Episode 16: The Tennessee State Prison

Update: The audio quality is fixed! After a mic upgrade and a re-record, the audio is much better now. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode, we’ll explore the history and some of the terrifying stories centered around one of Tennessee’s most famous and recognizable abandoned landmarks. It began as one of the most modern and humane prison compounds in the country but ended as a maximum security nightmare for the inmates within. Welcome to the haunted halls of the Tennessee State Prison.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Tennessee Ghosts and Legends Podcast. My name is Lyle Russell. I am your host, and I love a good ghost story. In today’s episode, we’ll explore the history and some of the terrifying stories centered around one of Tennessee’s most famous and recognizable abandoned landmarks. It began as one of the most modern and humane prison compounds in the country but ended as a maximum security nightmare for the inmates within. Welcome to the haunted halls of the Tennessee State Prison.

Prison History:

This episode will begin with a disclaimer. The site described in this episode, the Tennessee State Prison, is not open to the public and access is strictly prohibited. I am not advocating for any investigator or abandoned building adventurers to violate the law and trespass on the property. The site is dangerous due to damage from a 2020 tornado hit and the physical structures are not safe. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s continue.

Tennessee was the sixteenth state to join the fledgling United States in 1796 after the Revolutionary War. That same year, the newly formed Tennessee state legislature passed three judicial acts to establish courthouses and stockades in towns across the new territory, and local jails for the more hardened criminals in county seats.

Seventeen years later in 1813, criminal behavior boiled up enough that Tennessee Governor Willie Blount and the legislature decided small jails were not enough. The legislature authorized voluntary contributions from the Tennessee citizenry to fund the design and construction of a new state penitentiary in the Nashville area, but only $2,000 was contributed; not nearly enough for the design the governor and legislature had in mind. The proposal failed from lack of public support and no prison was built.

Governor Blount’s proposal was taken up again under the new governor, Joseph McMinn, in 1819. He suggested that a loan from the Tennessee State Bank be drawn up to finish funding the construction of a state-of-the-art prison. However, public support could not be found for this new proposal either and the measure failed again. It was not until ten years later in 1829 that the general assembly finally acted on the idea with determination. A legislative vote was passed to appropriate $25,000 from the state coffers to build the much-needed prison facility on Church Street in Nashville. At long last, in April of 1830, ground was finally broken on what would become a 200-cell detention center called the Tennessee State Penitentiary. The doors were opened under Governor William Carroll on January 1, 1831, and the problems mounted right from the start.

This era was at the dark beginning of America's for-profit prison system. The penitentiary would operate for the next 67 years as a labor camp than a prison. Physical work was used as a way to make inmates pay-off the cost of incarceration. Much like the coal mining labor system that Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary would operate under several years later, prison labor would become a boon for the state treasury. In fairness, Tennessee was just one of many states who adopted this system of prison labor for profit. In the 1840s, there was a rise in the use of prison labor to replace higher wage workers, especially in the heavy-lifting construction and mining industries. The early prison system became synonymous with wrongful arrests, excessive punishments, and corruption. Inmates were used in the construction of most state projects, including roads and even the capitol building in Nashville. Even for petty crimes, sentences almost always resulted in intense, backbreaking labor, accompanied by unending isolation and silence. In the early years however, death sentences were reserved only for the most heinous of criminals for one reason: A dead prisoner generated no revenue. Prison labor became so lucrative that the state prison became a revenue-generating system that competed directly with free laborers and tradesmen, edging many skilled craftsmen out of the free market for their services in favor of the cheap labor of prisoners. By 1866, the entire inmate population was contracted out to private enterprise for nearly zero-wage labor. Prisoners would usually work 16-hour shifts in workshops, warehouses, and textile factories along the Cumberland River. Female prisoners labored under the same conditions at the prison production farm where food for the prisoners was grown. Inmates slept in solitary cells and were forbidden to speak to each at any time. 

