New York City Lunatic Asylum

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Hailey, we're famous.

Are we? I was at the Starbucks getting beverages this morning and the lady said, and what is the name on the string? Can I sit at Hailey and I spelled it for her? And then she said, what's the name on the other drink?

Because it also, Hailey. And I was like, no, I said this won't be Holly. And so she stops and she takes a beat and she goes, Hailey and Holly. And like she thinks it through and then she said, this is going to sound weird.

But do you have a podcast? And I was like, we do have a podcast. We do. And she was like, oh, that's so cool.

I've listened to it. And I was like, that's amazing. So we somewhat are famous at least at Starbucks. Yeah.

So we should do some kind of like Starbucks public appearance, I think. This led me though to ponder as I was driving to your home this morning. What is your favorite Starbucks drink? Like what would be your go-to and then what is the like the surprise drink that you didn't really think you would like that you actually do?

I don't know. Let me think. Well, right now with the fall season, I'm back into my basic white girl pumpkin spice lattes. I mean, yeah.

But I think my go-to during the like non- festive seasons is anything like caramel. Mm hmm. Good caramel macchiato or really was like in their brown sugar. She's pressing.

Oh, yeah. That is a favor. Fine. And I've been chewing like switching out milk so I can do more almond milk than like regular.

But you know, just kind of when I'm feeling it. Nice. I like toast and tolerant. Oh.

So often I will go for those chicken espresso and the things that like that has oat milk actually. But I like oat milk, I like almond milk. But talk about my basic. My go-to Starbucks is a Vinti Americano black hot.

That is my go-to. That is the same. I picked up your order a few times. That's that's that's.

Holly is so everybody's like room. Would you like room? And I'm like, no, I don't want room for cream. I don't want cream.

I just want it black. Just yeah. Like I'm a hardcore coffee drinker. But I also like a pumpkin spice latte.

I just have to switch out the milk, which makes it more expensive. Yeah, which sucks. Um, but if I if I get a free drink, there are two things I go for when I get a free drink at Starbucks, which is usually when you get so many points on your app. So one of them is a nitro cold brew with sweet cream.

That is a fave of mine. And then the other one, if I'm feeling really decadent and maybe I'm not going to eat in, you know, I have some hours. Um, I'll get a Vinti caramel frappuccino. Oh, caramel ribbon.

Oh my gosh. So good. Yeah. So good.

Yeah. Nice. Well, do you want to hear the story? I do.

This is this is a interesting story. And I I've known about it for a really long time and I've wanted to do it. Um, I know, I know. So I think it's really important because it's really kind of an important talking piece as well.

Okay. Okay. So today, we are headed to Blackwell Island, which is a small island off of New York City. It is currently referred to as Roosevelt Island.

Have you been to Roosevelt Island? I have been to Roosevelt Island, actually. Is it's lovely now. Yes.

It's got like a we took actually took our kids there. Not my children. I have because I don't have kids, but I worked in a after school program. I left them in New York.

I'm sorry. Yeah. I just leave them there. I leave them there.

These kids lost in New York. They're there. Now I worked in after school program up there and we took a group to Resil Island. I can't exactly like what all we did over there because it's kind of a blur.

But yeah, we that was a trip we took. I think it was just for like a nature preserve type situation. Like went to just be a part of nature. I like that.

I feel like, um, but yeah, this was I worked at this community center in the Bronx and we did after school for like middle and high school. Nice. And they had an elementary program too, but I didn't work in that one. No, no, young kids scare you.

I worked middle and high school. I was like, this is my jail. I like the older one. Yeah, I can deal with these little no.

I have no idea. Well, we're dropping in at the women's lunatic asylum, which was not there at that time. Right. It opened in 1841.

Yeah, no, it's not there. When we visited, but a building from it still exists to this day. Oh, it's one of the largest buildings on the ground. It's very unique and structure and it has an octagon shape.

It was part of the New York City mental health system. So did you see an octagon shape building when you were there? I don't really remember a lot of it. Excellent.

Yeah, I remember like we went there, but there were so many things happening. And I was probably trying to make sure that I kept all of my children alive and together. So there was not a lot of like looking around. It was a constant like head count.

Did you ferry there? We did. We had to take some sort of boat situation, put situation over there. I think it was a ferry.

