Haunting the Ladd School
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So we're driving on Main Street in Exeter, Rhode Island. Yep, that's where we are. Usually you expect a Main Street to be full of businesses and buildings, but not this one. No, no, this one is definitely rural. All right, we're passing a huge cemetery on our left right now, but otherwise I don't see anything but trees. Yep. Okay, so just bear to the right up here. Okay. And we can pull over right there by the side of the road.

And we've reached our destination, Ray. All right. I still don't see anything but trees and a huge empty field behind it. Yeah, but this is the place. Not that long ago, those fields were filled with the ruins of a dark and haunted complex, a place where controversial experiments took place on kids, a place with sinister history and missing and murdered children. We've come to Exeter to investigate the haunting of the Lad School.

This is it.

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All right, so we're sitting here staring at an empty field in Exeter, Rhode Island. Yep, we are. Now, the last time we were in Exeter, we were searching for the vampire Mercy Brown. Oh, that's right. That's right, yeah. The town of Exeter was formed in the year 1742. Of course, there were people living here for thousands of years before that, the Narragansett people for one. But after 1742, Exeter became a farming community. It remained mostly quiet ever since.

Exeter made the news back in 1892 when Mercy Brown was pulled from her crypt as a suspected vampire. But since then, the town mostly stayed out of the news. Mostly. Mostly, if not for a controversial facility known as the Ladd School. Originally called the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded, the complex opened as a farm colony in 1908. Now, they based the school on the Templeton Colony, which was an annex of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in Waltham, Massachusetts.

That facility became better known as the Walter E. Fernald State School. All right, wait a minute. Yeah. Well, I looked this up. We explored the Fernald School way back in episode 154. Yeah, we did. Now, we uncovered how that facility in Waltham was experimenting with feeding radioactive bowls of oatmeal to children in the 1940s to test the effects of radiation. Yeah. Those poor boys were human guinea pigs. Yeah, that's right. That was the story.

And I also recall that Dr. Fernald was experimenting with eugenics. He was. And one of the goals was to cleanse society of what he called, quote, defective and inferior genes. His words, not ours. Yes, so very Adolf Hitler of him, right? Right, right. Yeah, yeah. So one of Dr. Fernald's protégés was Dr. Joseph Ladd.

the first superintendent of the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded. Wow, so there's a connection between the Ladd School and its counterpart in Massachusetts. Yeah, absolutely. Like many facilities, there were some good ideas and practices that helped some people, but also a darker side that still haunts us. And now we have an empty field. But it wasn't always empty. No. Here, take a look at this picture.

Wow. There's some huge buildings here. Yeah, right? Now, this one doesn't look like some of the old asylums we've checked out in the past. Some of those look like old college campuses. Right. And this one looks like some modern architecture from the 1970s. It's a five-story building that's round with orange and tan panels between the many windows. Yeah, that would be the John E. Fogarty Hospital. That was added in 1962. Wow.

And they don't make architecture like this anymore for a reason. Because it's ugly? That's the main reason, yeah. It's hideous. It doesn't hold up at all. So in 1916, Ladd changed the name of the facility to the Exeter School because the term feeble-minded was not really in vogue anymore. And in the first half of the 20th century, the school evolved from a place to help those with mental disabilities learn farm work, trades, and to be self-sufficient to

into a facility that was part hospital, part detention center for kids, part boarding school, and a place for some dark ideas and experiments on people referred to as, quote, inmates.

In 1928, the newspapers called this place, quote, dumping grounds for the unwanted. It was overcrowded. It lacked a hospital. By the mid-1900s, it wasn't just people with mental disabilities housed here. I mean, there were unwed mothers, immigrants, criminals, and others who couldn't quite stand up for themselves, making it a dark and dangerous place. So let's head back to 1952 and see this facility in full vigor.

It's December of 1952. Dwight Eisenhower just won the presidential election in November and will be taking office next month. You Belong to Me by Joe Stafford is the number one requested song on the radio right now. But here in Exeter, Rhode Island, folks are unsettled. They are unsettled. People should be ramping up for the holidays, but instead, the Exeter School is getting a lot of unwanted attention.

It sure is. First, some of the views of its superintendent, Dr. Joseph Ladd, are pretty controversial. So true. So just a few years ago, he was quoted in the Providence Journal as saying, and I quote...

Many states have already passed sterilization laws for eugenics purposes, and I hope Rhode Island won't stay behind much longer. Unless something is done to stop the propagation of the mentally deficient, we cannot expect the coming generations to be predominantly viral and sound in mind and body. In that case, a general deterioration of intelligence and the preponderance of inferior stock is inevitable, especially since the trend all along has been for smaller families in the higher grades of the population."

