Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Haunted Road. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to meet me in person, I have a
Speaker 1: ton of fall toward dates coming up. I'll be heading
Speaker 1: to California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Ohio, to
Speaker 1: name a few. So get those dates at Amy dash
Speaker 1: Brunei dot net. That's b r U and I dot net. Also,
Speaker 1: if you want to take a spooky vacation, as always,
Speaker 1: check out my travel company, Strange Escapes at strange escapes
Speaker 1: dot com. I often wonder if my Internet search histories
Speaker 1: have been flagged by some sort of law enforcement, because,
Speaker 1: let me tell you, it's grizzly. When I'm trying to
Speaker 1: find the origin of a haunting. I'm all over research websites,
Speaker 1: entering lovely search terms like murder, execution, suicide, decapitation, serial killer, drowning, fatality,
Speaker 1: you name it. There has to be a file on
Speaker 1: me somewhere. Whoever is keeping that file if you're listening,
Speaker 1: it's all in the name of research. Okay, with that,
Speaker 1: I started researching the location we're covering on this episode
Speaker 1: of Haunted Road, and it took me mere minutes to
Speaker 1: come up with some doozies. We'll learn even more than
Speaker 1: this later, but here is just a taste of what
Speaker 1: I was able to come up with in newspaper archives alone.
Speaker 1: From the Lancaster Intelligencer on May seven, fourteen. Two soldiers
Speaker 1: were shot at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia on Thursday last
Speaker 1: for the crime of desertion. It is well to notice
Speaker 1: such instances, for it sometimes becomes necessary that lenity should
Speaker 1: give place to law as a warning to deter others
Speaker 1: from like aggravated offense. Says from the Lancaster Intelligencer on
Speaker 1: November twenty, eighteen nineteen, Captain Robinson, on board of a
Speaker 1: sloop from this place, which was a ground near Red
Speaker 1: Bank opposite Fort Mifflin, on Sunday last, distinctly saw a
Speaker 1: duel fought on the shore near him by persons who
Speaker 1: he had seen cross in boats from the fort. At
Speaker 1: the first fire, one of the parties fell and was
Speaker 1: conveyed across the river, mortally wounded. As far as the
Speaker 1: captain could judge from appearance, probably the parties were officers
Speaker 1: and the victim, no doubt, has not only thrown away
Speaker 1: his own life, but may have willfully added to the
Speaker 1: list of widows and orphans, and carried mourning and distress
Speaker 1: into many families of relatives, and severe regret to many
Speaker 1: more friends. The Daily Record, January twenty third, nineteen thirteen.
Speaker 1: The body of a man found floating in the Delaware
Speaker 1: Bay near here is supposed to be that of Freeman Munsey,
Speaker 1: who lived at And Street, Philadelphia. Muncy left his home
Speaker 1: November seventeenth to go down to Fort Miffle in a launch.
Speaker 1: He fell overboard while taking a snapshot of a passing boat.
Speaker 1: The Pittston Gazette, September one, eighteen sixty four. W. M. How,
Speaker 1: charged with desertion and murder, was executed yesterday at Fort Mifflin.
Speaker 1: And these are just the tip of the iceberg. So
Speaker 1: if I have your morbid interest, Pete, and you're ready
Speaker 1: to hear about one of the most haunted forts I
Speaker 1: have ever visited, and I've visited many, let's sit back
Speaker 1: and take a little trip to Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted Road Fort Mifflin
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is so historic that it even predates
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. By day, it's a grassy oasis surrounded
Speaker 1: by water in the middle of the city, offering tours
Speaker 1: of America's oldest active military fort, complete with historical re
Speaker 1: enactments and weapons demonstrations. But at night things change. The
Speaker 1: stone walls of the fort echo with disembodied screams, faceless
Speaker 1: entities lurk, and darkened corners. A ghostly lamplighter roams the
Speaker 1: corridors his torch, seeking out candles that burned out over
Speaker 1: two hundred years ago. Violent apparitions throw rocks in areas
Speaker 1: that once housed the most reviled prisoners in the fort,
Speaker 1: and in the cemetery along gone headstone that once read
Speaker 1: stop reader drop A friendly tier for youth and innocence
Speaker 1: lie here. With its history of intense battles and of
Speaker 1: contentious executions, it's no wonder. Fort Mifflin claims to be
Speaker 1: one of the most haunted places in America. In seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy two, British soldiers began construction on a fort surrounded
Speaker 1: by a moat on the west bank of the Delaware River,
Speaker 1: near its confluence with the Schookle, originally called Mud Island
Speaker 1: Fort for its location on what was known as Mud Island.
