The Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, also known as the Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, is located in Beechworth, a town in Victoria, Australia. Located just a few hours away from Melbourne, Beechworth is the second oldest institution in Victoria. It is also one of the most haunted buildings in all of Australia. Mayday hills was founded in 1867 and closed in 1995 after 128 years of operation. Since it’s closing, it has now been transformed into a hotel and conference center for La Trobe University. It was the fourth psychiatric hospital to be built in Victoria, making one of the three largest. The Beechworth Lunatic Asylum was home to patients, as well as prisoners. Over 9,000 people died on the property. With all those tragic passings, no wonder it’s …show more content…
one of the most haunted! Beechworth’s history goes back 128 years, it first opened in October of 1867. To be admitted into Beechworth, all you needed was two signatures, but to get out was another story. In order for you to be released from Beechworth, you needed eight signatures. Six keys were all you needed to open the buildings, and very few people made it out alive. According to the townspeople, they believed that the altitude of the institution would help cure or cleanse the patients of their illness, according to Jackie Myers and Matthew Bakers, tour guides at Beechworth. The institution was home to many patients, one of them being J. Kelly. In one room, you can see his signature etched into the glass. J. Kelly,who was the uncle to Ned Kelly, was sentenced to fifteen years at Beechworth after burning down his sister-in-law's house. As he was serving his time there helping to build the hospital, he claimed that his mind was “broken”. He spent the rest of his days living at the hospital until his death in 1903 (The Dark and Twisted Stories). One of the most famous ghosts who haunts the grounds of Beechworth, is the ghost of Matron Sharpe.
She is seen almost everywhere on the grounds. In what is now part of La Trobe University’s computer rooms, you can see her apparition walking around. Along with on the granite staircase, and former dormitory area. Matron Sharpe was very understanding, and caring, towards her patients. This was quite uncommon in this time. Another ghost people have claimed to see is the ghost of a patient. His name is Tommy Kennedy. Kennedy was quite popular at the hospital, and he was liked by many. He was even given a job to work in the kitchen. Unfortunately, Tommy died in the kitchen as well. Today, where thee kitchen used to be, it is now apart of the Bijou Theatre. Here, people say that they have felt their clothes being pulled at, and someone poking their ribs. In the recreation Hall, which is now part of the Bell Tower, the ghostly figure of an elderly man can be seen. He is usually facing away from the window (Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, Victoria, …show more content…
Australia). According to Jackie Myers who had a family member that worked at Beechworth, the Grevillia wing of the hospital, was one of the most feared wings by all the patients there. This was where many patients would go to get “treated”. Since medication was not released until the 1950s, the staff used all different types of so-called torture devices on them. Straight jackets and shackles were used to help restrain patents. Electro-shock treatment was used as well. Elecro-shock treatment was very common in hospitals. When the shock ran through the patient's body, they were so forceful that the bodied usually contracted inwards, or flaired out, pushing their abdomens up towards the ceiling. In many cases, bones would break, teeth shatter, and ligaments would snap. There are two sightings that occur almost every day in the Grevillia wing.
One is of a doctor, and the other is of Matron Sharpe. The doctor has been seen wandering the hallways at night as of he is looking for his next patient. Matron Sharpe can usually been seen where the nurses of the hospital would stay. Many people who have witnessed Matron Sharpe’s ghost claim that the room gets very cold, but the atmosphere around them is comforting (Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, Victoria, Australia). According to workers at the hospital, many have claimed that they have heard children laughing and playing. When they go to take a look at where the sound is coming from, no one is to be found. On a family ghost tour about five years ago, Jackie said that there was a family with their young son, who was about 10 years old. The mother noticed the son talking to himself and started to question him about it. When asked, the boy said he was talking to another little boy named James who was living there. Matthew Baker who had a family member admitted to Beechworth in the late 60s, stated that many patients who came into the hospital, have been admitted to numerous hospitals prior. He was able to obtain a handwritten case file from their public records office. The letter was from a patient named Will Robinson. In the letter, Robinson states that he doesn’t know where he came from exactly. He left Beechworth in
1854. Treatment in the 1800s was behind modern practice by far. For many, they would end up being restrained by a straight jacket, and if that was not cutting it for them, they would be placed in what is called an “isolation box”. During this time, there was no was of telling what was schizophrenia, or an epileptic episode. There were only four was to classify a “lunatic”; mania, melancholia, dementia, and paranoia. Many of the women who were admitted most likely were suffering from post-natal depression (Victorian Psychiatric patients’ grim fate…).
