Jesse Wilkins

Over the decades, this place held hundreds of inmates, thieves, murderers, drunks, and even the wrongly accused.

But among the nameless and forgotten, a few stories have clawed their way out of history's dark corners.

Down in the solitary confinement area, there's one cell that feels different, heavier somehow.

It's where Martin Kelly, who was a prisoner here, took his own life in one of the most violent ways imaginable.

He cut from ear to ear with a straight razor, dying alone in that tiny, bloody room.

People say you can still feel the desperation in the air.

Investigators who spend time in solitary often report hearing low, guttural growls believed to be Martin.

Martin sometimes reacts when spoken to, answering questions with knocks or answers via EVP or spirit box.

Others say he still paces the floor, unseen, driven by a pain that never ended.

On the third floor is the ghost of George Hackett, known to regular visitors as the Peekaboo Man.

In life, George was locked up for the attempted murder of his wife, a crime of rage that landed him in the same cell where he's now said to make his presence known.

Those who walked the corridor towards his old cell often described the same thing, a sudden flicker of movement, a man's head darting into view just long enough to make eye contact before vanishing back into the darkness.

It's a quick, almost playful manifestation, like he's testing your nerve, daring you to come closer.

In the sweltering summer of 1947, the quiet town of Newark, Ohio, was shocked by the arrest of Laura Bell Devlin.

A soft-spoken mother and wife, who in the backyard of her modest home, stunned investigators with what lay before them.

Her husband, dismembered, partially burned in the wood stove, and scattered across the yard.

Laura calmly confessed to using a hacksaw and fire to hide what she'd done, telling authorities simply, he deserved it.

Her motive, as her lawyers argued, lay in years of domestic abuse by John Devlin.

Arrests for his violence existed, but Laura Bell remained trapped in a cycle of silence before the day she snapped.

Ultimately convicted of second-degree murder, she was sentenced to life in prison.