Speaker 1: The structure was prized for its location at the confluence
Speaker 1: of two major rivers. Even the peaceful Quaker William Penn
Speaker 1: observed that the spot provided ideal anchorage for the British
Speaker 1: warships that would protect Philadelphia, his planned city of brotherly Love.
Speaker 1: As Jeffrey Dorward explained in his book Fort Mifflin of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and Illustrated History, Doorwart called Fort Mifflin a low
Speaker 1: lying earth in stone fortification arranged in an irregular star
Speaker 1: shaped design. Star shaped forts were popular in Europe starting
Speaker 1: in the fifteen hundreds and appeared in early American forts
Speaker 1: like the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida,
Speaker 1: Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, and Fort Ticonderoga and Upstate
Speaker 1: New York. Though Fort Mifflin has additions built in the eighteenth, nineteenth,
Speaker 1: and twentieth centuries, it has largely been restored to how
Speaker 1: it would have looked in eighteen thirty four. There are
Speaker 1: fourteen restored buildings on the property. The fort off as
Speaker 1: daily weapons demonstrations, and those fourteen authentic Restored buildings include casemates,
Speaker 1: which are the areas from which guns and cannons were fired,
Speaker 1: the northeast bastion, the arsenal soldiers barracks, officers quarters, and
Speaker 1: a blacksmith shop. While there is still a cemetery area
Speaker 1: on property, the graves have been moved off site. Author
Speaker 1: Jim Cheney wrote that the fort is still technically an
Speaker 1: active base for the United States Army Corps of Engineers,
Speaker 1: who have a modern day base located next door. This
Speaker 1: makes the fort the oldest active military base in the
Speaker 1: US and the only base on American soil to predate
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence. Though construction on Fort Mifflin was
Speaker 1: started in seventeen seventy two by British soldiers, they eventually
Speaker 1: abandoned the effort. Fort Mifflin's original purpose was to defend
Speaker 1: against foreign enemies, but by seventeen seventy three, funding for
Speaker 1: construction had dried up and dissent from American colonists was
Speaker 1: a bigger concern than foreign attacks. When the Colony of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania resumed construction in seventeen seventy five, it was to
Speaker 1: build a fort to defend Philadelphia against British forces. In
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy seven, the British attacked the Revolutionary troops garrisoned
Speaker 1: at the fort, pommeling its walls with more than ten
Speaker 1: thousand cannonballs, making it the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1: One soldier who fought in the battle, Private Joseph Martin,
Speaker 1: wrote of his experience here, I endured hardships sufficient to
Speaker 1: kill half a dozen horses. I saw men who were
Speaker 1: stooping to be protected by the works, but not stooping
Speaker 1: low enough, split like fish to be broiled. Our men
Speaker 1: were cut up like cornstalks. After five and tense days,
Speaker 1: the Continental Army had no choice but to retreat, fleeing
Speaker 1: the fort on November fifteenth, seventeen seventy seven. Though the
Speaker 1: soldiers never officially surrendered, and counterintuitively, their fight was a
Speaker 1: pivotal moment in the American success in the war. Renee
Speaker 1: Gordon wrote in The Philadelphia's and Day's Son. As a
Speaker 1: result of the valiant defense to British ships were destroyed,
Speaker 1: the supply line was disrupted, and Washington's army was given
Speaker 1: time to move to Valley Forge to reassemble. Because of
Speaker 1: this valuable time bought by the bombardment. Fort Mifflin is
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Fort that Saved America. During the War
Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, a soldier was executed for his third
Speaker 1: offense of desertion, but Fort Mifflin didn't see any significant
Speaker 1: action until the Civil War, when it was used as
Speaker 1: a prison. In August eighteen sixty four, Private William Howe,
Speaker 1: who we spoke of earlier, a Union soldier, was executed there,
Speaker 1: and his death became something of a public spectacle. Though
Speaker 1: he had been a distinguished veteran of the Battle of Fredericksburg,
Speaker 1: how left his post to seek medical treatment, likely for
Speaker 1: a case of chronic diarrhea. Once he had escaped and
Speaker 1: returned to his home and family, an officer came to
Speaker 1: arrest him for desertion, at which time how shot and
Speaker 1: killed the man. Abraham Lincoln himself approved the death sentence,
