Arresting news: crowds want to be behind bars
One of the most popular attractions in Missouri is a prison — the old stone Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) in Jefferson City, which started out as a weekend open house and turned into a year-round attraction because it was so popular.
"Everyone likes to talk about Alcatraz," said prison-tour guide and former deputy warden Mark Schreiber. "The Missouri Penitentiary was 100 years old when the first inmates went to Alcatraz."
The prison was opened in 1836, the year when the famous battle of the Alamo was fought.
"We knew the prison was going to be of interest to a lot of people, but we had no idea just how popular the tours were going to be. People really wanted to get behind the walls," said Steve Picker, executive director of the Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau, which runs the prison tours.
Visitors to the MSP, set on 144 blufftop acres overlooking the Missouri River, will not see anything like the prisons they see on television or in movies. Building interiors, though clean and stabilized, have been left "au naturel," complete with peeling paint and crumbling concrete. With housing units more than 150 years old, it’s an "old-fashioned" prison with small cells and stacked tiers, unlike today’s modern prison design.
Famous prisoners here include infamous gangster Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston and James Earl Ray, who escaped before assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
By David Wilkening
David
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