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Waverley Hills Sanatorium: The Plague of White Death · Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast

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Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Where we are across
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Speaker 1: the country and around the world. You are listening to
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Speaker 1: the Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast. I'm indeed
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Speaker 1: your host, Joe the Ghost Guy. I hope everyone had
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Speaker 1: a wonderful holiday weekend being Easter, and hope you got
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Speaker 1: to do a lot of things with your family and
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Speaker 1: friends and maybe go to a Easter egg hunt with
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Speaker 1: your little ones and chere a mom as a you know,
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Speaker 1: get for you know, get the Easter eggs and as
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Speaker 1: many as you can. And my niece was in one
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Speaker 1: and she did pretty good. She was a little frustrated herself. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it was pretty good. She was trying to get her
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Speaker 1: favorite colors blue, and she was trying to get every
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Speaker 1: blue egg she could fight. And one day or one
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Speaker 1: little kid came up and started using his Easter bake
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Speaker 1: basket like a bulldozer, you know, doing all eggs you can.
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Speaker 1: But it was all for fun, and she did pretty good.
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Speaker 1: And hopeing you, most of you that believe in Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ be able to enjoy the whole day that was
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Speaker 1: typically celebrated after his resurrection, and hope you guys had
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Speaker 1: one full service is where we where. It's been a
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Speaker 1: pretty good week. I mean for me, you know, take
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Speaker 1: care of my wife and helping my parents run the
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Speaker 1: farm here and it's it's pretty good. Just a lot
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Speaker 1: of things to do. Sorr. It's been a while since
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Speaker 1: I last you know, came up on the air, but
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Speaker 1: today it was seemed to be a pretty good day.
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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna copy dim as they say, and enjoy
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Speaker 1: the moment and give you guys a wonderful story. So
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Speaker 1: in that case, let's sick back, relax, turn lights, draw
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Speaker 1: down the curtains till it's really dark as it's time
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Speaker 1: for lights everybody. That's today's story will take you to Louisville, Kentucky,
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Speaker 1: as we talked to talk with a about a certain hospital.
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Speaker 1: It's called the Waverly Hills Sanitarium. In the sanitarium also
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Speaker 1: is known for the plague a white death Raverley Hills
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Speaker 1: Sanitarium non officially as a hospital that cured for tu
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Speaker 1: Berkeley Ox's patients, although the building was such more verified
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Speaker 1: and varied history. It is located in the quiet, the
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Speaker 1: quaint hills of Waverley Hills neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. The
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Speaker 1: building is now tucked into a burlic setting in the
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Speaker 1: Bluegrass Date. But times were not always so peaceful. In
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Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, the Jefferson County portion of Kentucky
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Speaker 1: was ravaged by an outbreak of turberkeluosis, known then by
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Speaker 1: the Unsettling Moniker. The white death. Tubercleosis, or simply TB,
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Speaker 1: was a serious infectious disease that mainly infected the lungs.
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Speaker 1: The bacteria that has caused the caused tuberculosis was spread
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Speaker 1: from person to person tightly dropolets released into the air
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Speaker 1: when the effected coughed or sneezed. Dis plagued prompt the
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Speaker 1: reproposing of the facility, which opened in nineteen ten as
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Speaker 1: a school, though transformed into a two story hospital in
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Speaker 1: order to accommodate forty to fifty tuberculosis patients. Tuberkeleosi's patients
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Speaker 1: were originally housing tents on the grounds of the Weverley Hills.
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Speaker 1: Completion of the hospital for their advanced cases nineteen twelve,
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Speaker 1: this this new hospital opened and treated advanced cases of
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Speaker 1: TB admittering, omitting another forty patients. In nineteen fourteen, a
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Speaker 1: children's pavilion added another fifty beds, bringing the patient total
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Speaker 1: to around one hundred and fifty I'm sorry, one hundred
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Speaker 1: and thirty. Sadly, this new children's provision was not up
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Speaker 1: for treatment of a children effectively tuberclosis, who also was
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Speaker 1: cared for the children of tuberclar's patients who could have
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Speaker 1: not cared for them an assistance. Whevery Hills was a
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Speaker 1: crucial care hospital and orphanage. It is out of this environment,
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Speaker 1: out of the sickness and sadness, loss of poverty, that
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Speaker 1: the ghosts who linger still are emerged into the very
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Speaker 1: fabric of Weverly Hills is as these ghosts that we
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Speaker 1: see today. Death is a constant presence in the sanitarium.
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Speaker 1: The only comfort these patients may receive, in comfort that
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Speaker 1: mean patients would receive. It is these souls that still
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Speaker 1: manifest within these walls. Because the death was prevent occurrence,
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Speaker 1: steps were taken to attempt that other patients will not
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Speaker 1: see the continual remove all the bodies of the hospital
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Speaker 1: and their Indigenous hole or Indigenous tunnel was built to
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Speaker 1: serve as passageway to the transport of bodies and out
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Speaker 1: of the sanitarium. The corridor is five hundred feet to
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Speaker 1: the bottom of the hill and a set of stairs
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Speaker 1: on one side, which were the stairs used for the orderlies.
