Exploring the Abandoned Joliet Prison | Blues Brothers Filming Locations

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An Abandoned prison sits in the heart of Illinois with a bizarre history.
Produced and Written by: Bethany Guerrero
Cinematography and Visual Effects by: C. Drew Unser
Special thanks to Diane Childress
#bluesbrothers #chicago #travelvlog #travel #urbanexploration #filminglocation
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Information Sources:
www.jolietprison.org/
sah-archipedia.org/buildings/...
www.ilsos.gov/departments/arc....
www.roadsideamerica.com/story....
genealogytrails.com/ill/convic...
Image Sources:
www.genealogytrails.com/ill/wa...
explore.chicagocollections.or...
explore.chicagocollections.or...
galleries.apps.chicagotribune....
blog.a3genealogy.com/2011/06/...
www.encyclopedia.chicagohistor...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Fa...
www.stltoday.com/news/archive...
www.altonjaegerguards.org/con...
www.newspapers.com/image/1976...
abc7chicago.com/old-joliet-pr...
www.flickr.com/photos/rickthe...
www.reddit.com/media?url=http...
Music by incompetech.com and pixabay.com
"Heavy Heart", "River of Io", "The Descent", and "Funkorama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) License: CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)
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[@frapphuddy5492]

I seriously don’t realize how no huge tv programs have reached out to you two yet. This show is amazing! If you told me that this was on pbs I wouldn’t bat an eye.

[@jeffreyhoadley5697]

Please don't take this the wrong way but I kind of hope they don't get picked up by a major network. Seems like they would just bollocks the whole thing up. I still want you guys to get all of the monies. Joe

[@davidhorizon8401]

Wow! You guys have really ramped up your production quality. This was like a regular PBS TV show. I love the stuff you do.

[@OddityOdysseys]

Thank you so much!

[@DJ-nh6wq]

I grew up East of Joliet in Frankfort, Illinois. When I was taking Criminal Law Courses at JJC (1985) we toured the Prison while it was still operational. Some of us asked to see the tunnels and they told us it wasn’t safe

[@Catgirl8189]

I’ve been watching you guys for a few years. I’m surprised you’re not bigger on KZbin. Your videos are well thought out and the production quality is amazing. I enjoy your content so much!

[@silvermineband2719]

“John” Belushi was in Blues Brothers. Jim is his brother and has been in many other films. I had just graduated high school when the movie came out. Great video (not using my surprised face)!

[@zzanatos2001]

As a kid, I loved John Belushi on SNL, and in Animal House and The Blues Brothers. I remember when he would rush out onto the stage and do a series of back handsprings when performing with Dan Akroyd. He was so athletic and such a comic genius. It was a sad day when I heard he had died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine.

[@noahcount7132]

The Old Joliet Prison may well be the most ominous place you've visited, Bethany and Drew. At the very least it's a contender for that distinction. Exceptional video. 👍❤

[@OddityOdysseys]

The two of us definitely felt a sense of heaviness walking through Joliet. Perhaps we'll have to return to visit during one of their After Dark Tours. Thanks for watching, Noah!

[@stevemoravec2555]

Sobering! Thanks so much. 🎉

[@donutdealer74]

Guys surprise me with amazing content every time.

[@OddityOdysseys]

Looks like your donut logo made its way to the walls of the cafeteria. 😅 It's like you were there!

[@LVVMCMLV]

If you're still in the area, check out Mount Carmel cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, where all the mobsters are buried, including Al Capone

[@rrelectric5159]

Drew's idea about taking someone you like to prison isn't new. On our honeymoon I took my wife to Alcatraz. Couldn't have been too bad because 50 years later we are still together. Nice video.

[@anjachan]

with those kind of horrible prison I feel so bad for innocent people. This video was very interesting.

[@cosmicsunbeams]

Wow ❤ good,interesting show. I didn't know this existed.

[@kimkrauss329]

I had the opportunity to do an investigation there this past September. Definitely one of my favorites!

