The Mansfield Reformatory has sent shivers down the spines of Ohio's most infamous criminals for over a hundred years thanks to it's reputation for being one of the roughest and toughest prisons in the States, nobody was ever excited to visit. Fast forward to 2019 and a little flutter of excitement gushes through my veins as Amanda and I first glimpse the Ohio State Reformatory through the Pine trees that surround it's grounds. Since it's closure in 1990 The prison has thrown open it's doors to tourists, film crews and ghost hunters, helping it to forge a new reputation as one of the most haunted places in America!
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| 'Old Sparky' Electric Chair |
A lot of you may recognize the facade of the prison as Shawshank prison from Shawshank Redemption. The movie was filmed here in 1993 just after the prison closed and left a lot of the props behind. While walking through the prison you can sit down in the actual room parole board room where Red finally gained his freedom after his umpteenth time trying. You can peer through the props used to portray the tunnel that Andy escaped through and you can even enter the halfway house where Brooks breathed his last breath and see the original 'Brooks Was Here' and 'so was Red' carved on the ceiling beams. It is hard to believe that the Shawshank Redemption is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year!
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| The Parole Board Room |
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| The Halfway House |
You'll also spot a lot of Russian signs and a great big portrait of Stalin and Lenin above the mess hall from Mansfield Reformatory's brief stint as a Russian Prisoner of war camp during the filming of Air Force One. You may even see a very splendid golden cell block used in a Lil' Wayne music video!
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| Lil' Wayne's golden cell! |
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| Stalin in a Russian Prisoner of War Prison Camp! |
There is nothing that Americans (and the odd Brit) like more than a good old fashioned ghost hunt. With the holy grail of any ghost hunt being able to spot and maybe even capture on camera a Full Body Apparition! Well I think you will all have to agree from the shots at the end of blog that Amanda and I have captured conclusive proof of the paranormal! Unfortunately we left our EVP recorders (A device that can play back a spirits voice to you, enabling you to have a conversation with a ghost!) in the car but I am convinced we would have recorded a whole host of EVP's if given the chance as well!
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| On the Inside |
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| The tallest free standing cell block in the world! |
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| It was really high up which is not good for poor Amanda, who doesn't like heights! |
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| The old chapel |
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| in the old administrative quarter, it certainly is creepy with all the peeling paint! |
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| The Macys catalogue in the library can still be viewed! What do you think about the snazzy workout costumes?! |
One of the most common apparitions seen in the prison is the former wardens wife Helen Glattke. The warden and his family used to live at the prison (poor family) and one day while getting ready Helen was moving a loaded pistol in a closet so she could reach her make up box when she accidentally dropped it, causing the gun to discharge and hit her resulting in her death a couple of hours later in hospital. The warden himself did not last long after this, succumbing to a heart attack a month later. Often visitors smell Mr Glattke's tobacco and Mrs Glattke's rose perfume while walking through their old accomodations. It is entirely possible that one of the closets I photographed below could have been the very closet where the tragedy took place, are those orbs I can see?!? Could it be the spirit of Mrs Glattke trying to show herself and communicate with the outside world through me and my camera!?
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| The Tragic Closet. |
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| Or is this the tragic closet? |
There are enough tales of horror and heartbreak around this prison to keep me writing for days. On February the 6th 1960 up on the fourth floor of the Eastern Cell Block a man named James Lockhart serving 15 years for assault with intent to kill couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide using lighter fluid and a match. This is the very cell in which the tragedy occurred. If you look closely into the shadows it looks like two burning red eyes are visible above the hole where the toilet used to be!
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| Can you spot the two burning red eyes? |
Now we come to the promised CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF THE PARANORMAL! While walking on the lower levels of eastern cell block, happily snapping away with my camera I was absolutely stunned to capture the following images! You can clearly see a full body apparition wearing Nikey and Adidas trainers walking back and forth in front of the camera! who is this spirit? what are they trying to communicate?!
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| Conclusive proof of the paranormal. |
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| Ghosts like Nike trainers! |
Having regained my compusure and while reviewing my evidence later at home, I was even more staggered to come across the following image, it seems to be yet another full bodied apparition! This time the ghost is sitting on the toilet inside the cell block itself! if only I had had my EVP recorder to record what the ghost was trying to tell us!
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| A Full Body Apparition in a flower shirt on the toilet! |
