The securest place is a prison cell, but it has no liberty – Benjamin Franklin

SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2022 @ 7:00 AM

Because of the heavy rains on Saturday night, this "My Scooter Sunday" is based on my Saturday morning reconnaissance ride.

In this “My Scooter Sunday”, I listen to the live recording of "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash (country singer-songwriter). One of the lines in the song goes, "And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when."

Today, I use my basic route from Petaling Jaya to Kuala Lumpur via Bangsar to Jalan (Road) Raja Chulan, and extend it through Jalan Imbi to my final destination at Jalan Hang Tuah (formerly Jalan Shaw).

After Room 48, I have been on the lookout for haunted spots in Kuala Lumpur; and my search has led me to Kuala Lumpur‘s Most Haunted Tour led by Elena (Pokok Kelapa, 2017). From the multiple haunted spots on her two-hour tour, I focus on Pudu Prison because Pokok Kelapa picked it as the “best candidate for the most haunted place in Malaysia”.  

Designed by Public Works Director, Charles Edwin Spooner, Pudu Prison was built on a Chinese burial ground, close to Pudu Village. Its location was at the corner of Jalan Pudu and Jalan Shaw (now Jalan Hang Tuah). Spread over eight hectares (twenty acres), it was built by convict labour in six phases between 1891 and 1895. At that time, Pudu Prison was the only jail in Selangor.

Designed to hold 240 cells, and 600 prisoners, the cells were spread over three floors and divided into blocks. Each cell was eight feet by ten feet, and had a window the size of a shoe-box. Originally, meant to imprison men and women serving only short sentences, Pudu Prison added serious crimes with long sentences, and corporal and capital punishment to its list.

See below for a summary of Pudu Prison’s history.

A reformed gangster, Tan Ah Lek, had this to say about Pudu Prison, ”This is a place where I lost so much time and life, and also a place where I suffered for so many years. It’s the place that let me become another person...” (History Channel, 2010).

Reflecting on his time as a Pudu Prison warden, Sulaiman Chu Ahmad said, his friends got harassed by ghosts while they were on duty in the control booth. He also said, “Sometimes they saw the shadow of a child running around the prison area”, and “even caught a glimpse of pretty ladies walking alone in the middle of the prison’s hallways late at night.” (Aminoapps, 2017).

The “Last Room” in Pudu Prison is the last stop before inmates are executed. A former inmate, Nasyitah, said she had an eerie feeling about the “Last Room”. Apparently, there was a self-portrait of a women prisoner, painted the night before she was executed. It seems that the portrait would glow-in-the-dark, come alive at night, and cry when someone was about to be executed. The lights in the room would also unexplainably go off. In addition to that, weeping sounds, and muffled voices asking for help could be heard (Aminoapps, 2017).

Turning the corner from Jalan Raja Chulan onto Jalan Imbi and Jalan Hang Tuah, I arrive at Pudu Prison. It is made-up of two double-storey towers with a set of double metal doors in the centre, and two twenty foot supporting walls on either side. That is all that is left of Pudu Prison’s rich and dark history; there are no cells, no shoe-boxed sized windows, and no “Last Rooms”. And on this bright beautiful morning, there are no signs of either glow-in-the-dark portraits, or ghosts. But on a dark and stormy night, someone with a braver heart should test this venue.

In this “My Scooter Sunday”, my roundtrip is 25 km, and 55 minutes long. My ride with JuJu (my Vespa Primavera) is longer, and there is a better mix of city road and highway. But what I enjoyed most today is riding at sunrise into Kuala Lumpur, feeling my tassels flap in the wind, and testing the paranormal at Pudu.

Scootin’ off for now! Happy Father's Day!