IS THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL REALLY HAUNTED - PT 2

THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL – IS IT REALLY HAUNTED?

PART 2

THE INVESTIGATIONS

For those who have just joined us in this blog, I covered a brief history of the gaol and its ghost stories in the previous blog. So please feel free to go back and have a read if you want to get a feel for the place first and hear some of the more traditional stories.

As I sit here, I wonder how to best present this evidence to you and the stories we have accumulated over the years. Do I present it possible 'ghost' character by character? Or do I neatly bracket it as EVP… Photographs… video. I feel maybe the best way will be to take you by the hand and take you on a tour section by section. This way I can still introduce you to our characters, tell you some of our experiences and present our evidence and at the end leave it to you to maybe make up your own minds.

For those who have been reading this before, you will notice I have now condensed these experiences due to the length it was becoming. I am going to put just one story from each area here. Remember for each story written, there are many more to accompany it. We will put more reports up on the website as it is rebuilt.

THE SALLY PORT

As you first enter the Gaol through the front door, you enter the Sally Port. Although staff told us that they have had experiences in this general area, offices, shop etc, we really over the years, collected no hard evidence to back up any of the claims.

We say that there was never any hard evidence taken there. But one night on one of our paranormal workshops that we conducted for the gaol, we were allowed up into the old governors residences. The old staircase was feeling a little uneasy at this point but felt ok to continue. There was a curious photo captured by one of our guests, Susan Moon who has kindly allowed us to use this photograph on our website etc. It shows a strange distortion and shadow on the staircase itself.

Photo showing distortion on stairs - Camera fault or something more unusual?

WALKWAY

As you exit the Sally Port you find yourself in the walkway that either goes to your left or to your right. One night we were there seeing if thunderstorms really did increase paranormal activity and were huddled just past the Sally Port in the walkway chatting. Suddenly our photographer, Megan looked up and asked who that man was. We all looked across but by then whoever it was had disappeared down the tunnel (this leads to 'A' Wing). Assuming somebody might have broken in, we dashed over to the tunnel, knowing that there was no escape due to the end gate still being locked. It should be noted that when we do witness a solid figure… our first reaction isn't that it is a ghost but assume it is a person. The Gaols problem now is not keeping people in, but keeping people out!! On arriving at the tunnel, you can imagine our surprise and pleasure at finding it was completely empty. There was however, one single wet footprint halfway down the tunnel… none leading upto and none after. There are no doors leading off and the big gate was shut at the other end so this person had nowhere to go but back past us. Megan described him as solid, shuffling along, wearing the old style short black duffel coat and wearing a beanie. We tend to nickname our characters, especially for the tours and for our own quick references so this poor man was forever known as 'Beanie Man'. It is interesting to note that he was seen by another tour of 21 people a month later. 21 people witnessed him shuffling down the other wall and straight through the old metal staircase before disappearing.

Figure in tunnel not seen by investigators at the time

One photograph taken by Anna shows what seems to be a figure lying in the tunnel. Is this just a trick of the eye or could it be Beanie Man?

YARD 1

Again not much time has been invested into this yard by PFI. The times we have been in this yard we have had very little happen. I mention this yard only due to one experience by 3 members of our team in the early hours of the morning. They had been wandering around filming when Megan and Jeff suddenly heard piano playing. They described it as Edwardian/Victorian style playing and it came from all around them and not directional. It is interesting to note that our third investigator couldn't hear the music. He insisted it was just a dripping pipe. Megan said they could hear the dripping pipe also, but this did not account for the music they were hearing. I say that this is of interest as a few months earlier a large tour of people had also heard this music playing, or should I say… half of them heard it and half of them didn't. One half thought the other half was going mad, and the other half couldn't understand why the others couldn't hear such clear music. Are only some of us susceptible to this phenomena?