Speaker 1: possibly to show other deserters that he meant business. While
Speaker 1: awaiting execution, how tried to escape by tunneling out of
Speaker 1: the fort, but he was discovered. Tickets were sold to
Speaker 1: his hanging, and according to the Baltimore Sun, the execution
Speaker 1: was witnessed by a very large number of persons, given
Speaker 1: that he fought so hard to escape, and that his
Speaker 1: death was such a scene. It's not all that's surprising
Speaker 1: that house ghosts is one of the most frequently reported
Speaker 1: in the fort. Visitors claim to see a man in
Speaker 1: Civil War garb roaming the ground, sometimes sitting quietly and
Speaker 1: sewing in one of the casemates. They believe it's how
Speaker 1: because before he was hanged, he had a bag placed
Speaker 1: over his face, and when the apparition looks up from
Speaker 1: his sewing, he doesn't have a face. Witnesses refer to
Speaker 1: house ghosts as the faceless Man. But he's not the
Speaker 1: only supernatural resident of Fort Mifflin, which describes itself as
Speaker 1: widely regarded as one of the most haunted sites in
Speaker 1: the country. People often report seeing an apparition known as
Speaker 1: the Lamplighter, who appears on the second floor balcony of
Speaker 1: the barracks. According to Ghosts of the Revolutionary War, the
Speaker 1: Lamplighter is said to be a man with black hair
Speaker 1: and a white puffy shirt who drifts through the soldiers
Speaker 1: barracks carrying a long pole with a dim candle at
Speaker 1: the end to light lamps that disappeared some two hundred
Speaker 1: years ago. This ghost has been seen in the fort
Speaker 1: since the early nineteen hundreds, before it was declared a
Speaker 1: National Historic Monument in nineteen fifteen, and before it was
Speaker 1: retired as a military post in nineteen fifty four. A
Speaker 1: shadowy figure known as the Blacksmith has been seen many
Speaker 1: times by visitors and employees in the blacksmith shop, although
Speaker 1: there is no historical evidence to back up this claim.
Speaker 1: The ghost is said to be a man named Jacob Sawyer,
Speaker 1: who had a long standing argument with the fort's commander
Speaker 1: about keeping the back door of the blacksmith shop open,
Speaker 1: which was against regulations. Darcy Ort wrote in Haunted Philadelphia
Speaker 1: that staff would constantly find the door open, even if
Speaker 1: they had locked it. The constant opening and closing caused
Speaker 1: the hinges to deteriorate until Jacob got his way the
Speaker 1: door was permanently removed. Or describes claims of a spirit
Speaker 1: opening and closing the doors in the blacksmith shop, swinging
Speaker 1: tools hanging on the wall, and moving objects around in
Speaker 1: the space. People also report the phantom sound of a
Speaker 1: hammer and anvil in the empty shop. One of Fort
Speaker 1: Mifflin's many haunts isn't seen, but heard. The sounds that
Speaker 1: come from what's commonly referred to as the Screaming Lady,
Speaker 1: whose screams are so loud and so life like that
Speaker 1: both visitors and staff have called the police on many occasions,
Speaker 1: thinking someone was in serious danger. The screams are said
Speaker 1: to come from the spirit of Elizabeth Pratt, an eighteenth
Speaker 1: century woman who once lived at the fort. A cemetery
Speaker 1: once stood just outside the northern gate of the fort.
Speaker 1: Although the graves were moved in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: one of those graves bore the name of Elizabeth Pratt,
Speaker 1: identifying those buried underneath. According to the Philadelphia Time, as
Speaker 1: the consort of Sergeant Sylvana's Pratt, aged twenty three years
Speaker 1: in eighteen days, who died the eleventh of February eighteen
Speaker 1: oh three, also her daughter and infant son, both of
Speaker 1: whom died the year before. The legend written beneath this inscription,
Speaker 1: stop reader, drop a friendly tear for youth and innocence
Speaker 1: lie here. The three allegedly died of fever. It's sometimes
Speaker 1: said that a figure of a woman seen peering out
Speaker 1: a second story window in the officers quarters, usually by children,
Speaker 1: could be Elizabeth, still looking for her children after all
Speaker 1: these years. Some believe the whales come from Pratt grieving
Speaker 1: her lost children, but there have been accounts of disembodied
Speaker 1: female screams as far back as seventeen seventy eight, according
Speaker 1: to Haunted Philadelphia that people attributed to women mourning the
Speaker 1: men who died during the British attack on the fort. Now,
Speaker 1: before we dig too deep into the hauntings, let's bring
Speaker 1: someone on who is very knowledgeable about everything going on
Speaker 1: at Fort Mifflin. Up next, we'll be speaking with Greg O'Brien.
