You don't want to be there after dark. The history of these places is chilling

There are places in the US where you can die of fear. A rifle loaded with salt, a supply of holy water, or a powerful medium will not help. On the surface, they can be the perfect buildings for a party or a trip with friends, because what can threaten some old prison or hospital? See for yourself.

Better not to venture alone into the dark woods outside Cumberland, Rhode Island. In the years 1675-76, King Philip's bloody war was fought in these areas, in which the Wampanoag Indians and the colonists slaughtered each other for the right to the land. Terrible events took place there on Sunday, March 26, 1676.

Furious Colonist Ghosts

Captain Michael Pierce led his squad of less than a hundred towards the camp of hostile Native Americans. Near the Blackstone River, the squad was trapped and the captain was killed.

Legend has it that 9 colonists were skinned, their heads chopped off with tomahawks, and their bodies hanged on trees. A day later, English soldiers found the massacred remains and buried them. But that's not the end of the story.

Inscription commemorating the place of the tragedy - "Nine Men's Misery" in Cumberland (source:public domain).

The resting place of the victims of the massacre, known as "Nine Men's Misery," was feared from the start. People saw the rider on horseback, heard terrible screams and groans from the woods. The stories were fueled by the fact that in the 18th century, robbers unearthed the remains many times.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Cistercians bought this land from the city and built a monastery on it. They did not want the remains of "pagan" Quakers in their area. The bodies of the victims of the massacre were excavated again and returned to ... the Rhode Island Historical Society.

In the 1950s, a huge fire consumed most of the monastery. Did the spirits take revenge on the monks? The brothers moved to another state, the city regained its land, and the remains returned to their place in 1976. Did this bring peace to the souls of the nine colonists?

You can really go crazy in this haunted "psychiatrist"

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia is the largest handcrafted stone building in North America. It was built in the second half of the 19th century. gargoyles were placed on the façade to deter evil forces. The dark fame of this place seems to confirm that it was useless.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum - view of the main building in 2006 (photo:Tim Kiser "Malepheasant", license CC BY-SA 2.5).

The hospital could accommodate 250 patients, but by 1880 almost three times as many were admitted. Before World War II, 1661 patients were accommodated in the rooms, and in the 1950s - as many as 2600.

Among them were "epileptics, alcoholics, drug addicts and mentally handicapped people unable to educate" . Charles Manson himself was briefly in Trans-Allegheny. The hospital reportedly performed one hundred lobotomies a week and electroshock was regularly practiced.

The article was inspired by the CBS Reality series "Ghost Hunters".

Trans-Allegheny Hospital has been a nightmare for its tenants for decades. According to a report by Charles Hoag, patients settled in "gloomy quarters", living in conditions that "would not meet basic pet standards" . It was only in the 1980s that the number of hospitalized patients decreased with the change in the methods of treating mental illnesses. Trans-Allegheny finally closed in 1994.

This terrifying hospital was also visited by the crew of the CBS series Ghost Hunters . According to the filmmakers, in Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum you can really go crazy with fear ...

A prison where the devil says goodnight

The history of Old City Jail in Charleston, South Carolina, dates back to the Civil War. The most notorious criminals of the 19th century sat (and died) there. Among them was Lavinia Fisher, mistakenly called the first serial killer in US history. There was also Denmark Vesey, who was accused of trying to start a slave revolt, as well as the pirate-poisoner Alexander Tardy. Today the building houses a school, but supernatural phenomena continue to draw tourists and enthusiasts to Charleston.

Extremely active "former tenant" of the prison is reportedly Lavinia Fisher, who - according to a local legend - together with her husband took the lives and belongings of the customers of the inn Six Mile Wayfarer House . The guests allegedly received tea poisoned with arsenic, and then the Fischers robbed them of their money. It is an unreliable story, just like the one that the spouses killed over a hundred people. Only two bodies were found on their property.

Old City Jail in Charleston - formerly a prison, today a school (photo:ProfReader, license CC BY-SA 3.0).

On February 4, 1820, both spouses were hanged for robbery. According to the legend, Lavinia was going to the gallows in a wedding dress and was about to shout before her death: "If you have something to say to the devil, tell me because I will see him soon." Moments later, she jumped off the gallows.

The article was inspired by the CBS Reality series "Ghost Hunters".

Lavinia's soul is said to be still unable to rest at ease in taking revenge on prison visitors. She is particularly fond of women whom she likes to leave fingernails on the body, pull on clothes, and even choke them. Do you have the courage to find out if there is any grain of truth in this story?

The haunting scourge in a hundred-year-old hospital

In 1910, Waverly Hills opened as a hospital for people suffering from tuberculosis. At that time, a maximum of 50 patients could stay in the building. However, in the state of Kentucky at the beginning of the century, an epidemic of tuberculosis broke out and the hospital was stormed by sick people. Before effective antibiotics were developed in the 1960s and the facility was no longer needed, people were dying there en masse.

