If you are someone who doesn’t scare easy and loves exploring places that have some sort of a spooky reputation, or mystery places, this one is for you.
This Halloween, instead of going for a horror walk, read up everything on some of the world’s most haunted, and scariest places.
The Most hunted places are
- Moundsville Penitentiary
- Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
- Villisca Axe Murder House
- Hoia-Baciu Forest
- Fort Mifflin
- Eastern State Penitentiary
- St.Augustine Lighthouse
- The Sultan’s Place
Moundsville Penitentiary
Prison: It’s where we place the worst of humanity. Thieves, murderers and rapists, we put them behind bars, or we send them to the gallows. Places like the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville are a necessary evil in our society.
For almost 1,000 men, Moundsville’s prison was the last stop. Dozens were hung, several electrocuted, many more were murdered by their own kind. Then there were those who couldn’t take the sentence of prison living and committed suicide to escape.
The stone walls of the West Virginia Penitentiary have seen hard men broken, dreams shattered and evil punished. The death and carnage have left a mark that will never wash away. By many accounts, some of the tortured souls who served time under this roof are still lurking in the shadows of the prison walls.
History of west Virginia penitentiary
Where: Moundsville, West Virginia, USA
When: 1876 – 1995
History: Notorious prison famed for riots, murder, and electrocutions
Go there for: Exploring the horrors of capital punishment – still practiced in some states in America – and the dark side of human captivity
West Virginians may have always been simple folk living off the land but the turmoil of the Civil War years gave rise to an ever-growing number of violent and dangerous criminals that needed housing. The solution was to build the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville – a state-run prison that would hold – and hopefully reform – those convicted of the most serious crimes.
At its peak in the 1960s, the jail housed 2,000 inmates but it was notoriously dogged by riots, murders, and escapes until it was finally closed down in 1995.
The imposing stone building was constructed in the castellated Gothic style and adorned with turrets and battlements which give it a military feel. The first phase of construction was complete in 1876. The prison made money from inmate labor, and prisoners did jobs to support the prison community including blacksmith, carpenter, coal miner, stonemason, bricklayer, tailor, baker, and hospital orderly.
The prison became virtually a self-sufficient business, taking little money from the government. Prisoners were also given an education from the start of the twentieth century with the construction of a school and library in 1900. A vast construction project to double its size began in 1929.
Life (and Death) Behind Bars
Like many prisons, West Virginia Penitentiary had its own social hierarchy among the inmates. The prisoners had ways of helping each other, but they also had ways of dealing with the rats among them. Inmate number 44670, better known as R.D. Wall, was one such snitch who suffered the ultimate punishment at the hands of his fellow prisoners. On October 8, 1929, Wall was heading down into the bowels of the prison to where the boilers were kept when he was jumped by three other inmates.
The men cut and stabbed at R.D. Wall with dull shivs. When they were finished, Wall was literally butchered into pieces. He’s only one of the 36 homicides to take place here. Wall is also connected to one of the earliest ghost-sighting reports here at the prison.
Between 1899 and 1949, 85 men were hung from the gallows at the penitentiary. The practice often drew crowds of locals who would come to watch the condemned meet their end. However, the practice of hanging was ruled cruel and unusual punishment in 1951 after the state reviewed some of the botched hangings, including a prisoner who was inadvertently decapitated.
Inmate Bud Peterson from Logan County, the last man hanged here, was put to death on February 25, 1949. He was convicted of murdering a woman over a poker debt. After his sentence was carried out, Peterson’s family refused to claim the body, so he was buried in the penitentiary cemetery, where many other unwanted corpses have also found their final resting place.
During its more than 100 years in operation, the Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia was one of America’s most violent correctional facilities and the final stop for almost 1000 criminals. The prisoners lived in cramped quarters, which led to riots. Many men were hanged or killed in the electric chair, while others were murdered by other prisoners. The prison closed in 1995, but according to some, the tortured spirits are still behind bars and in the bowels of the prison and may be seen or heard on a tour
“People think I’m crazy. I may be a little crazy but honestly, I’ve seen shadows, heard voices, recorded voices, heard footsteps running, you’ll hear doors slamming. Where we are now in the medical unit is a very active floor.”
JASON MCKINNEY, MOUNDSVILLE PENITENTIARY TOUR GUIDE
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
The place was known as Weston State Hospital when it was first constructed in the 1800s. The construction stopped in 1858 due to the Union soldiers wanting to use the land, according to The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum’s official website.
is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America, and is purportedly the second largest in the world, next to the Kremlin. It was designed by the renowned architect Richard Andrews following the Kirkbride plan, which called for long rambling wings arranged in a staggered formation, assuring that each of the connecting structures received an abundance of therapeutic sunlight and fresh air.
