you are now listening to cryptid cocktail party
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of
Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we have
a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive
into the unknown. I'm your host, Dave. Finally
joined once again by my wonderful co -host, Sarge.
How was Puerto Rico, Sarge? It's a beautiful
place, man. There's fucking chickens everywhere.
That sounds awesome. It's so awesome. It sounds
like my co -workers at first thought I was making
fun of it, and I was like, no, you don't understand.
There is nothing cooler than just like, big ass
chickens just fucking hanging out. Like they
have a lot of stray cats down there too. And
the chickens are like twice the size of the cats.
The chickens keep the cats in line probably.
Right. And I adapted so quickly to their method
of driving, which is just go and people will
get out of your way. How is it any different
than driving in a city? Um, because they don't
have street lights and no one uses their directional,
which is a lot like Rhode Island, but not a lot
like anywhere else I've ever been. I feel like
it's the same concept. No one uses their fucking
turn signals in Philly and people lights are
more of a suggestion than anything around here.
I don't know. So, so if you want to like change
lanes in Puerto Rico, you just have to gently
guide your car into the next lane. And the guy
directly next to you will either speed up or
slow down to accommodate you. But if you put
on your directional, I feel like then they're
like, no, I'm not moving. Yeah. That makes sense.
Because that way, that way you're intentionally
an asshole and not causing an accident. I also,
I went to a bar called El Bate where Hunter S.
Thompson and the Rolling Stones and Allen Ginsberg
used to drink. I got super lit, but not, uncontrollably
like gringo misbehaving lit i did not want to
embarrass myself in puerto rico that's where
we differ i would have fucking blacked out i
mean not that i get like violent or angry no
no you don't you don't i just didn't want to
like annoy anyone i didn't want to piss off the
locals so it's just very quietly extremely drunk
i would just i would just start screaming like
where's the touch tunes i gotta listen to higher
by creed Um, but the bar is cool cause it only
plays like rock music. Okay. Um, and the drinks
are really inexpensive. Uh, I had like four gin
and something. The first night I went there,
I had rum and Cokes and that was, that was like,
I want to say 40 bucks with tip. For how many?
And then, yeah. And then the next night I was
there, I was drinking this gin drink that somebody
made for us at another bar and the bartender
seemed to know what I was talking about so he
made them for us and man did we have a good night
did the bar like have any like was there like
fucking like old New York fucking delis where
there's just photographs of all the famous people
that went there or is it just like stories were
told about you know what's funny is the bar actually
had photographs of just like locals drinking
there which I thought was actually really cool
I feel like that's better they had like a couple
character drawings of like Allen Ginsberg and
Hunter S. Thompson yeah Um, but what I love the
most was just, there was handwriting all over
the walls. Like people just take Sharpies and
write on the walls. That's I like that. So I
made sure to write cryptic cocktail party on
the bar and Sarge was here. I do like, so if
you ever go to El Bate, go sit by the window
and, and show us some love. I, uh, I can't get
over the chickens. It reminds me, did you ever
play fable? Yes. Yes. Chicken chaser. It just
reminds me of just like, One big fable island.
Yeah, but I would not kick any of these chickens
because these, especially the males, the roosters,
the cocks, if you will, had gigantic fucking
claws. They were terrifying. Plus, they're probably
as dense as a bowling ball. You'd probably break
a toe. Oh, they were beefy, man. These chickens
were fucking beef machines. That's awesome. They
were also pelicans. I've seen pelicans before,
but I got to see these pelicans actually eating.
So they like come down and they scoop up out
of the water. That was really cool. That sounds
awesome, man. Well, I'm glad you had a good time.
I'm glad you, the wildlife, or I guess half wildlife,
chickens are pretty domesticated. Well, I guess
not those ones. Those are as free range as you
can get. People love them. The locals that I
work with were telling me that like, they're
just very, they're like part of the culture.
Yeah. And so I was, I was very respectful to
the chickens as well. I love them. I wish I had
one because it's so cool. Well, maybe one day,
maybe one day. They're black too. They're like,
like jet black. The female chickens are all jet
black. And then the males have like all kinds
of wild colors. Silky chickens or whatever. No,
they're beautiful. Whatever they are. All right.
Well, glad you had a good time. I missed you.
Yeah. I miss you. I missed recording. I wish
I could have recorded down there, but I was on
a plane trying to beat the blizzard. Oh, yeah,
that sucked. Yeah, no, Brennan Storr from the
Ghost Story guys filled in, and he did a pretty
good job of being a Sarge proxy, I guess. The
good news is I don't intend on missing any more
episodes for quite a while, so I think we're
in good shape. Well, that's good. Well, we're
going to do something a little different today,
Sarge. This is part one of a two -parter that
we're going to do. We're going to be doing...
