Pudu Prison: Strange Encounters

By Nor Shahid Mohd Nor

The imposing gate house or the main gate tower block of Kuala Lumpurs Pudu Jail can be seen if one passes through Jalan Hang Tuah.

There is nothing romantic or appealing about this bastion of law and punishment. Thousands of prisoners have passed through the 116-year-old prison, and hundreds have been executed within the walls for crime such as murder, kidnapping, drugs, and firearms possession. Read the gripping story of the happenings in this prison.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jan 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482881158

Nor Shahid Mohd Nor

Nor Shahid Mohd Nor was born in Taping Perak on the fifteenth of October 1933. In January 1946, soon after the Japanese occupation of Malaya, he was sent to King Edward the VII School in Taiping. He then followed his police inspector father on transfer to Kuala Pilah, where he went to Tuanku Muhammad School. In 1951, he again followed his father to Seremban and went to King George the V School in Seremban. He studied there till he sat for his senior Cambridge examination in 1955. His ambition was to become a police inspector but, after a couple of interviews, was unsuccessful. He joined the police department as a police clerk interpreter for a couple of years before joining the prisons department as a cadet officer in July 1957. In January 1958, he was sent for a three-month recruit training course at the Prison Officers Training School in Taping and, on completion of the course, was transferred to Penang Prison on the first of April 1958 for practical training. In January 1959, it was back to the training school for Cadet Officers Training in prisons administration and law. On the first of August 1960, he was transferred to be the officer in charge of Melaka Prison. In April 1963, he was sent for a nine-month course at the United Nations Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders in Tokyo, Japan. In 1970, he was promoted to assistant superintendent of prison and transferred to Taping Prison. He was again transferred to Muar Prison after his promotion to deputy superintendent in 1976. He became the superintendent of Pudu Prison after being promoted in 1978. After three years, he was promoted to senior superintendent and was transferred to prisons headquarters in 1982 to assume duty as the director of Prisons Security. He retired as the deputy director general of the Malaysian Prisons Department in 1989. During his thirty-three years of service to the department he was awarded, the Kesteria Mangku Negar (KMN), Ahli Mangku Negara(AMN) by the Yand Di Pertuan Agong, Ahli Mahkota Perak (AMP) by the Sultan of Perak, and various service medals such as the PPA, PPS, PPM, and the Pingat Ketua Pengarah Penjara.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Nor Shahid Mohd Nor.

Original Illustration by XS Rizal

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4828-8116-5

                eBook          978-1-4828-8115-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Strange Encounters of Pudu Jail

1) Mak Chon And Her Hantu Raya

2) Ah Seng And The Pontianak

3) Soo Ken Wee And The Hanging Ghost

4) Anamalai And The Water Ghost

5) The Fireball Ghost

6) Pontianak – Vampire

7) Hantu Jepun – Yamaguchi’s Ghost

8) Hantu Ekor – Lucky Number Ghost

9) Inspector Rosli And The Headless Ghost

10) Ghost On Night Rounds

11) Haunted Superintendent’s House

12) Hairy Ghost

13) Souls From The Graveyard

14) Hantu Galah – Pole Ghost

15) Lang Suir – Dracula

16) Possessed By A Pelesit – A Demon

17) The Haunted Hearse

Closing

Ghosts Stories In Malay Folk Lore

A Synopsis

A Snopsis

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my beloved wife, (Retired) Matron Hasnah Abdul Jalil, my children, Noreena, Norliza, Nor Shahmir, Nor Shazman, my son and daughter in law, Faizi, Maji and Jasmin, my grand children, Amy, Sabrina, Sofea, Farhana, Misha, Taysa, Lisa, Rayan, Anissa, Iris, and to all my comrades in the prison service especially those Otai of Pudu Jail, who gave their last full measure of devotion to duty and country.

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge with thanks to all those who encouraged and contributed, towards the publication of this book, especially the ex prisoners, warders and officers of the now demolished Pudu Prison, without whom I would not have been able to compile these stories.

The names used in the stories have no connection with any persons dead or alive, and in case of any error, inaccuracy, or similarity they were unintentional. I am alone responsible.

Testimonials

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is FEAR, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN»

H . P Lovecraft

What a scary book,inside and out. Its a true prison ghost stories written by the author who had worked in prisons for more than 30 years. If you are into horror, I would certainly recommend you read this hair raising stories with a lot of Fear Factors.

