Talk:West Virginia Penitentiary

Travel Channel Website

This site has some interesting info I think we should incorporate into the article: http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Ghost_Adventures/ci.Moundsville_State_Penitentiary.show?vgnextfmt=show

I would do this myself, but I'm walking out of the door in a moment. I'll probably get around to it, eventually. However, if anyone wants to beat me to it, you can reference the additions with just this: ref name="TCGA"/ (enclosed with <>)

Happy Halloween, everybody! --Bark (talk) 19:18, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Accessdate Format

Why does the access date format appear different in the reference section when the text in the edit pane appears to be the same? I'm not as smart as I used to be. --Bark (talk) 19:25, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Standardization of Haunted Attraction articles

WikiProject Halloween is facilitating a discussion about the format and quality of articles about haunted attractions. If you would like to weigh in with ideas to improve these articles overall, please join the discussion and share your thoughts.--otherlleft^{No, really, other way . . .} 12:18, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Charles Manson's Request for Transfer

As I remember it, Charles Manson's father was imprisoned in the WV State Penitentiary at the time Charlie requested the transfer. --D.E. Watters (talk) 21:59, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about that, but I have seen the letter he wrote requesting the transfer in the Pen's museum. Unfortunately, I don't have a specific source to cite for its addition into the article. --Bark (talk) 14:53, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

- In Charles Manson's interview with Charlie Rose, Manson states his earliest memories are visiting his mother at Moundsville where she was doing time for "Strong Arm Robbery'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.54.62.231 (talk) 22:34, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

References

Escape in 1979

There was a multiple prisoner escape in Fall 1979 that resulted in the death of an off-duty State Trooper who was passing by. I believe this escape resulted in the installation of the cyclone fence around the prison's front lawn.

People who haven't visited don't appreciate how close the prison is to everything in town. The park with Grave Creek Mound is across the street. Across one corner was Central Elementary School. A couple blocks away is downtown Moundsville itself. A residential neighborhood was directly behind the prison. A favorite pastime of my brothers was to drive the street behind the prison to collect baseballs or softballs that had been hit over the wall by inmates. --D.E. Watters (talk) 22:15, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Growing up in Moundsville, I know of those stories too. However, like I said in the section above, I'm not aware of any sources we could cite to include the information here. --Bark (talk) 14:54, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

It looks like I was off on the date, so I corrected it above. The escape of 15 prisoners and the murder of Trooper Philip S. Kesner occurred Nov. 17, 1979.[1] That should give enough data to find some additional information. There are some free newspaper articles available for viewing on Google News Archives. --D.E. Watters (talk) 20:41, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Good information! I took the liberty and added the content to the article with the appropriate reference. As far as the Google articles go, I doubt I'll ever get around to looking at them, but if you find something useful and want some help assimilating it into the article, I would be happy to help. --Bark (talk) 19:45, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Trooper Kesner's murderer was inmate Ronald T. Williams. It seems that there was a controversy about sending him back to Arizona in 1995. Williams had been sentenced to death in AZ for the murder he committed there while he was on the run after the Moundsville escape. By 2007, Williams was still waiting to be extradited from WV to AZ as his appeals in the AZ case had not run out. As far as I can determine, the last time AZ executed anyone was in May 2007, and it wasn't Williams. --D.E. Watters (talk) 03:54, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Added more info with new sources. However, I think we're in danger of going off into the weeds here on the level of detail for this one subtopic.--Bark (talk) 15:56, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Paranormal State Investigation

I was watching the episode of Paranormal State of when they visited this place (which is why I wiki'd it) and there were a few things that I found interesting about it's architecture and it's location.

Architecture being that in one of the towers there is a stain-glass window with a pentagram in it, and location being that it was build very near to an Indian burial mound.

I can only guess that the reason the town is called Moundsville if because of the burial mounds and assume that the town article has that mentioned somewhere in there, but as far as the pentagram thing goes, how would you go about citing it? I know that in the episode, the strange girl mentions that she found some paperwork about making the site a historical landmark, in which it mentions "a star" in one of the towers, but that's not digital to my knowledge.

