Atrocities of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum // Ohio State Reformatory
Season 2 Chapter 1
Hello, and welcome to the second season of The Legend Queens! If this is your first time here or if you're a returning reader, thank you so much for giving our queer-written paranormal newsletter a read or a listen. We had so much fun producing and researching Season One and our Halloween Special that we couldn't wait to dive back into the thick of it with us looking into material for Season 2.
Amber and Austin will introduce a series they will run through this newsletter. Since there are so many haunted places in the world, we figured it would be more fun if we got specific with what haunted properties we were looking at instead of having an ambiguous haunted house. Today's newsletter is the first volume in that series and will focus on haunted prisons and asylums.
Prisons and asylums are notorious for being haunted due to the sheer amount of negative energy saturated not only in the walls but the ground itself. Quite literally as it was common practice for these establishments to house mass graves and cremations on-site. On top of the inhumane practices of torture, how society treated the mentally handicapped, horrendous living conditions, and countless other atrocities is the perfect stew for a haunting to occur to those who visit.
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Atrocities of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Written By: Amber Brevig
Trigger Warnings: Gruesome violence, child abuse, physical abuse of the disabled
Weston State Hospital
In Weston, West Virginia, 13 semi-abandoned buildings sit atop 666 acres of land. These buildings make up the Weston State Hospital, known today as the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum.
Initially constructed in the late 1800s to comfortably house 250 mentally ill patients, this facility held over 2400 patients when it closed its doors in 1994. Here, surgeons and caretakers experimented on, abused, and negligently killed thousands of patients.
Our understanding of mental illness now differs significantly from what it did even back in the 1990s. In the 1800s, there was no standard for what “insanity” meant - patients could be admitted for being non-verbal, violent, or even reading too much.
As such, facilities like this became a dumping ground for unwanted family members and people of all ages who needed extra support. Even when this facility’s practices “cured” a patient enough for them to check out and go home, the patient was often returned to the hospital due to the family not wanting to deal with them in the first place.
Unfortunately, since admins packed these rooms and hallways to the brim with society’s forgotten members, their mistreatment went largely unnoticed for most of a century. We will never know everything that happened in those walls, but I have recapped a few of the asylum’s most widespread atrocities below.
Transorbital Lobotomies and Dr. Monster
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum hosts dozens of rooms visitors say paranormal entities haunt. Still, one of the rooms where guests report the most ghost activity is the lobotomy room.
During this archaic and disturbing procedure, a doctor would take a surgical item shaped like a small ice pick (sometimes an object identical to a chopstick, as seen below) and place it above the patient’s eye in the soft part of the upper eye socket. The doctor would then hammer the pick into the patient’s socket to sever the connection to the frontal lobe of the brain.
The Trans-Allegany Lunatic Asylum (TALA) paranormal tours state that this procedure would often take less than thirty seconds (though historians say it was a 3-4 minute approach). The performing doctor would conduct dozens in the same session.
This lobotomy process allegedly “made the perfect patient” in that people who previously needed high support could suddenly bathe themselves, do other basic tasks they couldn’t before, or communicate. However, some doctors at the time claimed that the patients became emotionless after the procedure and thought the operation stole patients’ souls.
Worse, patients often did not consent to this procedure, and doctors even did it on children as young as four. Side effects included epilepsy, brain damage (this shouldn’t be a shocker), dementia, and death.
Transorbital lobotomies were conducted well into the 1960s before psychiatrists phased them out for more medicinal approaches.
The monstrous father of the operation, Dr. Walter Freeman, completed over 2900 lobotomies throughout 23 states during his career. He briefly visited the TALA, where he performed his practice on over 200 patients, including pregnant women, epileptics, and children.
If you have the stomach for it, I’ve included a brief video below which dives into a little bit more detail about Dr. Freeman and the procedure:
Dean Metheny and the Bedpost Murder
TALA did not only house people who were non-verbal or suffering from other invisible mental illnesses. This facility was also home to many criminally insane - people who had committed violent crimes but who a court ruled had been out of their right mind during the act.
Since this facility was so overcrowded, these patients were not getting the needed care or therapy. Patient-to-staff ratios were often above 60:1, depending on the ward.
Dean Metheny, a long-term patient at TALA, was non-verbal, potentially deaf, and displayed the intellect and behaviors of a boy under ten despite being in his late forties. He, too, went without the support he needed and would sometimes loudly vocalize for attention or other needs.
Two of Dean’s roommates were not fans of these vocal interruptions. Already crowded in one of the more violent wards in the facility, they became aggressive towards Dean.
In December of 1987, Dean’s roommates took a bed sheet, tied it around Dean’s neck, and hoisted him up onto a pipe attached to the ceiling in their room. Although they did not hang him to death at that moment, they suffocated him enough to lose consciousness.
