MELON TRACKS
Worldwide Weird Travel with Ben Osto
Worldwide Weird Travel with Ben Osto
State Pen, Pensylvania: Photos and Text by Ben Osto
“Sopranos” hottie Steve Buscemi narrates the audio tour of this innovative penal institution, which originally kept all inmates in permanent isolation and extreme solitude. Even the guards were required to wear socks over their shoes to erase the sound of their footsteps.
The first person whose story you hear is a man who spent two years in his tiny isolated cell for stealing a horse. I guess back in those days this crime was called Grand Theft Equestrian. He spent his time learning the promising trade of pegging shoes.
At one end of the pokey there is a series of portraits “honoring” all of those whose final zip was on death row. Each prisoner has a spray-painted likeness stenciled on rusty metal plaques. I just hope they got their just desserts, and no one was put to sleep for merely stealing a horsie.
One famous inmate was Al Capone, the notorious tax-evader. His cell was actually furnished quite nicely, though still an average cell size and very cramped. The space looked very much like the Manhattan apartment belonging to the V.P. of a large company that I occasionally visit. It even had the bed situated near the toilet in the same way.
The first person whose story you hear is a man who spent two years in his tiny isolated cell for stealing a horse. I guess back in those days this crime was called Grand Theft Equestrian. He spent his time learning the promising trade of pegging shoes.
At one end of the pokey there is a series of portraits “honoring” all of those whose final zip was on death row. Each prisoner has a spray-painted likeness stenciled on rusty metal plaques. I just hope they got their just desserts, and no one was put to sleep for merely stealing a horsie.
One famous inmate was Al Capone, the notorious tax-evader. His cell was actually furnished quite nicely, though still an average cell size and very cramped. The space looked very much like the Manhattan apartment belonging to the V.P. of a large company that I occasionally visit. It even had the bed situated near the toilet in the same way.
