Into the Dark
The Missouri State Penitentiary’s ghost tour spotlights a shadowy past—and what lingers.
By Lindsey Baker
“Don’t close any doors, poke anyone, pull
anyone’s hair or jump out and yell ‘boo!’” our
tour guide said. “You could ruin someone’s
ghost experience.”
I gave my sister the side eye. We’d already
signed liability wavers, and now this. I couldn’t
imagine she’d be too pleased. I’d had to twist
her arm a little to join me for a two-hour
evening ghost tour of the Missouri State
Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo. I’d tried to
leave out details of the tour—a spin through the
now-closed prison’s dungeon, say—until the
last minute. Now we were standing outside
MSP’s formidable entrance with about 20 other
people, and our guide was directing our
attention to the prison tower.
“There was a tower guard inside, and it was 2
a.m.,” she said. “He had his feet up and had
gotten cozy. He put his radio on his chest and
leaned back. And then inside the tower, he
heard a bang. He sat straight up—he had a
feeling he was being watched.
“The banging started again,” the guide continued, “and this time it didn’t stop. The guard
got up and saw a chain banging against a wall on its own, moving out 4 or 5 inches each
time.
“He called his supervisor,” the guide said. “He wanted out.”
And with that, our group stepped inside the Missouri State Penitentiary.
Inside the Walls
Before it was decommissioned in 2004, the Missouri State Penitentiary was the oldest
continuously operating penitentiary west of the Mississippi River. Opened in 1836, the
prison was initially built to help solidify Jefferson City’s place as Missouri’s state capital.
Housing Unit Four, aka A Hall, was completed in 1838, making it the prison’s oldest
structure. More than 50 other buildings were added to the site during MSP’s storied history,
which includes famous inmates Sonny Liston, who began his boxing career while
incarcerated at the prison, and James Earl Ray, who escaped the prison by way of a bread
truck in 1967 (he assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. the next year). Also in 1967, after
inmate riots in the 1950s and a particularly violent stretch that followed, TIME dubbed
MSP “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.”
It’s a distinction tour guests will hear at least
once as they’re led through A Hall and a few of
the other still-standing structures—a couple of
housing units (including the stark space
reserved for inmates on death row), the
aforementioned dungeon (where guides shut off
the lights to terrifying effect) and the gas
chamber, situated in a small building built in
1937 by inmates with stone they quarried
themselves (prior to 1937, inmates sentenced to
death were publicly hanged).
Each building is perhaps exactly what one
would expect of an abandoned prison that
was—even during its use—on the brink of
collapse in certain spots. These structures are
dark, dank, smelly and in a state of serious
disrepair. The walls and ceilings are shaggy
with peeling paint, and visitors are well-advised
to watch their step—one reason, most likely,
why ghost tour visitors are each given a small,
bright flashlight.
Of course, the other reason for the flashlight is
to have a way to really peer into shadowy
corners, between bars, and behind rusty sinks
and bed frames for strange mists and
apparitions, which populate the bulk of
MSP’s reported paranormal activity.
Plenty of reports of distinct disembodied
voices exist, too—one direct from the
SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters
investigators, who captured an overnight
stay on film last year.
We didn’t experience any ghosts or
ghostly activities ourselves, but that’s
not to say our time in the prison wasn’t
creepy or, at times, downright
disturbing. If not an apparition, the
specter of more than 150 not-so-nice
years hangs within MSP’s walls—
looking into an empty cell isn’t so much
looking into a cell as it is looking into
the reason for that cell’s existence, imagining what happened there and for how long and
involving how many people (most cells housed at least two and often more inmates at a
time).
If pressed to pick the ghost tour’s scariest point, then I’d choose the tour’s finale: a walk
through the gas chamber.
A Serious Ending
In total, 40 people were executed in the
Missouri State Penitentiary’s gas chamber,
most with cyanide gas. The last execution,
held in 1989, was the first to be carried out
by means of lethal injection.
After a slightly gruesome description of the
execution process, our group was invited to
check out the chamber. Inside are two small
cells, one of which held inmates for their
final hours prior to execution, the other
where cyanide and sulfuric acid were
mixed; an airtight chamber with two
perforated metal chairs; and a windowed
viewing area with a sight-line into the
chamber. Photographs of each of the
executed hang inside, too.
Guests can sit in the execution chairs and take photos if they wish, though I’ll admit my heart hung
too heavy for that. Instead, I made a quick turn in and out and chatted with some of the other
members of my tour group before heading back to the car.
The drive to our hotel was a quiet one, and I can’t imagine it was the only one after that night’s
tour. What lies within the Missouri State Penitentiary is haunting, indeed.
Planning Your Trip
The Missouri State Penitentiary hosts a battery of tours—two- and three-hour history tours during
the day and two-hour ghost tours at night. Also offered are nighttime ghost hunts and ghost-hunting
classes, which offer guests a more exploratory experience than the one they’ll receive on the storyfilled two-hour ghost tour. Because of the adult nature of the location, children must be a minimum
of 10 years old to join a history tour and a minimum of 14 years old to join a ghost tour or hunt.
Photographs are allowed but not videos. Tours are not wheelchair accessible, and all visitors must
sign a waiver of liability before embarking on a tour. For more information, contact the Jefferson
City Convention & Visitors Bureau at (866) 988-6998 or www.visitjeffersoncity.com, or visit
www.missouripentours.com.
For help planning your Missouri vacation, contact your AAA Travel agent or visit AAA.com/travel.
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