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The history of mental health facilities and asylums is often grim and unsettling. Yet, some events that transpired within these walls remain cloaked in mystery, leaving us with questions that may never be answered. Among the countless forgotten lives, a few stories have emerged, offering glimpses into the dark past that history has recorded.
10. The Enigma of Willard Asylum’s Deceased and Their Suitcases
Located on the banks of Seneca Lake in New York, the abandoned Willard State Psychiatric Hospital holds a haunting legacy. Upon its closure in 1995, workers discovered numerous suitcases filled with personal items belonging to former patients who had lived and died there, their stories largely lost to time.
The suitcases reveal poignant tales, such as that of Mr. Frank, who spent three years at Willard before being moved to the VA hospital in nearby Canandaigua. He passed away three decades later, having lived the majority of his life within institutional walls.
Another story is that of Sister Marie, whose patient records described her as unattractive and dismissed her religious visions as mere delusions. After being admitted to Willard, she became deeply traumatized, regressing to the behavior of a nine-year-old child. At the age of 69, she died, and her remains were sent for medical research.
Some suitcases, however, offer little insight into their owners' lives. For instance, the suitcase belonging to Ernest P. contained nothing.
For nearly five decades, Lawrence Mocha, the asylum’s gravedigger, ensured that the patients of Willard were not entirely forgotten. Living at the cemetery, he buried over 1,500 individuals in rows of 60, each grave marked only by a number. In 1968, Mocha passed away at 90 and was laid to rest in the same cemetery, his grave also bearing a number.
Today, even those numbered markers have disappeared. New York State has resisted efforts to link names with graves, citing concerns that it would infringe on the privacy of those who died in the asylum and were buried by Lawrence Mocha.
9. The Faces of Nazi Euthanasia Program Propaganda
The Nazis’ euthanasia initiative, targeting those deemed 'unworthy of life,' unfolded in multiple stages. Approximately 200,000 individuals, including those with mental or physical disabilities, lost their lives as a result of this program.
In 1939, the Reich Ministry of the Interior mandated that midwives, nurses, and doctors report children with developmental challenges to the government. These children were sent to specialized clinics, where they were killed through starvation or drug overdoses. Initially targeting those under 17, the program expanded under Hitler’s 'T4' phase to include adults as well.
The clinics were eventually replaced by gas chambers. The program targeted individuals with psychiatric and neurological conditions, the criminally insane, those institutionalized for over five years, and non-Germans. Central to the Nazis’ ethnic cleansing efforts, the euthanasia initiative was heavily supported by widespread propaganda aimed at justifying its necessity to the public.
Propaganda depicted the lives of these individuals as filled with unending suffering, portraying them as burdens incapable of appreciating their existence. Through films, slideshows, and photographs, countless nameless faces were used to rationalize the euthanasia program. Images featured doctors in asylums, patients behind chain-link fences, and groups of people crowded together.
Most of these individuals remain unidentified, with little known about their deaths. A few were described with minimal notes, such as one slide stating, 'Mentally ill Negro, 16 years in an institution, costing 35,000 reichsmarks,' highlighting the financial burden as a justification for the program.
Some propaganda provided slightly more detail. For instance, Emmi G., a 16-year-old diagnosed with schizophrenia, was sterilized and executed in 1942. Another image of an unnamed elderly woman noted her 'nonconformist beliefs,' and she died in January 1944.
A ledger from April 1945 records fabricated causes of death for hundreds of thousands of individuals whose remains were cremated and disposed of in mass graves. In some cases, ashes were placed in urns and returned to families alongside falsified documentation.
8. The Mystery of the Numbered Graves at Letchworth Village
Letchworth Village, a New York asylum established in 1911, buried its deceased residents in unmarked graves in a secluded woodland cemetery until 1967. These forgotten individuals are commemorated only by rows of numbered steel markers. A second cemetery, introduced in 1967, included marked graves for those who died afterward.
Inspired by nearby group home residents, a project aimed to identify the names, numbers, and gravesites in the unmarked cemetery. However, vandalism and years of neglect have left many grave markers dislodged. While records of the buried exist, linking names to the numbered graves has become nearly impossible.
A bronze monument at the cemetery entrance bears around 900 names, yet no numbers connect these names to the burial plots. Some entries are vague, identifying individuals merely as 'Baby Girl' or 'Baby Boy,' sometimes accompanied by a surname.
Similar to other asylums, Letchworth Village is infamous for its history of abuse and neglect, leading many to believe the spirits of those who suffered there still linger. The cold, anonymous grave markers, unlikely ever to be matched with the deceased, only deepen the tragedy.
7. Shumei Okawa
While being confined to a mental institution might seem undesirable, it may have provided one of Japan’s most infamous war criminals a way to evade conviction for his actions after World War II.
