Abnormality in prisons - fictions of prisoners or reality?
It is generally accepted that ghosts are extremely rare in prisons. Like, it's bad there even for spirits. But many examples prove the opposite. For example, this year, a group of British experts in the field of paranormal activity, examining an old prison in the city of Melbourne, came to the conclusion that anomalies were observed in the castle, where 136 people were once hanged. According to the parapsychologist Darren Don, the equipment recorded a number of non-explainable effects. For example, unusual electromagnetic activity was detected, and strange voices were heard by many members of the group.
Guests from nowhere
One of the prisoners in the prison of the German city of Weinsberg, 39-year-old Elisabeth Eslinger, once complained that she was visited every night by the spirit of a Catholic priest named Senton. The deceased told her that he had committed many sins during his lifetime, and asked her to pray for him.
The famous German scientist Julius Kerner, who at that time was a prison doctor, became interested in this case. Together with seven respected people in the city, he monitored the "bad" camera for 11 weeks. They managed to witness unusual sound and visual phenomena - footsteps and visions of a vague human figure surrounded by a phosphorescent light. Sometimes the voice of a ghost was heard, the appearance of which was accompanied by a strong cadaveric smell. After he touched the prisoner several times, burns developed at the points of contact. It is noteworthy that all this time, the prison building was shaken by strange tremors. Unfortunately, the priest did not want to come into contact with anyone other than Elizabeth, and two weeks later she herself died of a stroke.
A year ago, Reuters reported on an experiment conducted by a group of psychologists at the University of Hardfordshire who tried to scientifically test evidence of ghosts in ancient prisons and dungeons in Edinburgh. For ten days, 240 volunteers from all over the world tracked ghosts in the famous Edinburgh Castle, which served as a prison several centuries ago.
The experiment was practically a success: one felt as if something hot was being applied to his hand, the other panicked when he heard ominous breathing in the corner of an old cell. The ghosts touched someone by the face and pulled at the edges of their clothes. Others saw a sullen figure in a bloody leather apron in a torture basement.
The former Melbourne prison building has now been converted into a museum. But the caretakers claim that not only antiques remained in it. The last time a ghost caught the eye of the "night watch"
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February 5 this year, and six late visitors swear they saw something crossing the gallery with a candle in hand. The candle burned brightly, but for some reason did not illuminate the surrounding objects at all.
It is known that on June 21, 2003, a woman's voice called for help all night in the part of the castle where no one was and could not be. After examining the prison archives, the museum administration learned that it was on this day in 1865 that the inmate Lucy R. committed suicide. Her cell was in the same block where the screams were heard. Researchers of the paranormal decided to visit the camera on the next anniversary of her death, which they did this year. But contrary to expectations, nothing happened. However, when listening to the tape recorded at night, a woman's voice clearly sounded on it. This time he did not call for help. The woman simply said, "Go away."
Woman in white
The famous London Tower Castle, which once served as a prison for especially dangerous criminals of aristocratic blood, has been famous for ghosts for a long time. For a long time, the inhabitants of the Tower worried about the ghost of Anne Boleyn - one of the wives of King Henry VIII. On an unjust charge, she ended up in prison, where in 1536 her head was cut off. The coffin with the decapitated body was buried under a slab in the chapel of St. Peter. Since then, Anna's ghost has often appeared in various places of the castle - in the main tower, in the cell where she was imprisoned, near the block …
The most credible appearance of Anna's ghost falls in 1864. It was then that the captain of the guard, during a round, found one sentry at the post unconscious. When he came to, he said that he saw a woman in white, leaving the door of the room where Anna spent the night before the execution. The figure floated straight towards the sentry. He ordered her to stop, but she did not react. Then the sentry thrust a bayonet into the woman, but the latter went right through without encountering any obstacle. Only after that the brave man realized what he was dealing with, and immediately fainted. The captain did not really believe the story of the subordinate, believing that he simply fell asleep at the post, and the sentry was brought before a military tribunal. The documents of this unusual trial are intact to this day. The testimonies of the guards were heard, confirming the testimony of the defendant:they, too, have repeatedly encountered a ghost that disappeared after the eyewitness lost consciousness. As a result, the sentry was acquitted.
Sometimes Anna was seen walking headless. One day, a security officer noticed that the windows of the locked chapel of St. Peter were illuminated. Putting a ladder to its wall and climbing up, he saw a ghostly procession inside the building, heading towards the altar. It was headed by a woman, whom he immediately recognized as Lady Boleyn, whom he knew from numerous portraits. Upon reaching the altar, the ghosts vanished into thin air.
When the floor in the chapel was opened, skeletons of more than 200 people were found under the stone slabs.
Great, Erema
In Russia, there are also enough old, legendary prisons, but unlike European ones, most of these prisons are still operating today. So scientifically proving the presence of ghosts in them is problematic. At the same time, there are plenty of stories of prisoners about encounters with otherworldly entities.
In one of the Smolensk pre-trial detention centers, for example, the following story happened. A seasoned "mokrushnik" named Ryakha fell into the hands of law enforcement agencies, but the investigators were unable to get him to confess. And then one day a repeat offender came for interrogation with a shaking head and a dead gaze. "I want to go to the zone!" - from the doorway he declared, demanded a pen and paper and immediately scribbled a frank confession.
What happened? It turned out that at night an unknown guard called Ryakh into the corridor (the inmates confirmed this fact, by the way), led him for a long time in gloomy corridors, then pushed him into the office. There were three men in black at the table. Without further ado, they read out the verdict to Ryakha, at the end of which they read: “Shoot. Execute the sentence immediately. " The same mysterious "watchman" took the poor man out to the prison yard, where several convicts were already shivering from the cold. One by one the prisoners were brought to the pit by the wall, shots were heard. It was Ryakhi's turn. Terror seized him. And then the first ray of the sun fell on the roof of the detention center. "This is tomorrow!" - heard Ryakha, after which the firing squad disappeared into thin air, and he was back in the cell. As a result, the murderer's nerves lost.
In the Perm region, the story of the "ineradicable snitch" is passed from mouth to mouth. A certain Erema sat behind a thorn in the 90s. He had a talent for finding out all the ins and outs about prisoners and informing the authorities. Once, the lads sent drugs to thieves from the outside. Erema immediately reported that the thieves were put in a punishment cell. A few days later the informer was found sharpened between the ribs. Since then, his ghost began to roam the barracks. Moreover, Erema appears precisely at those moments when prisoners talk about business!
A strange story happened once to a repeat offender who was serving time in a general regime camp in Mordovia. It was like this: three criminals started an escape. They made a secret hole in the barbed wire and began to dig a tunnel in the camp kitchen. When everything was ready, they gathered at the appointed place. One immediately climbed out through the hole, the second followed him. And the third turned around and froze in place: a flickering cloud hung over the table, from which a transparent woman's face looked. A cloud approached him, and a woman's voice said: "Go back to the barrack, otherwise you will perish, they set up a raid on you."
Then the vision disappeared. Looking in the direction of the tunnel, the would-be fugitive found that his accomplices had already disappeared. However, remembering the words of the ghostly woman, he decided to return to the barrack. At this time, shots were heard outside …
As it became known the next day, both of his accomplices were killed on the spot. It turned out that one of them blabbed about the escape to his sidekick, who turned out to be an informer, and information about their plan reached the authorities. But the third was lucky - they could not prove his involvement in the escape.
Apparently, the silence of prison corridors is sometimes broken not only by the clang of shackles and the creak of doors …