I was watching a recorded episode of “A Haunting Of…” Beverly somebody. I have been a fan of Celebrity Ghost Stories and thought this show would be a nice extension of that. This particular episode has brought me full circle though.

As you know from a previous post, I have been watching American Horror Story Asylum. For some reason the scariest movies, to me, are the ones in abandoned mental institutions. In the show, there has been a back story on the institution and the abuses that are being uncovered by a reporter and a doctor who has come to evaluate.

As I was watching the Pennhurst episode of A Haunting Of…, I noticed a similarity in the true stories of that Hospital and the American Horror Story storyline. So I started surfing the web for information on the facility.

I found the original video on youtube of the story in the 60’s that was aired and blew the cover off the place, which led to rights for mentally challenged people. The story was called “Suffer The Little Children”. It is a difficult video to watch, even by today’s standards. What I found really interesting is that the reporter actually wasn’t able to follow up the piece live on air. The anchor says that he was “exhausted”. This led me on a path to try to find out more about this.

I did some searching, but came up with no more information other than he did this story. No other stories? No history of this guy who changed the way Americans view retarded and mentally challenged people’s welfare? I would have expected loads of sites heralding his brave plight to uncover the atrocities at Pennhurst.

I did find out that Pennhurst was being used at one point as a haunted house-type attraction, which floored me. Yes, I understand why, but I don’t understand who would let them do such a thing. The place has been abandoned so long that maybe the families of the victims are too old to care, but come on! I don’t consider myself politically correct by any means, but there is a line of taste.

From the other things I have gathered online and TV shows is that anyone can wander around the property. I can imagine that it’s inhabited by delinquents at this point, with all the graffiti spray painted on the walls.

I have found a movie that I intend on watching called Pennhurst, so I will report back on whether it was worth it.