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Additional terms and conditions may apply. Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends, and welcome to this, my 59th episode. Oh, how exciting. I am still amazed literally every time I produce one of these episodes and it actually gets out on time. That is not let up in any capacity. Neither has the pride. I am so proud of this little show. This, I think, think is my favorite work that I have ever done. Let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks that they're too old to do the best, most rewarding work of their career. In my life before this, I did some pretty fun stuff. I worked with some wonderful people. Some pretty awful people too, that's for sure. But never have I had more opportunities, more excitement connected to a profession in my life. Never give up on your dreams. I know it isn't a particularly goth thing to say, but imagine it written in like a spooky font below a grayscale rainbow surrounded by bats. The rainbow dripping with blood. Never give up on your dreams, you gremlins. And now, a little Haunted Housekeeping. As always, thank you for rating the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you so very much for your comments. I love that someone described described my show saying it feels like having a cozy tea by the fireplace on Halloween. HLT Sandwich on Apple Podcasts said that. Oh, I love that because it's like the best thing that I can think of. And the idea that someone thinks my work is like the best thing I can think of. That is the kindest compliment. Thank you darling. You folks who have fireplaces in your homes are the luckiest people in the world. Like I'm pretty lucky for a Brooklyn girl. I have a dishwasher. This makes me more or less the Queen of England by New York apartment standards. But a fireplace? One day I will have one. I have been trying to manifest that one for a long time, but until then I need to find a restaurant or a bar in the city or Brooklyn with a lovely one that I can drink tea or whiskey beside as soon as the weather gets chillier. Anyway, thank you everyone who has joined the fan coven by going to myvictorianightmare.com all of whom listen to the show ad free. Whomst received the show a day early. They receive witchy weekly content as well as my Victorian Nightmare extras, extra creepy stories with deep dives every week as well. Because I can't stop running my mouth about this stuff. Creepy stuff. Witchy stuff. I could talk at length about deviled eggs as well if anyone were interested. Just kidding. I need to sleep at some point. Although I could easily create a podcast about my affection for deviled eggs. Episode would be three hours long. You should see my daffodil eggs though. I have a clandestine recipe website that you should all check out. I think I've mentioned it before. Shekeepsalovelyhome.com it's my Suzy Homemaker recipe website with a little dash of weird. I have some lovely autumn dinner party inspiration on there. And little deviled eggs with little devil horns and devil tails. They're my favorite. Oh P.S. i have added crew neck sweatshirts to the store. I've had a couple requests for those so you can find@myvictorian nightmare.com at your leisure. It's Wednesday, Adams. I see you're trying to distract yourself from your own banal thoughts. Let me help. Here's a recording thing made of my latest root canal When Doomsday Season 2 is now playing only on Netflix. Okay, today for you, dear listener, we are taking a little trip to the haunted Victorian Lunatic asylum. I did an entire episode on the horror of Victorian lunatic asylums in episode 28, but in this episode I will be discussing specifically the transition Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, its horrifying history and its spectral inhabitants. But before we make our way to the gates of this hell on Earth, it is time for our weekly segment with their own eyes, where I share with you the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians. Today's segment is a little different than usual. It's the recounting of an alleged ghost encounter in a Victorian newspaper that happened in the century previous. I think my grammar is correct enough there, and you too may have heard of this one because it's somewhat well known and has a twist of an ending. This article comes to us from the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, May 10, 1873, and it is called the Cock Lane Ghost, and it reads, about the middle of January 1760, all London was a mute or frightened by the famous Cock Lane ghost story. The following account of the affair is given in the newspapers of the time. In 1756, one Mr. Kent married a young gentlewoman in Norfolk, with whom he lived happily for 11 months, and then she died in childbirth. Her sister Fanny, who had lived as her companion and Mr. Kent, became intimate and removed to London in 1759 and cohabitated as man and wife and lodged with a Mr. Parsons, the officiating parish officer of St Sepulchre's Cock Lane. The woman was seized with smallpox in January 1760 and was removed to more convenient lodgings, but died in February and was buried at the