Taunton State Hospital
This historic hospital is haunted by its past of inhumane treatments, Satanic cults, serial killers, and legends of ghostly spirits.
From a distance, it may appear as a large flock of birds. Multiple black dots grouped together and nestled on the green grounds of the Mayflower Hill Cemetery. However, upon getting closer it is revealed to be small metal markers emplaced into the ground, each engraved with a number. Each one corresponds to an individual buried there in which 865 small graves exist in total. The only evidence left that the people resting once existed, all of whom perished while a patient at Taunton State Hospital.
Established in 1854 as the State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton, it was the second mental health facility built in the state after Worcester State Hospital in 1833. Although intended as a place of healing and recuperation, it was not long before things at the hospital began taking a dark turn. Understanding of mental health care was much more limited in the 19th century with many well-known and treatable conditions today being considered lunacy or insanity back then. Civil War veterans suffering from PTSD, individuals with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Tourette’s, depression, and anxiety all being qualifying illnesses for admission. Psychiatric science at the time advocated for horrific procedures such as lobotomies, ice baths, solitary confinement, and electroshock therapy. As a result, perhaps it was no surprise that rumors began to emerge that the hospital was being run by a Satanic cult with patients being taken into the basement for dark rituals including human sacrifices. Staff have allegedly reported seeing strange unexplained markings on the basement walls and feeling an overwhelming and foreboding force lurking within the darkness.
Gruesome treatments were not the only grisly aspects of the hospital’s history. At least two known serial killers were committed there in the early 20th century. Anthony Santo was born in Italy in 1894 and immigrated to the United States in his early teenage years. On June 6th, 1908, he was questioned by the police regarding a stolen bicycle in which he confessed to murdering his two cousins in Brooklyn, New York and a young girl named Louise Staula in Dedham, Massachusetts between March and May of that year. Santo claimed he had “mad spells” which compelled him to kill, and his parents claimed his mind had been afflicted since he contracted scarlet fever as a child. Police investigators were not able to conclusively verify Santo’s accounts but doctors interviewing him determined he was “feeble minded” experiencing delusional hallucinations and sent to Taunton State Hospital where he spent the remainder of his life.
Another infamous patient committed to the hospital was Jane Toppan. Born Honora Kelley in 1854, she was the daughter of Bridget and Peter Kelley. Bridget died of tuberculosis while Honora was very young, and Peter was reported to be an abusive alcoholic who worked as a tailor and allegedly sewed his own eyes shut. Peter eventually abandoned his children and Honora was taken in as an indentured servant by the Toppan family in Lowell where she took on the name Jane Toppan.
Around 1885, Toppan began working as a nurse at the Cambridge Hospital. The hospital supervisors admired her bright and friendly demeanor giving her the nickname “Jolly Jane”, but her fellow nurses had a much different impression seeing her as temperamental, boastful, thieving, and someone who loved to gossip. It was this dual personality of Toppan which allowed her to carefully select her victims while avoiding the suspicions of her employers. Toppan took an especially keen interest in the hospital’s most sick and elderly patients where she would covertly alter their medications and administer morphine and atropine to observe the effects. In 1889, she was given a job at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston but was fired not long after for her excessive prescriptions of opioids to patients. However, she was recommended as a private nurse to some of the hospital’s wealthy clients where she lethal poisoning spree.
In 1901, she moved in with elderly widow Alden Davis after Toppan murdered his wife and soon killed the rest of his family. Relatives of the Davis family ordered a toxicology exam on one of the daughters Minnie and discovered she was poisoned. A police detail was assigned to watch Toppan and she was arrested for murder in October of that year. Toppan confessed to 31 murders, 12 of which were confirmed although the total count was believed to be much higher. Her motives for the murders included sexual euphoria from killing, financial reasons, spite, boredom, and sadistic pleasure. At her trial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Taunton State Hospital where she lived until she died in 1938 at age 84.
In 1975, the hospital was closed and gradually fell into disrepair. With such a dark history, it became a popular destination for urban explorers and ghost hunters who have reported hearing disembodied screams, sobbing, shadows, and cries for help. The supernatural phenomenon purportedly seeped into the surrounding forests as well with some calling the hospital “America’s most haunted asylum.” In 2006, a fire broke out destroying much of the historic decaying building and the rest was finally demolished a few years later. However, many of the newer buildings still stand and the hospital is still in operation today as a psychiatric and rehabilitation facility.
Throughout its roughly 120 years of operation, over 800 patients died while admitted there and buried in a pauper’s grave at the Mayflower Hill Cemetery with their names, stories, and lives replaced by a number and lost to history. Although much of the old hospital complex has slowly faded away and memories forgotten, its legacy remains. Serving as a testament to humanity’s dark side and what lessons can be learned to better understand ourselves moving forward. So that future patients may feel hope and healing, not despair and destitution that claimed the minds and souls have so many who came before.
Know Before You Go
To find the hospital pauper's grave, go to the furthest right section of the Mayflower Hill Cemetery and it's right next to the neighboring St. Joseph Cemetery.
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