It was a humid day when a friend of mine invited me to explore the Broward female correction center. An abandoned jail which held dark secrets and even darker entities. It was the home of two of America's most violent female serial killers, Aileen "The Animal" Wuornos and Judy "The Black Widow" Buenoano.
Aileen Carol Wuornos Pralle a.k.a The Animal
Aileen was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 by shooting them at point-blank range. Wuornos claimed that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute, and that all of the homicides were committed in self-defense. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
Judy Buenoano: a.k.a The Black Widow
Judias "Judy" Buenoano (born Judias Welty, also known as Judias Goodyear and Judias Morris) (April 4, 1943 – March 30, 1998) was a convicted murderer who was executed for the 1971 murder of her husband James Goodyear. She was also convicted for the 1980 murder of her son Michael Buenoano and of the 1983 attempted murder of her fiancé John Gentry. She is also acknowledged to have been responsible for the 1978 death of her boyfriend Bobby Joe Morris in Colorado; however, by the time authorities made the connection between Buenoano and Morris, she had already been sentenced to death in the state of Florida.[citation needed]
Buenoano is also believed to have been involved in a 1974 murder in Alabama. She was also suspected in the 1980 death of her boyfriend Gerald Dossett. After her arrest, Dossett's body was exhumed and analysed for signs of arsenic poisoning. No charges were laid in that case. Buenoano was the first woman to be executed in Florida since 1848.
Both of these women killed numerous men for their own reasons. Yet within these cells of death row these women rotted away thinking of what they had done, awaiting for their sentence of death. It was such a surreal feeling to stand outside their cells, to sit on the beds they slept in and to even imagine what went through their deranged minds.
DEATH ROW!
I recall walking into death row and finding myself in awe due to the sheer size of this place. Death row still had an eerie aura to it, you can feel the pressure against your chest of the heaviness of this place. It felt as if someone had placed a hand upon your heart preventing you from breathing properly. As I stood outside these cells and took this photo, I could hear the sounds of faint female voices speaking in the next room, yet there was no one there. We were alone in this facility, or so we wanted to believe but we knew that spirits were present.
The abandoned rooms
As we traversed deeper and deeper into this facility, we discussed coming back at night to conduct an actual ghost hunt. It was an idea we tossed about that in truth we were going to make happen. In fact it did happen and I will post the footage of that night in another blog. Never the less back to the story, after exploring death row, we continued forth to explore this vast complex which held numerous buildings and numerous two story cell blocks. Cell blocks that were amazing to see, but that still held remnants of the past and of the convicts that lived there.
The decaying complex
The cells were small and cramped, in many of the cells the beds of inmates still remained rusting away to the elements of time. It was a creepy feeling indeed as our feet stepped upon broken glass and the sound of that echoed throughout the empty halls. The facility was now in ruins and sooner or later it was to be destroyed by the city. In all actuality we were the last ones within these walls before it was leveled, and my account of our experience within perhaps the last to be told.
The haunting cell blocks
Onward still we pressed throughout the day in attempt to cover as much of the complex as we could. We visited the various administration buildings, the hospital wing, the church, the guard homes and even the wardens house. Yet we still could not shake off the feeling from our visit to the cell blocks and death row. It felt as if we were being followed, as if something was attempting to communicate with us. Everywhere we went, we could still hear the female voices whispering and laughing, always as if they were in the next room.
The administration buildings
The Warden's home
The Guard homes where the guards slept
We wanted to stay longer, but nightfall was approaching and we had no flashlights to illuminate our paths. The terrain was plagued by dangers as we walked around broken glass, shards of metal and rusted steel barb wire everywhere. To continue our journey under these conditions would surely put us at risk and that was something we were not going to risk. The last thing we wanted was to get hurt in this place with no first aid kit on hand. So we chose to say good bye for that day, knowing quite well that we would return to investigate this location another night.
That indeed was something we did do, we did come back and did search for ghosts. The evidence we did gather on that other date, I will blog about on another day. I will be sure to include photos and videos of that ghost hunt and to go into details on what we found.
With that being stated, to be continued. I thank you for the time it took to read this, I thank you for taking part of this journey through my words and for enjoying what I write and the photos I take. This is my journey, my life that I am sharing with you all, that I am putting out there for the world to see.
Please feel free to comment, like, upvote, resteem, and/or share. I enjoyed sharing this experience with you, and there is yet more to come. Feel free to follow me and leave me a comment that you did and I will follow you back.
With that being said this part of the story now ends, take care, God bless and keep on steeming cause life is indeed an adventure.
Sincerely with much respect, George Mercado
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