From the first day it opened in 1831, overcrowding was an immediate problem. After the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union Army drove the Confederates from Nashville and turned the already crowded cells into a military prison in 1863. The sheer number of prisoners grew out of control, and daily operations became much more of a challenge. The overcrowding made segregating prisoners nearly impossible, forcing men and women to be jailed in the same locations, and then endure the additional crimes and tortures that ensued. 

Yes, this awful place housed men, women, and children, and often in close quarters and even in the same cells. In the early 19th century, crimes committed by children were treated the same as any adult crime, and they were punished accordingly. Stealing food or pick pocketing, for example, were sometimes treated more harshly that murder and rape. It wasn’t until 1892 that an additional cell house was built for women, but the oppressive overcrowding forced many to remain in the male cell blocks anyway. Children were also still housed with adult prisoners and faced the same punishments as adults for infractions. Severe corporal punishment was a daily occurrence. In one story, a young boy that was incarcerated for stealing food decided to make the best of his situation and whistle a tune while performing his daily backbreaking labor. Because he broke the rules of remaining silent, he was publicly flogged by the guards and died of injuries. The report of his death states he succumbed to injuries sustained while "on the job."

In an interesting statistical aside, one source I consulted stated that all recorded female prisoners in Tennessee in 1868 were African American women. This statistic stands out to me because after the Civil War ended in 1865, most of the southern states remained under Union occupation and influence during Reconstruction. Tennessee was unique that it was first to be readmitted to the union by quickly ratifying the 14th amendment, alleviating the continued suffering of former slaves in Tennessee sooner than other states, and gave African American freed men the right to vote shortly after in 1867. Under that historical context, it seems odd that only a year after such a monumental piece of legislation, all imprisoned women in Tennessee were also African American. That begs the question of just how interested union forces really were in freeing enslaved peoples because up until the 200-cell prison closed in 1898, the prison labor agreements continued and the prisoners still labored under slave-like conditions, even under union leadership.

As the problem of overcrowding continued to plague the small prison, the original 200-cell penitentiary was scheduled to be demolished and a newer, larger one was to be designed to replace it. In 1893, the legislature awarded the contract for a new facility to an architectural firm that came in too far over budget to continue, so the second architect to take on the project design was Samuel Manning Patton of Chattanooga, who would design the new prison and ironically become the first tragedy in its story. His design was based on another prison, the Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York. On an interesting side note, Auburn was the first reformatory prison to perform a prisoner execution by electric chair. This feature would also come to the Tennessee State Prison in 1913, and the first Tennessee prisoner, a man named Julius Morgan, would be executed three years later in 1916.

Patton boasted that 80% of the materials for the new prison building would be sourced from Tennessee manufacturers, keeping funds for construction in-state, and much of the remaining 20% needed for completion would come from salvaging parts of the old prison. In 1894, the legislature approved his ambitious plans and purchased 1,128 acres in an area known as Cockrill Bend, breaking ground later that same year. Patton would never see his design completed. He died in a fire inside a building of his own design in 1897, one year prior to the facility being completed. An ominous beginning for the legacy of the new State Prison. Despite the loss of the chief architect, the plan moved forward. 

In 1898, the old prison walls came down to finish the new one. Ironically, prison labor was used to salvage materials from the demolition to complete construction on the castle-like monstrosity that still stands today, the Tennessee State Prison. There was also an administration building and several other buildings on the property. The other buildings would be used for warehouses and offices. They had even built factories inside the prison walls. This second prison had 800 individual-cells, equipped to hold just one person at about 5 feet wide and 8 feet long. This became a problem on day one. Opening day of the Tennessee State Prison saw 1,403 prisoners admitted; 603 more than it was designed to hold. In 1899, the state adopted a temporary resolution to accept additional federal inmates at the prison as well, adding more bodies. The problems of the original building persisted, but now on a larger scale, and conditions inside quickly deteriorated into their previous state. The old sufferings continued.

