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
