In an unassuming set of buildings in the middle of North Carolina, you will find whiskey being manufactured in what once was the home of a number of prisoners. The prison had a long and brutal history that may have led to the current day reports of haunted activity including moving objects, unexplained voices, and even full body apparitions. We spent the night investigating the “Whiskey Prison” to see what we could find.
Date: May 22, 2025
Location: Malvern, IA
Investigators: Chris, Matt S, Ana, Matt K
Location History
In the 1860s, rail transit was becoming more prominent in the United States and many states saw great expansion in the rail systems in their cities and towns. In Malvern, IA in 1869, an unassuming building was constructed to serve as a hotel for railroad workers. Over the next nearly 140 years, the building would change hands, and purposes, multiple times. Becoming the Cottage Hotel in 1890, then Nishna Cottage in 1956 as a rest home which then added a nursing wing in 1959, to then becoming a group home for people with perceived mental disabilities not long after, Malvern Manor has a long and complex history that includes over 200 deaths.
In the mid-1900s through to even the early 2000s, it was not uncommon for people with perceived or actual mental disabilities to be sent to group homes or institutions. These institutions, while perhaps well-meaning, did not always provide a safe home for their residents. The various incarnations of Malvern Manor were no exception leading many to believe that the old railroad hotel turned rest-and-group home is now home to restless spirits and those entities not able to move on for various reasons.
Several prominent paranormal groups have investigated the Manor in the past 10 years which made it a prime target for GRAVE. This was a particularly exciting hunt for GRAVE as it was the first time the team was flying with gear which made for some interesting packing and interactions with TSA.
Our Experience
In Malvern, a small town in southwest Iowa with 1000 residents, a Manor sits on a quiet corner off the main street. (If you go, be sure to have a burger and malt at the burger shack that is literally in the side yard of the house.) From the outside, it appears as just an old classic farm house. While the outside looks unassuming, because of the varied owners and uses of the home, the inside is a labyrinth of stairs and hallways. Once the lights went out, it was easy to get turned around.
For paranormal investigators, there are several prominent spirits believed to haunt the Manor, including Gracie, Inez, Susie, Rebecca, Hank, and the Entity in the Attic. While GRAVE had some interesting things occur, we cannot say we definitively connected with any of these entities that we can confirm. But here is what we experienced.
We heard the tale of how 12 year old, Inez, was playing with her 8 year old brother, Otto, in the early 1900s outside their home near the Manor, when she took a break and went inside their home. Ten minutes later her little brother found her hanging. He ran for help to the nearby store but Inez could not be saved. The doctor that tried to help her strangely committed suicide a mere 10 days later. Somehow, there is a room at the manor that people connect with Inez even though there is no proof she has never been in the building. When in this room, I asked the spirit to turn the light green on our Ovilus when I got to her age. I read off numbers in random order.. 8, 9, 16, 17, 11, then it lit up when I said 12. Were we really connecting with the girl that died in the town or was this random? Hard to tell.
The attic, while a creepy space generally because it was part of an addition and has fire damage, has nails throughout the ceiling, and is drafty and open to the elements in places, didn’t give us any activity or sounds other than the normal ambient sounds of an old house in the night. People claim to hear scratching and growling coming from behind the walls, but when the owner, Josh, previously climbed around the space he found no evidence of animals but did find a tobacco pouch and keys. The rumor is that the spirit in the attic doesn’t like people but is a fan of booze and cigarettes.
Gracie is perhaps the best-known entity. Gracie entered the Manor as young woman with Multiple Personality Disorder, and at one time, was documented by doctors to have thirteen distinct personalities. At least one of these personalities was a gruff, male who would often scream about the devil coming. In Gracie’s room, investigators will sometimes say they were touched or pulled and that depending on which personality is haunting Malvern that day, Gracie’s spirit will bang the wall if she cannot get investigators to stay. We sadly did not experience anything in her room.
