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Jasper florida jail1/18/2024 ![]() Newspapers have documented some of the encounters that have occurred here. Investigators have been combing the jail for years looking for evidence of paranormal activity. Old Hamilton County Jail, 2007, by Ebyabe. However, the wife of a deputy sheriff who lived here gave birth to both of her sons in the building, adding some moments of levity to the building’s dark history. In addition to executions, it is also noted that several other deaths occurred here including a suicide. The sheriff stepped forward and “launched the soul of the murderer into eternity.” The National Register form offers that Durham’s execution may have been swift and public because of the local outcry over Deputy Royals’ death. Tresca of the local Methodist church stepped forward to offer a prayer. That minister had departed, but a white minister, the Reverend W. Durham called for one of his ministers to pray with him. He then asked the negroes present to sing a hymn, himself joining in, and the large crowd was curiously quiet while the mournful dirge floated on the passing breeze.”Īfter being allowed to pen a brief letter to his parents in Hahira, Georgia, the noose was adjusted around his neck and Mr. He claimed he was ‘right with God,’ and was ‘going yonder’-pointing upward. Interestingly, the paper did not use the name of the criminal, only addressing him as “the murderer of Deputy Raiford Royals,” “the condemned,” and “black man.” While noting that the execution took place on a specially constructed scaffold outside the jail, the article remarks that there was some joy during this most somber of occasions: “As the fatal moment drew near he laughed and joked with his executioners-smiling even in the very face of death. Notice of a 1916 execution at the jail appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. He further notes that one or two of these executions were among the last hangings east of the Mississippi.Ī 2016 article quotes the president of the Hamilton County Historical Society as saying that no executions took place within the walls of the buildings, but that gallows were constructed for that purpose outside the building. Local historian Johnny Bullard stated in a 2014 article that three people met their fates here. The historians who wrote the National Register nomination weren’t sure if executions had actually been conducted within the building, though local rumors insist to that fact. Louis-based company that constructed jails throughout the country, the jail in Jasper includes a tower suitable for carrying out justice. Courtesy of Wikipedia.īuilt by the Pauly Jail Company, a St. Even before its closure, ghost stories about the jail circulated throughout Hamilton County, in fact, the National Register for Historic Places nomination form mentions that the building has a haunted reputation within the local folklore Old Hamilton County Jail, 2007, by Ebyabe. In the 91 years it was operational, this building witnessed tremendous tragedy and sadness, such emotion that imprinted itself on the walls of the structure. When it closed in 1984, Jasper, Florida’s Hamilton County Jail was the oldest operating jail in the state.
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