Old Jail of Abbeyville, South Carolina

By Angela Pippinger

In 2007 I got an amazing opportunity to go to Abbeyville, South Carolina for a ghosthunting convention. Abbeyville is one of these quaint little towns that reminds me very much of the Andy Griffith Show. And being in the south, it has a lot of history to it. Dark history. The things that we would much rather ignore or sweep under the rug.

The old Jailhouse is now a small museum, featuring things from the Civil War era. It’s a very heavy place. Two groups went before I did that night and neither group experienced anything. I was sad, I had hoped for some action. Upon arriving we went through the bottom two floors, nothing really out of the ordinary. Well, other than creepy dolls on display. We moved to the third floor, this floor had housed drunkards and African Americans. A black man had been chained and tortured in this area and was reported to be quite vicious. I had not honed my psychic abilities at this point so I was there solely on scientific terms.

It began with a picture. I wish I knew that investigator that took it so I could get a copy. She had snapped one off in my direction. The result was only my face was distorted. It looked like it was swirled. The rest of the picture was perfect, just my face was affected. Shortly thereafter I pulled my camera out because I wanted some interesting photos too! Much to my surprise my camera was broken. My LCD screen had a huge thumbprint on it, it was shattered. When I turned it on we could see a fingerprint on the lens. Could be mine, but I am pretty anal about how I treat cameras for the purpose of getting good ghostly shots.

After that the pacing began. You could literally feel something pace the floor. At one point I could feel the cold air on me, and it was unpleasant. Normally I have no problem sticking out the creepy stuff, but this was too much. I opted to go. A gentleman offered to go with me and as we walked away we heard on the walkie talkie “Get out!”. Or at least that is what I heard. There is some discrepancy between some of us, and granted I wasn’t very close by. Either way, the guy with the walkie called his partner on it. His partner had not called. For that matter the walkie beeps before and after a call, it never beeped when we heard the “Get out”. That night it all seemed a little too…how do I put it? Scooby-Doo-ish? However, we caught the voice on EVP (and we still cannot agree on what it says lol). That seems proof enough to me that something was there.

When I got home I took my camera to a repair guy. He took one look and stared at me. I had not revealed who I was or what I was doing with it. He just stared and said “Ma’am, I don’t know what happened but it’s almost impossible.” I didn’t understand until he took it apart. The camera inside was destroyed. Only the casing was intact. He said he could tell I didn’t open it. And the only way I could have damaged the internal components was to crack and destroy the casing.

Some day, I am going back. Without any equipment. I miss my camera.