WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 16: Primum Non Nocere 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.800 Hello, there's Richard McLain smith here to let you know 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.120 that I now have a substack page if you enjoy 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.120 Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.360 the show. I've created a new space for all the 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.240 bits that don't quite fit into the podcast, including the 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.000 Unexplained Dedendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:22.119 Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical explorations of folklore, psychology, 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.200 and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.639 stories you hear on the show. But it's also a 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.800 home for something more personal, my fiction, my strange amusings, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.240 and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.360 for Richard McClain smith on substack, or go to Richard 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:42.559 mcclainsmith dot substack dot com to find out more and subscribe. 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:44.720 If you'd like a little bit more of me and 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.840 Unexplained in your week, join me on substack and let's 0:00:47.920 --> 0:01:04.800 keep exploring the unknown together. New writing most Tuesdays. Deep 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.679 beneath Edmondson County, in the central belt of Kentucky, there 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.320 is a hidden world of rock and shadow. Mammoth Cave 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.839 is the largest known cave system in the world. To date, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.000 over four hundred and twenty square miles of passageway have 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.839 been surveyed, with additional mapping every year. The vast honeycomb 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:29.160 structure encompasses cathedral like vaults, claustrophobic tunnels, and the so 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.679 called bottomless pit that drops for one hundred and five 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.640 feet straight down, ready to swallow anyone who takes an 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:42.520 unwary step. It's an awesome but alienating environment. Yet for 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.200 a short while in the nineteenth century, it was home 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.320 to a very particular community, for whom it offered a 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:53.800 last possible antidote to their dwindling hope. Doctor John Crogan 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.640 was a physician and native of Kentucky who specialized in 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:02.320 the study of tuberculosis or tea. Elsewhere in the world, 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.640 the disease was known as consumption scropula or a host 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.239 of other names. In Kentucky, they called it the white plague. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.640 Tb attacks the lungs and respiratory system, consuming the sufferer's 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.680 energy and ability to breathe, until finally they choke on 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.080 their last breath. For most of humankind's history, it has 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.560 been a death sentence. As late as the eighteen eighties, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.560 it was approximated that one in seven human beings worldwide 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.760 died of TB or related conditions, and though the first 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.520 major progress towards a vaccine was made in nineteen o six, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.520 widespread success in treating the disease would not arrive until 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.359 after the Second World War in the form of antibiotics. 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.520 But in eighteen forty two, Doctor Crogan had a plan. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.919 Crogan was a believer in the humoral tradition of medicine, 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.480 the idea that ailments were due to an imbalance in 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.200 one or more of the four humors that supposedly regulated 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.799 the body. As mentioned in our Charles Walton episode a 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:11.280 few weeks ago. These were yellow bile, black bile, blood 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.359 and phlegm, and the white plague, according to Dr Crogan, 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.560 could be blamed on excess flem brought about by unregulated 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.200 temperature and humidity. The answer, therefore, was simple, find a 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.680 place offering a consistent, dry environment that could help stabilize 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:33.680 the patient's imbalanced system. Mammoth Cave fit the bill perfectly. 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.800 Dr Crogan's ambition was to turn Mammoth Cave into a 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.800 luxury underground health spa, but he began his experiment with 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:54.760 just fifteen people, eleven tb infected patients, four companions, and 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.720 the child of a patient. They would be fed and 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.920 served by the enslaved people that had been included in 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.320 Dr Crogan's purchase of the cave. The group entered it 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.440 in the winter of eighteen forty two with the intention 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:13.320 of remaining within indefinitely, or until sufficiently recovered enough to leave. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.560 They lived in roofless stone huts, and their only source 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.680 of light was from oil lamps and fires, both of 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.520 which filled the caverns with noxious fumes, no doubt ailing 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.560 their already weakened lungs. To add to the indignity of 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.360 their suffering, the patients became unwilling exhibitions for tourists, who 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.880 saw them as a novel addition to the long running 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.560 cave tours. Those who encountered the commune spoke of pale, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.760 skeletal figures scuttling in and out of the lamplight. The 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.880 caves reverberated with the constant sound of coughing. The experiment 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.839 ended after just five months. By then five of the 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:58.000 group had died. At each death, the bodies were laid 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.240 out on a low flat stone they called corpse rock. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.839 Moore would die upon leaving the cave, no doubt further 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:11.960 weakened by their time underground, Dr Crogin himself eventually became 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.039 infected with TB. He died from the disease in eighteen 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.960 forty nine. It isn't known how many of the enslaved 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.520 people that he forced to take part in this failed 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:27.480 endeavour also died as a result. Stephen and Charlotte Bishop 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.560 and their six year old son Thomas were three of them. Stephen, 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.599 who was considered one of the first explorers and guides 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.520 of the cave system, was only thirty eight when he died. 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.320 We can only assume as a result of contracting TB. 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.839 The fate of his wife and son are not known. 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:50.120 Subsequent visitors to the cave have reported hearing strange noises 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:55.040 around the site, now known as the Tuberculosis Wart. In particular, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:06:00.320 they describe hearing shuffling feet, muttering voices, and a carerus 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:05.440 of harsh, persistent coughs. As eerie as that echo of 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.720 the past may be, it is neither the sole nor 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:13.839 most lingering trace of Kentucky's battle with tuberculosis. The disease 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.560 would return to wreak havoc again, and next time the 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:22.240 medical establishment's fight back would have loftier ambitions and leave 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:28.200 an even more haunting legacy. You're listening to Unexplained, and 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:39.520 I'm Richard MacLean Smith. When the White Plague returned to 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.440 Kentucky in the early nineteen hundreds, it was Jefferson County 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.200 that took the brunt as the most densely populated area 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.760 in the state. Situated along the Ohio River wetlands, Jefferson 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.040 and in particular the city of Louisville, was the perfect 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.560 environment for a highly contagious disease to run rampant. At 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.400 the turn of the century, it had the highest TB 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.279 infection rate in the nation. Scant progress had been made 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.240 in treating the disease beyond the convalescence and quarantine at 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.160 the core of doctor Crogan's Mammoth Cave project, and though 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.400 the authorities had no desire to follow in the doctor's 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.840 subterranean footsteps. Like him, they sought to remove the infected 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.120 from society, placing them somewhere clean and comfortable. To attempt 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:31.080 what recovery they could, they looked to the sanatorium. The 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.520 concept was still relatively new in the early twentieth century, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.520 built around the idea of nourishment and dry, fresh air. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.880 The sanatorium was not a million miles away from what 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:47.440 doctor Crogan had envisioned. Whereas Krogan went down into the earth. However, 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.920 the more modern sanatoria prized higher altitudes, as doctors theorized 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.200 that increased external pressure would better match that of the 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:02.120 body's interior, enhancing the flow of oxygen carrying blood. The 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.640 first sanatorium design specifically for the treatment of TB was 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.880 built in Germany in eighteen sixty three. From there, the 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.680 model spread across the high altitude regions of Europe before 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.040 making the leap to the United States. New York was 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.480 home to the first American facility, the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium, 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:28.560 which opened in eighteen eighty five. Others followed in North Carolina, Arizona, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:33.199 and Oregon. By nineteen eleven. Need for such an institution 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.880 must truly dire in Jefferson, Kentucky, especially as the recently 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.280 commissioned plans for a new Louisville hospital included no provision 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:47.560 for TB patients. Instead, the local board, the Tuberculosis Association, 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.000 were given a twenty five thousand dollar grant to build 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.800 their own bespoke hospital. They cast around Louisville for a 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.680 likely sight, and soon honed in on a plot of 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:12.040 land known as Waverley Hill. Waverley Hill was named by 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.840 the school teacher who taught at the one room school 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.200 that occupied the site. She was a huge fan of 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.719 Walter Scott's Waverley novels and had named the school accordingly. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.680 Her landlord had appreciated the whimsy and applied the name 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.600 to his whole property. When the Tuberculosis Association purchased the land, 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.840 they kept the name. At some unspecified point in time, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.120 and s was added, pluralizing it to Waverly Hills. The 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.640 name stuck and has ever since been synonymous with the 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:48.400 haunting heritage of early medical practices. Waverley Hills is a 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:53.120 primary node on the American Atlas of Bad Places. It 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.400 began humbly. The first iteration of the sanatorium was a 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.000 simple wooden structure with space for forty patients. In the 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.079 early stages of the disease, they were split into two wards, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:10.760 each housing twenty patients. These were more pavilion tents than buildings, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.360 allowing for the best possible airflow, but presumably less than 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.880 comfortable in the baking sun. Or pouring rain. At first, 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.720 the only solid structure was the two story administration office, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.360 where the skeleton staff did the best they could. And 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:31.040 it should be said, unlike many supposedly haunted hospitals, Waverley 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:35.000 Hills as little history of wanton cruelty, patients were made 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.800 as comfortable as possible, seated by large open windows or 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:44.439 unspacious porches. For maximum ventilation. Sunlight was key, and specialist 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.400 sun rooms were set up to subject the lungs to 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:52.239 bacteria killing UV light. This approach has since become recognized 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.920 practice in the treatment of TB Sadly, other practices were 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.160 somewhat less efficacious, such as the art of vinumouth or 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.720 axe procedure, in which balloons would be inserted into the 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:10.040 patient's lung and inflated, often with disastrous results. I will 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.640 leave it to your imagination to guess at what those 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:17.000 might have been exactly. Even more extreme cases saw the 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.760 removal of muscle and rib from the chest, theoretically allowing 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.319 the lungs more room to expand. It was an extremely 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.439 violent last resort, and often if the surgery itself didn't 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:33.000 kill the ensuing infectioned it. This need for more extreme 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:44.240 treatment led to the first expansion of Waverley Hills. In 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.040 December nineteen twelve, the first solid wards were built at 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.560 Waverley to care for another forty patients with even more 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.400 severe symptoms. These were busted in en mass from the 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:01.240 overrun Louisville City Hospital. Two years later, in nineteen fourteen, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.360 the Children's Pavilion was completed. This housed up to fifty 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.680 young people, but the tragedy of the arrangement was that, 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.840 in addition to children with TB, the pavilion also housed 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.120 the uninfected offspring of Waverley's adult patients if they had 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.320 nowhere else to go. At the time, it wasn't understood 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.280 that TB largely spreads from person to person through the air. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.880 As such, Waverley Hills almost certainly introduced healthy children to 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.240 the fatal disease. At this point, Waverley had an official 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.160 capacity of one hundred and thirty patients. Sadly, this was 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.480 a drop in the ocean of cases afflicting Jefferson County, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.640 and the hastily assembled wooden canvas was proving no match 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.040 for the Kentucky winters. It wasn't until October nineteen twenty 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.679 six that the far more substantial. Waverley Hills, as it 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:59.360 is known today, was finally constructed at five stories high 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.560 with rue for four hundred and thirty five patients. It 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.160 was a welcome but foreboding sight. Built from red stone 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.240 in the Victorian Gothic style. It s brought outward on 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.880 long wings from a central entrance hall, and was dotted 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:18.040 with windows that, although provided access to light and fresh 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.840 air for its patients, seemed also to peer down at 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.080 approaching visitors, like the many eyes of a gigantic spider. 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.640 This was Waverley Hills in its final form as a sanatorium, 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:35.000 a grand edifice to the final decades of humanity's besiegement 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.040 by the White Plague. The widespread introduction of the strepto 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.720 mice in antibiotic in nineteen forty three saw a rapid 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.400 decline in the need for convalescence, and by the nineteen 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:51.800 fifties the hospital had become largely redundant. In nineteen sixty 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.559 one it was closed down for good. Thousands of patients 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.880 met their end there. Exactly how many, it's possible to say. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.600 The lowest estimate is six thousand deaths, while some claims 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.480 multiply that up to ten times. The truth, however, will 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.000 remain forever lost, as patient records were kept off site 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.040 at an office in Louisville and destroyed in the huge 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:21.320 flood of nineteen thirty seven. Regardless, Waverly Hills saw its 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.680 fair share of individuals shuffling grimly off this mortal coil, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:37.040 and it's no surprise that there are stories. The earliest 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:41.440 reports that something more malignant than bacteria lurked in Waverly 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.600 Hills date back to nineteen twenty eight. This is the 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.600 year in which a nurse named Mary Hillenburg hanged herself 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.600 from the light fixture in Room five oh two, a 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.520 nurse's station on the fifth floor of the building. It's 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.360 often been rumored that the fifth floor was reserved for 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.040 TB PAP patients who also suffered from severe mental illness. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.960 In truth, the top floor was in fact reserved for 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.160 the most severe infections, whether the t B had reached 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.440 deep into the bone itself. These patients were placed nearest 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.080 the heleotherapy department for ready access to sunlight on the 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:22.480 roof or in a UV room. Most poignantly, the children 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.800 of the hospital had a swing set built on the roof. Still, 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.600 the fifth floor was a grim place to work. The 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:35.640 precise cause of Mary Hillenburg's suicide is debated. Some speak 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.680 to the tragic futility of her daily tasks, pushing back 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.680 against the inevitable deaths of those under her care. The 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.960 more often repeated theory is that she was pregnant out 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.840 of wedlock and took her own life out of shame, 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:54.560 but some dispute the story. In May twenty ten, the 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.800 team at Darkness Radio hosted a paranormal conference in Kentucky 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.440 and invited guests to join them on a late night 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:06.400 excursion to the abandoned shell of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Among 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.640 the visitors to the ominous property that night were self 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:15.880 described mediums Lynn Sutherland Olson and Rhonda Sheenler. Even in daylight, 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:21.000 such buildings, their sheer size, their monolithic uniformity, and the 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.120 combination of tragedy and death that's harboured within will send 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.080 a shiver up the spine. But at night, as the 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:33.320 moon peeks out intermittently from behind the scudding clouds above, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.320 with the black mass of the Gothic style sanatorium looming 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.680 over you, the dark rooms behind its windows even blacker still, 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.280 the eeriness can become all consuming, and so it was 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.280 with no little trepidation that Lynn and Ronda, along with 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.720 the handful of other visitors attending that night, entered the 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.120 building's front doors, before pressing on into the seemingly endless 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:03.320 labyrinth of darkened corridor beyond. As the visitors found out, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.080 each felt their own way along whatever strange essence of 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.359 the past they seemed to have tuned into. As they 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.000 all steadily wandered deeper into the building, Lynn and Roonda 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.560 eventually found their way to the third floor. It was 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.840 there that Lynn claimed that something suddenly made contact with Roonda. 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:35.080 She called herself Mary. Though Lynn and Roonda were aware 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.880 of Room five oh two and its unsettling reputation, both 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.919 claimed not to have heard the name Mary associated with 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:46.199 it before. As this apparent entity spoke to Roonda, she 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.320 in turn relayed the story to Lynn about how she'd 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:54.000 met her untimely end in room five oh two. Arriving 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.359 outside the room some time later, both Lynn and Roonda 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.400 immediately sensed a wicked energy emanating from inside of it. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.520 Ronda claimed to sense Mary's presence again and quickly struck 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.320 up another conversation with the apparent entity. Linda, meanwhile, claimed 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.359 to pick up an equally tortured presence in the room's 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:18.880 adjoining bathroom. Writing about the experience later on her own 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.119 WordPress site, Linda claimed it was the spirit of a 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:27.000 former intern, the man who'd supposedly got Mary pregnant, which 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.919 some believed was the reason the woman had taken her 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.600 own life. Only that wasn't the end, according to Lynn. 