National Park After Dark - Undercover in an Asylum: Blackwell Island

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

When rumors spread through New York City of horrendous conditions of a nearby asylum, Nellie Bly investigates. She goes undercover as a patient to report back on the conditions of the facility. What she endures horrifies the public and forces reform of mental health institutions. Today she is remembered in history for her book detailing that experience, Ten Days in a Madhouse.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Lumen: Use our link to get 15% off your purchaseLume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with@lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code NPAD at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodEarth Breeze: Use our link to get 40% off your subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In the late 1800s to early 1900s, women were being placed in mental institutions for all sorts of reasons, including many that did not require psychiatric health. Instead, women who were lacking many rights were institutionalized. because they were behaving in ways that men did not agree with. Some were committed for adultery, sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of their lives because they took a lover who was not their husband. Others were committed when their husbands found a new, younger woman.

Some were committed for things like epilepsy, a regular menstruation, sexual expression, being too ambitious, religious enthusiasm, and more. Diagnose symptoms that allowed a woman to be admitted into an asylum were things like, imaginary female trouble, immoral life, laziness, fits, novel reading, bad company, or hysteria. In 1887, a woman, despite the rumors of the horrible living conditions for women, went undercover to investigate the life of a woman committed to an asylum. For 10 days, she endured all that an asylum was as a patient herself.

When she reemerged, she told a story that would change mental institutions forever. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Is this one of your freebies? Kind of. I tried really hard to link this to a national park, but this is probably the loosely, the most loosely related to a national park story I've ever done. So I guess I'll ever decide if this is my freebie. I did this a little bit different because instead of taking. us to a national park site, I'm going to be telling a story of a woman who is recognized by the

National Park Service. Okay. Well, I mean, is her story on the National Park Site in any way? Yes. Okay. Then it counts, I think. I mean, we'll let the people decide. But I feel like if she is recognized by the Park Service, then, I mean, even based on the introduction, I feel like she deserves an entire episode, whether or not it has any National Park tie in. So she's got my vote. Thank you. Thank you. I found her story and I actually found a book that I read for this and I'll get into that a little bit more into the story. But it's a book that she wrote, this person, her name's Nellie Bly, who went into this mental institution and she wrote firsthand her experience there. And it's really funny because I did this episode by accident. I was actually on my Kindle and you know how you can make a list of all the things that you want to read? And then you can like buy them later, download them later or whatever. So I went on to my Kindle to download this book that I had been wanting to read. And I was like, okay, it was actually when I was sick a few weeks ago. And I was like, well, now I have some free time. I'll sit and read a book. And I was trying to download the silent patient. And I clicked, I clicked it on my Kindle. And I clicked download by whatever. And there was a glitch. And then when it like refreshed, I had downloaded her book instead. And I was like, oh, well, this is something I've been wanting to read. And I was like, oh, well, this is something I've been wanting to read. And I. And I was like, I might as well open it up. And then as I started reading, I was like, oh, this has to be an episode.

This is such an interesting story. Well, it feels like divine intervention, so I'm excited to hear it. But before we get started, we have two announcements. The first being merch, everyone's favorite topic. Yes. Yeah, so we have like a formal statement press release concerning that. I guess first, before we address the big element, elephant in the room of our designs. The first thing is that a lot of people have been asking us about our

next merch launch because we're sold out. And that will be happening in September. We do have a countdown of it on our website. So you can check that out and watch it as it goes. But if you want, if there's certain merch you want, add yourself to the wait list so we know what you want restocked. Yeah. That's the best way to tell us what you're looking for. But over the past few months, we have been made aware time and time again that various websites and different online marketplaces have been selling our merch, which obviously contain designs that are made specifically for us that we've contracted independent artists to illustrate designs. And we're seeing those designs pop up all over the place.

And as you know, these designs are the product of those artists hard work and dedication. And obviously, we own the rights to them at this point. and we're really thankful for all your support and loyalty and are really grateful to everyone who continues to message us about this infringing merch and bringing it to our attention, whether you send us a DM or an email and just trying to get our attention about it. So we want you to know that we have been working really hard on trying to combat this. For the last couple months, I would say, to tackle the issue. Not just us, we have literally a legal team with us now because it's just kind of a little out of control.

of hand. Yeah. And while we have been successful in taking down certain websites or platforms or different things out there, it's kind of like whackamol. Like we'll get one and then three more will pop up somewhere else. So it's kind of an ongoing issue. And we want you to know that we're going to continue working on that. But the best thing that we can, the best way we can do that is with your help. So you can support us by obviously only purchasing our merchandise through our website, which is National Park AfterDark.shop. So just remember that all other merchandise that does not come from that website is unauthorized. So even if it's the same design, the same, it looks the same, it's not ours if it's not on that site. So if you see any other merchandise on any other platform,

just know it's not, it's not real, it's not us. And we do know that recently there's been a big demand for our merch and we are working really hard to create more launches and additional. additional restocks and things like that. So we'll announce that as it comes. But like Cassie said, best thing you can do is just monitor our site, watch the countdown. We'll announce it as it comes. But that's pretty much it. Yeah. And as a side note, the people who have reached out to us that have accidentally bought from these sites have said that the quality is horrible. So you're getting the designs from these random places. A lot of them are overseas and aren't even like we don't know who the people are that are doing it. But the quality is also just not there. So you're paying money for things

that are not going to last. Yeah, we can't, obviously we can't vouch for the quality of that merchandise. Yeah, right. Like, we have nothing to do with it. So yeah, that's that on that. We're aware that our last dropped sold out really quickly. So we're working really hard to restock things, make sure that there's more inventory for you. And yeah. So anyway, an extra drop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're getting there. one step out of time, but it will be back. And it will be back in time for spooky season. So don't worry. And then one last thing, which is kind of exciting on our end. If you remember from, I guess it was a couple years now, we used to do a newsletter where we had a lot of information in there. We had a lot of national park related stuff and announcements within the podcast and stories and things like that in a

newsletter for everyone. It kind of has stopped for a little while, but we are re-uping it. And we're going to have a lot of really fun stuff on there. It's totally free. You don't have to pay anything or subscribe to anything to be part of it. You just need to go to our website, NPADpodcast.com and you can subscribe to our newsletter right there if you're interested in getting all these updates. And that's going to be restarting in September, which is very, very exciting. Yeah. And it'll be a once a month thing. We're not going to drop a newsletter every week in your inbox. We're not going to blow up your inbox with spam. Yeah, no. We hate that as much as you do. So it'll just be once a month with fun stuff. National Park and NPAD related. Yeah. And to my story. The reason we're all here. Yes, please. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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the story of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, who was a woman that was far ahead of her time, and in the 1800s, she worked as a journalist highlighting the unfairness of treatment towards women. She circumnavigated the world. She marched for women's suffrage, was the first woman journalist to ever enter a war zone, among other things. She was also widely remembered. for the story I'm going to be telling today, which was an undercover operation she conducted to investigate the conditions of mental hospitals at the time. She convinced officials she was in the need of psychiatric care and was committed for 10 days where she experienced the atrocities of mental health care in the 1800s. She then went on to write about it in newspapers where it