YARD 2

This was an interesting yard for one story in particular. In this yard you have a double storey cellblock and a smaller building attached to it that was originally the kitchen area. A newer feature was a small toilet block added in the more recent years of the Gaols working history. It is at this toilet block that we look at our next and very unusual story. Again we had 3 investigators in this yard. Megan was wandering near the toilet block taking pictures when she heard what sounded like somebody urinating in the urinal there. Now, it should be noted that the water has been disconnected from this block since the gaol closed its doors. Thinking it was one of our male investigators; she marched over to give him a piece of her mind, as she knew it couldn't be cleaned. She halted at the doorway to find the room completely empty. However, the sound of the urinating continued for a few seconds longer. She looked around and saw Jeff and Patrick at the other end of the yard and called them over. As they were discussing what Megan had just heard, more noises started up. Jeff could hear what sounded like pans being banged together whilst Megan could hear chanting, much like you would hear in a schoolyard when there was a fight and the eager crowd would try and egg it on. Could this possibly be a 'playback' of an incident captured in the atmosphere like a tape recording, only to be played back under certain conditions? If there was going to be trouble in a gaol, a toilet block would certainly have attracted it. We have been back many times, but this has never reoccurred. We even went back on the exact date but it resulted in nothing.

YARD 3

Now we start coming to what appear to be more active areas in the Gaol. Yard 3 was the women's yard. It was also a yard where the women could have their children with them in the early days due to no other care able to be provided. There is an old school house in the yard and a double storey cellblock. There is also an induction centre where prisoners were first introduced to the gaol. Here they would be showered and clothes taken away and burned if necessary due to lice, their uniforms given and in the latter years an overall search for drugs.

My first experience in this yard was conducting a tour. I had moved ahead of the tour, leaving Jeff to tell some of the stories, and crossed through into this yard. I was taking photographs quietly on my own when I sensed movement out of my peripheral vision up on the second floor of the cellblock. I got the impression that I had just seen a lady dressed in grey and that she had turned away from me. I thought I would keep quiet on this and just chat to Jeff later in the evening about it, as it would be too tacky to tell the ghost tour visitors…. 'Guess what… I just saw a ghost and you missed it'. I wasn't even sure if it had just been my imagination due to it being so fleeting. So I just quietly watched in the background as the tour came through. About a minute in, a lady suddenly spoke up 'omg… I have just seen a lady up there!' She pointed to the same spot that I had just witnessed it myself and I now felt comfortable to talk about it, relieved that somebody else may have witnessed it too. Since that time Megan has witnessed a lady walking down the length of the block before it disappeared.

And finally this is where we captured our flagship photo. This photo was taken by PFI's other co-founder, Jeff Fausch.

It should be noted that Jeff is a seasoned investigator and we all adhere to certain rules when taking photographs. This was a dry night, with no moisture in the air, none of our team members are smokers and we always hold the camera well away from us and hold our breath when taking photos. This is so we don't contaminate the picture with our breath. When looking at the photograph, out of the peripheral vision you can almost see what looks like a second figure behind the first.

YARD 4

This yard, as you enter has the old Gaol canteen and two double storey external cellblocks. It is on the second floor of the first cellblock that we will concentrate. When we first were given a quick tour around the Gaol, we were told that the light in the last cell on the second floor had a tendency to come on. The volunteers would switch off all the lights and close the door and leave, only to come back to find the door was open and the light to that one cell would be back on. We were told that there had been a suicide in that cell in the latter part of the gaols working life. A young man killed himself in there. Years later the man that had been sharing the cell with him returned and he took a self-guided history tour around the Gaol. He apparently went to sit in this cell quietly by himself and we don't know what he said, but the light stopped coming on…. That is until we arrived….. We started walking into the yard and frequently finding the cell door open and the light on. One thing we must point out is that when we first arrive for an investigation, we walk around the Gaol and turn off every light and close every door. This way we know it wasn't a volunteer or us that left it open.

