Old Newgate Prison

Old Newgate Prison is best known for its mine tunnels, where visitors report disembodied voices echoing in the dark, unexplained cold areas, screams, the feeling of being touched, and shadowy figures that seem to watch tour groups from the shadows; some tellings add a former warden who patrols the grounds. In one chamber a face is said to be visible in the rock where a ceiling collapse once killed a miner. The last man known to have died there was attempting to escape by climbing a rope up the prison well; the rope snapped partway up, and he was killed either by the fall or by drowning. The site began as a copper mine worked in the 1700s and became Connecticut's first state prison, holding Tories and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War and Confederate prisoners during the Civil War; it is now a state historic site and museum. These accounts are legend, with no independent verification.