Inside these new twenty feet high and three feet thick solid rock walls, prison officials decided that emulating the exterior structure of the Auburn Correctional Facility was not enough. They also adopted what was known then as the “Auburn System” of inmate discipline. Much like its namesake prison in New York, the Tennessee State Prison would enforce harsh regulations once again. The warden instituted striped uniforms, lockstep marching, daytime work, and make liberal use continual solitary confinement. Hard manual labor under strict silence became the normal routine. Inmate heads were to always stay down, and prisoners were not allowed to receive letters or calls from outside the walls except under rare circumstances. For the next 94 years, the prison would become infamous for its inhumane conditions, endless overcrowding, and violence between prisoners and prison factions. The lack of available cells on the first day saw children and teens once again housed with adult prisoners who were reported to suffer greatly at the hands of the older convicts and whipped daily as punishment. 

Patton’s design was heralded to be the most humanely designed prison in existence. Reality, however, had a different design. The guilty and the wrongfully convicted alike were still stripped of all human interaction and subjected to endless work hours. Every convict inside the penitentiary was expected to help with the cost of building the prison through physical labor. This labor requirement was rewarded with small rations, unheated and unventilated cells, and extreme loss of human dignity. As time went on, additional land was purchased around the prison for new buildings and for the state to work with private companies that would open factories inside the walls of the prison. 

Over the rest of the time the prison was open, multiple escape attempts and riots occurred, and violence between inmates was the rule. As I have stated in other episodes, sites of great human suffering and death tend to be hyperactive paranormal sites. Prisons are likely the second worst places closely behind the carnage of a battlefield for human suffering. This makes prisons hotbeds for residual negativity to linger behind. This facility that housed some of the most dangerous Tennessee criminals of the last two centuries and is purported to be one of the most haunted places in Tennessee. It was also the home of the first electric chair in the state. Prior to that, executions were performed with both public and private hangings. It was also the site of multiple riots, jailbreaks, and restlessness from overcrowding. Human suffering was in ample supply. It is said that you can hear the screams of those who were executed or feel random cold spots throughout the halls. You may even see apparitions of the previous residents. Due to the endless terrible conditions at this site, you might imagine there are multiple reports of hauntings inside these walls, but there isn’t. When the prison closed its doors for good in 1992, the property was fenced off and access was prohibited. Documentation is sporadic and some is obtained illegally. Closing the grounds has not stopped those who are willing to risk their own incarceration to investigate.

As I said, because the prison has been closed to the public since 1992, there is hardly any documentation of recent paranormal encounters. Many sources cite the prison as a haunted location, but other than the standard descriptions of slamming cell doors, disembodied voices, ghostly footsteps, and occasional screams thought to belong to the dead, words are all there is. It would seem that many who write about haunted places in Tennessee tend to fantasize the paranormal in the prison rather than present any evidence or compelling testimony that it is actually haunted. However, two episodes of VH-1’s Celebrity Paranormal Project were filmed there in 2006, and some minor evidence was documented during the show.

Season one, episode three of the Celebrity Paranormal Project, titled “The First Warden” had five entertainment personalities geared up to record their experiences for one night inside the walls. The episode featured Joe Piscopo, Mariel Hemingway, Picabo Street, Michael Bergin and Tonya Cooley, who walked parts of the prison in search of the ghost of its first warden, Tom Grisholm, said to have been murdered by an inmate. The show did not use real names during filming. My research found that the prison did not have a warden with that name. Based on the years mentioned, it is more likely the warden they were investigating was Glen Swafford, who was warden from 1915 to 1952. For 37 years, Warden Swafford ruled the prison with an iron fist and swift punishments for breaking prison rules. Under him, the prison earned the nickname, “Swafford’s Graveyard” due to his violent strategies on keeping order inside the walls. I hesitate to call sensationalized shows like Celebrity Paranormal Project as valid paranormal investigation, but the evidence they collected has some compelling moments. To keep consistent with the show’s references, we’ll continue to call the warden, Grisholm.

