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Speaker 1: Hello, there's Richard McLain smith here to let you know

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Speaker 1: that I now have a substack page if you enjoy

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Speaker 1: Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of

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Speaker 1: the show. I've created a new space for all the

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Speaker 1: bits that don't quite fit into the podcast, including the

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Speaker 1: Unexplained Dedendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode.

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Speaker 1: Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical explorations of folklore, psychology,

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Speaker 1: and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the

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Speaker 1: stories you hear on the show. But it's also a

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Speaker 1: home for something more personal, my fiction, my strange amusings,

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Speaker 1: and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search

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Speaker 1: for Richard McClain smith on substack, or go to Richard

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Speaker 1: mcclainsmith dot substack dot com to find out more and subscribe.

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Speaker 1: If you'd like a little bit more of me and

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Speaker 1: Unexplained in your week, join me on substack and let's

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Speaker 1: keep exploring the unknown together. New writing most Tuesdays. Deep

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Speaker 1: beneath Edmondson County, in the central belt of Kentucky, there

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Speaker 1: is a hidden world of rock and shadow. Mammoth Cave

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Speaker 1: is the largest known cave system in the world. To date,

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Speaker 1: over four hundred and twenty square miles of passageway have

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Speaker 1: been surveyed, with additional mapping every year. The vast honeycomb

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Speaker 1: structure encompasses cathedral like vaults, claustrophobic tunnels, and the so

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Speaker 1: called bottomless pit that drops for one hundred and five

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Speaker 1: feet straight down, ready to swallow anyone who takes an

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Speaker 1: unwary step. It's an awesome but alienating environment. Yet for

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Speaker 1: a short while in the nineteenth century, it was home

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Speaker 1: to a very particular community, for whom it offered a

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Speaker 1: last possible antidote to their dwindling hope. Doctor John Crogan

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Speaker 1: was a physician and native of Kentucky who specialized in

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Speaker 1: the study of tuberculosis or tea. Elsewhere in the world,

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Speaker 1: the disease was known as consumption scropula or a host

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Speaker 1: of other names. In Kentucky, they called it the white plague.

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Speaker 1: Tb attacks the lungs and respiratory system, consuming the sufferer's

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Speaker 1: energy and ability to breathe, until finally they choke on

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Speaker 1: their last breath. For most of humankind's history, it has

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Speaker 1: been a death sentence. As late as the eighteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: it was approximated that one in seven human beings worldwide

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Speaker 1: died of TB or related conditions, and though the first

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Speaker 1: major progress towards a vaccine was made in nineteen o six,

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Speaker 1: widespread success in treating the disease would not arrive until

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Speaker 1: after the Second World War in the form of antibiotics.

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Speaker 1: But in eighteen forty two, Doctor Crogan had a plan.

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Speaker 1: Crogan was a believer in the humoral tradition of medicine,

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Speaker 1: the idea that ailments were due to an imbalance in

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Speaker 1: one or more of the four humors that supposedly regulated

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Speaker 1: the body. As mentioned in our Charles Walton episode a

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Speaker 1: few weeks ago. These were yellow bile, black bile, blood

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Speaker 1: and phlegm, and the white plague, according to Dr Crogan,

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Speaker 1: could be blamed on excess flem brought about by unregulated

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Speaker 1: temperature and humidity. The answer, therefore, was simple, find a

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Speaker 1: place offering a consistent, dry environment that could help stabilize

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Speaker 1: the patient's imbalanced system. Mammoth Cave fit the bill perfectly.

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Speaker 1: Dr Crogan's ambition was to turn Mammoth Cave into a

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Speaker 1: luxury underground health spa, but he began his experiment with

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Speaker 1: just fifteen people, eleven tb infected patients, four companions, and

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Speaker 1: the child of a patient. They would be fed and

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Speaker 1: served by the enslaved people that had been included in

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Speaker 1: Dr Crogan's purchase of the cave. The group entered it

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Speaker 1: in the winter of eighteen forty two with the intention

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Speaker 1: of remaining within indefinitely, or until sufficiently recovered enough to leave.

