The Haunted Old Jail Museum, Jim Thorpe: The Handprint in Cell 17

The Old Jail Museum is the former Carbon County Jail, a two-story stone fortress on West Broadway in Jim Thorpe, the old coal town once called Mauch Chunk, at the edge of the Poconos. It held prisoners for 125 years, until 1995, and it was here that seven men accused of being Molly Maguires were hanged between 1877 and 1879.

It is best known for one thing: a dark handprint on the wall of Cell 17. The museum says it has survived washing, painting and even the rebuilding of the wall. Add a dungeon of solitary cells under the floor, a replica gallows on the spot where the men died, and the museum’s own owners saying the building has “tons of ghosts,” and it is one of the most famous haunted places in Pennsylvania. This guide covers the real history, the stories, and how to see the handprint for yourself.

History of the Old Jail Museum

Carbon County built its jail in 1869 and 1870, with Harry Bowman as builder and Edward Haviland as architect. It is a fortress of rough, rusticated stone with thick walls, a square guard turret over the entrance and arched, barred windows, set against the mountainside on Broadway. Inside are 27 cells on two tiers, six women’s cells added later upstairs, and a basement of dungeon cells that were used for solitary confinement until 1980. The warden lived in the building with his family, and his wife cooked for her family and the prisoners in the same kitchen.

The jail’s dark fame comes from the Molly Maguires. In the 1870s Irish immigrants in the anthracite coal fields worked long, dangerous hours for low pay and were often in debt to company stores. After a strike, pay cuts and a string of killings of mine bosses, the coal companies hired the Pinkerton detective agency to infiltrate the Irish miners, and the men they accused became known as the Molly Maguires. Suspects were held here in 1875 and 1876 while awaiting trial.

On June 21, 1877, remembered as the Day of the Rope or Black Thursday, Alexander Campbell, Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle and John “Yellow Jack” Donohue were hanged together inside the jail, while six more men were hanged the same day in Pottsville. Thomas P. Fisher followed on March 28, 1878, and James McDonnell and Charles Sharp on January 14, 1879. Historians have long questioned the fairness of the trials, which rested on the word of a Pinkerton spy, before a judge the owners’ family describes as friendly with the coal companies. In 1979 Governor Milton Shapp posthumously pardoned the alleged leader, John “Black Jack” Kehoe, and in 2005 and 2006 the Pennsylvania House and Senate passed resolutions calling the Molly Maguire trials unconstitutional.

The jail stayed in use for more than a century. It was one of the filming locations for the 1970 film The Molly Maguires, starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It also stands within the Old Mauch Chunk Historic District. In 1990 a work-release inmate climbed the mountain behind the jail with a rifle and shot and killed his cellmate in the exercise yard. The county moved its last prisoners to a new jail in Nesquehoning on January 23, 1995.

Local residents Thomas and Betty Lou McBride bought the building for $160,000 and opened it as a museum. In 2018 they put it up for sale for $749,000, gallows, handprint and all, but it is still run by the family today, with Blaine Dart as manager. Dart told WOLF in 2026 that the previous year’s guestbook held visitors from all 50 states and about 26 countries.

The ghosts of the Old Jail Museum

The handprint in Cell 17

The story is that one of the condemned men, on his way to the gallows, rubbed his hand on the dirty floor of his cell, pressed it to the wall about six feet up, and swore the print would remain forever as proof of his innocence. The words most often quoted are “The handprint I leave will remain forever as proof of my innocence.”

According to the museum and to press accounts going back decades, the print has been scrubbed, painted over and plastered, and part of the wall has even been rebuilt, yet the mark is still visible. ABC News devoted a special report to it in 2007. Nobody has ever offered a published explanation for it.

Whose hand is it?

Most retellings, and the 2019 memorial Mass held under the gallows, credit Alexander Campbell, one of the four men hanged on the Day of the Rope. The museum itself now says the man was most likely Thomas Fisher, hanged in 1878, while noting that some research points to Campbell. Either way, the cell is kept locked, and the owners have said nobody is allowed to spend the night in it.

The prisoner who wanted out

Cell 17 kept its reputation while the jail was still in use. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2018 that a former inmate, a biker held on a murder charge, asked to be moved out of Cell 17 because he was afraid of it.