gained national attention, which prompted the hospitals to implement reforms to their practices. She eventually published her own book, which I mentioned at the beginning of this, which she titled 10 Days in a Madhouse under her pen pal name Nellie Bly. And this pen pal name was really common in this time frame for women as writers because women weren't respected as much. So they used pen names of men or gender ambiguous names so that their writings would actually be taken seriously. It was also used to protect women's identities who are writing about political policies that, could put them in danger. Because she referred to this name in life and in the asylum and in her writings, I'm going to refer to her as Nelly for the duration of the episode, just so it's not confusing. I'm not hopping back and forth. And I will say like she mostly went by Nelly,

even though that wasn't her birth name. And like I said, I did read this book for the research and there's a lot more in the book than I'm going to dive into. So if you're looking for a book recommendation, this is it. It's a quick read. It's really interesting, especially because it's coming straight from the person who experienced it. But before we get started, I did want to recognize that not all of the wording in today's episode is going to be respectful in the sense of how we talk about mental health today. And that is because that's just not how things were referred to then. And I really want to portray how mental health was treated back in the 1800s. And also a lot of these things, they were the names of these things. And that mental institution versus an asylum, I mean,

they're very different. And what she was in is in asylum. So that's what it will be referred to as. And also, like, for example, in this specific scenario, the asylum that she went undercover in was named the women's lunatic asylum. So, yeah, it's just these are how things were referred to. And thankfully, we've made a lot of steps forward where we understand mental health and more and more every day. So I am aware that not all of the terms. here are correct and are not how we would speak about it today. But this is her experience and a lot of the things that are said are things that were either directly said to her or she was diagnosed with. And it's also very telling of the landscape of mental health at the time because I think if you, I mean, obviously you haven't said a word yet, but if you referred to everything this entire episode in language that is what we are used to today and how we would speak about it today, I think it would maybe take away from just how awful whatever you're about to describe really was because we would look at it through our frame of reference of what we are used to today

and the strides forward that we've taken over the last, you know, 100, 150 years. So I mean, and maybe I'm jumping the gun here because obviously I haven't heard anything yet. But I think that it's you're doing, you're not doing a disservice by explaining it like that because I think it'll be really telling of just how awful things were. Yeah, exactly. That's how I felt too. And I just wanted to make that clear because I don't want to be disrespectful to anyone who is struggling with any type of mental illness because I think that there is a lot

of respect that has to be in that. And there are a lot of people who are. And I just want to make that clear that the wording that I'm using is not something that I believe should be said. It was just how things were. Okay. So before we get started into her story, I want to first get started in the background on this hospital that she was at and its location. So before it was the women's lunatic asylum, it housed both men and women and was known as the New York City Lunatic Asylum.

It opened in 1839 on the north end of Blackwell Island, which today is known as Roosevelt Island. It is a two mile long or 3.2 kilometer island within the borough of New York City's Manhattan. on the East River. While today it has a population of our 11,000 people, during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, this island was used primarily for hospitals, prisons, and homeless shelters. New Yorkers at the time gave the island the nickname Welfare Island, and there was no wonder how it gained this nickname as it had a prison, charity hospital, a workhouse, a smallpox hospital, both men and women homeless shelters known as Almshouses, and it was home to the second largest in the country, which was known back then as an asan asylum.

So there was a lot of stuff. They kind of put everyone on this island that they didn't really know what to do with and put them in separate buildings. The asylum opened on June 10, 1839, and was doomed from the start. On day one of opening, it housed 197 patients while the structure was only built for 200. All of these people were transferred from Bellevue Prison, and because they were almost at capacity on the first day, two more structures were eventually built in 1848 that were named the Lodge and the retreat.

The Lodge was built to hold violent patients while the retreat was built to deal with what they referred to as chronic cases where many were struggling with thoughts of suicide. In 1868, the Lodge housed 190 women, even though it was only built to hold 66. When Nellie would arrive, there would be approximately 1,600. women in the entire facility. So they had the ability to hold a couple hundred and there were 1,600 women when she was there. Rumors of horrible, unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, violence to patients and malnourishment of residents leaked back to the city. But largely, people didn't take the rumors into much consideration. It was easy not to think about as it was kind of separated from

the rest of New York City. But also, many of the people reporting these rumors had, been what other people had deemed as crazy. Like these people would come out and be like, these horrible atrocities and they're like, yeah, you were put in a mental institution. Like, why would we believe you kind of thing? Like people really didn't have a respect for what was going on or realized people were being committed to this asylum for reasons that didn't even make sense, especially women. Much of these rumors were considered to be exaggerated and unthinkable to be true. Despite this, the rumors continued and it did start to raise some eyebrows, including the boss of Nellie Bly. Nellie worked for the New York World newspaper at the time as a journalist, and at the time,

this was a major newspaper publishing company and has gone down in history as being the first two ever published comic strips and create sensationalized headlines to catch readers' attention. So they were kind of the first that would put out these like breaking news headlines that made you want to read the articles. Nellie's boss at the time was looking for the next big story to publish and had an inkling that Asylums might be it. He asked Nellie if she was interested in going undercover as a quote unquote crazy person to the woman's asylum to investigate. And he was right in assuming that Nellie would be the right person to send. She had already accomplished a lot as a reporter, even though she was only 23 years old at the time. Previously, she worked in Philadelphia as a journalist covering women's issues,

specifically looking at women as more than only mothers. She published articles that argued that not all women needed to marry a man and that there needed to be better jobs available to women. She also were articles advocating for reform and divorce laws and how it should be easier for women to leave their husbands. Along with that, she went into deep investigations about mistreatment of women in factories, which once published she received a lot of criticism for

and was moved to covering more womenly things because she pissed off a lot of people because of that article. So they made her write about things like fashion and gardening, which they quote unquote womanly things. After that, not happy with her reassignment. She actually moved to Mexico and started reporting on the lives and corrupted government that was there. She had to flee the country after they tried to arrest her for what she published. So she was just like pissing off people left and right. but she was just like, this is wrong, I'm reporting it, this is what's going on. So she actually had to flee the country, and she successfully did.

