WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum

This is the last episode of season 2, and we are going to introduce you to some people in upstate New York, partially inspired by what they heard on this podcast, who are doing the hard, sometimes tedious work, of unlocking the information to tell the stories of those buried in an unmarked graveyard in their community. They are partnering with this podcast to tell the stories of some of those indi...

Jane Johnson is a pretty common name. So common in fact that there are two people buried on the asylum grounds with that name.

Prudence Parkinson Kincade’s story was a mystery to her descendants until they discovered that she was buried at the Athens Asylum and reached out to us to help put some of the pieces together. We learned that Kincade was institutionalized for approximately 25 years and was part of a high profile transfer of what the newspapers called “lunatic and imbecile inmates” to the Athens Asylum in 1904.

Sometimes people ended up at the Athens Asylum because none of the other ways society dealt with those who were deemed difficult seemed to work. James Douglas and William Black appear to be two of those people. We also talk with Nora Steele about her research into an Asylum Newspaper and the inmates who wrote stories for it.

According to the Old Athens Lunatic Asylum gravebook, there were three babies who died at the Asylum and weren’t claimed by their families. One of them who was buried in the Asylum cemeteries was a baby girl who is only identified as a baby with her mother’s last name. Cheri and Doug, along with Ohio University Professor Emeritus of Social Medicine Jackie Wolf talk about what might have happened t...

Amanda Smith and Levi Mercer are connected by more than just the fact that they both are buried in cemetery 1 of the Old Athens Lunatic Asylum. They are also connected by blood, as the two were father and daughter. Amanda and Levi were both institutionalized at different times. Levi was admitted to the Asylum seven years after his daughter, Amanda, died there. We don’t know if he knew that his dau...

As we begin season 2 of the WHO Lies Beneath podcast, Cheri and Doug look at the history of the Athens Asylum and what was originally intended for the patients who were housed there versus the reality of what happened. Experts talk about other similar cemeteries in Ohio and how the stigma and labeling of those with mental illness led to unmarked burials in Ohio and across the nation. We also previ...

In this final episode of “WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum” Season 1, Cheri Russo and Doug McCabe look ahead to the stories they hope to tell in Season 2. They answer listener questions and read messages from listeners about their relatives who are buried in the Athens Asylum cemeteries. They also talk about two other institutions with unmarked graves that they plan to learn about and then tell the st...

With the help of voice-actor Karen Chan, Alice Mayle tells her life story. Mayle was buried in the Asylum cemeteries in 1929. Alice’s committal records are missing from the archives, but one of her descendants was able to fill in the pieces of Alice’s life. It’s a story of marriage, adultery and contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which eventually led to her time at the asylum. We hear fro...

With the help of voice-actors Tom Hodson, Chad Kopenski and Lynn Shaw - John T. O’Donnell, James Hardy and Arthur D. James tell their own life stories. The three men had different life experiences, some criminal in nature, but all experienced violence and trauma in their lives before they were admitted to the asylum. We talk with Paul LaRue, a retired social studies teacher who has conducted resea...

With the help of voice-actors Lou Horvath, Jessica Makosky and Liz Shaw - Robert Barlow, Alexandra Nation and Anna McKee tell their own life stories. They talk about the mysteries surrounding how they ended up at the old Athens Lunatic Asylum and in Barlow’s case, the mystery of what happened to his body after he died. He’s not buried in the Asylum cemeteries. We’d love to hear from you and see if...

With the help of voice-actors Roger Jones and Dan Hauser, Eli Stevens and Israel Johnson tell their own life stories and how the two Civil War veterans, one who fought for the Confederacy and the other who was an African American soldier who fought with the Union, ended up buried right next to each other under numbered tombstones on the grounds of the old Athens Lunatic Asylum. Have a story about...

With the help of voice-actor Chad Kopenski, Adam Kern tells his own story as a German immigrant who came to America and then fought in the Civil War. He became a patient at the old Athens Lunatic Asylum in 1874. Kern was 61 years old when he died and was buried under grave 251. We will hear from Kern’s descendants who found closure after tracking down a missing piece of their family line and worke...

With the help of voice-actor Jan Hodson, Viola Rapp tells her own story as a young mother in the late 1920s when she admitted to The Old Athens Lunatic Asylum. Rapp was likely placed in the Asylum after suffering from postpartum depression. Her story is one that started with childhood tragedy and the continuation of tragedy into adulthood which eventually lead to her time at the asylum. Cheri Russ...

In this episode, Cheri Russo and Doug McCabe talk about why people who died at the old Athens Lunatic Asylum and other institutions across the country, and were not claimed by their families, were buried under numbered tombstones with no names or dates on them. They also discuss how McCabe, a retired library archivist, conducted years of research to connect the numbers with names and create a data...

Welcome to WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum. This podcast is about restoring dignity and respect by giving a voice to the voiceless. On the old Athens Lunatic Asylum grounds in southeast Ohio, you’ll find tremendous beauty. There are regal buildings overlooking town, and the sprawling grounds originally had a park-like setting, with gorgeous ponds, gardens, and fountains - the beauty in stark contrast...