For years, I have been told that Lillian Handlan Lemp, better known as the Lavender Lady is one of the many ghosts of the Lemp Mansion. I had no reason to doubt this until I learned that Lillian never lived in the Lemp Mansion. When Lillian was married to William Lemp Jr, they lived in the in a penthouse on top of the Chase Park Plaza. After finding this out, I had to ask myself; “Why would the Lavender Lady haunt the Lemp Mansion if she never lived there?” I could only come to one conclusion, she doesn’t. If there is no reason, then the ghost everyone claims to see in the Lavender Suite cannot be the restless spirit of Lillian Handlan Lemp. I know this may be hard for some to accept, since so many psychics, paranormal investigators, and television shows have identified the ghost on the second floor as the Lavender Lady, but I still find it very hard to believe Lillian would haunt a home in which they never lived in. Lillian actually died in her apartment on Park Avenue in 1960.
So, in the 30s and 40s they used to send tuberculosis patients to the [Glenn Dale] hospital for treatment. [normal relaxed tone] Eventually it was converted into an insane asylum and it became notorious for its treatment of patients. The staff experimented on the patients and locked them up all day. One day, all the patients revolted and the doctors ran out of the hospital and boarded up all the doors and windows. [talking faster] The patients were left inside to die and the hospital was abandoned. The insane still wander the halls. Today, if you sneak in the hospital you will be chased by the ghosts of the patients and catch tuberculosis. My friend went there and swears he saw a ghost watching him from the shadows, and he won’t go near that place anymore [gestures with hand in horizontal motion]. The cops arrest anyone they catch trespassing, but they say the cops won’t go in the hospital after you if you need help.”
In the book The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, the ghost is Sophia; Florence’s cousin and James’ sister. Aunt adored her, but now that she is dead, Florence, the protagonist, is basically just a replacement of her, but her Aunt clearly thinks that Sophia was much better than Florence is now.
“Peoria State Hospital? What’s that? Oh is that the Bartonville Insane Asylum haunted house? That place is scary!” This is what pops into many people’s mind when they think of Peoria State Hospital. Peoria State Hospital, PSH, is not just a scary haunted house; it is a very important part of history. PSH was one of the first mental health facilities of its kind. Peoria State Hospital is considered a pioneer in the treatment of mentally ill patients due to the innovative treatment methods it used. PHS influenced mental healthcare not only in Illinois but across the entire United States as well. This facility became terribly downtrodden in its later years due to the launch of new local facilities and programs and the degradation of the buildings. Toward the end PSH was eerily similar to the hospitals they sought to replace. Peoria State Hospital marked a major turning point towards the improving of mental healthcare by helping people with and curing, their mental illness not only in Illinois, but in the entire country (Bittersweet).
"We have lost an outrageous number of Nurses and Drs., and the little town of Ayer is a sight. It takes Special trains to carry away the dead. For several days there were no coffins and the bodies piled up something fierce, we used to go down to the morgue (which is just back of my ward) and look at the boys laid out in long rows .
Envision yourself living in a mental asylum, being covered in filth, forced to work, and tortured by guards fill your schedule. You constantly despise every minute of every day, but you can’t leave. This is what a mental asylum was like before Nellie Bly stood up for the mentally ill. An upstander is someone who stands up for what they believe in. According to PBS, a world renown educational television channel, Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran and took on the alias Nellie Bly when she began her journalistic career (Nellie Bly). Her father died when she was just six years old throwing her family into a large amount of debt (Nellie Bly). Thinking it would help her family, she attended the Indiana Normal School when she was 15 (Nellie
While describing Aswarby Hall, M R James describes it as a "tall, square, red-bricked house." This is done to create curiosity and interest as the description given is of an average looking house that would be similar to others around it as nothing in particular stands out about the home. M R James uses unexpected settings like this. In traditional ghost stories the setting of a house is often of a grand and unusually eerie house which creates a dark and sinister atmosphere, but M R James does the reverse of this. He describes his settings using people’s everyday lives, for example, the description of the house they live in. He does this as he believes it has a scarier impact on the audience as the reader feels connected to characters and settings that are ordinary just like them, and can no longer separate themselves from characters like Mr Abney. Although to create a sinister atm...
