July 6, 2022 • 34 mins
With a past that includes duels, drownings, executions, a siege and more, Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, PA is one of the most aggressively haunted locations in the United States. Special Guest: Greg O'Brien.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Thank you so much for listening to Haunted Road. If
you'd like to meet me in person, I have a
ton of fall toward dates coming up. I'll be heading
to California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Ohio, to
(00:23):
name a few. So get those dates at Amy dash
Brunei dot net. That's b r U and I dot net. Also,
if you want to take a spooky vacation, as always,
check out my travel company, Strange Escapes at strange escapes
dot com. I often wonder if my Internet search histories
(00:55):
have been flagged by some sort of law enforcement, because,
let me tell you, it's grizzly. When I'm trying to
find the origin of a haunting. I'm all over research websites,
entering lovely search terms like murder, execution, suicide, decapitation, serial killer, drowning, fatality,
you name it. There has to be a file on
(01:16):
me somewhere. Whoever is keeping that file if you're listening,
it's all in the name of research. Okay, with that,
I started researching the location we're covering on this episode
of Haunted Road, and it took me mere minutes to
come up with some doozies. We'll learn even more than
this later, but here is just a taste of what
I was able to come up with in newspaper archives alone.
(01:39):
From the Lancaster Intelligencer on May seven, fourteen. Two soldiers
were shot at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia on Thursday last
for the crime of desertion. It is well to notice
such instances, for it sometimes becomes necessary that lenity should
give place to law as a warning to deter others
from like aggravated offense. Says from the Lancaster Intelligencer on
(02:02):
November twenty, eighteen nineteen, Captain Robinson, on board of a
sloop from this place, which was a ground near Red
Bank opposite Fort Mifflin, on Sunday last, distinctly saw a
duel fought on the shore near him by persons who
he had seen cross in boats from the fort. At
the first fire, one of the parties fell and was
conveyed across the river, mortally wounded. As far as the
(02:26):
captain could judge from appearance, probably the parties were officers
and the victim, no doubt, has not only thrown away
his own life, but may have willfully added to the
list of widows and orphans, and carried mourning and distress
into many families of relatives, and severe regret to many
more friends. The Daily Record, January twenty third, nineteen thirteen.
(02:46):
The body of a man found floating in the Delaware
Bay near here is supposed to be that of Freeman Munsey,
who lived at And Street, Philadelphia. Muncy left his home
November seventeenth to go down to Fort Miffle in a launch.
He fell overboard while taking a snapshot of a passing boat.
The Pittston Gazette, September one, eighteen sixty four. W. M. How,
(03:11):
charged with desertion and murder, was executed yesterday at Fort Mifflin.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg. So
if I have your morbid interest, Pete, and you're ready
to hear about one of the most haunted forts I
have ever visited, and I've visited many, let's sit back
and take a little trip to Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(03:34):
I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted Road Fort Mifflin
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is so historic that it even predates
(03:56):
the Revolutionary War. By day, it's a grassy oasis surrounded
by water in the middle of the city, offering tours
of America's oldest active military fort, complete with historical re
enactments and weapons demonstrations. But at night things change. The
stone walls of the fort echo with disembodied screams, faceless
entities lurk, and darkened corners. A ghostly lamplighter roams the
(04:20):
corridors his torch, seeking out candles that burned out over
two hundred years ago. Violent apparitions throw rocks in areas
that once housed the most reviled prisoners in the fort,
and in the cemetery along gone headstone that once read
stop reader drop A friendly tier for youth and innocence
lie here. With its history of intense battles and of
(04:42):
contentious executions, it's no wonder. Fort Mifflin claims to be
one of the most haunted places in America. In seventeen
seventy two, British soldiers began construction on a fort surrounded
by a moat on the west bank of the Delaware River,
near its confluence with the Schookle, originally called Mud Island
Fort for its location on what was known as Mud Island.
(05:03):
The structure was prized for its location at the confluence
of two major rivers. Even the peaceful Quaker William Penn
observed that the spot provided ideal anchorage for the British
warships that would protect Philadelphia, his planned city of brotherly Love.
As Jeffrey Dorward explained in his book Fort Mifflin of
Pennsylvania and Illustrated History, Doorwart called Fort Mifflin a low
(05:26):
lying earth in stone fortification arranged in an irregular star
shaped design. Star shaped forts were popular in Europe starting
in the fifteen hundreds and appeared in early American forts
like the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida,
Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, and Fort Ticonderoga and Upstate
New York. Though Fort Mifflin has additions built in the eighteenth, nineteenth,
(05:49):
and twentieth centuries, it has largely been restored to how
it would have looked in eighteen thirty four. There are
fourteen restored buildings on the property. The fort off as
daily weapons demonstrations, and those fourteen authentic Restored buildings include casemates,
which are the areas from which guns and cannons were fired,
the northeast bastion, the arsenal soldiers barracks, officers quarters, and
(06:14):
a blacksmith shop. While there is still a cemetery area
on property, the graves have been moved off site. Author
Jim Cheney wrote that the fort is still technically an
active base for the United States Army Corps of Engineers,
who have a modern day base located next door. This
makes the fort the oldest active military base in the
US and the only base on American soil to predate
(06:37):
the Declaration of Independence. Though construction on Fort Mifflin was
started in seventeen seventy two by British soldiers, they eventually
abandoned the effort. Fort Mifflin's original purpose was to defend
against foreign enemies, but by seventeen seventy three, funding for
construction had dried up and dissent from American colonists was
(06:57):
a bigger concern than foreign attacks. When the Colony of
Pennsylvania resumed construction in seventeen seventy five, it was to
build a fort to defend Philadelphia against British forces. In
seventeen seventy seven, the British attacked the Revolutionary troops garrisoned
at the fort, pommeling its walls with more than ten
thousand cannonballs, making it the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution.