Speaker 1: Greg is a paranormal host and tour guide at Fort Mifflin,
Speaker 1: and he's been there for many, many years and has
Speaker 1: some amazing stories to share with us about the ghosts
Speaker 1: in history there. That is coming up after the break.
Speaker 1: All Right, I am sitting here with Mr Greg O'Brien,
Speaker 1: who is the official paranormal host at Fort Mifflin, And
Speaker 1: it turns out we go way back. We've met a
Speaker 1: number of times at a number of different haunted locations, right, Greg, Yes,
Speaker 1: go back years. It's funny. I have been to Fort
Speaker 1: Mifflin a handful of times. I can't remember if I
Speaker 1: ever filmed there. I don't think I did. I've been
Speaker 1: there for events and for private investigations. And what I
Speaker 1: remember most about Fort Mifflin, besides it being amazingly historic
Speaker 1: and area haunted, is the airplanes and the mosquitoes that
Speaker 1: are as large as airplanes. Correct, Yes they July at August.
Speaker 1: Recommend don't be there at night. Yeah, or have a
Speaker 1: healthy dose of bucks. I think Josh Gates and I
Speaker 1: were in one of the I can't remember where we
Speaker 1: were stationed. It was in one of the one of
Speaker 1: those called the case. I think you guys are in
Speaker 1: case mate five. Yeah, we were in case mate five.
Speaker 1: Inside thought we were safe. No, we emerged with dozens
Speaker 1: of mosquito bites that night. So but it was well
Speaker 1: worth it. A lot happens at Fort Mifflin. It's a
Speaker 1: very well known haunt for people who ever fly into Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: You can see Fort Mifflin on the approach many times,
Speaker 1: so I always look for it when I'm landing, which
Speaker 1: also makes it an interesting place to investigate because you
Speaker 1: are fighting the sound of planes constantly. And I also
Speaker 1: heard stories about filming there. But I always tell people
Speaker 1: if you can't figure out the difference between the way
Speaker 1: ghost sounds and an airplane sounds, you might be in
Speaker 1: the wrong business, correct, And that's a good way to
Speaker 1: teach people to tag their audio. Yeah, And it's surprising
Speaker 1: because when you investigate and you do get a sound
Speaker 1: of like maybe a truck in the distance or even
Speaker 1: an airplane, the way it presents on your recorder sounds
Speaker 1: infinitely different than you would expect. Sometimes it sounds like
Speaker 1: a growl. Sometimes it sounds like a voice, just because
Speaker 1: it's not directly in front of the microphone. So it
Speaker 1: is really important, like you were saying, to tag it
Speaker 1: because you're not going to remember every time a airplane
Speaker 1: went through, right, And they do slow down after midnight.
Speaker 1: Plus once you're in the case mates and stuff, and
Speaker 1: you're you know, six ft of dirt over top of you,
Speaker 1: they're not so bad, right right, Well, that's helpful. So
Speaker 1: that being said, let's talk about some of the hauntings there,
Speaker 1: because there are many, and you know, I know that
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be seen and heard there, and
Speaker 1: I also know it kind of seems like it changes
Speaker 1: depending on when you're investigating. So what would you say
Speaker 1: is the most prevalent haunts encountered at Fort Mifflin. Well,
Speaker 1: we do have a revolutionary tour guide ghost. He comes
Speaker 1: out and does tours. We're open Wednesdays through Sundays, and
Speaker 1: during the week if there's we don't usually get school
Speaker 1: groups or whatnot, but there's times when there's it's pretty
Speaker 1: dead Wednesday or Thursday, and you might have one or
Speaker 1: two people there at the fort, and they come out
Speaker 1: of the fort and they start raving about this tour
Speaker 1: guide and we asked him to describe the store guide,
Speaker 1: and they describe in the Revolutionary War uniform, and he
Speaker 1: goes into explicit details of the bombardment of the fort.
Speaker 1: And then when we tell them there is no tour
Speaker 1: guides during the week, only on the weekends and you
Speaker 1: are the only one here, that pretty much freaks them out.
