Hot Pursuit

I have a confession. 
I recently was locked up behind prison bars in a facility that once was deemed the bloodiest 47 acres in America. In fact, it was a family affair as three other members of my family joined me in prison. 
It was short lived, however. After three hours of confinement, my family was allowed to leave on good behavior. 
I got a taste of a lifestyle that I would never want to ever experience. 
My lock up in the Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) in Jefferson City, Missouri, was at my own choosing. You can rest a little easier now knowing that I’m not some ax murderer running around or a crazed robber or kidnapper. 
The prison is no longer in operation, at least for locking up criminals. Instead the facility now hosts tours, including ghost tours at night, for those interested in getting a small taste of prison life. At one time, MSP was one of the oldest continuous run lock-up facilities in the country. It opened in 1836 and continued housing prisoners until 2004. 
The first prisoner was locked up on the same day the 1836 Battle of the Alamo was fought. At its peak before closing in 2004, the prison housed over 5,200 inmates and once the largest in the country. 
The tour includes going through the oldest building built in 1868, dungeon cells, death row and the infamous gas chamber. Missouri began utilizing lethal gas in 1937 for those given death sentences. No less than 40 inmates were put to death in the chamber up until 1989. The mug shots of all those put to death are hanging outside the chamber. It just gives you the chills looking at some of those faces and knowing that they took another person’s life.
We also learned about some of the infamous inmates at the penitentiary over the years. A former Union general, the first train robber, 1930s gangsters, world champion athletes and the assassin that killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. all came through the gates of MSP. Some eventually left the prison for successful careers in the arts, sports and even government while others chose a life of more crime.
Assassin James Earl Ray was serving time in the prison for the 1959 robbery of a St. Louis grocery store. During his eight years in lock up, Ray failed to escape many times before finally succeeding by hiding in a bread box and leaving in a delivery truck. He was on the run for about a year when he shot Dr. King in 1968. 
There is rich history scattered throughout the prison yard. The prison saw many deaths, riots, escapes, suicides and terrible fires during its nearly 180 functioning years. The worst riot took place in 1954 when four inmates had been killed, 50 injured and more than $5 million in damage had been done to the prison. 
There have been several television shows shot inside the prison in the past decade, including numerous ghost hunting programs. They claim to have witnessed paranormal activity and that the prison is haunted. 
I didn’t experience anything haunted, but I can assure you I’m not about to stick around for any length of time to find out. 
I walked out of the facility just thankful that my parents raised me with strong morals, values and a life of remaining law abiding. The night I spent in jail back home may have helped as well. When I was a teenager, I was locked up for an entire night in the McLeod County Jail when it was newly constructed for a news story. I decided at that time I would never make a good prisoner. 
And now decades later, you can still count on me not going in hot pursuit of being a criminal any time soon. Life behind bars does not appeal to me, especially after seeing the bloodiest prison ever.