Anyways, I'm not really knowledgeable about how wiki works when it comes to adding information and citing it, so if anyone feels up to it that would be great. It would also be cool to see what anyone else finds out about these two things in the future.

Here's a link to a part of the episode on Youtube in case any one is interested in watching it to see what I'm talking about. This is only one-fifth of the whole episode, but you can easily find the other four parts by clicking on the uploader's name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NddPCb61RLA

70.136.38.115 (talk) 03:09, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

"In Popular Culture" or "Trivia"

For anyone wondering where the last section went, user Johnny Squeaky contends it was a purely trivia section with no real incorporation into the body of the article. I had a more forgiving view, but regardless, I view the information as interesting but not really needed. Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Trivia_sections discourages "trivia" in articles, so I have removed the offending text. If anyone else thinks this information had merit and should be kept, please join the discussion here. If anyone thinks it had merit, and they can do an acceptable job incorporating the information into the article in a better way than its previous form, please do so. For reference to the previous discussions, please refer to User talk:Johnny Squeaky#West_Virginia_State_Penitentiary and User_talk:Bark#West_Virginia_State_Penitentiary_2.--Bark (talk) 17:12, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia discourages trivia, but it doesn't outright "outlaw" it. There's no reason to remove it, simply title/label it correctly. "In Popular Culture" is a synonym for "Trivia", which is the more accurate descriptor. =//= Johnny Squeaky 17:50, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

I am a little confused by your opinion. In our correspondence, you said, "Trivia is trivia. If you don't like the title than REMOVE the trivia. 'In Cultural Whatever...' is just a 'wiki politically correct' name for, yes, TRIVIA. My point is ...Call it what it is, or delete it..." Now you post this. Your view lacks consistency and seems to be just a debate in semantics. Additionally, I respectfully disagree on "Trivia" being more accurate a descriptor. To me, it's a catchall whereas "In popular culture" pertains to the prison's references in popular works of novels, films, and television shows. The latter is more focused. Regardless, the information is not needed for the article in my opinion. However, since I believe our positions are as clear as they will ever be and unlikely to change, outside opinions are welcomed to weigh in on the matter, but it may take a while. If you feel the need for immediate third-party opinions for a quicker resolution, please feel free to request one. I wouldn't object.--Bark (talk) 17:48, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

I don't think I'm being inconsistent at all. Trivia is trivia and "In Popular Culture" is a disingenuous attempt to get around the fact the Wikipedia tells people to avoid using the term "Trivia" because they think it makes them look "less serious". I don't object to "Trivia", I object to calling it something it is not. I said that it should be called what it is, and that is "Trivia", and that if people can not bring themselves to be accurate about it, they should consider if they want it included at all. I also said that I, myself, do not object to "Trivia", and that indeed the Wikipedia pronunciations on "Trivia" are ambiguous and do not ban its presence, they "discourage" it, which is not the same as saying you can not include "Trivia". Include it or not, but call it what it is. =//= Johnny Squeaky 17:58, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

With all due respect, seeing your activity this past month, it appears that your POV is arguably antagonistic on your edits as a whole across Wikipedia. Seeing as how no one else has an opinion, your edit is questionable to begin with in my opinion, and I am fairly indifferent to the content in question, I am going to revert this edit conflict to status quo ante bellum in the interests of being more inclusive rather than less.--Bark (talk) 15:13, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Dead

People would be tortured hung whooped electricuted

but two people escaped the prison 67.60.184.171 (talk) 21:05, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Whitegate Cemetery

Hi all, sources online contain information, but do not seem to provide hard evidence, about the Whitegate Cemetery, which is affiliated with the prison and many prisoners who faced capital punishment or who died impoverished were buried there. There is conflicting information about things such as establishment of the cemetery. If anyone could point me to a reputable source, I would be interested in writing up a small section about this. Additionally, this cemetery seems to be referred in a song "you missed my heart", by Mark Kozelek (which is what I initially came to add but became interested in the history and details of the cemetery. Ezeva (talk) 20:33, 9 June 2022 (UTC)