Built in 1914, the DeRidder Gothic Jail was considered a state of the art facility -- easily holding more than 140 prisoners. Shut down in 1984, some residents have reason to believe there are inmates still serving prison time from beyond the grave.
"It may be a place that they were attached to, especially with a place like this -- somewhere they had no choice but to be attached to. They were forced to stay here," said Louisiana Spirits Manager Brad Duplichien.
Louisiana Spirits, a group of ghost hunters from Central Louisiana, are the first to spend the night in the jail since it was abandoned. The team of paranormal experts hopes their overnight stay will prove or disprove the jail's haunted history.
"One of the things this jail is known for is back in 1929 they had a double hanging," said Thomas.
It earned its "hanging jail" nickname after Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux were convicted of slaying 45-year-old DeRidder taxi driver J.J. Breville and robbing him of 15 dollars. Thomas says, "They were convicted of the crime and they had a double hanging out in the jail's stairwell."
The temporary gallows in the jail's spiral staircase are long gone, but are the men who once sat on death row? However, Thomas says you do not have to die in a building to haunt it.
"Some people claim they've seen an older gentleman, in a uniform sitting on the front porch smoking a pipe," explains Thomas. "Many people think he was a former prison guard who is still on duty."
While it makes for a great story, the Louisiana Spirits team wants definitive proof. They hope to find it by using more than $10,000 worth of equipment, including night-vision equipped cameras, digital infrared thermometers and voice recorders.
"One of the biggest things that we are looking for is what's called EVP -- Electronic Voice Phenomenon -- that's where you can ask questions and hope to hear a response when we play it back on the recorder," said Thomas.
Team member Shelly Mills says when conducting these scientific tests they never know what they will record. "I think the weirdest thing that I've ever heard is: 'Lights, camera, action.' or, 'I love Johnny cash,'... Or, 'My daughter.' simple things like that," said Mills.
For the next 12 hours they will be temporary prisoners, biding their time for the other side to make contact... so they can deem the old jail haunted or not.
"Once we've ruled out every logical explanation, then we can possibly look into the paranormal," said Duplichien.
So what did they find? Next week, the investigation takes us to the jail's second and third story cell blocks, where unexplainable things begin to happen. Catch part two of Lee's series "Patrolling the Paranormal" next Wednesday night following NBC's Medium.
http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp? ... 9&nav=0nqx
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