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.159 It was some weeks later that Lynn and Ronda decided 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.800 to try and reconnect with Mary once again. This time, 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:46.679 the story Mary apparently gave Ronda was very different. The 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.720 man Lynn had apparently met in the bathroom of Room 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.520 five oh two wasn't just the father of Mary's unborn child. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.399 He was also their murderer, or one of them in 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:02.400 any case, According to Lynn, when he discovered Mary was pregnant, 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.920 he convinced her to have an abortion to save himself 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.119 the shame of fathering a child out of wedlock with 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.720 a woman that his parents apparently didn't approve of. Lynn 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.560 recounted a vision of Mary's hanging body with her lower 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:23.120 half drenched in blood, supposedly from the botched abortion. Rather 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.520 than wait for her to bleed out, the intern, along 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.119 with three colleagues, had decided to hang her instead and 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.679 make her death like a suicide. Though quite how they 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.280 were planning to explain away the blood from a botched 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.719 abortion is any one's guess. Either way, there really was 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.800 a Mary Hillenburg who was found hanged in Room five 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.679 o two, and, regardless of the truth of how or why, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.679 the room inevitably developed a sinister reputation soon after, and 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.879 perhaps an energy all of its own. Four years later, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.520 in the winter of nineteen thirty two, another nurse is 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.840 said to have thrown herself from the room's balcony. Though 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.000 several colleagues tried to stop her, she slipped by them 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:12.240 and leapt, plummeting to the lawn below. Unlike Mary Hillenburg, 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.119 this other nurse's name has been lost to time. Is 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.600 it a true story, did something in the room somehow 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.440 make her do it? Or is it simply one more 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.919 legend folded into the history of Waverly Hills. Whatever the 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.280 case may be, what is certain are the many complaints 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.200 and claims made by staff and patients who spent time 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.120 in the eerie property over the years. Many are said 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.520 to have reported feeling cold spots in the rooms on 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.800 even the most humid of days, or a feeling of 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:49.880 intense depression that dissipated the moment they left. Several nurses 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.040 claimed to see a dim female shape dressed in white 0:20:53.720 --> 0:21:08.960 and a disembodied voice screaming get out. Two months after 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:12.160 Lynn and Ronda's visit, in twenty ten, one of Waverly 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:16.359 Hills's current owners, Charlie Mattingly, was apparently alone at the 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.359 property when a woman arrived, claiming to be working on 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:23.040 post production for a paranormal show that had recently filmed. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.879 There After Charlie led her into the building, she climbed 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.000 the stairs from the main hallway and quickly slipped out 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:35.480 of sight. Slightly irked by her uninvited arrival, Charlie called 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.080 the number he'd been given by the production company to 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:42.200 check her credentials. The company told him that they hadn't 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:47.040 sent anyone to Waverly Hills that day. Charlie radioed his 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.240 security staff and two members of the team were promptly 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:54.639 dispatched to find the mysterious woman. They eventually caught up 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.440 with her on the third floor landing, where she admitted 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.280 she'd lied to gain admittance, so she apparently wouldn't give 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.120 them her name. She explained that she was a medium 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.399 who'd been drawn to the third floor of the old 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.320 sanatorium after making contact with the spirit of a young 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:15.720 girl named Mary. Charlie was immediately skeptical. Accounts of the 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:20.119 hospital's apparent hauntings were hardly kept secret, and Mary was 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.320 just about the most obvious name the so called medium 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.680 could have plucked out of the air. He was about 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.960 to demand she leave when she suddenly jerked to attention 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:34.199 and fixed her gaze on a nearby door. Since he 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.400 didn't want to man handle a stranger, Charlie was content 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.439 to let her cross the corridor and wander into the 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:45.359 room beyond. This was Mary's room. She said, if you 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:49.080 look in the closet, you'll find her things. By now 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:53.040 a little curious himself, Charlie obliged, but when he opened 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.520 the closet, all he could see was dust and scattered debris. 0:22:57.240 --> 0:22:59.800 But before he could say a word, the woman stepped 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.480 up beside him and said, you're looking in the wrong place. 