Below is an email S.T.P.S received from one of the Deputies that worked in the Old Nueces County Courthouse. Thank you John for sharing your story.

I worked as a deputy in the jail for several years before it was closed and we moved into the new one on Leopard. During the time I was there I had several experiences with oddities and heard lots of stories, interestingly they involved several of the places shown in your photos.

In the picture showing the entrance hallway from inside looking out to the East the sheriff's office is the set of offices to the left. The dispatch office was here and at nights this was the only person on that floor of the building except for the elevator operator. Many of the dispatchers hated working the graveyard shift because of sounds and shadows that they encountered down there. We would sometimes get a call to send a deputy down to the main lobby and mezzanine area to check because the dispatcher insisted they heard people talking and making noise in the area of the snack bar but could not see anyone.

The trap door you show on the forth floor is one of two that go to the fifth floor, it looks like the one in the kitchen area just above the old stove, if it is still there. If so it is the trap door to the hanging booth and gallows located on the fifth floor. I heard that the interior gallows was only used once in the very early days but our kitchen workers often complained about hearing knocking and footsteps from the other side of the trap door, a cold area near the entrance to the kitchen, foggy or cloudy area near the ceiling around the door and sudden drafts that would sometimes blow out the burners on the stove. The room containing the gallows had been secured years before I got there but I was told that the big crossbeam for the rope was the only remaining part of the old gallows setup.

From the back elevator if you stopped between the fourth and third floor and looked up and to the East you could see a window that looked into the inside of the building from the fifth floor somewhere close to the top of the elevator shaft. Supposedly this was a window into the gallows booth so that the condemned could have a last look at the outside world. When the West wing was added the window was left just the way it was except it was now on an interior wall looking into the building, all the other windows were either covered over or were on the wall knocked out to connect the new wing with the original structure. We used the elevator to take out the trash every morning and the trustee inmates contended that if you stopped the elevator and looked over your shoulder quickly that you could see a face looking out the window, I never saw it but sometimes had odd feelings looking up at that window that looked into nothing.

The picture showing 4th floor jail cells is of the old conference room used by attorneys and their clients, to the right is the state tank and to the left is the booking desk and watch sergeants office. The property storage area was just behind the conference room and while we never had anything specific most of us could never shake the feeling of being watched in that room, like someone was there even when we were alone, the feeling of someone looking over our shoulder.

The photo showing ectoplasm with a jail door in the background looks like the female section of the jail, if it is then that was the location of our confirmed resident "ghost." On nights that the moon shined into the cells on the South side you could see the figure of an older woman in old fashioned clothes sitting on one of the bunks in an unused cell unit.

The story goes that she passed away in the cell back in the early 40's before there was a jail crew at night to check on things and that she came back on these moonlit nights. We also had an intercom system strung through the cell units so we could hear anything going on and sometimes on the one for that area you could hear someone crying, nights this happened the female inmates would complain about the sobbing keeping them awake. When a jailer and matron would go check it would stop until they left again. This would happen even when the female section was empty with no "guests" in residence.

While on our rounds we could sometimes hear someone rattling keys, the sound that a ring of jail keys makes especially while working steel doors is unique and recognizable instantly, but there would be no other jailers in the tank areas. These and other feelings, cold areas even during the summer, fleeting glimpses of movement, shadows that we usually put down to bad lighting, items missing that would turn up later some distance from where we thought they had been, names being erased from the chalkboard showing what cells inmates were in, sometimes several times a night.

It all made it an interesting place to work for a young 21 year old just starting out. I would love to go back through there someday before they start their renovation projects, just to look around and take pictures of where I spent several years of my life and did a lot of growing up.
- - - John - - -