Wow. I mean, who decided what's fit and unfit? Exactly. I mean, it's a slippery slope to eat.

The other reason the Exeter School can't stay out of the news is because a nine-year-old boy went missing back in late September. Gary Heyman suffered an illness when he was just three years old that left him mute, which is how he came to be an inmate at the Exeter School. On September 23rd, he seemed to vanish from his room. At first, they thought maybe he ran away. Search parties formed, and the state police, as well as volunteers from the U.S. Marines, searched for signs of him.

Back on October 10th, the search party made a troubling discovery. Near the banks of the nearby Queens River, they found the shirt, pants, shoes, and socks that belonged to young Gary. Dr. Ladd himself identified the clothing, pointing out the boy's name tag was stitched into the shirt. Now, at that point, the search party believed the chances of finding the young boy alive were pretty slim. Well, slim, but not impossible.

As news of the missing boy spreads in newspapers across the nation, others were gripped by the story and wanted to help. That's when Lady Wonder jumps into the mix with a psychic prediction on where the boy can be found. Okay, so we need to give some context on Lady Wonder. First of all, she's a 27-year-old horse in Richmond, Virginia, who communicates using a crude sort of giant typewriter. Now,

She's been known to make predictions. Gary Heyman's mother read about the horse a few days ago when the horse helped authorities find the body of a missing Massachusetts boy. So Mrs. Heyman called the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper asking if a reporter could go ask Lady Wonder about her son. Reporter Bill McIlwain agreed to go. When McIlwain asked if young Gary was alive, the horse spelled Y-E-S.

The horse then spelled H-U-R-T for hurt. McElwain then asked where the boy could be found, and the horse spelled truck. When he asked where the truck could be found, the horse spelled Kansas. McElwain asked again for confirmation. Once again, the horse spelled Kansas. Thinking maybe this was a kidnapping, Gary's mother asked Rhode Island authorities to pass on information about her son to the police in Kansas. His mother is desperate.

It's now December 1st, 1953. Over a year has passed since Gary Heyman disappeared. Someone reported a strange find out here in the woods of Northern Exeter, so we're checking it out. I can see the police are already here. What is that they've got? They're taking it down. It's a bag that's hanging from the limb of a fir tree. Hmm. Oh, man. I can see that it's a human skull. Oh, my gosh. Are there other bones around? I don't know. I don't see anything. Just the skull.

Back at the Exeter School, the skull is compared to an x-ray taken of Gary Heyman's head just before he disappeared. The police are certain they have a match, confirming the young boy is dead. The rest of his remains are never found. If this was the only strange story to come out of the Exeter School, that would be one thing. But it's not. It's just the most heart-wrenching and gruesome. There's other stories of patient neglect, mistreatment, and even murder. And that brings us back to today.

In 1956, Dr. John Smith from Connecticut was chosen to replace Dr. Ladd. In 1958, he renamed the institution the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School. They built that ugly hospital building we mentioned earlier. A PR campaign then tried to change the hearts and minds of the public, but employees and patients continued to raise alarms about what's going on inside. In 1977, a state-appointed investigation found an assortment of health violations in the

By the 1980s, the U.S. government's deinstitutionalization shut down pretty much every facility like the Ladd School. The facility closed for good in 1986. Now, many buildings sat out here abandoned and falling into ruin. Urban explorers had their way with the structures and reports of ghosts leaked all over the Internet.

These were the ruins of buildings with secrets. In the early 2000s, the buildings were razed one by one. The final four were brought down in 2013. Now today, there's nothing left but a large empty field. Now we should also mention that just down the street from the massive cemetery across the street from us is Rhode Island Historical Cemetery number 35. It's in this small patch of land. 84 people who died at the Ladd School are buried there.

Now, keep in mind, the 84 burials only represent bodies who either weren't claimed by families to be buried elsewhere or who couldn't afford burials anywhere else. Now, when I grew up going to church, I remember one of the hymns they used to sing on the regular. The chorus goes, Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me. I never forgot those lines. I believe a society is judged by how we take care of those of us most in need. If that's the case, then the story behind the Ladd School is...

should haunt us. And it will. And that brings us to After the Legend, where we take a deeper dive into this week's story and sometimes veer off course. After the Legends, brought to you by our Patreon patrons. Our patrons are the inner circle, and we couldn't do what we do without them. We're grateful to everyone who signs up to help out. Our patrons get early ad-free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear or see. They also get discounts on merch and tickets, all for just three bucks per month.