The next famous presence in Malvern is Susie. Susie was a young woman who had the mental acuity of a young child. Her room is filled with toys and colouring books. We used a cat ball in each of the rooms in Malvern and in Susie’s, we got quite a bit of activity. Asking her to play or interact with the ball got us some responses. The ball lights up when moved or touched and despite us not being within touching range, the ball repeatedly went off. It didn’t seem to be based on any of our particular questions or statements so it was not repeatable. We did attempt to move around the ball and make vibrations and movements on the floor around the ball and could not get it to respond to us. We did at one point cradle it in cloth on the bed to keep it from being subjected to floor vibrations and while it did go off in that location, when we tried walking, stomping, and jumping around the bed, we could not get the ball to react. This was an interesting reaction, and one that would repeat in two other areas, but because we could not get the responses to be consistently triggered, and because Susie’s room is on the second floor, it is possible that all activity was simply caused by vibrations of the floor and building. It was still notable for its multiple instances, though.
Susie’s Room
Also in the upper floors is the spirit of Hank. Hank is an unpleasant spirit and particularly does not like women. Two of GRAVE’s women investigators set up camp in Hank’s room and rifled through his clothing and sat in his chair. Again in this room, we used the cat ball. We set it on Hank’s dresser and almost immediately got action with it lighting up despite not appearing to move. We asked Hank to make himself known with tugging or poking or even just a vocal sign but did not get any response. We did use the Ovilus in this space and got some words but nothing that was perhaps deemed an “intelligent” response to what we were asking. We always take great care not to make assumptions or jump to conclusions when we get hits on the Ovilus or spirit boxes where words are involved because they can be very random and it’s subjective in the interpretation of whether a word is in response to some kind of trigger.
The only somewhat “intelligent” response we received was when provoking Hank and asking if he wanted us to leave, the cat ball immediately lit up. When we repeated our question, saying to light up the ball if he wanted us to leave, it immediately again lit up. We left, telling Hank we’d be back. We got nothing more from Hank that night.
Hank’s Dresser
In the newer addition that was built for the nursing home wing, there is rumoured to be a shadow man. We positioned cameras and motion sensors in this hallway. While neither of those devices picked up anything, two GRAVE investigators sitting in the hallway did hear a loud bang that was not heard by anyone else in the house. It did not match the sound of the house settling or any outside sound of the town, either. It was not repeated and despite efforts to ask the spirits to respond, no other sounds were heard in the hallway. While investigating outside to see if there was an external source, there were some branches that rested against the building. Perhaps one of those caused the bang?
The final presence that may have shown itself was Rebecca. Rebecca was admitted as being mentally disabled but in all actuality, likely suffered from severe anxiety due to rejection by her husband which led her to develop Trichotillomania: a mental disorder characterized by a compulsive urge to pull out one’s hair. Rebecca allegedly told nurses and other residents that her husband didn’t find her beautiful or attractive and that is why he abandoned her at the Manor which led to her condition. We once again got cat ball activity in this room. The thing to note about Rebecca’s room is that it is on the ground floor and on a slab. It is not subject to the same chance of floor vibrations as the upper floor rooms. We asked Rebecca many questions about herself and spoke gently and softly to her. This did get some cat ball reactions but again, it is not possible to know if the activity is from a spirit or random. We could again not repeat or replicate responses based on similar or same questions. We also used the Ovilus in this room, too, and did get the word “hair” mentioned. In the end, after speaking with her and getting some forms of activity that could have been related to her or nothing at all, the room went silent. Even coming back for a solo visit did not get any more responses.
Rebecca’s Room
Ovilus picking up the word “Hair” in Rebecca’s room – she was known for pulling out her own hair
Did we capture Paranormal Evidence?
Overall, there was enough at the manor to make us want to come back and to question what we experienced, but we again did not find that definitive proof we are looking for. The Manor has a lot of history, creepy corners and hallways to explore, and is well worth a visit.
