Portals to Hell

Okay, if you're strong enough to show yourself, then show me.

what was that?

Holy ****.

Holy ****.

Is this place a portal to hell?

that's bones?

serious?

He believes that you're demonic...

...So this should really piss you off.

alright, so we are in mansfield, ohio

and we're going to the ohio state reformatory.

It is probably one of the most iconic locations

in the paranormal community.

But what's really cool is that we have exclusive access

to places in the prison

that have never been investigated for tv before.

Exciting.

Let's get to it. We're gonna have a good one.

We got a lot ahead of us. Yes, we do.

my favorite thing about this place

is it's actually one of the locations

used in "shawshank redemption."

the actual prison was built in 1886.

It started as a reformatory and it was that

for a very, very long time for youths

to be there to reform them, and then in the '70s,

it's when it officially converted over

to a maximum security prison.

And then it was shut down in 1990.

So some of the accounts of like why this place got shut down

was really crimes against humanity.

They were heavily understaffed.

Prisoners were like killing each other left, right and center.

To this day, they're still finding shanks

and shivs in certain areas.

And then there's reports of like full blown torture taking place.

people have been experiencing kind of the whole check list

of paranormal activity here at this prison for decades.

Voices, apparitions,

cell doors slamming on their own.

The spaces that have never been investigated

for television before,

apparently they are very active and volunteers here

are extremely uncomfortable being over there.

Yeah, the people that have worked here

seem to think that the activity is getting more

and more negative in those rooms.

Holy ****!

This is rad!

Look at that bad boy.

It looks like a castle. Yeah.

It's wild, isn't it?

For the most part, I don't like investigating prisons.

It is one of the most uncomfortable feelings

to investigate.

this is awesome.

I always kind of feel like a piece of meat,

I feel like somebody is staring down at me.

And it is a very oppressing, negative and invasive feeling.

what do you think?

It's an impressive building.

If you know you're going to, as you pull up to somewhere,

you're like, I'm spending years in that building,

I think that's a mind ****.

Do you want to see inside?

Yeah, let's go. Let's go.

I'm excited to see this.

Jack and I are about to meet with kathy and greg,

who are volunteers here at the prison,

but they are also paranormal investigators.

Hello. Hi, nice to meet you. Hi, I'm kathy.

They've investigated this place many times

and they also know a lot of the history.

Welcome to the historic ohio state reformatory.

Thank you.

It did start out as a reformatory,

back in the late 1800s,

for young non-violent offenders.

There could be kids here

13, 14 years old, all the way up to, you know, the 30s.

You see the design of the building.

It looks like a castle.

The architect wanted to put this sense of dread

into these young offenders.

When they were coming down the drive,

they were like, "holy ****, what did I do?"

you know, "I'm going to be spending my time here."

and so then we see it turning over

into violent offenders at some point,

and when did that happen?

Slowly in the '60s, and by the '70s,

it was a total maximum security prison

and the conditions here were bad.

At its height, how many people were kept here?

Like 3,000. Wow!

And it was only built for 1,000 inmates.

The inmates filed a petition with the state,

saying that this was cruel and inhuman punishment,

because they basically spent 23 hours a day in their cells.

So they won their law suit

and then the state built new prisons.

So we're going to take you to different hot spots

inside the prison.

Alright, lead the way.

this was the living quarters

for the superintendent and his family.

There was a tragic event here that occurred in 1950.

There was a woman by the name of helen glattke.

She was in that closet right there.

It was a Sunday morning.

She was getting ready for church.

She was reaching for a box,

and her husband's handgun was on top of the box.

It fell, discharged, and struck her in the lung.

She died a few days later at a local hospital,

but helen is still here.

How do you know she's here?

She had this rose scented perfume that she used to make

and as you're walking anywhere on the second floor,

you'll smell rosewater.

That's so weird -- I literally came up

and I was like, "who's doused themselves in perfume?"

- that's funny. - Yeah, I didn't,

I just figured it was someone I was walking behind.

That was our very first paranormal experience here

was smelling the roses. - On the second floor.

- Really? - The second floor, yeah.

Does anything else happen in here?

You will get activity out here.

I'll be by the steps here

and I'll hear walking around upstairs.

It'll sound like chains,

like there's chains being drug on the floor.

Where we're going up next, the third floor,

I don't like it.

And I agree with greg on that

because it has a completely different feel up there.

this is like creepy active, the whole floor.

Is it negative? Do you guys think it's negative up here?

- Yes. - There's something up here.

You feel it right now?

I feel it right now. My whole body is tingling.

I don't know if it's negative or not,

but I know it's very active.

I would like to play a quick audio clip

of something that we captured up here.

It scared the crap out of us.

We could not figure out what the noise was.

Wow.

Didn't find the source?

No, we searched every room, down the hallway.

There was nothing.

Now we're going to head to one of the other hot spots,

the west attic. So, if you'll follow me.

in 1930, there was a major fire

at the ohio penitentiary in columbus.

Some 312 inmates died there

since the prison down there was, like, demolished,

they needed a place to put some of the other inmates.

So a bunch of them came here.

Now, in 1930,

this was still a reformatory for non violent offenders.

Now they're bringing all these felons, murderers, rapists,

and this is where they housed them.

So, did a lot of violence, rapes, assaults.

It's like a thunderdome. Yes.

Watch your step coming up here.

Yeah, there's a ramp there, so watch your step.

- whoa! - It's pitch black.

Holy ****.

And it's never been investigated on television before?

It has never been investigated on television.

You guys are going to be the first.

So there would have been 300 people in here?

- Yeah. - Not sequestered in cages?

Nothing, just like --

They had the run and they were crazy.

That's why this place is crazy.

I was standing right about here when all of a sudden,

I felt a presence in front of me

that was very strong and very uncomfortable.

I could feel that it had a sleazy feel to it

and then all of a sudden I felt myself

be touched inappropriately.

Another woman investigation with me,

she goes, "there's something sleazy up here

and I don't like how it feels. I'm leaving."

do a lot of other people feel that way?

There's women up here that feel uncomfortable.

It's gotten a lot more active up here.

When did that start?

I would say probably within the past year.

Has it changed here

as far as like being more aggressive?

I'm glad you just said that.

There was one person that I know of who was up here provoking

and then he started feeling this burning sensation on his back

and when they lifted up his shirt, that's what they--

whoa! ****.

That's significant.