The original hospital, designed to house 250 souls, was open to patients in 1864 and reached its peak in the 1950s with 2,400 patients in overcrowded and generally poor conditions. Changes in the treatment of mental illness and the physical deterioration of the facility forced its closure in 1994 inflicting a devastating effect on the local economy, from which it has yet to recover.
I rolled into Weston, West Virginia, as the sun began to sink, making the lush Appalachian hills appear to glow. A century and a half ago, the area’s beauty appealed to social reformers convinced of the healing powers of fresh air and rural landscapes. But even against the bucolic backdrop, the Gothic-style mental hospital they built here looks like a figment of Stephen King’s imagination come to life.
According to the information on the asylum’s website, Kirkbirde believed that the patients should be allowed to roam the facility to have more freedom. He believed that letting them roam would help them be cured of their illness. The place was able to contain 250 people in their own comfortable rooms.
In 1863, tragedy struck the hospital. Due to an increase in mental health diagnoses, the hospital was overrun with 500 more patients with different problems. The hospital could hardly keep up with the patients. Conditions started to decline rapidly. According to the website allthatsinteresting.com, patients were crammed together, with four or five in one small room that could only fit one person.
By 1938, the asylum was six times overcapacity. The patients were running wild and they were out of control. They hardly had anywhere to keep any more patients. The food supplies were running low. The conditions were declining rapidly.
After the hospital closed in 1994, politicians and locals debated what to do with the expansive landmark and proposed everything from a Civil War museum to a hotel and golf course. In 2007, the building was finally sold, and today, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum offers heritage tours that explore the history of the building and ghost tours. Some people have reported sounds, unexplained voices, and apparitions inside the stone walls, and a number of ghost-hunter TV shows have sought out spirits inside the asylum. You can take a two-hour paranormal tour or hunt ghosts for a whole day—if you can handle it.
This place is called “One of the most scariest place in the world” Villisca Axe Murder House
Villisca Axe Murder House
Shortly after midnight on June 10, 1912—one hundred years ago a stranger hefting an ax lifted the latch on the back door of a two-story timber house in the little Iowa town of Villisca. The door was not locked—crime was not the sort of thing you worried about in a modestly prosperous Midwest settlement of no more than 2,000 people, all known to one another by sight—and the visitor was able to slip inside silently and close the door behind him.
Then, according to a reconstruction attempted by the town coroner the next day, he took an oil lamp from a dresser, removed the chimney and placed it out of the way under a chair, bent the wick in two to minimize the flame, lit the lamp, and turned it down so low it cast only the faintest glimmer in the sleeping house.
Herman (11), Katherine (10), Boyd (7), and Paul (5) to a Children’s Day service at their local Presbyterian Church. Two neighbor children, Lena (12) and Ina Stillinger (8) are the dead children Still carrying the axe, the stranger walked past one room in which two girls, ages 12 and 9, lay sleeping, and slipped up the narrow wooden stairs that led to two other bedrooms.
He ignored one, in which four more young children were sleeping, and crept into the room in which 43-year-old Joe Moore lay next to his wife, Sarah. Raising the ax high above his head—so high it gouged the ceiling—the man brought the flat of the blade down on the back of Joe Moore’s head, crushing his skull and probably killing him instantly. Then he struck Sarah a blow before she had time to wake or register his presence.
In The Moore house in Villisca family of six members were killed, after some time this house was famous as the Villisca Axe Murder House.
Nowadays this place is very famous among researchers, ghost hunters, and Adventurers.
Hoia-Baciu Forest
WARPED TREES FILL THIS FOREST, their skeletal figures twisting and spiraling, making it seem as though they’re contorting themselves to reach out and touch you. An eerie silence fills the air, interrupted only by the footsteps of unseen figures.
Given its eerie atmosphere, it’s no wonder the Hoia-Baciu Forest is said to be one of the most haunted forests in the world. As such, it’s a place that lends well to stories steeped with darkness. Some even call it the “Bermuda Triangle of Romania.”
According to local legends, ghosts and spirits lurk among the crooked trees. One tale tells of a young girl who disappeared into the forest, only to reappear five years later unable to remember where she had been. Another legend speaks of a shepherd who, along with his sheep, vanished within the woods. And, with most places associated with the supernatural, there are also rumors of alien encounters.
Of course, the forest has so much more to offer than just a dark thrill. It’s a perfectly pleasant recreation area, letting locals and visitors take a break from urban There are hiking and biking paths that wind through the unusual trees and the woods teem with a rich variety of animal life.
