THE SINGING GHOST OF JOLIET PRISON CEMETERY
Old Joliet Prison’s original cemetery. Photograph courtesy of Illinois State History Museum.
(This article is a small part of the research I conducted over a number of years in preparation for the design of the first ghost tours at the Old Joliet Prison or Joliet State Penitentiary in Illinois. You can find the entire history of the prison and the cemetery, including a running list of burials that I’ve uncovered, in my book, The Haunting of Joliet Prison, link at end of article.)
The original Old Joliet Prison cemetery, known as the “Old Convict Cemetery” or as “Monkey Hill” (more properly called Fairmont Hill), still remains on the wooded bluff overlooking the Prison and the old (now water-filled) quarries and prison farmlands. Shrouded by overgrowth, its old wooden markers have long disappeared with time. Burials from Old Joliet Prison took place here over many generations, and ghost stories about the site date back to the earliest days of the cemetery’s founding—long before the Singing Ghost created its local sensation, of which more shortly.
During my research of the Prison and cemeteries, I struggled to uncover the origins of the cemetery’s nickname, “Monkey Hill,” and I thought I had found the answer in an old article about a cemetery in Panama with the same name. That burial ground was used for canal workers who died during the construction of the Panama Canal, a project marked by death from disease, accidents, and hardship. The Panama Canal, much like the I&M Canal, carried an aura of danger, and its cemetery was infamous. I theorized that Joliet Prison’s workers, or men in the Joliet area, some of whom had worked on the I&M Canal or had canalers in their family, had borrowed the Panama nickname for the prison cemetery.
However, while discussing the oldest cemeteries in Will County with a preservationist from the Will County Poor Farm Cemetery, I discovered the truth. The cemetery sits on a wooded bluff overlooking the prison and quarry grounds, making it challenging to transport coffins up to the graveyard. African American convicts, believed to be more agile, were often assigned this task, and the cemetery’s nickname arose from a racial slur. This offensive name persisted, even influencing newer cemeteries near Stateville Penitentiary.
In the summer of 1932, thousands of residents from Joliet and as far as Chicago flocked to the Old Convict Cemetery to witness a “singing ghost” reportedly seen wandering among the graves, singing hymns in a dreamlike, otherworldly voice. Early ghost hunters came armed with shotguns, knives, and other weapons. The sensation attracted as many as 5,000 people a night until officials claimed the ghost was merely an inmate, William Chrysler, who enjoyed singing while walking to and from his job working the pumps at the prison quarry.
Author Dylan Clearfield, however, was not convinced. Growing up on Edgehill, overlooking the old prison farm and near the steep hill where the cemetery sits, Clearfield heard firsthand accounts of the Singing Ghost. His book, A Ghost Thrills America, carefully dissects the trusty explanation, offering numerous reasons it doesn’t hold up. Clearfield theorizes that officials invented the explanation to disperse destructive crowds that had damaged gravestones and trespassed on private property.
The singing first began on a hot July night in 1932. The sound, which many described as hymns and sometimes even Latin church music, wafted through the streets of Fairmont Hill long after radios had gone silent. The Dudek family, who lived near the prison field where the cemetery sits, first reported the singing. Although they searched the cemetery with flashlights, they found no one.
Word spread quickly, and soon Joliet residents were joined by ghost hunters from neighboring towns and beyond. At first, the gatherings were lighthearted, with families picnicking while listening for the ghostly voice. But as outsiders flooded in, the atmosphere grew chaotic. Visitors trampled backyards, broke gravestones, and disrupted the community. Some swindlers set up an illegal parking scheme in the prison field, charging fifteen cents to park and smashing windshields if drivers refused to pay an additional fee on their way out.
Clearfield challenges the official explanation, pointing out that Chrysler, a convict nearing release, would have risked too much by creating such a disturbance. Moreover, he was always under guard, and his duties wouldn’t have allowed him to wander the graveyard unobserved. Clearfield also disputes claims that the quarry’s limestone walls carried the singing up to the cemetery, noting that such acoustics would have trapped sound instead of projecting it uphill.
Alternative theories suggest the ghost could have been Odette Allen, the warden’s wife who was murdered by an inmate, or one of the many troubled souls buried in the cemetery. Executed murderers, suicides, and victims of violent deaths make up a fraction of the graves. Some speculate the ghost might even have been George Chase, the first person executed at Joliet, whose head was removed after his hanging for phrenological study.
Clearfield’s most intriguing evidence includes a vintage photograph of what appears to be a ghostly figure standing in his family’s backyard, near the cemetery. He theorizes that the spirit might predate the prison entirely, linking it to the fur trade era along the Des Plaines River.
This wasn’t the first time Joliet was swept up in a ghost-hunting frenzy. In 1909, a spirit was reportedly seen near the Old Convict Cemetery, with children claiming it moved toward the graveyard. Armed mobs formed to investigate, echoing the hysteria of the Singing Ghost decades later.
The Old Convict Cemetery, shrouded in mystery, remains an enduring symbol of Joliet’s haunted history, its restless dead forever tied to the stories of the living.
If you found this interesting, you’ll find the entire history of the prison cemetery and Joliet Prison, in my book, The Haunting of Joliet Prison, below, including a description of all of the graves I’ve identified in my years of research. It’s the only place in print you’ll find an updated list, and the tragic stories of the prison dead I was able to uncover during my research of Joliet Prison for the creating of the first Joliet Prison ghost tours. Thanks for reading! -Ursula
