The Haunted History of the Ohio State Reformatory

By Sherri Brake

Built on the site of a Civil War camp ravaged by disease, the Ohio State Reformatory first opened in 1896 to reform young offenders but eventually grew to house the most dangerous criminals. By the time the Mansfield institution closed, the prison was hosting a thousand more prisoners than it was designed to hold in "brutalizing and inhumane conditions." Within the dark corridors made famous as the backdrop for The Shawshank Redemption, ghostly presences linger, from the dungeons of solitary confinement to the West Wing showers, where a bent pipe marks the place where a prisoner hanged himself. Venture behind the walls of this notorious prison with ghost tour guide Sherri Brake to discover the history and spirits that forever haunt these halls...if you dare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: May 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781614231899

Sherri Brake

Sherri Brake has been studying the paranormal and its accompanying history for twenty-six years. For the past five years she has led hundreds of tours as the owner of the award-winning Haunted Heartland Tours (www.HauntedHistory.net). She is very active in the local history community as a civil war re-enactor and as a Board Trustee for the Chippewa Rogues Hollow Historical Society in neighboring Wayne County, Ohio. Recently she has been featured on PBS' Stark County Alive (2004) and Lost in Ohio. She also lead a group in the Mansfield Reformatory for the Travel Channel's Americas Top 10 Scariest Places and has been a guest on various talk radio programs as an authority on ghosts and local legends.