Jew World Order

From medieval dungeons to modern penitentiaries, prisons are truly frightening places – and they remain frightening long after the last inmate has finished his porridge.

One former prison that sees a lot of paranormal activity is the former Derby Gaol, now owned by ghost expert and historian Richard Felix.

It was built in the 1750s on a traditional and very busy execution site. As a result, death and suffering were associated with the building right from the start.

England at this time was experiencing a massive crimewave caused by terrible poverty and cheap gin which large numbers of the population were addicted to.

The gap between rich and poor was immense and the ruling classes were not about to let the peasants get their grubby hands on the family silver. If you were poor and committed a crime you could definitely expect brutal punishment.

More than 260 crimes carried the death penalty. A 12 year-old who stole a handkerchief was just as likely to hang as a highwayman who committed murder.

Therefore, the vast majority of the poor souls who entered Derby Gaol had a rather unpleasant appointment with the hangman.

As if the prospect of the gallows was not terrible enough, condemned inmates had an additional fear which caused them great anguish. Their bodies were often handed to the surgeons to be dissected and examined (and then put on public display as a warning to others).

In these more religious times it was firmly believed that your soul could not enter heaven if your body had been dismembered.

This belief could be a contributing factor as to why some spirits stay on the earthly plane and refuse to “cross over”.

Today, Derby Gaol is regularly visited by paranormal investigators and interested members of the public. Many have witnessed unusual and sometimes quite scary activity within the building.

Even an experienced investigator like Richard Felix has been frightened by close encounters of the paranormal kind. He was once confronted by a grey haze in the shape of a man, who glided straight past him before disappearing at the end of a corridor.

A builder was once working in one cell when the heavy door slowly closed by itself, locking him in. He also experienced feelings of nausea – a common experience in haunted locations.

No rational explanation could be found.

In fact, many people visiting Derby Gaol begin to feel sick and have to leave. Some feel that they are being suffocated or strangled.

Hanging

People also claim to have seen two young men hanging from a beam, their bodies slowly rotating.

A similar vision has been witnessed in the Day Room where a visitor noticed a man hanging from a doorway. He thought that this was a very convincing stunt by an actor but was shocked to discover that nobody else had seen the hanging man.

Could these frightening visions be somehow conjured up by the building’s long association with death by hanging?

One particular scary figure has been encountered lurking in a doorway of Derby Gaol.

He has been described as an evil-looking bald man wearing a kind of leather garment or apron. I remember reading that when prisoners were flogged, the jailer would wear a leather apron because it was easier to wipe off blood.

This leather-clad bald man has also been seen to walk through a wall.

Another strangely dressed figure, a woman in a large fancy hat, was seen to walk down a corridor and through a door to the outside. The witnesses followed her outside to be confronted by freshly fallen snow – and no footprints!

Derby Gaol seems to be full of strange ghostly people.

A man in a long scarlet coat is sometimes seen acting as if he is looking for someone. A “terrified-looking” blonde woman was witnessed lying on a bed, a dark figure seeming to menace her.

Derby Gaol also has more than its fair share of poltergeist activity. Cups, glasses and various ornaments have all moved by themselves – sometimes flying past the heads of shocked visitors and staff.
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THE DERBY GAOL

The term Derby Gaol historically refers to the five gaols in Derby, England. Today, the term usually refers to one of two tourist attractions, the gaol which stood on Friar Gate from 1756 to 1846 and the cells of which still exist and are open to the public as a museum, and the 1843 to 1929 Vernon Street Prison whose impressive frontage can still be seen today.

Allegedly haunted, the building was visited in 2002 by Living TV’s Most Haunted. The site is today maintained by Richard Felix formerly of Derby Heritage Centre. The gaol is now run by his son Edward and there are plans to knock through the building next door to open up more cells to the public. The Derby ghostwalks are now run from the gaol following Richard’s sale of the heritage centre.