Waverly Hills turned from a small outpost into a huge edifice. There was even a pavilion for the youngest, where not only small patients were located, but also children of tuberculosis, whom there was no one to look after in the absence of their parents.

Between 6,000 and 9,000 people died in Waverly Hills. It is death that is associated with one of the hospital's most infamous "technical solutions".

Main entrance to Waverly Hills - another terrible place on the US map (photo:Kris Arnold, source:public domain).

During the operation of the facility, a special over 160-meter-long "chute" for the corpse was built. It led down a hill where the bodies were cremated. It has been called the "tunnel of death" and former workers still have hooks used to drain the bodies of the dead. The chute was built to spare living patients the sight of the bodies of the dead.

Waverly Hills has a reputation for being one of the most haunted hospitals on the East Coast of the United States. There is a legend among the locals about an unmarried pregnant nurse who was said to have committed suicide in room 502. She reportedly hanged herself on an electric wire, previously drowning a newborn baby in a well. And to think that the current owners are planning to open a hotel and conference center in this blood-curdling place ...

Endless time in Shawshank

The Correction Center, and later the Ohio State Reformatory Prison, also known as the Mansfield Reformatory, was built between 1886 and 1910. It was originally intended to be a point for the young men that the state of Ohio wanted to convert to the right path through education, work, and faith.

Ohio State Reformatory in all its glory. It does not make such a threatening impression… (source:public domain).

In the 1930s, a fire in a state prison destroyed one of the blocks. There were quite a few real thugs at Mansfield then. By 1970, the facility had become a maximum security prison. Over 155,000 people passed through the Ohio State Reformatory. prisoners until its closure on New Year's Eve 1990. Back in the days when the prison was in operation, films such as the Shawshank Redemption were shot or Air Force One .

... but the goals definitely did not look friendly anymore (photo:Brenda Gottsabend, license CC BY-SA 3.0).

In the eight decades of operation, many tragedies have happened in Mansfield. Twice during their escape attempts, the fugitives killed the guards. The guilty ones went to electric chairs.

On July 21, 1948, he made an exceptionally black page in the history of Ohio State Reformatory. Two former inmates, John West and Robert Daniels, kidnapped the prison farm overseer, his wife and 20-year-old daughter. The girl was raped, then the whole family was murdered, and then they fled, leaving a bloody trail behind them. Apart from the aforementioned family, several other people were killed. Eventually, West died in a police shootout and Daniels ended up in the electric chair.

There were also various strange accidents in the prison. In November 1950, the warden's wife, reaching into the closet for jewelry, knocked down the hidden gun. The weapon fired, fatally wounding her. Her husband died of a heart attack in his office a few years later.

There is nowhere to have a picnic around Ohio State Reformatory… but will anyone dare? (photo:WT-shared, license CC BY-SA all).

Once, in an Ohio State Reformatory isolation room, a prisoner was found dead, huddled under a bunk. Another time, two inmates took their own lives in it:one hanged himself, and the other - he set fire to it. During the entire period of the functioning of the facility, the remains of over 200 prisoners were buried at the cemetery.

In Mansfield, according to local stories, ghosts haunt both prisoners and guards. You can come there for the Halloween festival, theme parties and tours for those interested in haunted places.

Literature

1. Burge K., A haunting attraction in R.I., "The Boston Globe", 5/12/2007
2. Franko V., Nine Men's Misery Part 2 Historical Research, Joseph Bucklin Society 2003.
3. Hendrix P., Murder and Mayhem in the Holy City. Charleston, South Carolina:The History Press 2006.
4. Report of The Lunatic Asylum West of the Alleghany Mountains, 1859, Charleston, W.Va .:West Virginia Department of Archives and History (Virginia Documents. Document XXII.).
5. Sciullo M., Former prison in Ohio draws captive audience, thanks to 'Shawshank Redemption', “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”, 09/24/2014.
6. Shafer S., Waverly Hills hospital rezoning likely, "The Courier-Journal", 2/21/2014
7. The Kirkbride Plan:Architecture for a Treatment System that Changed, Hospital and Community Psychiatry 27, 7 (July 1976), pp. 473-477.

GHOST TRACKERS (Season 3 &4)
From January 12 on weekdays at 23:00. Continued next month.
Zak Bagans, who hosted the Ghost Hunters program, did not believe in paranormal phenomena until he first encountered them. From that moment on, he decided not only to look for places where he can meet creatures from another dimension, but also to record their presence on recordings! Zak travels with three helpers all over the States. The men first learn the history of the haunted place, then stay there all night, only in the company of cameras.
Already in the first episode of season 3, the crew of "Ghost Hunters" investigates the evil powers haunting the Vulture gold mine, which attracted thousands of greedy seekers . Soon, violence and corruption led to unimaginable deaths.
In the next episode, the team will travel to San Francisco Bay to discover the secret of the iron giant known as Hornet.