It was decided that the prison would be extended in 1929; however, the construction was not completed until 1959. In these 20 years the prison was grossly overcrowded with some cells having three inmates each.

West Virginia State Penitentiary has been the scene of many executions over the years it was operated as prison, either by hanging or electric chair. Yet, executions were not the only deaths in the prison: illness, overcrowding and riots killed many inmates.

The Haunting

Over the years visitors and paranormal investigators have reported being touched or feeling ‘something’ close to them, many have also felt that someone is watching them. Not only does this prison give most people the spooks because of the Gothic construction, but also sightings of three different ghosts are frequently reported.

The Maintenance Man

This is the most popular of the three haunting to come up. The time West Virginia State Penitentiary was a jail a prisoner working as maintenance man used to spy on the inmates and reported the other inmate’s bad behavior to the guards. One day when he was in the bathroom ‘the maintenance man’ was attacked by several inmates and killed. He is said to be lurking in the bathroom where he was savagely murdered, but he makes no contact with the living.

Robert the Inmate

Robert was an inmate who was violently murdered by the prison guards who were known to be physically abusive towards the worse inmates. They would beat them to ‘near’ death, but this time ‘near’ was too far and they killed Robert. His remains are said to be buried behind one of the walls in the prison. Robert’s spirit walks the prison to this day terrifying anyone he comes into contact.

Avril Adkins

Last, but certainly not least, is the story behind Avril Adkins. He was sentenced to hang by the neck until death. He was taken to the gallows for hanging but something went wrong during the execution process and Avril fell through trap door and landed on his head having serious head injuries. The guards picked him up, took him back up the stairs and hung him again. This time he died. Many visitors to the prison say they have seen him walking around the gallows where he died.

West Virginia State Penitentiary is now closed as prison, but operated as tourist attraction.

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Waverly Hills Sanatorium like any other haunted hospital has a gruesome past and lots of horrifying stories. Waverly Hills is situated in south western Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky, it opened in 1910. The hospital was opened due to the outbreak of Tuberculosis in Jefferson County the hospital was just a small two story wooden building just enough to treat 50 patients. With increasing repairs needing to be done to the wooden buildings its was decided that a more durable and permanent building should be built. The new building was opened in March 1924.

The Haunting

The haunting of Waverly Hills Sanatorium are well known to the locals and the paranormal investigators that have visited the hospital but I will share with you some of the most horrific and terrifying stories to come out of the wards of Waverly Hills.



Room 502

The most known story about Waverly Hills is that of Room 502. A nurse, Mary Hillenburg, was found hanged in the door way of Room 502 in the year 1928, it is thought it was suicide as she had recently discovered she was pregnant out with wedlock. There is a story that Mary Hillenburg was impregnated by a doctor of Waverly Hills who was actually married. He tried an abortion which killed Mary Hillenburg in the process and to cover his back he made it look like a suicide.

Another nurse later took her own life in 1932 by throwing her self out of the window of the room that she worked in, Room 502. There are no reports of why she would have committed suicide but there was a rumour that someone did in fact push her. There are also reports that people have seen shadows move across the floor and walls in Room 502, so was this nurse pushed to her death by a ghostly spirit?…

Body Chute

The Body Chute was a tunnel which lead from the back of Waverly Hills to the train tracks at the bottom of the hill. This tunnel was built for supplies and deliveries and ease of access, but when the outbreak of Tuberculosis hit the tunnel was used to transport the dead bodies out of the hospital by a motorised trolley. This was used as the patients that were being treated would originally see all the bodies of the dead patients leave the hospital by the front, which depressed the patients and in turn would kill them.

The Tunnel now is said to be haunted by the spirits which travelled the length of that tunnel. Voices and unidentified noises have been heard in the tunnel, while cold shivers have been felt by paranormal investigators.

So as you can see Waverly Hills is not for the light hearted of us, but this is surely one of the most haunted places in America, especially when you take in to account the rumored number of deaths, 63,000.

As commentators have pointed out that the Waverly Hills Sanatorium is the base for the movie Death Tunnel I have inserted an Amazon image link below for your convince, along with Spooked The Ghosts Of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, based on the same place.

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The story goes that Crenshaw had a habit of kidnapping and torturing these workers. He used to imprison them in the narrow rooms of the mansion and put them in chains. He regularly used to torture them and even bred some slaves. When these evil practices were brought to public knowledge, he gave it up and became a farmer.

However, people who started visiting the place from the year 1920, when it was thrown open to the general public, reported hearing moans of pain and whispers coming from the lofts of the mansion.

The happenings intensified when a reputed ghost hunter Hickman Whittington took the trouble of going to the attic and tried to spend some time there. He was discovered dead after a few hours though he was in perfect health at the time he visited the mansion. After that, though many people have tried to spend some time at the attic, none of them have been successful as they had to leave the place after being scared out of their wits.



They reported hearing all sorts of vague noises including a lot of groaning and sobbing. One person who managed to spend the night at the loft also reported hearing such noises and he mentioned that he was really scared from the experience.

This mansion is now the property of the State of Illinois and has been declared a historic site.

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