(07:21):
One soldier who fought in the battle, Private Joseph Martin,
wrote of his experience here, I endured hardships sufficient to
kill half a dozen horses. I saw men who were
stooping to be protected by the works, but not stooping
low enough, split like fish to be broiled. Our men
were cut up like cornstalks. After five and tense days,
(07:42):
the Continental Army had no choice but to retreat, fleeing
the fort on November fifteenth, seventeen seventy seven. Though the
soldiers never officially surrendered, and counterintuitively, their fight was a
pivotal moment in the American success in the war. Renee
Gordon wrote in The Philadelphia's and Day's Son. As a
result of the valiant defense to British ships were destroyed,
(08:05):
the supply line was disrupted, and Washington's army was given
time to move to Valley Forge to reassemble. Because of
this valuable time bought by the bombardment. Fort Mifflin is
sometimes called the Fort that Saved America. During the War
of eighteen twelve, a soldier was executed for his third
offense of desertion, but Fort Mifflin didn't see any significant
(08:27):
action until the Civil War, when it was used as
a prison. In August eighteen sixty four, Private William Howe,
who we spoke of earlier, a Union soldier, was executed there,
and his death became something of a public spectacle. Though
he had been a distinguished veteran of the Battle of Fredericksburg,
how left his post to seek medical treatment, likely for
(08:48):
a case of chronic diarrhea. Once he had escaped and
returned to his home and family, an officer came to
arrest him for desertion, at which time how shot and
killed the man. Abraham Lincoln himself approved the death sentence,
possibly to show other deserters that he meant business. While
awaiting execution, how tried to escape by tunneling out of
(09:09):
the fort, but he was discovered. Tickets were sold to
his hanging, and according to the Baltimore Sun, the execution
was witnessed by a very large number of persons, given
that he fought so hard to escape, and that his
death was such a scene. It's not all that's surprising
that house ghosts is one of the most frequently reported
in the fort. Visitors claim to see a man in
Civil War garb roaming the ground, sometimes sitting quietly and
(09:31):
sewing in one of the casemates. They believe it's how
because before he was hanged, he had a bag placed
over his face, and when the apparition looks up from
his sewing, he doesn't have a face. Witnesses refer to
house ghosts as the faceless Man. But he's not the
only supernatural resident of Fort Mifflin, which describes itself as
(09:53):
widely regarded as one of the most haunted sites in
the country. People often report seeing an apparition known as
the Lamplighter, who appears on the second floor balcony of
the barracks. According to Ghosts of the Revolutionary War, the
Lamplighter is said to be a man with black hair
and a white puffy shirt who drifts through the soldiers
barracks carrying a long pole with a dim candle at
(10:15):
the end to light lamps that disappeared some two hundred
years ago. This ghost has been seen in the fort
since the early nineteen hundreds, before it was declared a
National Historic Monument in nineteen fifteen, and before it was
retired as a military post in nineteen fifty four. A
shadowy figure known as the Blacksmith has been seen many
(10:35):
times by visitors and employees in the blacksmith shop, although
there is no historical evidence to back up this claim.
The ghost is said to be a man named Jacob Sawyer,
who had a long standing argument with the fort's commander
about keeping the back door of the blacksmith shop open,
which was against regulations. Darcy Ort wrote in Haunted Philadelphia
(10:56):
that staff would constantly find the door open, even if
they had locked it. The constant opening and closing caused
the hinges to deteriorate until Jacob got his way the
door was permanently removed. Or describes claims of a spirit
opening and closing the doors in the blacksmith shop, swinging
tools hanging on the wall, and moving objects around in
(11:16):
the space. People also report the phantom sound of a
hammer and anvil in the empty shop. One of Fort
Mifflin's many haunts isn't seen, but heard. The sounds that
come from what's commonly referred to as the Screaming Lady,
whose screams are so loud and so life like that
both visitors and staff have called the police on many occasions,
thinking someone was in serious danger. The screams are said
(11:40):
to come from the spirit of Elizabeth Pratt, an eighteenth
century woman who once lived at the fort. A cemetery
once stood just outside the northern gate of the fort.
Although the graves were moved in the late eighteen hundreds,
one of those graves bore the name of Elizabeth Pratt,
identifying those buried underneath. According to the Philadelphia Time, as
(12:00):
the consort of Sergeant Sylvana's Pratt, aged twenty three years
in eighteen days, who died the eleventh of February eighteen
oh three, also her daughter and infant son, both of
whom died the year before. The legend written beneath this inscription,
stop reader, drop a friendly tear for youth and innocence
lie here. The three allegedly died of fever. It's sometimes
(12:25):
said that a figure of a woman seen peering out
a second story window in the officers quarters, usually by children,
could be Elizabeth, still looking for her children after all
these years. Some believe the whales come from Pratt grieving
her lost children, but there have been accounts of disembodied
female screams as far back as seventeen seventy eight, according
(12:45):
to Haunted Philadelphia that people attributed to women mourning the
men who died during the British attack on the fort. Now,
before we dig too deep into the hauntings, let's bring
someone on who is very knowledgeable about everything going on
at Fort Mifflin. Up next, we'll be speaking with Greg O'Brien.
Greg is a paranormal host and tour guide at Fort Mifflin,
(13:08):
and he's been there for many, many years and has
some amazing stories to share with us about the ghosts
in history there. That is coming up after the break.
All Right, I am sitting here with Mr Greg O'Brien,
(13:28):
who is the official paranormal host at Fort Mifflin, And
it turns out we go way back. We've met a
number of times at a number of different haunted locations, right, Greg, Yes,
go back years. It's funny. I have been to Fort
Mifflin a handful of times. I can't remember if I
ever filmed there. I don't think I did. I've been
(13:51):
there for events and for private investigations. And what I
remember most about Fort Mifflin, besides it being amazingly historic
and area haunted, is the airplanes and the mosquitoes that
are as large as airplanes. Correct, Yes they July at August.
Recommend don't be there at night. Yeah, or have a
(14:13):
healthy dose of bucks. I think Josh Gates and I
were in one of the I can't remember where we
were stationed. It was in one of the one of
those called the case. I think you guys are in
case mate five. Yeah, we were in case mate five.
Inside thought we were safe. No, we emerged with dozens
of mosquito bites that night. So but it was well
(14:33):
worth it. A lot happens at Fort Mifflin. It's a
very well known haunt for people who ever fly into Philadelphia.
You can see Fort Mifflin on the approach many times,
so I always look for it when I'm landing, which
also makes it an interesting place to investigate because you
are fighting the sound of planes constantly. And I also
heard stories about filming there. But I always tell people
(14:57):
if you can't figure out the difference between the way
ghost sounds and an airplane sounds, you might be in
the wrong business, correct, And that's a good way to
teach people to tag their audio. Yeah, And it's surprising
because when you investigate and you do get a sound
of like maybe a truck in the distance or even
an airplane, the way it presents on your recorder sounds
(15:19):
infinitely different than you would expect. Sometimes it sounds like
a growl. Sometimes it sounds like a voice, just because
it's not directly in front of the microphone. So it
is really important, like you were saying, to tag it
because you're not going to remember every time a airplane
went through, right, And they do slow down after midnight.
Plus once you're in the case mates and stuff, and
(15:41):
you're you know, six ft of dirt over top of you,
they're not so bad, right right, Well, that's helpful. So
that being said, let's talk about some of the hauntings there,
because there are many, and you know, I know that
there's a lot to be seen and heard there, and
I also know it kind of seems like it changes
depending on when you're investigating. So what would you say
(16:02):
is the most prevalent haunts encountered at Fort Mifflin. Well,
we do have a revolutionary tour guide ghost. He comes
out and does tours. We're open Wednesdays through Sundays, and
during the week if there's we don't usually get school
groups or whatnot, but there's times when there's it's pretty
dead Wednesday or Thursday, and you might have one or
(16:24):
two people there at the fort, and they come out
of the fort and they start raving about this tour
guide and we asked him to describe the store guide,
and they describe in the Revolutionary War uniform, and he
goes into explicit details of the bombardment of the fort.