The first evidence comes when Street and Cooley use a thermal camera on a sallyport called The Door of Life. Prison legends say that Warden Grisholm would stand in the doorway and watch as fights between prisoners ensued in the yard. If an inmate made it to the door before the mob of prisoners got him, he would live, hence the name of the door. Sometimes, it was said that the warden would lock it early, leaving the targeted inmate to die on the threshold. The show says Grisholm was responsible for the death of over 150 prisoners in his time as warden, making viewers wonder if perhaps he should have been the one behind bars. When the investigative duo used the thermal imager on the doorway, a silhouette of a man could be seen in the doorway. The arms appeared to move up and down much like the motion of someone smoking a cigarette by raising and lowering it to their face. The shape had no heat signature, only a distinctly human-shaped outline in blue, indicating a cold spot.

The second group to investigate was Hemingway and Bergin, who venture into the building that housed death row and the electric chair. This building would become the focal point of both episodes and seemed to have the most activity. Bergin sat in the electric chair attempting to taunt the ghost of the warden to interact. It was said he witnessed every execution during his tenure and would whisper into the ear of each prisoner, so his voice was always the last one they heard before they died. While going through their motions to investigate, heavy thudding sounds were audibly heard on the recording. Bergin read the Lord’s Prayer to simulate last rites of a prisoner about to be executed. When playing back the recording later in the show, a heavy breathing sound along with a guttural growl could be heard on the tape. Hemingway and Bergin stated they did not hear that during recording. The reactions of the others appear to be genuine that what they were hearing was something paranormal and frightening.

Street and Bergin next investigated the warden’s office, the purported site of his death. It is said that as a display of superiority, the warden would place a revolver on the desk any time he met with a prisoner. In one instance in 1921, they say the prisoner named Benjamin Willis went for the gun, beat Grisholm to it, and shot him to death in his office chair. This story is not consistent with the real Warden Swafford, and my research was inconclusive on Swafford’s actual death date, but it was not 1921. In any case, Bergin sat in the office chair and read out loud the names of prisoners reportedly executed by the warden. Street, who remained in the hallway, reported hearing loud thumps, footsteps, and furniture move. She claimed that she was not alone in the hall.

Piscopo and Hemingway went to the final location, Cell Block C, where the warden is reported to allow a group of prisoners to burn to death in his cell and did not send assistance. The investigators stated they smelled smoke in the block as Piscopo locked himself in the cell. Hemingway ascended to the top catwalk and banged a baton on the doors, just as the warden did on his nightly patrol. Immediately on the way up, Hemingway stated it felt like someone was walking up the stairs behind her and that while she walked the catwalk, she would hear noises behind her like she was being followed. Nothing happened in the cell while she reenacted the warden’s walk.

The final piece on the show sends all five members of the investigative team back into death row and the electric chair to draw out the warden’s ghost again. While performing an almost ridiculous made-for-tv seance, loud bangs are recorded, and the entire team is frightened and uneasy. Picabo Street seems to channel the spirit of the warden, portraying a righteous attitude about having no regrets for the suffering he caused. While I am skeptical of that final scene, it does follow the reported actions of the real Warden Swafford and his penchant for cruelty.

The last episode of the show, titled “Dead Man Walking”, had another set of amateur celebrity investigators in the prison again. This time, they sought out evidence of the ghost of two prisoners named Leon Raymer, convicted of six murders and on death row, and George Cratzer, a prison gang enforcer who was murdered by one of his intended victims by being thrown over the 4th floor catwalk and falling to his death. The investigators this time are Danny Bonaduce and his wife Gretchen, and Chris Knight and his wife Adrianne Curry. Throughout the investigation, many similar situations are repeated. There are loud bangs, cell doors moving, general uneasiness, and feelings of being watched and followed. After spending time again in Cell Block C, an isolation cell called The Hot Box, Cell Block D, and the haunting hotspot, Death Row.