Church of St John Clerkenwell. The ghost of this woman was said to haunt the daughter of Mr. Parsons, a girl about 12 years of age. Scratching and knocking were heard on every bed on which the girl was laid. The ghost answered to particular questions. An affirmative was expressed with one knock, a negative by two, and displeasure by scratching and knocking. Answers were given that her disturbance was occasioned by ill treatment from Mr. Kent, that he had poisoned her in Pearl, that is, beer or ale, that he would confess his guilt if taken up, that she would be at ease if he were hanged, and that it would be three years before he would be executed. The ghost had promised to a gentleman by an affirmative knock to attend him into the vault where the body was deposited, and there given a token of her presence by a knock on her coffin. Prodigious excitement followed the report of these things, and many fully believed them. On the night between the 1st and 2nd of February, February between 12 and 1o', clock, the gentleman, along with a friend, entered the vault and solemnly required the ghost to perform its promise. But no answer came. Mr. Kent and several others then went into the vault, but neither could they prevail on the ghost to give them a sign. And the conclusion came to was that the whole was an imposition contrived by Mr. Kent's enemies. An investigation was immediately set afoot and on the 10th of July, William Parsons and his wife Mary Fraser, a clergyman and reputable tradesman, were tried before Lord Mansfield and a special jury for an indictment for conspiring in the Cock Lane ghost affair to injure the character of Mr. Kent. The trial lasted 12 hours and they were all found guilty. So ended this famous ghost affair. End quote. So a little quick background here about this wild revenge plot. This article doesn't discuss the motives these folks had in pulling off this whole scheme. Basically, the man, William Parsons, was the landlord of Mr. Kent and he lent Kent some money, but he never paid him back. That was what this whole dispute was over. So Parsons decided he would ruin Kent's life by tricking the public into thinking he killed his wife. And would simultaneously create a little money making scheme, turning the property into a ghost attraction, opening it up to the public to come and see the hauntings for themselves. I mean, I gotta hand it to this guy. This is some creative vengeful multitasking. He's gonna ruin this guy's life, make back all his money and then some, and creep his entire town out. We just don't have dreamers like this anymore. His wife was in on it, his sister in law was in on it, and even the church got in on the scheme, hoping to use the very public haunting as a proof of afterlife. And you know, that's why you should give money to the church, etc. The Parsons apparently made a lot of money off of all of this. People were crawling over each other to get into the home to experience the hauntings that were again, all fabricated. I might dig deeper into this story at some time because it's so wild an episode about ghost hoaxes. Hoaxing ghosts. I'll write that one down. But now if you would follow me into the seance room where I share with you the goings on in the Spiritualist society of the 1800s. As always, this article comes to us from the spiritualist newspaper from 1869, the December volume of that year. And it involves what I can only imagine as like a Groucho Marx goes to a seance like scene unfolding. You'll see what I mean. The article is called Reichenbach at a Spirit Circle and it reads in the new work on spiritualism, the Planchette by Epps Sargent, are the following statements about Baron Reichenbach. At first distrustful of the spiritual significance of certain phenomena, Reichenbach now entertains views not opposed to spiritualism. While in London in 1861, at the residence of Mr. Cowper, son in law of Lord Palmerston. He attended a spiritual circle. On that occasion, two mediums, Mrs. Marshall and her niece, were present who did not understand a word of German. Reichenbach, therefore, after the rapping had commenced, put his question questions intentionally in German, and they were answered correctly by the raps on the table. And he had the names of several members of his family correctly given. The Baron was much surprised. Now comes the most remarkable part of the performance, and I give it in the Baron's own words. He said the answers were rapped by the foot of the table in a bright lighted room. I wished to ascertain whether the rapping could not be prevented, and for this purpose I leaned my breast against one of the feet of the table, taking hold of the two others with both hands and pressing them down. The rapping of the feet ceased, but the rapping continued above me on the top of the table. All at once, by a sudden jerk, the table dragged, dragged me forward with the carpet on which it stood, and I lay prostrate in the middle of the room. End quote. This experiment convinced the Baron that besides the emanation of the odic element, higher spiritual powers can manifest themselves, and these he now no longer ignores, but recognizes them as facts of