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Speaker 1: They lived in roofless stone huts, and their only source

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Speaker 1: of light was from oil lamps and fires, both of

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Speaker 1: which filled the caverns with noxious fumes, no doubt ailing

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Speaker 1: their already weakened lungs. To add to the indignity of

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Speaker 1: their suffering, the patients became unwilling exhibitions for tourists, who

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Speaker 1: saw them as a novel addition to the long running

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Speaker 1: cave tours. Those who encountered the commune spoke of pale,

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Speaker 1: skeletal figures scuttling in and out of the lamplight. The

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Speaker 1: caves reverberated with the constant sound of coughing. The experiment

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Speaker 1: ended after just five months. By then five of the

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Speaker 1: group had died. At each death, the bodies were laid

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Speaker 1: out on a low flat stone they called corpse rock.

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Speaker 1: Moore would die upon leaving the cave, no doubt further

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Speaker 1: weakened by their time underground, Dr Crogin himself eventually became

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Speaker 1: infected with TB. He died from the disease in eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty nine. It isn't known how many of the enslaved

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Speaker 1: people that he forced to take part in this failed

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Speaker 1: endeavour also died as a result. Stephen and Charlotte Bishop

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Speaker 1: and their six year old son Thomas were three of them. Stephen,

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Speaker 1: who was considered one of the first explorers and guides

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Speaker 1: of the cave system, was only thirty eight when he died.

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Speaker 1: We can only assume as a result of contracting TB.

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Speaker 1: The fate of his wife and son are not known.

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Speaker 1: Subsequent visitors to the cave have reported hearing strange noises

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Speaker 1: around the site, now known as the Tuberculosis Wart. In particular,

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Speaker 1: they describe hearing shuffling feet, muttering voices, and a carerus

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Speaker 1: of harsh, persistent coughs. As eerie as that echo of

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Speaker 1: the past may be, it is neither the sole nor

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Speaker 1: most lingering trace of Kentucky's battle with tuberculosis. The disease

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Speaker 1: would return to wreak havoc again, and next time the

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Speaker 1: medical establishment's fight back would have loftier ambitions and leave

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Speaker 1: an even more haunting legacy. You're listening to Unexplained, and

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Speaker 1: I'm Richard MacLean Smith. When the White Plague returned to

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Speaker 1: Kentucky in the early nineteen hundreds, it was Jefferson County

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Speaker 1: that took the brunt as the most densely populated area

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Speaker 1: in the state. Situated along the Ohio River wetlands, Jefferson

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Speaker 1: and in particular the city of Louisville, was the perfect

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Speaker 1: environment for a highly contagious disease to run rampant. At

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Speaker 1: the turn of the century, it had the highest TB

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Speaker 1: infection rate in the nation. Scant progress had been made

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Speaker 1: in treating the disease beyond the convalescence and quarantine at

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Speaker 1: the core of doctor Crogan's Mammoth Cave project, and though

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Speaker 1: the authorities had no desire to follow in the doctor's

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Speaker 1: subterranean footsteps. Like him, they sought to remove the infected

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Speaker 1: from society, placing them somewhere clean and comfortable. To attempt

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Speaker 1: what recovery they could, they looked to the sanatorium. The

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Speaker 1: concept was still relatively new in the early twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: built around the idea of nourishment and dry, fresh air.

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Speaker 1: The sanatorium was not a million miles away from what

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Speaker 1: doctor Crogan had envisioned. Whereas Krogan went down into the earth. However,

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Speaker 1: the more modern sanatoria prized higher altitudes, as doctors theorized

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Speaker 1: that increased external pressure would better match that of the

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Speaker 1: body's interior, enhancing the flow of oxygen carrying blood. The

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Speaker 1: first sanatorium design specifically for the treatment of TB was

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Speaker 1: built in Germany in eighteen sixty three. From there, the

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Speaker 1: model spread across the high altitude regions of Europe before

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Speaker 1: making the leap to the United States. New York was

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Speaker 1: home to the first American facility, the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium,