It was on one of our early investigations that one of our investigators, Bill, went to take some photographs around this cell. He decided he would spend a little time sitting in the cell and experiment doing some meditation then take photos. As he was sitting in the darkened room, he was startled when he felt the mattress he was sitting on sink as though somebody had just sat down beside him. He quickly took some pictures then went to get another team member. Bill took Jeff back upto the cell and they both looked around and took measurements, photos etc, none of which revealed anything startling. They then decided to move on and they latched the door, made sure the light was off and walked back along the balcony towards the staircase. As they passed a cell that was close to the stairs, the grill on the door started to violently rattle. Both swung round to find the end cell door had reopened and the light had come on. Again instrument readings and footage show nothing. Since these incidents, the door is now locked firmly and nobody is allowed into this cell.

THE CIRCLE

Each yard is like a section of a cake. All entrances to the yards are accessed from the Turning Circle. The turning circle got its name from when the prisoners were delivered in the days of horse and carriage. They would bring the whole carriage through the Sally Port and use the circular yard to turn the carriages so they could exit easily. The stories that we heard were more of the discomfort that the volunteers had experienced when walking through this area. They complained of the feeling of being watched all the time. There is a guards tower there, could it be somebody is still looking over the Gaol?

It is often joked amongst us, that if we have the cameras rolling you can guarantee nothing is going to happen. When the cameras have just been turned off, then you get action. This was no exception one night in the circle. We had been told that people sleeping in the dormitories often heard one of the big yard doors slam shut in the early hours of the morning. These are very heavy metal doors, that you would need a hurricane to slam them shut!! So at the time it was supposed to happen, we set up a camera and an investigator to monitor. The rest of us decided we would go to other areas. After an hour of sitting and nothing happening, the investigator decided he had had enough, so switched off the camera and walked back to join us. He had just turned the corner when… BANG!!!!…. The door slammed shut. Again it would seem that somebody or something has a sense of humour

THE REMAND CENTRE

Now we come to my least favourite area. If ever a place were to feel intimidating, this is the area. When we first came, there weren't many stories told about this area so at first we didn't concentrate too much on it. The area only ever held low security prisoners so didn't seem to have much history behind it. However, once we did concentrate a little more on the area, we found it wasn't quite as quiet as we first thought.

To enter the remand centre you have to first cross though the museum area. As you walk across the threshold the automatic sensor light will switch on. This is great for us to know if a person was responsible if anything happens, not so great when the cat sneaks in and sits hidden in a corner looking smug with itself, as the silly humans try and find the cause!!

You would remember me talking of the single footprint in the tunnel after Beanie Man went through. Well on the same stormy night, we then walked into the museum area only to find several bare footprints in the cement close to the whipping rack. They would have to be either female or a child as they were slightly smaller then my foot size and I am not large. My dog trotted past, leaving her own footprints for comparison. Hers did what you would expect with wet marks on cement and soaked in, blurred then started to dry. These footprints remained sharp and stayed for 3 days before disappearing as quickly as they arrived. If they had been wet due to rain, they should have dried within an hour. If they were staining in the cement then they should still be there to this day. We did find these footprints one more time in 'A' Wing around the hanging beam. This is an area that is always locked and because nobody really goes up there, the floor is coated in heavy dust. The little bare footprints started from nowhere and moved around the display dummies.

It was in the remand centre that our most startling incident was experienced and where we had slamming doors and shadow figures stepping through. We did manage to capture this on video at the time.

