As "animal factories" go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America's first vampire, accused of sucking his victims' blood five years before Bram Stoker's fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the original Prison Demon; and witness the daring escape of John Hunt Morgan's band of Confederate prisoners. Uncover the full extent of mayhem and madness locked away in one of history's most notorious maximum-security prisons.
David Meyers was a writer, editor and artist for Columbus Alive, and a regular columnist for Senior Times. Meyers is coauthor of Look to Lazarus and Ohio Jazz. Elise Meyers Walker has a degree in art history from Hofstra University. She has worked as a freelance writer and photographer, and is coauthor of Look to Lazarus and Historic Columbus Crimes. A native of Wapakoneta, Ohio, James Dailey II graduated from the School of Advertising Art in Dayton, Ohio. He is curator of The Dailey Archives, an important assembly of artifacts, early photography and ephemera. It also comprises the largest privately held collection of Ohio prison memorabilia.