One of the most gothic looking buildings we have seen is Mansfield Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. It looks like a castle! Begun in 1886, as a prison for young first time offenders, it evolved into probably the most vicious prison in the state before closing in 1990! In the 1950s, a violent riot broke out. The Ohio State Patrol was called in to quell it. My father was one of the troopers. Inmates burned mattresses, took guards hostage, killed each other, and threatened more destruction. Conditions were brutal! Solitary confinement might contain 6 prisoners! Overcrowding was routine. Non- inmates were killed, too. I remember my dad talking about it!
There are two cellblocks, East and West. They are the world’s tallest free standing cellblocks, 5 and 6 levels! The prison housed warden’s and assistant warden’s quarters, infirmary, chapel, offices, and repair shops. There was a library. This is a mammoth building! It would be easy to get lost, especially in the dark! We utilized 12 static night vision cameras, had 6 on the team roaming with cameras and recorders, and still didn’t cover all we wanted!
Our guest investigator was my sister, Dorothy, who was on her very first. She showed herself to be a natural. The rest of the team, Greg, Angel, Beau, and Rob were all there, too. Dorothy’s friend, Teresa provided some assistance. We were given a short tour and some history before we started by volunteers Scott and Brian. During the tour, we smelled perfume or some floral scent many times along the way. We continued to smell it all through the night. One of the people who was killed there was Helen, an assistant warden’s wife. After the tour, we did the baseline sweeps with K2 meters and Mel meters and set up the cameras. At the beginning, Angel and I heard cell doors squeaking, Beau heard footsteps on one of the upper levels. I felt as though someone I couldn’t see was with me. We varied partners throughout the night.
Several of us were in the showers, and used the ovilus to communicate. It mentioned three names: Daniel, Billy, and Sam. We heard the shower pipes vibrating. The ovilus said ”cake” and then ”coming.”
In solitary, I tried speaking with the former inmates. I said,” Some of you died here.” The cameras microphone picked up an EVP saying; “Oh . . .no .. . .God.” It was very chilling to hear the despair in his voice. Another time I asked for a name, and caught another EVP saying; “Roger” and then “Ott or “Ault.” Angel felt someone touch her hair and then stroke her back.
An odd experience was when Dorothy, Greg and myself were going to walk around solitary and the living quarters and investigate with Angel. We couldn’t see her, and we all called out for her, because she was supposed to join us. She said she was standing there and thought we were all joking with her, but when we began to walk away, she realized none of us could see or hear her! She declared that she waved her arms and yelled, but we seemed oblivious. We were! She finally got our attention, but it’s a mystery why none of the three of us noticed her! We all felt uncomfortable sensations in the basement. Once Angel and I were down there alone, and she said she sensed the presence of a woman. I felt someone there really didn’t like us being there, a very negative energy, so we didn’t stay long. Later, we learned from Scott and Brian that it was cross dressers who gathered there, not ladies! Maybe they didn’t like Angel and I being there!
Beau, Greg, Dorothy, and Teresa joined me in the “toilet room” named because of the toilets stored there! Dr. Salt is reportedly active there. We couldn’t communicate with him, but did catch an orb in the corner. Maybe it was he! Dr. Salt was a man who didn’t like anybody, according to reports. He is alleged to manifest himself at times as a huge shadow. He was a very tall man in life.
Dorothy and I conducted a flashlight session. We asked the spirit to turn the flashlight on for yes, and off for a no answer. I triggered a response when I asked, “If you don’t like cops, turn on the light!” We connected with two residents, Brett and Ned. Brett was there in the 1930s on a manslaughter charge. He refused to tell us who had been killed, but he was sentenced to 5 years. He had five children. He was stabbed in the prison and died there. I asked him if he had chosen to remain in Mansfield rather than crossover, and through the flashlight answered yes. Ned was there in the 1940’s, also on manslaughter. My camera froze, for the first time ever, and I believe it was Ned. It wouldn’t record, or turn off. We had to take the batteries out and then start over! Ned didn’t want to tell us much. When we asked if he had children, the flashlight wavered dim to bright, as though he wasn’t sure.
Later, several of us contacted another entity, who seemed to refuse to tell us whether he/she was an inmate, guard, worker, spouse, or whatever because the flashlight went off and wouldn’t go back on. We discovered that the entity had drained the battery, and we couldn’t get it to turn back on!
A few times, I tried to trigger a reaction by mentioning that my and Dorothy’s dad had helped put down a riot there. I didn’t get a direct response, but maybe the incident with us not seeing Angle was a response!
The reformatory is so huge we didn’t cover nearly all of what we wanted. One of our team was down with nausea, so that was a further handicap. We would love to return and gather evidence at a future date!
An interesting bit of trivia is that part of the movies “Shawshank Redemption” and “Air Force One” were shot in the prison, and some of the props remain. As a fan of both, some of us were delighted to see them.
http://www.mrps.org/