Last Leg of the Prison Tour

Front Door to Prison

Here are the final pictures from our tour.
These were all taken inside the "museum room" which is where all the interesting memorabilia from the prison has been gathered for viewing.

This a just a small glimpse of the items that inmates would take and hide to later reconstruct into weapons. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

This is a sample of a rope and mask along with the list of inmates that were sentenced to death by hanging.

In later years "Old Sparky" was used to electrocute those sentenced to death. Our tour guide told us that this chair was made by one of the inmates.
(Both of the above pictures are just chilling to even think about!)

These are newspaper clippings about Charles Manson, who grew up just a little north of here.
I didn't know this until our tour but his Mother and Uncle actually served sentences here in the prison.
The letter shown is his letter to the warden asking to be transferred from a prison in California to the WV Prison so that he could be closer to his family.

Needless to say his request was denied.
I found THIS website that has a better photo of the letter as well as their translation of it.

This is what a typical cell looked like.
There was a bed with blanket, a toilet & sink, bible, prison clothing and a can of tobacco is shown however, I would think that a person could only achieve that if they worked for it.
Our tour didn't include much of the Administration Building, Psychiatric Ward, Basement area or The Sugar Shack.
However, the prison offers ghost hunting camp-outs and I was able to find a site that has pictures of many of those places. If you care to see and read more you can go HERE.
Well that's all for my tour.
I'll be MIA tomorrow as it is the day of my trip to Amish Country in the Sugarcreek/Berlin area of Ohio.
Hopefully, I will have more pics to share as well as some goodies to show you.