And then when we tell them there is no tour
guides during the week, only on the weekends and you
(16:45):
are the only one here, that pretty much freaks them out.
He's been reported numerous numerous times. So that's a nice,
good example of an intelligent haunting. This guy just loves
to talk about the bombardment. So you're saying that tour groups,
school groups, they'll come in middle of the day, take
a tour, and this mysterious tour guide dressed in Revolutionary
(17:08):
War garb, tells them the whole story and looks completely
alive like you and me, But he's a ghost. He's
a ghost and it's usually over in the powder magazine. Yeah, people,
you know, they've gone in there and then they've looked
and he's standing by the door. I've seen a Revolutionary
War soldier, but I've always been wanting him to give
(17:30):
me a tour, and I haven't gotten a tour from
him yet. That's wild. I mean, this actually comes up
a lot on the podcast. The more I talked to
and just in general investigating how many times a spirit
looks just like a living person and it makes you wonder, like,
how many times have we encountered a ghost and maybe
(17:52):
even fully interacted with them and had no idea? Correct?
You just don't know. Do you think this is actually
a ghost from a Revolutionary War period, or do you
think this might be the ghost of some sort of
reenactor who just really holds the fort dear to his heart.
I really think it's a ghost from the revolution because
the explicit details that he goes into, it's like, wow,
(18:15):
you know that stuff that he really didn't know. I
have a theory. When the Fort seventeen seventy seven, during
the bombardment, there were deserters, and for whatever reason, when
Washington retook Philadelphia, these deserters were still in Philadelphia and
they got caught and there was a massive hanging of
(18:36):
eleven of these deserters on Market Street. It was a
public hanging in Philadelphia. So my theory is, I'm thinking,
you know, there's sentenced for eternity to since they have
deserted the fort, is to be back at the fort
to defend it, to spend their eternity there. So that's
how what I think. Yeah, I mean, sort of like
a self imposed sentence, like they're kind of carrying over
(18:58):
that guilt for what they did. That's a theory I've
held to for sometimes for even like prisons and things.
People always ask me like why would someone stay there?
And that's one explanation. I'm not sure if that's the case,
but it's just you know, when you try to kind
of justify it, it does make sense per se. Okay,
So that's a really interesting spirit that people could encounter
(19:21):
any time of day. What else do you think people
could encounter if they visit the fort. Well, let's to
say we have full bodies, shadow figures, noise banging, we
have our candlelight ghost walks in October, and where we
have the fort just lit up with lanterns and candles,
and we walk around which is landerns And during these
(19:43):
tours a lot of experiences happened. One year, I had
a group and we're coming in. I had a couple
of young young boys with me. Since it was a
military fort, there were families there, so you had women
and children they did die at the fort. And walk
in and there's two children that I've seen quite a
bit and their stories to be seen, and I think
(20:04):
their brother and sister. It's a little boy and a girl.
And as we walk in, I could see him running around,
but I didn't say anything. And we stood in front
of the bunk room. The enlist him in the office
there and I'm talking and then I asked, anybody have
any questions. Feel free to ask a question. There's no
stupid question except if you want to know way to
build the fort so close to the airport. Um, we
(20:25):
get asked that all the time. So, oh no, yeah,
like I have news for you. Yep. So this is
one little boy raises his hand and he said, did
any children die here at the fort? And I said, yes,
it's documented. We had children die here at the ford.
(20:47):
And we're right on the Delaware there's documentations of children
that drowned and washing up on the shores, and I
knew what the answer was going to be able to.
I asked him, I said, why are you asking that?
And he said, well, when we walked in, we saw
these two little children running around playing, and I said, well,
welcome to Fort Mifflin. You've experienced your first sighting of
(21:08):
a ghost. Wow. I mean those seem like very strong
spirits for them to look so alive, like, that's wild
to me. And then I know that a big thing
people see, and I experienced from the casemate. Our shadow
figures are seeing very regularly, and I mean, I would
say it's almost a guarantee that if you if you
(21:30):
go there to investigate at night, you're going to encounter
some sort of shadow figure. Has that been your experience
as well? Oh? Yes, there they dart all over the place.
The last big event there with the TAPS group, after
everybody left, I was just standing there with the event
organizer and assistant and another friend of mine. We were
(21:51):
just standing there and we were standing right in front
of the officers quarters and we're looking out over and
all of a sudden, we see this figure going across
from like the armory going walking across and we're like,
what the heck, So all of us go running over there,
and this figure ran over towards Case May eleven and
just disappeared. So we searched the whole for it again.
(22:15):
You know, we were the only ones there. So you
see them quite regularly. Yeah, and it's not really an
area that people are just going to kind of stumble into. Yes,
it's by the airport, but it is really set back
away from everything. It's not in like a populated area
or anything like that. And it's a fort. It's meant
to keep people away. So and now have you ever
(22:37):
like felt personally afraid or like something there would ever
harm you in any way? Ah, years ago I used
to go a lot, you know, investigate, and then I volunteered,
and I just felt uneasy in Case May go walking
past the case by two, three, and four they're just
smaller ones yet one at the beginning the big one
(23:00):
and where the Confederate prisoners were, and in five is
it over we at the end where the Union prisoners,
and then there's three smallents. I just felt uneasy and
those three and then also the powder magazine. I could
not go in by myself at night for years just
didn't feel good. So eventually I forced myself to go
in there, and I said, in there, with my back
(23:23):
against the back wall, had my recorder going, I heard banging,
like a metal banging on the wall coming towards me,
and I just sat there like frozen. And then when
I got out of there, when I played the Greek quarterback,
it was like somebody was standing right on top of
me yelling get out, get out. I mean it was
(23:45):
like it was like it was screaming. So but eventually
that was it. I got my fear. So I mean
that's a pretty clear message. I always say that the
two e v P that we get the most often
it's either get out or help me, two very different messages,
but those are really the two, like top the top
(24:08):
e vps we get. So case made eleven. Is that
the one that was uncovered later, Yes, that's the one
where Grant has has experienced there. Yes, Oh that's right,
And so I think I remember them sending Chris Williams
down there by herself as well. So just a little background,
I joined the team right around when they went and
did this investigation, but I lived in California at the time,
(24:31):
and so I was not flying to the East Coast yet,
but Chris Williams and I were really close are still
very close anyways. I just remember her like telling me,
you're not going to believe what they made me do.
They made me climb down in this case, made all
by myself. And first time she went down truly alone
and brought like a handheld camera, and then I think
(24:52):
that they wanted to get some better shots of her,
so she went down again with a camera operator. And
that was something that she always had to defend at
paranormal events and things because people would say, you know,
you weren't really down there by yourself, you had a
camera operator, and she had to explain, like the magic
of TV, that she did truly go down there by herself.
But then they did send a camera operator down later
(25:14):
to just get some additional shots of her down there,
but she definitely went down there alone. People get very
uncomfortable down there. They just don't feel right down there,
because that was solitary confinement when it was first open up,
when Chris and went down there and he had to
go down the ladder, but it's been excavated, so there
is stairs to go down it, but still it's underground.
