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~ Ottawa (now the Ottawa Jail Hostel) ~

Out of the shower and into the change room … the clothes have vanished. In the hallway a sock appears, a shirt … pants … belt … underwear, scattered down the hall like stepping stones. Where is the watch!? The search begins in another room, or more accurately put, another cell. No longer ticking, the watch lies upside down on a cold, concrete floor. The searcher flees to his room. What on earth just took place? These are common occurrences for those who stay in the Ottawa Jail Hostel, once the Carleton County Gaol. Time stops on death row.

In this building, literally hundreds of lost souls wander the corridors, up and down the stairwells, occupying cells, remaining on death row, waiting, waiting, waiting. A noose was always hanging from the gallows, swinging like a pendulum, marking time. Each time it stopped, another unmarked grave was dug in the dusty courtyard. Reports written by the Inspector of Jails in the 1870s bear witness to the atrocities.

This eerie stairwell leads to the quarantine area where immigrants awaited their fate. Many souls welcomed death.

Children cried out. Women wept. Men prayed for their souls as the jailor turned the key. Darkness would blanket the lost and forsaken and smother their torment. A woman dragged into a secret passageway was assaulted. Her cries were muffled. She prayed for it to end. In total darkness naked people were sentenced to six months “in the hole,” spread-eagled and chained to a cold cell floor to die without seeing daylight again. What prompted such cruelty?

In 1862 the Carleton County Gaol opened as a maximum security holding facility. Many people were actually innocent victims: men, women, and children. Once incarcerated they were seldom allowed to shower, never given more than one meal a day, never saw daylight, and died in filthy, unlit quarters in the basement, known as the quarantine area. When they died their bodies were burned in the courtyard. Other victims were illegally hung inside the building, far from the view of any governing officials.

Prisoners had no space to move. Their cells had no plumbing or electricity.

Many people died here as a result of societal prejudice against the mentally ill and the poor, and methods of treatment that resulted from this prejudice. To declare a person insane was one such method. The fate of many unfortunate victims rested in the hands of jailors and inspectors of jails. In August 1876 Inspector Christie observed the following, “I found 58 prisoners in custody, 31 males and 27 females. Of the women, 25 were under sentence, one waiting trial and one, Mary McLoughlin, was insane. She appeared to be a fit subject for asylum treatment.”

A common example of punishment is recorded in Inspector J.W. Langmuir’s report dated September 24, 1877, “Reference has again to be made to the case of Margaret Dogherty, who, owing to outrageous conduct, has constantly to be kept under punishment, being at this time tied to the cell door. Although, properly speaking, the woman may not be insane, there can be no doubt she is a fit subject for an asylum. Sarah Jane Thomas has not yet been certified to be a lunatic and at the time of my visit appeared to be quite sane, although was evidently of weak intelligence.”

The Carleton County Gaol closed in 1972 because of lack of sanitation, poor lighting, and unsavoury conditions. In 1973 the building became the Ottawa International Hostel and it is now known as the Ottawa Jail Hostel. Portions of the interior were renovated to accommodate overnight guests but much of the jail remains as it was, including the cell blocks, the gallows, the hole, the stairwells, the secret tunnels, and death row.

Wade Kirkpatrick was the friendly Operations Manager of the hostel. Although Wade had never seen a ghost, he had experienced unexplained activity. “My wife, Crystal, and I lived here for four months before we bought our first house. We lived in an apartment on the seventh floor. We often heard voices and banging on the pipes, although no one was to be seen. People often claim to hear cell doors closing behind them as they walk down death row, which is on the floor above the apartment. One time we went away for a week and shut the water off to our apartment. When we returned from our holidays the water was turned on and hot water was now coming out of the cold water tap.”

Guided tours of the building are offered. Carol Devine, one of the tour guides, discusses its history, its mystery, and the hauntings of the jail. I joined Carol on her tour. Come along.

Unmarked graves are said to occupy the courtyard area. It was here jail guards burned the bodies of quarantined Irish immigrants.

The tour began in the basement. Carol usually does not take a group here because it is nerve-wracking. A set of stairs leads down to a room that has the appearance of a black hole. The lights were not working. It was chilling and oppressive. This area had been used as a quarantine station for newly arrived immigrants in the mid-1860s who were thought to be suffering from scarlet fever. In most cases the whole family would be sentenced to the basement of the Carleton County Gaol for no less than three months.

