French Bastille-style limestone jail from 1889 that held serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and the last man hanged in Williamson County
312 Main St, Georgetown, TX 78626
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ghost tours via Spell Caster Ghost Tours; see website for pricing
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story limestone building; interior access on tours
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1889 · Recorded Texas Historic Landmark · Contributing structure, Williamson County Courthouse Historic District (NRHP 1977) · Henry Lee Lucas Task Force headquarters (1983)
Georgetown's fourth county jail opened January 10, 1889, after Williamson County commissioners approved $22,000 for a replacement for the overcrowded, escape-prone facility that had preceded it. Architects Dodson and Dudley of Waco produced a French Bastille-inspired design in native Texas limestone — a deliberate architectural statement of permanence and authority on the county seat's main street.
The building contained ten cells arranged across two sections. The lower tier held the general male population in what contemporary reports called dark, poorly ventilated dungeons; the upper tier, with better lighting and air circulation, housed women and those with mental illness. A six-room jailer's residence occupied part of the structure and was described at the time as one of Georgetown's finer homes.
The jail operated without interruption for a hundred years. Among its most notable prisoners: Tom Young, executed by hanging for the murder of his 12-year-old niece, Alma Reece — the last man hanged in Williamson County; Ludwig Cernoch, convicted of killing two police officers in 1934 (he escaped but was later executed by electric chair); and Pedro Cruz Muniz, convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder, executed by lethal injection in May 1998.
In November 1983 the jail became the operational base for the Lucas Task Force, a Texas Rangers-led investigation of Henry Lee Lucas, the serial killer who claimed hundreds of murders. Lucas was tried for a Williamson County killing at the jail, convicted and sentenced to death, though Governor George W. Bush later commuted the sentence to life in prison given the unreliability of Lucas's confessions. The building was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965 and contributes to the Williamson County Courthouse Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places (added 1977).
Sources
Law enforcement officers and paranormal investigators who have worked in the Old Williamson County Jail after hours describe a consistent pattern: cold spots that move through the corridors, disembodied voices, the sound of footsteps on the metal staircase, and a persistent feeling of being observed in the lower cell block.
One frequently reported incident involves investigators finding mysterious footprints in an area that had been clear moments before. On another occasion, an officer alone in the building heard his own name called from a vacant section. These accounts come not primarily from ghost-tour participants but from county employees who worked in the building during its operational years and from law enforcement personnel in more recent decades.
The building's history — a century of incarceration, three executed prisoners, and the grim 1983 season of the Lucas Task Force interrogations — supplies the kind of concentrated, documented human suffering that paranormal investigators treat as a prerequisite for sustained activity. Spell Caster Ghost Tours, which operates the jail tours, has published accounts of EMF readings and recorded audio anomalies from inside the cell blocks.
Spell Caster Ghost Tours leads nighttime tours through the 1889 limestone jail. The tour covers the jail's century of operation, its most notorious prisoners, the execution of Tom Young, and the paranormal reports collected by investigators and law enforcement.
The 1889 French Bastille-style limestone jail sits on Georgetown's downtown square, one block from the county courthouse. The building's exterior, original ironwork, and the historical marker are accessible during daylight hours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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Grapevine, TX
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San Elizario, TX
The building served as a private residence from 1821 to 1848 before becoming El Paso County's official jail in 1850, when San Elizario was the county seat. The Commissioners Court installed a prefabricated iron cell from Chicago capable of holding twelve prisoners. In 1876, during the Salt War period, William H. Bonney — then going by Billy the Kid — arrived before dawn, posed as a Texas Ranger, and freed his companion Melquiades Segura from custody, locking the guards inside. The structure is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.