Speaker 1: He's been reported numerous numerous times. So that's a nice,
Speaker 1: good example of an intelligent haunting. This guy just loves
Speaker 1: to talk about the bombardment. So you're saying that tour groups,
Speaker 1: school groups, they'll come in middle of the day, take
Speaker 1: a tour, and this mysterious tour guide dressed in Revolutionary
Speaker 1: War garb, tells them the whole story and looks completely
Speaker 1: alive like you and me, But he's a ghost. He's
Speaker 1: a ghost and it's usually over in the powder magazine. Yeah, people,
Speaker 1: you know, they've gone in there and then they've looked
Speaker 1: and he's standing by the door. I've seen a Revolutionary
Speaker 1: War soldier, but I've always been wanting him to give
Speaker 1: me a tour, and I haven't gotten a tour from
Speaker 1: him yet. That's wild. I mean, this actually comes up
Speaker 1: a lot on the podcast. The more I talked to
Speaker 1: and just in general investigating how many times a spirit
Speaker 1: looks just like a living person and it makes you wonder, like,
Speaker 1: how many times have we encountered a ghost and maybe
Speaker 1: even fully interacted with them and had no idea? Correct?
Speaker 1: You just don't know. Do you think this is actually
Speaker 1: a ghost from a Revolutionary War period, or do you
Speaker 1: think this might be the ghost of some sort of
Speaker 1: reenactor who just really holds the fort dear to his heart.
Speaker 1: I really think it's a ghost from the revolution because
Speaker 1: the explicit details that he goes into, it's like, wow,
Speaker 1: you know that stuff that he really didn't know. I
Speaker 1: have a theory. When the Fort seventeen seventy seven, during
Speaker 1: the bombardment, there were deserters, and for whatever reason, when
Speaker 1: Washington retook Philadelphia, these deserters were still in Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: they got caught and there was a massive hanging of
Speaker 1: eleven of these deserters on Market Street. It was a
Speaker 1: public hanging in Philadelphia. So my theory is, I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, there's sentenced for eternity to since they have
Speaker 1: deserted the fort, is to be back at the fort
Speaker 1: to defend it, to spend their eternity there. So that's
Speaker 1: how what I think. Yeah, I mean, sort of like
Speaker 1: a self imposed sentence, like they're kind of carrying over
Speaker 1: that guilt for what they did. That's a theory I've
Speaker 1: held to for sometimes for even like prisons and things.
Speaker 1: People always ask me like why would someone stay there?
Speaker 1: And that's one explanation. I'm not sure if that's the case,
Speaker 1: but it's just you know, when you try to kind
Speaker 1: of justify it, it does make sense per se. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's a really interesting spirit that people could encounter
Speaker 1: any time of day. What else do you think people
Speaker 1: could encounter if they visit the fort. Well, let's to
Speaker 1: say we have full bodies, shadow figures, noise banging, we
Speaker 1: have our candlelight ghost walks in October, and where we
Speaker 1: have the fort just lit up with lanterns and candles,
Speaker 1: and we walk around which is landerns And during these
Speaker 1: tours a lot of experiences happened. One year, I had
Speaker 1: a group and we're coming in. I had a couple
Speaker 1: of young young boys with me. Since it was a
Speaker 1: military fort, there were families there, so you had women
Speaker 1: and children they did die at the fort. And walk
Speaker 1: in and there's two children that I've seen quite a
Speaker 1: bit and their stories to be seen, and I think
Speaker 1: their brother and sister. It's a little boy and a girl.
Speaker 1: And as we walk in, I could see him running around,
Speaker 1: but I didn't say anything. And we stood in front
Speaker 1: of the bunk room. The enlist him in the office
Speaker 1: there and I'm talking and then I asked, anybody have
Speaker 1: any questions. Feel free to ask a question. There's no
Speaker 1: stupid question except if you want to know way to
Speaker 1: build the fort so close to the airport. Um, we
Speaker 1: get asked that all the time. So, oh no, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I have news for you. Yep. So this is
Speaker 1: one little boy raises his hand and he said, did
Speaker 1: any children die here at the fort? And I said, yes,
Speaker 1: it's documented. We had children die here at the ford.
Speaker 1: And we're right on the Delaware there's documentations of children
Speaker 1: that drowned and washing up on the shores, and I
Speaker 1: knew what the answer was going to be able to.
Speaker 1: I asked him, I said, why are you asking that?
Speaker 1: And he said, well, when we walked in, we saw
Speaker 1: these two little children running around playing, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: welcome to Fort Mifflin. You've experienced your first sighting of
Speaker 1: a ghost. Wow. I mean those seem like very strong
Speaker 1: spirits for them to look so alive, like, that's wild
Speaker 1: to me. And then I know that a big thing
Speaker 1: people see, and I experienced from the casemate. Our shadow
Speaker 1: figures are seeing very regularly, and I mean, I would
Speaker 1: say it's almost a guarantee that if you if you
Speaker 1: go there to investigate at night, you're going to encounter
Speaker 1: some sort of shadow figure. Has that been your experience
Speaker 1: as well? Oh? Yes, there they dart all over the place.