Carol said, “This is where thousands of people died. Whole families would be shoved into this space and left to fend for themselves. Most of the jail guards were afraid to enter the area for fear of catching the disease. I assume their honey buckets (pails that served as toilets) were never removed or cleaned, but rather were dumped in the corner of the room. When residents died, the guards would remove their bodies and burn them in the back courtyard. No one ever received a proper burial.”

On we went to debtors’ prison. People who could not afford to pay their bills were impounded here. They were sentenced to work in the kitchen and other areas of the jail. Many came with their families who were housed in dormitory-style cells. This section of the building was converted to a chapel shortly after 1920, when the Canadian government abolished such prisons.

Down the hallway there is an entranceway to a tunnel which leads to the courthouse next door. Part of the tunnel has been filled. Carol remarked, “People hear moaning coming from the tunnel. I am certain prisoners were taken down into the tunnel and abused. No one would ever hear their screams.” A door seals the sight but not the sounds!

Next, Station 2, solitary confinement, nicknamed “the hole.” Six cells were used to house troublesome inmates and they have remained intact to this day. Here inmates were placed for anywhere from one day to six months. All privileges, including visitors, exercise, and chapel, were taken away. Prisoners were forced to use honey buckets instead of toilets. The cells had two doors. The second door was made of solid wood, and no light came through. Prisoners were often stripped of their clothing and shackled, spread-eagled, on the floor. Once a day the guard would unchain them for 15 minutes to eat their only meal and to use the honey bucket. Many inmates died in that darkness. The unlit cells and shackles are still as they were. The suffering in those cells is palpable. Scratch marks are visible on the walls and floors.

At one end of solitary confinement is “A” and “D,” now also referred to as Station 3, where the admittance and departure of inmates took place. Here prisoners were stripped of their clothes and personal belongings, taken to the shower, given prison clothing, tobacco, a comb, and a toothbrush without a handle. This is now a kitchen!

Station 4 was originally the visiting area. There are metal screens on the staircase that act as anti-suicide bars. They run up the entire staircase. Although not often actually seen, a spirit haunts this area. The “presence” follows visitors up the stairs and imposes pressure from behind. In 1910 two inmates overpowered a guard and threw him to his death in this stairwell. A menacing presence has remained. I experienced it myself, very strongly.

Station 5 was originally cell block one and two and is now a residence for female visitors. The cells have been enlarged to create dormitories. Sleep well!

Station 6 was the former residence of the governor of the jail, known as the governor’s mansion. This is the eeriest place of all. Carol’s story gets darker now. A strange spirit, referred to as “the vampire” haunts the back stairwell of this section. For years, prisoners referred to this spirit as a creature who “tries to push your soul out of your body.” Carol said, “My grandfather had heard about this vampire. They say it feeds on the sick. No one knows for sure whether this creature’s territory extends throughout the jail or not.”

Carol recounted the experience of two young men who stayed in the governor’s mansion in 1994. “One night one of the men retired early for the night. He awoke suddenly to see a shadow standing in the doorway. He turned the light on, but the bulb shattered. The shadow quickly skirted across the room and disappeared in the corner where a set of lockers stood. Workers later discovered a secret passage right where the shadow had vanished.”

Does the “vampire” travel the building through the many secret passageways?

An ominous inscription was discovered on the stairwell during renovations of the building in 1972. It reads, “I am a non-veridical Vampire who will vanquish you all. One by one I will ornate your odorous flesh with famished fangs. But Who? Are there 94 or 95 steps to the ninth floor? A book on the top shelf will lead you on the right path.”

This quote is accompanied by a circle with inverted letters. Carol explained that it was decided to preserve the inscription but added, “No one is sure what all this means. We do know that a bookshelf did exist at one time on the ninth floor in the matrons’ quarters. The inscription has been here for many years.

“At one time a warden moved into the governor’s mansion with his family. His eight-year-old son often played in the stairwell. By the time the warden left the prison with his family, the son was eleven. The child’s personality had drastically changed and he was terrified of the dark.”

The stairwell is a very strange place to explore. There is a sensation of being watched and there is a heaviness in the atmosphere. Reading the inscription makes the hair on your neck stand up.

No one could be prepared for the visitation of a spirit in the sixth floor stairwell. Here in the stairwell is an arched alcove with a ledge where security guards could chain a prisoner who was giving them difficulty. It is a space now bricked up except for a hole between two bricks.