And it's not far. No, no, it was walked on and just like popped over. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, this octagon shaped building was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and features a five story rotunda, which was built with this blue gray stone. So the stone was actually handlaid from materials, kind of the rock quarry that was on the island. Oh, cool. So this island was kind of self-sustaining to perform the city.

Yeah. Like they were able to, you know, keep things going kind of cool. So this octagon building is the only remaining piece, like I said, and it's currently used as an apartment complex. Of course it is.

Of course it is. That sounds right. Yeah. Everything just turns into apartments, right?

It sure does. Yeah. It's like a historic building that used to be an elementary school. Yeah.

Is now apartments. Now apartments. Yeah. Well, it's like every time I drive through, like our major, you know, city or whatever, it's like, oh, there's any building going up, what that's going to be apartments.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I actually did the other day.

I thought it was driving somewhere and I was like, oh, wow, look at that. Oh, apartments. Never mind. Yeah.

And I'm like, what, you know, can we not get like a, I don't know, like a Taco Bell or something? No. It's gotta be apartments. It's, you can't live in a Taco Bell or that.

That sounds amazing. Yeah. So it's either apartments or it is storage. Storage unit.

Storage unit. Yes. Yes. Because you can't fit all your crap in the tiny apartment that they're charging you to grand a month for.

So let's pay $100 a month for a tiny little storage room. Yeah. Yeah. True.

So that's, that's how it works around here. I don't know for you guys listening. If you have a similar experience, but we have a lot of individuals who have moved here and there's not enough space for them. So.

Well, and I remember living in New York, what I liked about it is yes, there's a ton of apartments, but a lot of times the bottom level is like retail space. So like when they put up in buildings, there is kind of a, like the building I lived on was on like kind of a hill. So where I came in, it was just a lobby. But if you look at the whole block as a whole, like there were, was retail space on the like straight side.

I think we should do that. Yeah. And they do do it downtown. Like it's all like, you know, retail space and then above our million dollar apartment.

Right. Yeah. That's, you know, even in like the small town I live in, like, and that's most like main streets, places. Yeah.

They have like apartments above, which a lot of times it's the people who own the business. They live above it or things like that. That's the least down where I live is kind of. Where I live.

Interesting. No, because the cost alone to have the retail space is so high that they could never afford to. Gotcha. Yeah.

Well, ours are pretty dilapidated and, you know, crumbling. Well, I actually, this is a side note, but I fell in love with a store that they have, you know, lotions and soaps and all these things. And if they want to sponsor us, I'm just going to say I would be delighted. So I was traveling for traveling a lot for work lately.

I was traveling and I was, I forget which thing I was in, but anyway, it's called the Willow Hill soap factory or something. Anyway, they're from my understanding they were kind of a mom and pop store. They started in one county and now they're in another county. Anyway, so they have two stores and this one is on this main street.

So I was visiting one day and I went there and I got some of their, it's like a hand scrub. It smells so good that now I went on their website actually the other day and I was like, you can order this. Oh my gosh. And they'll ship it to my house.

I won't have to drive there. Like this is amazing. And so I have, I have maybe bought some. I can't speak to it.

But again, if you guys would be willing to sponsor us, we would be more than willing to talk about your product because it is quality like made out of really good material. So there's a lot of like little like soap shops. I know we have one in my town that's like popped up. I want to go see it, but it's really cute.

I am in your town today. You are my town today. You're my town. I'm childless today.

So just rare. Yeah, super rare. Talking about this island. All right.

So it is the site here in 1887 where a female journalist by the name of Nelly Bly was committed for psychiatric evaluation. What'd you do? Well, it's important to know here that mental health facilities at this time period don't exist the way we would think of them today, obviously. So back then, if you were suffering from anxiety, postpartum depression, intellectual disabilities, you know, traumatic brain injuries, anything small to large basically, you'd be committed to an institution for a period of time or even the rest of your life.

Yeah. And we've talked about this before in this podcast, you know, it could be things like you're talking about to your husband. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm so fast. Oh, absolutely. I would be there.

I would be your next or name. Yeah. Because I'm I'm now. Yeah.

So in addition to the asylum, there was also a prison, a poor house and a sanitarium on the island. So definitely not the same nature walk. No, no, no, no. So all of this house, New York City's quote, undesirable.