Touches, voices and swinging ropes

“Oh, we have ghosts here,” Betty Lou McBride told the Inquirer. “Tons of ghosts.” Visitors say they have felt their hair being touched or a hand on their shoulder. Local TV in 2022 reported staff and visitor accounts of voices, orbs and ropes swinging on their own near the gallows. Back in 2009, the local paper described 14 years of visitors reporting eerie sights, sounds and unexplained touches, especially in the darkened halls and the dungeon.

McBride has said she respects the spirits too much to turn the building into an artificial haunted house, and the museum still presents itself as history first.

The dungeon

Below the cell block are the dungeon cells, small stone rooms used for solitary confinement until 1980. They are part of every tour, and many visitors find them the most oppressive part of the building.

Where to look

• Cell 17: the cell with the handprint, the Mysterious Handprint stop on every tour.
• The dungeon: the basement solitary cells, reached on the tour, where many of the touch reports come from.
• The gallows: a full-size replica built where the Molly Maguires were hanged; the swinging rope reports center here.
• The cell block: 27 original cells on two tiers, with the warden’s quarters alongside.
• The exercise yard: now unused, where a prisoner was shot dead from the mountainside in 1990.

Visiting the Old Jail Museum

The Old Jail Museum is open seasonally, closing for the winter in late November or early December because the stone building is so hard to heat. Visits are by guided tour only, lasting about 30 to 35 minutes with groups of 25 to 30 people. Each tour takes in the 27 original cells, the handprint in Cell 17 and the dungeon.

On weekdays tours are by reservation only. Weekend tours are first come, first served, with tickets sold in person at the jail only, and the museum says Saturday tours have sold out by 3 PM. Arrive early, and bring cash if you can. Active military get in free and veterans get $2 off with ID. Pets are not allowed, except service animals.

The museum does not allow ghost hunting. It bans paranormal investigation equipment and devices, so leave the meters and recorders in the car and come for the tour and the handprint. (In years past the owners did run evening ghost tours and hire the building out to paranormal groups, so older articles may say otherwise.)

Haunted Rooms does not run events here. If you want to investigate a historic building after dark, see our nearest ghost hunts below, and stay over in Jim Thorpe at the Inn at Jim Thorpe, a few minutes’ walk down Broadway, which has its own ghost stories.

• Visiting Guided tours only
• Tours Guided tours only, about 30 to 35 minutes: the 27 original cells, the handprint in Cell 17 and the dungeon
• Hours and season Seasonal to late November or early December; closed Wednesdays. Weekday tours by reservation; weekend tours 12 to 4 PM, first come first served
• Tickets Adults $13, ages 13 to 17 $10, ages 5 to 12 $7; buy in person
• Ghost hunting Not allowed: the museum prohibits paranormal investigation and equipment

Tips for your visit

• Go on a weekend morning and be in line when staff arrive, around 11:45 AM, to be sure of a tour.
• Pair the jail with a walk through Jim Thorpe’s historic downtown, a few minutes away down Broadway.
• Read up on the Molly Maguires first: the handprint means far more when you know the story of the trials.
• Check the museum’s website or call before a fall trip, as the season ends in late November and hours can change without notice.
• Wear layers: the stone cells and dungeon stay cold even in summer.

More haunted places nearby

• The Inn at Jim Thorpe: a haunted 1849 hotel a short walk away on Broadway
• Hotel Bethlehem: one of the state’s best-known haunted hotels, about 40 minutes south
• Eastern State Penitentiary: Pennsylvania’s most famous haunted prison, in Philadelphia
• Haunted hotels in Pennsylvania: places to stay with ghost stories of their own
• Haunted places in Pennsylvania

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• The Old Jail Museum (official site)
• Wikipedia: Carbon County Jail
• Philadelphia Inquirer: Molly Maguires' haunted jail is for sale (2018)
• WOLF Fox 56: The Old Jail Museum's haunted history and legacy of the Molly Maguires (2026)
• Times News: Mass held to commemorate the Day of the Rope (2019)
• Times News: Eerie ghost tours in Old Jail Museum (2009)
• 6abc: The Old Jail Museum is full of history along with plenty of ghostly encounters (2022)
• Atlas Obscura: Old Jail Museum