On May 3, 1946, Shumei Okawa stood trial as the sole civilian in a military tribunal. Charged for his involvement in the Showa Restoration, he was accused of playing a key role in the assassination of Japan’s prime minister in 1932. Labeled an 'international outlaw' by prosecutors, Okawa focused on advocating Japan’s dominance over those they had conquered, rather than aligning with Nazi ideologies.
The trial took a strange turn from the start. Okawa appeared before the tribunal barefoot, wearing a button-down shirt, and exhibited erratic behavior, swaying and crying unpredictably. At one point, he leaned forward and struck the head of the person seated in front of him, prompting his removal from the proceedings.
Okawa was handed over to Dr. David Jaffe, a US Army major and physician, who was tasked with assessing his mental fitness for trial. Jaffe concluded that Okawa suffered from advanced syphilis, leading to his transfer to Matsuzawa Hospital for the Insane.
After spending nearly a decade at the hospital, Okawa was eventually cured and released. He faded into obscurity, never facing conviction for his crimes. It remains unclear whether his illness was genuine or a ruse to avoid punishment. In a recent book by Jaffe’s grandson, doubts about the diagnosis are explored, revealing that Jaffe spent only a few hours with Okawa before declaring him unfit for trial.
6. The Corpse Stain
Established in 1874, the Athens Lunatic Asylum, known locally as 'The Ridges,' was one of Ohio’s largest institutions for treating mental illness. For decades, it housed numerous Civil War veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
As families began abandoning unruly teenagers and unwanted elderly relatives, the asylum became severely overcrowded. Overwhelmed staff forced patients to work on the grounds, and the standard of care deteriorated. After its closure in 1993, locals began sharing tales of ghosts—former residents who suffered abuse and met tragic ends—allegedly haunting the abandoned hospital.
One tale recounts the disappearance of Margaret Schilling on December 1, 1979. After a half-hearted search, the staff gave up, assuming she was gone for good. Her unclothed body was found 42 days later in a locked ward on the top floor, previously used to isolate contagious patients. While her official cause of death was heart failure, the true circumstances remain shrouded in mystery.
Before her death, Margaret had removed her clothes, folded them neatly, and placed them beside her. By the time she was discovered, her body had decomposed significantly, and the fluids from her remains left a permanent stain on the concrete floor. The stain, still visible today, unmistakably resembles a human figure.
In 2008, the Journal of Forensic Sciences published a study analyzing the stain. Researchers identified compounds consistent with a decomposing body. The interaction between biological agents and cleaning chemicals is believed to have created the indelible stain.
What truly happened to Margaret? One account suggests she was a deaf-mute who hid from staff and couldn’t call for help when trapped. Another claims she had severe disabilities and froze to death during the winter. Regardless, locals swear they still glimpse her in the window on certain nights, and parts of her story remain etched into the asylum’s history.
5. The Lonely Burial of Foxborough State Hospital
In 1893, Massachusetts established the Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates southwest of Boston. Later renamed Foxborough State Hospital, it began admitting individuals deemed insane in 1905. Shortly after, a major scandal erupted over reports of mismanagement and patient mistreatment. By the time Prohibition began, chronic alcoholism led to imprisonment rather than institutionalization. Despite this, the hospital continued to operate.
When the hospital closed in 1976, the land was divided and sold. Over 1,100 individuals were buried in the facility’s two cemeteries, but one solitary grave remained undiscovered for years.
For decades, locals shared tales of a person buried alone in the woods, far from civilization. It was believed this individual died from a highly contagious disease, prompting their isolated and unmarked burial to prevent the illness from spreading.
While many dismissed the story as folklore, local historian Jack Authelet decided to investigate further. His efforts led to the discovery of a small pile of stones, long forgotten, situated between an abandoned building and railroad tracks.
On October 2, 2010, Authelet held a modest memorial service for the unidentified individual, marking the grave with a number, similar to how others were commemorated. The person’s name, the grim details of their death, and the reason for their remote burial remain a mystery, leaving them isolated even in death. Authelet’s efforts ensured they would no longer be entirely forgotten.
4. Van Ingraham and the Fairview Developmental Center
In 2007, a patient at California’s state-run Fairview Developmental Center died under questionable circumstances, prompting an investigation that remains unresolved to this day.
Van Ingraham, diagnosed with severe autism as a child, was admitted to the center at age eight and spent 42 years there. In 2007, his brother Larry Ingraham, a former police officer, received a voicemail stating Van had fallen out of bed, breaking his neck and damaging his spinal cord. A neurosurgeon informed the family that such injuries couldn’t result from an accident, prompting Larry to investigate further.
During his investigation, Larry came to understand that the occasional injuries he had noticed on his brother—bruises and a black eye—were evidence of abuse, not the expected risks of living at the center as he had previously thought. He also discovered hundreds of abuse reports filed against the facility.
