Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Erin Manky.

Listener discretion is advised.

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in America.

It's home to the fountain of youth, at least, sort of, and some of the most beautiful Spanish

revival architecture in the country. But there's a dark side to all of that history.

Corruption ran rampant in St. Augustine when some people would be unjustly imprisoned on flimsy

sometimes unwarranted charges. The conditions of the St. John County Jail were so inhumane

that inmates were referred to as the product. So few people survived the harsh imprisonment

that any sentence there was considered a life sentence. Today, the St. Augustine Old City Jail

is one of the city's biggest tourist attractions with tours led by costumed reenactors.

They walk the old Jail's corridors, recreating what life was like there for inmates.

What some people don't realize is that many of the inmates never left.

I'm Amy Bruney and this is Haunted Road.

A beachfront city on Florida's Atlantic coast, St. Augustine brings in millions of tourists annually

to take advantage of the white sand beaches and the unique historic attractions like the St. Augustine

Lighthouse. Regular listeners might remember the shadowy figures and disembodied children's laughter

of that remarkably haunted place. The city is also home to what some claim is the real fountain of

use at the fountain of use archaeological park. It was rumored to have been discovered by

Ponce de Leon and his explorations of Florida's coast in 1513. A hundred and fifty years ago,

while the historic architecture St. Augustine might have looked similar, the city wasn't a widely

known tourist destination like it is today. But one man, Henry Flagler, was about to find the

ancient city as it's nicknamed and changed St. Augustine forever. Flagler co-founded

...