It's a hole in the ground and it's very tight
(25:36):
and people get very uneasy in there. I had a
family to come out to do an investigation, and that
was the husband and wife and the two teenage sons
came out. That night was just nuts off the charts.
And when we were in Case Made eleven. Now there's
two little rooms in Case Made eleven, two separate cells,
and so I was in the back cell with the
(25:58):
wife and one song, and then the other cell it
was the husband, uh and the other song. We're in
there doing some a VPS and it's pitch black. You
can't see the hand in front of your face. And
so we're in there and all of a sudden, this
big bam right next to me and they're like, what
(26:19):
was that? And I said, well, I think somebody was
thrown at me. So we put the flashlight and it
was a piece of brick that was right next to me.
So that was the only time I had something thrown
at me. I just think they were trying to get
my attention because it didn't hit me, it hit the wall.
It was really loud, so that made their night. They
became believers at night. Yeah, I don't think I even
(26:40):
went down there. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but I
am hugely claustrophobic, and I do not like being underground,
Like I am kind of anxiety ridden the whole time.
So I remember, I might have. If I remember if
I went down there, I've blocked it out mentally. I
don't think I did. Yeah, I don't think you did.
So at that point, you're in the casemate and you
(27:01):
have something thrown at you, which is very different from
just kind of seeing having someone explain the history, and
by someone I mean a spirit or seeing children playing.
Have there ever been any other incidents of kind of
aggressive type behavior, maybe towards people going there or toward investigators.
We've had stuff move. The most aggressive that I know
(27:23):
of it was again during a Candlelight ghost tour and
we're coming out of the casemates and then as we're
walking out, there was a gentleman with his girlfriend and
he went up a little bit and hidden like casemate too,
and as we walked by within the girlfriend he jumped
out and scared the basis out of her. She freaked
(27:44):
out and she was cursing him. And yelling at him,
and he was laughing. So he started walking next to me,
and she's all the way in the back of the group,
just still. She was she didn't want to be anywhere
near him. She was just really upset, and all of
us on. He goes flying forward and hits the ground.
Something pushed him down to the ground, and he got
(28:06):
up and he started yelling at her, why are you
doing that? I was joking everything, and She's like, I'm
not even anywhere near you. I'm all the way back here.
I said, well, I guess the spirit he pissed the
spirits awful little bit upset of your girlfriend. So that
was That's really the most aggressive that I've experienced. You know,
I had the stone being thrown. Of course, we tell
(28:28):
people know provoking there, you know, respect the dead. There's
nothing negative, nothing demonic there. You know, you can have
some pistolf spirits. Specifically, when it was a military prison
in Civil War, you had civilians that were locked up
in there. These were just regular folks that were thrown
in prison by Lincoln. Conditions were just horrific, so you
had those deaths. We have a spirit that identifies himself
(28:50):
as to judge him and I have like a love
hate relationship. It's Greg, F you or f you. Greg.
That's how he greets me. He's just a very scrunled individual.
There was a judge that was sentenced to Fort Mifflin.
He was a major in the Pennsylvania Milityship with Jacob Wilhelm,
and he was a sitting associate judge of the Court
(29:13):
of Common Please of Clearfield County in Pennsylvania, and he
opposed war. And at that point in the eighteen sixty
three sixty four time frame, if you opposed the war,
you post Lincoln a rounded you up and three your
military prisons, something that a lot of people don't know of,
and tens of thousands of citizens were locked up throughout
(29:34):
the country. And so judge she was a judge Jacob Wilhelm. Yeah,
I mean that that makes sense, even though that that
spirit isn't necessarily like violent, they're angry. You can kind
of encounter the whole gamut there, from spirits that are
completely fine and kind to some that are clearly in turmoil.
And you're right, that's kind of the perfect example as
(29:55):
to why you don't want to assume you know who
you're talking to when you're investigating or be you know,
treat them disrespectfully because you don't know their story at all. Yeah,
and on his grave it's and now despoiled. He lives
like wind swept leafless. Those a noble phantom shade of
(30:15):
what has been, and that was put on his tombstone.
So noble, noble phantom. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you
kind of giving us a little bit of insight into
the hauntings at Fort Mifflin, and I hope people will
go visit. If people want to visit the fort or
investigate the fort, or do any ghost tours or anything,
what do they need to do? Well, our website is
(30:38):
Fort Mifflin dot us. You go to the website and
we have an event pulled down. You can go and
all the events that happened at the fort. We do reenactments,
we have a jazz festival there, We have all kinds
of different activities there there. And then there's a programs
page and that's where the paranormal is and you can
go there and the information of what you need to
(30:59):
do is all right there. That's great. It's really wonderful
that they've kind of embraced that side of the fort too,
because a lot of these historic locations that are, you know,
government owned, they kind of steer away from it. But
I think it is a just valuable for the public
and I think a lot of fun, especially to get
younger people involved in history and then be it's a
great revenue source for some of these really important locations.
(31:22):
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, I think it's
doing a lot of good. And you've been involved for
so long, so good for you. It's really great that
you've been so closely involved with the fort this long. Yeah,
I appreciate that. You know how it is, you can
some places just pull you towards them, and the fort
is somewhere place that just pulled me in and I'm there,
(31:43):
So yeah, we appreciate people coming out. It's forty total
lacres here. We have nature trail. There's more of the
fort outside about a quarter mile down. I know you've
never been down there. It's it was built in late
eighteen seventies. There's gun batteries down along the river, there's
case mates down there, so there's a lot of you
can come out just wonder around. You don't have to
worry about ghost spirits. You know the history walk to
(32:05):
you know, we have dear fox, we have all kinds
of wildlife. Even though we're right by the airport, right
on the Delaware River. You can sit and watch the
boats go by you. You can look overhead and watch
the airplane. So there's lots to do. Well. I love that.
It sounds like a wonderful day. So I clearly need
to get back soon because I did not get to
experience all that, so I'm putting it on the schedule.
(32:26):
I appreciate it. Yeah, we need you guys back. I
like to have you back, Chris, I'd like to get back.
Get her down in case matal leven she would love that. Well,
thank you so much. I really appreciate it, and hopefully
we will chat again very soon. One of the things
(32:47):
I love about Fort Mifflin is that it's a government
run site that does not at all shy away from
its ghostly history. The fact that paranormal reports have been
going on there since the late seventeen hundreds probably helps
a great deal because you can't hide that. It's also
a location where activities seems to happen day or night,
whether you're looking for it or not. This is why.
(33:08):
If you happen to be in the City of Brotherly
Love and are looking for something new and different to do,
I highly recommend a moment at the Fort. It's so
close to the airport. It's also a wonderful place to
stop on your way out of town. Tell them I
sent you, and also let them know I'd really like
to come back and investigate soon. PS. Good luck if
you see the faceless man. I literally watched a seasoned
(33:29):
investigator run out of the place after witnessing that for himself.
Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and
(33:51):
Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Haunted Road is hosted
and written by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn.
