Part two of two

MANSFIELD, Ohio -- This central Ohio town is a beautiful destination that offers history, gardens, carousels and shops but there is also plenty to get visitors into the spirit of Halloween.

Probably best known is the castle-like Ohio State Reformatory, featured in four films, including “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Air Force One,” and several music videos and shows about the paranormal.

Built between 1886 and 1910, the Levi T. Scofield-designed reformatory-turned-prison is the largest castle-like structure in Ohio and houses the world’s tallest free-standing steel cell block.

Five years after the prison closed in 1990, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society formed. Members now offer tours and all-night ghost hunts to pay for restoration of the architectural gem, listed on the Travel Channel’s “101 Things To Do Before You Die” and “Scariest Places on Earth.”

I spent the night within its walls on a recent Friday the 13th, but didn’t see, hear or record anything frightening -- unless you count the MFPS warning that if the guards at the new prison next door saw any camera flashes in their direction, they’d come and find us.

Finding ghosts without good equipment is akin to finding a needle in a pack of pins and though my camera captured a few orbs in the shower room where a prisoner hanged himself, they could have easily been dust. Many areas desperately needs cleaned and restored.

The cell where the guys from The Atlantic Paranormal Society thought they encountered something otherworldly is marked with an X.

Near daybreak, when the birds were chirping and most of us had given up the ghosts, a woman announced she saw a yellow stick figure cross her path but none of us could find anything.

There are also various day tours and other events.

 About 13 miles southeast are spooky programs in Lucas, Ohio, at Malabar Farm, now part of the state park system.

I was glad to get a spot on the farm’s last four-hour “Night Haunt,” which began as twilight fell with a surprisingly entertaining live bat program in the restored Malabar barn.

There was lots of nervous laughter in the beginning and some in the group were visibly edgy when they thought live bats would be dive-bombing their hair. But by the end -- after we had passed around various dead bats ensconced in glass, and saw live ones up close in netting -- most attendees seemed inclined to view the flying insect traps on friendly terms.

It was getting dark as we strolled with flashlights past pastures to the Ceely Rose house, named for the confessed murderess who poisoned her parents and brother in the summer of 1896 under the mistaken belief that they stood in her way of marrying a neighbor.