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Speaker 1: which opened in eighteen eighty five. Others followed in North Carolina, Arizona,

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Speaker 1: and Oregon. By nineteen eleven. Need for such an institution

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Speaker 1: must truly dire in Jefferson, Kentucky, especially as the recently

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Speaker 1: commissioned plans for a new Louisville hospital included no provision

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Speaker 1: for TB patients. Instead, the local board, the Tuberculosis Association,

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Speaker 1: were given a twenty five thousand dollar grant to build

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Speaker 1: their own bespoke hospital. They cast around Louisville for a

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Speaker 1: likely sight, and soon honed in on a plot of

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Speaker 1: land known as Waverley Hill. Waverley Hill was named by

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Speaker 1: the school teacher who taught at the one room school

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Speaker 1: that occupied the site. She was a huge fan of

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Speaker 1: Walter Scott's Waverley novels and had named the school accordingly.

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Speaker 1: Her landlord had appreciated the whimsy and applied the name

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Speaker 1: to his whole property. When the Tuberculosis Association purchased the land,

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Speaker 1: they kept the name. At some unspecified point in time,

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Speaker 1: and s was added, pluralizing it to Waverly Hills. The

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Speaker 1: name stuck and has ever since been synonymous with the

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Speaker 1: haunting heritage of early medical practices. Waverley Hills is a

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Speaker 1: primary node on the American Atlas of Bad Places. It

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Speaker 1: began humbly. The first iteration of the sanatorium was a

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Speaker 1: simple wooden structure with space for forty patients. In the

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Speaker 1: early stages of the disease, they were split into two wards,

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Speaker 1: each housing twenty patients. These were more pavilion tents than buildings,

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Speaker 1: allowing for the best possible airflow, but presumably less than

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Speaker 1: comfortable in the baking sun. Or pouring rain. At first,

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Speaker 1: the only solid structure was the two story administration office,

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Speaker 1: where the skeleton staff did the best they could. And

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Speaker 1: it should be said, unlike many supposedly haunted hospitals, Waverley

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Speaker 1: Hills as little history of wanton cruelty, patients were made

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Speaker 1: as comfortable as possible, seated by large open windows or

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Speaker 1: unspacious porches. For maximum ventilation. Sunlight was key, and specialist

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Speaker 1: sun rooms were set up to subject the lungs to

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Speaker 1: bacteria killing UV light. This approach has since become recognized

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Speaker 1: practice in the treatment of TB Sadly, other practices were

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Speaker 1: somewhat less efficacious, such as the art of vinumouth or

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Speaker 1: axe procedure, in which balloons would be inserted into the

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Speaker 1: patient's lung and inflated, often with disastrous results. I will

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Speaker 1: leave it to your imagination to guess at what those

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Speaker 1: might have been exactly. Even more extreme cases saw the

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Speaker 1: removal of muscle and rib from the chest, theoretically allowing

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Speaker 1: the lungs more room to expand. It was an extremely

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Speaker 1: violent last resort, and often if the surgery itself didn't

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Speaker 1: kill the ensuing infectioned it. This need for more extreme

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Speaker 1: treatment led to the first expansion of Waverley Hills. In

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Speaker 1: December nineteen twelve, the first solid wards were built at

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Speaker 1: Waverley to care for another forty patients with even more

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Speaker 1: severe symptoms. These were busted in en mass from the

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Speaker 1: overrun Louisville City Hospital. Two years later, in nineteen fourteen,

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Speaker 1: the Children's Pavilion was completed. This housed up to fifty

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Speaker 1: young people, but the tragedy of the arrangement was that,

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Speaker 1: in addition to children with TB, the pavilion also housed

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Speaker 1: the uninfected offspring of Waverley's adult patients if they had

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Speaker 1: nowhere else to go. At the time, it wasn't understood

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Speaker 1: that TB largely spreads from person to person through the air.