HANGING TOWER

On exiting the Remand Centre, you come to the outer walkways that travel around the Gaol between the buildings and the main outer walls. You will see archaeological digging areas where they are trying to find the bodies of the executed people that have been lost on the records. Before you get to the grave area you will come to the Hanging Tower. This originally was a guards tower which was converted to the hanging tower for the last 4 hangings ever to take place in Adelaide. We personally have never had much happen in the Tower, although I do get people on the tours who won't even enter the building due to feeling extremely uncomfortable. On one occasion in the early days when I was actually on a ghost tour instead of taking one, the coach driver decided he would come in too and take the tour. I have him on video in the Hanging Tower becoming more and more unsettled, he eventually had to leave and ended up sitting at the end of the walkway. Upon asking him what was wrong, he said he had felt a strong pressure around his neck and felt he couldn't breathe. This of course could have been psychosomatic, as we were in a hanging tower. As the tour moved on, I decided I too would stand in that spot. Another girl who I had never met before decided to do the same with me and we eventually got talking. It was then, when I wasn't thinking about it that I suddenly went pale. I could feel an enormous pressure moving into my back and through into my organs. My kidneys started to ache as did my stomach. The girl must have noticed as she asked if I was ok. We quickly left and as soon as I hit the end of the ramp it lifted. All in the mind? For a long time I thought yes and never told this story. However 6 months ago a lady was standing in the same spot and she too became uncomfortable. She complained of a pressure in her back and her kidneys and other organs were aching. Was she imaging the same experience too? Maybe

THE GRAVES AND SECTION 5

As you walk away from the Hanging Tower you start to walk past the graves. In amongst these graves you will find Elizabeth Woolcocks grave, which often still has fresh flowers laid on it. As she she was hanged a short way down the track on the portable gallows, she would have first walked past her newly dug grave and seen where she would lie for eternity. Although we have not ever had anything happen at the grave site, we did get one interesting photograph showing a strange mist over her grave. Again we are careful upon taking photos, and it wasn't a damp night.

NEW BUILDING 'A' WING

On leaving the dorms you will see The Tunnel. This is the long tunnel that leads through into the newer building. Even though it is nicknamed the New Building, it was still built back in the 1800s. Welcome to what is said to be the most haunted building in the Old Adelaide Gaol. We have touched on the stories that were told about this building so now we will discuss our own experiences and look at the evidence we captured there.

The main character that has been seen frequently in this area was the prison guard. For all the years we have been investigating the Gaol, we have to admit that we have never seen him ourselves. However, we have had experiences there to suggest that he may be around. We may also have his name! It was 5.00 a.m. after a very long night investigating, and Jeff and Megan had gone upstairs to sit and monitor. At first it seemed like nothing had happened and the whole time up there was uneventful. It wasn't until much later, whilst Jeff was going back over footage that he realised he had a third persons voice on the tape. It was a loud whispery voice saying what sounds like 'Sergeant Murphy'. So from then on we gave him the name when we referred to him, even if that wasn't his name.

In a night we can take hundreds of photographs, most using flash photography. The question needs to be asked… we know constant flashing can be annoying to us, but if there is a paranormal realm, does it become annoying to them also? I do remember one incident that took place at the top of the staircase. Jeff had his hand through the bars gate leading to the guards offices whilst taking photos. I am well known for being able to have microsleeps anywhere on an investigation and in this instance I was sitting on the third step down tucked into my jacket in a half asleep/half awake state. I was aware of Jeff taking photographs one after another, after another, after another!!! … when suddenly I heard a male voice inside my head say 'Enoughs enough!'. At that very moment Jeff exploded backwards nearly knocking our cameras and equipment over. He said he had been photographing when he was startled by a cold hand clamping round his wrist and pushing his hand down almost as if to say Enoughs enough. Had we finally overstepped the mark with Sgt Murphy?

Top of the stairs where Jeff had his hand pushed down

Well that brings us to the end of our very short tour round the Gaol. You are probably all wanting the answer to that question… Is the Gaol REALLY haunted?

Well what we can say is that we have experienced a wealth of unusual occurances, only a few of which I have touched upon here. We do have some unusual footage and voices on tape. All this would indicate that there was definitely something of an unusual nature happening in the Gaol. But at the end of the day all we can do is tell you our experiences and show you the evidence and allow you to make up your own minds. Maybe come for a visit on your own and experience it for yourselves!!