Quote from Angela on April 13, 2021, 8:44 am

Located next to the Hawking River, also known as 'The Ridges' is the Athens Lunatic Asylum, a former treatment facility which provided a wide variety of services. Opened in 1874, the asylum treated men women and children.

During the 1950s, hundreds of people were institutionalised unnecessarily here for things such as depression, masturbation, menopause, anxiety and addiction. Also treated here were many military veterans who had suffered what would now be known as PTSD. The asylum also treated violent murderers and highly dangerous psychopaths. Hundreds of patients died here.

Horrifically invasive yet so called 'therapeutic' treatments were introduced including shock therapy, powerful tranquilisers and lobotomies, which were often performed by staff who did not have expert medical training, the real stuff of nightmares.

The asylum hit the news and media headlines when it housed infamous criminal Billy Milligan. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and displayed over 24 different personalities. Billy went on to torment, attack, rape and severely injure many patients whilst being treated here, blaming his 'other' personas.

In December 1978 patient Margaret Shilling mysteriously disappeared. Staff searched and discovered here lifeless naked body hidden in an abandoned and locked room. Autopsies revealed that Margaret had died of fear induced heart failure and exhibited clear strangulation marks around her neck. 

The hospital officially closed in the early 1990s and was later reopened as Appalachian Behavioural Health Centre and Ohio Universities biotechnology and geology departments. There are at least eighty of the asylums original victims buried around this campus.

Many scholars have reported frightening dark shadow figures, icy cold channels, running footsteps and unexplained disembodied screams.

Is this unexplained phenomena linked with those who are laid to rest here?

Others claim they have witnessed the apparition of Margaret Shilling, with strangulation marks on her neck dripping in blood accompanied by the clawing sounds.

Could this be a residual haunting? Are these clawing sounds replaying Margarets final moments of life as she tried to claw her way out the locked room?

If you are brave enough, why not book one of the Historic Athens Asylum Walking Tours available online. Be sure to share your experiences with us.