When Sharon and I are on the road we seldom miss an opportunity to visit a  prison. Especially one that has great history to it.

We found out from one of the chaplains that this prison, which was built in 1866 and was closed in 1995, was open to the public for tours. So we just had to go and check it out. There has been some movies filmed in this place like  “Fools Parade” which stared Jimmy Stewart. The tour guide was very informative and  knowledgeable about the prison.

But as many of you know me I am not one to follow the crowd so I went off to places that was not on the tour. The funny part, there were two boys that were just as curious as me and they started to follow me. I guess they found an adult that was as mischievous as they were.

The creepy part was seeing the gallo where they used to hang  people.  The people from the local town would witness the hanging until one day they had a hanging and the guys head popped off.

Their claim to fame is that Charles  Manson’s mom was  incarcerated there for armed robbery. I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree.

The tour guide told us the story of how an inmate walked into anther inmates cell and stabbing him 32 times and then he sat down and played his harmonica. They say at night you can hear the   harmonica   playing. They were getting ready for the Halloween tour.

I can’t imagine being in this place at night. We had a blast and I will say it was well worth the visit.

W.V. Penitentiary

By Rev. Al