It's going to lead into hauntings, but I feel
like before we get to that, we have to kind of
talk about the history of what we're going to
be talking about. And this week, we're going
to be discussing Eastern State Penitentiary.
Are you familiar with Eastern State? I have heard
of it. Okay. Didn't fucking Zach Dildo Baggins
do an episode there? I don't know if he did.
He probably. Fucking why not? Ghost Hunters did
a long time ago, and they captured... Claris
EVP, right? No, they captured what is probably
the best video footage of a full -body apparition
I've ever seen in my entire life. It's fucking
crazy. I'll have to look that up because I love
it when there's a full -body apparition. That's
always the coolest thing. I always get so excited.
I think it's one of the most... That piece of
footage is now in ghost hunting history as definitive
proof. It's fucking crazy. Well, that's because
most ghost hunting shows... You get a piece of
dust that's reflecting light and they're like,
look, it's a ghost. Oh, no, it's not. You fucking
clown. It's dust. This is pretty crazy. It like
runs towards the camera. Then like runs back.
Like it's fucking, there's like motion and movement.
It's wild. But yeah, so we're going to look that
up. We're going to be talking about Eastern state
penitentiary. Um, it's not far from me. I've
been there a few times, walked around, never
like at night, but like I did the tour. The tour
is pretty cool. Uh, the audio tour, if you do
it, it's, uh, narrated by Steve Buscemi. Even
better. Even better. It's pretty good. um but
yeah so i figured part one what we do is we just
talk about the prison how it started where it
went how what went on there that kind of stuff
and then you know once you understand the history
and kind of like that i think we can understand
the hauntings a bit better i feel like so we're
gonna do it that way um and to demonstrate my
maturity i won't make any prison sex jokes i
mean you It's going to be hard because we'll
get into it. No, no, no. It's not. Dave, come
on. You know, I'm saying it's going to be hard
to make those jokes. There you go. Because of
how the prison kind of operated through most
of its time. Okay. All right. But before we start,
I guess this goes without saying, I am in no
way a fucking historian. You know what? That's
so weird. I thought. Yeah. I thought for sure
that you would. no received a degree from some
highfalutin historical university no i uh i watch
a lot of documentaries um girls same i listen
to a lot of podcasts and uh i read a lot of just
internet articles and stuff like that so if some
of this information is wrong like dates or something
like that or if i just get something i just remember
i got all this from my my quote -unquote research
that i did which was read stuff online, watch
some documentaries, and listen to a few podcasts.
I mean, frankly, that's how I do my research,
and I feel like that's how most YouTubers do
their research. So I think we're okay. I'm just
saying, if anyone's got a problem with this,
write me a strongly worded email at cryptococktail
.gb .com. Yes, and we will read it on air and
tell everyone. All right, Sarge. So how did Eastern
State Penitentiary... Come to be. It didn't just
fucking show up out of nowhere. Well, to answer
that, we need to go back almost 50 years before
the prison even opened. In the late 1700s, reformers
in Philadelphia started thinking, hey, you know
what? Maybe the way we've been punishing people.
Just isn't it? Executions and whippings were
nothing more than just public spectacles. Jails
were just overcrowded holding pens for anyone
and everyone, regardless of your age or the severity
of your crime. Like an 11 year old kid who stole
a pie from a windowsill was thrown in with a
37 year old man who just got done murdering his
entire family. Yeah. Wasn't a great system. Yeah.
And it definitely didn't help anyone, especially
in the reform. of what prison should be. So in
1787, a group called the Philadelphia Society
of Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.
Jesus. Yeah, they didn't really work on brevity
when it came to naming this. That title is a
handful. Yeah. They formed and started pushing
for something different. Among the people involved
in this group were Dr. Benjamin Rush and Ben
Franklin because that motherfucker just had to
have his hands in everything. Now, this group's
goal was all about transformation. They believe
that punishment should produce repentance, which
is actually where the word comes from. I guess
the concept was that someone would become penitent
when in a penitentiary. Ideally. So instead of
humiliating or straight up murdering someone
in public, the theory was that structured isolation
would force prisoners to reflect on what they
had done to wind up there. Does that make sense?
The Russian system. Yeah. So if you remove the
noise, the influence of other prisoners and just
kind of strip everything down to the individual
and their consciousness, then they would have
no choice but to reflect and see the error of
their ways. At least that's what the theory is
anyways. I remember hearing something about this.
Yeah. Sounds like a bad idea. Yeah. It's basically
solitary confinement. Maybe we'll get there.
There was an early attempt to implement this
new theory at the Walnut Street Jail in the 1790s.
And at first, the reformers saw what looked like
promising results. But not long after that, overcrowding
and administrative problems cut their little
experiment short. But instead of just abandoning
the idea of isolation as punishment altogether,
they thought, well, what if we just build a place
of our own and do this whole forced isolation
shit whole hog? which is exactly what they did.
