James began to pick up on the voices of the tortured souls driven mad since its inception as a prison. He also sensed unusual vibrations of abuse, mistreatment, fear and pain. Some of the more haunted locations on Alcatraz appear to be the Warden's house, the hospital, the laundry room and the cell block 'C' utility door where convicts Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard died during their escape attempt in 1946. The most haunted area of Alcatraz is the 'D' cell block, or solitary, as it was often called. To most of those who go there, a feeling of sudden intensity pervades the cells and corridor.
Some rangers refuse to go there alone.
It is no wonder the area is called 'the Hole'. When authors Richard Winer and Nancy Osborn visited Alcatraz, they ventured down to solitary with a park ranger. As Osborn entered cell 14-D, she immediately felt strong vibrations coming from within. The far corner of the cell, where they were standing and feeling the intense energy, was the exact spot where the naked, shivering prisoners would huddle, night after night, in the unforgiving darkness. Osborn said that she had never felt so much energy in one spot.