Something remains hidden behind this wall. A frigid draft can be felt escaping from the dislodged bricks.

In 1994 the authorities invited a group of psychics to investigate the hauntings. They claimed that 13 active spirits existed in the building and another 150 souls returned there on the anniversary of their deaths. This is a phenomenal amount of activity for one building and particularly for a hostel.

Carol added, “One psychic felt very drawn to this wall (the sixth floor alcove). She felt the spirit of a dead prisoner was still here.” She suggested that I try putting my hand in the hole between the bricks, something she herself had done. I did it. Not for long, though. It was a moment I’ll never forget. My hand felt like ice!

“After the psychics left, things went crazy. Doors would lock and we could hear voices throughout the building. In the evening, after the front offices were closed, the computers would turn on by themselves and begin to print out incoherent pages of text. The phones kept ringing, but no one was there. This went on for three days,” stated Carol.

On the ninth floor we entered what was once the hospital and later became the female inmate cell area. It is now the home of two lounges for the hostel. The carpeted area in the lounge was once the doctor’s office and the wooden floor area was once the operating room — a disturbing thought.

Carol added, “The hospital area was only used from 1862 to 1867. In those days, prisoners, if they were lucky, were allowed to shower once a month. Infection was a major health problem in the jail. Inmates would often lose a limb as a result of unsanitary conditions. They were given a shot of whiskey to numb the pain while a doctor removed one of their limbs with a saw!” According to Carol, no records were kept and the hospital was too expensive to maintain and it was subsequently closed.

Officials then renovated the area for female and children prisoners. Young boys were jailed here until age 12, when they were placed in a regular cell block in the jail. The women and children were allowed one bath per week and were required to share the bathwater.

Children’s voices are often heard on this floor, especially in the lounge where a crib is located today. Wade Kirkpatrick said, “We would often hear noises in the lounge. When we went to investigate all we found were guests watching television with the volume low. Obviously, they hadn’t heard anything. Periodically we could hear women screaming here.”

In February 1899 a male prisoner escaped to the women’s cell area on the ninth floor. From there he fled to the bathroom in the hallway. There were no bars on the bathroom windows at the time. He fell to his death. A second man made the same attempt. Both legs were broken in the fall and he crawled across the street to the City Registry Office. Carol added, “The guards rushed out and across the street and shot him dead.” A third prisoner successfully escaped through the same window but was apprehended and shot to death on a street in Ottawa.

Station 8, the original, male cellblock, was once called “the drum.” The cells measure one metre by three metres, (three feet by nine feet). There are 20 cells located here. Prisoners were locked inside these cells for 12 hours at night. They spent the other 12 hours of the day locked outside their cells. The hotel has no plans to renovate this area into dorms. This allows visitors to see and feel what a cell block was like. A few people have attempted to sleep in a cell, but have reported an uncomfortable sleep and a deep feeling of uneasiness. This is quite understandable since the gallows are nearby and death row is just on the other side of the cellblock. Clanging cell bars and voices are heard in this area.

Station 9 is death row. Unexplained phenomena and bizarre accidents have occurred in this part of the jail. Death row consisted of four cells, numbered one to four.

Patrick Whelan spent ten months in cell four awaiting his execution. He was convicted in 1869, on circumstantial evidence, of killing Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation. Whelan and 18 others were arrested for the crime. The other 18 were acquitted for lack of evidence, but Whelan was hanged for the murder.

During his ten months on death row, Patrick and his personal guard, John Lyle, became close friends. Mr. Lyle believed Whelan was innocent but could do nothing to stop the hanging. Whelan and Lyle still stalk the halls of death row. They have been heard and seen.

There were three official hangings in the gallows here at the Carleton County Goal. Canada’s last public hanging was of Patrick Whelan in 1869. There were 5,000 curious onlookers.

There are many superstitious traditions surrounding hangings. People were usually hanged on the 13th day of the month. If that was not possible, then the hanging would take place on the 13th hour of the day. The hangman always stood on the left side of the prisoner because the right was said to be the divine side. The hangman always tied the noose 13 times. Oddly enough, Patrick Whelan was hanged at 11:00 a.m., February 11, 1869.

People staying in the hostel have reported seeing Patrick Whelan sitting in his cell writing at a desk. He may still be writing the letter he wrote to Sir John A. MacDonald to profess his innocence.

