“Gates to Hell”

Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary is a former maximum security prison in Petros Tennessee. Often referred to as the “Gates to Hell” and “The end of the line”. This prison is famous for a few reasons. It was Tennessee’s longest operating prison when it closed (it was in need of an update and it would cost $25 million to bring it up to date) in 2009.

The prison opened its doors in 1896. The original prison was wood and it burnt down, the rebuilt it using stone. The prison is in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the only prison in the United States that has a natural bluff as part of its prison wall. The prisons is built in the shape of a Greek cross. This was thought to have been done to convert inmates to Christianity.

Amongst its most famous inmates was James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. James and a few other inmates escaped for a total of 54 hours before being captured and returned. The prison held the most dangerous of criminals in its time, including serial killers Bruce Mendenhall and Thomas “Zoo Man” Huskey. The last famous inmate was Paul Dennis Reid who was moved when Brushy closed. This was the last stop in life for most inmates that came to Brushy.

The prison would be the place they lived the remaining days of their lives. The prison held the infamous “Hole” which was a a small empty room with a mattress and two buckets, one for water and one to use the bathroom in. There was no light and the temperature was not maintained.

Inmates thrown in the hole would lose vision and would have to be helped by other inmates until the regained their site. Doing to this being in humane it was seized in the use in the 1960’s after some 60 years of being used as a torture for inmates.

Brushy is now open to the public as a tourist attraction. It features a self guided tour of the prison, sometimes former inmates are there to answer your questions. They offer a haunted tour, and group tours. There’s a gift shop where you can buy its locally made “End of the line” moonshine.