Episode 516: Review of Crownsville Doc

[00:00:09] So, I saw a documentary the other day and a historical one.

[00:00:31] I thought I would talk about it since I've never heard of a mental hospital that was segregated

[00:00:46] and it was Crownsville Hospital in Maryland.

[00:00:57] Very unique place to say the least and I can honestly say I'm glad that it's no longer in existence.

[00:01:08] I am Drea and you're listening to Dreas Point of View. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:13] I love if you'd follow the show on the socials.

[00:01:18] You can find me at Dreas Point of View on IG, Pinterest, Threads and Facebook

[00:01:23] and Drea Point on X & Spill.

[00:01:27] So in 10 minutes or less I'm going to talk to you about something that I feel passionate about

[00:01:32] and in this case it's about this hospital that it just seems unreal.

[00:01:41] It definitely just seems like something that you would see on television.

[00:01:44] So it's called Crownsville Hospital from Lunacy to Legacy and you could find it on Tubi.

[00:01:57] And I'm not a huge fan of Tubi but you can find some good documentaries over there.

[00:02:04] Now this was pretty unique. What made me pay attention to it is, you know, the preview, the trailer, if you will,

[00:02:13] talked about, you know, how is one of the few hospitals for black patients.

[00:02:20] It was built by the patients and who were predominantly black.

[00:02:26] They lived in tents, they made their own clothes and they got no pay.

[00:02:35] The staff was white and the patients were black so you can only imagine, especially back then,

[00:02:42] the types of things that went on in this place.

[00:02:45] But it was, it's just beyond, now if you saw one flew over the cuckoo's nest,

[00:02:50] that was nothing compared to the types of things that went on in this place.

[00:02:59] So apparently, well they interviewed staff, the nurses, psychiatrists and patients,

[00:03:07] especially the patients are the most interesting who stayed there.

[00:03:10] They spoke out on the conditions and they said the types of patients weren't always mentally ill.

[00:03:17] Some were normal, some were alcoholics, some had no family so that's where they went.

[00:03:25] Far away, very secluded from everyone else.

[00:03:32] The treatments were very inhumane.

[00:03:37] Lobotomies were done.

[00:03:40] There were a lot of racial issues, as you can imagine, and plenty of physical abuse.

[00:03:48] There was even shock treatment.

[00:03:50] Now I saw a show the other day and they gave shock treatment to this guy.

[00:04:01] Just watching that, I can only imagine.

[00:04:04] They did that in one flew over the cuckoo's nest too, to Jack Nicholson.

[00:04:12] It was a hard watch but it was interesting knowing the history of this place.

[00:04:17] The warazine was given to a lot of the patients.

[00:04:20] Now you have to look a lot of this stuff up, I don't want to go into detail.

[00:04:23] What's this? What's that?

[00:04:25] It's used to put horses to sleep so you can only imagine using something on animals and humans.

[00:04:32] The horse they use a straight jacket.

[00:04:35] Everyone was trained to restrain.

[00:04:38] Now I get some of them could be out of control but not everyone.

[00:04:42] There was a seclusion room where people were put in there for a couple hours, up to a couple of days.

[00:04:50] Sometimes a bucket was given for them to use a restroom, sometimes people forgot.

[00:04:56] The patients were used as research back in the 20s and 30s.

[00:05:03] Someone spoke about going into a room where they saw brains and parts of women in these jars.

[00:05:14] The governor at the time came there because there was a riot.

[00:05:21] One man was one of seven kids who broke out and he was the only one who made it home.

[00:05:30] His listening to him was very, very interesting.

[00:05:36] There was a nudist colony nearby where some of the patients escaped.

[00:05:43] One man was attending college.

[00:05:47] He was a patient but things felt kind of off.

[00:05:51] You know when you're in school sometimes you just have an off season.

[00:05:54] He was having a hard time and his parents drove him there.

[00:05:58] He didn't know where he was going.

[00:06:00] He was there, left there for a few months.

[00:06:05] One of the volunteers spoke of a condom machine.