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Speaker 1: On the other side, there was a cart that moved
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Speaker 1: up and down the staircase which transported the bodies. This
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Speaker 1: tunnel would become known among the sanitarium employees as the
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Speaker 1: Body Shoot or death tunnel. Making light of the situation
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Speaker 1: sometimes removes the steam. In reality, however, this tunnel as
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Speaker 1: feared by the living, a haunting reminder of the thin
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Speaker 1: line between life and death. Even now, reports of ghosts
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Speaker 1: still inimate from the tunnel. Indeed, some investigators referred to
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Speaker 1: the Death Shoot as a paranormal hotspot. Within the depths
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Speaker 1: of the tunnel, shadowing figureers have seen, witnessed their dark presence,
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Speaker 1: conjugating in its shadows and manifests in as full body
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Speaker 1: apparitions possibility. Residential miners a few nearly countless individuals who
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Speaker 1: made their last journey from the sanitarium along this tunnel.
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Speaker 1: It is said that the height of the tuberculous epidemic,
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Speaker 1: one person per hour died within the sanitarium. Even by
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Speaker 1: late nineteen thirties, a decade after the outbreak of TV began,
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Speaker 1: berkeleosis was still leaning cause of death in Kentucky. In fact,
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Speaker 1: Kentucky led the nation to berkelosis deaths. Some two thousand
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Speaker 1: people a year were dying at tuberclosis in the state
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Speaker 1: even after sanitariums such as Weverly Hills were established. It
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Speaker 1: is from the massive amount of lives lost that unexplained
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Speaker 1: footsteps have been heard echoing from within the space, as
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Speaker 1: well as disembodied voices many screams of for light. These
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Speaker 1: ghosts are tenuous witnesses for the unrecognizing torments of tuberculosis
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Speaker 1: that occurred within these walls. Weaverly Hill Sanitarium attempted to
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Speaker 1: treat its patients holsthetically, following exposure to sunlight, proper bed rest,
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Speaker 1: healthy foods, and keeping breezeways open to lout for fresh air.
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Speaker 1: Some cases were more problematic, and many barbaric attempts as
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Speaker 1: situations to tubercliosis were attempted on many patients. Most and
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Speaker 1: famous of these operations was known as artificial a pneumoniac
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Speaker 1: a pneumonia acts, which involved propelling air into each of
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Speaker 1: the lungs itself or the cavity between the lungs In
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Speaker 1: order to artificially collapse the disease portion of the lung
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Speaker 1: and hope that the lung would rest, theoretically allowing the
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Speaker 1: lesions caused by tubocliosis to heal. Amazingly, many patients did
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Speaker 1: survive this procedure, but those of whom the procedure was
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Speaker 1: less effective had died a slow and agonizing death. Their
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Speaker 1: final days were restricted in various postures, which was laying
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Speaker 1: on the side most efficient by allegians and astracting the
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Speaker 1: movement of the disease lung with puncture, posture and gravity,
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Speaker 1: and the hope that patient's life would be prolonged. Another
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Speaker 1: commonplace surgery for treatment of tuberculosis was something called thorough
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Speaker 1: ocuput thorough achoplasty. There are akoblasti and some see these,
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Speaker 1: say these things a lot while and try to do
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Speaker 1: this near medical degree on this one, which revolved a
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Speaker 1: removal of multiple ribs within attention of collapsing the lung.
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Speaker 1: While doctors preferred to only remove two or three ribs
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Speaker 1: at a time, most patients required as many as eight
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Speaker 1: removed by this technique and to be effective, meaning they
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Speaker 1: had to endure multiple painful surgeries. Of course, many of
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Speaker 1: these surgeries ended up in death of a patient. Many
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Speaker 1: ghosts who have yet to crossover scrambled to the operations
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Speaker 1: and attempt to save them while under anesthesia. It is
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Speaker 1: possible for these phantoms not to realize that they're for
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Speaker 1: prepostural body has died and no longer in hope that
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Speaker 1: the cure have been discovered along them to lead the
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Speaker 1: confined discovered along then to leave the confines of the sanitarium,
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Speaker 1: as local legends could contend. The most haunted location in
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Speaker 1: the entirety of the Way where the Hills Facility, is
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Speaker 1: a notorious fifth floor. It is said that this floor,
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Speaker 1: patients mental illness were housed and treated more as inmates
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Speaker 1: than as patients. This floor, particularly room five h two,
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Speaker 1: is the center of much of the ghost story surrounding
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Speaker 1: the sanitarium. Visitors have claimed to have seen shapes moving
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Speaker 1: around the windows, doreing voices, yell yelling at them, saying,
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Speaker 1: and some claim to have fisically pushed or shoved off
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Speaker 1: this floor. More supernatural claims, although unverified, have suggested some
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Speaker 1: visitors have seen so overcome by the influx of ghosts
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Speaker 1: on this floor that they have accidentally jumped to their death.