Yeah. So as we mentioned before, like I said, most of these institutions were not safe, nor sanitary, and a lot of the treatments were very barbaric in nature. They would do things like ice baths, but the funny thing is ice baths is now trendy. I know.

Like the thing now, it's a thing now that everybody's like, let me take my polar plunge. Oh, I feel so rejuvenated. And I'm like, okay, but what happens when we prove this is wildly unhealthy, especially if you're staying in there a long time, right? And I get it.

If you have a ridiculously high fever that you can't bring down, that makes sense. But if you have a normal body temperature, why would you do that? I did the polar plunge for Special Olympics two years ago, and it was awful. Yeah.

Would not recommend it. I mean, I will do it again for Special Olympics. Right. Obviously a good person as like a fun.

No, no, no, like a daily occurrence. That's not for me. I've actually seen people on the internet, pregnant women doing this, which is terrifying to me. I'm like, what?

I hope you've consulted your doctor. I hope so too. I mean, my gosh, you know, like you worry about drinking caffeine and these people are like taking a polar plunge. And I don't understand it.

So anyway, so it shall be so they also in addition to these ice baths, they would let patients sit in their own field for weeks on end and would torture them with radical experiments. Yeah. So these places were pretty deplorable. They were unsanitary and you could also find them covered in vermin, roaches and other pests.

Gross. Yeah, I'm not great. Nope. So you've got to know disease was one running rampant.

Oh, I'm sure. Oh, they would have to be. So if patients weren't dying due to the harsh treatments, they were dying to the disease. Yeah.

There had been rumors that the women's lunatic asylum was neglectful and brutalized its female patients, but no one really cared to do anything about it. It was kind of like, they're on their island site, out of mind. Okay, sounds good. So that was until 1887 when 23-year-old Nellie Bly was committed there.

You see, Nellie had been staying at a boarding house and steamed confused. She was a Cuban immigrant and had come to the city some years before. Now she was excuse me. Now she referred to her border owners as crazy and she looked at them as if she had seen a ghost.

She seemed very off. So the border owners called the police and they were like, yeah, this lady's over here rambling. We don't think she's right in the head. You got to come do something.

So of course, she's a woman. Obviously she's crazy. So they came and arrested her. Oh, I mean, she's crazy.

They're like, all right, let's go, little lady. So she's taken into court where she says that she can't remember who she is. And fearing she had amnesia, the judge ordered her to be evaluated by two different physicians to assess really what was going on. So the judge believed that this young woman could have been drugged, which was also a thing at the time.

Whoa. Sorry. My drink was attached to my coaster and it just scared me real bad. I didn't know if like you were nervous about taking a drink thinking I had dropped you.

No, I was not worried about that. Should I be? No. Oh, good.

I don't have any drugs on me or ever. So I mean, I do have some Tylenol for that. I went yesterday and purchased Tylenol, I prevent an excetron migraine to keep in my district work. Yes.

Yes. I always, so we have an administrative assistant. Hi, if you're listening, you're probably not. But God bless her.

I often will come in and be like, do you have any excetron? And she's a migraine suffer like me. And she's always like, yes, I do. And the other day I had a horrific migraine.

And I asked her and she was like, I don't know, let me go check my car. And she was like, I put it in the wrong bag. And there was a panic in her voice, which there was a panic in me because she realized she didn't have any for herself. And I realized she didn't have any for me.

And we both looked at each other like, what do we do? Yeah, it was not at the time. We have where I work. A lot of us take our daily second traffic meds, which can cause it can.

So a lot of times, though, we'll forget our meds or whatever. So we've all taken to just keeping a stash, like a one dose of our medication in the office in case you get to work and you're like, oh crap, I'm going to take my meds this morning. And nobody really has a locked, like I don't have any way to lock up meds in my office. But one of our data manager actually has a way to lock her drawer.

And so we put everybody's individually labeled meds in the drawer. And then we have like the big bottle, maybe broken the big bottle of that at all. And we call it the magic drawer. Because it is magic.

Yeah. And you're like, I'm like, kind of the key to getting the magic drawer. Like, yes. It's like, yes, it's like, don't take anybody else's meds except your own.

I'm like, you got it. And to clarify, she's not taking psychotropics. I wanted to clarify, because psychotropics in its classification tends to be things like howdoll, those things. Oh, no.