The show is edited and produced by rema El Kali
and supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(34:14):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Thank you so much for listening to Haunted Road. If
you'd like to meet me in person, I have a
ton of fall toward dates coming up. I'll be heading
to California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Ohio, to
(00:23):
name a few. So get those dates at Amy dash
Brunei dot net. That's b r U and I dot net. Also,
if you want to take a spooky vacation, as always,
check out my travel company, Strange Escapes at strange escapes
dot com. I often wonder if my Internet search histories
(00:55):
have been flagged by some sort of law enforcement, because,
let me tell you, it's grizzly. When I'm trying to
find the origin of a haunting. I'm all over research websites,
entering lovely search terms like murder, execution, suicide, decapitation, serial killer, drowning, fatality,
you name it. There has to be a file on
(01:16):
me somewhere. Whoever is keeping that file if you're listening,
it's all in the name of research. Okay, with that,
I started researching the location we're covering on this episode
of Haunted Road, and it took me mere minutes to
come up with some doozies. We'll learn even more than
this later, but here is just a taste of what
I was able to come up with in newspaper archives alone.
(01:39):
From the Lancaster Intelligencer on May seven, fourteen. Two soldiers
were shot at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia on Thursday last
for the crime of desertion. It is well to notice
such instances, for it sometimes becomes necessary that lenity should
give place to law as a warning to deter others
from like aggravated offense. Says from the Lancaster Intelligencer on
(02:02):
November twenty, eighteen nineteen, Captain Robinson, on board of a
sloop from this place, which was a ground near Red
Bank opposite Fort Mifflin, on Sunday last, distinctly saw a
duel fought on the shore near him by persons who
he had seen cross in boats from the fort. At
the first fire, one of the parties fell and was
conveyed across the river, mortally wounded. As far as the
(02:26):
captain could judge from appearance, probably the parties were officers
and the victim, no doubt, has not only thrown away
his own life, but may have willfully added to the
list of widows and orphans, and carried mourning and distress
into many families of relatives, and severe regret to many
more friends. The Daily Record, January twenty third, nineteen thirteen.
(02:46):
The body of a man found floating in the Delaware
Bay near here is supposed to be that of Freeman Munsey,
who lived at And Street, Philadelphia. Muncy left his home
November seventeenth to go down to Fort Miffle in a launch.
He fell overboard while taking a snapshot of a passing boat.
The Pittston Gazette, September one, eighteen sixty four. W. M. How,
(03:11):
charged with desertion and murder, was executed yesterday at Fort Mifflin.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg. So
if I have your morbid interest, Pete, and you're ready
to hear about one of the most haunted forts I
have ever visited, and I've visited many, let's sit back
and take a little trip to Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(03:34):
I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted Road Fort Mifflin
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is so historic that it even predates
(03:56):
the Revolutionary War. By day, it's a grassy oasis surrounded
by water in the middle of the city, offering tours
of America's oldest active military fort, complete with historical re
enactments and weapons demonstrations. But at night things change. The
stone walls of the fort echo with disembodied screams, faceless
entities lurk, and darkened corners. A ghostly lamplighter roams the
(04:20):
corridors his torch, seeking out candles that burned out over
two hundred years ago. Violent apparitions throw rocks in areas
that once housed the most reviled prisoners in the fort,
and in the cemetery along gone headstone that once read
stop reader drop A friendly tier for youth and innocence
lie here. With its history of intense battles and of
(04:42):
contentious executions, it's no wonder. Fort Mifflin claims to be
one of the most haunted places in America. In seventeen
seventy two, British soldiers began construction on a fort surrounded
by a moat on the west bank of the Delaware River,
near its confluence with the Schookle, originally called Mud Island
Fort for its location on what was known as Mud Island.
(05:03):
The structure was prized for its location at the confluence
of two major rivers. Even the peaceful Quaker William Penn
observed that the spot provided ideal anchorage for the British
warships that would protect Philadelphia, his planned city of brotherly Love.
As Jeffrey Dorward explained in his book Fort Mifflin of
Pennsylvania and Illustrated History, Doorwart called Fort Mifflin a low
(05:26):
lying earth in stone fortification arranged in an irregular star
shaped design. Star shaped forts were popular in Europe starting
in the fifteen hundreds and appeared in early American forts
like the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida,
Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, and Fort Ticonderoga and Upstate
New York. Though Fort Mifflin has additions built in the eighteenth, nineteenth,
(05:49):
and twentieth centuries, it has largely been restored to how
it would have looked in eighteen thirty four. There are
fourteen restored buildings on the property. The fort off as
daily weapons demonstrations, and those fourteen authentic Restored buildings include casemates,
which are the areas from which guns and cannons were fired,
the northeast bastion, the arsenal soldiers barracks, officers quarters, and
(06:14):
a blacksmith shop. While there is still a cemetery area
on property, the graves have been moved off site. Author
Jim Cheney wrote that the fort is still technically an
active base for the United States Army Corps of Engineers,
who have a modern day base located next door. This
makes the fort the oldest active military base in the
US and the only base on American soil to predate
(06:37):
the Declaration of Independence. Though construction on Fort Mifflin was
started in seventeen seventy two by British soldiers, they eventually
abandoned the effort. Fort Mifflin's original purpose was to defend
against foreign enemies, but by seventeen seventy three, funding for
construction had dried up and dissent from American colonists was
(06:57):
a bigger concern than foreign attacks. When the Colony of
Pennsylvania resumed construction in seventeen seventy five, it was to
build a fort to defend Philadelphia against British forces. In
seventeen seventy seven, the British attacked the Revolutionary troops garrisoned
at the fort, pommeling its walls with more than ten
thousand cannonballs, making it the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution.
