Fernald School Pt. 1

They called them the "ghost girls" – young women who glowed in the dark after painting watches with radium. The company told them it was safe. They knew it wasn't. When the women started dying, the cover-up began: forged reports, fake doctors, lies on death certificates. The cons ...  Show more

We’ve all heard the story of John Wilkes Booth firing a bullet in Ford’s Theater… but maybe you haven’t heard the theory he was a puppet, with his strings pulled by a much bigger organization. In the 1800s, a massively popular story circulated that the Jesuit Order orchestrated t ...  Show more

Until 1975, children with disabilities in the U.S. weren't guaranteed the right to a public education. The ruling in Brown v. Board sparked a series of cases related to children who had been segregated or restricted from schools based on disabilities.

Inspired by a 1965 horror film called The Collector, Robert Berdella harbored dark fantasies about abuse and control. As a college student, he acted out his sadism on animals, and later, in the early ‘80s, on a teenager named Jerry Howell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...  Show more

Before he was even five years old, Richard Biegenwald was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After more than a decade in institutions and reform schools, he finally got the freedom he longed for. But once out in the world, he reverted to old habits and destructive behavior. Learn more ...  Show more

Built in the early 20th century, this mental institution for children was founded on the flawed principles of eugenics. The poor hygiene, abuse, and suffering that children endured there left a permanent scar on what remains of this New York facility. Learn more about your ad cho ...  Show more