The Horror Stories of the Old Charleston Jail

The Old Charleston City Jail

As the class came across the Old Charleston City Jail, we were anxious with excitement to see what the Jail had in store for its next victims. As we checked in the man from Bulldog Tours, was telling the class about all of the horrifying stories that he has experienced and heard of from going inside.

The more the sun went down the scarier each room in the jail got. Although the jail was small it was more than rich in history. Many criminals from the Charleston area have been here.

The class stood around our tour guide, Randy Johnson, outside of the jail. Randy Johnson started out by saying "The jail is a giant tombstone, that is here to teach us about the living". The Jail was built on top of a cemetery that is where the poor people in the area were buried.

There were 200 patriots buried under the jail and in the parking lot around it. The jail only held prisoners that were to be hung or those who were to be punished and then released, it was for bad criminals.

The Whipping Room

As 7 o'clock approached, it was time to enter into the mysterious Old Charleston City Jail. As the class stood around the walls of the room, Max, volunteered to help demonstrate how the prisoners were tortured.

The prisoners put their hands in the ropes and then the other ropes are pulled to make the prisoners hands hang in the air as they were whipped 15 times each day.


We then went into the next room that had cages in it. Johnson said the most of the criminals that were supposed to be hung get put in isolated cages like in the picture below.

The Cages for Prisoners to be Hung

As the class was standing in this room, Johnson decided to tell us a story about a couple from Charleston. Lavinia and John Fisher owned a hotel that many lone traveling men stayed at. They would murder the men relatively quickly to take their things and sell them for money.

They got caught and were put in the jail to be hung but one day they decided to try and break out. They escaped their cage, tied two sheets together and he climbed down to the ground first. She was going to go next but the rope ended up ripping and she told him to leave and run, to save himself.

John Fisher just could not do that to his wife. The guards caught him sitting down in an area not too far from the jail. They were both hung and it is said that she still comes back to haunt the jail in the white wedding dress she was hung in as people laughed at her.

The Class at Old Charleston Jail

Escapes were very common and to try to contain the escapes, a 20 ft wall was added around the perimeter of the jail.

The prison had many crazy stories about ghosts and strange things happening that are crazy. The tour was well worth it and finding out about more of the history of Charleston.

As Johnson said to the class, "This is where evil comes to battle the darkness and the darkness usually wins".