But this is all kind of in short to say that Nellie was a really brave and outspoken woman, who was very familiar with putting herself in harrowing situations. So she was the perfect person for the job to go undercover in an asylum. And she accepted the job. It was September 22nd, 1887, when she agreed to go. And her mission was to go in and report back on the in, inside operations of the asylum, but it wasn't exactly detailed to find something bad. While there was suspicion that things were going on, especially with the rumors,

she was simply asked to report good and bad practices. And just to be honest with what was happening, whether that meant praising them or casting a light on a bad operation. So it was basically like, don't go in there with preconceptions that this is this horrible institution. I just want you to be honest about what's happening here. Nellie actually had her doubts that she would find anything incriminating. She believed that, like many others, that the story of mistreatment were exaggerated and untrue.

However, she was willing to find out for herself what was happening. A major hurdle in this plan was that the paper she worked for had no idea how they would actually get her out after she was admitted. Most patients who went in, especially women, never came back out. And if they did, it wasn't for a very long time. While they didn't have a concrete answer for her, they did say that they would do whatever they needed to to get her back, including blowing her cover. To help secure being able to find her, they decided that they would go by the name Nellie Brown instead of Bly so that her initials would remain the same. So going through any documents that they had, they could be like, okay, you have NB here. This is probably our girl.

We got to get her out. But scary. What a risk. And they're like. Oh, my God. Yeah. We don't know how to get you out, but we're going to try really hard. It's like, okay, sounds good.

So there was that obstacle, obviously, but the very first thing that she needed to overcome was that she needed to get admitted into the facility. And to do that, she would need to convince them that she was, quote unquote, insane. And this was something she wasn't sure that she was going to be able to do. And part of why she was so nervous about this is because before she went in and did her research, she assumed that everyone that she would be in contact with would be professionals in their fields and they would be able to tell if she was suffering from some type of mental illness or not. So she was really nervous to go in and try to pretend that she had something that she didn't.

She thought that maybe they would just be able to see right through it and be like, you're fine. Yeah. I'm going to be like, you don't need this. What are you doing here? You're clearly faking it. And that was a big concern for her. She's like, they're going to know. So she had two ways that she was thinking of, of how she's.

she could go about getting committed. And first, she thought that she could get in trouble with the law to get their attention or she could get herself sent to the hospital for evaluation. And she ended up choosing the latter. She's like, I don't really want to get into legal trouble. I don't want to be arrested or do something crazy. I'd rather get sent to the hospital to be evaluated. And in order to do that, she began her journey at a poor house in New York City.

And this is a house that offered shelter and food for just 30 cents a night. and she brought just about 70 cents on her. She didn't want to have any real money. She wanted a little bit so she could like get in and get established, but she's like, I don't want to have money on me because that might give away that I am not this person that I'm portraying to be. So she arrived wearing her worst clothing and she asked for a room for the night. They had a room for her that she would share with another woman and securing that was the beginning of her plan. following that, she did what believed would make her seem crazy.

She opened her eyes wide and blakily stared into space. And when people approached her, she told them that she was afraid of the other women in the house. She kept this up long enough that other women didn't want to sleep in the same room with her and began calling her crazy. One of the women who felt bad for her and was like, oh, this woman is suffering. I will spend the night with her offered up because everyone else was kind of teasing her. and the women in the house were actually being really mean to her and like calling her crazy and bullying her, straight up bullying her. But her plan was working.

This was kind of like, okay, everyone believes that I'm crazy, at least here. And this woman's being really nice to me. So she rooms with this woman. And despite she was actually pretty tired, but despite that, she sat upright in bed all night staring off. And when the roommate would ask if she was okay, she would state how afraid she was of the other women. She told her that she had no friends or home, but she was definitely.

desperately searching for a pair of her pants, which was just another ploy to make her seem like she didn't know what was going on. Her roommate didn't sleep at all that night. And by morning, she told the supervisor of the home what was happening. And because she was scaring the other women, the supervisor tried to get Nellie to leave. But Nellie refused, citing that she was still searching for her pants. But she was wearing pants. And it didn't make any sense to them. So when she refused to move, they called the police and two officers.

arrived. They escorted her off the premises all while she continued with her act. She pretended not to know where she was from and asked questions about the working people around her. Despite her having a southern accent, the police believed she was an immigrant from another country. They also believed she was crazy. And they brought her to a courthouse to determine where she should be taken. So she was originally from the south. I believe I didn't write this down. I think she was from Texas. So she had a little bit of like a southern draw. And even though that was like pretty apparent that she was southern, they're like, oh yeah, you have an accent like you're from Europe. And at this time in the 1800s, New York City was a hotspot for people from all over. There was a big Irish population,

a big German population that was there. There was a Spanish population. There was just, there was a conglomerate of people from all over the world that had settled in New York City. So it wasn't uncommon. In a people. There was a huge Italian population. It wasn't uncommon to meet people with accents. Yeah, it was the melting pot. My family came from Italy through Ellis Island during that time. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's really cool. So the police arrive and basically they escort her off the premise of that facility. And they brought her to a courthouse to determine where she should be taken next. While there were several people who commented on her accent, guessing she was from the West, one person did recognize that her accent was from living in the South and we're like, hey, she's not from, she's not an immigrant. This girl's from the South. But still, Nellie pretended not to know where she was from. When she entered the courtroom in front of the judge, she said that she again was looking for her pants and the police officer had told her that she could find them there. The judge, who found Nellie to be very attractive, showed her sympathy and and stated that she must be someone's wife who was missing her.

He also thought she looked like his sister who had died, which made him more empathetic to her. He spoke to Nellie privately where he guessed that Nellie was from Cuba, which Nellie decided to confirm. She's like, yeah, that is. Actually, you're so right. You're so right. That is where I'm from. Blatantly, not true. But Nellie did have experience working in Mexico and she did speak Spanish.

So with this, she began adding Spanish words into their conversation to bring on this act that she was from Cuba. After speaking with her, the judge decided that it was most likely that she had been drugged and brought to New York City against her will. He ruled that she needed a hospital for the drugs to wear off so she could remember things more clearly. He had an ambulance arrived to escort her to the hospital. So all of this is all going on. Like the judge is just making these wild assumptions. Like she's jugged. She's been kidnapped.