experience, for which, however, he as yet knows no explanation. He regards the great influences of odd upon the human spirit as the mere physical side of the matter, the roots by which he adheres firmly to the ground. And he is thankful to see the day when all his former discoveries show themselves as the portal through which it is possible for him to go forward into the spiritual department. End quote. Okay. Baron Karl Ludwig Fehrer von Reichenbach was a German chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist and philosopher. He discovered some very important chemicals. One of them was the first synthetic dye he created, phenol, an antiseptic. But he was also a believer in what he called the odic force that was mentioned in that article. He believed and sought to prove that a field of energy made of heat, magnetism and electricity emanated from all living things. He believed that this force was affected by the moon and its phases. He believed certain people were especially sensitive to the currents of moon energy, and he believed that this energy connected all living things. He was unable to prove this, and despite his deeply respected career as a scientist, this new venture into odic force philosophy resulted in a diminishment of respect in the scientific community. When that article was written, it was only a few months before he died. He must have been dipping his toe into other forms of energy and spirit philosophy by the end. To me, it sounds like he was a fascinating man. My main references for today's episode are a thelittlehouseofhorrors.com article, a usghostadventures.com article, and a Wikipedia article. All of these and and all of my other references can be found in the show notes. Okay, let's discuss the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, A place created with the very best of intentions that spiraled into a hellish home for the mentally ill as well as well just about anybody family members wanted to lock away and forget. The asylum was one of the Kirkbride style asylums built in the Victorian era. Psychiatrist Tom Famous story Kirkbride in the very early part of the 19th century very much wanted to design asylums for the purpose not of imprisonment, but of actually treating mental illness and caring for the mentally ill. As the 18th century was mired by horrific, inhumane, torturous forms of imprisonment for the mentally ill in asylums such as Bedlam, known for chaining people to the walls, beating patients, many dying from physical abuse, neglect, filth, forcing to live in squalor, inducing vomiting and blistering as treatments, rotational therapy, spinning patients around so quickly in a chair hung from the ceiling that it made them sick and on and on. Long story short, Dr. Kirkbride wanted to take things in a different direction in the early 19th century. His asylums were not built for torture, but what he believed. And in many ways he was correct. Mental health care treatment, not just containment. His structure was a hospital, not a prison, with cages designed to allow plenty of natural light and air circulation. They had a batwing structure housing numerous wings that sprawled outward from the center. This structure was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. As he described the design of the building was quote, a special apparatus for the care of lunacy, whose grounds should be highly improved and tastefully ornamented. These were beautiful buildings, not cold warehouses for the mentally ill anymore. They included comfortably furnished parlors, bathrooms, clothes rooms and infirmaries. Patient bedrooms were spacious with 12 foot ceilings. Oh, how lovely. The patients weren't the only ones enjoying lovely living quarters. The doctors and staff did as well. The staff quarters looked like an upscale hotel. The doctor's living quarters had lovely high ceilings, gorgeous crown moldings, chandeliers, those lovely windows that have the folding wooden shades. I'll put a picture on the Instagram. I'm actually going to put a bunch of pictures on the Instagram. And the grounds included manicured gardens, spacious landscapes which according to Kirkbride should include, quote, if possible, life in all of its active forms. They included farmlands, foliage, and the grounds were intended to be maintained not just by staff, but by the patients as part of physical exercise and therapy. Sounds very different than the lunatic asylums that we've seen shown to us in horror movies. Well, that's because although many asylums did begin this way in the early 1800s, they did not stay this way. They were originally intended to be maintained as private institutions for the well to do and the upper middle class to discreetly shuffle their unwell family members away and feel good about it. Because they were, were frankly truly quite lovely places in the beginning. Before the 19th century, folks with mental illnesses who were well to do were likely kept at home with private staff to care for them. It was common to lock away undesirable members of families in parts of a home and keep them sequestered for those less well to do. And for the poor, mad houses like Bedlam were