(07:21):
One soldier who fought in the battle, Private Joseph Martin,
wrote of his experience here, I endured hardships sufficient to
kill half a dozen horses. I saw men who were
stooping to be protected by the works, but not stooping
low enough, split like fish to be broiled. Our men
were cut up like cornstalks. After five and tense days,
(07:42):
the Continental Army had no choice but to retreat, fleeing
the fort on November fifteenth, seventeen seventy seven. Though the
soldiers never officially surrendered, and counterintuitively, their fight was a
pivotal moment in the American success in the war. Renee
Gordon wrote in The Philadelphia's and Day's Son. As a
result of the valiant defense to British ships were destroyed,
(08:05):
the supply line was disrupted, and Washington's army was given
time to move to Valley Forge to reassemble. Because of
this valuable time bought by the bombardment. Fort Mifflin is
sometimes called the Fort that Saved America. During the War
of eighteen twelve, a soldier was executed for his third
offense of desertion, but Fort Mifflin didn't see any significant
(08:27):
action until the Civil War, when it was used as
a prison. In August eighteen sixty four, Private William Howe,
who we spoke of earlier, a Union soldier, was executed there,
and his death became something of a public spectacle. Though
he had been a distinguished veteran of the Battle of Fredericksburg,
how left his post to seek medical treatment, likely for
(08:48):
a case of chronic diarrhea. Once he had escaped and
returned to his home and family, an officer came to
arrest him for desertion, at which time how shot and
killed the man. Abraham Lincoln himself approved the death sentence,
possibly to show other deserters that he meant business. While
awaiting execution, how tried to escape by tunneling out of
(09:09):
the fort, but he was discovered. Tickets were sold to
his hanging, and according to the Baltimore Sun, the execution
was witnessed by a very large number of persons, given
that he fought so hard to escape, and that his
death was such a scene. It's not all that's surprising
that house ghosts is one of the most frequently reported
in the fort. Visitors claim to see a man in
Civil War garb roaming the ground, sometimes sitting quietly and
(09:31):
sewing in one of the casemates. They believe it's how
because before he was hanged, he had a bag placed
over his face, and when the apparition looks up from
his sewing, he doesn't have a face. Witnesses refer to
house ghosts as the faceless Man. But he's not the
only supernatural resident of Fort Mifflin, which describes itself as
(09:53):
widely regarded as one of the most haunted sites in
the country. People often report seeing an apparition known as
the Lamplighter, who appears on the second floor balcony of
the barracks. According to Ghosts of the Revolutionary War, the
Lamplighter is said to be a man with black hair
and a white puffy shirt who drifts through the soldiers
barracks carrying a long pole with a dim candle at
(10:15):
the end to light lamps that disappeared some two hundred
years ago. This ghost has been seen in the fort
since the early nineteen hundreds, before it was declared a
National Historic Monument in nineteen fifteen, and before it was
retired as a military post in nineteen fifty four. A
shadowy figure known as the Blacksmith has been seen many
(10:35):
times by visitors and employees in the blacksmith shop, although
there is no historical evidence to back up this claim.
The ghost is said to be a man named Jacob Sawyer,
who had a long standing argument with the fort's commander
about keeping the back door of the blacksmith shop open,
which was against regulations. Darcy Ort wrote in Haunted Philadelphia
(10:56):
that staff would constantly find the door open, even if
they had locked it. The constant opening and closing caused
the hinges to deteriorate until Jacob got his way the
door was permanently removed. Or describes claims of a spirit
opening and closing the doors in the blacksmith shop, swinging
tools hanging on the wall, and moving objects around in
(11:16):
the space. People also report the phantom sound of a
hammer and anvil in the empty shop. One of Fort
Mifflin's many haunts isn't seen, but heard. The sounds that
come from what's commonly referred to as the Screaming Lady,
whose screams are so loud and so life like that
both visitors and staff have called the police on many occasions,
thinking someone was in serious danger. The screams are said
(11:40):
to come from the spirit of Elizabeth Pratt, an eighteenth
century woman who once lived at the fort. A cemetery
once stood just outside the northern gate of the fort.
Although the graves were moved in the late eighteen hundreds,
one of those graves bore the name of Elizabeth Pratt,
identifying those buried underneath. According to the Philadelphia Time, as
(12:00):
the consort of Sergeant Sylvana's Pratt, aged twenty three years
in eighteen days, who died the eleventh of February eighteen
oh three, also her daughter and infant son, both of
whom died the year before. The legend written beneath this inscription,
stop reader, drop a friendly tear for youth and innocence
lie here. The three allegedly died of fever. It's sometimes
(12:25):
said that a figure of a woman seen peering out
a second story window in the officers quarters, usually by children,
could be Elizabeth, still looking for her children after all
these years. Some believe the whales come from Pratt grieving
her lost children, but there have been accounts of disembodied
female screams as far back as seventeen seventy eight, according
(12:45):
to Haunted Philadelphia that people attributed to women mourning the
men who died during the British attack on the fort. Now,
before we dig too deep into the hauntings, let's bring
someone on who is very knowledgeable about everything going on
at Fort Mifflin. Up next, we'll be speaking with Greg O'Brien.
Greg is a paranormal host and tour guide at Fort Mifflin,
(13:08):
and he's been there for many, many years and has
some amazing stories to share with us about the ghosts
in history there. That is coming up after the break.
All Right, I am sitting here with Mr Greg O'Brien,
(13:28):
who is the official paranormal host at Fort Mifflin, And
it turns out we go way back. We've met a
number of times at a number of different haunted locations, right, Greg, Yes,
go back years. It's funny. I have been to Fort
Mifflin a handful of times. I can't remember if I
ever filmed there. I don't think I did. I've been
(13:51):
there for events and for private investigations. And what I
remember most about Fort Mifflin, besides it being amazingly historic
and area haunted, is the airplanes and the mosquitoes that
are as large as airplanes. Correct, Yes they July at August.
Recommend don't be there at night. Yeah, or have a
(14:13):
healthy dose of bucks. I think Josh Gates and I
were in one of the I can't remember where we
were stationed. It was in one of the one of
those called the case. I think you guys are in
case mate five. Yeah, we were in case mate five.
Inside thought we were safe. No, we emerged with dozens
of mosquito bites that night. So but it was well
(14:33):
worth it. A lot happens at Fort Mifflin. It's a
very well known haunt for people who ever fly into Philadelphia.
You can see Fort Mifflin on the approach many times,
so I always look for it when I'm landing, which
also makes it an interesting place to investigate because you
are fighting the sound of planes constantly. And I also
heard stories about filming there. But I always tell people
(14:57):
if you can't figure out the difference between the way
ghost sounds and an airplane sounds, you might be in
the wrong business, correct, And that's a good way to
teach people to tag their audio. Yeah, And it's surprising
because when you investigate and you do get a sound
of like maybe a truck in the distance or even
an airplane, the way it presents on your recorder sounds
(15:19):
infinitely different than you would expect. Sometimes it sounds like
a growl. Sometimes it sounds like a voice, just because
it's not directly in front of the microphone. So it
is really important, like you were saying, to tag it
because you're not going to remember every time a airplane
went through, right, And they do slow down after midnight.
Plus once you're in the case mates and stuff, and
(15:41):
you're you know, six ft of dirt over top of you,
they're not so bad, right right, Well, that's helpful. So
that being said, let's talk about some of the hauntings there,
because there are many, and you know, I know that
there's a lot to be seen and heard there, and
I also know it kind of seems like it changes
depending on when you're investigating. So what would you say
(16:02):
is the most prevalent haunts encountered at Fort Mifflin. Well,
we do have a revolutionary tour guide ghost. He comes
out and does tours. We're open Wednesdays through Sundays, and
during the week if there's we don't usually get school
groups or whatnot, but there's times when there's it's pretty
dead Wednesday or Thursday, and you might have one or
(16:24):
two people there at the fort, and they come out
of the fort and they start raving about this tour
guide and we asked him to describe the store guide,
and they describe in the Revolutionary War uniform, and he
goes into explicit details of the bombardment of the fort.
And then when we tell them there is no tour
guides during the week, only on the weekends and you
(16:45):
are the only one here, that pretty much freaks them out.