And so they got to work and they got to work
pretty fast. By the early 1820s, lobbying for
the new facility started to gain momentum and
eventually it got the green light. Then a design
competition for the new prison was held. A design
competition? Yeah, why not? Let's have fun with
it. Then architect John Havlin's plans were selected
on May 24th, 1822. The cornerstone was laid in
1823. And on October 25th, 1829, Eastern State
admitted its very first prisoner. And the building
itself, like the design of it was an expression
of like the philosophy that they were trying
to instill. It was constructed. It was constructed
in what's known as a hub and spoke layout with
the cell blocks extending outward from like a
central. like yeah and from that center point
is what essentially is a panopticon it's not
a true panopticon but and if anyone who doesn't
know what a panopticon is is that big tower in
the middle of prisons where they can just look
out and see everyone thank you i had no idea
what the fuck that was it's one of my favorite
words also one of my favorite bands it is actually
my new favorite word too panopticon it's a great
word yeah but if you ever see like a prison where
it's like the the cell blocks are down low but
there's that one big tower in the middle It's
that's a panopticon or I like that a lot. Yeah.
And that's basically from up there. Guards could
keep an eye on each corridor below it. The exterior
of the prison is basically built like a fucking
fortress. It's big. It's imposing. Like if you
see it, it's not welcoming. It's not a friendly
place. Yeah. Like if you were a prisoner walking
up to it for the first time, it's got to fuck
with you. Like, you know, you must see and be
like, well, there's no way I'm getting out of
there. Obviously. Right. But inside, it was surprisingly
modern. Each cell had heat, plumbing, and a skylight,
which, fun fact, would later be known as the
Eye of God, which maybe isn't a fun fact. It's
probably more haunting than anything. It's awful.
It's not explicitly stated, but there was a lot
of religious undertones to this experiment. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Now, the system of imprisonment.
That they came up with that was used at Easter
State Penitentiary became known as the Pennsylvania
system or the separate system on account of all
the separation. Right. Prisoners lived alone,
worked alone, exercised alone. When prisoners
were moved around, they were hooded so they can't
see or interact with other inmates or learn the
layout of the prison. And silence wasn't an option.
You had like had to be quiet. It's like one of
the one of the only rules. Well, there's a lot
of rules. It's prison, but you get it. Wait,
I only have to be quiet? I can't wait to stab
someone. Good luck. How are you going to get
to him? I'll just start swinging wildly while
I'm wearing my hood. I'm bound to hit something.
Eastern State Penitentiary is often described
as a Quaker -inspired prison, seeing as how Quaker
reform was... Kind of like shaping Philly around
this time, but it wasn't just a religious project.
Like I said, there was some religious undertones
to it. It was also a product of Enlightenment
era confidence, a fucking super strong confidence
that institutions could be designed to improve
society and that environment could reshape behavior,
which, spoiler alert, it didn't. I mean, it did,
just not. Prison brought to you by the same people
who brought you. Yeah, it did, just not in the
way that they were hoping. So at the time of
the prison's opening, Eastern State Penitentiary
wasn't seen as like brutal or regressive, you
know, because of the whole solitary confinement
stuff is actually viewed as pretty innovative.
Like people love this shit. Visitors from Europe
toward it, just like they do now. And other countries
even studied it and adopted versions of it and
its systems in their own prisons. It represented
a very. particular moment in american history
where reformers believe crime could be addressed
by means of isolation discipline and introspection
not you know now whether or not that belief held
up in practice well it it kind of seems like
they didn't even wait for it to be a successful
plan before they did it oh yeah no they were
just like this sounds awesome fuck yeah what
could go wrong because you know it looks badass
and pedopticon great word i'm building 10 well
you know Let's put it this way. Humans notoriously
do so well when alone. Yeah. So we're great at
it. Yeah. On paper, it sounds good, as most things
do. In practice, it was basically psychological
torture. for the prisoners sounds about right
yeah when a prisoner arrived at eastern state
he was hooded before being moved like i mentioned
before this was so the prisoner couldn't learn
the layout of the prison as well as preventing
inmates from seeing one another because the whole
concept of separation had to be maintained as
soon as a prisoner stepped inside the jail or
what's the point of it right now once inside
each man was in place in an individual cell that
was designed to basically be like their entire
world but unlike many other jails of this era
these cells were pretty big at least comparatively
and like i said surprisingly modern they had
heat plumbing eye of god skylight and each cell
had a small private exercise yard attached to
it which sounds nice until you remember that
the core rule of the prison is total isolation
prisoners here spent roughly 23 hours a day inside
their cells they ate in there they slept in there
they even worked in there doing one of a number
of different jobs that included shoemaking weaving
chair caning or dyeing clothes even their exercise
was done in isolation because those nice private
yards that were attached to their cells they
were enclosed by like super high concrete walls
so that you couldn't see the person next to you
or in front of you Communication between inmates
was strictly forbidden. And any attempt to even
try and speak to your neighbors could result
in some pretty harsh punishment, which we'll
get into later. Visitors were limited. And in
the early decades of the prison, letters and
newspapers were prohibited. So there was just
no contact with the outside. You had no idea
what the fuck was going on with the world, people
you knew, loved. That's messed up. That is really
messed up. Yeah. Religious practice was permitted,
though. Even that was very structured and highly
controlled. Right. I don't really know what that
means. I didn't really get into it. I'm assuming
you just pray by yourself. Or I kind of feel
like maybe they tell you which religion you are
now. That could also be it too. I don't truly
know. Oh, you're Jewish? Well, not anymore. Again,
the theory behind this is that without distraction,
noise, outside influence, a person would have
no choice. but to confront their own conscience.