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Speaker 1: As such, Waverley Hills almost certainly introduced healthy children to

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Speaker 1: the fatal disease. At this point, Waverley had an official

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Speaker 1: capacity of one hundred and thirty patients. Sadly, this was

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Speaker 1: a drop in the ocean of cases afflicting Jefferson County,

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Speaker 1: and the hastily assembled wooden canvas was proving no match

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Speaker 1: for the Kentucky winters. It wasn't until October nineteen twenty

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Speaker 1: six that the far more substantial. Waverley Hills, as it

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Speaker 1: is known today, was finally constructed at five stories high

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Speaker 1: with rue for four hundred and thirty five patients. It

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Speaker 1: was a welcome but foreboding sight. Built from red stone

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Speaker 1: in the Victorian Gothic style. It s brought outward on

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Speaker 1: long wings from a central entrance hall, and was dotted

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Speaker 1: with windows that, although provided access to light and fresh

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Speaker 1: air for its patients, seemed also to peer down at

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Speaker 1: approaching visitors, like the many eyes of a gigantic spider.

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Speaker 1: This was Waverley Hills in its final form as a sanatorium,

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Speaker 1: a grand edifice to the final decades of humanity's besiegement

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Speaker 1: by the White Plague. The widespread introduction of the strepto

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Speaker 1: mice in antibiotic in nineteen forty three saw a rapid

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Speaker 1: decline in the need for convalescence, and by the nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifties the hospital had become largely redundant. In nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: one it was closed down for good. Thousands of patients

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Speaker 1: met their end there. Exactly how many, it's possible to say.

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Speaker 1: The lowest estimate is six thousand deaths, while some claims

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Speaker 1: multiply that up to ten times. The truth, however, will

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Speaker 1: remain forever lost, as patient records were kept off site

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Speaker 1: at an office in Louisville and destroyed in the huge

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Speaker 1: flood of nineteen thirty seven. Regardless, Waverly Hills saw its

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Speaker 1: fair share of individuals shuffling grimly off this mortal coil,

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Speaker 1: and it's no surprise that there are stories. The earliest

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Speaker 1: reports that something more malignant than bacteria lurked in Waverly

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Speaker 1: Hills date back to nineteen twenty eight. This is the

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Speaker 1: year in which a nurse named Mary Hillenburg hanged herself

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Speaker 1: from the light fixture in Room five oh two, a

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Speaker 1: nurse's station on the fifth floor of the building. It's

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Speaker 1: often been rumored that the fifth floor was reserved for

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Speaker 1: TB PAP patients who also suffered from severe mental illness.

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Speaker 1: In truth, the top floor was in fact reserved for

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Speaker 1: the most severe infections, whether the t B had reached

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Speaker 1: deep into the bone itself. These patients were placed nearest

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Speaker 1: the heleotherapy department for ready access to sunlight on the

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Speaker 1: roof or in a UV room. Most poignantly, the children

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Speaker 1: of the hospital had a swing set built on the roof. Still,

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00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,600
Speaker 1: the fifth floor was a grim place to work. The

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Speaker 1: precise cause of Mary Hillenburg's suicide is debated. Some speak

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Speaker 1: to the tragic futility of her daily tasks, pushing back

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Speaker 1: against the inevitable deaths of those under her care. The

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Speaker 1: more often repeated theory is that she was pregnant out

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Speaker 1: of wedlock and took her own life out of shame,

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Speaker 1: but some dispute the story. In May twenty ten, the

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Speaker 1: team at Darkness Radio hosted a paranormal conference in Kentucky

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Speaker 1: and invited guests to join them on a late night

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Speaker 1: excursion to the abandoned shell of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Among

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Speaker 1: the visitors to the ominous property that night were self

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Speaker 1: described mediums Lynn Sutherland Olson and Rhonda Sheenler. Even in daylight,

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Speaker 1: such buildings, their sheer size, their monolithic uniformity, and the

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00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,120
Speaker 1: combination of tragedy and death that's harboured within will send

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Speaker 1: a shiver up the spine. But at night, as the

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00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:33,320
Speaker 1: moon peeks out intermittently from behind the scudding clouds above,

