Ghosts Behind Bars: Kentucky State Penitentiary, Part One | Grave Talks CLASSIC

The Grave Talks | Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural

Ghost Stores, Haunted, Paranormal & Supernatural Stories

Science, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Spirituality, Natural Sciences

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a Grave Talks CLASSIC EPISODE!

Most of the locations we investigate on The Grave Talks have long since been abandoned, their histories sealed behind broken windows and rusted locks. Kentucky State Penitentiary is the exception. Nicknamed the “Castle on the Cumberland,” this sprawling stone fortress has held prisoners—living and, witnesses claim, otherwise—since 1886. In this episode we step inside an institution that still houses Kentucky’s death-row inmates and its active execution chamber, then listen to the stories of guards, wardens, chaplains, and former prisoners who insist they’ve felt a presence no security camera can capture. Cold drafts linger in rooms with no vents. Footsteps echo along deserted tiers. Voices call out names no longer on the roster. Is it the weight of history pressing on every block—or something determined never to leave? Join us as we explore a place where time, and perhaps the dead, continue to keep watch.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Mmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be
0:06.8	wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain
0:13.0	that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching
0:18.7	their peak in the afternoon.
0:23.0	Not in the mood for miserable weather?
0:25.8	Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.
0:28.7	Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.
0:33.2	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a... Biting cold front.
0:34.5	Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off.
0:39.0	The night will be wild and untamed.
0:41.2	Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin.
0:45.0	By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon.
0:51.1	Not in the mood for miserable weather?
0:53.3	Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.
0:56.2	Sun Express, nonstop sunshine.
0:59.9	Today on The Grave Talks,
1:03.6	the hauntings of the Kentucky State Penitentiary.
1:07.3	The Hauntings of the Kentucky State Penitentiary.
1:25.8	Oftentimes, institutions or former prisons that we discuss here on the grave talks are long-forgotten relics that no longer house the living.
1:30.5	The Kentucky State Penitentiary breaks that mold.
1:37.6	Today, the bohemath known as the castle on the Cumberland still houses hundreds of inmates and staff working to keep the worst of society behind its walls. Quite a feat for a structure completed in 1886 and still running to this day.
1:50.3	The Kentucky State Penitentiary is still home to Kentucky's death row inmates and houses the execution facility.
	...

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