The new asylums. Dir. Miri Navasky. Perf. Sigmon Clark, Fred Cohen. WGBH Educational Foundation: 2005. Film.
In 1950s the construction of new psychiatric centres took place in order to treat people with mental disorders. Local authorities provided financial resources to sustain these establishments of psychiatry. Apparently those psychiatric centres were treating the patients in unappropriated ways and inhuman acts as well as demanding them to remain inside the psychiatric centres for the rest of
The BBC documentary, Mental: A History of the Madhouse, delves into Britain’s mental asylums and explores not only the life of the patients in these asylums, but also explains some of the treatments used on such patients (from the early 1950s to the late 1990s). The attitudes held against mental illness and those afflicted by it during the time were those of good intentions, although the vast majority of treatments and aid being carried out against the patients were anything but “good”. In 1948, mental health began to be included in the NHS (National Health Service) as an actual medical condition, this helped to bring mental disabilities under the umbrella of equality with all other medical conditions; however, asylums not only housed people
He surrounded himself with a voice keeping up a running commentary of his each and every move. He often found himself preaching to hallucinations of euphoric dreams in which he believed were true, or about to happen. However, there was one thing he didn’t know or care about. This man was confined to a cell for more than twenty-three hours every day. He ate, drank, slept, and bathed in a twelve-by-twelve padded room. No windows, no mirrors, no carpet. The only objects that co-existed with this man for 95.83 percent of his time on earth was the one-hundred-and-twenty watt light bulb that illuminated the room until 8:30 exactly every night, the lilac blue pillows that covered the walls, ceiling and floor, and this mans psychotic dream-reality.
“We have travelled from Florida to Radford, Virginia on four different occasions to investigate St. Albans,” said Terri. During that time they have experienced a plethora of paranormal activity, including the sounds of disembodied voices, the vision of a full-body apparition, having an investigator slapped by an unseen hand, disembodied growling, and a disappearing door, among others.
The Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, a sanatorium in which a melting pot of the state’s criminally insane, daft and demented were housed, was later effectively named the Dayton State Hospital, ultimately named 10 Wilmington Place, which completely “derails” past notions of the previous named building, and has now become a retirement home for the elderly. “It must be remembered that popular thinking at this time had by no means entirely removed from “insanity” its ancient association with demons, spirits sin and similar mythical phenomena. Neither was it generally considered in the category of illness and hence the afflicted were viewed with an admixture of curiosity, shame and guilt” (INSIDE D.S.H 2). The author is conveying that there was a misconception toward the afflicted that they were not only insane but also demonically possessed, hence the obscurity of the patients due to curiosity and shame by the community. In such films as House on Haunted Hill in which certain archaic medical experiments were performed on patients that once were housed there; as a challenge a group of people were offered money to spend the night in a house thought to be haunted by former patients years ago. This movie concept is in accordance with the author’s statement about popular thinking and public views.
On 1/27/17, I, Deputy Mathews and my co-Deputies Deputy Ray and Deputy Clindaniel were dispatched to the high risk section of the mental health jail, in the back of Eastland Sheriff’s Department at 1:36 P.M.. Deputy Ray, Deputy Clindaniel and I arrived to the jail cell at 1:38 P.M.. When we arrived at the scene, we put on our personal protective equipment and noticed that the lights were turned off inside the cell and the cell door was open. Shortly after we arrived, Deputy Clindaniel turned on the lights inside the cell. Soon after, I went inside to take pictures of the crime scene. I first started in the right corner of the cell and went counter clockwise, taking pictures from the corners of the cell. Next, I took close up shots of each of the evidence. Lastly, I stood on the outside of the cell to take a picture of the whole crime scene.
The first think that all of the material regrading private prisons is the quality of the prison. Looking in to the quality of private prisons allows people to make the best laws and opinions in regards to private prisons. One why to judge the quality of a prison is by looking at the correction officers. The relationship between the Correction officers and the inmates is one way to look at correction officers. If there is a positive relationship this shows that the prison system is positive and most likely will result in less prisoners recommitting crimes. This allows correction officers to better interact with inmates causing there to be less inmate grievances. Thus, making the public prisons have higher quality in the area of correction