Speaker 1: The last big event there with the TAPS group, after
Speaker 1: everybody left, I was just standing there with the event
Speaker 1: organizer and assistant and another friend of mine. We were
Speaker 1: just standing there and we were standing right in front
Speaker 1: of the officers quarters and we're looking out over and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we see this figure going across
Speaker 1: from like the armory going walking across and we're like,
Speaker 1: what the heck, So all of us go running over there,
Speaker 1: and this figure ran over towards Case May eleven and
Speaker 1: just disappeared. So we searched the whole for it again.
Speaker 1: You know, we were the only ones there. So you
Speaker 1: see them quite regularly. Yeah, and it's not really an
Speaker 1: area that people are just going to kind of stumble into. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's by the airport, but it is really set back
Speaker 1: away from everything. It's not in like a populated area
Speaker 1: or anything like that. And it's a fort. It's meant
Speaker 1: to keep people away. So and now have you ever
Speaker 1: like felt personally afraid or like something there would ever
Speaker 1: harm you in any way? Ah, years ago I used
Speaker 1: to go a lot, you know, investigate, and then I volunteered,
Speaker 1: and I just felt uneasy in Case May go walking
Speaker 1: past the case by two, three, and four they're just
Speaker 1: smaller ones yet one at the beginning the big one
Speaker 1: and where the Confederate prisoners were, and in five is
Speaker 1: it over we at the end where the Union prisoners,
Speaker 1: and then there's three smallents. I just felt uneasy and
Speaker 1: those three and then also the powder magazine. I could
Speaker 1: not go in by myself at night for years just
Speaker 1: didn't feel good. So eventually I forced myself to go
Speaker 1: in there, and I said, in there, with my back
Speaker 1: against the back wall, had my recorder going, I heard banging,
Speaker 1: like a metal banging on the wall coming towards me,
Speaker 1: and I just sat there like frozen. And then when
Speaker 1: I got out of there, when I played the Greek quarterback,
Speaker 1: it was like somebody was standing right on top of
Speaker 1: me yelling get out, get out. I mean it was
Speaker 1: like it was like it was screaming. So but eventually
Speaker 1: that was it. I got my fear. So I mean
Speaker 1: that's a pretty clear message. I always say that the
Speaker 1: two e v P that we get the most often
Speaker 1: it's either get out or help me, two very different messages,
Speaker 1: but those are really the two, like top the top
Speaker 1: e vps we get. So case made eleven. Is that
Speaker 1: the one that was uncovered later, Yes, that's the one
Speaker 1: where Grant has has experienced there. Yes, Oh that's right,
Speaker 1: And so I think I remember them sending Chris Williams
Speaker 1: down there by herself as well. So just a little background,
Speaker 1: I joined the team right around when they went and
Speaker 1: did this investigation, but I lived in California at the time,
Speaker 1: and so I was not flying to the East Coast yet,
Speaker 1: but Chris Williams and I were really close are still
Speaker 1: very close anyways. I just remember her like telling me,
Speaker 1: you're not going to believe what they made me do.
Speaker 1: They made me climb down in this case, made all
Speaker 1: by myself. And first time she went down truly alone
Speaker 1: and brought like a handheld camera, and then I think
Speaker 1: that they wanted to get some better shots of her,
Speaker 1: so she went down again with a camera operator. And
Speaker 1: that was something that she always had to defend at
Speaker 1: paranormal events and things because people would say, you know,
Speaker 1: you weren't really down there by yourself, you had a
Speaker 1: camera operator, and she had to explain, like the magic
Speaker 1: of TV, that she did truly go down there by herself.
Speaker 1: But then they did send a camera operator down later
Speaker 1: to just get some additional shots of her down there,
Speaker 1: but she definitely went down there alone. People get very
Speaker 1: uncomfortable down there. They just don't feel right down there,
Speaker 1: because that was solitary confinement when it was first open up,
Speaker 1: when Chris and went down there and he had to
Speaker 1: go down the ladder, but it's been excavated, so there
Speaker 1: is stairs to go down it, but still it's underground.
