Nightmare on Cell Block: Expanded Edition

0:15 I walk a straight line, shackled chain. Oh, gruesome Gertie is calling my name. There is no mercy in this penitentiary. Just ask the hill string gang, a wrangle of three. I'm here for And when. The world cries, I know it's over. Oh, bloody Angola. Oh, bloody Angola.

1:30 Hey y'all, welcome back to Bloody Angola. I'm your host Jim Chapman and I am releasing, I guess you could call it a Halloween special today. And this is a re-release of an episode that I did a couple of years ago that was extremely popular called Nightmare on Cellblock. But I have expanded it to include some additional hauntings never before heard regarding some of the United States' most notorious prisons. So I hope you enjoy this. Just something a little extra I wanted to bring you to get you ready for Halloween. And I am releasing this.

2:10 On Halloween of 2026. Now, I'm going to actually start this one off with just what I said. New, never before heard stories before I go into the podcast as it was heard two years ago. So, when that episode aired, I counted down the top 10 prisons as far as hauntings are concerned. And I have now expanded that to 12. So we're going to start off with number 12, and that is Yuma Territorial Prison. This is in Yuma, Arizona. Now, y'all. I want to take you out west because the original top 10 countdown didn't.

2:52 Go there and it should have. Yuma Territorial Prison opened in 1876 and it. Stayed open for 33 years until 1909. Now in that short time, just over 3,000. Inmates passed through its iron gates. And 111 people died inside those walls. Now, that's not a ghost story. That's the actual prison record. And look, the desert did a lot of punishing all by itself. Stone walls, a massive watchtower, heat that never let up. You're in the desert. And outlaws from all over the West, they feared Being sent to Yuma. And I mean feared it. Because Yuma was built to break you, not to reform you. But the room everybody talks about, the room visitors still talk about to this day, is the Dark Cell. So what is the Dark Cell? Well, that was solitary confinement time. Yuma style, pitch black, no light, no furniture, just chains, a bucket, and darkness. Inmates were stripped down to their underwear and chained where they stood. They got bread and water and in the retellings that you hear, guards threw scorpions inside

4:24 of these dark areas. And they would joke that the glow would give them a little light from these scorpions. Now, I want to be straight for you. The scorpion detail is part of the lore, if you will, of that. It's been told and retold. What is definitely not lore is Mim went into that cell and they came out changed. And at least two prisoners who left the dark cell were transferred straight into an insane asylum in Phoenix. That's on the record. That's not a ghost story. So whatever you believe about ghosts, that room definitely did real damage.

5:06 To those people. And that's why people say it never emptied out. Visitors have reported hearing faint voices and screams when they're inside of that dark cell. Some report being pinched and yanked and pulled at. And staff say that pincher is the ghost of a little girl who occupied the vacant prison and during the Great Depression. Now, others report an angry voice telling them to get out. I mean, out of nowhere, in a room that is already pitch black, a voice telling you to get out. Holy smokes, that's enough to make anybody get out. Then there's cell 14.

5:48 Now, cell 14 is. Is said to be haunted by John Ryan, a prisoner held for crimes against nature who reportedly took his own life in that cell. Visitors say they feel cold spots and shivers when they're inside of cell 14 and that the temperature drops for no reason that anybody can explain. Other accounts give Ryan's death differently. as a beating in the dark cell in 1886. So I'm not going to pick one version and pretend the other version doesn't exist. The cell itself is the constant in the story and the ghost inside also a constant. So we're going to stick with that. And then there's the girl in the red dress. Now she said to wander the corridors or stand near cell doors. And she said to pinch anyone wearing her particular shade of red. Some versions say she lived in the area before the prison was built and that she drowned in the nearby Colorado River. Others tie her story to a tragic love story connected to an inmate.

7:00 Not sure which one is actually accurate, but there you have it. Yuma was even voted the best haunted destination in USA Today's contest. with reports just like the ones I've told you here. Now, honestly, human doesn't need a ghost to be terrifying. 111 deaths in 33 years, a pitch black cell where men were chained, standing up in a prison that was feared across the West. That's already a nightmare on a cell block in my book. The haunting stories are just what people say happened after the closing of that prison. And if you ever walk into a dark cell, And you hear a voice tell you to get out.

