Episode 60
The Prison Where the Walls Still Watch
Up nextBack to the full archiveThe documented facts
- The West Virginia State Penitentiary is a Gothic stone prison in Moundsville, West Virginia. It opened in 1876 and closed in 1995, after about 119 years of operation.
- Its cells measured five feet by seven, and before the 1929 expansion three men at a time were held in a single cell, two in bunks and one on a mattress on the floor.
- The basement recreation room, called the Sugar Shack by inmates, was infamous for illegal gambling, fighting, and murder.
- On January 1, 1986, prisoners seized part of the prison in a riot. Courts ruled the tiny cells cruel and unusual punishment, and today the building is preserved as a tourist attraction and museum, with tours.
The Draugr does not invent. He documents.
Episode 60 case file
The facts
- The West Virginia State Penitentiary is a Gothic stone prison in Moundsville, West Virginia. It opened in 1876 and closed in 1995, after about 119 years of operation.
- Its cells measured five feet by seven, and before the 1929 expansion three men at a time were held in a single cell, two in bunks and one on a mattress on the floor.
- The basement recreation room, called the Sugar Shack by inmates, was infamous for illegal gambling, fighting, and murder.
- On January 1, 1986, prisoners seized part of the prison in a riot. Courts ruled the tiny cells cruel and unusual punishment, and today the building is preserved as a tourist attraction and museum, with tours.
The evidence
- Its cells measured five feet by seven, and before the 1929 expansion three men at a time were held in a single cell, two in bunks and one on a mattress on the floor.
- The basement recreation room, called the Sugar Shack by inmates, was infamous for illegal gambling, fighting, and murder.
- On January 1, 1986, prisoners seized part of the prison in a riot. Courts ruled the tiny cells cruel and unusual punishment, and today the building is preserved as a tourist attraction and museum, with tours.
Sources
- Sources are being gathered for this file. The facts above are documented.
The words, as I spoke them.
Transcript
EP60: The Prison Where the Walls Still Watch (Moundsville State Penitentiary, West Virginia) Adults only. No graphic content. No named individuals.
Stone walls. Iron doors. And a prison in West Virginia that closed its gates, but never let its dead leave.
Moundsville, West Virginia. In eighteen seventy six, the state opened a Gothic stone prison built by the hands of its own prisoners.
Cells five feet by seven held three men at a time. In the basement, the Sugar Shack ran on gambling, fighting, and murder.
Executions came by rope, then by the electric chair. Nobody ever really left.
In nineteen eighty six, prisoners seized part of the prison. Courts called the tiny cells cruel and unusual. The gates closed for good in nineteen ninety five.
Leave a comment in the comment section if you would walk the Sugar Shack alone after dark. Follow for a new true nightmare every day. Sleep with the lights on, if you can.
Dramatized for the telling. The facts above are documented; the narration is the Draugr’s retelling of them.
Wear the nightmare
The Dreaded wear the mark.
Enter the shop