Speaker 1: It's a hole in the ground and it's very tight
Speaker 1: and people get very uneasy in there. I had a
Speaker 1: family to come out to do an investigation, and that
Speaker 1: was the husband and wife and the two teenage sons
Speaker 1: came out. That night was just nuts off the charts.
Speaker 1: And when we were in Case Made eleven. Now there's
Speaker 1: two little rooms in Case Made eleven, two separate cells,
Speaker 1: and so I was in the back cell with the
Speaker 1: wife and one song, and then the other cell it
Speaker 1: was the husband, uh and the other song. We're in
Speaker 1: there doing some a VPS and it's pitch black. You
Speaker 1: can't see the hand in front of your face. And
Speaker 1: so we're in there and all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: big bam right next to me and they're like, what
Speaker 1: was that? And I said, well, I think somebody was
Speaker 1: thrown at me. So we put the flashlight and it
Speaker 1: was a piece of brick that was right next to me.
Speaker 1: So that was the only time I had something thrown
Speaker 1: at me. I just think they were trying to get
Speaker 1: my attention because it didn't hit me, it hit the wall.
Speaker 1: It was really loud, so that made their night. They
Speaker 1: became believers at night. Yeah, I don't think I even
Speaker 1: went down there. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but I
Speaker 1: am hugely claustrophobic, and I do not like being underground,
Speaker 1: Like I am kind of anxiety ridden the whole time.
Speaker 1: So I remember, I might have. If I remember if
Speaker 1: I went down there, I've blocked it out mentally. I
Speaker 1: don't think I did. Yeah, I don't think you did.
Speaker 1: So at that point, you're in the casemate and you
Speaker 1: have something thrown at you, which is very different from
Speaker 1: just kind of seeing having someone explain the history, and
Speaker 1: by someone I mean a spirit or seeing children playing.
Speaker 1: Have there ever been any other incidents of kind of
Speaker 1: aggressive type behavior, maybe towards people going there or toward investigators.
Speaker 1: We've had stuff move. The most aggressive that I know
Speaker 1: of it was again during a Candlelight ghost tour and
Speaker 1: we're coming out of the casemates and then as we're
Speaker 1: walking out, there was a gentleman with his girlfriend and
Speaker 1: he went up a little bit and hidden like casemate too,
Speaker 1: and as we walked by within the girlfriend he jumped
Speaker 1: out and scared the basis out of her. She freaked
Speaker 1: out and she was cursing him. And yelling at him,
Speaker 1: and he was laughing. So he started walking next to me,
Speaker 1: and she's all the way in the back of the group,
Speaker 1: just still. She was she didn't want to be anywhere
Speaker 1: near him. She was just really upset, and all of
Speaker 1: us on. He goes flying forward and hits the ground.
Speaker 1: Something pushed him down to the ground, and he got
Speaker 1: up and he started yelling at her, why are you
Speaker 1: doing that? I was joking everything, and She's like, I'm
Speaker 1: not even anywhere near you. I'm all the way back here.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I guess the spirit he pissed the
Speaker 1: spirits awful little bit upset of your girlfriend. So that
Speaker 1: was That's really the most aggressive that I've experienced. You know,
Speaker 1: I had the stone being thrown. Of course, we tell
Speaker 1: people know provoking there, you know, respect the dead. There's
Speaker 1: nothing negative, nothing demonic there. You know, you can have
Speaker 1: some pistolf spirits. Specifically, when it was a military prison
Speaker 1: in Civil War, you had civilians that were locked up
Speaker 1: in there. These were just regular folks that were thrown
Speaker 1: in prison by Lincoln. Conditions were just horrific, so you
Speaker 1: had those deaths. We have a spirit that identifies himself
Speaker 1: as to judge him and I have like a love
Speaker 1: hate relationship. It's Greg, F you or f you. Greg.
Speaker 1: That's how he greets me. He's just a very scrunled individual.
Speaker 1: There was a judge that was sentenced to Fort Mifflin.
Speaker 1: He was a major in the Pennsylvania Milityship with Jacob Wilhelm,
Speaker 1: and he was a sitting associate judge of the Court
Speaker 1: of Common Please of Clearfield County in Pennsylvania, and he
Speaker 1: opposed war. And at that point in the eighteen sixty
Speaker 1: three sixty four time frame, if you opposed the war,
Speaker 1: you post Lincoln a rounded you up and three your
Speaker 1: military prisons, something that a lot of people don't know of,
Speaker 1: and tens of thousands of citizens were locked up throughout
Speaker 1: the country. And so judge she was a judge Jacob Wilhelm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that that makes sense, even though that that
Speaker 1: spirit isn't necessarily like violent, they're angry. You can kind
Speaker 1: of encounter the whole gamut there, from spirits that are
Speaker 1: completely fine and kind to some that are clearly in turmoil.