7:43 I mean, look, I get out. Let's go to number 11, the Old City Jail in Charleston, South Carolina. Now, y'all, I'm going to bring you back to the South for this one. And I want to add, it's not a penitentiary at all. It's a jail. And it's got a ghost with a name everybody in Charleston, South Carolina knows. The Old City Jail in Charleston, South Carolina was actually built in 1802 and stayed active until 1939. That's 137 years of pirates, Civil War prisoners, murderers, all. In one building. And it's located in Charleston on Magazine Street. Now it was built to hold around 128 prisoners, but at times as many as 300 people were crammed in there. In some rooms, prisoners were locked in cages barely the size of a person's body. Disease, torture, violence all ran rampant inside those walls, and an estimated 10,000 people died on the property during its operation. So before we even get to a ghost, I want you to understand the building. 10,000 deaths.

8:55 That's the history. The haunting is what people say came after that. Visitors report cold areas of rooms, whispers in rooms with no windows, heavy doors that slam on their own, shadows moving against the walls. Guides have seen figures in striped prison uniforms. Vanish into thin air. Workers during its restoration after the building had been locked off for months reported finding footprints in the dust and others reported a jailer with a rifle on the third floor who passed through the bars toward them and then vanished.

9:36 A black man in ragged cloth thought to be the spirit of a former enslaved man was wandering the hall seemingly unaware of the living or his surroundings, according to reports. But the most famous spirit, the one everybody asks about, is Lavinia Fisher. Now the legend says that she and her husband John ran an inn just outside of Charleston. It was called the Six Mile House because it was six miles out of town. Travelers who checked in rarely left. The story goes that her and her husband would serve them poisoned tea. And once they were asleep, she would pull a lever and the bed would collapse, dropping them into a pit below where John would rob them or kill them. Now, the body count in the legend ranges from 20 to 120 men. And at her execution, legend says she stood at the gallows in a wedding dress and shouted that if anyone saw had a message for the devil she delivered herself. And y'all, you can't beat that as a ghost story. Now that's the legend, but here's what history confirms. John and Lavinia Fisher were real people who operated a roadside establishment on what's known as Charleston Neck. Authorities arrested them in 1819. A Charleston court

11:09 convicted them of highway robbery, not murder, highway robbery. Their appeals would fail, and they were both executed on February 18th of 1820. Now, despite Lavinia's reputation as America's first female serial killer, The court record doesn't necessarily establish that she was convicted of murder. The poison tea, the trap door, the large number of alleged victims belong to later retellings. They're not exactly proven facts. And her famous last words also... should be treated as such, as dramatic as they are. So why is she still the most reported ghost in that jail? Because people say they see her, y'all. Visitors claim to have seen a woman in white, sometimes described as bright red and white, believed to be Lavinia Fisher, walking the halls of the jail and appearing near the cells where the Fishers were.

12:10 Were once held. Some report feeling pushed, scratched, or touched by unseen forces and sudden choking sensations on the staircase. The old dumbwaiter is said to hum and move between floors even though it hasn't operated in years. Alarms are said to go on and off randomly and some investigators claim that when they ask spirits questions from inside the jail, a voice responds with the word DEVIL. I mean, look, I can't prove a ghost said devil in that jail, but what I can prove is that a real woman convicted of highway robbery was hanged in Charleston in 1820 in a city that's been telling and retelling her story for more than 200 years, and that the jail she was held in, a jail where 10,000 people died, is still standing, still giving people cold drafts, whispers, and figures that vanish. Pretty freaky stuff. Number 10, Missouri State Penitentiary. Now that's in Jefferson City, Missouri. And believe it or not, the Missouri State Penitentiary is known currently as The Walls. They copied off of Louisiana State Penitentiary, y'all.

13:27 We were The Walls. How dare they? So it's also known as the Walls and was constructed in the early 1830s to serve the newly admitted state of Missouri. The earliest prisoners made the bricks that the first walls were built from, which was common during that time. Prison labor, right? The initial prison population consisted of one guard, one warden, 15 prisoners, and a foreman for the brick-making operation with an assistant. 11 of the 15 prisoners were from St. Louis and all were incarcerated for larceny theft, except for one who was in prison for stabbing a man during a drunken brawl. Needless to say, that prison grew many times over the years. It eventually closed, but get this, 2004, so it had a long history. Now, during its operation, it saw many infamous prisoners, including Charles Pretty Boy Floyd, James Earl Ray, Bobby Greenlease, kidnappers Carl Austin Hall, and Bonnie Hady. They were actually executed at that present. In 1954, there was a major riot at the penitentiary. The Missouri State Highway Patrol, the National Guard from Missouri, and the police departments from Jefferson City, St. Louis, and Kansas City were called to help stop that disturbance.