the places for them. There weren't necessarily yet systems for the well off to send away their family members until this dawn of the age of more progressive mental health facilities. But as the 1800s progressed and the endless epidemics progressed, the wars, the industrial revolution driving large populations of immigrants into horrifyingly dangerous and grueling professions, neurotoxins invading everything from clothing to wallpaper, the need for mental health care, or for many folks, the need to ship away family members because they couldn't or didn't want to care for them. These lovely asylums and not too much time were required to take on more than just the wealthy and indeed became extraordinarily overcrowded. And the gentle approach to lunatics, quote unquote, was abandoned for the most part. When the Trans elegant lunatic asylum began construction in 1858. It was built in the Kirkbride style, intended to be used for progressive mental health care. And as mentioned, for a number of years it was. It was very pleasant. Patients were treated to art therapy. Those with more manageable mental health conditions were allowed to roam the manicured grounds. They would socialize and eat together in lovely spaces. Staff would also enable perform performances to be done by the patients for one another. It started as a calm, nurturing, dignified environment. But at the time this particular asylum's construction began, the need for more and more space for undesirable members of society was already quickly growing. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should 1 It's $15 a month. 2. Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3 no big contracts. 4 I use it. 5 My mom uses it. Are you. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com in not too much time. It wasn't just mentally ill people being admitted to this hospital. Few of the reasons they allowed folks to be admitted. This is not an exhaustive list, by the way. Intemperance and business trouble kicked in the head by horse, hysteria, of course, immoral lifestyle, laziness, masturbation and syphilis, mental excitement, nymphomania, opium addiction, overstudy of religion, political excitement, asthma, epileptic fits, domestic troubles and even grief. The list goes on and on. By the way, families and the legal system were using places like these by the upper mid-1800s and beyond as warehouses for people. Some with serious mental illnesses, some serious criminals, some who were just considered lazy, and women just in general. If you were a difficult woman, that was good enough reason to lock a person away indefinitely behind the walls of asylums like this one. Construction, as I said, began in 1858, mostly by prison laborers. However, master stonemasons from Germany and Ireland were employed to create the gorgeous facade. Due to the disruption of the Civil War, the building was not completed until 1881, 23 years later. During that time, both Confederate and UN Union armies would take over the partially constructed building, often being looted by soldiers for its medical supplies. The first patients were admitted in 1864. So even though the building had not finished being constructed, it was housing patients before and during the Civil War, with again soldiers barging in and taking over the place, which must have been highly destabilizing, one would imagine. It was constructed to allow a wing for black people, mostly ex slaves after the war with severe mental trauma. They were however kept separate entirely from the white patients admitted to the hospital. Men and women were separated as well. It had a farm, a dairy, a cemetery, making it mostly self sufficient. Family members who admitted their unwell relatives believed, believing that the days of Kirkbride style mental health care were still in use, would often find quickly that they would lose all contact with their family members. They were discouraged from writing to them, and if they received a letter from a patient that somehow would have been smuggled out, they were Told not to open them and return them to the asylum. By 1880, this hospital intended to house only 250 patients, held 700. By the mid-1950s, it held 2,600. By the 1950s, multiple beds were crammed into rooms and controversial quote, unquote, treatments and medications were administered. Thorazine was admitted for treating psychotic disorders, but quickly became overprescribed just to keep patients docile. Thorazine is a dopamine blocker which helps to reduce symptoms like hallucinations and delusions. It'll also cure hiccups that won't go away, which is interesting, but it causes severe drowsiness, dizziness, involuntary muscle movements, blurry vision, drops in blood pressure and more. In other words, this is not a benign medication and they would give this to patients suffering from depression, anxiety, or just showing general disobedience. Laudanum, a highly addictive opiate, was also commonly administered to patients. To keep them docile. They would be injected with insulin to force them into comas. And electric shock therapy was also commonly administered. Interestingly, I think I mentioned this on another