This Week In Dust

In 1962, Dr. Hans Unger recorded a rare three-LP set of interviews with patients at the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, capturing unfiltered conversations about isolation, delusion, faith, and resilience. Drawing from these recordings, newspaper clippings, and the asylum’s history, we revisit the voices he preserved — and the haunting events that followed. Based on original research from the...

In February 1947, 17-year-old Rita Bouchard was found brutally murdered near the Ten Mile River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Drawing from forgotten police reports, newspaper accounts, and institutional records, we revisit the baffling contradictions in the investigation, the strange confession of a former Ladd School inmate, and the enduring mystery marked only by a scarred tree along a bike path....

This episode explores the real letters of three women — Evelyn, Cora, and Dorothy — committed to the Exeter School (later known as the Ladd School) in the 1920s and 30s. Their words reveal a harrowing reality: forced sterilization, denied correspondence, institutional confinement, and lives governed by eugenic ideology. Drawing from Exeter Girls: Letters from a Feeble-Minded School , we examine ho...

Who was Dr. Joseph Ladd — the man whose name still defines Rhode Island’s most infamous institution? In this episode, we explore his life, his shifting beliefs, and the contradictions at the heart of early 20th-century institutional care, including his advocacy for eugenics. Music: "Endless Nightmare" by Oliver Garcia, licensed via MotionArray. Errata: Dr. Ladd established the Exeter Sch...

In October 1942, a string of devastating arsons shook Providence, Rhode Island — including the destruction of the Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. This episode examines a forgotten newspaper report detailing the arrest of Donald Bennett, a 23-year-old former resident of the Ladd School, and the deeper questions his case raised about institutional failure, public safety, and how society defin...

This episode examines documented methods of punishment used at the Exeter School - later known as the Ladd School - in early 20th century Rhode Island. Drawing from archival incident reports, we explore forms of discipline ranging from forced labor and isolation to corporal punishment and psychological humiliation. Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives. Mu...