He's been reported numerous numerous times. So that's a nice,
good example of an intelligent haunting. This guy just loves
to talk about the bombardment. So you're saying that tour groups,
school groups, they'll come in middle of the day, take
a tour, and this mysterious tour guide dressed in Revolutionary
(17:08):
War garb, tells them the whole story and looks completely
alive like you and me, But he's a ghost. He's
a ghost and it's usually over in the powder magazine. Yeah, people,
you know, they've gone in there and then they've looked
and he's standing by the door. I've seen a Revolutionary
War soldier, but I've always been wanting him to give
(17:30):
me a tour, and I haven't gotten a tour from
him yet. That's wild. I mean, this actually comes up
a lot on the podcast. The more I talked to
and just in general investigating how many times a spirit
looks just like a living person and it makes you wonder, like,
how many times have we encountered a ghost and maybe
(17:52):
even fully interacted with them and had no idea? Correct?
You just don't know. Do you think this is actually
a ghost from a Revolutionary War period, or do you
think this might be the ghost of some sort of
reenactor who just really holds the fort dear to his heart.
I really think it's a ghost from the revolution because
the explicit details that he goes into, it's like, wow,
(18:15):
you know that stuff that he really didn't know. I
have a theory. When the Fort seventeen seventy seven, during
the bombardment, there were deserters, and for whatever reason, when
Washington retook Philadelphia, these deserters were still in Philadelphia and
they got caught and there was a massive hanging of
(18:36):
eleven of these deserters on Market Street. It was a
public hanging in Philadelphia. So my theory is, I'm thinking,
you know, there's sentenced for eternity to since they have
deserted the fort, is to be back at the fort
to defend it, to spend their eternity there. So that's
how what I think. Yeah, I mean, sort of like
a self imposed sentence, like they're kind of carrying over
(18:58):
that guilt for what they did. That's a theory I've
held to for sometimes for even like prisons and things.
People always ask me like why would someone stay there?
And that's one explanation. I'm not sure if that's the case,
but it's just you know, when you try to kind
of justify it, it does make sense per se. Okay,
So that's a really interesting spirit that people could encounter
(19:21):
any time of day. What else do you think people
could encounter if they visit the fort. Well, let's to
say we have full bodies, shadow figures, noise banging, we
have our candlelight ghost walks in October, and where we
have the fort just lit up with lanterns and candles,
and we walk around which is landerns And during these
(19:43):
tours a lot of experiences happened. One year, I had
a group and we're coming in. I had a couple
of young young boys with me. Since it was a
military fort, there were families there, so you had women
and children they did die at the fort. And walk
in and there's two children that I've seen quite a
bit and their stories to be seen, and I think
(20:04):
their brother and sister. It's a little boy and a girl.
And as we walk in, I could see him running around,
but I didn't say anything. And we stood in front
of the bunk room. The enlist him in the office
there and I'm talking and then I asked, anybody have
any questions. Feel free to ask a question. There's no
stupid question except if you want to know way to
build the fort so close to the airport. Um, we
(20:25):
get asked that all the time. So, oh no, yeah,
like I have news for you. Yep. So this is
one little boy raises his hand and he said, did
any children die here at the fort? And I said, yes,
it's documented. We had children die here at the ford.
(20:47):
And we're right on the Delaware there's documentations of children
that drowned and washing up on the shores, and I
knew what the answer was going to be able to.
I asked him, I said, why are you asking that?
And he said, well, when we walked in, we saw
these two little children running around playing, and I said, well,
welcome to Fort Mifflin. You've experienced your first sighting of
(21:08):
a ghost. Wow. I mean those seem like very strong
spirits for them to look so alive, like, that's wild
to me. And then I know that a big thing
people see, and I experienced from the casemate. Our shadow
figures are seeing very regularly, and I mean, I would
say it's almost a guarantee that if you if you
(21:30):
go there to investigate at night, you're going to encounter
some sort of shadow figure. Has that been your experience
as well? Oh? Yes, there they dart all over the place.
The last big event there with the TAPS group, after
everybody left, I was just standing there with the event
organizer and assistant and another friend of mine. We were
(21:51):
just standing there and we were standing right in front
of the officers quarters and we're looking out over and
all of a sudden, we see this figure going across
from like the armory going walking across and we're like,
what the heck, So all of us go running over there,
and this figure ran over towards Case May eleven and
just disappeared. So we searched the whole for it again.
(22:15):
You know, we were the only ones there. So you
see them quite regularly. Yeah, and it's not really an
area that people are just going to kind of stumble into. Yes,
it's by the airport, but it is really set back
away from everything. It's not in like a populated area
or anything like that. And it's a fort. It's meant
to keep people away. So and now have you ever
(22:37):
like felt personally afraid or like something there would ever
harm you in any way? Ah, years ago I used
to go a lot, you know, investigate, and then I volunteered,
and I just felt uneasy in Case May go walking
past the case by two, three, and four they're just
smaller ones yet one at the beginning the big one
(23:00):
and where the Confederate prisoners were, and in five is
it over we at the end where the Union prisoners,
and then there's three smallents. I just felt uneasy and
those three and then also the powder magazine. I could
not go in by myself at night for years just
didn't feel good. So eventually I forced myself to go
in there, and I said, in there, with my back
(23:23):
against the back wall, had my recorder going, I heard banging,
like a metal banging on the wall coming towards me,
and I just sat there like frozen. And then when
I got out of there, when I played the Greek quarterback,
it was like somebody was standing right on top of
me yelling get out, get out. I mean it was
(23:45):
like it was like it was screaming. So but eventually
that was it. I got my fear. So I mean
that's a pretty clear message. I always say that the
two e v P that we get the most often
it's either get out or help me, two very different messages,
but those are really the two, like top the top
(24:08):
e vps we get. So case made eleven. Is that
the one that was uncovered later, Yes, that's the one
where Grant has has experienced there. Yes, Oh that's right,
And so I think I remember them sending Chris Williams
down there by herself as well. So just a little background,
I joined the team right around when they went and
did this investigation, but I lived in California at the time,
(24:31):
and so I was not flying to the East Coast yet,
but Chris Williams and I were really close are still
very close anyways. I just remember her like telling me,
you're not going to believe what they made me do.
They made me climb down in this case, made all
by myself. And first time she went down truly alone
and brought like a handheld camera, and then I think
(24:52):
that they wanted to get some better shots of her,
so she went down again with a camera operator. And
that was something that she always had to defend at
paranormal events and things because people would say, you know,
you weren't really down there by yourself, you had a
camera operator, and she had to explain, like the magic
of TV, that she did truly go down there by herself.
But then they did send a camera operator down later
(25:14):
to just get some additional shots of her down there,
but she definitely went down there alone. People get very
uncomfortable down there. They just don't feel right down there,
because that was solitary confinement when it was first open up,
when Chris and went down there and he had to
go down the ladder, but it's been excavated, so there
is stairs to go down it, but still it's underground.
