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Historically, prisons have been places of darkness, filled with the cries of pain from torture, isolation, and near starvation, where atrocities are committed upon the guilty, the insane, and even those wrongly incarcerated. They were places where death from exposure and inhumane forms of torture, not to mention from government-sanctioned executions, regularly occurred. If ever one were to imagine a place that might be rife with lingering and tortured spirits, a prison would surely be at the top of that list.

Below, we include a few Montreal and area prison stories that are sure to unshackle unpleasant thoughts about those prisoners who are locked up for all of eternity.

The Dungeon of Old Montreal Prison

Vauquelin Square (or Place Vauquelin in French), is an urban square located in Old Montreal. It is named in honour of Jean Vauquelin, a naval officer, who was recognized for the bravery he displayed in battle during the Seven Years’ War. The square was not always a public space, however — it was the site of the Old Montreal Prison until 1836.

The prison was demolished in 1950 and a courthouse was erected on that spot. Outside the courthouse is the square. Today, tourists flock to the site to check out the beautiful fountain of Neptune, god of the sea (the original name for the square was Neptune Square), and the nearby City Hall. Few among these are aware of the secrets that lay just below the street’s surface.

A dungeon and a series of repurposed jail cells still lie underground, rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of notorious prisoners who were once held in those very cells, some of them awaiting execution.

City workers who access the cells for storage and other purposes have reported feelings of intense claustrophobia, an unexplainable shortness of breath, and overwhelming feelings of dread and fear when moving about the historic corridors. Others report hearing the muffled sound of disembodied voices, the clanking of chains, or a sudden drop in temperature in quickly manifesting cold spots.

Executions in this location began in 1812. The final execution, which occurred in August 1833, was of Adolphus Dewey (written about in detail in the following chapter, “The Last Hanging”). Conditions at the prison were described in the book History of the Montreal Prison From A.D. 1784 to A.D. 1886 as inhumane, and several of the punishment and torture techniques employed would, by today’s standards, be seen as completely barbaric.

A blog post from the Haunted Montreal website speculates that some of the phenomenon experienced in the old underground cells and galleries could be pointing to the ghost of the starving vagrant John Collins, who froze to death in the dungeon in December of 1835. Or perhaps it’s the ghost of Adolphus Dewey, who suffered a long and tortuous death, or any other of the executed prisoners, such as the thirteen-year-old B. Clement, hanged for stealing a cow.

When you stand in that square, can you feel the weight of the macabre history of that location, the overwhelming emotion of dread coming upon you, and, perhaps, the faint echoes of the cries of long-ago prisoners?

Pied-du-Courant Prison

Pied-du-Courant Prison is a popular location for visiting ghost hunters and paranormal explorers, and a reminder of one of the more violent chapters in the history of Montreal.

Originally built as a replacement for the Old Montreal Prison, the building operated as a prison from 1836 to 1912. In 1912 the building was acquired by the SAQ (Société des alcools du Québec), the provincially run liquor board. When it closed down, Pied-du-Courant Prison was replaced by the Bordeaux Prison, which is still operational. The largest prison in Quebec, it has a capacity for 1,189 inmates.

Initially created to hold about 276 prisoners, Pied-du-Courant Prison ended up holding more than 1,500 prisoners captured during the 1837–1838 rebellion — hundreds more than even the more modern, larger Bordeaux Prison could handle. The overcrowding and deplorable conditions in the prison must have been unbearable for both the prisoners and those who worked there.

In 2003, a museum called La-Prison-des-Patriotes Exhibition Centre was opened in the basement of the building. It allows visitors to wander some of the subterranean prison cells and learn about the failed rebellion of 1837–1838. It is within this museum and on the grounds outside that apparitions of prisoners and executed men have been reported. Rumours also abound about undocumented prisoners whose bodies were buried in unmarked graves about the prison grounds during the years of overcrowding.

Unexplained mists, mysterious shadowy figures, and the echo of phantom footsteps have been reported by staff and visitors. Visitors have reported feelings of unease, the certainty that they are not alone, and the sudden onslaught of violent thoughts. Objects have disappeared and then reappeared on their own, doors and windows close and open by themselves, and there have been inexplicable electrical disturbances — odd flickering lights and power surges that couldn’t be traced to a physical cause.

In June of 2013, Isabelle Verge of the Journal de Montréal interviewed a paranormal specialist and author by the name of Christian Paige, who explained to her that the prison, where a dozen patriots were executed, was one of the most haunted sites in Montreal. He suggested that the ghosts of the Patriotes were at “unrest” because they were seeking the justice that escaped them in life. Paige also explained that the location was not only haunted by the ghosts of former prisoners, but also by those of former prison guards.

When a psychic visited the facility, she saw the figure of a ghost, dressed all in blue, running quickly through the prison. “It was a figure which kept running the same line over and over again, always at the same place and in the same direction,” she said in a Haunted Montreal blog post from August 2016, “restarting at the same location (similar to a movie just being played on tape).” She couldn’t tell if it was a prisoner or a guard, but said she could make out that he was dressed in blue and was running very quickly.

Reading these stories, would you be brave enough to venture underground to explore this haunted historic location? If you do, just ignore that fleeting glimpse of what appears to be the spectre of a prisoner. It’s likely just your imagination.

Vieille Prison of Trois-Rivières

Built in 1822, the Vieille Prison of Trois-Rivières, located about one and a half hours from Montreal, was designed to hold about forty prisoners and remained in operation until 1986. Over the years, it was the “home” for some of Quebec’s most dangerous criminals.

Once the longest-running detention centre in Canada, the old prison, which has remained almost unchanged since it was created, is a part of Canada’s national prison heritage and a major attraction. Visitors can, during a one hour and fifteen minute tour, experience what life was like behind bars in those early days of our country’s history. Children twelve and under are not allowed on this harrowing experience. The museum also has a “Sentenced to One Night” program (where no one under the age of fifteen is allowed). Visitors who sign up for this program are greeted by the warden, then they are booked, fingerprinted, photographed, and issued a prisoner’s T-shirt. The warden then guides the visitors to the incarceration wing, where a former inmate will recount details of penal life of yesterday and today. Visitors then spend the night with their cellmates under the warden’s supervision before waking to clean the wing and eat a meagre breakfast before being given the much-anticipated RELEASED stamp on their hands and set free.

There are those who claim that this prison, like many others, is haunted by former inmates and guards. During the Halloween season of 2017, the museum added special Haunted House tours of the prison, playing up the history of the building with a few additional “just for fun” scares thrown in. We’re not sure just how “fun” being in a prison, especially an allegedly haunted prison, might be. But, as the French saying goes: à chacun son goût (to each his own taste).

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While modern prisons might be significantly safer and cleaner, and certainly nowhere near as barbaric as some of the overcrowded prisons of the past, prisons are still places of darkness, of reduced freedom; places to be avoided. For those unlucky enough to find themselves in prison, and even more unlucky to die there, freedom may never be possible. As the tales that we have shared make clear, some prisoners have found themselves forever confined to these haunted grounds, with their spirits lingering on for an eternity of torture, fear, pain, and angst.