this penitentiary drove many inmates to madness.

Renowned as of the most haunted places in the country, the Eastern State Penitentiary, though it is now abandoned, still attracts a fair share of visitors. In fact, the penitentiary draws large crowds during the day, and even larger crowds during the night.

The Eastern State Penitentiary is known as the world's first true penitentiary. Its creators believed solitary confinement would force the prisoners to reflect on their bad deeds, but it is believed to have caused significant mental illness among the prisoners. The building itself was preserved in ruin, giving tourists the impression that it could have been only yesterday that inmates were confined within its cells. The penitentiary is a historical site during the day, but at night during the month of October, it is transformed into a haunted house known as Terror Behind the Walls.

Saint Joseph's students waited anxiously outside the penitentiary, curious as to what they might find inside its stone walls. However, they didn't have to wait long for any frightening entertainment, as characters dressed like dead prison officers and insane prisoners hobbled down the sidewalks, sometimes jumping out at startled students. After waiting in line, they were ushered through an old school bus, where one or two chained inmates struggled to get a grip on any passersby. From the bus, they were taken to the cellblocks surrounded by electric fences, dark corridors, and rattling cell doors. Here, various inmates screamed out in pain as sparks flew from the fences. Cries of "I'm innocent!" filled the dark hallways.

The next stop was the mess hall and kitchen, complete with a dead chef whose maniacal laughter rang throughout the room as he banged on kitchen pots and pans. From there, students ventured on to the morgue where bodies lay covered in dirty sheets. The mortician giggled nervously, assuring everyone that the prisoner's legs had been infected, and that she had to chop them off. Students rushed out of the morgue, only to bump into unruly inmates who followed at a close distance, sometimes mumbling, sometimes screaming.

Continued...

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