In each location, once again the investigators reenact events to try and coax out the spirits. In Cell Block C while reenacting the death of George Cratzer, Chris and Adrianne smelled burning wood, just like the investigators did in the previous episode in the same location. They also hang a spirit wind chime outside the cell that begins to chime while reenacting the death, and both claim to hear disembodied noises around the cells. The most convincing piece of evidence the show collects happens again in the cells of death row. While Danny and Adrianne are in the hallway, an audible growl is heard multiple times. Based on the reactions of the investigators, the sound has them visually unsettled. The sounds continue and both investigators claim there was something in there with them and they were not alone. The next scene adds Chris to the team, and they go back to Death Row to reenact an electric chair execution. While standing next to the electric chair, Adrianne panics that something whispered inaudibly in her ear. When splitting up to continue their investigation, they find that the main door to the area was closed behind them, and none of them closed it. 

Danny returns alone to Cell Block C to watch for activity while the others reenact an execution. He claims to continually hear the Spirit Chime ringing that was set up earlier and that at one point, the heavy sounds of crickets in the night fall into complete silence when they flip the electric chair switch. As on the previous episode, the whole team returns to death row for another mock séance. When they ask a question about any spirits there being in pain, they hear an audible scream, indicating a yes. Gretchen says aloud that she does not believe in any of this, when suddenly, a cell door near them slams shut along with an audible whispering moan.

While these shows are dramatized and the investigators are actors, the fear and unsettled expressions they wear on their faces are real and palpable when something happens. Certainly, any of the evidence they produced can be debunked, but the pretense is believable. The structure is damaged. The loud thuds could have been falling debris, and even the doors closing could be from deterioration. However, it is no stretch to believe there is a tremendous amount of negativity and anger reside here. Many who were imprisoned here deserved it. Many who ended up here did not. What was heralded as the most “humane” prison ever built was anything but humane despite your guilt or innocence. 

One other report comes from a prison guard in 1985 that has very little detail other than the investigation was dismissed out of hand. While walking his route on a tower, a guard radioed in that he could hear someone walking beneath his tower, but he could not see anyone. He thought it might be another attempt at escape. Other guards came on the scene ready to recapture anyone who might have slipped through, but no one was found, and all prisoners were accounted for. However, there were multiple sets of fresh footprints where the guard reported that encircled the tower, but it was inconclusive who made them. Then, the same footprints were found behind his chair inside the tower, though he was the only one on duty there at the time. The others claimed it was a hoax perpetuated by the reporting guard, though he vehemently denied it and swore he was not alone inside the tower. The investigation was dismissed soon after.

Even with a lack of tangible paranormal evidence, enthusiasts still claim the old penitentiary to be Tennessee’s most haunted prison. I disagree with that assessment based on a lack of investigation and evidence. But a lack of evidence does not mean the decaying halls are without spirits. However, based on events and conditions described by the living who worked and served time there, being a live prisoner seems a far worse fate than being a ghost in there. 

With little paranormal evidence to go on, let’s shift the conversation to descriptions of events we do know about. Over the course of nearly 100 years, the prison saw fires, riots, escape attempts, and over 100 executions. Monsters lived here, murderers, rapists, and psychopaths were sprinkled in with some who may not have deserved incarceration for petty crimes or those who may have been innocent of their accusations. One can imagine the high levels fear, suffering, and brutality boiling over and spreading within the stale, overcrowded, and unventilated penitentiary.

Hundreds of bodies are supposedly buried on the property in the early years, and the electric chair that took the most heinous lives on death row between 1916 and 1960. The later years of the prison were defined by several riots that broke out over racial tensions and conditions within the prison.

