Squirrel Cage Jail

CAPT contacted the Squirrel Cage Jail in Council Bluffs Iowa to inquire about conducting an investigation there. Permission was granted and CAPT was very excited about preforming the investigation at this historic site. CAPT was also excited about the fact that the team had 2 new members join the ranks, James from Burlington Iowa and Niki from Unionville Missouri. James was unable to attend due to the distance and short notice but Niki was able to attend the investigation.

Some history of the Squirrel Cage Jail. The “Squirrel Cage” rotary jail served as the county jail from September 1885 until December 1969 and was America's largest rotary jail. The purpose of the this type of jail was “to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer.” The outside walls of the jail are three layers of brick thick while all interior layers are two bricks thick. The first inmates of the jail were in place on September 11, 1885 and consisted of: Cuff Johnson for murder, Miles Mullen for horse theft, Frank Scofield for forgery, Ed Rankin for being a confidence man, and Mr and Mrs Brock with their teenage daughter for larceny.

The cylinder has three floors with ten pie shaped cells on each floor designed to hold two prisoners per cell. Since there was only one entrance or exit on each floor, the entire cylinder had to be turned with a hand-crank until the cell was lined up with the opening of the cage. Although no prisoner was ever taken out of the jail there were a few close calls. In 1894 a crooked foot racer and gambler Leon Lozier was accused of molesting a five year old neighbor girl, a black man named John Berger forced his way to the front of the crowd and shouted that if the suspect would have been black they would have already lynched him. “Give me the rope, I will lead the crowd!” he was yelling. In December of 1903 there were several reports of women in Council Bluffs being robbed of their belongings while walking down the streets, Neely Zimmerman and George Burk were arrested. A crowd gathered in front of the jail and were egged on by ex-convict “Dutch” Stevenson and a few others to storm the jail.

As the price of produce sank to new lows, many desperate Iowa farmers gathered in 1932 to form the Farmer's Holiday Association under the leadership of Milo Reno. After violence broke out at the pickets on HWY 275, 84 protesters were arrested and taken to the Squirrel Cage Jail. Out of fear that the angry farmers would storm the jail and set the prisoners free, the police used machine guns to turn the grounds of the jail into a “no mans land” and one officer died during the confusion after he shot himself in the jail.

CAPT members met at our founder's home to discuss the historic jail investigation at approx 1500 hours. Due to the limited information we had it was decided to go and discuss the set-up on site rather than at the house and the team was anxious to get going to this site. The drive was 2 hours and much talk was done on the ride to include the “Reverend” at McDonald's. Upon arrival the team conducted a walk through of the jail and found the site to be almost breath taking in history alone. The claims of activity were discussed and the claimed “hot spots” were shown. The claimed activity was of a full body apparition on the forth floor, reported to be Otto Gudath a former jailer who is said to walk the jail still. Other claims were of many voices being heard along with the feeling of being watched and followed on the third floor.

CAPT members then unpacked equipment and discussed how to arrange things given the reported activity. It was decided to put an IR camera on every floor with a voice recorder to accompany it. The team would then split into two groups and investigate. After all the equipment was placed and checked, the investigation started at approx. 1915 hours.

The jail was a large and beautiful building with all the original graffiti still on the walls and ceiling. The teams split and the first team went to the “bull pen” area of the jail, this is where the inmates are allowed out of the cell for recreation time. Right off this area is the jails solitary confinement area. The second team went into the juvenile detention area on the second floor. Chris being a Correctional Officer, Military Police Officer, and Ex Police Officer the expectation of prior inmates still in the jail was that because of his occupation would cause the inmate spirits to become more active. This thought was not the reason for the investigation given his occupation but was a hard thought to get ride of. CAPT explains activity by natural means and does not go into an investigation to prove the haunt rather to dis-prove it.

Our second team spent a lot of time in the “bull pen” area, this area was large and echoed a lot making EVP work difficult. The solitary confinement area is just off the “bull pen” and consisted of a very narrow hallway to a room about 2 ½ by 2 ½ foot square were inmates were placed for up to ten days at a time. With the limestone and other elements in the area used int eh construction of the building, a large amount of residual energy could still be stored on site.

The other area were covered to include the female housing area and the infirmary. The infirmary was interesting as Lisa kept seeing a light move in the corner away from the window. The traffic outside did not re-produce this light Lisa told the team. The final area covered was the fourth floor where the jailers lived with their families. This was a benefit for the jailer and a convenience for the jail administration because the jailer was always on duty and accessible. While on the forth floor many personal experiences were obtained. Lisa felt chased down a hallway and Niki felt watched. Ann had a book pushed towards her and Chris had some general feelings of a presence in the area but nothing concrete enough to count as a paranormal experience.

The investigation was concluded at approx. 0300 hours at the request of the staff of the jail. Evidence collected is listed below.

Link to the jail: http://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/jail%20paranormal.htm