People who have entered the forest, only to come out with burns, severe rashes, headaches, and high fever which they did not have before. Some studies have revealed higher than usual radioactivity, produced by natural uranium present in the subsoil.
Even the Hoia Baciu Forest trees themselves hold an enigma, as these two-hundred-year-old trees seem to be young, and most of them are twisted at the trunk or unusual in shape. Most of the paranormal activity seems to be concentrated in a particular part of the forest which is free of vegetation and formed into a perfect circle. The soil of this vegetation-free area has been tested and no anomalies were found that would prevent the growth of any plant life.
All these reported strange phenomena, coupled with the numerous photographic testimonies of extraterrestrial lights and mysterious spheres appearing within the forest have contributed in making the Hoia Baciu Forest one of the best-documented paranormal sites in the world. Science is not yet able to explain the source of this strange phenomenon and is still waiting for answers, but speculation continues as to whether this forest is a portal to another world or to a parallel, unknown universe!
If you are a person who is not afraid then definitely visit this place.
Fort Mifflin
As the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia during the last days of September in 1777, a strategic dilemma faced General William Howe, commander of the army. Surrounded by rebel forces from the north, east and west, his troops were in desperate need of supplies—gunpowder, clothing, food, and munitions. Without these items, the capture of Philadelphia might become meaningless and the British would be unable to pursue and destroy Washington’s Army before winter.
South of Philadelphia in the Delaware Bay sat a fleet of British ships carrying the army’s much-needed supplies. General Howe gave orders to sail the fleet up the river to provide new provisions to his occupying troops.
The Americans had secured a British-built fortification, sitting on Mud Island, just below the city and across the river from New Jersey’s Fort Mercer in 1775. By the fall of 1777, approximately 200 men were garrisoned at this fort, now known as Fort Mifflin, charged with the duty of holding the British off “to the last extremity” so that Washington and his exhausted army could successfully move into winter quarters.
It was here, on the frozen, marshy ground within the walls of a stone and wood fort, the American Revolution produced a shining moment. Cold, ill and starving, the young garrison of (now) 400 men at Fort Mifflin refused to give up. The valiant efforts of the men at Fort Mifflin held the mighty British Navy at bay providing Washington and his troops time to arrive safely at Valley Forge where they shaped a strong and confident army.
This battle escalated into the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution and one that many say changed the course of American history. There are so many scary stories on this horror site
Fort Mifflin is now a tourist attraction featuring guides in historical dress, and the site of many war reenactments—but not all of them seem to be by live actors.
The second-floor balcony of the barracks is often visited by the spirit of the lamplighter. This is the man who lit the oil lamps every evening, and though he’s a pale and barely discernible figure in the twilight, people can see he’s carrying a long pole with a dimly flickering light on the end. The casements, which were probably the most heavily bombarded area during the siege of 1777, are the site of too many sightings to number.
The visions are pale outlines that could be written off as the figments of an overactive imagination if it weren’t for their frequency. But even the most visible of the apparitions is still missing some detail—he’s called the Faceless Man, and he’s supposedly the ghost of a war criminal held in the cells during the Civil War. William Howe was his name, and for killing his superior and desertion of duty in wartime, he was held in Fort Mifflin before being hanged. When he appears these days, he’s fairly easy to see, they say, except that his face is in shadows. The reason? Before hanging, deserters supposedly had their heads tied up in black bags as a mark of their shame
In 1915, the War Department declared Fort Mifflin a national historic monument.
During World War I, it served as an ammunition depot. After the war, the community was uncomfortable with the ammunition being stored so close to their neighborhoods, so the Fort was empty by 1929.
During WWII, the Fort housed several anti-aircraft guns. In 1954, it was decommissioned after 183 years of service. The US Department of the Interior named Fort Mifflin a historical landmark in 1970.
In 1969, the Olde Fort Mifflin Historical Society began hosting guided tours and living history programs. The Fort is open to the public for tours, events, historical reenactments, and even paranormal investigations.
Eastern State Penitentiary
With its looming, gloomy high stone walls, crumbling corridors, and stark cells that once housed thousands of hard-core criminals, Eastern State Penitentiary certainly looks haunted. Its 142-year history is full of suicide, madness, disease, murder, and torture, making it easy to imagine the spirits of troubled souls left behind to roam its abandoned halls.
The Eastern State Penitentiary was originally constructed as a radical departure from other prisons of its time. Initially imagined by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, the first prison reform group in the world, it pioneered a system of solitary confinement. The “separate system,” was meant to reform rather than intimidate its inmates.