episode, but in horror movies, when you see electric shock therapy rooms or devices in Victorian era asylums, these did not exist yet. Not until the 1930s was electricity used in psychiatric environments to interact with, reduce epileptic seizures in patients. Which is what that is doing, by the way. You may not know. Ect electroconvulsive therapy is still used. It's used to treat severe depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and can improve symptoms by 80%. They were onto something, but now it is far more refined, safer, better controlled. Patients are given anesthesia, muscle relax, the patient is asleep during the procedure. In the early part of the 20th century, they would be wide awake, locked into a chair or table. The convulsions would often lead to bone fractures, dislocations and other injuries. Despite being strapped in now, the currents are far lower than they used to be. They're controlled, targeted, delivered in very brief pulses. In the past, the electrical currents were, were unregulated, very high dose, prolonged and imprecise. The event alone would cause severe emotional trauma. Apart from this harrowing treatment, the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum quickly adopted lobotomies as a means of treating not just mental illness, but anything that they said would be helped by causing irreversible, horrendous trauma to the brain. And if you would, follow me. Just kidding. I am absolutely not taking you to see a lobotomy. I am not that kind of girl. I will tell you all about it though. This God awful practice worked by essentially doing nothing but giving a patient brain damage, just enough to erase their personality, their full consciousness, intellect, but not so much that it killed them mostly, although many did die from the procedures, some during the procedure, and many died far sooner than they would likely have had they not had their brain stabbed at with an instrument that looked very much like an ice pick. This instrument was called an orbitoclast. At best, emotions would be blunted, but for most patients who had this performed on them would become become incontinent. Many would develop enormous appetites. Seizures were a common complication. Early onset dementia. Dr. Walter Freeman, who popularized the procedure, was called in to perform the procedure in the asylum. He charged $25 for his time to the hospital. He was known to perform the procedure like a performance for crowds in educational settings. Things. The threat of being lobotomized was likely enough to destabilize patients all the more. And I'm not trying to be funny here when I say this, but when I think I look crazy to people, my anxiety makes me do the thing that I think makes me look crazy even more. If I were afraid that I would be brain damaged and have my personality erased if I looked crazy, that alone, it just makes me think how many other people were perfectly treatable, perfectly normal, but the fear alone of this being done to them, it would have undone me. That's all I can say. This. Dr. Freeman famously lobotomized John F. Kennedy's sister, who was not mentally ill in the slightest. She was rebellious, and her father was embarrassed by her flirtatiousness. So without her mother's consent, he had her lobotomized. She could no longer control her bodily functions. She couldn't show emotion. She was locked away in an institution forever until she died. Her sister Eunice founded the Special Olympics in her honor. Patients in this asylum didn't only have the treatments to fear, but each other. A number of horrifying murders took place between the patients. One man was murdered by two others. They first attempted to hang him, but failed at getting him high enough off the ground. So they placed his head under a bed frame and jumped on it until it crushed his head. When patients would become too difficult to control, they were sent to solitary confinement, which in and of itself is a form of torture. There was a story I read of a boxer who had emotional issues and would become violent at times. And he was placed in solitary confinement. And he was so strong that he beat the door off its hinges, almost breaking his arm. And when it blew off the Frame. He handed the door to the nurse and calmly walked back to his room. Heavens. In the late 1800s, Dr. Silas Mitchell prescribed what he called curative rest therapy. Therapy for women which was just solitary confinement. They would be confined to their rooms, not in cages or cells. But they would have total seclusion without any stimulation. No books, no studying, working. This was to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia, migraines, or even our favorite bogus diagnosis, hysteria. Although few things would better cause most of those afflictions actions than forcing a person into solitary confinement. Some men, on the other hand, who dealt with depression and the like were actually lucky enough not to be confined within the asylum, but sent out west on grand adventures. They'd get to ride on horseback and hunt and herd cattle and have the opportunity to bond with other men. He called it the West Cure. Walt Whitman, Theodore Roosevelt, and novelist Owen Wister all wrote very fondly of their west treatments. Were they women, they would have been locked away for months in solitary confinement. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was forced into this torture when she had postpartum depression after being released, wrote a story called the Yellow Wallpaper. The story is about a woman locked up in a room room in her home with yellow wallpaper, not allowed to read or write although she is a writer. And she begins to see the wallpaper move and shift. The design of the paper begins to create patterns of trapped women behind prison like bars. She wildly rips the paper off the wall to free the women and finds herself indistinguishable from the women that she believes that she's free. Freed. When her story was published seven years after she was freed from the asylum in 1892, she sent a copy to her doctor, Silas Mitchell. He told her to never touch a pen, brush or pencil again. She told him that his cure was the very worst thing that anyone could do to a woman like her. And his torment only worsened her depression. It was she and she alone that saved herself through her creative writing. Some people were indeed lucky enough to one day be released from this torture prison. But many, many were not. Many people died in this asylum, and when they died, families would be notified, but rarely would their bodies be claimed. Patients were assigned a number, and those numbers would be stamped into a stick stone marker where they would be buried. Not even their names would be placed on the stones. And even worse, they would often be removed and repurposed. New buildings would be built right on top of the graves. So there's no way to find at all where these people were buried. When did making plans get this complicated, it's time to streamline with what's Happening app. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com Reading all of the reasons why one could be admitted to a place like this and and never be released. Be erased from history. I found at least five different reasons why I would have been admitted there. It is just so unimaginably tragic. Let's cheer ourselves up a bit with a little field trip to this God awful asylum. Won't you follow me through this external extraordinarily creepy wing of this abandoned Trans Allegheny asylum? I would like to introduce you to someone. I haven't brought us any drinks or snacks, but you can be rest assured I helped myself to some whiskey before I even started the episode. It's the only reason why we're here, frankly. Here, take this flashlight. Ah. Darn. It was working when I. Okay. Phew. It was works. Sure hope that doesn't go out again. What a typical horror movie setup device this will have been. Am I right? Mine's working fine. Don't worry. Just stay close. It is not the 1800s. It's actually the 1990s. Specifically 1995. One year after the hospital was closed for good and left to rot. It is midnight. We're alone. Ish. And already the paint is peeling off the walls. Light fixtures have fallen. Oh, yeah. Watch your step. The bars on the doors and windows are rusting. We're in the criminally insane forensic wing of the asylum. This is where those deemed insane in court would be held. This was a maximum security security wing. And it's worth noting that a lot of urban legends suggest that a number of inmates escaped this wing and even killed people in the community outside of the asylum. But no evidence exists that this ever happened. There is no documented evidence of a patient escaping and killing anyone. I dug into those claims. Okay, yes, that is a little red ball that did indeed roll into our view. The only reason I'm not terrified at the moment isn't just because of the whiskey. It's because I know who this belongs to. Lily, are you there? Lily was allegedly born to a woman admitted during the Civil war who died in childbirth. Lily was adopted by one of the N nurses and lived in the lovely staff apartment's wing. But she, as it is told, died at age 9 of pneumonia and never left. The asylum will be opened back up to the public in about 20 years. And folks will claim to see Lily running around the halls playing. People will leave toys for her that they swear move around her room. Specifically bonus balls rolling around. A tour goer will claim that she was asked by a little girl how to get out of the wing. But when she turned to the tour guide to ask about this little girl, the girl vanished. Ah, there she is. Come with me, Lily, sweetheart, We will play with you if you. Okay. Remember those charming gentlemen I told you about? The ones that crushed a man's head to death? Notice how when you move your flashlight, those two shadows don't move. These must be who many folks will come to believe are the ghosts of those two men allegedly named David Mason and Big Jim. Hello, boy. And as expected, both of our flashlights have gone out. Who could have predicted that? Let's turn back and do our best not to fall down. There's a door here to the courtyard that is not locked, luckily. Sorry Lily, gonna have to come back another time. Hope those guys are fun to play with. Let's go