14:56 And when it was all over, four inmates had been killed, 29 were injured, and there had been one attempted suicide during the riot. Four guards had been seriously injured and several buildings had been burned. During its operation, 40 inmates were executed in the gas chamber. Time magazine once called it, get this, the bloodiest 47 acres in America. They're copying off of Louisiana State Penitentiary again, except for we're a hell of a lot more than 47 acres around here. Now, since its closure, the penitentiary has become a hotspot for paranormal activity. Staff members and visitors actually reported dozens of eerie encounters with lingering spirits, which had been seen, heard, and encountered.

15:44 Firsthand. So that's number 10 on the list. Number nine, Wyoming Territorial Prison. That's in Laramie, Wyoming. The westward expansion of the railroad brought more than money and high times to the people of Laramie. It also brought a score of unsavory men and women and a crime rate that rivaled much larger eastern cities. As a result, the Wyoming Territorial Prison was built as a federal penitentiary in Laramie in 1872. The facility was plagued with problems from the start, with a fire in 1873 and a number of escapes. Of the 44 prisoners accepted in the first two years of the operation, 11 escaped. By 1877, the prison was overcrowded and, as its reputation worsened, changes were made and a second cell block was constructed. It became a state prison from 1890 to 1901. There were at least five cells for female inmates and several solitary confinement cells. Soon-to-be famous outlaw Butch Cassidy was incarcerated here from 1894 to 1896. After its closure in 1903, the prison was given to the University of Wyoming, which used it for livestock breeding. experiments until 1989. It opened to the public as a historic site two years later and stories of ghosts begin to circulate.

17:12 With more than 1,000 inmates housed there over the years, it's to be expected that some of the prisoners or guards might linger behind. However, there's one prisoner who is more active than the others. His name is Julius Greenwald, and he was sent to the prison for the. 1897 murder of his wife. Prison lore states that Greenwald was adept to making cigars and convincing prison staff to allow him to make and sell cigars while incarcerated. He allegedly made the cigars from his cell on the third floor, a cell that was removed during renovation of the site. Allegedly, Greenwald's spirit did not appreciate this at all, And he has manifested as a phantom cigar smell at the prison ever since.

17:59 How about that? And we're going to go to number eight, and that is West Virginia Penitentiary. That's in Moundsville, West Virginia, and that prison was built on the edge of Moundsville. This was in 1866. The prison remained open for 129 years, and it finally closed down in 1995. During that time, the structure housed thousands of prisoners. Many lost their lives there through both state-sanctioned Executions and during prison violence since its closure, the prison have become one of the most haunted sites in the country. Staff members and visitors alike have reported ghosts in the North Hall where the most dangerous inmates are housed and the execution chamber where old Sparky sent many to its early grave. and The Hole, a brutal, solitary confinement area that often drove inmates to insanity and suicide. Ghost hunters have flocked to the former penitentiary over the years, and visitors claim to have experienced the sound of phantom footsteps, voices, noises that have no explanation, cold chills, and an overwhelming feeling of panic.

19:09 How about that? And we're going to go to Pottawatomie. County Jail, and this is in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and it was built in 1885, and that jail is one of the most unusual houses of incarceration in America. The jail has a three-tier cell block with 10 cells on each tier. It was originally designed to rotate continuously throughout the night by means of a water wheel in the basement, so it earned the nickname of the Squirrel Cage Jail. In this way, all the prisoners could be watched from a central location. Unfortunately, the 45-ton cell block was simply too heavy to work right and it became stuck.

19:50 Frequently. Eventually, the jailers gave up on the plan and a night guard had to be hired. The cylinder continued to be used until 1960 when a prisoner died in his cell and the cell block jammed, trapping the body in the cell for several days. After that, cell doors were cut into every cell. The jail was closed down in 1969 and during its history, four deaths occurred within its walls. One man died of a heart attack, another in a fall when he tried to write his name on the ceiling. Another hanged himself in a cell, and the last after an incident in which an officer actually shot himself in the confusion of protecting the jail from an angry mob during the farmer's.

20:34 Holiday strike of 1932. It's no surprise that these unlucky individuals, along with others, are believed to still linger that jail. And we'll go to Crown Point, Indiana in Lake County Jail. And the Lake County Jail is located in the county seat of Crown Point. It was built in 1908 and enlarged 20 years later. At that time, county sheriffs were required to live at the jail, and so the combined residence and jail included all the facilities needed for its purpose as a law enforcement institution. Located within the walls were the family's living area, a warden's residence, department offices, 150 cells, maximum security accommodations. institutional kitchen, food, storage, heating, and cooling systems.

