Mansfield Reformatory

Looks like a pretty kool place...

http://www.mrps.org/

http://www.deadohio.com/mansfieldreformatory.htm

http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/oh/ ... te_pen.cfm

Shawshank was filmed here..

If the walls and bars of the 137-year-old Ohio Penitentiary could talk, they undoubtedly would relate some very interesting stories about the famous and infamous men and women who had "served time" behind its 30-foot-high gray walls.

In 1885, the legislation passed a bill authorizing all legal executions to take place at the Ohio Penitentiary. Previously, men sentenced to death were executed in the county where their crimes were committed.

The first man executed at the penitentiary by hanging was Valentine Wagner, on July 31, 1885, for the cold-blooded murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Schehan, in Morrow County.

Hanging was the mode of execution in Ohio until 1896 when the electric chair was substituted.

From 1885 to 1896, 28 men were legally executed by hanging.

Willie Haas had the dubious distinction of being the first man to be electrocuted April 21, 1897.

The penitentiary has known whole-sale tragedy during its 137-year existence.

A cholera epidemic struck behind the high gray walls in the winter of 1849, taking 121 lives of the 423 inmates confined there.

On April 21, 1930, a fire broke out at 5:35 p.m., on the topmost tier of a six-deck cell block.

Before the holocaust was brought under control, 322 of the 5,292 inmates were either burned or suffocated to death.

The fire was apparently started by an inmate or inmates bent on escaping.

According to the old records, a candle, placed in a pan of oil, started the fire. It was to be used as a timing device for a planned escape. It was supposed to ignite while the men were at their evening meal, but due to a brisk spring wind that evening, it did not successfully ignite until after the men had returned to their cells and locked up for the night.

Starting in the north end of the Big Block, in what is now L Block, the blaze swept southward through I and K Blocks which were being remodeled and converted to concrete construction. Treated green lumber used for the forms for the new concrete gave off acrid clouds of smoke, filling the entire building which also contained G and H Blocks.

With almost 800 men confined to the fatal blocks, it is miraculous that no more than 322 lost their lives. Granted, it is tragic that these men had to die, but it could have been worse.

There were many stories of heroism by inmates and guards alike during the Easter Monday conflagration. Many of the inmates who performed exceptional feats of valor and heroism were pardoned by the Governor.

Nine days after the fire, prison officials transferred 600 inmates from the partially burned out Ohio Penitentiary to the London (Ohio) Prison Farm. This move helped to alleviate tensions and overcrowding at the Spring Street Prison. At the time of the fire, there were 4,214 inmates confined, including the 800 in the fatal block where the fire began.

On Friday, October 31, 1952, inmates began a riot after they were served their evening meal. After a session of dish-throwing and noise-making, 2400 inmates poured into the courtyard and began burning buildings.

On November 8, 1926, came possibly the most sensational of the mad breaks for brief freedom. Thirteen desperate, long-termed convicts of Co. K, known as the "red shirt" company, timed their plans to correspond with the prison's visiting hours.

They felled two guards, dashed to the prison gates being opened as visitors entered the yard. The 13 clubbed, knifed and shot their way into administration offices, stabbing one guard and hitting the warden's secretary over the head with a chair. With additional weapons seized there, they went on to freedom. They were ultimately rounded up in Georgesville, a southwestern suburb of Columbus and Franklin County.

Two of John Dillinger's henchmen, Charles Makley and Harry Pierpont, attempted to bluff their way out on September 22, 1934, with fake pistols. They tried to force their way past six guards just 100 feet from the death row cells they occupied. The bluff didn't work. Makley died from the guards' bullets and Pierpont died in the electric chair.