She needs the hospital. She has a husband at home waiting for her. And she's just like, check, check, check. Like my plan is working. Now I'm being sent to the hospital where I was trying to go so I could be evaluated more to be sent to the asylum. So everything's kind of like checking the boxes. And in her book, she even writes that she had to like hold back her laughter a couple

times because she's just like, what is going on here? like this is going way better than I could have imagined, basically. Yeah, like it's all falling into place. It's all coming together. Like, stupid idiot. Yeah, like, thanks. It's stupid. Like, yeah, thanks, I guess. I am from Cuba and I would love to go to the hospital. Great guess. Yeah. I can't even believe you got that. Yeah. How did you know? So a doctor in the ambulance concluded that, and again, this just gets wilder. So she gets picked up by the ambulance and the doctor in the ambulance concluded that she had been using a plant known as Bella Donna or Nightshade and it's commonly referred to as Witches Brew. It is actually

a toxic plant that does have some medicinal properties but in ancient times was believed to be used to poison enemies. He based his findings on the fact that her eyes were dilated which was actually caused because she was nearsighted. But worked for her because this doctor was like, yep, she's been drugged. She's been drugged with this poison, ancient witch's brew. She needs a hospital. She's like, actually, I'm near-sighted, but great. It's like, actually so right again.

Have you seen the TikToks of that guy? God, I forget his name, but he does street interviews in New York, usually like around Times Square and stuff, and he'll ask the most basic questions to people. And every time they usually get it wrong, he'll be like, yes, correct. Yes, I have. I'll be like, what's the capital of Massachusetts and they'll be like Miami? And he'll be like, yeah, how'd you know that? You're brilliant job. But, and then the other thing that that reminded me of, the Bella Donna, I just watched the most random movie the other night. There is no way in hell that you've seen this movie. And if you have, I will be floored. But it was so unexpectedly good. And it has all these huge actors in it. And I've never. heard of it and it's called The Little Hours and it has like Dave Franco who is anyone who knows me knows that he is my Roman Empire and I love him so much. It has his wife in real life. I forget

her name. It has Audrey Plaza. It has the guy from stepbrothers and like another guy from Parks and Rec. No, the other guy. What's his name? Oh, I forget his name. I forget too. Anyway. But anyway, so there's so many there's so many big actors in it and it's just such a really odd movie, but basically it's about like a religious convent. But the sisters, some of them are practicing witchcraft and they use Belladonna and like one girl just trips the hell out. And I don't know anyways. So that's like a random movie wreck for people if you have no idea what to watch. It's pretty sexual. Kind of. So if you're into that like me. How'd you watch it? What do you mean? Like what platform was. Oh. I'm pretty sure it was on Amazon. Yeah, cool.

It was from 2017, so it's kind of, it's a few years old. I've never heard of it, but it was... I've never heard of it either. It was like really good, actually. Cool. So... I'll add it to my movie list. It kind of is like one of those movies that's really good, but not much really happens. You know, you're like, oh, it's over. Like, I don't know. It doesn't really follow... Like, what did I just watch? Yeah. Yes. It ended and I just kind of looked at Chaska like, huh. Did you like this? Yeah, it's like, what did you think? Anyway, okay, go on. That's too funny. So they agreed to send her to the hospital. She's in the ambulance.

The doctor has diagnosed her with this drug use. And when they arrived to the hospital, Nellie refused to answer any questions to their doctors. And the doctor on the ambulance assured them that she was just much too, quote unquote, insane to be able to answer their questions. And with that, they moved her to what the hospital called the insane pavilion, which was a unit of the hospital for mentally ill patients. There she would await her transfer to the insane asylum on welfare island. So basically all that happened was the doctor was like, yeah, she's way too insane. You have to get rid of her. And the hospital is like, yeah, sounds good. I know we're like kind of laughing. It's obviously very serious. It's awful. It's messed up. It's messed up. It's so alarming and so concerning that this was so many

people's experience, men and women, children, I'm sure. So it's not. It's not. It's not. a joke in general, but it's laughable that this was so easy for her. Yeah. She wasn't even really trying. She barely tried. She stared, stayed up all night and then said she wanted pants. That's literally it. No evaluations, nothing.

They like checked her pulse and her heart rate and looked at her eyes, which were dilated because she's near-sighted. And then that was it. And it is like, it's funny to be like, especially because she's sure. trying to be committed, it's funny. But for the women who were not trying to be committed and were just actually needed medical care or some type of help that got into these facilities, it's not funny at all. And I do get into that as well because actually while she was waiting in this pavilion that they put her on before they could transfer her to the asylum, she

met a lot of other women who were heading there as well. And immediately for her, it was, was clear that some of the women weren't suffering from mental illness at all. The first woman who she met was named Anne Neville, who told her that she had been exhausted and burnt out from working as a maid, and the stress caused her to become physically sick, and she ended up at the Bellevue Hospital, where they deemed her insane and were now transferring her. She told Nellie that the doctors refused to listen to her or believe her when she told them that she was mentally sound.

She was just, like, physically exhausted, and the stress from it just made her physically ill and she was just looking for some type of relief. It sounds like she might have actually had some type of anxiety that was going on and stress can do so much to your body. And she was like, I'm mentally fine. I'm just burnt out at work. And they're like, crazy. Yeah. That's, that's really concerning that. Yeah. This happened to so, so many people. You're probably going to get into it. So I'll sit there for now. But here in this pavilion was when she realized that the doctors also had no idea what they were doing and had no way of differentiating who was quote unquote insane and who was not.

She also made a mental note that from there forward, she would act as her normal self once she made it to the asylum. So she had plans to keep up this act to make sure she got on the transfer, got to the hospital. But she's like, okay, this is weird. It doesn't seem like they really have any idea who actually needs a mental institution and needs help and who doesn't. Once I get there, I'm going to act like my complete self and see what happens. So she's, She ends up staying the night in the ward and was given a week old meat or week old meat and potatoes with no seasoning for dinner. So rotten meat and potatoes. Every window was open on the floor that she was on and it was late September.

So the nights were really cold. When she complained about it to nurses, they gave her a dirty shawl that had been eaten and torn by moths and smelt terribly. But she didn't complain. And when it got unbearably cold, the patients were told to walk up and down the hallway. to try and warm themselves up. So already, she's not even there yet, and she's already experiencing, like, this horrible living conditions for people

who are deemed mentally ill. Before leaving for the island, Nellie was evaluated by doctors again, and they asked her a lot of questions. They asked her things like, do you hear voices at night? When she responded that she had, that there was a lot of talking,

which was actually true, the nurses were very loud in patrolling the hallways and had kept her up all night. So she was like, yeah, I hear them all night. It's actually really loud here. And all of the patients around were asked the same things.

