Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky Listener. Discretion is advised. In May of Adam Burry and I were leading groups of people through an investigation in the solitary confinement wing of Ohio State Reformatory. Every hour, another group of fifteen or so nervously excited folks would file into the pitch black space, and Adam and I would lead them through
a paranormal investigation. During this though, we tried an experiment we'd never done before before we did anything investigation wise. We would ask each person to individually walk down the long corridor of fifteen or so cells, with only the moonlight coming in a few barred windows to light their way. In complete silence. We would watch them, one by one slowly make their way back and forth. Each time it
felt like an eternity. Each time we all held our breath for them, and each time they would meet Adam in the far corner and whisper which cell made them the most uncomfortable walking by it All in all, close to one people made that walk that night, and all but two named the exact same cell. Let's visit Ohio State Reformatory where the hauntings began before it was ever even built. I'm Amy Brunei, and this is haunted road.
Ohio State Reformatory seemed deston to be haunted. Even the land it was built on had seen plenty of casualties immediately prior to the construction of the Reformatory, The field upon which it would later be built was used as a training camp for soldiers during the Civil War. At the outbreak of the Civil War in eighteen sixty one, many northern areas, like Ohio quickly scrambled to gather and organize what was left of the various militias that had at one time existed and to induct them into the
state militaries. As part of this effort, in Ohio, then Governor William Dennison ordered the creation of several camps across the state, one of which was named Camp Bartley after a former governor of Ohio named Mordechai Bartley, who was from Mansfield and was located just north of the present day Ohio State Reformatory building. Later, the camp was referred
to in wartime documents as Camp Mansfield. Camp Mansfield was home base for a number of local regiments, including the thirty second O V I and fifteen V I in eighteen sixty one, the hundred second O V I and I in eighteen sixty two. The camp was occupied by other Ohio units as well when their own camps were
over full or otherwise unavailable. Many of these regiments, especially the thirty second, would seem massive casualties in battle on many occasions, though the grim Reaper would claim the living before they ever got the chance to step onto a battlefield to engage the enemy. Especially due to disease, which killed overwhelmingly more soldiers during the war than injuries sustained
in combat. Camps such as Camp Mordechai Bartley were populated by young soldiers who had never before been exposed to a large variety of common contagious diseases, and were plagued by outbreaks of smallpox, measles, chicken pox, moms, whooping cough, typhoid, and scurvy. In October of eighteen sixty two, Camp Mansfield also became home to a decided a different group of
people from the military trainees, political prisoners. All of the men incarcerated at Camp Mansfield where public officials, politicians, or newspaper publishers who had defied the US government by encouraging young men to ignore summons to war service and dodge
the military draft. By eighteen sixty seven, the war had been concluded for a few years, and it was being noticed and publicly talked about that in the wake of the war, the state penitentiary was being increasingly filled with younger men who were first time offenders, for whom there was still hope of reforming into respectable members of society, and a fear was developing that confining such youths in the same company as hardened prisoners would only solidify criminal
habits in the minds of these young men and make any such reformation impossible. Officials began discussing the need for some kind of intermediate penitentiary which would house criminals who were too old for the juvenile correction center, but whose crimes were minor enough that they did not warrant being sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary. The former site of Camp Bartley Mansfield was floated as a possible location for the construction of such an intermediate penitentiary. Eventually it was
selected as the site of the forthcoming institution. The buildings that would come to make up the Reformatory were designed by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield. While the initial process of considering the need and planning for the construction of the Reformatory began in eighteen sixties seven, it wasn't until eighteen eighty four that legislation in Columbus was finally passed calling
for its construction. It then took two years to convince the State Board of Managers that Mansfield was the ideal place for the new institution. With plans in place, the city of Mansfield raised ten thousand dollars to buy thirty acres on which the prison would sit. The State of Ohio bought another hundred fifty acres connected to this land
for twenty thousand dollars. All told, between the and purchases and the building, when the Ohio State Reformatory was finally completed, the total cost was just over one point three million dollars. Construction began in November of eighteen eighty six. The Ohio State Reformatory is the largest castle like structure in Ohio. It is one of the five largest in the United States. It occupies more than two hundred fifty thousand square feet