ahead and get the hell away from here. And I will tell you a bit little, little more about the spectral inhabitants who allegedly live here. Now, as with many most ghost stories, it's incredibly difficult to substantiate any of the claims that folks make about the ghosts. And there are many. And there are some clearly dubious details. For example, I read somewhere the supposed names of those two gentlemen. I can't find their names listed in any legitimate sources related to the asylum. Now, just because I could couldn't find their names, that doesn't mean that that was not their names. But I would sure like to know where folks did find those names because again, I can't find it. It's likely they couldn't either. All this aside, the two shadows are indeed apparitions that folks have claimed to see. Who their spirits may be of is uncertain, but they are said to turn rooms freezing cold. There's another spirit that folks called Slue Foot. Why they call him that is uncertain. But it is believed that the spirit of an inmate that killed someone in a bathroom in the asylum, they say he still roams the upper floors to this day. Paranormal investigators have set up cameras around the building which have reportedly picked up sounds like bumps, crashes, whistling and heavy breathing. In Lily's room, the sound of a far off woman screaming can be heard. Some have claimed to see spirits of Civil War soldiers. Many soldiers died in the hospital. There's another spirit that they call Ruth, who allegedly was a female patient that lived in the asylum also during the Civil War, who hated men. And her spirit reportedly throws things at men who come to tour the building. There's also a nurse who folks claim to see on different floors. They call her Nurse Elizabeth. I found a Reddit post from someone who claimed to have worked in the asylum as a tour guide and he had some very creepy experiences. I love this one. It says, quote, one evening while training for the job, I was on the first floor with a couple co workers while everyone else was touring upstairs. We were just kinda killing time, quietly observing the area. Light from outside was coming in through the windows casting on the inner hall's wall. In that light, I watched the perfect silhouette of a man from head to hip walk through that light from left to right. I said something about it and the three of us watched as an arm and hand moved into the light from the right side. I immediately ran into the room and began looking out of that window for someone outside. There was. There was no one there at that time. The realization that from the ground to the bottom of the window was like seven feet didn't even occur to me. I will never forget the crisp, clear silhouette shape for as long as I live. He also says that just working there, being in the building, greatly affected his mental health. He felt it draining him mentally and spiritually. As soon as he left the job, his mental health and happiness improved quickly. I absolutely believe that places where terrible things have happened to people and the terror or sadness experienced can get stuck in the walls. I've mentioned how when I was a dumb kid, I broke into an abandoned asylum in New Jersey. I don't think I've ever felt anything more heavy in my life. I can still feel it when I think about it. In episode 28, I talked about the force of nature. That was Nellie Bly who exposed the asylum system by faking a mental illness and being admitted herself. She changed the medical health system in radical ways by exposing the horror and the torment of these places. She wrote a book about it after employers at the New York World sprung her from the asylum and wrote a bombshell report for the newspaper. Very much has changed thanks to reporters like her. Doctors, psychiatrists, family members that demanded better care for their loved ones and artists. Writers like Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I would like to share with you a few sentences from the yellow wallpaper before we go. Just a few sentences that jumped out to me. Me again. In her story, a woman is kept inside her home, not allowed to leave, as the treatment for her depression. She's locked inside the house by her husband, although she can still interact with him and her daughter Jane. She's slowly going insane and seeing a woman in the wallpaper. It is written as a diary and it reads, as soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook. I shook and she pulled and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper, a strip as high as my head and half around the room. It continues after her husband finds what she's done, it reads, he cried for God's sake, what are you doing doing? I crept on, creeping just the same, But I looked at him over my shoulder. I've got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane and I have pulled off most of the paper so you can't put me back again. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Leave me comments because you know I love them so much and join the fan coven to listen ad free and for even more creepy and witchy content. Until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.