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Speaker 1: with the black mass of the Gothic style sanatorium looming

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Speaker 1: over you, the dark rooms behind its windows even blacker still,

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Speaker 1: the eeriness can become all consuming, and so it was

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Speaker 1: with no little trepidation that Lynn and Ronda, along with

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Speaker 1: the handful of other visitors attending that night, entered the

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Speaker 1: building's front doors, before pressing on into the seemingly endless

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Speaker 1: labyrinth of darkened corridor beyond. As the visitors found out,

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00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,080
Speaker 1: each felt their own way along whatever strange essence of

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00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,359
Speaker 1: the past they seemed to have tuned into. As they

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00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:14,000
Speaker 1: all steadily wandered deeper into the building, Lynn and Roonda

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00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,560
Speaker 1: eventually found their way to the third floor. It was

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Speaker 1: there that Lynn claimed that something suddenly made contact with Roonda.

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00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:35,080
Speaker 1: She called herself Mary. Though Lynn and Roonda were aware

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Speaker 1: of Room five oh two and its unsettling reputation, both

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00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,919
Speaker 1: claimed not to have heard the name Mary associated with

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00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,199
Speaker 1: it before. As this apparent entity spoke to Roonda, she

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00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,320
Speaker 1: in turn relayed the story to Lynn about how she'd

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Speaker 1: met her untimely end in room five oh two. Arriving

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00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:57,359
Speaker 1: outside the room some time later, both Lynn and Roonda

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00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,400
Speaker 1: immediately sensed a wicked energy emanating from inside of it.

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00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,520
Speaker 1: Ronda claimed to sense Mary's presence again and quickly struck

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Speaker 1: up another conversation with the apparent entity. Linda, meanwhile, claimed

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00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,359
Speaker 1: to pick up an equally tortured presence in the room's

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00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:18,880
Speaker 1: adjoining bathroom. Writing about the experience later on her own

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00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,119
Speaker 1: WordPress site, Linda claimed it was the spirit of a

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Speaker 1: former intern, the man who'd supposedly got Mary pregnant, which

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00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,919
Speaker 1: some believed was the reason the woman had taken her

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00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,600
Speaker 1: own life. Only that wasn't the end, according to Lynn.

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Speaker 1: It was some weeks later that Lynn and Ronda decided

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00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,800
Speaker 1: to try and reconnect with Mary once again. This time,

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00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:46,679
Speaker 1: the story Mary apparently gave Ronda was very different. The

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Speaker 1: man Lynn had apparently met in the bathroom of Room

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00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,520
Speaker 1: five oh two wasn't just the father of Mary's unborn child.

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00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,399
Speaker 1: He was also their murderer, or one of them in

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00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:02,400
Speaker 1: any case, According to Lynn, when he discovered Mary was pregnant,

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00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:05,920
Speaker 1: he convinced her to have an abortion to save himself

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00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,119
Speaker 1: the shame of fathering a child out of wedlock with

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Speaker 1: a woman that his parents apparently didn't approve of. Lynn

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00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 1: recounted a vision of Mary's hanging body with her lower

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Speaker 1: half drenched in blood, supposedly from the botched abortion. Rather

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00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,520
Speaker 1: than wait for her to bleed out, the intern, along

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00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:30,119
Speaker 1: with three colleagues, had decided to hang her instead and

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00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,679
Speaker 1: make her death like a suicide. Though quite how they

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00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 1: were planning to explain away the blood from a botched

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00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:40,719
Speaker 1: abortion is any one's guess. Either way, there really was

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00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 1: a Mary Hillenburg who was found hanged in Room five

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00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:47,679
Speaker 1: o two, and, regardless of the truth of how or why,

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00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,679
Speaker 1: the room inevitably developed a sinister reputation soon after, and

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00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:56,879
Speaker 1: perhaps an energy all of its own. Four years later,

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00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:00,520
Speaker 1: in the winter of nineteen thirty two, another nurse is

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00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,840
Speaker 1: said to have thrown herself from the room's balcony. Though

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00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,000
Speaker 1: several colleagues tried to stop her, she slipped by them