21:22 They even had a barbershop and a garage. It was considered to be one of the finest in Indiana, and it was thought to be escape-proof. However, on March 3rd of 1934, gangster John Dillinger proved it to be otherwise when he made a daring escape that gave the jail its infamy. The jail remained in operation until the 1970s when it became a historic site. As restoration has continued over the last 20 years, stories have emerged about the haunting in the jail. Apparitions have been seen in the cells and corridors. Strange photographs have been taken, doors open and closed by themselves, lights turn on and off, and disembodied footsteps and voices have often been reported by volunteers and staff alike. Pretty freaky. And we're going to go to Chicago, Illinois, and I'm going to tell you about a haunted police station. It's known as Maxwell Street Police Station, and this police station is known as Bloody Maxwell.

22:23 How about that? Because of the escalating crime rate in the area. It was constructed in 1889, and at that time, the surrounding part of the city was home to thousands of Italian immigrants, including the Jenna brothers. who partnered with Al Capone's organization during Prohibition to make bootleg liquor within blocks of the police station. It became a notorious police station known for corruption, bribery, brutality, and torture, and many lawbreakers never left the basement empty. dungeon, quote-unquote, alive. The station closed down in 1997 and became to be used by the security officers for the nearby University of Illinois Chicago campus. It's currently being used for filming of the television show Chicago PD. Although the cops and criminals of the station's past are long gone, legend goes they still linger there, especially those who brutalized and were killed in the dungeons. Screams have been reported coming from the basement along with moaning, crying, and the sounds of rattling bars and handcuff chains. Ohio Penitentiary. And this was formerly in Columbus, Ohio. This penitentiary was opened in 1834 and first condemned by reformers in the early 1900s. It was not closed down until 1979 and the prison has since been demolished. But Haunting memories of it remain. During its

23:55 years of operation, the prison saw scores of death from fire, outbreaks of disease, murder, and executions in the state's electric chair, but nothing matched the horror of the fire that engulfed that prison in April of 1930. This fire swept through the west block of the penitentiary. It killed 322 inmates in a single night. While the prison was still open, inmates complained of ghostly sightings and eerie happenings. But when the buildings were finally torn down, tales quickly spread of apparitions among the ruins. Eventually, the prison was replaced by a sports arena, which is also rumored to be haunted.

24:39 Stay away from Ohio Penitentiary. And we're going to stay in Ohio, but we're going to go to Mansfield, Ohio for this one. And this is Ohio State Reformatory. And the Ohio State Reformatory was actually made famous by the Shawshank Redemption, which was filmed there. It was opened in 1896 as a prison for criminals too old for juvenile facilities and not hardened enough for the penitentiary. It saw untold thousands of prisoners during its years of operation, and while once applauded as a place that could be humanely reformed For first-time offenders, the conditions deteriorated to the point that it became known for abuse, torture, and murder. Already considered overcrowded and inhumane by the 1930s, the massive prison was kept open until 1986. even after a federal lawsuit was filed by the inmates citing that it was unfit for human occupation. Since the closing of the reformatory, stories have circulated that it is haunted by the tormented spirits of former inmates, guards, and prison officials who simply never left.

25:47 Apparitions take place in the cells where the inmates once lived, suffered, and sometimes died. One of the resonant ghosts is reported to be Helen Gladick. the wife of Arthur Gladick. She died at the local hospital in 1950 after a loaded handgun fell from a closet shelf in the warden's apartment and went off. Her spirit has allegedly remained in the apartment ever since, often manifesting as the smell of perfume. Spooky. Now I'm going to give you the top Two, and we'll start with number two, and you probably expected this one. Alcatraz in San Francisco, California.

26:30 The Rock. The name given to Alcatraz Penitentiary was the ultimate American prison. It was the place where scores of the country's worst criminal offenders, bloodletters, bad men, and escape artists called the end of the line. Although it started as a military prison for 29 years, the prison kept the country's most notorious lawbreakers, including Al Capone, Doc Barker, George Machine Gun Kelly, and others confined behind stone walls. initial prison was built in 1859, but fell into disrepair by the 1920s. It was reopened in 1933 to be an escape-proof federal prison, and it was the brutal place of punishment and confinement with few privileges. Suicide, murder, and even insanity became common.

