Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Evidence From The Mansfield Reformatory

Mansfield Reformatory Investigation
November 14, 2008
Ohio P.E.R.V.S. present - Jen and Eric Williams, Craig and Mandi Worrell, Denise and Andy Donaldson.

Back in November, the group had the fantastic opportunity to join Haunted Heartland Tours tour of the historic Mansfield Reformatory located in Mansfield, Ohio. During the several hour investigation, the team was able get several very clear EVP's along with one interesting photo. I apologize for not getting this done sooner, but as always, life and work kept getting in the way.

Photographic Evidence:
The following photograph was taken on the third level. As you can clearly see, there is nothing else on the other side of the rail but air. Denise was taking random shots and caught this:

(Click to enlarge)
As you can see, there is nothing below or above this area. Just space. Looking into the image properties, the shutter speed of the shot was 1/64 of a second. So there was no image stability issues at play here either. Once on the computer, I was able to zoom in and invert the image:
To be honest, we do not know what caused this. I've been working with photography for over 20 years and have seen a lot of different things on film that can easily be explained away, but I cannot come up with an answer for this.
Thinking that it could have been falling paint chips, which are everywhere at the old prison, we tried to recreate this by throwing paint chips in the air and snapping pictures. Any time we did it, you could tell it was a paint chip. But at 1/64 of a second shutter speed, whatever this is, it is moving fast.
All of our photos from the expedition can be viewed here.

EVP Evidence:
1. Our first EVP is from the east cellblock area. There was no one in the area except the girls who are doing some investigating when you hear a southern voice saying "You better get." Click here to hear the EVP.

2. Jen was talking with the other investigators near the TB ward when you hear a childish "Okay". Click here to hear the EVP.

3. Jen, Mandi and Denise were back in the east cell block area and Jen was commenting on brushing up against the "nubs" that are sticking out of the cells and the feeling that she is getting touched when you hear an Appalachian accent in the background ask if she would like to touch his. Click here to hear the EVP.

4. The team was later in the shower room and a voice asks if they smoke. Click here to hear the EVP.

5. Jen was then alone by the "Brooks was here" room. Not really sure what this may be. Click here to hear the EVP.

6. In a solitary, Jen ask's, "They call you Johnny, is that your name?". Click here to hear the EVP.

7. While the recorder was running in the library area, an odd British sounding accent is saying something. What do you think? Click here to hear the EVP.

8. In the TB ward, a sigh can clearly be heard. The recorder was placed on a level surface away from the investigators, this sigh sounds like it is right beside the recorder. Click here to hear the EVP.

9. Another sigh, but at this time, it was noted that on the EM meter, there was a spike. Click here to hear the EVP.

10. Denise was doing some general EVP investigation asking "What's your name?". In the background you can hear a some mumbling that is not very clear. Click here to hear the EVP.

11. This is the EVP that has really stumped us and one that we didn't catch the first time through the digital recordings. The girls were in a cell in the east cell block with the recorder resting on a cot. In the background, there is a faint, childish, "who is it?", followed by noise that sounds like children and then VERY clearly what I think is a Scottish brough saying "who's there?". At that moment, Jen comments that she had heard a sound that sounded like the squeaking of a mattress. There was no one else in the area at this time, just our team. Click here to hear the EVP.

We had several personal experiences here that cannot be backed up by evidence. At one point in the chapel, Craig heard a very audible sigh or breath from one corner of the room that was not picked up by any equipment. Also in the chapel, Andy, trying to remember how to say "The Sign of the Cross" in Latin to see if that would arose any activity since any Mass service held in there would have likely been said in Latin. A knock was heard from the general area where Craig had heard the sigh, but no other evidence was found.
Towards the end of the night, Jen and Denise decided to go back into the cell blocks to try and find the cell marked with an "X" that had activity when the "Ghost Hunters" from TAPS were there, and while walking along the cells, Denise had her arm grabbed, and felt like she was physically spun around. Unfortunately the recorder was not running at the time, and photos that were taken immediately after did have a few orbs in them, but are untrustworthy as evidence.

Conclusion:
The Mansfield Reformatory is an amazing place. Not only a male reformatory, it was also used for a time as a tuberculosis quarentine, so we feel that there is a strong possibilty of spirits other then just the former male tenents still inhabit the premises. Which is very clear from our EVP's. Filled with history and lead paint chips, it's an imposing beast that can easily be tamed by the amateur ghost hunter enthusiast. We did not know what to expect going into the prision, but for me, I felt very comfortable there and not at all "freaked out". As far as our evidence goes, I really do feel that it speaks for itself in many ways. None of this evidence is altered in any way except some of the audio is cleaned up using Roxio's audio tools to try to get the best sound possible with what we have captured. Please let us know your thoughts!

11 comments:

The Medusa said...

First off... AWESOME! Second... AWESOME! Third... They are finally up!

Unknown said...

Very well done guys great post! SOme thoughts on the EVPs. 1. "you better get" sounds like the rest of the sentence should be, "...outta here". Having grown up in the south I've heard that very, "you better get." plenty of times when I strayed where I shouldn't be. 5. Kinda sounds like loud speaker or walkie talkie chatter, still can't figure out what that could be. The best by far is still. "you wanna take/taste" mine. Creepy stuff, lets go back!

Anonymous said...

Question, were pics taken with a analog or digital camera. I ask because I have seen this style of 'defect' in images from digital cameras from spider web fragments that "were not there" yet when flash from camera hits the web its pronounced on image. Also the 'circles' from the inverted image also suggest that it is a strand type object because flash lighting produces circles. And heck it is just well bright!

Denise (aka Trixie) said...

Very good question! It was a digital camera. The possibility of a spider web is an interesting idea, however there were over 500 pics taken that night between 2 digital cameras and nothing even close to that one pic came out. With all the dust and webs in that building I would have thought we would have gotten that effect more than once. Interesting though.

Unknown said...

There is a chance we could have caught a floating spider web coming from way up on the ceiling at that precise moment certainly worth a try to reproduce. "Anonymous", if you are reading, I would like to hear more about this is there a good website (no pun intended) you could point me toward? There a specific shutter speed this happens best at?

The Medusa said...

RE: Craig
I have to admit being sexual propositioned by a ghost is a bit creepy. I guess even to the dead I am a sexy piece of meat! LOL!

RE: Anonymous
Thanks for the heads up on the webs and flash thing. I would say it is worth looking into. We tried to recreate that picture a lot that night. Start collecting webs PERVS!

kimberly said...

Pretty cool EVP's. Do you have just one person recording evp's? or more than 1 person recording?

Andy Donaldson said...

Hi Kim,
We had two recorders, but they were in separate parts of the prison with the two groups we had there that night. Thanks for stopping by!

kimberly said...

Thanks for answering my question. I wish I had done some evp's in my old house- it was haunted. to read my story go to my blog. http://www.paranormalunderground.blogspot.com

Josh Hunt said...

The image you posted under the "Photographic Evidence:" section is interesting.

Could the object be a clump of hair? Or a long, bunched up strand of hair? Or one or two strands of curly hair?

Could it be a thread from an object, say a pillow, a pillow case, a sheet, or similar object?

Just because your other photos did not reveal a similar object does not mean that it is not an object like the ones I have proposed.

This website could be helpful to your team for analyzing paranormal photographs:

http://www.assap.ac.uk/newsite/articles/Paranormal%20photos.html

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