By the 1960s, the machinery’s unreliability reached a grim peak. A mechanical failure left a deceased inmate trapped in his cell for two days before his body could be recovered.
The facility was used as a jail until 1969.
Spooky stories
In 1971, the Council Bluffs Park Board acquired the jailhouse for preservation and it was later converted into a museum by the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County (HSPS).
Since its transformation, the jail has become well-known for its eerie reputation, drawing plenty of attention for its ghostly associations.
One unsettling story involves a jailer from the 1950s who refused to live in the fourth-floor apartment after he repeatedly heard footsteps on the empty floor. He then chose to sleep on the second floor instead, avoiding the unexplainable sounds.
Today, the museum staff and volunteers have reported similarly strange experiences in the building.
In 1971, the Council Bluffs Park Board acquired the jailhouse for preservation and it was later converted into a museum by the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
“Many of the jail staff and volunteers have heard footsteps, voices, whispers and doors moving. Some have even seen dark shadows moving across the stairs or past doorways,” stated Kat Slaughter, the museum’s manager, in an article on the Council Bluffs website.
Slaughter believes the rumours of the jail being haunted are partly rooted in the four documented deaths that occurred within its walls. A prisoner died of a heart attack, another fell three stories while attempting to carve his name into the ceiling, one hung himself and died by suicide, and an officer lost his life when a training gun accidentally misfired.
Paranormal investigators have conducted numerous studies at the site, recording several unexplained incidents. These include Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs) and sightings of shadowy figures. Slaughter mentions that investigators have detected electromagnetic field (EMF) irregularities in areas where none should exist.
According to the HSPS, many prisoners left their signatures and dates scratched into the jail’s walls, etching their stories into the structure’s grim past. These markings serve as a stark reminder of an era that a modern facility would never replicate, the HSPS noted on its website.
With input from agencies
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Publish date : 2024-11-20 23:36:00
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