After Dean passed out, his roommates laid him on the floor and lifted their metal bed frame onto his head so that the metal leg of the frame sat on his temple. The roommates took turns jumping on the bed until his skull cracked underneath their weight, and the steel penetrated his brain.
Dean died horrifically just down the hall from the caretaker’s station. Five years later, one of Dean’s attackers, still admitted at the facility, got into a fight with a different patient, David Mason, and choked him out. Later that night, David died of his injuries.
These are two examples of neglectful deaths at this facility, just from one assailant.
Lilly, TALA’s Resident Sweetheart
Probably TALA’s most famous entity, Lilly has a room in the facility (rated five stars on Trip Advisor), and paranormal investigators believe she is the spirit of a nine-year-old girl who was born at and died at the Weston State Hospital. Visitors to the asylum will often leave gifts for Lilly, and tour guides share that Lilly likes to play with balls and dolls in her room.
During one particular paranormal investigation with TFIL (The F**k It List), Lilly seemingly follows the team up and down her hallway while they play her music box. Due to spiked EMF (electric and magnetic field) readings, the investigators conclude that she holds one team member’s hand while they adventure together. They end the investigation by bringing her back to her room and asking her to stay there because they are going to the dangerous wards next - the EMF readings discontinue afterward.
Despite Lilly being one of the most famous ghosts on the property, no one knows much about her life. Tour guides speculate that she died from pneumonia. As for her birth, it wasn’t uncommon for families to admit pregnant patients to the hospital.
Now more of a tourist trap than an active horror story, anyone can visit Lilly and other parts of the facility for $40 during the day. If you’re feeling courageous, you can stay overnight with friends and a tour guide for $100 per person, or if you and a group of 9 other friends minimum want to stay the night by yourselves with free reign of the building, you can do so for $150 each as long as you have insurance.
Would you ever stay the night in an allegedly haunted asylum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Ohio State Reformatory
Written By: Austin Charles Bolkcom
Becoming famous in American cinema for the setting of The Shawshank Redemption, host for Lil Wayne’s “Go DJ” video where they painted an entire bathroom gold that still stays that way to this day, and also investigated by TV sensation and douchebag, Zak Bagans in Ghost Adventures. Thanks to its one of a kind Victorian flare in an American setting, it has been a popular place to shoot all kinds of media and host to many stars. Architect Levi Scofield wanted to create a structure that intimidated those who looked upon it. The medieval looking palace looming on the edge of Mansfield, Ohio. Breaking and holding the record for having the largest cell block and they still have that record to this day. The six story cellblock housing 2500 convicts at any given time.
Starting out as a reformatory with the goal and intention of turning convicts into good acting samaritans quickly turned into in over filled maximum security prison where prisoners leaped from six foot story balconies to escape the conditions and sentences. With the amount of deaths, negativity, oppression, and malice happening in the reformatory, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the prison is host to a multitude of ghostly entities. Having 200 documented deaths and graves hosted on site as well as seeing over 154,000 inmates during its run from 1886 to 1990.
The OSR has long history of paranormal activity that has made it a popular site for ghost hunter experts and enthusiasts from all over the globe to creep down its halls hoping to experience some of the phenomena being documented by others over the years. A board overseeing the restoration and maintenance of the OSR today, regularly hosts ghost hunts open to the public and experts alike. Most people leaving with some type of evidence that they have experienced what the prison has had to offer, for good or bad.
The Glattke’s
In 1935, Arthur Glattke was appointed the new warden of the OSR by the new governor of Ohio, Martin Davey. Him and his wife Helen arriving and occupying the apartment hosted on the grounds on the OSR, a time in history when it was common for employees to live on the grounds or nearby. Arthur and Helen over their marriage having two sons together all living within the castle like portion of the grounds, as to be kept away from the dark realities lurking in the cellblocks. Both parents though would meet an early demise.
The Glattke’s were getting ready for church one morning in 1950 when Helen knocked over a box containing her husbands .32 caliber semi-automatic handgun that discharged when hitting the ground, firing into Helen and critically wounding her. She was quickly rushed off to the hospital where she fought for two days before succumbing to her wounds.
Quickly, rumors started to spread among the staff that Arthur was having an affair with another woman and the two were heard arguing about the ordeal the night before Helen being shot. Having a divorce would ruin Arthur’s social standing as well as having an impact on his career, threatening to tear it to shambles. Outside of speculation and rumors though, it was never proven if Arthur had or hadn’t killed his late wife as there wasn’t any investigation into her death as it was seen as an accident.
It was believed that Arthur was haunted by Helen’s spirit for his remaining years as the warden of the Ohio State Reformatory. Her specter hounding him in the night making it impossible for him to sleep at night, her rose perfume warning him of her appearances. Her apparition reminding him of his sins and infidelities towards her. These appearances eventually took their toll on Arthur and on February 10, 1959 he died of a heart attack at his desk.