That's the ideal version of this anyway. Right.
But it didn't take long before some people started
to question whether this, you know, whole level
of isolation was actually doing what it was supposed
to. I'm going to guess it wasn't. In 1833, just
four years after the prison first opened, Gustave
de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, I think
is how you pronounce it. Tocqueville. Yeah, that's
what it is. France examined the American penitentiary
and did a little write up of what they saw. Now,
while they did acknowledge the ambition behind
the system, they also warned that absolute solitary
confinement could potentially maybe. Have some
serious psychological consequences. And they
did voice concerns that pushing isolation too
far may not produce, you know, penance, but mental
breakdowns. Yeah, that sounds that sounds far
more likely. Yeah, then in 1842, Charles Dickens
visited Eastern State during his tour of the
U .S., and he didn't seem to care for what he
saw either. In his book, American Notes for General
Circulation, he described the system as, quote,
rigid, strict, and hopeless solitary confinement,
and argued that this kind of isolation was cruel,
not because it left visible scars, but because
it tampered with, quote, the mysteries of the
brain. Oddly poignant statement coming from Charles
Dickens. And the damage being done was internal
and slow. The kind that might not show itself
immediately, but would take its toll over time.
And Dickens wasn't just pulling the stuff out
of his ass. Like he was there. He saw how people
lived. He heard the silence. He understood the
rules of the prison that he was at. But I don't
know why he why he wanted to begin with. Maybe
because he wanted to see how fucked up it was.
Or maybe just a weird dude. I don't know much
about Charles Dickens. All I know is that he
was a terrible person to his wife. I feel like
most people back then were. Yeah, I mean, it
was the 1800s. It's not really. Pretty par for
the course, I feel like. Though really no time
has been great for women, I guess. This is also
true. And oh, speaking of silence, that came,
I feel like saying that right after not a good
time for women. It was a crazy segue. Speaking
of silence. Now shut up and make a sandwich.
Yeah, no, but. Oh, problematic. But speaking
of the silence. It would seem that around this
time, prison administrators were having a hard
time maintaining that silence because you're
dealing with human beings and human beings are
social creatures that also we tend to find ways
to bend the rules. Right. Well, I was also just
thinking like prison now is full of totally crazy
people. And when you're when you generate when
you built a prison that is going to make you
crazy anyway, like, come on. Maybe not, maybe
not when it first opened, but I bet after a few
years, it was just nonstop screaming from like,
it's just so, cause everyone's going slightly
like more and more insane as the isolation just
keeps taking them. Well, yeah. Cause the guards
aren't even allowed to talk to you in that prison,
right? Oh, probably not. Well, I mean, they probably
were, but it was probably just a fucking yell
at you while they're beating the shit out of
you for talking. Yeah, but but inmates attempted
to communicate through like heating vents, tapping
messages along walls and the plumbing pipes any
way they could, you know, to try and find some
sort of human connection. But administrators
of the prison didn't care. And they treated these
attempts not as some minor infraction, but pretty
much like serious threats to the foundation of
the entire system. And the punishments for something
like this could escalate pretty quickly. Punishments
for this would range from what is pretty much
just enhanced solitary confinement, where they
put you in a dark cell on reduced rations, which
was usually just bread and water, all the way
up to restraints, which included something known
as the iron gag, which sounds exactly what it
sounds like. It was a metal device placed in
the mouth, and then it was secured behind the
head. And like any good gag, it prevented speech,
but if used improperly, it could cause some pretty
serious injuries. Yeah, you shouldn't put metal
in someone's mouth. Yeah, well, wouldn't you
know, in 1834, an investigation was opened, and
it focused on the warden, Samuel R. Wood, after
allegations that a prisoner named Matthias McComsey
died after having the iron gag forced on him.