Between 1730 and 1832 there were in excess of 260 crimes which carried the death penalty. This was known as the “Bloody Code” and offences ranged from being seen in the street with a sooty face, stealing anything valued in excess of 4s 6d (twenty two and a half pence), damaging fishponds, writing a threatening letter etc; right through to Murder, Treason, Piracy and Arson in His Majesty’s Ship’s Dockyard. Needless to say, everyday life for most people was hard and unrelenting. Employment was difficult to obtain and the pay very meagre. Therefore, to subsidise their existence, resorting to theft was the last, desperate option open to many to provide food for themselves and their families. Of course there were hard and fast villains who resorted to crime as a way of making a living and murder was an all too common occurrence. The law was enforced rigidly and, when deemed necessary, the Justices would be seen to make “an example” of certain individuals as was the case with the men from Pentrich, Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner. Accused of High Treason, these men were sentenced to be Hanged, Drawn and Quartered. It was not, however, the last time the awful sentence was handed down. That was in 1820 in London when the Cato Street Conspirators, Arthur Thistlewood (who knew Brandreth), John Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, James Ings and William Davidson were accused of High Treason. Similarly, the Prince Regent granted clemency and commuted the sentence to Hanging and Beheading only. The difference being the Pentrich men were decapitated with an axe (the last time it was ever used) whilst a knife was used, by a surgeon, on the Cato Street men. The identity of the executioner of the Pentrich men remains a mystery and the only details were that he was a “strong, muscular collier from Derby”. The man who hanged the Cato Street men was Thomas “Old Cheesy” Cheshire (incidentally, observed by one William Calcraft, later to become our longest serving hangsman!)

For the “run-of-the-mill” capitally convicted criminals, hanging was seen to be sufficient, however, in 1752 the “Horrid Act of Murder” was approved where those convicted of murder were not only hanged but had an additional ‘punishment’ inflicted. After hanging, “the body shall be given over to the surgeons for dissection and a body shall not be suffered to be buried until it has been dissected or anatomised.” This was particularly gruesome in that the crowd consisting of men women and children, who had just witnessed the execution were entitled to follow the cart carrying the remains of the victim back to the Shire Hall (built 1659) in St. Mary’s Gate. There they could actually watch the body being taken asunder by the surgeons! After this had taken place, the mutilated body then had to be exposed to full public view on the steps outside of the Hall for two full days in order that those who were unable to attend the execution and dissection could satisfy their morbid curiosity. This punishment was decided on in an effort to dissuade would-be murderers from carrying out their deeds. The belief at the time was that after death, one had only to wait for the Day of Judgement when all souls would be resurrected for life everlasting. The fear was that if a body had been dismembered, there would be no resurrection as the body parts had been dispersed far and wide and people had visions of odd limbs, heads and torso’s wandering aimlessly for all time in search of the rest of the body! The punishment was handed down to several victims, both male and female, in Derby Gaol.

Interestingly, it was not usual practice for “Irons” or “Fetters” to be placed on the arms and legs of prisoners in the Gaol unless there was a particular risk of escape. Certainly, those due for execution were “Ironed” but all other inmates remained relatively free to wander the corridors and yards. This would be infinitely more welcome than being confined within the filthy prison cells which, until a visit to Derby Gaol by the prison reformer John Howard in October 1787, were never cleaned out. John Howard had made it his personal crusade to inspect and report on the state of the prisons in the whole of Great Britain as he was appalled at the amount of mortality suffered by the inmates. Gaol fever raged through the prisons on a regular basis and it was believed to be caused by the bad air. It was in fact, a virulent form of Typhus spread by body lice. Following Howard’s intervention the law decreed that scraping and lime-washing the cell walls once a year should be sufficient!

Various attempts were made to escape from Derby Gaol and, on 14th January 1778, a plot was uncovered where several prisoners had hoped to effect their escape whilst the Court Sessions were under way. The Gaoler, Blyth Simpson, spoke to a prisoner involved in the escape bid who lost his nerve at the last minute and confessed all. He showed Simpson where the attempt had been made to break through the door of the Dungeon. Although heavily barred, the inmates had managed to saw through the bars and their leg irons so that the break-out could take place with all speed. As a result, the prisoners involved, whose names are not revealed, were double-ironed and removed to another, more secure, cell. In 1782, Thomas Shaw was successful in his attempt but was soon apprehended and returned to the gaol to face the ultimate penalty. It has to be borne in mind that any prisoner escaping from Gaol and subsequently recaptured, would be hanged, regardless of the original offence for which he had been imprisoned!

Labels: ghosts, haunted location, paranormal, UK

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