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00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:12,240
Speaker 1: and leapt, plummeting to the lawn below. Unlike Mary Hillenburg,

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00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:16,119
Speaker 1: this other nurse's name has been lost to time. Is

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00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 1: it a true story, did something in the room somehow

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00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,440
Speaker 1: make her do it? Or is it simply one more

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00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:26,919
Speaker 1: legend folded into the history of Waverly Hills. Whatever the

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00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:30,280
Speaker 1: case may be, what is certain are the many complaints

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00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 1: and claims made by staff and patients who spent time

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00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:38,120
Speaker 1: in the eerie property over the years. Many are said

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00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 1: to have reported feeling cold spots in the rooms on

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00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,800
Speaker 1: even the most humid of days, or a feeling of

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00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:49,880
Speaker 1: intense depression that dissipated the moment they left. Several nurses

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00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: claimed to see a dim female shape dressed in white

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00:20:53,720 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 1: and a disembodied voice screaming get out. Two months after

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00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 1: Lynn and Ronda's visit, in twenty ten, one of Waverly

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00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,359
Speaker 1: Hills's current owners, Charlie Mattingly, was apparently alone at the

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00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:19,359
Speaker 1: property when a woman arrived, claiming to be working on

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00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: post production for a paranormal show that had recently filmed.

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00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,879
Speaker 1: There After Charlie led her into the building, she climbed

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00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 1: the stairs from the main hallway and quickly slipped out

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00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:35,480
Speaker 1: of sight. Slightly irked by her uninvited arrival, Charlie called

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00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 1: the number he'd been given by the production company to

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00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,200
Speaker 1: check her credentials. The company told him that they hadn't

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00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:47,040
Speaker 1: sent anyone to Waverly Hills that day. Charlie radioed his

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00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,240
Speaker 1: security staff and two members of the team were promptly

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00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 1: dispatched to find the mysterious woman. They eventually caught up

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00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,440
Speaker 1: with her on the third floor landing, where she admitted

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00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:01,280
Speaker 1: she'd lied to gain admittance, so she apparently wouldn't give

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00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,120
Speaker 1: them her name. She explained that she was a medium

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00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,399
Speaker 1: who'd been drawn to the third floor of the old

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00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: sanatorium after making contact with the spirit of a young

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00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 1: girl named Mary. Charlie was immediately skeptical. Accounts of the

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00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:20,119
Speaker 1: hospital's apparent hauntings were hardly kept secret, and Mary was

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00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 1: just about the most obvious name the so called medium

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00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,680
Speaker 1: could have plucked out of the air. He was about

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00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,960
Speaker 1: to demand she leave when she suddenly jerked to attention

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00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:34,199
Speaker 1: and fixed her gaze on a nearby door. Since he

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00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,400
Speaker 1: didn't want to man handle a stranger, Charlie was content

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00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:40,439
Speaker 1: to let her cross the corridor and wander into the

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00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 1: room beyond. This was Mary's room. She said, if you

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Speaker 1: look in the closet, you'll find her things. By now

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00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: a little curious himself, Charlie obliged, but when he opened

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00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 1: the closet, all he could see was dust and scattered debris.

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00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,800
Speaker 1: But before he could say a word, the woman stepped

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00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 1: up beside him and said, you're looking in the wrong place.

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00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 1: She pointed to the back of the closet, where a

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00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: crack in the plaster exposed a cavity. Charlie reached in

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00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 1: and felt several loose objects. First, he pulled out a

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00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,959
Speaker 1: metal fork, which everyone present could only look at in confusion,

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00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 1: followed by a single small house slipper. Then he reached

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00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 1: behind the plaster again and withdrew three brown photographs. The

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00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 1: first was of a stretch of rural road, empty and

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00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,680
Speaker 1: tree lined. The second captured a group of four middle

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00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 1: aged men sitting on a wall, seemingly at rest from work.