Well, I think you just mean like SSRIs, like anti-depressant anti-exciting medications. I want to just say that so that people aren't assuming that you're taking howdoll while trying to care for students. No, I mean, that might help. Well, I'm talking about how that will knock you out for days to be out.

That would be great. And tends to be given more when you are experiencing some kind of either psychotic break, schizophrenic episodes, something to them. There are days when these children and I feel like I'm suffering a lot of break. I am the parent of one child, and I often feel that.

So I can't imagine being with a bunch of them. Yeah, that's great. I love it. That's why I'm on meds.

Probably needs some anti-inciting. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. That's a lot of really comes in handy.

The older I get to, the more anxious I feel, I think that's the thing. Yeah. So, okay, anyway. What meds was this lady on?

So he thought she was drugged, right? So he sends her off thinking, okay, this is probably the answer. She's just somebody has drugged her along the way. Poor thing.

So, when doctors examined her, however, once stated that she had not been drugged, but rather she was quote, positively demented. Oh, same. That's our next sticker. Positively demented.

Oh, I love that. Write that down. Okay. That's our maybe we could do that for the merch that apparently never comes in.

It's gonna happen. Maybe one day. Positively demented is gonna be one of them. I love that.

Okay, we gotta remember that. Yeah. All right. So another doctor declared, quote, I consider this a hopeless case.

She needs to be put somewhere where someone can take care of her, end quote. I mean, the woman just says, I don't remember who I am and, you know, is a little confused, but like, you know what? Let's lock her in a home forever because she's positively demented. I mean, there are days where I'm like, sure.

Yeah, I'll take, yeah, locked facility. But without the rats, without the rats, right? Yeah, that would be good. So these doctors met her one time and already have thrown in the towel and said, Hey, there's nothing.

She's crazy. Exactly. So sorry. Oh my gosh.

That feels like we're just not trying. We're just not trying. Yeah, we're not. Yeah.

Doing our due diligence. Sounds like our doctors are not educated. And just don't give a damn. Like, Oh, you're a woman.

You can't remember stuff while you're crazy. Well, you must be clinically insane. Exactly. No, positively.

There is no clinically insane. At this point. You can imagine nowadays, if you wrote that on paperwork, positively demented. You do.

They're like comprehensive and it's like, um, diagnosis, positively demented. What's the DSM code for that? I wonder. Yeah, I don't know.

I haven't seen it in the latest edition of the DSM. However, I wonder how you treat that plan around that. And how does it meet the criteria? Because you have to meet criteria for a diagnosis based on things that you're presenting it.

How do I person centered plan around? How do you plan that? And with a PCP, you have to have measured goals. So how do we measure less positively demented?

Right. How do we measure that? I don't know. How do I get to the to just demented?

Five out of the seven days feeling slightly demented. Yeah. That feels like progress. That does.

Yeah. Yeah. I bet that Mars insane. It's gotta be.

Which is a medication administration record. We're probably using some terms here that you guys are like, what are you talking about? If you've ever worked in clinical mental health, you know all of these terms. CCA.

PCP. PCP. Not the drug. The person centered plan.

Person centered plan. Calipranic clinical assessment. A calilocas. If they're if they're under the age of 18.

Yep. If they're above, it's just a locus. Yep. Yep.

Yep. I didn't get the locus training. I just got the locus back calilocas. It's okay.

I have been trained in it all. Nice. It's fun. Yeah.

Good times. Good times. And it's really great to do your treatment planning because you have to figure out is this medication worthy? Yeah.

If they benefit from medication talking to your client, do you feel like you would like to take medication for it? I can't prescribe medication. Okay. So I would have to send you to either a psychiatrist but your primary care could.

So we can make that a nurse practitioner could do this as well. Anyway, but also I often recommend therapy services. Oh yeah. So part of my treatment plan.

Never in my treatment plan do I put polar plunge. That'll do it. I had my doctor recommended going to a sauna to to bring. I could see that.

I could see that. Yeah. That like I haven't done it but he would recommend it. I recommend a spa.

Yeah. You know, maybe just some like deep meditative breathing that helps. I'm trying to teach my son like the deep breathing techniques for when he feels really anxious. And so he goes, I'm like, no, no, no, no.

I don't want to pass out. That's hyper fiddle waiting. We want to go. And so sometimes I will hear him when he's really aggravated with me and he'll just go and I was like, are you using your calming breaths?