with its towering stone walls and sprawling footprint. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the largest freestanding cellblock, which is the East Cellblock and stands in impressive six stories in all. Evidently, the six story cellblock was a later edition, having been built in nineteen o eight. If you're a movie buff you may have in fact seen many parts of it. The Shawshank Redemption was filmed there, as have been many other movies,
TV shows and music videos. The building was designed with beauty and a church like aura. Schofield envisioned two a fifty thousand square feet of massive stone that would be a blend of several styles of architecture, Romanesque, Queen Anne and Victorian Gothic. Construction was finally underway, and with the first cornerstone being laid, there was much ado about the entire event. The cornerstone itself was made of smooth gray granite, but the rest of the building stone was quarried locally
from an area known as the Devil's Punch Bowl. Initially, the Reformatory was constructed to house eighteen hundred inmates. In mid September eighteen, the first inmates arrived, despite the fact that some parts of the prison were not yet complete, one fifty young men who had until that point been kept at the State Penitentiary in Columbus. As soon as these prisoners arrived, they were put to work digging the
building sewer system, which had not yet been completed. The Ohio State Reformatory was developed along the lines of the Auburn system, which you may be familiar with from our episode on the Eastern State Penitentiary. It was also called
the Silent system. One of the primary elements of the Auburn system was that while prisoners were meant to be kept in solitary cells at night, during the day they worked alongside others, although were required to maintain complete silence, unlike the Pennsylvania system, which largely kept prisoners in isolation from one another almost the entire time. The idea was that communication was necessary to maintain one sense of self.
By prohibiting communication, the inmate sense of self would disintegrate, with the result that they would be much less likely to cause problems, attempt escapes, etcetera. At one time, there were one thousand, six hundred twenty six men and boys who were students at the reformatory, and they were trained by sixteen teachers, learning subjects such as math, reading, English, economy, history,
and geography. As mentioned, the prisoners learned and practiced various traits, much of which can tributed directly back to the sustaining of the prison. In addition to being responsible for much of the construction of the reformatory itself, inmates also did farm work, eventually growing and raising most of their own food. They made clothing, they worked in a modern in house
print shop, and even made furniture. The furniture factory was opened in nineteen twelve under the supervision of H. O. Hansen, and produced high quality items that were well known for their beautiful handiwork and finishes. It was recorded in nineteen thirty one that eighteen thousand pieces of furniture were sold, with one hundred fifty inmates employed. At that time. The prison also had a machine shop, shoe factory, and other
trade facilities on site in which the inmates worked. The shoe factory made shoes of various types for men, women, and children. In nineteen thirty three, there were eleven thousand, seven hundred forty eight pairs of women's and girls shoes made, and twenty five thousand, three hundred sixty five pair of men in boys shoes sold. Styles ranged from oxfords to
high heels for women and waterproof men's boots. The grounds also had an in house fire department and lumber kiln, chapel and gymnasium, hospital, library, barbershop, power plant, and other facilities. The hospital was a ninety bed facility that employed a full staff of doctors, nurses, and other personnel. The hospital stood three stories high and extended off the east cell block in a northward direction. On the third floor, there was a medical ward, private rooms, baths, a linen area,
and a room for highly contagious patients. The reformatory has its own cemetery located on the grounds. There are over two hundred headstones that were placed as inmates died of old, age, disease, or illness. Inmates burried there also include those who died of natural causes, but also quite a few murder victims and others who ended their own lives. These are the graves of folks whose bodies went unclaimed by their families. Graves in the cemetery are marked with the inmate number
for each grave, but no names. For the first half century of its operation, the Reformatory kept to its vision of primarily serving moderate criminals and intending to reform them. For many years, it was touted as one of the best institutions of its sort in the United States. Over time, however, things began to change. By the early nineteen thirties, overcrowding had become a serious problem at the Reformatory, and it
became progressively worse. Deteriorating conditions peaked in nineteen seventy eight, when a coalition of churches and civic groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of the inmates. The Council for Human Dignity claimed that the prisoners constitutional rights were being violated. There were two thousand, two hundred inmates boarded in nineteen seventy eight in a facility that was meant to house
twelve hundred. The lawsuit charged that there were brutalizing and inhumane conditions in three The lawsuit was resolved by prison officials promising to make improvements and ultimately to close the cell blocks by the end of nineteen eighty six. This deadline was eventually extended. In nineteen eight seven. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In December nineteen ninety, the last staff and inmates moved to
the Mansfield Correctional Institute. All in all and estimated one hundred fifty five thousand men and boys passed through its gates, serving time for their crimes committed. As noted, more than two people died at the reformatory during its ninety four
years and operations. Deaths occurred due to several causes. As with just about any institution in which a significant number of people live in close quarters, and especially one prior to many of the significant medical advances of the last half of the twentieth century, widespread illness and resultant death was a constant threat. The most serious of such threats was, perhaps unsurprisingly, tuberculosis. TB is highly contagious. Like the common cold,
it spreads through the air. When people sneeze, cough, talk, or spit, they propel t B germs into the air. A person needs only to inhale a small number of these to become infected with the dreadful condition. I feel like we're all very familiar with respiratory diseases. After the last couple of years, inmates of the Ohio State reformatory may not have noticed any symptoms of illness until the
disease was quite advanced. Even then, the symptoms loss of weight, fever, loss of energy, poor appetite, a productive cough, and night sweats might easily be blamed on another disease. Several inmates at the reformatory took their own lives. The first, or at least the first reported happened in mid May nine. Nineteen year old Marshall Miller tore his bedsheet into strips and with those hanged himself from the upper bunk of
his cell. In nineteen sixteen, a local newspaper reported brooding over his incarsory in the Ohio State Reformatory for having shot his sweetheart following a quarrel. Anthony mcculick, a Hungarian inmate, attempted suicide shortly before noon by jumping from the top range of cells in the West cell Block, a distance of more than sixty feet to the cement floor below. He landed feet foremost was such force that the ankle bones were driven through his feet and through his shoes.
There is no chance of his recovery, According to the attending physicians at the reformatory hospital in May nineteen seventy four, an inmate at the Reformatory, twenty four year old Harold Sykes, who had been sentenced in November nineteen seventy three to ten to twenty five years at the institution for robbery, killed himself by hanging himself from a towel rack with a twisted sheet. The most famous of these, however, occurred
on January thirtieth, nineteen sixty. That evening, twenty two year old James Lockhart, inmate five four six seventy three, who in habited cell number thirteen and who had been at the reformatory since October nineteen fifty five for assault with the intent to kill, told the guards at supper time but he did not want to go to dinner as such. While the rest of the inmates headed to the mess hall,
Lockhart remained in his cell. Lockhart doused himself and the mattress in his cell was some kind of lighter fluid, and set himself ablaze. Two guards at some point rushed in to try to put the fire out, and got badly burned in the process, but Lockhart ran to the far corner of his cell and put the burning mattress between him and the cell door blocking anyone from getting to him. The coroner declared that technically Lockhart died from asphyxiation,
but his body was obviously horribly burned as well. According to another inmate, and this is really awful, his body peeled off in chunks as they pulled him along the catwalk to the infirmary. According to a former guard who saw the suicide firsthand, the body was unclaimed by his family, so it was put in a simple wooden box and buried in the prison cemetery. Clearly, with history like this, it's no wonder the Reformatory is reported to be very,
very haunted. According to some sources, the paranormal character of the area upon which the Reformatory would later be built goes all the way back to the period during its tenure as a Civil War camp. Supposedly, Camp Bartley had only been open for business for a couple of months in the late spring of eighteen sixty one, when a soldier began complaining of terrifying visits from unearthly spirits. These visitations left the soldiers so horrified that he was deemed
unfit for duty and sent to an asylum to recover. Also, supposedly. Other military trainees and officials began noticing around this time that items would sometimes go missing or be moved without explanation, and the ammunition tests would fail when performed in a particular part of the camp. Not long after, it was common for all based at Camp Mordecai to report hearing whispers and muffled voices where there should only be silent
In the northeastern corner of the training ground. Recruits even reported hearing voices that would emanate from the ground, causing them to question their sanity. Many of the haunting stories, though, have to do with the reformatory itself. The reformatory sees over one hundred thousand visitors a year, and reports of activity are rampant both during daytime tours and evening ghost tours.
Visitors often report rocks being thrown at them being scratched, loud voices including screams, cell doors slamming shut, footsteps, more shadow figures than you can imagine, and lots of full bodied apparitions. It is not uncommon for visitors to see themselves out, never to return. Many former and current law enforcement officials are associated with the maintenance of the building or come to visit for historical reasons, and they seem to get more of a response than others. But don't
take my word for it. I've got my friend Greg Faketic, lead paranormal investigator at the Reformatory and retired police officer, coming up next to tell us all about the most common paranormal reports at the building and how even you can visit and experience it for yourself if you're brave enough.
All right, So I am now joined by Greg Faketick, who is the co founder of try Sea ghost Hunters, and he is also the lead paranormal investigator at Ohio State Reformatory, so basically the perfect person to talk to about this stuff. So Hi Greg, Hi Amy, how are you. I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for joining us. Now. I've met Greg over the years because I've been back to the Reformatory I don't know, at least two or three times at this point, and I've had some pretty wild
experiences there. Now, where is it that you always stick me for those investigations? We put you down in solitary confined it that's right, that's right. I knew I was somewhere underneath, surrounded by darkness, that's what I remember. Yeah. So, actually, last time I was there, I did a really interesting experiment.
Adam was stationed with me as well, and so there's this whole row of cells that go down this very dark hallway, obviously, and every single group that came in, we would have each person walk up and down the cell block by themselves, which alone is actually quite terrifying, and then we would have them come back and secretly whisper into Adam's ear which cell was the most uncomfortable for them when they walked past it. So we did this.
We I think we had four groups of maybe fifteen people, and I tell you what, but then at the end we would figure out which cell it was. And the first group, every single person picked the same cell. And I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's like you go down this kind of corrid or there's like a almost a doorway kind of in between the cord or if that makes sense. It was always just past that doorway that cell on the left, and then
it happened again. Second, third, fourth group. There were maybe a couple of people who named the very end as the scariest moment for them, but it was so strange that every single person felt that same uncomfortable, heavy feeling going by the exact same cell. And so that was an interesting experience. So what is with that area? You know that that's that's funny that you say that, because my wife Cathy is attracted to that cell. She's been in that cell doing e VP sessions and she's gotten
some weird stuff. We like using the iPhone voice memo because you can see the graph, so you can basically see e vps or whatever is going on. So she sits in there and she has her recorder going and all of a sudden, the graph is going crazy when she's not saying anything. You know that she stops and she plays it back and she there's a whole bunch
of movement, like there's guys in there with her. It's really interesting that that she captures that, and it's really interesting that a lot of people, including the groups that were with you, were attracted to that cell. Yeah, you know, I like to do kind of those experiments where there's no room for confirmation bias or anything like that, Like we had no knowledge of you guys investigating in that
cell or anything prior. So I just like to tell investigators to go by your feeling a lot, you know, because that's just our animal instinct is if there's something not right, you know, the hair goes up on the back of your neck and you get that feeling like you should be extra cautious. And I think we sense that if there is some sort of energy around. So I don't know who's in that cell, but I know
I'm directly on the other side. I had another experience where I was walking back and forth and I was coming back from something, and there was just a man, like a full figure of a man, standing in the middle of the corridor, and I couldn't even tell if he was real or not. I was like, is that one of our attendees? Like who is this person? And so I watched by I had the creepiest feeling, and I turned around and he's gone. And then again I heard people saw this shadow figure down there a lot.
So is that something else you've heard in that area? Oh? Yeah, people see shadow figures, big dark shadow figures down there. In fact, I've been investigating over thirty years and I've rarely seen an apparition. But one of the apparitions I have seen was down in solitary confinement, and that was
just last month. I had a private investigation that night and I was given the guests a tour and were walking by those metal cells, those isolation cells, and as I look into one, I swore there was somebody standing in there, and it's like one of those things where I jumped back. I was like, oh wow, you know. But the guests that was right behind me, she saw it too and she started crying, so she validated what I thought I saw. So that it's getting it seems
like it's getting more active. But you know, there have been a few documented murders down there. Yeah, there's a lot of energy, oh for sure. For sure outside of solitary confinement. What do you think is the most active area in the place. I have two locations, the whole third floor in the administration portion, which is kind of weird because it was administration remains weren't really there, but they're probably wandering around. And the West Attic. I don't
think I've been to either of those. The West Attic is hands down the most active location there. What happens up there, oh man, you get we get stuff thrown at us. You'll hear footsteps, you'll be touched. You'll see visible balls of light up there. You can see shadow figures in the doorway, ambient light coming in from the chapel area. People have been attacked up there. It's just a really really intense feeling. I've I've had experiences up
there that I can't explain. You know, I've been touched. But it's really dark up there, and sometimes you can feel an ice coldness walking around you. And one time, this is weird because it's already dark and you can't see your hand in front of your face, but it just got darker. It was like somebody just put something over my eyes and like closing my eyes really tight. And I've never experienced the darker than dark. That was kind of crazy. A lot of people have a lot
of different experiences up there. We had some police officers up there in uniform after our Blood prison our Hunted House attraction, and they actually had stuff being thrown at them. They actually had marks on their uniforms where they were being hit. Jeez. I mean, I guess they probably wouldn't be very popular in there. You no, no, uh, you
know seeing the uniforms. Yeah, But now I'm a retired police officer, and I've never had a problem up there or anywhere in the prison where I've been like attacked. I've been touched, I've had my keys polled, But you know, I talked with the guys. I showed them respect because I'm there all the time and I don't want any problems. Yeah, but you know, I always feel like it's interesting how I meet a lot of either law enforcement or retired
law enforcement. I meet a lot of them involved in paranormal investigation and a lot of them involved in places like the Reformatory, like you know, like even like Missouri State Penitentiary and stuff. I find that they do really actively either like to investigate or just also just kind of historically try to maintain a place like that. Is that why you got involved with the Reformatory? You know what it could be. I mean, we've been a police officer,
you know, we like investigating. We like trying to a piece together facts to solve a crime. So it's almost the same thing. You know, you're trying to investigate, You're trying to figure out what's going on here, what's causing this. So I think they go hand in hand. But there's something about the building. But The first time I investigated there was two thousand and four, and the building just like it just reached out to me and grabbed me.
That first night, I said I want to work here, and when I retired, I started volunteering at the Reformatory. There's just something about the building. You know, you're not the first person to say something like that to me about these haunted locations. They do kind of take on a life of their own, and there is something oddly
comforting about them. I don't know how to describe it, you know, Like I feel that from the Reformatory, and I don't know too Like I I think I also really enjoy just kind of the family atmosphere, like you and your team. You're also devoted to what you do, and everybody knows each other so well and like always so helpful, really great with questions, and so that might be part of it too, But I always feel very at home there. Strangely enough. Well, that's a good thing.
That's a good thing. The spirits that are there, you know, they're not all bad. They're not all bad. We've had some really helpful ones when we get e vps where they will actually help you m M. But you know, you get some bad ones up there, but yeah, it's it's like a family atmosphere, the volunteers, the staff members, it's like our home. Oh absolutely. And I'd say that to people a lot when they go in and investigate a place like that, like, don't make a blanket judgment
as far as who you're talking. I mean, I've said that on the podcast before. I also tell that when I'm leading groups in there, I say, hey, you don't know why someone is here, how they ended up here, what was going on in their life like that. You can't make judgments on someone just because they ended up in a place like this. And I think that's really helpful in investigating locations like the reformatory has that is
that kind of a philosophy you share as well? Yeah, because you know what, there were probably a lot of innocent people that were incarcerated there. So yeah, I mean you don't know people's back stories or anything, just like you know the living. I mean, we don't know what these people are going through or what has happened to them in their lives. So and I know a lot of people are judgmental, but unless you know that person or know what's going on, in their life. You know,
it's you shouldn't be judging. And these guys they're they're serving their time. They committed crimes and their serving their time. You know, there they lost their freedom. Yeah. I sometimes wonder if they remain in places like that as kind of a self imposed sentence, or if it's kind of that whole idea that they just they didn't know anything else. They were there for so long and they're afraid to
move on to whatever happens next. I will say that the second aghost starts throwing things at me, that I might get a little nasty. You're not allowed to throw things right, right, and that's you know. Or when we're up in the attic, it's like, do not throw things at us. Yeah, it's boundaries. Yeah, we always tell them that. In fact, I was up there last night and it's like, you can throw things, just don't throw things at us.
I mean, if you want to throw a rock or something down at the end of the attic, that's fine. Just don't throw anything at us. Yeah, I mean that's fair. I would say that's fair. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I mean I'm treating you guys with respect. And I tell everybody treat them with respect, especially up here because there were a lot of a lot of violent inmates up there. Yeah, I'm gonna have I don't know that I've been up there. I'm gonna have to go check that area out next
time I have to put you up there. Okay, well let's see. Well we'll talk about that later. So okay, So now as far as um people who visit, like, I know, you run obviously a lot of private investigations there and in events, and there's also just tours. Do you ever have people come through who are just have to leave like they've had like they just have an experience and they are done. Oh oh yeah, oh yeah
that that that happens. It happens on the private haunts, that happens on the public houns, even happened like during the day tours. Yeah, I feel like those would be the ones more apt to that because I feel like they're probably taking the tour not really thinking about ghosts, just really wanting to learn history, and then if something happens in that instance, they'd probably be more you know,
likely to vacate the premises pretty quickly. Are there any more memorable instances of that you can think of Well, I mean, I don't work day tours, so I'm there at night much I love. I do know of one incidents where a woman was taken photos. She wasn't investigating. She was taking photos and she was up on the third floor in the administration portion and took a couple of photos. One of the photos freaked her out, um, and she immediately found a staff member who then took
photos of her camera and sent them to me. I don't know if she actually left, but it did freak her out, and she wasn't there investigating. She was est there, you know, the day tours. Now, speaking of that, have you heard accounts of paranormal activity happening there while it was in operation? Yes? Yes. In fact, I was talking with a former guard last night and he was a guard there from nine to closed in and oh yeah, he had experiences there, and he was telling me about
other staff members who had experiences there that they couldn't explain. Yeah, that's got to be tough too, because you have to, you know, keep a brave face on, especially in instances like that. What are the more frequent paranormal encounters people have when they're there? A lot of the times you know obviously they're e vps, but it seems that lately two people have been seeing shadow figures throughout hearing voices, and those can be really creepy, especially if you're in
a room by yourself and you hear a voice. People have been hearing growling too, that seems to be increasing. And there again that's up on the third floor. I know that when and I think we did an event their last May. I think yours was maybe one of my might have been my first event back after the pandemic. I think it was actually because I remember just being like, wow, people, you know, and it was just it was this whole like it was the first time back and so long.
I got emotional a few times because I love meeting other investigators and fans of the paranormal and it's like one of my favorite things to do, and to not be able to do it for almost two years was very hard. Actually at that point is just a year and a half, but it was long enough that I felt it. I think that that too, was one of
the first times people were investigating there again. Do you think that having this space empty for so long and not interacting, do you think that affected the haunting in some way. I think it did, especially in one area there. Get up in the third floor edmin. We're actually having people get physically attacked up there. A lot of people were getting scratched on the back. Gee. I mean I was up there. I was doing a tour for a private investigation. And also the guy said, how complaining about
a burning sensation on his back. We lifted up his shirt and there's these really you know, they almost looked like bruises on his back. So there was a lot of attacks up there, and that was like after the pandemic. In fact, that most of them happened between March and May last year. Ah yeah, that was right when you started going back. I feel like they must have been used to being alone for a while. Yeah. Yeah, And
we couldn't figure it out. And in fact, it's the same area that that woman captured something weird on her camera, So there was something going up there. I mean it's died down now up there, we haven't really had any tax but of course we haven't had any parent omal events. It sounds like you need to have people sign waivers. It's funny because when I when I'm up there of the tours, I'm like, okay, everybody, you you did sign your waivers right. Usually I'm afraid people are going to
fall downstairs or something, but that sounds pretty intense. The whole scratching thing. Yeah, I always hear that that when people have that experience of being scratched, it doesn't necessarily feel like your traditional scratch. It often presents as kind of either a burning sensation or an ice cold sensation. So yeah, I said, I hear that time and time again. I don't know how that works. I don't know why.
You know, sometimes people associate the idea of like scratches with something negative or demonic, but in my experience, it's many times something either or a person the spirit of a person just wanting either you to leave, or sometimes they're just really desperate to get your attention. You know. It's almost like when you think of someone like, you know, trying to save themselves or grab onto something, they just kind of get overly, you know, kind of overshoot the basket,
as they say. So it can mean, you know, a couple of different things in conjunction with other evidence that may present itself at the same time. I agree. I mean, you know what we don't know what it's like on the other side, and here we are, we got investigators trying to communicate, right, Maybe that's they're trying to communicate back, Yeah, exactly. You know, we don't know enough to kind of to assume how they're going to come across. So it's hard
not to take that automatically as being something negative. But you know, there's been many times where I've had something you know, physically interact like push or shove or something, but then at the same time I'm getting e vps that say help me or don't leave, or you know, it's it's this kind of desperate act. I almost feel like, well that being said, now that I'm sure everyone just wants to line up and get in there, right, yes,
come on, come on. So I know you do a really great conference every year, and I think I've been the last two I believe, maybe even more than I lose track. But it's lovely how you kind of people can go into the Reformatory and you know, there's a lot of vendors and people like me that you can come up and meet, and then there's lectures all day and then at night we get to investigate, which is cool. So can you tell a little bit about that and how people can get involved. Oh? Sure, we do an event.
This year's event is May twentie through the twenty second. It's called Parasicon. This year it's called Parisicon three. It would have been four but got canceled because of the pandemic. But it is a paranormal and psychic convention that is held at the House State Reformatory. Each year it gets bigger. This year we have ninety three vendor tables with over
eighty vendors, and we do have some great celebrities. I have Amy that will be there, and Adam will be there, Chip Coffee will be there and a host of other celebrities. And for our event, it costs nothing to get into our event. You pay your admission into the House State Reformatory. You can do yourself guided tours throughout the prison and you can come, you know, check out the vendors, go
meet the celebrities, listening to the talks. That Saturday night, May one, we have a celebrity ghost hunt and we do have tickets available for that. And this year we're doing something different for Friday night, We're doing a v I P Meet and greet where a certain amount of guests can mingle and hang out with the celebrities and they'll be appetizers there. There will be a bar there, we'll have a DJ there, so it'll just be a
relaxed feeling prior to the big event. For more information on the paras Icon, you can go to www dot paras Icon dot com. That's p A r A P S Y c O N dot com. It will give you everything that you need to know about the event. Yeah, and if you are listening to this after the fact, this is a yearly thing and it's raises a lot of money for the Reformatory, and it's yeah, it's it's a really great event. And it's like I said, we love doing it. We love mingling. It's a lot of fun.
You know, you can go upstairs and get scratched apparently, so that's your thing. If that's I'm really glad I got to chat with you again, and thank you for filling everyone in on the haunts and what to expect. And you know, even if you can't make the event, please go and visit the Reformatory. It's got really great history, great tours, and you might just have a paranormal experience of your own. Thank you so much, Greg. I appreciate you taking the time. Thank you Amy for having me on,
and I'm looking forward to seeing you and me. Like many places we visit on Haunted Road, Ohio State Reformatory started with the best of intentions but ended on a very tragic note. I don't think there's enough time to scratch the surface of all the deaths and unfortunate happenings that took place there. But it's increasingly apparent that the building isn't done reminding us of its history. Oddly, and like I mentioned chatting with Greg, it doesn't have a
foreboding feeling when you enter. The history is massively important and you can tell so by the passion of the volunteers who run it. So it's definitely worth a visit. And if you do go, please let them know that I sent them your way. And also, even though I say that it's comfortable inside, let me be clear, I wouldn't like spend the night in there alone or anything, but like I said, I do highly recommend you visit.
I'm Amy Brunei and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is a production of Heart Radio and Grimm and mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney, and Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.