Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration for PW; not a photograph or reconstruction of the investigation.
From the PW archive
Two words give this old Paranormal Warehouse recording its hook: “Help me.” That is how our edited reel captions a reported voice from an investigation at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The clip is available below, but the caption is an interpretation—not an identification of whoever or whatever produced the sound.
PW’s account describes team member Chris hearing a voice through headphones while investigating a cellblock. Others present reportedly did not hear it in the room, and the team said it was audible when they reviewed the recording. These are the investigators’ recollections; the short reel does not independently establish what everyone could hear at the time.
Watch the available recording
The approximately 29-second video includes green low-light footage, narration, on-screen wording and repeated excerpts. It is the existing PW edit, presented without additional audio processing for this article. It is not the complete investigation session.
The investigation date, full equipment setup and longest unedited recording have not been verified for this review. We are revisiting an archival case, not reporting a newly recorded event. Those missing details matter when weighing the claim.
The prison behind the story
According to Eastern State’s official history, the prison admitted its first prisoner in 1829. Its original Pennsylvania System combined solitary confinement with labor, and its radial design placed seven cellblocks around a central hub. The system was formally abandoned in 1913, after overcrowding had already eroded the original model.
Pennsylvania ended prison operations there in 1970. The building briefly served as a city jail in 1971, then stood empty before preservation efforts led to public tours in 1994. That documented history helps explain the setting; it cannot authenticate a particular sound recording.
The historic site’s 2019 audio-tour transcript, in its section on ghosts, discusses reported experiences while emphasizing the human suffering behind the walls. Its current visitor guidance says paranormal investigations and EVP equipment are not permitted. This archival clip should not be read as an invitation to conduct an investigation there today.
What the caption adds—and what it cannot tell us
“Electronic voice phenomenon,” or EVP, is the paranormal-investigation label for a recording interpreted as an anomalous voice. Here, the specific phrase is supplied by the edit. The still below shows the wording viewers receive while considering the sound.
There is reason to separate interpretation from observation. In research by Michael Nees and Charlotte Phillips, participants given a paranormal framing reported voices more often in ambiguous recordings, while agreement about the words was low. A 2022 follow-up only partly replicated the priming findings. Neither study tested this PW clip, so neither resolves its source.
For this case, a useful next step would be independent listening without a suggested phrase, followed by comparison with the full recording. That would test whether listeners agree on the words. It would still leave the separate question of where the sound came from.
What remains unresolved
A stronger review would establish who was nearby and speaking, what equipment and monitoring settings were used, and which edits or processing preceded the reel. It would examine ordinary possibilities such as nearby speech or recording noise before drawing a paranormal conclusion. These are questions to investigate, not explanations established for this clip.
PW’s assessment: The reel preserves an intriguing team account and gives readers something concrete to examine. The words “Help me” remain the team’s interpretation, and the source remains unverified. Our involvement makes the account personal; it does not make the evidence conclusive.
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