Do you hear voices? Are their faces on the walls? Et cetera. To which she heard a lot of the responses of the patients. And all of them were like, no, I don't hear any of these things. Nothing's happening. And one of the patients named Tilly Maynard was finding out for the first time that she was going to an asylum and she overheard this conversation. Her friends had told her that they were sending her to a chronic care facility to recover after having a nervous break.

down from an illness that she had been dealing with. She demanded that they test her sanity and exclaimed that she was completely sane, but the doctors laughed at her and didn't bother to check any further. So it sounds like, and it didn't, she didn't clarify in her book what exactly was going on, but it sounds like she was having a physical illness that she was really upset about. And because she was upset about this physical illness, they committed her. I mean, this is the subject of so many different horror films and like psychological thriller films, because it's a nightmare. And it's so scary that this, I keep saying this, but that was so many

people's experience and just knowing that you're well and you're okay and you don't need this type of help, which I say help very loosely because I'm sure. Because asylums were not help. That was not help. Yeah. And just knowing that you're trapped and there's no one, no one will help you and no one will believe you. And it's kind of like, I don't even, I don't know, actually, if I should say, I don't know, whatever. You know, what's it? The Leo movie, again, with the movies. Oh, Shutter Island?

Shutter Island. Yes. Yeah. Where it's like, was he insane or not insane? I think at the end he was insane, wasn't he? I don't know. They had like this whole get up that they played with him all the time where they like let him pretend he was, I'm giving away.

Spoiler alert. Okay, that movie is like over a decade. It's so old, but if you decide to watch it. But was he though? Yeah, I thought at the end. And they, like, made it a gimmick that, like, every few months, they let him believe he was a detective and let him, like, wander around the facility. And then he would discover that he was actually the person who was, I don't know. It's a good.

I'd have to watch it again. I thought it was like this. But I thought he was deemed. I thought it was kind of very similar to inception where it's like at the end when you're like, is he in a dream or is he not in a dream? Like, I think it was very similar of like, was he truly not well? or was he like or was he trapped there because he went there as a detective and then he got trapped in there and then no one believed him as a patient as a patient and right i don't know yeah i guess that's a good point maybe i took it as he actually was mentally ill but maybe the takeaway from that was that like we didn't know

right i don't know i lost my point i lost it again either way but yeah the whole point is it's just terrifying that so many people were basically just thrown in there and the key was thrown out. You know, it was just like walked away and throw away the key type of thing. And we don't. There was no treatment. Yeah. Like real treatment that they believed. You kind of got thrown in and they're like, oh, yeah, there's no hope for you.

And there's no sort of plan of, okay, what are the steps that we can help you on the path to wellness so that you can progress and ultimately reenter society? Live your life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, live your life. Yeah, there was none of that. It was a prison.

It was a prison. It was a prison. 100%. They questioned her a little bit more, so they had asked her about the voices and things like that, which she had responded to. But they also asked her if she had ever been married or if she had a lover at the time, which she said no. The doctor had her stretch out her arms and move her fingers, which she obliged and she did

it all correctly. Even though their interaction was very normal, right after their conversation, she heard him report to the nurses that her case was completely hopeless. Okay, is she nervous at any point in time that she's going to get out of here? Yes, but she's more at this point. She's more happy that her plan is working. And she's also like figuring out that these things that she thought about the hospital and doctors and these professionals is not what she thought.

So she is less nervous at this point, it seems like, from her writings. And she's more preparing her story. She's like, okay, she's making mental notes of everything that's going on. And she's like, I need to write about this. This is what's happening. This is what I'm discovering right out the gate. And she's more making mental notes of her research because that's what she's doing right now. She's undercover doing research and that is always her first priority and her mind, even though outwardly she's doing other things.

So meanwhile, Nellie's mysteriousness from being a crazy girl from Cuba who didn't remember her life had actually attracted news reporters who came. who came to get a glimpse of her. And this made her really nervous because she was a news reporter herself and she was really worried that she was going to recognize the people coming. So she kept her head down and she tried to avoid them. But luckily, none of the people who arrived were people that she recognized or knew. When she was finally loaded up onto a boat to take her to the island, she was with four other patients and they were put in a cabin of the boat together.

On this boat, there were no windows open. It was dirty. The smell and the air was hot. horrible. And there was a small bunk at the end of the room that smelled so badly that Nellie couldn't get near it without holding her nose. So just absolutely disgusting horrible conditions on the boat. When they reached the island, they were escorted to an ambulance that had been waiting for them. And still in her act, she asked where she was to one of the officers. And he responded with Blackwell Island an insane place where you'll never get out of. And then he shoved her into the

ambulance. The intake process was similar to what she had already experienced with doctors and nurses asking questions. Here she realized that some of the women who were being admitted to the facility were there because they actually didn't speak any English and they had no idea where they were. Tilly Maynard, who I spoke about before, tried to argue her case again to doctors that she was completely sane when she arrived, but again, they brushed her off. Nellie answered all questions that they had as normal, with the exception that she wouldn't tell them her real name and where she was from. So she's Nellie Brown. She has no idea where she's from. During her questioning, however, the doctor was more interested in flirting with the nurse than asking her anything. So he's like

kind of jotting things down like, hey, do you know this? And then like talking to the nurse, like, oh, what's you doing later? Totally kind of blowing her off for most of the questioning. and then at the end, after barely paying attention to her and mostly flirting with the nurse, he writes down in her file that she's crazy and a hopeless case. And once she was admitted, it didn't take Nellie very long to realize that the asylum would be very hard living. She was moved to a floor known as Hall 6 that had about 46 people staying on it. This facility was much colder than the hospital that she was in previously was.

Patients were not given adequate clothing and it was cold enough that you could visibly see the blue of their skin. So you know, when you were like really cold and your skin like kind of changes color. That's what all of the patients looked like. Patients were also forced to sew and make their own clothing and they were forced to clean the asylum themselves. They were also dutied with cleaning the nurse's quarters and doing their laundry as well. The food was not edible. Dinner consisted of a piece of buttered bread, but the butter was spoiled. Prunes were given, but not enough to feed everyone. And they were given like this gross. tea that tasted like copper. While the patients were given this, they could see and smell a smorgasbord

of food that was made for the staff. They had meats, potatoes, fresh fruits, brewing coffee, and more. And they could smell and see it, but they were not given this themselves. They just got this bread and like gross tea. On top of those hardships, it was also very clear that there were actual women here that were struggling with their mental health. Loud screams, cries, hysteric laughing, could be heard throughout the hallways. Some women, she observed, seem to be in a comatose state, just staring and unmoving while others were talking to themselves. So not only are women here committed because they're women and they're just acting out of what has been deemed the norm, but there's actually people here who are really struggling with their mental health and need

real intervention and are really suffering that are not getting the care that they need. After dinner was served on the first day, Nellie, along with several other women, were brought to a bathing room. It was noticeably dirty with water buckets that had visible grime on them. Here, Nellie was told to strip off all of her clothes in front of the other women. She protested, but was met with a threat that they would use force if she did not comply. She listened and allowed them to help undress her. She jumped into the tub and found that it was actually ice-cold water that they were bathing her in. A patient who had been chattering to herself in holding a discolored rag, then approached her and started scrubbing her hard. She begged the nurses to have the other patients leave while this happened, but they told her to shut up.