Shamsuddin Murad

Retired Deputy Dirsctor General of

Prisons

If you dont believe in ghosts,read this book, I know I was there, I have seen them, and I had a scary experience of seeing a Pontianak and the ghost of a Japanese officer going on rounds. they are still alive in my memory, even after 30 years of retiring from Pudu Jail.

Aziz Idris

Retired Director of Pudu Prison

This book reminds me of my encounter with paranormal beings when I was a young officer at Pudu Prison more than 40 years ago.I saw a ball of fire going through a prisoner›s cell that burnt his blanket.

Abu Bakar Juah

Retired Director of Prisons

I heard prisoners and warders describing their experience of encountering with ghastly apparitions especially around the gallows, and the Death Row. They were hair raising stories, and for those who do not know whats going on behind bars,I strongly recommend that you read the book.

Raja Ghazali b Raja Ngah Ali

Retired Director of Prisons.

Believe it or not, the Pudu Jail ghosts were scary and prisoners have been possessed by them and one condemned prisoner even died of a heart attack after encountering with a devil in his cell, in Death Row. He escaped being hanged by the neck .

Nazlan Chin

Retired Superintendent of Prison

I have seen the female headless ghost walking out of the gallows,and walking around in the Death row as if looking for her head. It was a frightening experience,that I can remember till today.

Manaf Selamat

Retired Prison Sergeant

I was sleeping in the guard room on a bed no one dared to sleep, but No one told me that the bed was haunted. Around midnight I felt someone was on top of me and punching my face. i screamed at the top of my voice, and the devil just kicked me out of bed,and I fell to the floor flat on my face that ended with a broken nose.

Hassan Taib

Retired Chief Warder

The Pudu Prison Ghosts were real, I know I had a terrifying experience of being strangled by hands of a big ghost in white robe lying on top of me. I managed to kick him off, and I woke up sweating and panting for breadth. i couldn›t sleep for many nights after thst.’

Tan Boon Tek

Ex prisoner of Pudu Jail

We do not fear the unknown, we fear what we think we know about the unknown.

Teal Swan

Preface

The imposing Gate House or the Main Gate Tower Block of Kuala Lumpur’s Pudu Jail can be seen if one passes through Jalan Hang Tuah.

There is nothing romantic or appealing to this bastion of law and punishment. Thousands of prisoners have passed through the 116 year old prison, and hundreds have been executed within the walls, for crime such as murder, kidnapping, drugs and firearms possession.

The structure was built by the British Colonial masters in 1895, on the sight of a former Chinese cemetery in order to provide a location to house the growing numbers of Chinese Triad Society gangsters, who were fighting among themselves to gain control of the lucrative tin mining industry.

There were chaos, fighting and murders were common. There was also a turbulent period, with gang wars, fire, and flood and wide spread of diseases like beriberi, T.B, and cholera.

The situation then was serious and getting out of control as diseases spread into small local crowded prison with no proper water supply, or sanitation. There wasn’t any concrete prison in Kuala Lumpur then to house all these criminals arrested and charged for various offences.

That was when the British resident Frank Swettenham, ordered that all buildings in Kuala Lumpur be made of bricks and tiles to replace the wooden and attap buildings which were prone to catch fire.

In 1891 Pudu Jail was built in stages on a 10 hectare sight in the jungles of Pudu. It was completed in 1895 with 600 cells, and it was supposed to be one of the most modern prison at that time. Officers and warders were brought in from Britain while assistant warders came from India and Punjab.

The tin mines prospered elevating the simple attap settlement into a frontier town known as Kuala Lumpur.

Pudu Jail has more than its fair share of all sorts of tales, in its 116 years of existence. It was there, during the First World War, and the Second World War. It was built by the British, but taken over by the Japanese for 3 years eight month during the Japanese occupation, 1941-1945.

The Japanese buried many dead soldiers, who died in detention as prisoners of war there when they won the Second World War.

Japanese, prisoners of war there. It is indeed a giant graveyard with Chinese, Japanese, and British restless spirits roaming all over Malaysian prisons especially Pudu Jail.

The execution chamber or the gallows in Pudu Jail where hundreds of execution used to take place is reputed to be haunted with many restless spirits.

It is a creepy and eerie place with an atmosphere of misery, which adds gloominess to an already scary location. On certain stormy nights, with thunder and lightning, the rattling of chains, terrified shrieks, groans, moans, and desperate cries could be heard coming from the gallows.

A ghost is often defined as the spirit or soul of a dead person who had remained restless on earth after death. With such tales of suffering, hate, pain and loss, it is hardly surprising that Pudu Jail has become known not