Now, the official cause of death was recorded
as him having passed away from a stroke, but
witness testimony during the investigation highly
suggests that the punishment may have contributed
to his conditions, which... Probably, but the
warden was never convicted of any wrongdoing
because, of course, and actually he remained
the warden all the way up until he retired. That
makes sense. It's good to know that America hasn't
changed at all. Not in the least. But this incident
matters because it kind of exposed something
in the heart of the system that they were trying
to do. Like a prison founded on the idea of like.
promise of humane reform was already wrapped
up in controversy for potentially lethal disciplinary
practices within just a few years of operation.
And it's important to note also that the iron
gag wasn't like made for Eastern state. Like
it just wasn't an Eastern state exclusive device.
Restraints, dark cells and physical punishments
were super common in American prisons at the
time. What made this whole. incident and now
eastern state as a whole controversial wasn't
that the punishment existed but that it coexisted
with all the rhetoric of like moral uplift and
humane reform if that makes sense yeah i mean
there was a lot going on at this time too i feel
um because there was there was like a big religious
enlightenment that was also going on at the time
and so i feel like people were just doing a lot
of weird shit all at once well i mean this kind
of this whole idea this whole prison system idea
that they were it kind of came from that Yeah,
it came from the Quakers. Quakers in the Enlightenment
era bullshit. But hey, Sarge, why don't we just
ignore the Iron Gag controversy for a bit? Let's
set aside Dickens. I will ignore it if you'll
describe it for me because I need to know what
this thing looks like. Oh, you ever seen Saw?
Oh no. That's no good. It's kind of, it's kind
of like that here. Hold on. I'll pull up a picture
for you. Well, I can Google it if you want. That
way you don't have to try and show it through
the camera. I just, I gotta know what this thing
looks like. Oh yeah. It's not great. I don't
like that. I don't know what I was expecting,
but this is worse. Yeah. I mean, I said it's
like saw, but not, I mean, it's not. as bad as
like a reverse bear trap scenario, but it's also
not as good as just not having it in your mouth.
I feel like there's so many things that could
go wrong with this. Yeah. Yeah. And the guy died
with one of these in his mouth. Well, hold on.
Allegedly. All right. Allegedly. Officially,
he had a stroke. Oh, okay. Okay. But yeah, well,
let's ignore the iron gag for a bit. Let's set
aside, you know, Dickens and those French dudes
criticisms about like mental health. There was
a whole other problem starting to build inside
the walls of Eastern State overcrowding. So Eastern
State was designed to hold 250 prisoners. And
this whole system depends on that number because
isolation only works if you have the space to
enforce it. But, you know, Philly is an ever
growing city. So crime started going up and.
In return, so did the prison population. By the
1870s, the inside of Eastern State started to
look a lot different from the original blueprint.
Roughly half of the prisoners were now sharing
cells. And once that started happening, the whole
premise of the separate... system kind of just
falls apart yeah the inmates are living together
talking together and just generally existing
near each other your whole system kind of collapses
which it did in 1913 when they officially abandoned
the whole separate system for good and from there
it was kind of all over so they did this separate
system for like a more than a hundred years a
little close to it yeah i want to know what the
first conversation was like when the first like
Guy who hasn't been able to talk for 10 years
finally gets a roommate. Just gets a roommate.
Yeah. I can't imagine it was great because I'm
sure they probably still tried to enforce the
whole silence thing. But also, I feel bad for
the dude who's now that guy's roommate because
he's walking in. This guy's already crazy. He's
screaming and fucking having hallucinations and
shit. He's like, don't sit there. That's where
my friend sits. Yeah. And then alone. And I've
been there. The cells are... I mean that comparatively
bigger than what they would have been at the
time, but you can't two beds in there. It must've
been fucking crazy hard. Yeah. It must've made
it, it must've made it worse. Like now there's,
it was big for one person, but two people it's
fucking tiny. Yeah. It's messed up. It sounds
messed up. I absolutely like granted I'm a pretty
moral person. Like I just don't believe in doing
bad shit all the time. But like one of the main
things that stops me from, committing crimes
is knowing that I would have to go to prison.
Yeah. It's a good deterrent. I feel like I'm
not smart enough to get away with a crime. And
so that's why I don't commit them. That's that's
pretty smart. Like for instance, I would never
steal from somebody or like, you know, hurt somebody
or take away their rights or something like that.
But the thing that keeps me from robbing a bank
is knowing that I'll go to jail for it. Cause
I'm not smart enough to get away with it. And
I would not do well in prison. Well, Luckily,
you know, luckily we got rid of solitary confinement.
Like when I was in Puerto Rico, I was stuck in
an elevator because we were stupid and had too
many people in it. And the elevator was like,
no, I don't think so. So we were stuck in there
for like a minute or two. And I was already sweating
and nervous. So I can only imagine what would
happen to me in a prison cell after like 24 hours.