It's a hole in the ground and it's very tight
(25:36):
and people get very uneasy in there. I had a
family to come out to do an investigation, and that
was the husband and wife and the two teenage sons
came out. That night was just nuts off the charts.
And when we were in Case Made eleven. Now there's
two little rooms in Case Made eleven, two separate cells,
and so I was in the back cell with the
(25:58):
wife and one song, and then the other cell it
was the husband, uh and the other song. We're in
there doing some a VPS and it's pitch black. You
can't see the hand in front of your face. And
so we're in there and all of a sudden, this
big bam right next to me and they're like, what
(26:19):
was that? And I said, well, I think somebody was
thrown at me. So we put the flashlight and it
was a piece of brick that was right next to me.
So that was the only time I had something thrown
at me. I just think they were trying to get
my attention because it didn't hit me, it hit the wall.
It was really loud, so that made their night. They
became believers at night. Yeah, I don't think I even
(26:40):
went down there. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but I
am hugely claustrophobic, and I do not like being underground,
Like I am kind of anxiety ridden the whole time.
So I remember, I might have. If I remember if
I went down there, I've blocked it out mentally. I
don't think I did. Yeah, I don't think you did.
So at that point, you're in the casemate and you
(27:01):
have something thrown at you, which is very different from
just kind of seeing having someone explain the history, and
by someone I mean a spirit or seeing children playing.
Have there ever been any other incidents of kind of
aggressive type behavior, maybe towards people going there or toward investigators.
We've had stuff move. The most aggressive that I know
(27:23):
of it was again during a Candlelight ghost tour and
we're coming out of the casemates and then as we're
walking out, there was a gentleman with his girlfriend and
he went up a little bit and hidden like casemate too,
and as we walked by within the girlfriend he jumped
out and scared the basis out of her. She freaked
(27:44):
out and she was cursing him. And yelling at him,
and he was laughing. So he started walking next to me,
and she's all the way in the back of the group,
just still. She was she didn't want to be anywhere
near him. She was just really upset, and all of
us on. He goes flying forward and hits the ground.
Something pushed him down to the ground, and he got
(28:06):
up and he started yelling at her, why are you
doing that? I was joking everything, and She's like, I'm
not even anywhere near you. I'm all the way back here.
I said, well, I guess the spirit he pissed the
spirits awful little bit upset of your girlfriend. So that
was That's really the most aggressive that I've experienced. You know,
I had the stone being thrown. Of course, we tell
(28:28):
people know provoking there, you know, respect the dead. There's
nothing negative, nothing demonic there. You know, you can have
some pistolf spirits. Specifically, when it was a military prison
in Civil War, you had civilians that were locked up
in there. These were just regular folks that were thrown
in prison by Lincoln. Conditions were just horrific, so you
had those deaths. We have a spirit that identifies himself
(28:50):
as to judge him and I have like a love
hate relationship. It's Greg, F you or f you. Greg.
That's how he greets me. He's just a very scrunled individual.
There was a judge that was sentenced to Fort Mifflin.
He was a major in the Pennsylvania Milityship with Jacob Wilhelm,
and he was a sitting associate judge of the Court
(29:13):
of Common Please of Clearfield County in Pennsylvania, and he
opposed war. And at that point in the eighteen sixty
three sixty four time frame, if you opposed the war,
you post Lincoln a rounded you up and three your
military prisons, something that a lot of people don't know of,
and tens of thousands of citizens were locked up throughout
(29:34):
the country. And so judge she was a judge Jacob Wilhelm. Yeah,
I mean that that makes sense, even though that that
spirit isn't necessarily like violent, they're angry. You can kind
of encounter the whole gamut there, from spirits that are
completely fine and kind to some that are clearly in turmoil.
And you're right, that's kind of the perfect example as
(29:55):
to why you don't want to assume you know who
you're talking to when you're investigating or be you know,
treat them disrespectfully because you don't know their story at all. Yeah,
and on his grave it's and now despoiled. He lives
like wind swept leafless. Those a noble phantom shade of
(30:15):
what has been, and that was put on his tombstone.
So noble, noble phantom. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you
kind of giving us a little bit of insight into
the hauntings at Fort Mifflin, and I hope people will
go visit. If people want to visit the fort or
investigate the fort, or do any ghost tours or anything,
what do they need to do? Well, our website is
(30:38):
Fort Mifflin dot us. You go to the website and
we have an event pulled down. You can go and
all the events that happened at the fort. We do reenactments,
we have a jazz festival there, We have all kinds
of different activities there there. And then there's a programs
page and that's where the paranormal is and you can
go there and the information of what you need to
(30:59):
do is all right there. That's great. It's really wonderful
that they've kind of embraced that side of the fort too,
because a lot of these historic locations that are, you know,
government owned, they kind of steer away from it. But
I think it is a just valuable for the public
and I think a lot of fun, especially to get
younger people involved in history and then be it's a
great revenue source for some of these really important locations.
(31:22):
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, I think it's
doing a lot of good. And you've been involved for
so long, so good for you. It's really great that
you've been so closely involved with the fort this long. Yeah,
I appreciate that. You know how it is, you can
some places just pull you towards them, and the fort
is somewhere place that just pulled me in and I'm there,
(31:43):
So yeah, we appreciate people coming out. It's forty total
lacres here. We have nature trail. There's more of the
fort outside about a quarter mile down. I know you've
never been down there. It's it was built in late
eighteen seventies. There's gun batteries down along the river, there's
case mates down there, so there's a lot of you
can come out just wonder around. You don't have to
worry about ghost spirits. You know the history walk to
(32:05):
you know, we have dear fox, we have all kinds
of wildlife. Even though we're right by the airport, right
on the Delaware River. You can sit and watch the
boats go by you. You can look overhead and watch
the airplane. So there's lots to do. Well. I love that.
It sounds like a wonderful day. So I clearly need
to get back soon because I did not get to
experience all that, so I'm putting it on the schedule.
(32:26):
I appreciate it. Yeah, we need you guys back. I
like to have you back, Chris, I'd like to get back.
Get her down in case matal leven she would love that. Well,
thank you so much. I really appreciate it, and hopefully
we will chat again very soon. One of the things
(32:47):
I love about Fort Mifflin is that it's a government
run site that does not at all shy away from
its ghostly history. The fact that paranormal reports have been
going on there since the late seventeen hundreds probably helps
a great deal because you can't hide that. It's also
a location where activities seems to happen day or night,
whether you're looking for it or not. This is why.
(33:08):
If you happen to be in the City of Brotherly
Love and are looking for something new and different to do,
I highly recommend a moment at the Fort. It's so
close to the airport. It's also a wonderful place to
stop on your way out of town. Tell them I
sent you, and also let them know I'd really like
to come back and investigate soon. PS. Good luck if
you see the faceless man. I literally watched a seasoned
(33:29):
investigator run out of the place after witnessing that for himself.
Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and
(33:51):
Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Haunted Road is hosted
and written by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn.
The show is edited and produced by rema El Kali
and supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(34:14):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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