Originally built as a replacement for the Old Montreal Prison, the building operated as a prison from 1836 to 1912. In 1912 the building was acquired by the SAQ (Société des alcools du Québec), the provincially run liquor board. When it closed down, Pied-du-Courant Prison was replaced by the Bordeaux Prison, which is still operational. The largest prison in Quebec, it has a capacity for 1,189 inmates.
Initially created to hold about 276 prisoners, Pied-du-Courant Prison ended up holding more than 1,500 prisoners captured during the 1837–1838 rebellion — hundreds more than even the more modern, larger Bordeaux Prison could handle. The overcrowding and deplorable conditions in the prison must have been unbearable for both the prisoners and those who worked there.
In 2003, a museum called La-Prison-des-Patriotes Exhibition Centre was opened in the basement of the building. It allows visitors to wander some of the subterranean prison cells and learn about the failed rebellion of 1837–1838. It is within this museum and on the grounds outside that apparitions of prisoners and executed men have been reported. Rumours also abound about undocumented prisoners whose bodies were buried in unmarked graves about the prison grounds during the years of overcrowding.
Unexplained mists, mysterious shadowy figures, and the echo of phantom footsteps have been reported by staff and visitors. Visitors have reported feelings of unease, the certainty that they are not alone, and the sudden onslaught of violent thoughts. Objects have disappeared and then reappeared on their own, doors and windows close and open by themselves, and there have been inexplicable electrical disturbances — odd flickering lights and power surges that couldn’t be traced to a physical cause.
In June of 2013, Isabelle Verge of the Journal de Montréal interviewed a paranormal specialist and author by the name of Christian Paige, who explained to her that the prison, where a dozen patriots were executed, was one of the most haunted sites in Montreal. He suggested that the ghosts of the Patriotes were at “unrest” because they were seeking the justice that escaped them in life. Paige also explained that the location was not only haunted by the ghosts of former prisoners, but also by those of former prison guards.
When a psychic visited the facility, she saw the figure of a ghost, dressed all in blue, running quickly through the prison. “It was a figure which kept running the same line over and over again, always at the same place and in the same direction,” she said in a Haunted Montreal blog post from August 2016, “restarting at the same location (similar to a movie just being played on tape).” She couldn’t tell if it was a prisoner or a guard, but said she could make out that he was dressed in blue and was running very quickly.
Reading these stories, would you be brave enough to venture underground to explore this haunted historic location? If you do, just ignore that fleeting glimpse of what appears to be the spectre of a prisoner. It’s likely just your imagination.
Vieille Prison of Trois-Rivières
Built in 1822, the Vieille Prison of Trois-Rivières, located about one and a half hours from Montreal, was designed to hold about forty prisoners and remained in operation until 1986. Over the years, it was the “home” for some of Quebec’s most dangerous criminals.
Once the longest-running detention centre in Canada, the old prison, which has remained almost unchanged since it was created, is a part of Canada’s national prison heritage and a major attraction. Visitors can, during a one hour and fifteen minute tour, experience what life was like behind bars in those early days of our country’s history. Children twelve and under are not allowed on this harrowing experience. The museum also has a “Sentenced to One Night” program (where no one under the age of fifteen is allowed). Visitors who sign up for this program are greeted by the warden, then they are booked, fingerprinted, photographed, and issued a prisoner’s T-shirt. The warden then guides the visitors to the incarceration wing, where a former inmate will recount details of penal life of yesterday and today. Visitors then spend the night with their cellmates under the warden’s supervision before waking to clean the wing and eat a meagre breakfast before being given the much-anticipated RELEASED stamp on their hands and set free.
There are those who claim that this prison, like many others, is haunted by former inmates and guards. During the Halloween season of 2017, the museum added special Haunted House tours of the prison, playing up the history of the building with a few additional “just for fun” scares thrown in. We’re not sure just how “fun” being in a prison, especially an allegedly haunted prison, might be. But, as the French saying goes: à chacun son goût (to each his own taste).
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While modern prisons might be significantly safer and cleaner, and certainly nowhere near as barbaric as some of the overcrowded prisons of the past, prisons are still places of darkness, of reduced freedom; places to be avoided. For those unlucky enough to find themselves in prison, and even more unlucky to die there, freedom may never be possible. As the tales that we have shared make clear, some prisoners have found themselves forever confined to these haunted grounds, with their spirits lingering on for an eternity of torture, fear, pain, and angst.
The Last Hanging:
The Crimes of Adolphus Dewey
Vauquelin Square, Old Montreal
The last man to be hanged at the prison that once stood on Vauquelin Square in Old Montreal died on August 30, 1833. His name was Adolphus Dewey. Perhaps best known as the man who found God in prison, and whose last words were recorded by evangelist Nancy Towle in a volume titled Some of the Writings and Last Sentences of Adolphus Dewey, he was also a jealous man and brutal murderer who would one day haunt the fields where ten thousand spectators came to watch his hanging.
Let us introduce you to Adolphus Dewey. As described on the Old Port ghost walk conducted by Montreal Ghosts, Dewey was a tall and handsome man, brimming with the charm of the Irish. At twenty-three, he was already the owner of a bakery located on Saint-Paul Street in what is now Old Montreal.
It was love at first sight when Dewey met Euphrosine Martineau, a young woman known as the most beautiful girl in the city. Their courtship was brief, with an engagement and marriage quickly following. And there, at the very beginning of their life together, is where their happiness ended. As the owner of a business, Dewey worked six days a week, leaving his wife alone and lonely at home. She was an easy target for those anxious to ruin her marriage. The young French-Canadian men of the area were less than thrilled that an Irishman had claimed the prettiest girl they knew, and when they came to realize he wasn’t caring for her as he should, they started a rumour or two about the Dewey marriage. Before long, Martineau was having one affair, then two, then more than two. Though none of these claims were substantiated, when Dewey caught wind of the news, he was furious, and his jealous nature took over. He started beating his wife, and before long Martineau packed her bags and fled back to her father’s house.
Dewey regretted his actions after his wife left him, but his jealousy continued to simmer. A week after Martineau’s departure, Dewey showed up at the door of his father-in-law’s house with his tail between his legs to beg his wife to return to him. Not quite convinced of his contrition, Martineau agreed to attend Mass with Dewey, but stressed that she was agreeing to nothing more. It was a decision that would be her undoing.
After church, Dewey convinced Martineau that he needed to stop by the bakery before taking her home. Once inside the bakery, he locked the door behind him. Martineau, oblivious to the danger she was in, explained to Dewey that she was willing to live with him, but only if they also lived with her father, in case Dewey tried to hit her again. Very calmly, Dewey replied that she needn’t worry about their living arrangements, because she was about to die.
Then he grabbed an axe.
The attack was nearly averted when the astonished Martineau threw herself into her husband’s arms, an action that resulted in the initial strike missing her entirely. But Dewey would