You probably end up. being like one of the early
inmates at Eastern State. You just immediately
start hallucinating. Yeah, I'll come out like
Lord of the Flies, all carved a spear out of
a table leg. Something, yeah. War paint. But
yeah, but like I said, in 1913. They abandoned
the separate system for good. But like I said,
it was all over by then. The population of the
prison exploded, and by the mid -1920s, Eastern
State Penitentiary held around 1 ,700 inmates.
Again, it was built for 250. Bunk beds? So, well,
to try and accommodate all these new guests,
Pennsylvania expanded the prison. Over time,
new cell blocks were added, increasing from the
original seven up to 15 by the mid -1900s. Efficiency
at this point is now the name of the game. It's
no longer about the ideology. Yeah, just get
them in. Yeah, so it started as this carefully
engineered moral experiment, ended up becoming
just another prison. Like, the talk of reform
and all that bullshit, it still existed at Eastern
State, but the day -to -day reality now is just
containment. Yeah. Yeah. Good plan. And at this
point, it's pretty much just an old crowded fortress
trying to keep up with modern crime. And no one
really gives a shit about it anymore. That is
until the 1920s and 1930s when it started to
gain a bit of newfound notoriety. When in 1929,
Scarface himself, Al Capone, was sent to Eastern
State Penitentiary on a concealed weapons charge
of all things. Of all the things. They have a
concealed, it was a concealed weapons charge
back then? It was, well, it was like an unregistered,
he had a firearm, an illegal firearm. How's that?
Okay. Concealed weapons charge, I guess, is kind
of the easiest way to word it. Well, it's good
to know that guns have become much less of a
problem now. Yeah, same thing with solitary confinement.
We've kind of solved both those problems. problems
that we knew about over a hundred years ago.
Yeah. And we're still, we still have them. Yeah.
He, he, he wasn't there for long. I think he
was sent, he was sentenced to a year, but got
out in nine months for good behavior. But this
became one of the more famous chapters in the
prison's history for some reason. And his dude,
he, so his cell. since he was like fucking Al
Capone, everyone knew who he was. He, his cell
had like, he had carpeted floor. He had a radio,
a lamp table. Like he, like they just had a phone
dude. Pretty much. Yeah. Like they, they, if
you go there today, they have like his cell or
what they believe to be a cell. Cause there's
no, they didn't keep records apparently where
people stayed. So they kind of gathered where
he was and they like redid his cell and he had
like oil paintings on the wall. Like he was,
Living good for those nine months that he was
in there. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. But it
wasn't just Capone that was reshaping the prison's
image because escapes started becoming a real
problem at old Eastern. That makes sense. Yeah.
Just a few years before Capone's time in 1923,
six prisoners managed to escape using a ladder
that was built in sections and stored in foot
lockers. Smooth. Yeah. Five of the men were eventually
recaptured. One was found all the way in Hawaii,
which. fucking he he was he was almost out he
was he was so close to freedom at that point
but uh but one man leo callahan uh he was never
found and remains the only prisoner to have successfully
escaped and never returned which i think he was
murdered by the other five yep that would be
my guess that would be my guess i know that you
know a lot of the times people who escape from
prison are terrible but there's always some part
of me that's like go buddy get out of there yeah
stay out like those dudes who fucking escaped
alcatraz yeah they think escaped out like i want
nothing more than for them to be alive still
exactly or not alive probably but you know i
mean at this point they definitely did but like
Yeah. Like, even though I know that terrible
people, a lot of people who escaped from prison,
I'm always like, maybe they get out and they
just, they live a good life from now on. Yeah.
I mean, that's not the case. Well, I mean, they
kind of have to, or else they're just going to
go back to prison. Exactly. Exactly. They're
just going for the Canadian border. Yeah. Then
there's someone else's problem. Sorry, Canada,
but this is what you get for Nickelback. Yeah.
And Celine Dion. Just, you know, like 60 years.
Before. Then on April 3rd, 1945, 12 inmates escaped
through a tunnel beneath the prison wall and
under Fairmount Ave. Now, this escape is usually
associated with Willie Sutton, who was like a
famous bank robber. I believe there's like a
quote associated with him where he's like, well,
I rob banks because that's where the money is.
It's pretty funny. His name does sound familiar.
But I think he just took credit for it because
evidence evidence suggests that the mastermind
behind the tunnel was actually an inmate named
Clarence Clinton Clintonist. I do not know how
to pronounce. He had his nickname was Clinton.
