Sunday, July 20, 2014

Old Bexar County Jail (Downtown San Antonio)

"Presumably, we will never see a commercial in which someone, when asked if they are a ghosthunter who spent the night in a haunted jail, replies with 'No, but I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night!' On the other hand, it would be quite reasonable for someone to answer that question in the affirmative if they had just spent the night in the Holiday Inn Express Riverwalk Area, which is located in what had been the Bexar County Jail for nearly a century. 

... One of the most common phenomenon is rooms that remain unnaturally cold, even during the summer or if the heat is turned on. Other activity includes beds that are indented as if someone is laying on them, but then abruptly have the indentations disappear; people hearing whispering in their rooms that stops when the lights are turned on; objects being pulled out of people's hands and thrown across the room; and the breakfast area being rearranged and disheveled during the night. Most horrifying among the things people have reported, however, are in the rooms where the gallows were once located, where people claim to have seen apparitions fall through the ceiling as if just hanged!" 

That is a preview of my chapter on the old Bexar County Jail for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! People can become inmates for the night at the former detention facility, which is now a hotel in the heart of downtown San Antonio. 

 
Above left: Allison Schiess of Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours talks about the Old Bexar County Jail from the parking lot of Penner's, an iconic San Antonio clothier. Above right: Brutal murderer Apolinar Clemente, who lived in the jail for a year-and-a-half before dying there at the end of a rope. 

4 comments:

  1. I've stayed at this HIE for 4 nights now and we haven't experienced anything. It's actually been very peaceful. However, I did turn on a ghost hunting app that I have and these are the words that have come up: steel, slip, abort, grow, inside, which, bush, cousin, road, wrong, binding, Sierra, mourning, you, ask him,odor, human, building, hey, either,drank, and wings. I wonder if any of these words make sense according to the history you know about this place?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to work there and the girls that I worked with would always tell me about a ghost named Clemente on the third floor either shutting the door on you while you were in the room and the door was propped open. Or he would take your cart and move it down the hallways. Among other pranks. I didn't believe it until he did it to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I stayed there in March of 2012. I experienced foul smells. Dresser drawers being opened as I tried to sleep and almost falling over them in the morning. the lights going on and off by themselves and nightmares. I was stuck there for 4 sleepless nights during a business trip.

    ReplyDelete
  4. First night here and my friend and I are on a road trip. Picked this hotel over the other Riverwalk HI due to a slightly better price and checking out a new locale... had no clue about the history. My friend has already heard whispering voices... which we could blame on a number of things, but she said it was like hearing voices through a vent, which there are none. And, sure most folks will think I'm a nut,but I've been able to see and read auras if I focus for a moment. I have been seeing them since we finally got settled, but no people in the room. I've been seeing gray/white smoky/foggy shapes moving here and there in the room near the floor, catching my attention enough for me to keep looking at them. My friend is from overseas and we're both into history and she was pretty stoked to see it was a building on the National Register of Historic Places, but weren't certain what for. I was injured while deployed to Iraq several years ago, so after coming down for a cigarette, decided I'd take the ramp located on the side of the building up to the lobby and saw the engraved stone that shows building dates and names of the Court of Commissioners responsible for building the jail. I went back to the room, to grab my phone to see what info I could find out about the building, which lead me here. Explains alot about our experiences here in just our first few hours in residence. An "Aha!" Moment, for sure. Very cool place if you are attuned (I know I sound like a hippie here, but assure you this is not the case). Looking forward to some weird encounters throughout our stay. My friend has NO IDEA of this info yet... maybe I'll wait for her to say more to me before I share my research on this building.

    ReplyDelete