The Chilling Old City Jail

standing across from the jail

Before this tour, I had never been to the Old City Jail. I have heard plenty of spooky stories about how haunted the jail is, so I figured this was the moment I would see for myself!

I am not going to lie, I was pretty scared. However, I find haunted places fascinating so my excitement was more overwhelming than my fear. I found the outside of the jail beautiful in a way with the vines growing along the old outside walls.

The jail was also a lot smaller than I thought it would be and I wish that we went to more of the rooms. However, none of that took away from the experience.

The jail opened in 1802 and housed some of Charleston's most famous criminals and even held prisoners during the Civil War. The prison closed in 1939 due to inhuman conditions.

tour guide Randy Johnson

Our awesome tour guide, Randy Johnson, was from bulldog tours. He did an amazing job bringing stories creepily to life. He told us plenty of stories about prisoners and ghost that still roam the halls of the old jail.

Johnson said, "there are countless accounts of people seeing the ghost of Lavinia Fisher in her wedding dress." Lavinia Fish was the first female serial killer here in the U.S. that was imprisoned in the jail with her husband.

window in one of the jail rooms 

Johnson also told us that "the executioners were found in bars" and guards would force them through withdrawals so they were more willing to execute the prisoners. After the execution was completed, the executioner would receive all the whiskey they wanted.

My favorite room we went into was the room where they kept the psychiatric prisoners. In there, Johnson made us keep it completely dark and it was the only room we toured that had no windows. As we were all standing around, Johnson told us about the ghost they called Animal. The ghost Animal runs on all fours and likes to grab peoples legs. How creepy!