Restored Ohio prison and its 'ghosts' get into Halloween spirit

By Betsa Marsh

A misty, full moon glowers over the stone turrets, a skirl of chainsaws and screams on the frosted air. A perfect night for fright.


And the setting, too, may be one of the best, the old Ohio State Reformatory, a veritable chateau of incarceration when it opened in 1896 in a field outside Mansfield, Ohio. The last inmate checked out in 1990, and, four years later, a local prison preservation group began stabilizing its leaky roofs and leprous walls. Halloween is the relic's time to shine.

In the haunted prison, maniacs with chainsaws pop out of dozens of cells and black holes. Cloaked monsters slither out of blackness to whisper in your ear, "We are the dwellers of the dark." And jumping out -- did we mention the jumping out? The prison's 970 cells make for a lot of jack-in-the-box heart-stoppers. And just as you try to catch your breath, ghoulish inmates on the other side of the cellblock rake metal against the bars and spike sparks in your face.

http://www.post-gazette.com

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