Nellie was so cold that her teeth were chattering and her entire body was covered in goosebumps. And also this patient who's not a nurse is bathing her and literally like scrubbing her skin, like raw. After the patient was done scrubbing her, a nurse took three buckets of ice-cold water and poured it over her head. While this was happening, Nellie gasped for air but was met with a mouthful of water and she felt like she was drowning. Then they pulled her from the bathtub and without bothering to dry her off, put her in a uniform with the words that read lunatic asylum sewn into it. They proceeded to do this with all of the patients using the same rag that she was scrubbed with and the same bath. water. That night she slept on a hard mattress and when she asked if she could sleep in a nightgown instead of the wet clothing she was in because when she put the clothing on it, they just got wet.

She was denied and told that she should be thankful for what she gets by one of the nurses. When Nellie pleaded that the city pays for these institutions and pays the employees to take care of and be kind to the people who need their care, the nurse responded that she would receive no kindness there before locking her in her room for the night. And this is day one. This is just like first day experience. We're not going to be kind to you. We're not going to feed you.

We're not going to give you adequate clothing. We're not going to keep you clean. And this is just day one. During the day the facility offered no activities for the residents. There were no books to read, groups to join, or any type of stimulation. Patients were expected to spend their time doing chores and occasionally met with a doctor. They were also required to spend an hour outside every day no matter what the weather was. During these times, they would often see patients from other parts of the asylum as well.

So there was kind of this large garden yard that everyone could congregate in this area. And while they were out on these mandatory walks around the grounds, they passed a group of 52 women from the lodge building. And I mentioned this building earlier, and this was for people who were known to be, a little bit more violent or what they deemed as violent. So who knows, like, really what these women were like, they were noticeably dirty, but more than that, they were all tied with ropes together. They each had a wide leather belt on and attached to it was a long cable rope. And at the end of the rope, they were dragging a heavy iron cart with a nurse sitting inside of it. What? Yeah. This is all what Nellie observed while she was there. So basically, I picture, like, workhorses. Yes.

With a cart in the back, but instead of horses, they were using human women to pull it. Okay. For what is the purpose of that? Just abuse, I think. Yeah. Yeah. The atrocities that Nellie witnessed only continued from there. Nellie observed as women cried and begged for more clothing from the horrible cold of the facility.

She watched as they refused to eat the horrible food and became ill. She saw the nurses torment the mentally ill patients by scaring them, and making fun of them. They would prey on their ailments. If they heard voices or feared the devil, they would egg them on. And more than the emotional abuse, the staff was really violent. Tilly Maynard, who was an older woman, was so cold her body was shaking. She asked the nurses for help, who she had noted were wearing heavy jackets.

And Nellie intervened and told them what they were doing wasn't right. And she even went to the superintendent for help because the nurses are wearing these big heavy jackets. It's cold in there. this older woman is begging for some clothing because she's so cold and they're like, no. So she went to the superintendent for help and she talked to him and said what was going on. And he went to go see the situation. And instead of helping, he grabbed Tilly by the face between her brows and pinched her until her face was bright red. So no help even from superiors.

Like everyone is abusing the patients. In another instance, an elderly woman in her 70s who was also blind was taken by the nurses after she was crying because of the cold. When they grabbed her, she complained that the shoes that she was forced to wear were too heavy for her to walk and she took them off. The nurses then forced two of the other patients to put them back on her, but she fought back and up to seven people jumped on top of her to hold her down. Then a nurse jumped on top of her and ran her cold hands on her face laughing at her.

Yeah, this is awful. It's so scary because it's you have no one to turn to. And it's kind of like you're on your own. Truly. Yeah. You're on your own. It's scary. I mean, these are the people who are supposed to be taking care of you and they're the ones who are abusing you.

And you're in a place that maybe you don't even belong. Well, I would argue that no one belongs in a place like that. I mean. No. Right. No, of course. But I mean, like, this is supposed to be a mental institution that helps mentally ill people. And then there's people who are not mentally ill that are there.

And then the people who are mentally ill and really need help are being abused as well. as the people who are not. So it's just overall it's a horrible, horrible situation. And Nellie watched as women who were struggling with their own mental health were berated and attacked by nurses. There was one woman who was known to lie about her age. She told the facility that she was 18, but they discovered that she was actually 33. And when nurses discovered that she was just lying about her age, and this was a woman

who Nellie believed to actually be experiencing some type of mental illness, the nurses actually teased her until she began to yell and cry. When she cried, the nurses became angry and they told her to be quiet, but this woman that Nellie was observing was just too upset at this point. They had egged her on so much that she was just crying. And to get her to quiet down, they pinned her to the ground and slapped her and punched her in the head. When this only made her more upset, they choked her and dragged her to a closet that they locked her in. So it's not just mental abuse. There's actual really bad physical abuse that's going on here. well. One woman who while out in the yard thought she saw her husband approaching her and that he

had come to visit her, left the marching line that she was supposed to be walking in with the rest of the patients and started to run towards this person. It turned out not to be him. And the punishment for this was the nurses beat her with a broom handle, tied her hands and feet together, and then put a sheet over her head. Then they put her in a bathtub with ice cold water and held her under until she passed out. What? Mm-hmm. Okay, this is, I know that falls under physical abuse category, but holy shit. Like that is- That's torture. It is torture. It's a form of torture and almost killed her. I mean, if she was underwater for so long that she lost consciousness. Yeah, like, where's the line? What you're willing to gamble that she's just losing consciousness? And I say just, I mean, obviously it's severe. But that you didn't just

killer. Right. And do you, I was going to ask, like, is there statistics on the deaths here? Or do you know? Well, I looked into it a little bit and it's really fuzzy because a lot of records weren't, a lot of records weren't kept. And I get into it a little bit. Yeah, a lot of women disappeared. Yep. Oh, we don't know what I happen to do. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So the actual numbers are really hard to say. Yeah. So I would, I would venture to guess there were at least some. Definitely. I would 100% say there were more than just some. I would say like probably hundreds. Okay.

