PRISM Paranormal Investigations

Location:
226 Pearl St.
Council Bluffs, IA

Website: Link #1 / Link #2

Built on the former site of a morgue for the Episcopalian Church, the Old Pottawattamie County Jail was constructed in 1885 and closed its doors as a prison in 1969. It was purchased by the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County in 1979 and became what is now a museum. The jail is known as the 'Squirrel Cage Jail' because of its unique three-story rotating jail cells. The jail is part of the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of only three remaining Lazy Susan jails. Prisoners were housed in pie-shaped cells, which were accessed by turning a hand crank until the cells lined up with a single door on each floor. Unfortunately, the jail does not rotate any more, and some of the pie-shaped cells have not seen the light of day for almost forty years.

The building is believed to be haunted by the ghost of one of the former jailers that worked and lived at the jail. While employed at the Squirrel Cage Jail, the jailers and their families lived in an apartment located on the fourth floor of the jail.

Four deaths are known to have occurred at the jail:

1) One prisoner died of a heart attack.

2) One prisoner was found hanged in his cell.

3) One prisoner tried to climb up the jail cage to try and write his name on the ceiling. He fell from the third level and died.

4) During the Farmer's Holiday Association strike of 1932, eighty-four protestors were arrested and taken to the jail. Out of fear that the angry farmers would storm the jail and set the prisoners free, the police department used machine guns to turn the grounds of the jail and courthouse into a "no-man's land". One officer died during the confusion after he shot himself inside the jail.

Preliminary Investigation:

Date: 3/19/05
Time: 2:05 pm to 2:25 pm
Weather Outside: Clear
Outside Temperature: 46°F
Humidity Outside: 25%
Sunrise & Sunset: 6:27 am & 6:36 pm
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous (70% Full)
Solar Activity: Active
Geomagnetic Activity: Quiet

Apparitions Or Illusions? :

On 3/19/05, PRISM investigators David Rodriguez and Dan Christianson visited the jail to take a few external shots of the building for this web site. The jail remains closed from November 1 to March 31, so nobody was inside the building at the time. When we examined the photos on the computer later that night, we found one particular photo that seemed to capture the image of a man on the fourth floor, through a window located on the right side of the jail. This is the floor where J.M. Carter lived and supposedly haunts to this day. David returned on both 3/20 and 3/21 to try and recreate the photo, but was not able to. On both those days, the apparition of the male figure was not visible in the window.

David revisited the jail on both 3/20 and 3/21 to try and "recreate" the image, but was not able to. On 3/20 he managed to catch another interesting image in a photo taken of a different window located at the front of the jail. This image was found to most likely caused by the sunlight, shining through a large tree at front of the building, reflecting off of the window, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Daytime Investigation: 4/1/05

Daytime Investigation:

Daytime Investigation - 6/8/05