[@brillblonde6705]

Superb reporting. Well-filmed, scripted, and fascinating. You are too good for KZbin. Thank you!

[@tootsiequilt]

In southern Indiana there is a revolving jail. It's not in use anymore, I believe an inmate got his foot caught in the revolving jail, and it amputated his foot.

[@abdoukouriba2520]

😮, plz name the prison?

[@michaelchappell902]

I remember when I was young my Uncle missed a turn and ended up taken the next turn and it was a dirt road and that road went right by the wall of Joliet Prison. The high walls and the thought of the people on the other side was very scary to a young boy.

[@yawndave]

(Suppressing a shiver) Old prisons are creepy places, and this one is no exception. Thanks for the tour though. If you decide to visit some other defunct penitentiaries, I'd recommend the Old Montana Prison in Deer Lodge and the Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise. See you next time, happy trails!

[@grumpyadventures3843]

I knew Bethany would be great in a prison movie! Good job guys. Remember, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[@jeffboyrdeee]

This is great glad you guys are keeping the content going here! 🎉

[@Beh0ldas0n]

Bravo 👏🏼👏🏼

[@charlescolegrove4822]

This is a great adventure! Thanks for sharing ☺️

[@stephen5548]

Love this video. Thank you so much.

[@jd-no7rw]

Awesome!

[@andyhudgens]

I love my favorite oddity fam forever love the history this is like a Ghost Adventures Episode ♥️

[@OddityOdysseys]

Appreciate you, Andy-Fam!!!

[@andyhudgens]

@OddityOdysseys cant wait for more episodes and hopefully to see the ventura mission

[@bobkrist1]

Great episode, thanks guys!

[@MrJojo2go]

Thanks for sharing this history 👍🏿😷👍🏻🇨🇦🇵🇭🇺🇸

[@gordybishop2375]

Another great shirt. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

[@johanna7254]

Another fantastic exploration!

[@dmdbdmdb]

As usual, another great episode ! Thank You!

[@jonathanlapham2374]

Another amazing video. I’m sure you could do several videos about Joliet with so much history. The limestone work is impressive even if it was a prison. Lots of interesting buildings made of limestone in the Midwest. Great work you two!

[@JulianHarris-rg2cp]

Loved this. I have seen it in movies. thanks for doing this.

[@howardb.6205]

There is a prison in Idaho that has a pretty cool tour too. Love you guys! More please!

[@theathjr]

Another great episode. Well done.

[@ayutthayatrojan]

Another great video -- thanks so much -- 😂❤❤😂.

[@SantosChronicles]

Here is a little Thank You. We love this place. We went here because we love the tv show Prison Break. So sad the fire ruined part of the prison. If these walls could talk. Blues Brother is a classic. Learned so much.

[@OddityOdysseys]

We always look foward to your imput! Thank you so much. Have you been during winter? Pictures of the grounds of Joliet covered in snow are something else. Happy Saturday, our friend!

[@SantosChronicles]

@@OddityOdysseysToo cold to be out right now. We went during the summer. Can’t wait to visit your area in San Diego for Spring Break to see my sister. Can’t wait to see your next adventure.

[@daviotkelly1267]

Great episode

[@mi1r2]

It was interesting as always. Greetings from Europe, Hungary. 😉👍

[@jeffreyhoadley5697]

A co-worker did a little bit of time here right at the end of its life. Then he has transferred to Statesville.

[@xvsj5833]

“OO” creepy, however, very interesting. Echoes and hauntings of lost souls 😊 Great content ! ✌🏻🫶🏻

[@OddityOdysseys]

Glad you enjoyed, Jesse! Have a safe weekend.

[@katinacarson-hunwi7297]

I went to Alcatraz this past summer and this prison kind of reminded of Alcatraz. I live in Ohio and there is an old reformatory in Mansfield Ohio and that’s where they filmed the Shawshank Redemption.