We're just going to go with that. Yeah. It really
doesn't matter. What matters is this tunnel was
fucking crazy elaborate. It had wood reinforcement
like braces. It was lit with electricity. And
yeah. And who the fuck knows what they did with
the dirt that they. tunneled out of it uh they
just uh they they put it in their pockets and
then uh just kind of dumped it as they walked
around i guess but for a prison tunnel it was
it was like an engineering marvel like i'm impressed
it's pretty intense um and then so now we're
gonna we're in the 1940s we're gonna fast forward
1960s and things haven't gotten any better intentions
inside the prison due to it being an overcrowded
shittily retrofitted 19th century stone structure
uh Didn't make things great. And on January 31st,
those tensions exploded into a full blown riot.
The riot reportedly began when an inmate named
John Klausenberg tricked a guard into opening
his cell for him. And then once he was out, he
overpowered the guard. Other inmates joined in.
Guards were taken hostage and then fires were
set all around the prison, especially in the
prison records office. It escalated even better
pretty quickly. Authorities responded the best
way they know how, which is. Pretty heavy handed.
Yeah, just kill everybody. Well, tear gases deployed.
Armed officers stormed the prison. The riot was
eventually suppressed. Obviously, it's still
not going on. It only lasted a few hours. No
one died as far as I know, but the damage was
pretty much done. And I don't mean like physical
damage to the prison, but like. To its reputation.
Reputational damage, yeah. Because even at this
time, the prison was considered relatively stable
compared to like some other prisons in the country.
But that riot in 1961 completely shattered that.
I kind of want to know how he tricked the guard.
Like, what did he say? Is he just like, can you
open the door to my prison cell, please? Why?
Because I need to go into my prison cell? Oh,
fair enough. Come on out. It probably was like,
I'm sick. I need to go to the infirmary or something
like that. I'm sure it wasn't just like, hey,
you want to open the door? We don't know that,
though. We don't know that. People were more
trustworthy back then. True. He was the first
liar. In 1961? Yeah. It all went downhill after
that. Now, public confidence in the prison was
weakening, and so was the prison itself. old
as fuck maintenance costs getting pretty high
conditions were deteriorating and the population
was still way too high and the state began to
seriously considered you know does it make sense
to keep pouring money into an old fortress that
didn't reflect like modern correctional standards
considering that at this time Pennsylvania already
had like newer facilities that were way easier
and way cheaper to operate And in 1970, Pennsylvania
officially ceased operations at Eastern State.
Kinda. In 1971, it was used briefly as a city
jail, but then it closed for good. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, but for more than half a century, roughly
75 ,000 people had passed through eastern states.
Jesus. Some stayed briefly, some stayed for years,
some went there under the promise of moral reform,
and others arrived long after that idea had fucked
off. Right, right. But regardless of when they
arrived, they all were trapped behind the same
walls. In the early years, that meant near total
isolation, hooded movement, enforced silence.
Later on, it meant overcrowding, tension. crumbling
infrastructure and a system trying to hold on
to a philosophy it had long abandoned the system
changed the population changed but the foundation
was always confinement inside thick stone walls
to separate human beings from each other what's
interesting is that during its operation eastern
state was controversial for a lot of things all
of which we covered but one thing it wasn't was
ghosts that part of the story comes later and
that is where we're going to pick up part two
and talk about the hauntings of eastern i'm so
excited yeah i'm so excited i love a good haunted
prison also i want to clarify i spoke earlier
about prison sex and making a joke i wasn't talking
about the bad kind i was talking about the consensual
kind okay sure yep yeah the bad kind i that's
awful i'm talking about two men who find love
behind bars i think there's a tool song about
that Yeah, man. Like I've been to an old shutdown
prison. Yeah. When I was in the army, we did
training in one. Well, that makes sense. Let
me tell you. It seems like a good spot for training
purposes. Horrifying place. Oh, yeah. It's not
great. Yeah. Horrifying. Like we had to sleep
in the like the dining area. We had to set up
cots. And at night we were kind of allowed to
like, if we wanted to, we could just sort of
walk around and check stuff out and fuck my life.
That was terrifying. Do you remember where it
was? Where was it? I want to say it was Bridgewater
State. Okay. So it was a prison for the mentally
insane was what it was called back in the day.
I think that's where I was. I'm pretty sure.
Um, but it was horrifying and fun, but horrifying.
Yeah. I mean, being in abandoned places, no matter
what is always fun. Is it always, it's always
cool. Yeah. There was like, it was one room we
found that had like just prisoner records like
lying on the ground. Fuck. Yeah, dude. Yeah.
It was crazy. It was crazy. Um, But yeah, like
I am so excited. I love a good haunted prison.
Yeah. But how do you feel about Eastern State?
It kind of sucks. It wasn't a good place. It
sounds terrible. It sounds exactly as bad as
I thought it would be. Yeah. The thing is like
with this, like back then, like when it was like
mostly like the isolation stuff, because isolation
stuff didn't last very long. It ended, like I
said, in 1913. But back then, psychology wasn't
like super big at the time. Yeah. So there's
no like. we don't know what happened to the,
we can only, only assume what happened. Right.