Some people believe Patrick Whelan haunts death row because he was hung on the 11th hour, on the 11th day. Other reasons may be his innocence of the crime and the broken promise to send his body to his wife in Montreal.

His gravesite in the courtyard was discovered 58 years ago when the City of Ottawa built the Mackenzie King Bridge and expropriated part of the courtyard that had, at one time, extended a considerable distance from the building. Whelan was identified by a ring on his finger. Construction workers discovered 140 gravesites in total. It is a concern for some that more bodies were buried beside the building and in the present-day parking area.

Former inmates hanged at the jail still remain, haunting death row. One evil spirit is reported to inhabit the corner of the hallways. Lights often flicker and cell doors slam shut in this area.

Death row is reported to be haunted by several spirits. Carol said, “death row is haunted by an evil spirit. No one knows who or what it is. The spirit lives in the corner of the hall. You can feel its presence. The air becomes heavy the way it does before a thunderstorm. The lights flicker or dim. Some visitors see flickering lights along the wall across from the cells. Years ago there were oil lamps on that wall.

“A female visitor attempted several times to open one of the cell doors. The door was sealed. No matter how hard she tried, the door would not open. The cell door had no lock on it. Nothing should have prevented that door from opening.

“The third cell door on death row has been jammed for years. No one can open it. This is the cell where people report hearing three knocks. The psychics agreed that four of the 13 spirits haunting the jail are here on death row. At one time two iron doors were located on either side of death row. They were removed after an unexplained accident. An employee lost a finger when, without reason or warning, one of the doors slammed shut on his finger. One window on death row also shuts all by itself.”

A set of showers are located at the end of this hall for the guests who are staying in the hostel. It is common for people who come out of the shower to find their clothes strewn down the hall in front of the death row cells. Personal possessions have been found in the cells, often watches have stopped ticking.

The cell doors clang shut as people pass them. Late one night after conducting a tour, Carol had to return to death row. “This area is so haunted. I was walking down death row, passing the cells, when I came to the cell Patrick Whelan had been in. Even though it was August this one area was many degrees colder. I just kept on walking and didn’t look back. In the past we have had a contest for anyone willing to sleep all night on death row. Most people have fled before 1:00 a.m.”

Returning in 2007 to the Ottawa Jail Hostel, I learned that the hostel had been voted as “the most haunted building in Ottawa.” Only the year before, the National Post rated the facility as “the most unusual place to sleep in Canada.”

Greg Brockmann is now the Director of Operations. Greg is quite enthusiastic about marketing the history and hauntings of the building. He wants people to know how unusual and special a place this hostel is to travellers worldwide.

A female co-worker of Greg’s, who wished to remain anonymous, offered a couple of recent stories surrounding the spirit activity on the premises. Apparently last summer a male employee working the night shift was walking along death row when he heard footsteps behind him. He put the creaking noise down to the wooden flooring but, when he reached the section of concrete flooring, the footsteps could still be heard behind him.

“Six years ago I began to work here. My first experience was during a quiet time in the winter when I and a fellow employee were involved in a fire drill. We were responsible for floors seven, eight, and nine. Our job was to travel the floors and to make sure that no one had remained in the hallways or rooms. We did know we were all alone when walking floor eight, which is death row. By the little door in the hallway we heard two men shouting. My partner ran away. I stayed rooted to the spot, crying.”

Guests at the hostel have the opportunity, if they wish, to fill out a report of any ghostly experience in the building. Surprisingly, a number of travellers take the time to share their experiences.

Guests and visitors of the hostel can tour the gallows. The hangman’s noose still swings from the rafter inside.

On April 8, 2004, a guest wrote this, “We were going up to the seventh floor to see this noose thing (gallows). My three friends and I suddenly heard ‘help me, help me.’ We freaked. We were not expecting this. We still had three more nights left here. We hadn’t even spent our first night yet. I was so excited.”

On July 19, 2004, Matt and a friend stayed overnight at the hostel. Matt wrote, “Last night at about 3:30 p.m. I was walking past death row with my friend. I was commenting on how stupid I thought Whelan was for busting a cap (shooting a bullet) in McGee’s ass, instead of poisoning him. Then I got this really creepy vibe shortly thereafter. Then all of a sudden, I got a nose bleed.