[@carlosavila2137]

Was actually there in the 90s ate in in that chow hall and got in trouble on my first day 😂🤣😂

[@peggycarlyle6409]

What a wonderful video! So moving! I had no idea!

[@regandunn4850]

What a amazing building ❤

[@blockisle9]

Another excellent one! Thank you. Besides allowing travel for the staff, tunnels below multi building complex’s served for utilities. For instance one boiler house would serve all the buildings.

[@ripp4775]

Interesting and informative as usual.

[@m.ryanedvalson5293]

You both are amazingly informed. Much respect. Try to check out the prison in Rawlins Wyoming. Good tour. The pandemic ruined our 2nd tour. Our first tour in 2009 we were allowed to sit in the gas chamber.

[@valeriegoode9762]

Excellent segment.

[@chipworrell6025]

This is one of your best..

[@Thomas-jl3gn]

Great video.

[@Wolfspirit50]

Great video Beth & Drew!!

[@OddityOdysseys]

Thank you! 😀

[@user-yg1mh1sz8n]

Did time there in the seventies. It was a Hell Hole. But it served it's purpose because I never went back to any prison

[@dogshake]

Hey guys, I live in Addison and there’s a few stories of haunted places around here. The big one (and one you already might’ve heard about) is the abandoned Ovaltine factory in Villa Park. I believe it’s called “Ovaltine Court” now and has become a series of apartments…but that hasn’t stopped the rumors from spreading still. From what I’ve heard from friends who’ve trolled around there at night is that it’s still paranormally active. Don’t know what the guidelines would be for filming on that property nowadays, but it might be a cool one to check out, even if it’s just for the history. I would recommend the old Addison Motel, a place where there was an actual active devil worshipping group present for a while, but that’s been torn down (one of my acquaintances was one of the last people to film in there; he spent a night there a few days before it was demolished). The only other one near me I can think of would be the “Briar Rabbit Motel”, which is where a gang of teens known as the “Chicago rippers” would carry out some extremely heinous stuff (those guys were also self-reported devil worshippers, although only one of them legitimately believed in that kind of stuff; the others would just play along). And from what I remember about the rippers, is that one of them, Thomas Kokoraleis, was actually released not too long ago (which is surprising considering he committed every horrible act from Child SA to cannibalism and to this day tells people that he is “not a monster” because he’s tired of people calling him that. He mainly got let out because he has a low-IQ, which is 75. Not low enough to where he did not know the crimes he was committing though, and a big debate regarding him was the fact that he kept using his low IQ as a defense in court, despite appearing to be fully aware and cognizant of the things going on around him, and the fact that he indeed knows right from wrong.) This next bit is public information that can literally be found on Wikipedia so I’m just going to say that Thomas is currently living at Wayside Cross Ministries on 215 E. New York Street in Aurora. He tries to pass himself off as a harmless man, but I would implore anyone sympathetic to him to go read up on the acts he partook in. The only other recommendation I could think to make would be the American Flight 191 crash site in Elk Grove village, the Mount Carmel cemetery in Bellwood (Al Capones place of rest) and the Robinson woods. One last thing if you’re still reading this, is that as a child, I was always told about the infamous-ness of the St. Charles Scarecrow festival. I distinctly remember my parents telling me to always hold their hand when we were there as there had been somewhere around 20-30 child abductions since the festival had started around 1985. It was a well known “phenomena” to those who lived in the area or regularly attended the festival, but that info seems to have been scrubbed completely clean. I’ve tried using googles quote functions to try and find anything about it, but no luck. I would be forever grateful if you guys ever decided to look into/cover that. Thanks for listening to ramblings and thank you for what you do.

[@A-K_Rambler]

Coffee for You's!

[@OddityOdysseys]

This means a lot to us! (Coffee is the stuff of life during these adventures, haha). Thank you so much! 🙏💕

[@michaelneitzel5211]

Awesome video you two-glad to see you're back in 6th gear making videos!!!!!