The first major escape attempt came in 1902. A group of seventeen prisoners orchestrated an escape plan by causing a massive explosion that blew away the walls at the end of a prison wing. The explosion killed one of the seventeen and injured multiple others. However, two prisoners did manage to escape through the fire and carnage, and are a mystery all their own. The names of the escapees were never made public, and scarce records indicate neither of them were recaptured or heard from again. 

In 1905, a group of inmates rioted and seized control of the segregated White wing and held hostages for 18 hours before finally surrendering. This uprising was due to racial tension between factions in the prison and was one of many uprisings that resulted in hostages being taken. 

In 1907, a group of desperate prisoners hijacked a switch engine and rammed through the prison gates in an escape attempt. There is very little information past the documented attempt, so it is unknown if they were successful or not. 

In 1938, another mass escape attempt saw several simultaneous fires lit to distract guards. The fires caused severe damage to the aging structure. The main dining hall fire burned for over an hour and caused over one hundred thousand dollars in damages. Again, little information is available past the basic incident description. Random smaller scale attempts were made after that, but none reported were successful.

In 1975 and 1985, major riots erupted in the prison leading to prisoner deaths and hostage situations. The 1975 riot, also commonly known as the “Pork Chop Riot,” started because the cafeteria ran out of pork chops at one of the meals and started serving cold bologna instead. Angry prisoners turned violent over the slight, with one prisoner demanding pork chops and nothing less would be accepted. He then struck a guard and the guard struck back, inciting the 400+ prisoners in the dining hall into attacking all the guards. The melee became so violent that the Tennessee National Guard and Nashville Metro Police were called on to quell the rioters. One prisoner died and 39 were injured before it was stopped. According to The Tennessean, an inmate kept a diary prior to the 1975 riot detailing the mood of the prisoners at the time. He wrote:

“We have been quiet too long. We have become like a body infested by maggots, but we are all united. We all speak the same language – freedom. Whatever meager privileges we still retain, we will now gamble away. Our backs are to the wall. We have no illusions that we will be rescued from afar. It is our fight: We shall accept the consequences together, whatever they may.”

When the riot started, then-acting warden Morford stated that unrest protocol was to fire shotguns in the air as warnings unless a guard is directly threatened. However, ten inmates were treated at local hospitals for gunshot wounds, with one critical case where a prisoner was shot at close range and suffered catastrophic injuries around his mouth, brain, and heart. Investigations were inconclusive why the prisoners were shot at all but were thought to have been shot during final sweeps and were among the most combative of the rioters. The prisoner who died was stabbed to death at the hands of a rival gang. It would seem they would not let a good crisis go to waste to accomplish their dirty work.

In an interesting side note, an escaped prisoner from the penitentiary was recaptured the same day of the riot. A few days prior, inmate David Powell, who was serving a 100-year sentence for murder, was helped over the north prison wall by two other inmates and had been missing for several days before being caught in a meat market in Nashville and returned to the prison after the riot was over. As you can imagine, there was hardly any rest for the inmates or the guards that oversaw them. There was always a crisis to deal with.

 The 1985 riot caused $2.5 million in damages to multiple areas of the prison with fires set in the laundry and commissary, and twelve guards taken prisoner. During that same week of July 1985, two other prison riots broke out in Tennessee. One at Turney Prison in Only, TN and another at the Morgan County Regional Correctional Facility. Though at different places, the riots all had a central theme concerning Tennessee prisons: Overcrowding, sub-human food, and a universal disdain for the Department of Corrections’ new orange and white striped uniforms.

The Tennessee Department of Corrections opened a new facility in 1989 to bring some relief to the staff at the main facility. The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville boasted modern facilities and state-of-the-art prevention systems to safeguard against riots, fires, and escape attempts. With more modern and safe options for housing inmates coming online, the violence and unrest inside the Tennessee State Prison finally ended in June 1992, when the facility was closed for good. As part of the settlement in a 1983 class action suit, the case of Grubbs v. Bradley ended in a permanent injunction by a Federal Court prohibiting the Tennessee Department of Correction from ever again housing inmates at the Tennessee State Prison.