[00:06:10] She said it was always empty so she knew stuff was going on there.

[00:06:14] There was talk about excessive homosexuality there.

[00:06:20] It was similar to a prison.

[00:06:25] It definitely seems like it or if not worse.

[00:06:28] One person's mom was a patient so she told her stories.

[00:06:32] Her mom was admitted a few times.

[00:06:35] She was physically assaulted once and her dad attacked the guy.

[00:06:41] When it eventually got integrated, I think Dr. Phillips,

[00:06:46] he came in 1948 and he really was led a big scandal.

[00:06:53] There was a superintendent that came in the 60s.

[00:06:57] The staff was integrated in the 60s as well.

[00:07:01] Dr. Phillips apparently he wasn't there much.

[00:07:03] He had his own practice.

[00:07:05] He moonlighted.

[00:07:06] He had affairs, allegedly.

[00:07:08] He also faked a heart attack when he had to go to trial.

[00:07:13] He ended up resigning in 1980.

[00:07:17] There was a lot of strange behavior as you can imagine.

[00:07:22] There was one lady she interviewed saying that she saw some strange things.

[00:07:29] She actually saw a lady with a mouse in her mouth.

[00:07:32] It couldn't have been that strange to her because she wound up working there for over 20 years.

[00:07:38] She said the thing that she saw from the women were worse than the men.

[00:07:44] When I thought it was interesting, there was a reporter.

[00:07:47] He told about wanting to hear about the place and he decided to become a patient so he can get the inside story.

[00:07:59] Once he got there, they gave him a liquid which was also given as a tranquilizer.

[00:08:07] He became lethargic after some time.

[00:08:12] He said that it definitely wasn't a place where people were treated for illnesses.

[00:08:18] He called it a locked prison.

[00:08:21] He spent six days there and then he went back as an actual reporter and came out with a bunch of stories.

[00:08:30] He learned that there were 72 deaths a year before he got there.

[00:08:37] There was another woman who was given drugs immediately like he was.

[00:08:42] She later died of an overdose.

[00:08:44] That series wound up winning some awards.

[00:08:47] I'm telling you, this is place it sounds like something that you would only hear about in movies.

[00:08:55] Superintendent Ansari, I believe his name was, he came and was really good with the patients.

[00:09:01] He made some changes but they later learned that he wasn't even qualified.

[00:09:05] He looked for staff who was sleeping at night would get angry at some meetings.

[00:09:11] He later wound up going to Indiana, changed his name.

[00:09:15] So fast forward to place finally closed.

[00:09:18] There were a number of the court order patients kept increasing and they had less staff than the other hospitals.

[00:09:27] So they plan to renovate this place to help other people and possibly create walking tours.

[00:09:39] They in 2019, they had a 90 bed drug treatment facility open.

[00:09:47] And since 2013, the hospital graves have been cleaned up annually by a bishop and some church members.

[00:09:58] You'll have to watch more of the documentary to know what I mean about the graves as you can only imagine.

[00:10:04] And there was talk that it would cost more to tear the buildings down than to keep it up.

[00:10:09] It's a huge place.

[00:10:13] And everyone was given their opinion about what they think this should happen.

[00:10:17] They filmed the movie Crazy Aids there. I never saw it.

[00:10:20] I don't think I want to be honest, but update to that is they're planning on turning it into a memorial park,

[00:10:28] which I think is probably the best idea.

[00:10:31] I wouldn't want to, I mean, I can't see that as I wouldn't want to go there for anything other than that.

[00:10:39] So I think that's the best plan for that.

[00:10:43] But it's definitely a documentary worth watching to know about the history of a place like that.

[00:10:49] If you're a documentary lover, check it out on Tubi.

[00:10:54] And let me know if you've seen it or plan to see it at DraesPointofView at yahoo.com.

[00:10:59] You can also subscribe to the show in my free newsletter at draespointofview.substack.com.

[00:11:04] As always, I do thank you for listening.

[00:11:09] This has been Draes Point of View.