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| True New Jersey Ghost Stories
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Burlington County Prison
Mount Holly, New Jersey
Construction on the Burlington County Prison, located in the heart of Mount Holly, New Jersey was completed in 1811 at a cost of $24,201.13. The building was designed by architect Robert Mills and was one of his first independent architectural designs. The interior vaulted ceilings were made of poured concrete, stone and brick making the building virtually fireproof. The prison was originally designed to house 40 inmates each with his or her own cell with a fireplace and a narrow window. Each cell was also equipped with a bible. Cells were grouped in blocks of four and were to house separate groups of criminals, eg. women, first offenders and habitual criminals. Larger rooms were to accommodate debtors. Debtors were people who were imprisoned for owing money. The maximum security cell known as “the dungeon” was in the centre of the upper floor of the prison. The location of this cell was carefully chosen to minimize communication with inmates in the cell blocks, to prevent escape by digging and to ensure constant surveillance by the guards. The cell was the only one that didn’t have a fireplace but it did have a metal ring in the middle of the room that the prisoner could be chained to. The basement level contained workshops where inmates could learn trades. In the prison yard there was a set of leg stocks used to punish unruly inmates and hanging gallows that were setup and dismantled for each public hanging. The prison was in use for one hundred and fifty-four years and at the time of it’s closing in 1965 was the oldest continually used prison in the U.S. Escape attempts at the prison were common and happened frequently. Inmates would scale walls and punch holes through the roof to make their escape. There are prisoners to this day who have never been caught after escaping. Anyone who was convicted of a capital crime was sentenced to death and many of the executions took place on the gallows in the prison yard. The final hanging to take place at the prison was in 1906 when George Small and Rufus Johnson were sentenced to death for murdering Florence Allinson. There have been numerous reports of paranormal activity in the prison, which is now a museum. The man believed to be responsible for this activity is Joel Clough. Joel brutally murdered his girlfriend and was sentenced to hang for it. While incarcerated at the prison Joel managed to escape but was quickly caught and returned to the prison where he spent his final days in the cell known as “the dungeon,” until he was hanged in 1833. Not long after Joel’s demise inmates and guards began reporting strange occurrences in the cell. They reported that they would hear loud moaning and chains rattling, some even claimed to see items levitating and an apparition. In 1999, when the building was undergoing some restorations, workers would complain about such things as loud unexplainable noises, temperature fluctuations, eerie voices, screaming and missing tools that would turn up in other rooms. It is believed the prison is haunted by more than on entity.
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