THE STORY

In the heart of DeRidder, Louisiana, there’s a building that looks like it belongs on a university campus or a European estate — not in a small town in Beauregard Parish. The Gothic Jail was built in 1914 in the Collegiate Gothic style, featuring pointed Tudor arches, bay windows, and dormers that give it the silhouette of a castle. A 1923 article in Popular Mechanics compared it to a “Grand Mansion” rather than a jailhouse. It is believed to be the only penal institution in the country ever built in this style.

But behind the architecture was a real prison. The three-story structure was built from reinforced concrete poured into wooden molds, with walls 13 to 21 inches thick. It could hold more than 50 prisoners at capacity, stacked in cells with hard steel bunks. What made it unusual for its time was that each cell had its own toilet, shower, lavatory, and window — amenities that were unheard of in early 20th-century prisons. The ground floor held the jailer’s living quarters, his office, and a temporary holding cell. The jailer and his family lived inside the prison itself — imagine raising children surrounded by inmates.

A long, dark tunnel connected the jail to the courthouse next door, allowing prisoners to be transported without any public interaction. The jail served Beauregard Parish until it was decommissioned in 1984 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

THE HANGING

The jail earned its other name — The Hanging Jail — from a single event. In 1928, two men named Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux were convicted of murdering a local cab driver named J.J. They had hired the 45-year-old driver, killed him, and dumped his body in the old Pickering Mill pond. When the body was found, both men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.

On March 9, 1928, Deputy Sheriffs Jim Crumpler and Gill carried out the executions from the third-floor gallows. Joe Genna, age 25, was pronounced dead at 1:06 PM. Molton Brasseaux was pronounced dead at 1:29 PM. It was the first and only execution ever conducted inside the jail — but it was enough to give the building its name forever.

The noose still hangs from the third-floor gallows today. Visitors look up at it from the spiral concrete staircase that winds through the center of the building. It’s a rope that hasn’t been touched in nearly a century — and it’s never been taken down.

THE HAUNTINGS

Some prisoners never left. That’s what the locals say, and what the paranormal investigators have tried to prove. The spirits of Genna and Brasseaux are believed to be the jail’s primary haunts — two men executed inside these walls whose presence has been felt for nearly a century.

Visitors report disembodied voices echoing through the cells. Unexplained footsteps in empty hallways. Doors slamming when no one is nearby. Cold spots that appear and vanish without explanation. Some people have felt the sensation of being pushed by unseen hands. Others have seen full apparitions — shadowy figures moving through the corridors as if still serving their time.

Paranormal investigators from Louisiana Spirits spent an entire night inside the jail using over $10,000 worth of equipment — night-vision cameras, digital infrared thermometers, and EVP recorders. They captured Electronic Voice Phenomena that included phrases like “Lights, camera, action,” “I love Johnny Cash,” and simply “My daughter.” Simple words from people who no longer exist — recorded in a building that was supposed to be empty.

The jail has been featured on Travel Channel’s Most Terrifying Places, Discovery+’s Ghost Brothers: Lights Out, and Achievement Haunter — each investigation adding to its reputation as one of the most actively haunted locations in Louisiana.

VISITING

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