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Speaker 1: To avoid the torment of these Of what is known
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Speaker 1: that is, a legend claims that the way back in
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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, a nurse was found in room five
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Speaker 1: out two, having hung herself from the light fixture. Another nurse,
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Speaker 1: who worked in five Out two in nineteen thirty two
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Speaker 1: is said to have thrown herself off the roof patio
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Speaker 1: onto the ground below, which is also known as Some
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Speaker 1: visitors have indeed fault compelled to jump from the window
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Speaker 1: of this room, even the point of having to be
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Speaker 1: talked down by others before coming to their senses where
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Speaker 1: they possessed or simply overwhelmed by these surroundings just another
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Speaker 1: mystery within these walls of the sanitarium, there are more
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Speaker 1: to the fifth floor than just suicidal alterations. A ghostly
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Speaker 1: boy named Timmy is said to see wandering these halls
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Speaker 1: a corner to the corner to the stories, Timmy moves
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Speaker 1: throughout the space of the hospital, either playing with his
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Speaker 1: own ball or seeking something else to play with. Some
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Speaker 1: guests have reported bringing balls of their own for Timmy,
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Speaker 1: only to subsequently see them the same balls floating down
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Speaker 1: the halls, carried by an invisible hand. If there is
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Speaker 1: indeed a young boy hunting the space. He may have
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Speaker 1: been an orphan and in this life who had died
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Speaker 1: before reuniting with the sick parents. Perhaps he waits for them,
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Speaker 1: helping them. One day he be reunited with his family.
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Speaker 1: One notable apparition was known as the creeper. This dark
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Speaker 1: entity was seen crawling up around the halls, ceilings, and
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Speaker 1: floors of the billing. Is said that if you come
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Speaker 1: in close contact with the creeper, you'll be overwhelmed, a
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Speaker 1: suffocai filid of dread. What is the creeper? Some have
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Speaker 1: suggested that as a re residual energy of a patient
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Speaker 1: who underwent experimental surgery, his body contorted by the operation
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Speaker 1: that left him mangled mess Some investigators suggested a demon
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Speaker 1: drawn to the raw emotions that have drained the energy
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Speaker 1: of this place, which have been eventually that feeds on
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Speaker 1: despair and fear. Whoever the creeper is, it is best
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Speaker 1: to avoid it. Have been, and now you have been worn.
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Speaker 1: With the introduction of stemphomyasin in nineteen forty three, the
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Speaker 1: number of tuberclaros patients and causes gradually decline until they
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Speaker 1: were no longer a pracalal need for such a large hospital.
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Speaker 1: The remaining patients were sent in another facility and Waverley
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Speaker 1: Hills closed in June nineteen sixty one. However, a year later,
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Speaker 1: Beverly Hills was reopened in nineteen sixty two under a
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Speaker 1: name of wood Haven Generatic Center, a nursing home primarily
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Speaker 1: training Asian patients with various stages of dementia. This facility
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Speaker 1: also took a severity mentally handicapped. Reports were rapped in
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Speaker 1: a patient abuse and tails were told that elderly being
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Speaker 1: chained up to their beds. In fact, a ghost of
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Speaker 1: an elderly lady, her tarso on hands boundman chains is
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Speaker 1: claimed to mediate from this history of the building. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: Wouldhaven have closed by the state in Kentucky in nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty two for patient neglect. This building had a long
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Speaker 1: and storied history of pain and suffering. Even after no
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Speaker 1: longer a sanitarium is out of this human misery that
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Speaker 1: the ghosts were spawned. Waverley Hills considered one of the
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Speaker 1: worst haunted or one of the most haunted locations in
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Speaker 1: the United States. Every Day visitors reported that apparitions of
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Speaker 1: death and suffering, including ghostly adherents, even seen dropping off
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Speaker 1: coffins at the back of the building, a phantom of
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Speaker 1: a woman with bleeding wrists banging for help, a man
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Speaker 1: in a white coat, even wandering around the kitchen. This
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Speaker 1: building may could never truly rest in peace. Too many
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Speaker 1: lives were ended on this roof, and too much sorrow
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Speaker 1: occurred when simply to be forgotten in the passage of time.
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Speaker 1: Waverley Hills stands as a monument to those people who
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Speaker 1: lost their lives to the epidemic and to those who
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Speaker 1: were forgotten to wish themselves known even in death. Well, folks,
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Speaker 1: that's one crazy hospital. You know. That would be one
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Speaker 1: place that you like to go to if you end
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Speaker 1: up going to Louisville, Kentucky and check it out. And
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Speaker 1: I think I heard on another podcast that the person
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Speaker 1: that owns the place he's been trying to renovate it
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Speaker 1: to where it was and you know, it was abandoned
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Speaker 1: for quite a while and one guy ended up buying
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Speaker 1: it and he's trying to restore it. If you want to,
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Speaker 1: there's a website if you want to book a tour,
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Speaker 1: go with Darby City Ghosts in Louisville, and I'm sure
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Speaker 1: that'll give you something, and uh, we're going to the website,
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Speaker 1: the real whereverthheels dot com and hopefully that'll show you.
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Speaker 1: But hope everyone liked the story and see where we
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Speaker 1: could go next on the next episode of Ghost Stories
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Speaker 1: and the Unusual Paranormal podcast. And this has been your host,
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Speaker 1: Joe the Ghost Guy, signing off audios. My friends, stay safe.