History & local legend
Fort Mifflin stands on the Delaware River beside Philadelphia International Airport. Its military history includes imprisonment and executions, and two figures dominate its ghost lore: the Screaming Woman and the Faceless Man.
In his 2008 book about the fort, Anthony Selletti connected the Screaming Woman with Elizabeth Pratt, the wife of a soldier stationed there in the early nineteenth century. The Faceless Man is associated with William H. Howe, a Union deserter imprisoned at the fort and hanged there in 1864 after killing a man attempting to arrest him.
A September 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer report followed investigators through the fort’s enclosed defensive chambers, known as casemates. Investigator Randy Plessor described a heavy sensation in the chamber associated with Howe, while others reported cold patches, voices, and shadowy figures.