In the fall of 1829, the penitentiary opened to admit its first prisoner: a young black man from Harrisburg named Charles Williams. By that winter, the prison housed seven convicts in solitary confinement, sentenced for various periods of time between one and 11 years. The harsh punishments used on prisoners are enough to make you shiver even without seeing a ghost.
There was the water bath, in which inmates were dunked then hung out on a wall in winter until ice formed on the skin. The mad chair, which bound an inmate so tightly that circulation was cut off, later necessitating amputations. The iron gag, in which an inmate’s hands were tied behind the back and strapped to an iron collar in the mouth so that any movement caused the tongue to tear and bleed profusely. And “The Hole,” a dank underground cell where unfortunate souls had no light, no human contact, no exercise, no toilet, and little food and air. All of this bad this happen in this place.
St. Augustine Lighthouse
The St. Augustine Lighthouse stands today where 16th-century Spanish watchtowers once stood.
The construction of the lighthouse began in 1871, taking over three years to complete. Once it was finished, the former primitive wooden towers were taken down and replaced with the St. Augustine Lighthouse, the oldest permanent aid to navigation in North America.
Atop the watchtower, a hand-blown French-made Fresnel lens was placed, which had been designed explicitly for lighthouses. The impressive 12-foot-tall lens contained 370 hand-cut glass prisms arranged in a beehive pattern.
The lighthouse stood 165 feet above sea level and included a black and white banded design. To access the top, the lighthouse keeper had to climb 219 steps. After completing the trek upwards, the spectacular panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean were something to look forward to.
Each lighthouse on the east coast of the U.S. has a distinct appearance and lighting characteristic known as the “nightmark.” This mark was used by sailors to identify their location and distance from shore. Initially flashing every three minutes, the St. Augustine lighthouse’s nightmark now flashes every thirty seconds.
There are so many horror stories about this lighthouse
One such interesting vignette is told at the Dark of the Moon tour offered since 2006 at the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Glow sticks provide the only light as head tour guide Matt Hladik, 21, tells haunted historic tales.
The most popular is the true story of the tragedy that befell the children of Hezekiah H. Pittee, superintendent of lighthouse construction from 1871 to 74.
On July 10, 1873, “during construction of the tower, the foreman’s children were playing on a supply cart that ran on the tracks to where modern Salt Run is now. When the cart hit the gate the children were trapped until a worker was able to lift it up. The two youngest children, Edward and Carrie Pittee survived. The two oldest, Eliza and Mary did drown,” Hladik said.
The lesser-known part of this story is there was another child involved – a 10-year-old African-American girl. Hladik said her name wasn’t recorded in the primary source used (a newspaper article interviewing Edward many years later), but through other sources they know she was there.
“This girl deserves to be mentioned just as much as the others and I’m happy that I’m in a position where I get to do so,” he said.
The other oft-told tale was reported in the St. Augustine Examiner on Dec. 5, 1859. Light Keeper Joseph Andreu was painting the tower when the scaffolding failed and he fell about 60 feet.
“He died in the line of duty,” the article reported.
The Sultan’s Place
The Sultan’s Palace is one of the main historical buildings of Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania. It is a 3-story building with merlon-decorated white walls, located in Mizingani Road, on the seafront, between the House of Wonders and the Old Hospital.
It stands on the site of the previous palace, called Bait As-Sahel that was destroyed in the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896.
The present palace was built in the late 19th century to serve as a residence for the Sultan’s family. After the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, it was formally renamed People’s Palace and used as a government seat. In 1994, it became a museum about the Zanzibari royal family and history.
One floor of the museum is dedicated to Sultan Khalifa another one to Sayyida Salme, best known as Emily Ruete, a former Zanzibari princess who fled from the sultanate to relocate to Europe with her husband; the exhibits include some of her writings, clothes, and daily life accessories. Several of the furniture items and other belongings to the sultan’s family are in the exhibition to give visitors an idea of how was life in Zanzibar during the 19th century
While the home had undergone renovations and changes in ownership over the course of many decades, it had long been a place where hauntings had been a regular occurrence. Past occupants of the house have reported seeing the sighting of a man dressed in Middle Eastern garments appearing on the walls of the home, only to disappear moments later. There had also been reports of phantom noises like screaming and shrieking. On some occasions, the sounds of body parts hitting the floor may have been heard.
Local residents passing through the home had also reported hearing chimes going off and smelling different incenses that might have been burning while there were no lights on inside. Even the sighting of a man with dark to light-colored hair was seen peering out one of the windows looking out towards the French Quarter only to disappear sometime later. Some say that it was perhaps the apparition of the many who was only to be known as Suleyman.
