Citing ‘Federal Restrictions’, Dilapidated Facility To Remain Standing
In a last-second reprieve, the county board of directors’ efforts to raze the troublesome Newcastle Sanitarium for the Criminally Insane was dealt another setback, as the Governor put the move on hold. Citing ‘Federal restrictions’, the Governor would say only that the facility, notorious for the way it treated the mentally ill, will remain as it has since it’s closure in 1944: Crumbling, and off limits.
“We can’t understand this,” state representative Ellen Dryden told the Gazette. “Newcastle is a blight on the state, and particularly our county. What happened here was horrific and inexcusable, and so is this latest effort to sidestep the will of the people.”
Newcastle was shut down in October, 1944, by order of Governor Thomas E. Dewey. At the time, no reason was given for the facility’s closure, and thanks to its remote location and the postwar economic boom, the sanitarium was largely forgotten. In 1962, a bond proposal was floated to try and restore the site as a medical training outpost for SUNY college students, but the proposal was shot down before it could be brought to a vote. In 1974, with much of the four story structure collapsing, a bipartisan resolution was approved, funding a study to find a way to eliminate the structure, and fill in the basement levels to build a park. Again, the motion was tabled prior to it coming before the legislature for a vote. In 2006, after multiple FOIA requests had been stalled, the first evidence of wrongdoing at the facility was revealed. Proof emerged showing that, as had long been speculated, the US military had sent wounded soldiers to Newcastle, suffering from either physical injuries, mental injuries, or both. The exact number remains unknown. In 2009, a jury awarded the family of PFC Connor Dean Heath $2.1 million after it was shown the private, who had suffered massive head injuries due to friendly fire, had been used as a test subject for drugs that jurors determined eventually resulted in his death. Other cases are pending, as access to paper records from that period are difficult to obtain. At least two survivors’ families have requested the appointment of a special prosecutor to head up an investigation that could take the case all the way to Washington.
“We know terrible things happened there,” said Tim Hodges, of HodgePodge realty, one of the people working to resolve the standoff. “But we’re talking about a large acreage property that could be a community asset, not a breeding ground for ghost stories and an open sore rubbed raw whenever anybody tries to do something.”
Calls to the governor and lieutenant governors’ offices went unanswered, and a spokesperson was not available for comment.
Newcastle Sanitarium for the Criminally Insane was built in the 1920s at the end of Mount Misery Road, just outside the town limits of Far Hollow, Orransburg and Berwick. It was a high security treatment center, housing both state criminal inmates as well as inmates from New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont. On Saturday, October 14th, 1944, Governor Dewey ordered the facility closed “by order of the state.” Since then, state troopers patrol the site and Mount Misery Road is closed every Friday the 13th, as curious fright fans and urban explorers try to gain access. For years, the only photos available were those taken by tree-climbers using telephoto lenses, but with the advent of drones, amateur videographers have been able to give history buffs a closer look—when the drones survive.
“It’s like a Bermuda Triangle for the whirlybirds,” says Craig Crawford, a Berwick resident who’s lost three attempting to survey the site. “You get too low over what’s left of the sanitarium proper? That bird probably isn’t coming back. For whatever reason, that is nasty airspace. It’s easy to see why so many people say the place is haunted. The ghosts of three of my birds and cameras are trapped in there.”
Authorities have to escort those who fill out paperwork onto the site, which they haven’t done since a kidnap case in 2004. Otherwise, it’s a situation of ‘fly at your own risk’. This is a breaking story; check back for updates.