To the person. I mean, they were only like, at
that point, they were only like, what, 40 years
away from phrenology. Yeah. So like we, like
I didn't include any, like these people fucking
went insane and just started doing crazy shit,
which we can just assume they did. Like if you're
isolated for that long, you're going to have
auditory hallucinations. You're going to have,
you're going to see shit. You're going to, you're
going to go crazy. Like I said, after the first
like four years, I bet every one of that prison
was just screaming nuts. Like, yeah. just either
screaming audibly or screaming inside their own
head yeah something dude like it couldn't have
been great yeah that's awful and then yeah like
i said once they stopped that whole isolation
thing by then it was just overcrowded and just
crumbling infrastructure like nothing about this
prison was good but it like set a standard for
what prison should be for like a long time which
is crazy I wasn't even kidding about the Russian
system either. It's called the Black Dolphin.
Well, they probably fucking stole it from this.
Yeah, probably. I mean, the prisoners are moved
around in stress positions, so they're bent over.
They're not allowed to speak. I believe they're
blindfolded anytime they move them. Yeah. And
Russia has not got a great reputation. There's
a lot of cannibalism for a modern country. I
feel like they're doing all right. Yeah. No,
they're doing great. Yeah. Nothing crazy ever.
Very peaceful. Okay. And no one ever falls off
of a balcony. Yeah. Or gets polonium poisoning.
It was not polonium. He had the cold. Yeah. All
right. But yeah, that's Eastern State. It sucks.
It's not great. Terrible. But also, apparently,
considering how... most of it was isolation not
a lot of murders or anything there wasn't a lot
of like crazy there were probably suicides and
stuff which yeah i mean there definitely was
um but there wasn't a lot of like violence besides
the riot and shit like that which is i feel like
it's crazy it must have been really difficult
in the in the early days obviously to to do any
kind of violence but i think by like by like
the end of it by the time that prison was closing
like it's so miserable. I can, I imagine they're
just kind of like, well, we're in this together.
Yeah. Or it was just so packed that you couldn't
lift your arm up to stab anyone. It was just,
you just arms are stuffed by everybody's just
kicking each other's shins. Yeah. Like you just
couldn't fucking move considering it was 1700
people. That's what is that? That's like six
times more than what should be in there. Yeah.
Cause you said it went from seven buildings to
15. So a little bit more than double the size,
but, way more prisoners yeah because by that
logic it should only fit 500 people right insane
yeah it's bananas um all right yeah so that's
it next week we'll uh we'll go over hauntings
but like there's different experiences people
have in different sections so we'll cover all
those and you know maybe i'll find some evps
or something online we can listen to some shit
yeah I'm going to look up that full body operation
thing. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. But yeah. Is
there anything you, you got any questions, concerns,
anything you want to add before we wrap this
up? No, no. Really interesting. I, I had, as
you were talking, I remembered I'd heard like
a little bit, but you definitely like explained
it better than I knew for sure. I'd heard a little
bit about the Quaker system and yeah, it must've
been Eastern state that they were talking about.
Cause I, I very much remember the spoke. what
was it? The hub and spoke. I very much remember
that. Yeah. Cause if you look at it from top
down, you'll, you'll see what I'm talking. Oh
yeah. You can post pictures and stuff. Oh, one
thing I didn't mention, I wish I had brought
this up earlier. Cause by now no one's listening
anymore. There was a, like an unofficial inmate
at the prison and it was a dog. He even had a
inmate number and stuff like that. I forget his
name, but I'll, I'll try and figure it out. And
I'll, I'll mention it. The most adorable prisoner.
Yeah. It was like a black lab. It was pretty
cool. Poor guy. He just hung out like he just
chilled with everyone like he was. It was pretty
cool. I don't know. He's everybody's friend.
Yeah. All right. Well, that's it. So do you want
to plug before we sign off? Yeah. If you ever
go to Puerto Rico, go to El Bate. That bar is
the coolest place I've ever been to. It's an
old San Juan. All right. Go do that. Also go
to the Pork Highway that our buddy from. You
got to go to the Pork Highway. I'm actually I'm
probably going to have to go back. uh in october
and i'm definitely going to pork highway then
yeah um all right and uh if you want to follow
sarge you can find all of his uh social media
on our instagram at cryptic cocktail just follow
the link and you can find where uh you can find
where you can follow him or just google sarge
the destroyer yeah you'll find me yeah uh follow
us on tiktok cryptic cocktail party leave us
a five -star rating review it helps a lot definitely
gets the show into more people's ears And I think
with that out of the way, Sarge, do you want
to say goodbye? And I love you to the audience.
Hey, goodbye. And I love you. Don't go to jail.