Closed in 1995, the West Virginia Penitentiary attracts 20,000 visitors annually. Many come for a history lesson on the prison’s macabre executions and to listen to the tales of grisly violence that occurred since the prison was built around 1866. Visitors have felt, seen and photographed strange things inside the penitentiary.

A woman’s face has been repeatedly sighted in a window of the third-floor administration building, peering out at the prison yard. An blurry apparition known as the “Shadow Man” has been seen lurking around the psychiatric ward, the cafeteria and the catacombs.

The most well-known ghost, inmate No. 44670, has been haunting the penitentiary for 76 years. In life, he was R.D. Wall, who was serving time for first-degree murder. When someone caught him speaking quietly with the warden, word got around that he was a snitch. He was butchered by three inmates on October 8, 1829. Sightings of his ghost began sometime in 1930.

At night, tower guards often saw a man at the back of the administration building, above the spot where R.D. was murdered. When they would go to investigate, they would find the area deserted.

Source: The News&Observer