The prison found a purpose even after closure. Several movies and music videos have been filmed in this fortress-like prison, often called “The Castle.” 

In 1968, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and Loretta Lynn, along with other stars of the era performed a Christmas concert at the prison. Johnny Cash would return in 1974 to record a live album with Roy Clark, Linda Rondstadt, and Foster Brooks. 

In 1990, Hollywood filmed “Ernest Goes to Jail” at the site, then “Against the Wall” in 1994 and “Last Dance” in 1996. Perhaps the most famous film shot on the prison grounds is 1999s “The Green Mile,” based on a Stephen King novel starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan. The next major production filmed at the site was “The Last Castle” in 2001, starring Robert Redford and James Gandolfini. Then, in keeping with authentic tradition, “Walk the Line” was filmed there in 2005 starring Joaquin Phoenix reprising Johnny Cash’s famous visit to the prison in 1968. The prison has also served as the backdrop for country artist Eric Church in two music videos, and then two episodes previously mentioned of VH-1’s Celebrity Paranormal Project. Due to significant deterioration, the interior was closed for filming in 2011, and then the site closed to the public permanently shortly after. 

One last item worthy of mention concerning prison performances comes from the prisoners themselves. In 1953, a singing group of prisoners called the Prisonaires was formed as a talent show and church service act. Five African American inmates comprised the group and produced one lasting hit, “Just Walkin’ in the Rain” that was later recorded for distribution by singer Johnny Ray. The Prisonaires performed at venues across the state, and even performed for President Harry Truman while visiting Nashville. Prisonaires lead singer Johnny Bragg was even visited by Elvis Presley to discuss music, songwriting, and perhaps a career after prison in the music industry. Their popularity was short lived, however, and of the five performers, only Bragg found any measure of music success, and was the only one who did not return to prison after being released.

While those stories bring a rosier light to bear on the prison, it will forever be known as a place you did not want to be. Even with closure to the public, some thrill seekers willing to break the law have visited the site and each have reported experiencing paranormal activity. In a place that has seen so much suffering and death, it is not a difficult stretch to assume the site is haunted. While I am a believer in the paranormal, I am skeptical without proof. The few pieces of evidence I did see from the Celebrity Paranormal Project hardly qualify as definitive proof. Music and sound effects can easily be dramatized, but the one thing that stands out to me from those episodes is the reactions of the investigators. While they are professional actors, it is difficult to hide genuine fear on your face. Many of the recorded instances of their reactions do appear to be genuine. In my research, I tried to find sources for any reported experiences by any of the film and movie crews who produced content from there. It either does not exist or I could not find it. If you know of such a source, please email a link and I will update the information in a future episode.

Reports of disembodied voices and screams, cell doors closing, feelings of uneasiness or being followed, phantom footsteps, and everything you might expect in such a terrible place are said to occur. Are the grounds of the Tennessee State Prison haunted? The circumstantial evidence says that it is, but we may never have definitive proof due to the unsafe conditions that still exist long after the last inmates have gone. It was dangerous when it was open. It’s even more dangerous now that it’s closed, and the spirits within may never find peace in such a place, still isolated from the outside world, reliving their last moments over and over, forever trapped forever behind the crumbling walls of the Tennessee State Prison.

END

Thank you for listening to today’s Tennessee Ghosts and Legends Podcast episode. I invite you visit my website at www.lylerussell.net if you’d like to learn more about this and other stories I’m working on. If you have had a paranormal experience or want to recommend a haunted location for me to research, I would love to hear about it. Feel free to send me a message through my website and tell me about your brushes with the spirit world. I am your host, Lyle Russell, and remember, the dead may seem scary, but it’s the living you should be wary of. Until next time.