Operating from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was designed to house the most dangerous and unmanageable criminals in the U.S. Its reputation for harsh conditions, solitary confinement, and psychological torment has made it one of the most haunted prisons in the world. Paranormal activity centers around Cell Block D, especially Cell 14D, where an inmate in the 1940s reportedly screamed all night about a creature with glowing red eyes before being found strangled to death; with no one else in the cell. Other hotspots include the hospital, shower block, and warden’s apartment, where visitors report phantom sobbing, apparitions and cold gusts that extinguish fires.