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00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: The final photograph was of a young woman with a

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00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,919
Speaker 1: shy smile and long brown hair. On the back, in

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00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: neat cursive was written the name Mary Lee. At this point,

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00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,480
Speaker 1: according to Charlie, the mysterious woman gave a slight smile

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00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:03,000
Speaker 1: and left the room. Despite calling her back, she apparently

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00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: ignored them, descended the stairs and left the hospital. No

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00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: one to this day knows her name or who she

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00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:21,160
Speaker 1: really was. Every floor of Waverly Hills has its own

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00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 1: share of legend and encounter. On the ground floor of

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00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: the north wing there is a pair of old, stained

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00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 1: wooden doors. They give access to a grim concrete tunnel

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00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 1: running five hundred and twenty five feet on a downward slant.

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00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: The tunnel was once equipped with a pulley car system

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00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: to carry supplies from the bottom of the hill. However,

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00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: at the peak of the hospital's capacity, the death shoot,

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00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,879
Speaker 1: as it was morbidly named, was used to discreetly transport

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00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 1: bodies down to a receiving hearse. During those peak years,

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00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,439
Speaker 1: over a thousand bodies made their final journey through this

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00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:03,400
Speaker 1: dark conduit. It's no surprise that such a micabreough feature

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00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 1: has become an epicenter for much of the hospital's alleged

357
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:11,439
Speaker 1: uncanny activity. Several ghosts are said to appeer in and

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00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: around the tunnel, including the shade of an old man

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00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 1: and his dog. Tina Mattingly, the wife of Charlie and

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00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 1: co owner of the property, told BuzzFeed reporters that while

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00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 1: locking up after a guided tour, she saw a tall,

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00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:31,200
Speaker 1: disheveled man with long, thinning hair. He didn't move, simply

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00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: stared Caught in the beam of her flashlight. Tina jumped

364
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,360
Speaker 1: back in shock and lost sight of him. After collecting herself,

365
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: she began to explore near by rooms, looking for what

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00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: she presumed was a member of the tour or an intruder,

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00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,439
Speaker 1: but the man was nowhere to be seen. Returning to

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00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 1: the main corridor, she looked down to where a German

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00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 1: shepherd dog was lying calmly on the floor. She called

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00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 1: to it, but it refused to move. After a second,

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00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: it was gone. According to Tina, I didn't see it disappear.

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00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: It didn't get up and walk away. It just wasn't

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00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: there any more. Tina likes to think that even if

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00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: what remains of the old man is stuck in the

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00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: grounds of the hospital, then at least he's with his

376
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: best friend. The apparent ghost most associated with the tunnel

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00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: and ground floor is similarly benign. Many visitors claim to

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00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: have interacted with the shadow of a young boy who,

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00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: legend has it was named Timmy. According to law, Timmy

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00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: first came to the hospital in nineteen thirty when he

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00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: was six, accompanying his infected parents. When they died in

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00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: the upper wards, Timmy was placed in the children's hospital,

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00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 1: where he first caught the disease and then succumbed to it.

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00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,399
Speaker 1: He is apparently seen throughout the grounds, but mostly at

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00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: the tunnel entrance. Timmy has become the focus of most

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00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: ghost hunting expeditions to Waverley Hill, both because of the

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00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 1: mass of physical phenomena associated with its presence, but also

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00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 1: because the playful spirit of a six year old boy

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00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: is a far less fearsome prospect than other lingering residents.

390
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: After all, no one wants to meet the Creeper. Of

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00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: all the entities encountered in Waverly Hills, the shadowy figure

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00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,120
Speaker 1: known as the Creeper as the most fearsome reputation, said

393
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: to have been encountered all over the hospital, but most

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00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: associated with the second and fourth floors. The Creeper is

395
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 1: said to be a humanoid figure seemingly made from nothing

396
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: but corporeal shadow. Those who claim to have seen it,

397
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: and there are many, describe it in unnervingly consistent terms

398
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: as a dark figure with arms that seem too long

399
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:00,640
Speaker 1: for its body, and everything below the waist into an

400
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: ill defined mass. It rarely approaches directly and is most

401
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: often spotted from the corner of a nervous eye, crawling

402
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,120
Speaker 1: along the walls or ceiling when the visitor's back is turned.

