Beth D’Addono
| Special to USA TODAY 10Best
FBI unveils replica heads from Alcatraz escape
Half a century after a notorious prison escape from Alcatraz Island, the FBI has created replicas of decoy heads that inmates used to distract guards from a plan that still captivates researchers and tourists. (Nov. 15)
AP
As long as the door swings both ways, visiting an historic prison can be an arresting experience. From haunted-looking Gothic castles to prisons that bear bitter testimony to man’s inhumanity to man, these five prison museums tell stories that deserve to be heard – during the Halloween season and beyond.
Eastern State Penitentiary – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wander down Fairmount Avenue, just minutes from downtown Philly, past pubs and eateries until you get to the the jaw-dropping sight of Eastern State Penitentiary, 11 acres of crumbling cell blocks and foreboding guard towers. Opened in 1829 as the world’s first and most famous penitentiary, Eastern State was an all-solitary confinement institution.
Designed by John Haviland, and considered quite enlightened at the time, some 300 prisons around the world copied its layout of 8-by-12-foot cells radiating out of a central rotunda. Once home to notorious criminals,…
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