None of these cases were ever thoroughly investigated, and no one was ever held accountable. Many of the abuse victims were severely disabled, with some unable to speak and others having extremely low IQs. A group called 'California Watch' found that only two abuse allegations between 2006 and 2012 resulted in arrests.
Van wasn’t the only individual who died under suspicious conditions. A 25-year-old quadriplegic passed away from internal bleeding after coughing up 10-centimeter-long swabs. By the time protective agencies reviewed the case, there was little left to examine.
Van’s family received an $800,000 settlement, but they never achieved what they truly sought—justice.
3. Charles Whitman’s Brain
During the 1950s, the Austin State Hospital (previously known as the Texas State Lunatic Asylum) began preserving the brains of deceased patients to study whether mental illness had a physical basis. These brains were stored in jars, each meticulously labeled with the patient’s name and diagnosis. Over roughly 30 years, around 200 specimens were collected and shelved.
By 1986, the hospital faced storage issues and offered the brains to researchers as study materials. Several universities competed for the collection, which was eventually transferred to the University of Texas in 1987.
One of the preserved brains belonged to Charles Whitman, the notorious ex-Marine who, in 1966, climbed a tower at the University of Texas and opened fire, killing 16 people and injuring 32 before being shot by police. Earlier, he had murdered his wife and mother. Whitman left a note asking for his brain to be examined to explain his disturbing thoughts. A brain tumor was later discovered during the examination.
In the mid-1990s, researchers examined the university’s brain collection, which had been neglected for years. When they searched for Charles Whitman’s brain, it was missing, along with approximately 100 others.
University staff offered various explanations for the missing brains, suggesting they might have been relocated, discarded, stored elsewhere, or returned to the state asylum. However, the state denied ever receiving them.
A December 2014 update revealed that 40 to 60 of the brains were destroyed by the university due to deterioration, rendering them unfit for research. However, the university stated that Whitman’s brain was not among them, now asserting they had never received his brain to begin with.
2. The Enigmatic Precision of Starry Night
Following the mysterious mutilation of his ear, Vincent van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul de Mausole Asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. During his 53-week stay, he produced over 240 drawings and paintings, including his iconic masterpiece, Starry Night.
In 2006, researchers from the Autonomous University of Mexico studied the swirling patterns in Starry Night and made a startling discovery. Van Gogh had somehow depicted a scientific phenomenon—turbulence—that remained poorly understood at the time.
Until the 1940s, the properties of turbulence were largely unknown. A Soviet physicist later developed formulas to explain how turbulence behaves when small and large eddies interact. Despite this, turbulence remains one of the most complex natural phenomena to visualize and comprehend.
Remarkably, van Gogh’s swirls in Starry Night align perfectly with the mathematical intricacies of turbulence. How he achieved this remains a mystery. Additionally, the painting demonstrates another scientific principle called 'luminance,' where the brain perceives flickering colors in the artwork.
Researchers analyzed more of van Gogh’s works and were amazed to discover he had replicated the turbulent patterns in other paintings. This leads to an unanswered question: Does the turbulence in nature reflect the turbulence of mental illness?
1. Thomas Hayne Cutbrush
For years, the identity of Jack the Ripper has been a subject of speculation. During the time of the murders, newspapers strongly suspected Thomas Hayne Cutbrush as one of the prime suspects.
In 2011, authorities at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum released 26 documents, raising hopes they might clarify whether Cutbrush remained a credible suspect. While the documents didn’t resolve the mystery, they provided intriguing insights.
Cutbrush’s descent into madness began around the same time as the 1888 killings. Working as a clerk at the time, his insanity was remarkable even without the Ripper murders.
Cutbrush became obsessed with the idea that his doctor was poisoning him. Despite seeking help from a prominent London lawyer, he soon believed the conspiracy extended to the legal system. After stabbing a girl during a nighttime rampage, he was institutionalized.
Although his trial resulted in an insanity verdict, he continued to exhibit violent behavior. On one occasion, he even attempted to bite off his mother’s face during a visit.
In 1894, The Sun newspaper first proposed that Cutbrush could be the Ripper. However, a key flaw in this theory is the two-year gap between the last Ripper murder and Cutbrush’s arrest for assault.
Cutbrush’s description aligns closely with that of the Ripper, featuring bright blue eyes and a noticeable limp. The newspaper article further asserted that there was evidence linking Cutbrush to the Ripper.
While the gap in violent incidents might suggest he isn’t the Ripper, it doesn’t entirely rule him out. Additionally, there’s a compelling reason authorities might have concealed information about him: Cutbrush’s uncle, a Scotland Yard superintendent, took his own life around the time of the Ripper murders.