Speaker 1: And you're right, that's kind of the perfect example as
Speaker 1: to why you don't want to assume you know who
Speaker 1: you're talking to when you're investigating or be you know,
Speaker 1: treat them disrespectfully because you don't know their story at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and on his grave it's and now despoiled. He lives
Speaker 1: like wind swept leafless. Those a noble phantom shade of
Speaker 1: what has been, and that was put on his tombstone.
Speaker 1: So noble, noble phantom. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: kind of giving us a little bit of insight into
Speaker 1: the hauntings at Fort Mifflin, and I hope people will
Speaker 1: go visit. If people want to visit the fort or
Speaker 1: investigate the fort, or do any ghost tours or anything,
Speaker 1: what do they need to do? Well, our website is
Speaker 1: Fort Mifflin dot us. You go to the website and
Speaker 1: we have an event pulled down. You can go and
Speaker 1: all the events that happened at the fort. We do reenactments,
Speaker 1: we have a jazz festival there, We have all kinds
Speaker 1: of different activities there there. And then there's a programs
Speaker 1: page and that's where the paranormal is and you can
Speaker 1: go there and the information of what you need to
Speaker 1: do is all right there. That's great. It's really wonderful
Speaker 1: that they've kind of embraced that side of the fort too,
Speaker 1: because a lot of these historic locations that are, you know,
Speaker 1: government owned, they kind of steer away from it. But
Speaker 1: I think it is a just valuable for the public
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of fun, especially to get
Speaker 1: younger people involved in history and then be it's a
Speaker 1: great revenue source for some of these really important locations.
Speaker 1: Whether you believe in ghosts or not, I think it's
Speaker 1: doing a lot of good. And you've been involved for
Speaker 1: so long, so good for you. It's really great that
Speaker 1: you've been so closely involved with the fort this long. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. You know how it is, you can
Speaker 1: some places just pull you towards them, and the fort
Speaker 1: is somewhere place that just pulled me in and I'm there,
Speaker 1: So yeah, we appreciate people coming out. It's forty total
Speaker 1: lacres here. We have nature trail. There's more of the
Speaker 1: fort outside about a quarter mile down. I know you've
Speaker 1: never been down there. It's it was built in late
Speaker 1: eighteen seventies. There's gun batteries down along the river, there's
Speaker 1: case mates down there, so there's a lot of you
Speaker 1: can come out just wonder around. You don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about ghost spirits. You know the history walk to
Speaker 1: you know, we have dear fox, we have all kinds
Speaker 1: of wildlife. Even though we're right by the airport, right
Speaker 1: on the Delaware River. You can sit and watch the
Speaker 1: boats go by you. You can look overhead and watch
Speaker 1: the airplane. So there's lots to do. Well. I love that.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a wonderful day. So I clearly need
Speaker 1: to get back soon because I did not get to
Speaker 1: experience all that, so I'm putting it on the schedule.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Yeah, we need you guys back. I
Speaker 1: like to have you back, Chris, I'd like to get back.
Speaker 1: Get her down in case matal leven she would love that. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I really appreciate it, and hopefully
Speaker 1: we will chat again very soon. One of the things
Speaker 1: I love about Fort Mifflin is that it's a government
Speaker 1: run site that does not at all shy away from
Speaker 1: its ghostly history. The fact that paranormal reports have been
Speaker 1: going on there since the late seventeen hundreds probably helps
Speaker 1: a great deal because you can't hide that. It's also
Speaker 1: a location where activities seems to happen day or night,
Speaker 1: whether you're looking for it or not. This is why.
Speaker 1: If you happen to be in the City of Brotherly
Speaker 1: Love and are looking for something new and different to do,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend a moment at the Fort. It's so
Speaker 1: close to the airport. It's also a wonderful place to
Speaker 1: stop on your way out of town. Tell them I
Speaker 1: sent you, and also let them know I'd really like
Speaker 1: to come back and investigate soon. PS. Good luck if
Speaker 1: you see the faceless man. I literally watched a seasoned
Speaker 1: investigator run out of the place after witnessing that for himself.
Speaker 1: Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Haunted Road is hosted
Speaker 1: and written by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by rema El Kali
Speaker 1: and supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.