[@msaget1471]

Thanks!

[@OddityOdysseys]

Thank you so much!

[@msaget1471]

I know is not much, thank you for all you do 👏👏👏

[@jamesslittle]

What a masterpiece of documentary! I always get so excited when the guys release a video, especially the extras on Patreon. Way to go guys, and thank you so much. What would be your ultimate explore OO?

[@OddityOdysseys]

Thank you, James! We have quite a Bucket List for the channel, so it's hard to pin down one that would take the cake. But we'd love to explore more underground networks of tunnels and bigger structures (such as castles). We do have more of Chicago coming up. :)

[@jamesslittle]

Can't wait until you make it to the UK! 😁@@OddityOdysseys

[@BeyondTheCompass817]

*_Gee, I think I need a Tetanus shot after watching this, Lol. I was a Correctional Officer for over seven years in several maximum security prisons and there are a handful of institutions in the U.S. that have a nationwide reputation for brutality; Rikers in New York, Rahway in New Jersey, Chino and Pelican Bay in California, Huntsville here in Texas and definitely Joliet! Pretty much it was a given that if you ended up in any of these prisons, then you were royally screwed. When the two of you walked into the chow hall, it reminded me that it was the Very last place you wanted to be if the inmates started fighting, because you have anywhere from seventy to one hundred guys with nothing to lose unrestrained in a big room with forks and spoons handy to stab you with. Yeah, serious flashbacks during that segment, Lol. I had no idea they had self-guided tours, that's awesome! As always, another great video and stay safe out there!_*

[@OddityOdysseys]

Happy Saturday to you, our friend!

[@kevinmartin7760]

I remember the "It's never too late to mend" sign on the wall in the closing Jailhouse Rock number of the Blues Brothers.

[@johnscannell4189]

Very nicely produced and interesting. My concern would be breathing in areas of stagnate water and peeling walls. I'm assuming it was fine. Thank you Drew and Bethany!

[@njaneardude]

I wanted to see Beth pretending to eat a meal prison style, forearm on the table protecting her tray, head on a swivel looking for someone's hand reaching for her slice of bread 😂

[@gordybishop2375]

Have you done the old Yuma Prison?

[@Ramcharger85]

❤

[@BoomyNation]

I drive by there all the time!!!! My beard and I just sub'd!!!

[@michaelkawell3300]

I was there when it was open in 1998

[@Dog.soldier1950]

My two great uncles. Martin and Luther Jackson were guards there early in the 20th century

[@dtna]

I would wear masks the next time you go into a place like that. Alot of dangerous black mold and asbestos in there.

[@TiltedTripodMedia]

You guys need to come to Ohio to see the famous Ohio state reformatory used in the Shaw shank redemption movie. I’ve been there many times and filmed the place. I still need to make a documentary on it though.

[@travelteam89]

My dad was in there and few others in Illinois

[@IntrepidMilo]

This place is creepy and awesome! It reminds me of the Kingston Penitentiary, in Kingston Ontario. It was built in the 1830s by its prisoners. There are still tunnels running under that prison as well. It was closed in 2013 after 178 years of service. It was also used in the film Superman (1978) and most recently in Mayor of Kingstown.

[@jeffarchibald3837]

Imagine how cold it was in those concrete rooms.

[@carch7243]

When the movie The Blues Brothers was made, in 1980, Joliet correctional facility was still a functioning prison. None of the movie was filmed inside the prison walls. There is about 3 minutes or so of the movie that was filmed near an old, no longer used, door. Filming was done on the street outside the prison.

[@-iIIiiiiiIiiiiIIIiiIi-]

This episode was DARK.

[@Raydawg]

Prisoners Should be treated badly in Prison, They did wrong and need serious punishment. I have never visited Joliet prison, but Have visited a friend that spent time in two prisons in Illinois. I was going to mention the Jake & Elwood blues.🤣 but you mentioned it. Fun video for a horible state to be in, so Glad I moved away from Illinois

[@lindahodak1462]

I was born and raised in Urbana,Illinois. Our 9th grade field trip in our Human Relations class in 1974 was to Joliet Prison. Not a fun place to take a field trip to.