With each passing day, Nellie became more and more determined to tell these women's stories and help them. She couldn't wait to expose the facility for what they were. And she felt a deep sense of guilt that she knew that she was going to be leaving, while many others were most likely committed for the rest of their lives. Because she knew how it was that most people didn't get out. So she was there and as she's watching this, She's feeling awful. She's feeling horrible.

She's feeling guilty. And she's just like, I have to do my due diligence and make the world know what's happening here. During all this, there had been a newspaper report about Nellie in the papers. They detailed her as a girl who had no idea where she was or remembered her family. And this prompted families of people searching for their own missing loved ones that seemed to match her description to actually come to the asylum and visit her. Each visitor left discouraged to find that she was not the person they were looking for until one day she was called into the office for a visitor who she did recognize. A man who she had known intimately for years was sitting waiting for her.

But it was clear from the look on his face that she was not the person he was looking to find and he was shocked to see her. She managed to whisper a quick, don't give me away, before announcing that she had no idea who this man was. He understood and he replied that he also did not know her and it was not the woman that he was searching for. So this was like a really close call for her. She walks in and she's like, oh, shit. Like this guy knows me. But she was able to portray like, hey, don't say a word.

And he didn't, thankfully. As the days carried on, Nellie made it her mission to speak to these women and hear their stories. They detailed stories of abuse of not being listened to. and they also told her the reason they found themselves there. The stories ranged from physical illnesses to applying to homeless shelters for women who were struggling for money and being brought there instead, to people who spoke little English and couldn't advocate for themselves, to women whose husbands had had them committed. One woman she met who spoke little English told her that her husband had committed her there

when he discovered she was having an affair. Another woman was there after she got angry while she was working at. as a cook and some maids who didn't like her came in and deliberately made a mess of what she had just cleaned. When they got into a fight, the police were called and she was committed. They were like, oh my God, a woman's angry, put her in an asylum. Yeah, put her away. Can't have that. Yeah. Nellie, like a true journalist, she stuck on task and asked questions from people throughout the facility. She would try to stay up as long as she could throughout the night so that

she wouldn't miss anything that was happening to the patients. The nurses took notice that she was staying up all night. And they tried to give her a drink with a drug. She didn't know what it was to try and make her sleep. She tried to refuse, but they made her drink it, to which she then forced herself to vomit it back up when they left. So she's like, I don't need this. Like, I'm fine. And still, they like shove this drink down her throat. And keep in mind for this, she is now acting completely herself. She's not pretending to be like, she's not pretending to be crazy. She's not acting weird. She's acting exactly. how she would in everyday circumstances.

The only difference is she's not saying who she is because that would give away her cover. And with that, with acting like she normally did, she voiced her concerns to nurses and superintendents. She even demanded her release and stated that she was not insane and did not belong there. She questioned them on how they were able to determine insanity when the doctors did not listen to patients and barely interacted with them. And so she's not only like acting sane, but she's calling. them out on what they're doing. They're like, hey, how do you know I'm insane? You've barely talk to me. You don't talk to any of the other women in here. How do you deem that I'm supposed to be

here? Let me out. I'm fine. Just to see what their reactions would be. And for each time, with each demand that she made with everything she asked, they didn't listen to her, they didn't respond to her. They just laughed at her, told her she was crazy and told her that there was no hope for her and she was never getting out. So she, of course, knew that wasn't true. as her work had promised. After 10 days, they did send someone for her. A lawyer named Peter Hendricks arrived at the facility under the guys that Nellie had family willing to care for her and that she no longer needed the asylum and was to be released.

So they were like, hey, we know who she is. This is our girl. We'll take her from here. So with that, they complied thankfully. And they were like, okay, we'll get her out of our hair then. And as soon as Nellie got home, she got to work on her article. On October 10th, 1887, she published part one of a two-part publication of her experience, titling it behind asylum bars.

On October 16th, part two was released that she titled Inside the Madhouse. Later, those same articles were published as her book, 10 days in a madhouse that I used for this episode, and her writings gained national attention and pushed for the reform of asylums, and it also gained the attention of the court system in New York City. Imagine being those people. Oh, what I would give to see the look on their faces. Yes. Yes.

To be like, oh, my God. I mean, I would pay such good money for that. To be like, hey, we had someone under cover and they saw everything that you're doing. Yeah. Or like, I mean, I know that it didn't go down this way, but when she was vouched for and that lawyer came to get her. Yeah. If she could just drop the mic at that point, be like, I know it would have been like, it would have compromised a lot. So I get why she didn't do that. But it would have been nice. It would have been

really cool to have an in-person moment of like, gotcha bitch. I'm burning this whole thing to the ground. Mm-hmm. Burning it all down. But at the same time, she wanted them to be found out for what they were. So she wasn't going to expose them right then. It would have compromised a ton. Like, I totally get it. Yeah, they could have hid everything, you know. So her articles gained attention of the court system in New York City. And she was actually summoned before a grand jury. to tell her story. After hearing her experience, it was decided that this matter should actually be investigated further.

They asked her to accompany them to a surprise visit to the island, and she happily agreed to go back. Okay, this is the moment. Remember me? This is the moment. Remember me. Remember me. But what meant to be a surprise to the facility in order to catch them in the act turned out a lot differently than they hoped.

Just before their arrival, the asylum was given a. a heads up that they were coming. Just over two weeks after her escape from the asylum, she was back. Her trip to the island was very different this time. Instead of the dirty, smelly boat that she had arrived to on the island before, they were put on a clean new boat and told the other one was being repaired. Sure, sure, sure, sure. The asylum had changed too. The kitchen was clean. They were cooking sufficient food for the patients. The beds that Nellie had experience sleeping on were replaced with nicer ones. The dirty buckets to bathe with had been replaced. The mistreatment of patients was not shown at all, and it was actually hard to find a single

thing wrong with the entire facility. But to Nellie, something was still very wrong. Many of the women whom she had spoken to and reported back on their experiences were nowhere to be found. When she asked about them, they had various reasons. Some had been taken by family members, others were moved to other wards. And one woman who was in perfect health just two weeks prior, they reported was now dying of paralysis and they could not visit her. This was extremely disheartening for Nellie. She thought that after this visit with this jury that no one was going to believe her or take

her claim seriously because they got there and they're like, everything's fine here. Nothing's the miss. What are you talking about? And that's what she expected to be the reaction for everyone seeing that. and she expected the grand jury to dismiss her completely. However they didn't. Whatever happened during that visit solidified for them as well that something was seriously wrong with the facility

and that there needed to be changes. They ruled that there needed to be a reform in mental health institutions and provided an additional $1 million in government money to fund the asylum. The investigation forced the asylum to admit to their faults, including that they had hired unqualified doctor, and nurses. Hiring reforms were made to ensure patients were being cared for properly. Officials fired all abusive staff members and implemented multilingual support to assist immigrant patients and their families. New examination procedures were also established so that only the

seriously ill were committed. Along with that, strict guidelines were implemented and what needed to be provided for patients, including adequate food and warm, clean water to bathe in and also to have a warm facility to live in. Not big asks, I would like to know. Basic, basic living. Standards of living. Yeah. Feed me.