27:19 In 1946, several inmates attempted a violent and bloody escape from the rock, but failed. There were a handful of other attempts, but only one successful attempt in 1962, when three bank robbers, using handmade rubber rafts and dummies with real human hair, vanished into the dark waters of the bay. Alcatraz was closed down one year later in 1963. Regarded as one of America's most haunted places, ghosts have been widely reported ever since, even by staff members of the National Park Service, which now operates that property. Ghosts have been sighted along with strange sounds, screams, yells, weeping, and even eerie music. And that brings us to number one on this list, and there is no debate here. Look all over Google. Everybody says this is the most haunted.

28:12 It is Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Quakers in 1829, who envisioned the stone castle as a place where Criminals could become penitent for their crimes, hence the name penitentiary. That's where that comes from. The prison was a place of total isolation. Inmates were confined in windowless rooms and allowed no contact with any living person. Many of them were driven insane by the solitude. Punishments for breaking the rules were extreme and suicides became common. Solitary confinement was ended in the 1870s and a century later, the prison was closed down. Since that time, ghost stories and paranormal encounters, they've become commonplace. Apparitions have been seen, mysterious footsteps heard, and strange sounds reported. And believe it or not, Eastern State Penitentiary is now like a haunted house. Like, they do it up for Halloween. And it's something you'd want to take a trip to. Look, any Pennsylvania listeners out there, let me know if you've ever been to Eastern State Penitentiary. Tell me about it. We'll pass it on to the rest of the listeners. So that is your top 10 America's most haunted prisons and jails. And I got one more cool thing for you today on Halloween, and that is I'm going to give you a list of terrifying convicts who committed murders on Halloween night. And

29:46 these are in no particular order, but I'm going to tell you about two friends, Leslie Ann Mazzario and Adrian Asagna. And they were stabbed late last One Halloween night, those two and their friend Lauren Menzino were busy handing out candy to trick-or-treaters in Napa, California on Halloween night of 2004. At around 11 p.m., the three women went to bed, not knowing there will be one more visitor that night. Menza awoke to a scream in the upstairs bedroom, ran out of the house, and drove away. Shit. Leaving her two friends behind. Sadly, those two friends were stabbed to death upstairs. Eric Matthew Copel, a friend of one of the victims, eventually turned himself in and confessed to the murders, though he never told anyone his motive.

30:44 No one. Copel is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In 1979, Shirley Ledford, was hitchhiking home from a Halloween party. Back in the 70s, you hitchhiked. When two men picked her up, they were in a dingy van. Little did she know the two men were known as the toolbox killers. Lawrence Betaker and Roy Norris were famous for picking up female hitchhikers and torturing them with tools typically found in the toolbox. They often took pictures of the victims during their slaying. After torturing Ledford, they dropped her body on a stranger's lawn and Ledford became the pair's fifth and final victim after a friend turned them in. Betaker was sentenced to death but died in 2019 of natural causes and Norris, who cooperated during the investigation, was given 45 years to life. And we'll go back to Halloween of 1975, and 15-year-old Martha Moxley left her Connecticut home to attend a costume party on Halloween morning. She was found dead in the backyard, beaten to death by a golf club.

32:01 25 years later, a guy by the name of Michael Skakel, who was also 15 at the time of the slaying, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. However, he maintained his innocence. And on May 4th of 2018, the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated his conviction. And in 2020, the case was actually reopened. And the next one I'm going to tell you about, I remember very well. This happened in 1992, and it was really close to home in New Orleans, where a Japanese exchange student never made it to his Halloween party. And if you're a Louisiana listener, most of you are probably familiar with this. When Yoshihiro Hattori, a Japanese exchange student, went out on Halloween night in 1992, he was heading to a party in New Orleans, but he wasn't familiar with the neighborhood he was in. Hattori struggled to find the address to the event, And when he eventually thought he had found the house the Halloween party was at, he knocks on the door. He doesn't get an answer.

33:10 So he walks back towards his car. Suddenly, the door of the house opened and Hattori said, we are here for the party. But the man in the doorway shot Hattori with a revolver. Now, it turns out Hattori was at the wrong address. And when police questioned the homeowner, a guy by the name of Rodney Pears, He claimed he had been scared and he thought the student was trespassing on his property with criminal intent. Pears was charged with manslaughter, but invoked what's known as the Castle Doctrine, in which Americans can claim they have the right to apply lethal means to protect their homes. And believe it or not, he was found not guilty by a jury.