“Later the two of us went through death row with two-way radios to talk to our other roommate. As soon as we opened the door to death row my radio started to make a howling sound, which got louder the closer we got to cell 4. Creepy as hell!”

In January 2005 Anne wrote, “I came back to the hostel at 3:00 a.m.; I was neither drunk nor hallucinating. I was alone in the lobby typing an email when I heard ghosts wailing in the wall behind me (behind the front desk). It was very clear and unmistakable (just like what you would hear in a horror movie). The rest of the morning didn’t get less scary either. I went to my jail cell on floor four, too scared to use the bathrooms. On this floor, earlier that day, I had heard of a story that had happened just the week before. An Australian school teacher had been in the bathrooms on floor four. She saw a woman wearing only a blanket that went over her head. When the woman turned around, the teacher saw that this woman had no face. Needless to say, after hearing the ghosts in the lobby, I was expecting to see this faceless woman in the fourth floor bathroom.

“Too scared, I went to the fifth floor bathroom. As soon as I went into the bathroom, the pipes started to bang very loudly and mysteriously stopped banging when I left the bathroom. The same thing happened when I hurried up to use the bathroom on the seventh floor.”

On August 12, 2005, Holly encountered an apparition on death row. She stated, “I was walking down death row when I swear I saw someone in a long black cloak. When I walked by they waved and said, ‘hi there’ in a very squawky voice. It was in the cell where they say all the creepy stuff happens. It really creeped me out.”

Greg is so keen to develop more interactive activities with the spirits in the building that, starting in July 2007, medium Connie Adams from the Merrickville Psychics Parlour began conducting séances at night on death row. According to Greg, “Connie also feels the spirits who come around the participants, as well as the spirits that live in the building.”

In April 2005 she held the first séance, just with the hostel staff. Greg participated. “She got the staff so emotionally charged that some people began to cry in the intense atmosphere. Now I get goose bumps every time I go up to death row.”

What does Connie Adams think about all this?

“It was the first time I had ever been in the building when I held the séance on death row last October. During the séance I got a sensation that the jail keeper was coming up the stairs. I could hear his keys rattling. I can always see and sense spirits coming. In the case of this phantom, I could see about 20 rats racing ahead of him. I could see the participants begin to squirm once the rats arrived. Then he stepped forth and the temperature dropped.

Exterior shot of Carleton Gaol.

“I noticed that not one member of the group would sit in front of the second cell near the gallows. Something was going on with the person who was seated in the corner of the room by the steel door. I could clearly see a spirit swiping or brushing at the persons arm. The participant could actually feel someone grabbing at them. I described this spirit as looking like the movie character Hannibal Lecter. I could see it coming near to the participant’s neck.

“Later that night, after I went to bed, I began to dream about the jail. I was quite lucid and saw myself checking the energy and closing all the doors to protect everyone from harm. I then saw myself in the basement of the jail. I was a young lady wearing a bonnet and an old-fashioned hooped dress. Next, this lecherous spirit appeared again in front of me. He was testing me. He had such bad teeth and breath. I knew then that everyone was safe from him.”

I asked Connie to explain what she experiences when she conducts a séance.

“I can often see a person’s past, present, and even their future. I can name all their family members.” Then she mentioned seeing orbs of light. I asked her to explain what she thinks an orb of light represents.

“I see orbs in the air. These orbs are energy forces that come from different dimensions. Usually I see sparks in the air first and then one orb will appear. This first orb is a scout for the others. They are there to make sure it is safe for the others to come. Then others will follow arrive. These orbs are either coloured or translucent. They appear for a reason. The yellow-coloured orbs are there for health related issues. For example, they will travel around the person and then go inside them. They are there to cleanse and heal a person. This is a very healing experience at a soul level.”

There is no question that Connie’s séances will become a popular event at the Ottawa Jail Hostel.

It would seem that there is more going on here now than there was in 1997. Recently, a couple, who were visiting Ottawa, decided to take the ghost tour of the jail. During the tour the man entered a jail cell and asked his partner to take a picture of him behind bars. Later in the evening when they went to review the pictures they were shocked to discover the figure of a person standing behind the man in the jail-cell photograph. They made a copy of the picture which now hangs on the wall by the main desk.

If you need a room in Ottawa for the night you might consider the Ottawa Jail Hostel, but be sure to keep your eye on your clothes, your watch, and your nerves! And remember, this is not for the faint-hearted!