Don't freeze me to death. Let me bathe in clean water. Despite these improvements that were made because of Nellie's article and her undercover operation, the asylum ultimately closed its doors in 1894, just seven years after the reform. After that, the buildings were completely renovated. and turned into a hospital that specialized in tuberculosis treatment that operated until 1955. On March 16, 1972, the facility was added to the list of National Register of Historic Places.

Today, the building still exists and has been renamed the Octagon. However, today it is no longer hospital. Instead, it is a luxury apartment building that offers floor-to-ceiling views of the New York City skyline, gyms, yoga studios, pools, tennis courts, entertainment spaces, and more. And a studio apartment here costs a cool $3,211 per month. I was just about to say, and now there are homes. And you just proved me right. It's always the most sinister, backgrounded places that are luxury homes now.

I would be so curious if anyone listening lives in this place. Do you live in the octagon? What is it called? Or do you know someone? Yeah, the octagon. It's a beautiful, like they did a great job renovating it. And it is in a cool location. But the history behind it is just so between the asylum and the tuberculosis clinic and everything in between, it's just.

I mean, I'm looking at it right now and it does look really dope. But you can tell it was something. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It still has its bones. Yeah. Wow. I would be so curious.

to see if anybody lives here or it's on Atlas Obscura. Oh, I bet. The Roosevelt Island Octagon Tower. When we make a New York City trip, we'll have to go over there. Yeah. Wow, this place is really, really interesting. The pictures of all the nurses on the spiral staircase. Yeah.

Oh. It's creepy. And then it's like next to like the brand new updated. Like people are just like carrying their groceries up and down that. I wonder if everyone knows what happened there or if they just were like, wow, this is a beautiful location. I wonder if there's any sort of signage about the history of the building. Because a lot of places do have that, but I feel like that's for homes that have not so such a dark. Yeah, such a dark past.

I do think that there is a plaque on the building for the... Yeah, like behind the bushes and stuff. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, it's great. It's $3,211 a month. First studio. First studio. Nothing included.

Not even a one bedroom. That is a studio apartment there. Yeah, nothing included. But it is, I would just, I would love to walk. I mean, the building looks amazing. And I would be so curious if someone lives there. And it has to be haunted. There's no way.

Yeah. That's like a building where like years from now they're going to find like buried bodies on site or something. Well, yeah, all these people disappearing and have no idea what, oh, we don't know what happened to them. Yeah. Or they were claimed, yeah, they went home. It's crazy. It's crazy that, like, in the short time you were gone, they happened to be claimed by their family and they're fine and well. Yeah. Or they died. Or we have no idea who you're talking about. Yeah. Like, which is even scarier. Yeah. And one of them in her book, she mentions, there was a woman who spoke Spanish who she had gotten close to and had been speaking to. And when she came back, that woman wasn't

there anymore. And they denied knowing who she was. Yeah. See, that's some, that's some stuff where that property holds a lot of secrets still. Yes. I'm sure. Yes, very dark secrets. So as for Nelly, the year after her time in the asylum, she took on an adventure to circumnavigate the world with the idea to turn the fictional book around the world in 80 days into reality. She gained worldwide interest when the world paper organized a grand prize for whoever could estimate her completion of the trip down to the second. And in just 72 days, she completed her journey, mostly alone, and joined the world records for her feet for being the fastest to do so. The record was beat a few months later when someone else did it in 67 days, but still amazing to do, especially as a woman in her lifetime. She later went on to marry a 73-year-old man in failing health and took over his fortune.

and his iron manufacturing business. Okay. You're smiling. Just like queen. Nelly for president, honestly. Nelly for president, yeah. Like, queen. On that clean shit.

Just the smile that you had while you were. I had to include that. Yeah. I mean, it's true. It's what happened. He was happy with her, but his last years. And she inherited a fortune. Unfortunately, the business did end up going under after a factory manager embezzled a lot of her money and she did end up going bankrupt.

Afterwards, she went back to journalism, but she was pretty happy to do so. She was just kind of living in her life. She loved journalism too. Nellie died of pneumonia on January 27, 1922. She was buried in the Woodland Lawn Cemetery in the Bronx. And this is the part where I tried to tie in a national park, kind of. Okay. So she is recognized by the National Park Service.

That is true. And there's places on national historic lists that are in the story. But the woodland lawn cemetery is on 400 acres of rolling hills overlooking the Bronx River and was designed by some of the most notable American architects in history. One of them was Frederick Law Olmsted, who was an architect who has gone down in history as the father of landscape architecture and also the first park maker in urban areas. He's designed famous spots like Central Park in New York City and Niagara Falls State Park, among others. He was also part of the group of people that proposed Yosemite to become a national park.

And in 1883, he opened a full-time landscape architecture business in Brookline, Massachusetts, that today is managed under the National Park Service as the Frederick Law Olmstead. National Historic Site. And that is how I tie a national park into the story as she was buried in a cemetery that was created by someone who has their own national park. Okay. I see the, I see your train of thought. And it's a valiant effort. But truly. I missed the mark, didn't I? I feel like I lost you well into that. But I feel like it counts because she was recognized by the park service and we could just leave it at that. But thank you. for trying. Yeah. I tried really hard, yeah, but thank you. I don't know. This might be my freebie.

It was just such an interesting story and her work did change the reforms in mental health institutions, not just the one that she was a part of, but across New York at minimum and then places also in other areas of the country started being looked at because of her work. So she did make a huge contribution and it's a really interesting story that I was inspired to tell. Yeah. I mean, thank you for sharing it. It was obviously, it was very reminiscent of the Night of Terror that you covered. Yeah. Also in New York. Also New York. Also, a lot of horrible treatment of women and, you know, fighting for reform. And yeah. So good job. Thank you for sharing it. And I don't know, I think I didn't change my stance. I think it counts. And no, you don't. I'm less. I'm

Sure. Now. I will say that. It might be my freebie for the year. And that's okay. That's okay. We're in August. That's true.

You're good. January 1st. Coming back. It's coming back. Cool. Awesome. Well, thanks everyone for hanging in there. And we will see you next week.

In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPAD Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors,

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