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:06.800 She pointed to the back of the closet, where a 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:11.320 crack in the plaster exposed a cavity. Charlie reached in 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.760 and felt several loose objects. First, he pulled out a 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.959 metal fork, which everyone present could only look at in confusion, 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.200 followed by a single small house slipper. Then he reached 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:30.399 behind the plaster again and withdrew three brown photographs. The 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:33.560 first was of a stretch of rural road, empty and 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:37.680 tree lined. The second captured a group of four middle 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:41.359 aged men sitting on a wall, seemingly at rest from work. 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.040 The final photograph was of a young woman with a 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:48.919 shy smile and long brown hair. On the back, in 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:54.520 neat cursive was written the name Mary Lee. At this point, 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:58.480 according to Charlie, the mysterious woman gave a slight smile 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:03.000 and left the room. Despite calling her back, she apparently 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:07.520 ignored them, descended the stairs and left the hospital. No 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:10.520 one to this day knows her name or who she 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:21.160 really was. Every floor of Waverly Hills has its own 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.680 share of legend and encounter. On the ground floor of 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:27.600 the north wing there is a pair of old, stained 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:31.720 wooden doors. They give access to a grim concrete tunnel 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:35.760 running five hundred and twenty five feet on a downward slant. 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:38.800 The tunnel was once equipped with a pulley car system 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:42.600 to carry supplies from the bottom of the hill. However, 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:46.040 at the peak of the hospital's capacity, the death shoot, 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:49.879 as it was morbidly named, was used to discreetly transport 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:54.760 bodies down to a receiving hearse. During those peak years, 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:58.439 over a thousand bodies made their final journey through this 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:03.400 dark conduit. It's no surprise that such a micabreough feature 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:06.960 has become an epicenter for much of the hospital's alleged 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:11.439 uncanny activity. Several ghosts are said to appeer in and 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:14.919 around the tunnel, including the shade of an old man 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.879 and his dog. Tina Mattingly, the wife of Charlie and 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:22.879 co owner of the property, told BuzzFeed reporters that while 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:26.119 locking up after a guided tour, she saw a tall, 0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:31.200 disheveled man with long, thinning hair. He didn't move, simply 0:25:31.240 --> 0:25:35.280 stared Caught in the beam of her flashlight. Tina jumped 0:25:35.320 --> 0:25:39.360 back in shock and lost sight of him. After collecting herself, 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:42.600 she began to explore near by rooms, looking for what 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:45.840 she presumed was a member of the tour or an intruder, 0:25:46.480 --> 0:25:50.439 but the man was nowhere to be seen. Returning to 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:53.760 the main corridor, she looked down to where a German 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:57.920 shepherd dog was lying calmly on the floor. She called 0:25:57.960 --> 0:26:01.320 to it, but it refused to move. After a second, 0:26:01.359 --> 0:26:06.000 it was gone. According to Tina, I didn't see it disappear. 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:09.320 It didn't get up and walk away. It just wasn't 0:26:09.359 --> 0:26:13.600 there any more. Tina likes to think that even if 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:16.040 what remains of the old man is stuck in the 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:18.720 grounds of the hospital, then at least he's with his 0:26:18.840 --> 0:26:24.080 best friend. The apparent ghost most associated with the tunnel 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:28.840 and ground floor is similarly benign. Many visitors claim to 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:31.800 have interacted with the shadow of a young boy who, 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:36.240 legend has it was named Timmy. According to law, Timmy 0:26:36.320 --> 0:26:39.080 first came to the hospital in nineteen thirty when he 0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:43.720 was six, accompanying his infected parents. When they died in 0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:47.000 the upper wards, Timmy was placed in the children's hospital, 0:26:47.240 --> 0:26:50.280 where he first caught the disease and then succumbed to it. 0:26:51.160 --> 0:26:54.399 He is apparently seen throughout the grounds, but mostly at 0:26:54.440 --> 0:26:57.800 the tunnel entrance. Timmy has become the focus of most 0:26:57.840 --> 0:27:02.040 ghost hunting expeditions to Waverley Hill, both because of the 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:06.200 mass of physical phenomena associated with its presence, but also 0:27:06.600 --> 0:27:09.359 because the playful spirit of a six year old boy 0:27:10.000 --> 0:27:13.840 is a far less fearsome prospect than other lingering residents. 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:26.080 After all, no one wants to meet the Creeper. Of 0:27:26.160 --> 0:27:30.000 all the entities encountered in Waverly Hills, the shadowy figure 0:27:30.119 --> 0:27:34.120 known as the Creeper as the most fearsome reputation, said 0:27:34.160 --> 0:27:37.040 to have been encountered all over the hospital, but most 0:27:37.080 --> 0:27:41.000 associated with the second and fourth floors. The Creeper is 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:44.480 said to be a humanoid figure seemingly made from nothing 0:27:44.760 --> 0:27:48.879 but corporeal shadow. Those who claim to have seen it, 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:53.520 and there are many, describe it in unnervingly consistent terms 0:27:53.840 --> 0:27:56.800 as a dark figure with arms that seem too long 0:27:56.840 --> 0:28:00.640 for its body, and everything below the waist into an 0:28:00.640 --> 0:28:05.920 ill defined mass. It rarely approaches directly and is most 0:28:05.960 --> 0:28:09.440