History Brief of Cripple Creek’s Outlaws & Lawmen Jail Museum

The jail has been used as an insane asylum. Many people were taken to the local hospitals with the sudden onset of insanity and put in the “Strong Room”. When nothing could restrain the acts of these people, they were taken to the jail. One woman, Olga Knutsen, became insane almost overnight, was taken to the hospital, then the jail where she died in a cell. No cause was found for her mental illness or death