And he was like, yes, I am. Okay, great job. Good job. You can tell he's a son of a therapist.

Yeah. Oh, you son of a therapist. Anyway, okay. Back to our story.

So Nellie's taken to Bellevue Hospital initially. Doctors there said that there's no doubt about it. She's insane. And yeah, she was described as having a mysterious wave-like features with a wild haunted look in her eyes.

Yeah. So they're like, we can't do anything for you here. And when she was questioned, Nellie kept crying and saying, I can't remember. I can't remember.

Yeah. And so sad to me. So Bellevue is like, yeah, we can't help you here. We're going to have to admit you to the woman's lunatic asylum on Blackwell Island for further treatment.

So upon Nellie's arrival at the asylum, she was treated by staff in a harsh manner. Go figure. She was among the 1600 women who were being housed at this lunatic asylum, 1600. And this was far too many people as this building's capacity was 1000.

So there were 600 people over what they should be. That's crazy. So as you can imagine, you are literally on top of people. Yeah.

Comparing the staff to mass amounts of patients ratios, you had like 16 doctors to 1600 patients. So that's like what? 100 patients per doctor doctor. Can you imagine?

That's way over ratio. Who they were seeing on a daily basis. And it's really different when you're in one of these institutions, because you obviously are going to have a different, your ratios are slightly different. Like I could have a caseload of clients and I could have 50, right?

Which is massive. But I don't have to see them all week. I may see, I may see 20 of them once a month. I may see, you know, 10 of them every two months.

I may see, you know, a handful, I may see 30 a week for weekly. You may see people every two weeks. So that's where you can kind of fluctuate and move around. But when you're in an asylum like this, you're seeing these individuals weekly, if not multiple times a week.

And these doctors are also prescribing meds. So like I had a caseload. My mass caseload was three. Wow.

And the like program that I ran. Wow. So I think for weekly clients, the highest number I had was 33. Yeah, it was high.

That's high. That's high. But it can be manageable if you manage your time well, if you do your notes in session versus after session and yeah. But yeah, having that many patients also feels like at that point, it's not person centered anymore.

No, it's very much like, okay, you will have a struggle. See you later. But you know, so there was a shortage of nurses as well and staff due to a decrease in funding. How often do we see that a lot?

There wasn't a great deal of pay. So the staff that they did get was inexperienced and under trained. Oh, yeah, what a great combination. Yeah.

So Nellie's admitted to the hospital, but quickly drops the pretense of amnesia. You see, Nellie's not crazy at all. It's an act. She is an investigative, she's an investigative journalist who works for the New York World Magazine.

Nellie was given this investigative assignment to infiltrate the asylum and find out how patients were really being treated. Because like I said, there had been rumors, but both no one was willing to do anything. And the information that was coming out, of course, was we're not treating patients this way. What are you talking about?

So the only way to truly find out what was happening was for her to go inside. That's crazy. Yes. Yes.

So her boss, Joseph Pulitzer, the prize, agreed that if she would go on this undercover assignment, he would be there to get her out. Like she was only going to be there, you know, maybe a week. Nellie was taking a risk and was hoping that her boss would come and get her because it was highly likely once you go into this institution, you don't come out. So as soon as she learned all the rumors about the hospital were true, she was like, ah, okay, yes, I am going to be treated this way as well.

And so I just think for her, how scary that would have been. Like, I mean, you're doing it for your work, like your art kind of thing, but also that's terrifying. And then like going in and like you do have your full capacity. Yeah.

So like you understand what's happening. Yes. Yep. Versus, you know, probably a majority of patients in there that don't.

Because you're either gassed, lit, being crazy, or you're medicated. Yeah. Yep. So like I said, Nellie dropped the insane act and she just started acting normally, but the hospital staff didn't even notice.

Didn't notice anything that she did. Even what would be considered normal behavior was categorized by staff as symptoms of her illness. Yeah. Why?

Yes. Talk about making you feel crazy. Yeah. So when Nellie would cry and ask to leave the hospital, the doctors assumed this was merely a sign of her mental health.

Not her treatment. Yeah. So Nellie experienced the horrific conditions of the hospital and brutal treatment of its staff firsthand. The nurses were physically emotionally and verbally abusive towards the patients, telling them to shut up and ferociously beating them when they would not be quiet.

So if you were making noises, if you were, you know, yelling or crying or anything, they would just pretty much be the hell out of you. Oh, great. Yeah. So not not fun.

The food consisted of gruel broth, yum, spoiled beef, rotten bread, and brown, undrinkable water. Gross. Yes, which, can you imagine what was in that water? No.

And feces could be found in the kitchen, the dining room, and all around the institution. So there were rats that were crawling everywhere because, you know, rats love gross. Yeah. And then you think kind of gross trash, yuck, you think of rats.

And obviously we're talking about an island, so we're talking about water. You're going to have a lot of rodents. So yeah, not a great place. Uh, because all the things.

Yes, all the things. So patients who were considered the most dangerous were tied together with rope. Oh, that seems like a good idea. Hey, Lea, there's a tater sack race.

We've been walking like a boat. We're just tied together all the time. Yeah. Stuck with you.

It's great. We love it. Oh, other patients were made to sit for most of the day on hard benches with little to any clothing. Yeah.

If they dare moved or spoke, they would be beaten or forced into excruciatingly cold ice baths or water was dumped over their heads repeatedly while being held down. I guess this would be along the lines of waterboarding. Sounds like it. Wow, which is insane when you think about it.

That's actually a technique used for like torture. Yeah. You know, when you're holding a, you know, the enemy captive or something, you want to confession, let's do a waterboarding session. That's crazy.

Anyway, so Nelly herself experienced the ice baths and being showered with freezing cold water, like whether they would dump it over your head three times in a row. As Nelly spoke to the other patients, she learned that she was not the only sane one there. Most of them had been thrown into this institution for speaking out against authority, having postpartum depression, and commonly for being an immigrant who couldn't speak the language. Wow.

So this is a dumping point. Nelly was horrified at the experience and prayed her boss would come and get her as soon as possible. I bet she was counting the hours. Yeah.

Like, okay. Yeah. I hope this wasn't a con, you know. Yeah.

Right. So Nelly knew that she had a duty to the city and the world to hear about the atrocities going on in these institutions. 10 days after she was admitted, it was admitted Joseph Pulitzer came through and he fetched Nelly and she was released. I don't know what he said or did, but you know, it's like a man of authority.

They're like, oh, yes, sir, of course. Like, I want that one. Oh, what one? Just, I mean, probably.

So I'm looking for a young girl, a young, you know, 23 year old, she looks good. Good birthing hips will take her. It's a very, very possible. Yeah.

Yeah. And I don't know. So I haven't read her her book necessarily or her articles, but I don't know what he said or did to get her out, but I would assume it's probably along those lines. Yeah.

Could have been like that's my daughter. Right. And I'm going to bring her back home to care for her ails at home. Yeah, I don't know.

Maybe. So Nelly quickly detailed her disturbing experiences in a piece she entitled, 10 days in a madhouse. On the effect of her experiences, she wrote the following. What accepting torture would produce insanity quicker than this treatment?

Here is a class of women sent to be cured. I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from six a.m. to eight p.m. on a straight back bench, not allowing her to talk or move during these hours, giving her no reading and let her do nothing and know nothing of the world or it's going on.

Give her bad food and harsh treatment and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck. Yeah. And this is the quote from Nelly's experience.

She also went on to detail some of the things that she had both witnessed and experienced at the institution. She recalled the buzz that the patients received. She said that the bathwater was icy and cold and she talked about buckets being poured over your head, you know, and you were never dried off. Like you were just, yeah.

So then the patients were aggressively washed and scrubbed by staff with stiff, bristled brushes. Oh, yeah. So they gave you a bath, but they treated you like some kind of animal. Like I would wash my car like that.

Not a person. Not a person. The staff rarely changed out the bathwater, which meant you were bathing in someone else's filth. Even if the staff did change out the water for fresh, they never cleaned or sanitized any of the bathtubs.

They just threw the next patient in the same filthy bathtub. Yeah. So if you think about it, a like brown bathtub that you're getting into. Yeah.

Nasty. The patients also shared what little towels they had. So you would have a patient who was medically healthy, who was forced to dry off with a towel that had previously been used by patients with skin inflammation, boils and open source. Nelly recalled the bathing ritual with trepidation stating, quote, my teeth chattered and my limbs were goosweshed and blue with cold.