Since her early death, Helen has been seen roaming the grounds by more than just Arthur. Groundworkers claimed seeing her shortly after her death, saying they saw her walk in the bathroom for them to follow and find no one there. Ghost hunters have captured her on video and photo doing the same thing as well as walking through the halls of the residency. Even they note the smell of rose perfume and believe she is around when they catch notes of it.
Shadow People
One of the more common entities that you will come across during your time at the Ohio State Reformatory is a Shadow Person. A phenomena that has been around and documented over centuries but with the internet the accounts have increased in frequency adding to the lore and hypothesis of what these could be. Once believed to only be visible using a peripheral view of your eye, there are now many accounts of people being able to see them as full figures with a direct gaze of the eyes. Those who stare long enough state that they can even see red glowing eyes on the shadow person. Typically appearing around areas with malevolent happenings and occurrences, it is believed that they feed off of negative energy and can be seen in places with a high concentration of it.
Workers at the current day OSR will tell you many accounts of seeing shadow people lurking the hallways of the prison at any given time of the day. Sometimes one, sometimes a host of them sulking around waiting in the dark corners of the room. Investigators saying that they feel like these entities want to cause them harm while some on the extreme end leaving their ghost tours with scratches or even being pushed by an invisible force.
Stories say that a fourteen year old boy was tortured in the basement of the prison, ending in his death. His shadow is seen in the basement with a more ominous figure looming quickly behind him, investigators believing this was the guard who killed him who has been seen with a sinister aura. His presence has made guests grow ill and cold spots appear in random pockets.
Accounts at Ohio State Reformatory
The Infirmary:
“As any well-utilized infirmary in such a morbid environment, much death has occurred here. Many died here from illness, infection, malnutrition, and disease. Many of them that survived torture or beatings from fellow inmates were too weak to return to their cells and would be kept here. There are historical references that the infirmary was underserved, undergoing days of neglect or lack of medical attention. Some would even starve to death here, for other inmates would steal the food of the weak. Here visitors have felt unexplained gusts of wind. Clusters of orbs are found in photographs, while EMF detectors are very active in the red zone here. They may also experience hearing the disembodied moans of spirits, perpetually reliving the last moments before they died. “— Haunted Journeys
The Hole:
“As you would expect, the Hole of the prison is another real hot spot for paranormal experiences. For those of you unfamiliar, the Hole is a culmination of small cells intended for the isolation of, particularly naughty prisoners. Prisoners were not allowed to leave their cell in their time within the Hole, and the rooms within the hole had no exposure to natural light. It was a pretty miserable place to be and such a punitive technic has been known to drive people to and over the brink of insanity. One of the most unsettling stories about the Hole has to do with a guard set two prisoners within the same cell, and one emerged. All and all, it was said that 100 prisoners were sent to the hole in the space that was intended for only 20. Living people who enter the Hole experience nausea, cold spots, breathing and generally a lot of get-me-out-of-here discomfort.” — Dark Art & Craft
The Chapel:
”Alright, the Chapel/Sanctuary was one of the first places that I really got creeped out. Despite the fact it was daytime and the whole place is absolutely beautiful, I kept feeling as if there was something lingering in the shadows, looking at me, wishing me harm. I felt as if it was time to move on, and definitely didn't want to spend too much time assessing the room. Again, I'm a huge fan of religious spaces, from an artistic and anthropological perspective, and this unnerving desire to get the fuck out is rare for me. But there I was, desiring to get the hell out as soon as humanly possible. Ironically, this space was once used for executions despite slapping some religious iconography and calling it a sanctuary, so this space is considered to be the most haunted location within the building” — Dark Art & Craft
“According to reports, the chapel is one of the most active areas in Mansfield Prison in terms of paranormal activity. It is often thought to be the central point for the hauntings. There could be a very good reason why – you see, before being converted into a chapel, this area was actually where prisoners were executed! It is very common for visitors to capture strange light anomalies in photographs taken here and there have been lots of unexplained noises in the room. In most reports, spirits are seen lingering in doorways from the corner of your eye, but will vanish if you turn to look at them directly! Some visitors have recently reported being grabbed by the spirits, but this is not a very common occurrence.” — Haunted Rooms
Shadow people, shadow masses, apparitions, audible voices, footsteps, footprints, the sound of doors opening and closing, strange mists and equipment malfunctions all seem to be common occurrences when investigating and looking through cells and halls of Ohio State Reformatory. Others even account the sound of chains dropping to the floor, growling, footsteps and church bells have all been heard in specific areas of the prison, while other reports detail phantom smells, disembodied voices and balls of light.
Due to the inhumane conditions that occurred at OSR that eventually led to it being closed by the state is just a reminder of the dark stain that this prison has on the land its occupying. Prisoners long over serving their sentence by haunting the halls of this hellscape that stacked human on top of human in a steel jungle. The ominous present of the murders and rapists still being felt in the cells to this very day.