[@septembersurprise5178]

"I wonder which gate we go in?" You can go in any gate you like, but ...

[@mariselabaron5249]

💕

[@NickManCuso59]

Just think what it took to build that place. If those walls could talk just imagine the stories they could tell.

[@random22026]

6:09 OOOo! Wrong Belushi: it was John Belushi who starred in the original film, and not his broski, Jim. Easy enough mistake to make, as the O_O team weren't around for the initial SNL run, in which both OG Blues Brothers (Aykroyd and Belushi) starred. REALLY GOOD look at Joliet's history--never flinching from the bad stuff.

[@cahikingadventures]

Love this! Just curious, what made you guys choose Illinois for your next video? :)

[@OddityOdysseys]

We were in Chicago for about a week last fall and couldn't pass up the chance to film some episodes while we were there. So, more Illinois to come! :)

[@cahikingadventures]

@@OddityOdysseys gotcha, gotta make the most out of your trips right. Look forward to the next episodes! Btw, I was in Tujunga canyon recently, which prompted me to look up the meaning of the word Tujunga. Apparently there's a legend of a native american woman that goes like this "the wife of Khra'wiyawi (the chief of the region) is stricken with grief over the untimely loss of her daughter. In her sadness, she retreats to the mountains and turns to stone. It is thought this event became the basis for the village name.[5] In fact, there is a large rock in Little Tujunga Canyon which looks like an old woman in a sitting position." I've yet to find the stone. Actually I don't know if its even around still, but if I find it ill let you guys know. it'd make a great topic for one of your videos! :D

[@mikecrean8849]

Really interesting video guys. But one thing. For us strangers in the U.K. you didn’t mention where Old Joliet is. Which city or area is it in. Thx 🙋‍♂️👏👏🇬🇧

[@MABfan11]

the real question is: does it have a reputation for being haunted?

[@BeyondTheCompass817]

*_Definitely! Most of those Ghost Hunting shows on Discovery Plus have filmed there, "Destination Fear" most recently, I believe..._*

[@MABfan11]

@@BeyondTheCompass817 hopefully Ryan and Shane will make an episode there

[@russellj.s.257]

John Belushi,not Jim Belushi

[@adventuresinbandoland]

Is it really abandoned if it’s open for tours? 🤔

[@hamsterman2008]

Is it available for children's parties ?

[@mjphoto45]

John Belushi not Jim Belushi

[@scottrosen9368]

Would you two make a baby already !! What are you guys waiting for ??? lol

[@ryanakers7904]

How does this channel not have hundreds of thousands of subscribers? Boggles my mind.

[@OddityOdysseys]

We appreciate the kind words! 😊❤️

[@arslanasif9314]

I came here after watching prison break series 😇

[@josephlalock8378]

been there. done that. n84120

[@zzanatos2001]

Did Joliet Prison have an execution chamber and an electric chair?

[@franksnyder1357]

They're on a mission from god.

[@jeromezielinski8773]

Yea ! #666 !

[@charliejohn1949]

It's not abandoned .I've done time there is a tourist attraction and Halloween haunted house

[@realSethMeyers]

8:04 No, you drank some kool-aid. This is where the state tortured its prisoners with solitary confinement, which would be a violation of the Geneva Convention if they were war prisoners. Think about that... We treat our own citizens worse than we're allowed to treat foreign enemies of the state.

[@holymags2495]

So creepy, inhumane and very sad. You captured that sense of confinement.

[@257796]

Okay so, putting content behind a paywall? That's a lot of patreons for 85,000 followers? All your "hearted' comments seem to be from Friends. You tube.... Don't recommend channel

[@TeslaTales59]

Too many liberal comments. Do you remember why the prisoner were put in there ?