Suddenly I got one after the other three buckets of water over my head, ice water, into my eyes, into my ears, into my nose, into my mouth. I left the insane ward with pleasure and regret pleasure that I was once more able to enjoy the free breath of heaven. I regret that I could not have brought some of them with me, those unfortunate women who lived and suffered with me and who I am convinced are just as sane as sane as I am. In what?

Yeah. So I love that she was able to shine a light on this because she was the first person who truly did. And she really paved the way and you'll see in a minute how she did a lot of changes, positive changes. So she was able to convince a lot of professionals, let's reevaluate what insanity means here.

So 10 days in a madhouse, she talked about the torture that she received, she actually was able to report this and it prompted a grand jury to launch an investigation. So the jury reportedly gave $850,000 towards the budget to increase the department and public charities and corrections. So they were giving more money for mental health, which is excellent. But here's the thing.

It was found out by some folks, you know, some talk around the asylum that they were coming to investigate. So they cleaned it up. Oh yeah, they did. So quickly, they cleaned up the building, they cleaned up the patients.

They're all wearing nice new clothes. Everybody looks fresh and happy. They're not beaten or tortured. Everybody's happy.

They're eating quality food. Wow. Well, no one's being held here. You can say will.

Oh, you're happy to be here. We're playing shuffle board. We're doing all the things. It's great.

It didn't work. Thank God. Thank God. Because most of the staff ended up being fired.

And with the money that they got towards mental health, they were able to hire new staff at a higher pairing rate and they were trained properly. So that was a huge improvement. Additionally, there was a screening process that helped weed out those who needed to be in the institution versus those who were saying, which I still question what this intake was. What are what are questionnaire exactly like, what's the criteria?

Yeah, but anyway, we're making strides. Yeah, it's better than just being tossed in there. Exactly. It's the 1800s.

So Nelly went on to become one of the most famous journalists in the world in 1889. So just two years after her investigative feet, she circumnavigated the globe by herself in 72 days. This is, she said a record because prior to this, it was 79 days. Yeah.

Yeah. Nelly continued to report on social matters because she fought for social justice until she died in 1922 at the young age of 57. Wow. I know she died very young.

Today, the octagon building is all that remains of the former Blackwell women's lunatic asylum. So it was shut down apparently in 1972 in left vacant for years, but they got it placed on the National Register of Historic Places, which often these buildings are in 2006. The building was completely renovated and turned into apartments. And so I did some searching and found some YouTube videos.

It's beautiful. It is really beautiful. You would never guess at the horrific, you know, atrocities that happen there, but it is gorgeous. But I will say in my research, there seems to be some paranormal activity happening in this building.

Obviously, but for the sake of time and all that fun stuff, I'm going to let y'all go down that rabbit trail because it was lengthy. Yeah. I got to cut this off somewhere. But one thing I will say is there's something called the quote, little girl's room that has a lot of paranormal activity going on.

So you should look into that. But really, the story of Nelly Bligh and what she did was pretty inspiring and pretty heroic at that time period. Women speaking out period was not really something that happened. Right.

Yeah. And for this, like, you know, this magazine or this, you know, newspaper to give her the opportunity to do that is pretty big. And if you know anything about Nelly Bligh, she actually started, she's from Pennsylvania and she started, there was something that was written in a newspaper article and she wrote back to the editor and it was really feisty. He was like, well, if you think you can do better, come aboard.

And she did. And that's how she got her start in journalism. And then she traveled to New York City after getting fired from that newspaper. She was like, forget this.

And so she goes to the city and gets hired with this magazine where she, you know, becomes famous. So yeah, I was, she's just, I don't know. I think she's really cool. So check that out.

But that is the women's lunatic asylum on Blackwell Island. Yeah. Wild. Yeah.

It really is. That's pretty cool. Thank you. Thank you.

I thought so. And New York falls with an Appalachia. So we all come at me. Yes.

We're counting it. All right. All right. Well, how do they get ahold of us?

Yeah, you can send us an email at not miseries.applelatchin at gmail.com. Find us on our Facebook, Mount Miseries Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram, Mount Miseries.applelatchin.com. Patreon.com.

Patreon.com slash mountain. You do some wacky things over there. All right. So I'm just going to give a shout out to Roosevelt Island.

So shout out. Yeah. Hey, if you live in that weird off the gun building, hit us up. Yes.