Old Idaho State Penitentiary

Yes.

And when I was 12 or 13, we were having the first person executed at the Idaho State Penitentiary since the 50s.

And my mother shares positive and interesting memories of me being like obsessed about protesting, standing outside and speaking out against the death penalty as a young kid.

So, yeah.

i like it for that yeah i want to try that what's the best evidence you've ever captured

The best evidence I ever captured, I was not investigating and I wasn't even, I think I had just started on a team, but I was visiting the Idaho State Penitentiary with my two sisters and my brother.

And we were just doing a daytime tour.

And we went into, I had an old flip camera.

Pretty quick, they'd have to plan to get under your skin some way or try to figure a way out.

Welcome back, folks, to another episode of the Behind Gray Walls podcast, a podcast about the old Idaho penitentiary and the men and women who lived and worked here.

My name's Anthony, and I am actually at the Idaho State Archives here with Samuel.

Hi, everybody.

There's the things that...

Because our staff do experience a lot of, of different things, and we kind of, essentially our philosophy on this is, um, you know, to allow everyone to tell their own story and, uh, to have their own philosophy on whether or not the, the Old Idaho Penitentiary's haunted, right? Um, but pretty much everyone who works here ha- is able to, to trade those stories and, um, and ends up with some encounter or some, some experience of their own.

I feel like a lot of the time it's more things that people see out of their, um, out of the corner of their eye or, uh, you know, when they're barely paying attention and they turn around and it's not there.

Um, you know, seeing faces through windows or through cells.

I'm assuming the month of October, or does it go a little bit longer?

It is pretty much kept to October, but, uh, we do several events throughout the month of October.

Obviously, due to the interest in, in paranormal investigations and dark tourism, you know, those are sorts of things that have, have really built the Old Idaho Penitentiary into, you know, one of the most visited places in the state of Idaho, right? Um, it's, it's always among the-

That's interesting.

[eerie music] Today on The Grave Talks, a conversation about the Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise, Idaho.

Penitentiaries and jails seem to be a likely place where you'll find hauntings and paranormal activity.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary is no exception.

It was built in 1870 while Idaho was still a territory, and it served as a prison for 101 years.

It's seen its share of scandals, escapes, riots, and executions.

It's believed that one of those prisoners who was executed, Raymond Snowden, is still there.

Staff and visitors have claimed to have heard voices, been physically touched, or experienced a strange feeling on the property.

On this episode of The Grave Talks, a conversation about the history and the hauntings of the Old Idaho Penitentiary with Visitor Services Coordinator, J.C.