403
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: Many photos have been taken of strange, out of place

404
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: shadows in the halls that make no sense in relation

405
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: to light sources. In the early twenty twenties, a woman

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00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: named Moira was taking part in a guided tour of

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00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: the sanatorium when she started to feel a little too

408
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: unnerved by the stories of death and disease. While the

409
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: tour guide was showing off the heliotherapy rooms on the

410
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: fifth floor, Moira excused herself and descended to the second

411
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: floor to use one of the renovated bathrooms. Stepping inside,

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00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 1: she was immediately surprised by a distinct chill in the room,

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00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: despite it being a pleasant day outside and the windows

414
00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 1: being closed. Moira was about to enter a cubicle when

415
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: she heard the unsettling sound of heavy dragging coming from

416
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: the corridor beyond. Then the door slowly groaned open. Moira

417
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: fixed her attention on the middle of the doorway, where

418
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: a human would be framed, but it stayed empty. It

419
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: was only when her gaze jerked upwards when she saw

420
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: the long, dark arms reaching around the upper segment of

421
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: the door. Moira claims that a human torso then pulled

422
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: itself into the bathroom and crept across the ceiling in

423
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: a series of uncanny jerking movements. The thing, whatever it was,

424
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: is said to have pursued Moira into a cubicle before

425
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: she eventually managed to run away and rejoin the group.

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00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: After reporting what had happened to the tour guide, she

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00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:54,160
Speaker 1: was met with only a knowing smile. Despite years of

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00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: research and apparent encounters, no one has ever found a cause, backstory,

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00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 1: or explanation for that most sinister of Waverley's residents, Co

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00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: owner Tina Mattingly claims that some troublesome patients were kept

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00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: from roaming the halls by having weights attached to their legs.

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00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: If any staff heard the dragging of the irons, they

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00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 1: would know that someone was out of their room, though

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00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: this has never been verified. For the next half century

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00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: after it ceased to be a sanatorium, Waverley Hills went

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00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: through various owners and reincarnations. From nineteen sixty two to

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00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty it was a geriatric care facility, which was

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00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: eventually shut down amid controversy about patient cruelty, including the

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00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: liberal application of electroshock therapy. After that, it stood empty

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00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: for twenty years. One developer, J. Clifford Todd, had plans

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00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,680
Speaker 1: to reopen it as a prison and, failing that, luxury apartments,

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00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: but in the end couldn't raise the capitol. A subsequent

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00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: owner had plans to demolish the hospital and replace it

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00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 1: with the world's largest statue of Jesus. The project fell

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00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: short of its fundraising aims, and Waverly Hills continued its

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00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: lonely vigil as just another dilapidated ruin on the edge

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00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: of an American town, gathering shadows and rumors along with

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00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: its dust. Finally, in two thousand and one, a full

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00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 1: forty years after it closed its doors on the last

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00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: TB patient, the property was purchased by the Mattingleys. Rather

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00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: than demolishing the ruin, the Mattingleys turned it into a

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00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: museum and leased it to the Waverly Hills Historical Society,

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00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: who run regular tours of both the history and the hauntings. Today,

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00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: if you dare, you can run your own personal expedition

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00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: into the facility and spend a long night alone inside

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00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: what some claimed to be America's most haunted hospital. But

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00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: the precise nature of just who or what you might

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00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 1: encounter there seems destined to forever remain unexplained. This episode

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00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: was written by Neil McRobert and produced by Richard McClain smith.

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00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained as an Avy

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00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: Club production podcast created by Richard McLain smith. All other

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00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced

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00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: by me. Richard McLain Smith Unexplained. The book and audiobook

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00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,

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00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to

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00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,400
Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and

467
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or

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00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps

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00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: you have an explanation or a story of your own

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00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: you'd like to share. You can find out more at

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00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: Unexplained podst dot com and reaches online through x and

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00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: Blue Sky at Unexplained pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,

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00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast