Many of us have seen, if not heard of the 1994 iconic movie, The Shawshank Redemption, starring Morgan Freeman & Tim Robbins, written & directed by Frank Darabont. The prison drama is based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption. The movie is set in 1947 in Portland, Maine & takes place at Shawshank State Prison, but what many who have seen the movie don’t know is that it was actually filmed at The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio.
According to a 2019 IPSOS (market research company) poll, 46% of Americans believe in ghosts. Because the finality of death can be a very scary concept, it may be reassuring to believe in life after death. It can give us comfort after losing a loved one or while facing our own mortality. Believing in ghosts can also be thrilling & people like to be scared. It’s why we pay to walk through a haunted house, voluntarily strap into a rollercoaster or jump from a plane.
Many who do believe in ghosts, including ghost hunters, believe that ghosts are simply lost souls that are trapped, trying to cross over to the afterlife rather than evil spirits attempting to do harm. Many people claim to have had unexplainable experiences or have seen or felt an eerie sight, sound or sensation that could only be a paranormal encounter.
Where there is history, there is haunting & the Ohio State Reformatory is a prime example of a place with not only history behind it, but also many deaths. Throughout the 94 years it held prisoners, more than 200 people perished from disease, accident, murder or suicide. Many claim that very active spirits continue to roam the rooms of the large prison which remains open to the public & serves as an active stomping ground for ghost hunters.
The Ohio State Reformatory (OSR) is a striking, castle-like, gothic building widely known as the prison where many major motion pictures have been filmed, on top of The Shawshank Redemption, including Tango & Cash & Air Force One where it was depicted as a Russian prison. The OSR is home of The East Cell Block, which remains the world’s tallest freestanding steel cell block that consists of six tiers or levels of security, 12 ranges, which are big common areas that individual cells open into & 600 cells. The grounds where the OSR was constructed was previously used for Union soldiers training during the Civil War.
The OSR was originally named the Intermediary Penitentiary, but changed names in 1891 & is also referred to as the Mansfield Reformatory. Construction of the 250,000 square foot gothic, limestone building began in 1886 & was designed by Cleveland architect, Levi Scofield, who intended to create an uplifting, inspiring yet intimidating structure that was inspired by the old world castles of Germany.
The purpose in constructing the building was to house inmates aged 16-21 who were too old for juvenile corrections & non-violent, first-time offenders to serve as a midpoint between the boy’s reformatory in Lancaster & Columbus’ State Penitentiary.
The West Cell Block was the first to open when the prison accepted its first 150 prisoners on September 17, 1896, but construction wasn’t complete until 1910, fourteen years later. This particular block consists of five tiers & two ranges that each hold 30-35 cells. Each cell was designed to hold two inmates & some held as many as four. As construction continued, inmates helped build the East Cell Block which then housed some of those very laborers in 1910.
As time went on & more cell blocks were added, the West Cell Block was the more desirable place within the prison since the cells were slightly larger & the conditions were a little better. Oftentimes, this area was reserved for designated trustees or well behaved inmates who earned the trust of the staff, who held jobs & were given more responsibilities at the Reformatory.
When the prison began housing inmates in 1896, it was intended for non-violent inmates to serve their time while they were taught basic trades before they were released & reintegrated into society. Because of this, cells were initially made for sleeping & little else as the prisoners spent much of their days outside, working on the prison grounds within the clothing or furniture factories, the butcher shop that slaughtered cattle, chickens & pigs from nearby prison barns or the printing shop & prison newspaper, The New Day, which was written by inmates & edited by the chaplain.
However, ideals for reforming inmates started to change as the prison population in the Columbus area began to soar in the 20th century when the reformatory had no choice but to accept inmates that were convicted of serious, violent & sexual crimes. As the OSR began to morph into a maximum security prison, inmates spent much of their days in their cells that were incredibly cramped with only enough room to fit a bunk with standing room to the side of it & a sink & toilet wedged behind it.
With the rapid rise in population, the prison quickly became overcrowded & living conditions began to deteriorate as cells that once intended to house a single occupant now held three inmates at a time.
On April 21, 1930, a large fire started after a candle ignited nearby oily rags left on the roof of the West Block & ended up killing 322 people while leaving 200 severely injured. The prison was built to hold 1,500 & at the time of the fire it held 4,300. When the fire started, prisoners remained locked in their cells, left to burn & perish as guards feared a mass prison break if they unlocked their cells. Those that managed to escape their cells after overpowering a guard & did survive were confined to a stifling, crowded attic space, their bodies covered in burns.
In the late 1930s, a riot broke out within the East Cell Block & as a result, the guards condemned 120 rioters to share 12 solitary confinement cells, ten prisoners in each small cell for an entire week without food or water. The punishment pushed the inmates to both the brink of death & madness.
In 1932, two inmates escaped isolation & inmate Merrill Chandler fatally struck a guard , Frank Hanger, in the head with a pipe alongside inmate Chester Probaski. The following year, they were both executed on the same day at the Ohio State Penitentiary via electric chair which was given the nickname Old Sparky. Between 1897-1963, Old Sparky claimed the lives of 315 inmates & currently sits on display at the OSR.
Another major tragedy tied to the OSR happened in July 1948 when two former inmates, 22-year-old John West & 24-year-old Murl Robert Daniels, decided to return to the town where they served time & went on a killing spree that left six people dead. The two made a connection during their shared time behind bars & West was viewed as a gun crazy moron while Daniels was known for his psychopathic personality & was once quoted, we loved drinking, robbing & hitting on girls.
Daniels, who was of average intelligence, was sent to Mansfield for an unarmed robbery & was paroled on September 25, 1947 after serving his four year sentence. West, who was said to have an IQ of 60 which is classified as mild mental retardation, was sent to the reformatory for grand larceny & was paroled on March 12, 1948 after his one year sentence.
The pair thrived on chaos & destruction & came to be known as the mad-dog killers during one of the darkest events in OSR’s history. After their paroles which came six months apart from each other, the men came back together on June 20, 1948, only three months after West was released, despite the fact that Daniels’ mother begged him not to go.
In early July 1948, they stole a Pontiac from a parking lot, got a gun & started drinking. They went on to rob a gas station, beating an attendant in the head just because they could. From here, they left Columbus for a bit to allow things to cool down. On July 9, they were back in town & decided to head over to Joe’s Grill on West Broad Street, customers fleeing as they spied their gun. West fired a shot without hitting anyone & the pair made a quick get-away after taking the contents of the safe & cash register.
From here, they stopped at Earl Ambrose’s tavern on Fifth Avenue & announced that it was a robbery as they entered the back door. Ambrose made a move to flee, but he died instantly upon being shot in the back three times. A female customer was shot in the abdomen but managed to survive. The pair made their escape with $8,000, which in 2024 is worth $105,000. As they fled the scene, a bystander was able to write down their plate number, but they managed to avoid the police as they traveled through St. Louis, Nashville, Kentucky & Michigan.
During a drunken night together, they spoke about various Mansfield guards who had been particularly harsh or abusive & discussed their plan for retribution. They ruminated on one particular name, Willis “Red” Harris & as they shared stories of him, their anger continued to grow as they formed the plan to make a trip back to Mansfield to seek their revenge.
Two weeks after killing the tavern’s owner, it was nearly midnight on July 20, 1948 when they knocked on the front door of the home of Mansfield Reformatory’s superintendent, John Niebel, in hopes of getting Red’s address from him. Daniels told the man that their car broke down & asked to use his phone. Once inside, he pulled his gun as West charged in behind him & the two began to ransack the home. They woke Niebel’s wife Nolena & their 21-year-old daughter, Phyllis, from their beds.
Before leaving the home, Daniels raped Phyllis & forced the family by gunpoint into their car & decided to take the family across town where they planned to tie them up in a cornfield. However, once there, they realized they had no rope so they marched them, naked after forcing them to strip their clothes, further into the field where they shot them dead.
When Niebel didn’t report to his scheduled shift the next morning, prison officials went to his home & found it in disarray. Later that day, they found the three bodies from the Niebel family in the field; John had been shot twice in the head, Nolena had been shot in the stomach & the head & Phyllis, her red hair still tied up in curlers, had been shot once in the head. It was determined that the family had been executed at 1:30 am on July 21, 1948.
A witness reported seeing a two-toned Pontiac in front of the Niebel home that matched the Columbus robberies so police knew that the killers were West & Daniels. In the meantime, the pair went to lay low & rest in Cleveland. The next day, July 22, they picked up a .30 caliber rifle & headed to Tiffin on their way to Indiana.
At 1 pm, they rolled into Tiffin in search of a bed & breakfast, slept until 5 pm & then set out for dinner. Later in the night, they were looking for another car to steal, particularly a Buick & stopped at Stewart’s Root Beer Stand where they spotted their car of choice. The Buick’s owners, Jim & Rita Smith, had only been married for two years, were out enjoying the summer night & a rootbeer. As they left the rootbeer stand & headed home, they didn’t realize that they were being followed by Daniels & West who forced them off the road. West ran to the driver’s side while Daniel’s headed to where Rita sat in the passenger seat. West shot Jim, killing him instantly while Rita screamed & fled to a neighbor’s house for help.
Daniels & West set out in the Smith’s Buick & were now in search of another car that no one would suspect them driving. At about 11 pm they came across a rest stop called the Ironside Inn & noticed a car hauling truck that contained 5 new Studebakers. The driver, 24-year-old Orville Taylor, a married father of 4 young children from Niles, Ohio, was sleeping in the cab of his truck. Taylor was woken by Daniels who pulled him from the truck & began transferring his own items into it. In the meantime, West took Taylor & walked him to the tall weeds, shooting the innocent man to death.
West jumped into the cab of the truck while Daniels climbed into one of the Studebakers on top of the trailer. Despite having just killed two people in less than two hours, they stopped at The Ranch for a burger & a beer.
A manhunt quickly began & word spread like wildfire throughout the Ohio law enforcement community who set up roadblocks throughout the area, unsure what type of car the pair were driving. In the meantime, West & Daniels drove west down the U.S. Route 224 in Taylor’s stolen truck & as they approached an intersection, they were confronted with the roadblock that was manned by three officers.
West was driving the truck as Daniels remained hidden in a Studebaker at the very top of the trailer. The officers noted that West seemed jittery & nervous. While Sheriff Shaffer climbed to the top of the truck to search each car, he found Daniels, sitting inside one with several guns. As Shaffer yelled down to the other officers, West jumped from the cab of the truck & shot Sergeant Leonard Conn in the chest & county game warden, Frank Friemoth in the arm. Conn returned fire & shot West directly between the eyes. West was taken to a hospital & pronounced dead at about 11 am while Daniels surrendered & was arrested & sentenced to death. During their killing spree, West was responsible for killing Ambrose, Smith & Taylor while Daniels was responsible for the death of the three members of the Niebel family.
While on death row, Daniels was interviewed on an early version of Fox News, Movietone News, & he easily repeated his original confession. He said that when they headed to the Niebel farm, he had only been looking for Red & apologized that Niebel’s wife & daughter had to die. He casually indicated that since he had no rope, he couldn’t just tie them up & had to bump them. As the interview came to an end, 24-year-old Daniels smiled & winked at the camera.
Six months later, on January 3, 1949 Robert Daniels died in the electric chair after he ate his last meal that consisted of fried chicken, oysters, chili, potatoes & ice cream.
The prison’s warden, who was known as the Superintendent, & his wife lived within the lavish, front portion of the prison & occupied the second & third floors of the West administrative area. Others, including the chaplain, assistant superintendents & some guards, lived on the second & third floors of this same area.
In November 1950, Helen Glattke, the superintendent’s wife, reached to grab a jewelry box that she stored in her closet & in the process, she knocked a pistol to the ground which went off & shot her in the chest. She screamed out for her two young sons to get their father & a few days later, she succumbed to her injuries. Just about nine years later, her husband, Arthur Glattke, dropped dead of a sudden heart attack in his office.
By the 1960s, crowding within the OSR was becoming a major issue & with that, came conflict & disease. Guards were given no choice but to double the occupancy in death row cells, which on at least one instance, resulted in an inmate’s death. During a typical morning check, guards noticed one prisoner missing & on further investigation, they found the man’s broken & beaten body shoved under a bunk.
Throughout the 94 years the Reformatory acted as a working prison, more than 154,000 inmates passed through the gates & as many as 200 perished. Some deaths were as a result of infections or diseases such as influenza & tuberculosis while others ended their own lives. 215 numbered graves stand just outside the walls of the reformary which prove how harsh prison life was.
On February 6, 1960, 22-year-old James Lockhart, set himself on fire in cell #13 that sat on the fourth floor on the north side of the East Block. James was sent to the prison on October 5, 1955 to serve 1-15 years for assault with intent to kill. He was said to be continuously harassed & bullied by his fellow inmates during the five years he was an inmate within the OSR. Lockhart smuggled a bottle of lighter fluid into his cell & chose to skip dinner that evening. While the majority of the inmates were eating in the mess hall, he poured the fluid on his clothing & the mattress in his cell & lit a match.
Two guards were alerted to an issue when they heard an inmate from neighboring cell #14 begin to scream. Flames started to pour out of cell #13 which singed his neighbor’s skin who ran to the sink in his cell to scoop up water in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
The guards were unable to approach the cell due to the extreme force of heat, the fire eventually burned itself out & nothing more of Lockhart remained but a blackened lump on the floor. His spirit is said to still haunt cell #13.
In 1974 inmate Larry Harmer, who was serving a one year sentence for damaging property during a break-in, pulled the sheets from his bed & rolled them into a tight cord. One week before his transfer, he placed the sheet around his neck & tied the end to the towel rack & took his own life. No one could be completely sure why Larry did what he did, but some wonder if he feared revenge at the hands of someone who may have been waiting for him at the prison he was transferring to.
With the rise of inmates & the issue of understaffing, tensions & patience wore thin which resulted in increasingly harsh punishments. Poorly behaved inmates were at risk for being sent to the infamous Hole to a solitary confinement cell. A typical stay in the Hole lasted three days where there were no lights & temperatures soared to 95 degrees fahrenheit/35 celsius.
On December 27, 1988, inmates Saul Harris & Scott Thompson were sent to The Hole together in one cell & only one emerged alive after Harris strangled Thomspon to death.
As a prisoner entered the gates of the OSR, their identity would be stripped, their name no longer their identification & instead, they were given a prison number that would serve as their new name & remain in their heads for the rest of their days.
Because of all of the deaths & violence within the walls of the prison over the years it remained open, there have been many reports of paranormal occurrences both in & outside the prison. Throughout the year, the prison stays open for day tours & all through the night from the sub-basement to the attic for ghost hunters to roam at their will, hoping to catch a glimpse of a supernatural sign.
The basement is said to be home to two specific entities, one tragic & one wicked. One story says that a 14-year-old boy was beaten to death in the basement & his shadow can now be seen flickering across the walls or a glimpse of his spirit can be seen as he rushes away as if trying to escape. The boy’s energy is said to be light, but the other, which is said to be the presence of a guard, has been described as sinister & dark. The guard is believed to have been the one to have killed the 14-year-old boy.
Because the Hole was such a horrific place to be sent as an inmate, a pitch dark room that could send anyone to the brink of madness, many unsettling activities can be found in this hot spot of paranormal activity. Those visiting the Hole describe cold spots, sudden nausea & a general feeling of doom.
One of the most haunted areas of the prison is one that would be the least expected, the Chapel/Sanctuary. It’s a gorgeous space during the day, but even then, some visitors have felt a lingering spirit they believe is wishing them harm. In a twist of irony, this religious space of sanctuary was once used for executions.
There’s a particular area where a lot of strange activity happens in a windowless room on the middle corridor on the third floor. Other than an old wooden chair that sits smack dab in the center of the room facing the door, the room is empty. According to legend, a dark spirit is said to reside in this room. If you close the door & turn your flashlight off, the room is pitch black. When you turn your flashlight back on, the chair can sometimes be found in a different location. One account indicated that a visitor sat in the chair & provoked the spirit, taunting it to take action. When the person left, scratch marks raked down their back.
Oftentimes, one might feel the sensation of someone tugging on their hair or running a finger across their back, even giving a firm poke in the ribs or shoulder. One person was poked so hard that it caused them to gasp in surprise. Visitors planning to stay the night are instructed not to provoke the dead. Once night falls, the ambiance has an entirely different feel & a flashlight is necessary as one roams through the vast building.
A couple of ghost hunters once brought a tape recorder into an isolation cell where other visitors mentioned feeling the sensation of being scratched. The ghost hunters pressed the record button & asked, Who is scratching? When they played the recording back, they could clearly hear the loud voice of a male sharply responding, Leave it alone! This is what is known as electronic voice phenomenon or EVP which is a sound found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices.
Doors can often be heard slamming nearby as well as footsteps in hallways or staircases. Voices can be heard, apparitions are seen & unexplained odd smells of tobacco or floral odors can be detected. Many more of these stories can be found in Sherri Brake’s book, Haunted History of the Ohio State Reformatory.
By the early 1960s, the state pulled its financial support from the reform model as it began to transition into a maximum security facility which led to the building’s deterioration. In 1978, inmates filed a lawsuit claiming unlivable conditions & the suit was settled in 1983 due to constitutional rights being violated. Some improvements were made as a result of the lawsuit, but regardless, during the last decade of operation, the living conditions were brutal. Some men wore hair nets to prevent the cockroaches from crawling into their ears as they slept & rats could be heard, scuttling around the halls in the dark. Summer heat caused the temperatures within the cells to soar & during the winter, the cold was bone chilling.
In 1990, the doors of the Reformatory finally closed & the building sat empty for several years until local activists rallied to purchase it from the state for $1 & went on to restore the historical structure. The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society is a non-profit organization that is overseen by a volunteer board & all donations go directly to the maintenance & restoration of the building.
The Reformatory houses three museums, the Ohio Corrections Museum, the Shawshank Museum & the North Central Ohio Industrial Museum, all with a single admission price. Many events & activities are hosted at the OSR, including date-night adventures with escape rooms, an overnight stay in one of the Reformatory’s guest houses & ghost tours. Guided tours are available & movie lovers can participate in the Shawshank Trail that stops at the locations featured in the movie.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the history & architecture of the Ohio State Reformatory is absolutely worth checking out if visiting the area of Mansfield.
One of the greatest stories told within the Reformatory was the fictional tale of The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 prison drama. The film had a $25 million budget & filming took place over three months between June-August 1993. Filming regularly required 18-hour work days, six days a week which made for tense moments between the cast & director. A scene filmed with Morgan Freeman, who played Red, featured him catching & throwing a baseball while he spoke with Tim Robbins’ character, Andy Dufresne. The scene ended up taking nine hours to film, resulting in Freeman showing up the next day with his arm in a sling. Freeman sometimes refused to do the additional takes requested of him, finding no discernable difference than the countless shots before.
A painting of Jesus can be found in the West Cell Block which served as the video room for Shawshank inmates to see movies which used to be a chapel. Years before, it served as a mattress factory where inmates worked. The painting is a leftover prop from the movie & is now called The Jesus Room.
A beam runs across the ceiling of the third floor that has the words carved in, Brooks was here & next to it, So was Red, which is a replica of the set where Brooks hung himself at the halfway house & Red later contemplated doing the same. The infamous tunnel that Andy used to escape is now on display in the actual prison’s Bullpen. Fun fact, the sewage in the pipe that Andy crawled through was made from syrup & sawdust.
The Shawshank Redemption has a powerful theme of keeping hope amongst adversity & despair & reminds us that whatever prisons our minds can put us in, we can rise to overcome them. I’ll leave you with two powerful quotes from the movie: Get busy living or get busy dying & Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free.
References:
- The Ohio State Reformatory
- Ghost Walks: Mansfield Reformatory Inmate – what was it like?
- Facebook: The Ohio State Reformatory
- Ghost Walks: Violent story of murderer Robert Daniels at Mansfield Reformatory
- Seneca County: Mad Dog Killers
- Dark Art & Craft: A look in the dark: Ohio State Reformatory is haunted as fu**
- Ohio Traveler: Locked up & lovin’ it at Ohio’s Shawshank Prison
- Wikipedia: The Shawshank Redemption
- Destination Mansfield: Historic Ohio State Reformatory
- The Ohio State Reformatory: A century of prison life & legends
- Travel Channel: Ohio Reformatory’s haunted history
- The Free Press: ‘Free can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free’
- Zinn Education Project: April 21, 1930: Inmates burned alive in Ohio State Penitentiary fire
- Ohio Memory: The Ohio Penitentiary Fire
- YouTube: Mind of Crime: Sheriff interviews Robert Daniels – “Mad Dog Killer” – 1948
- Mansfield Reformatory: Inmate burns self to death at OSR
- Rami Unger The Writer: A very active evening at the Ohio State Reformatory
- Ghosts & Gravestones: Why do people believe in ghosts?
- The New York Times: Many Americans say they believe in ghosts. Do you?