33:52 And I didn't agree with that decision at all. I remember being disgusted by that. Sometimes I feel like he's still in America, Hattori's father told the news. Someday he'll be back home. I say to myself, what a sad story. And I'm going to tell you, look, I'm the first one to say protect your freaking property and all of that stuff. But this was not that situation. This kid was not armed. He went to the door. He was walking back to his car and turned around and said, hey, we're here for the party. It was just awful, horrible situations. But we'll bring you to the next one. We're going to tell you about Peter Fabano. He died in what police said was a crime of passion in the late 50s on Halloween night. This was actually 1957. So him and his wife, Betty Fabiano, they go to sleep and they thought they were finished with trick-or-treaters. But in the middle of the night, the doorbell to their L.A. home rings and Peter got out of bed and brought candy to the door, thinking it's a trick-or-treater. On the doorstep was a woman wearing a mask. She raised her hand, which was in a paper bag, and shot him in the chest. He died instantly. Police eventually arrested a woman by the name of Joan Rebell, who reportedly had a sexual relationship with Peter's wife, Betty. It's believed Rebelle talked another woman, Goldlyn Pizer, into murdering Peter. Rebelle was convicted

35:25 of second-degree murder along with Pizer and was sentenced to five years to life in prison. Five years to life. Haven't heard that one too much. Both women were later released and Betty was never tried for any connection in her husband's death. And we'll go to 1981 on Halloween night, and Sister Tadna Ben's body was found naked in a convent in Texas. The other nuns in the house, they noticed a broken window in the community room, so they called the police, and authorities found Ben's clothing and a knife under the bed. Meanwhile, an autopsy revealed the nun was stabbed, strangled, and sexually assaulted.

36:08 Oh, it's horrible. Police arrested a man who lived across the street by the name of Johnny Garrett after a witness saw him running from the convent that evening. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992. His last words. Get this, were reported to be, I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me and the rest of the world can kiss my ass. Well, Johnny Garrett, you can kiss my ass. How about that? And we're going to go to New York for the next one. And look, Halloween night, trick or treat, right? Might get your house rolled. You might get it egged, whatever. In this case, throwing eggs on Halloween night, which is typically known as a harmless prank. But in 1998, it turned deadly. A 21-year-old Bronx residence by the name of Carl Jackson and his girlfriend, they go to pick up their son from a party. Teenagers throw eggs at the car.

37:04 Piss me off, too. Jackson gets out of the car to yell at the pranksters. In response, one of the teenagers pulls out a gun and shoots Jackson through the head. He dies instantly. 17-year-old Curtis Starling was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm. He was convicted and is serving 20 years in prison. He receives a card in the mail every Halloween that reads, I'm glad you're still there. Get this, from Jackson's mother. That's pretty sweet. Let me tell you about William Liskey. He killed his family members on Halloween. In 2010, 16-year-old Devin Griffin, he comes home on Halloween to play video games after attending church and spending the previous night sleeping out. He noticed that his Michigan home was a little bit too quiet, so he goes to check on his family members. Griffin proceeded to find his stepfather in bed covered in blood.

38:02 When police arrived, they found two more bodies, Griffin's mother and Griffin's brother. Police eventually learned the murderer was Griffin's stepbrother, William Liskey. Liskey beat his older stepbrother, Derek Griffin, with a hammer, shot his father, William Liskey, five times, and then sexually assaulted and shot his stepmother, Susan Liskey. Liskey pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder to avoid the death penalty, but was found dead in his jail cell in 2015 from a self-inflicted murder. Wound. And just quickly, one more, a 1981 Halloween night brutal killing that remains unsolved. Photographer Ronald Sisman and Smith College student Elizabeth Platzman were beaten in their Manhattan apartment. This was in 1981 on Halloween night before being shot dead.

38:59 The apartment was completely ransacked, but nothing was missing. And to this day, That remains unsolved. And look, I want to wish every single one of you a happy Halloween. I hope you enjoy this episode. Look for some big time stuff to about to hit for Bloody Angola podcast. Stick with us. It's going to be good. And until next time, I'm Jim Chapman. your host of Bloody Angola, a podcast of 142 years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison.

39:39 Peace. I walk a straight line, shackled chain. Oh, gruesome Gertie is calling my name. There is no mercy in this penitentiary. Just ask the hill string guy, a wrangle of three.

40:27 me to die. Inside these walls inside the wire and when the world cries I know it's over oh bloody Angola oh bloody Angola