It's like buying me and Ray a coffee that we have to split. To sign up, please head over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends or click on the link in our episode description. And to see some historic pictures of the old lad school, click on the link in our episode description or go to our website and click on episode 376.

It's just a sad story. It is such a sad, and I'd love to tell you that's the only tragic one. That one sticks out the most. There was another kid who disappeared. There were murders that happened inside. The whole thing was a mess. And in hindsight, you can figure out why, right? So it starts as like, just like so many facilities, let's have a place to take care of people that need help. And they'll farm, they'll be self-sufficient, there'll be problems here and there, but we'll just sort of deal with them and treat them like human beings. And it worked and it was good and all that.

But then it suddenly becomes a place to fit everyone that doesn't fit elsewhere. Well, this kid doesn't belong in prison because he hasn't really committed any crimes. Where are we going to put him? But he's troublesome. Throw him there. You know, Exeter School or Ladd School, whatever. You know, here's...

you've got people committing their wives, right? For just because you used to be able to do that, you know? And so suddenly you can't divorce her. Yeah. Women who got pregnant out of wedlock are suddenly here with, with criminals, you know, who like didn't quite fit into the prison system and with people that need true, you know, extra help just to do day to day stuff. And,

And so you suddenly had basically everyone who was unwanted, and then you underfunded it. And what can you expect to happen other than an absolute nightmare? Right. And they don't know a lot about mental illness at that time. Well, right. Everything's a guessing game. And so you're trying to deal with a certain population that has mental illness, certain population that's just like...

today we would say on the spectrum or has developmental disabilities that just need regular help. Like, Hey, just pregnant. Yeah. And then, and then you've got pregnant people that need help with that. And you've got criminals that make you scared all the time. Sure. And, and not everyone's on the same playing field. No. And suddenly if you work there, they all look alike. Don't they? Like, wait, which one of you is the criminal? Which one of you just needs help eating dinner? Right. Which one of you, you know, just needs help getting through a pregnancy. Right.

I forget and it's tough to keep track and I'm scared. So they're all treated the same, which in some cases is, or all cases poorly. You're in the same place anyway. Yeah. And that's a tough break, man. So I remember a long time ago, I had the chance to investigate the lad school before they turned it down, tore it down. I regret, like I couldn't, can't tell you not going, but here was what happened.

So a movie came out in, oh God, 2015, and it was called Exeter. In the UK, it was called Asylum. It was not a huge, but it was a horror movie. And the horror movie was- Is it based on this? Yes. Oh, nice. It was filmed there too. Oh, wow. And that really blew the, they had to tear the buildings down after that. Yeah. So the fictional story was they were trying to renovate these buildings and

but it was so haunted. And then they were pulling from real stuff from like the lad's history, you know, lad school's history. And so that was sort of like the fictional tale. They were trying to renovate it. It stirred everything up. They couldn't,

And then they were so scared and the horror ensued, right? That was the gist of the story. Spoilers. Based on a true story, too. Based on a true story. I'm going to look this up as you're talking. Well, some of it was, right? So, yeah, it was called Exeter, the film. But by the time the film came out, I think they'd already finished taking down the rest of the buildings.

I had a paranormal investigator friend who was friends with one of the security guards because by the end, they had to have security there 24-7 because urban explorers and everybody else was always trying to break in.

And so my friend said, look, my security guard buddy will let us inside to investigate, but we can never talk about it. We can never post it. If we find anything, we can't post it anywhere. We can't. And I'm like, oh, well, so we are trespassing. We're just trespassing with permission of the security guard, which I'm against. I'll say it right now. Like I'm against trespassing when it comes to like doing paranormal stuff. It's not that important to get in trouble. Right. Yeah.

Ask permission. Or to upset somebody. Yeah. Ask permission. And if you get granted permission. And then the other thing, like, what if I found like the Holy Grail, you know, like, and I can't share it? Right. Where is this? Years and years of court. It's someplace, you know? And so I was like, oh, well, at the time I remember just being like, well, I don't want to trespass. And two, if I find something cool, I can't share it. So what good is that? What's the point of going? Right.

And I didn't go. And now the buildings are gone and all you can see is a giant empty field. So live and learn. Stephen Lang's in that, who is one of the guys from Avatar. Oh. You might recognize him. So he's a real actor. Oh, he's a real actor. More of a B-list, you know, so it's obviously an indie horror movie. Yeah, it was not like a big budget thing. He's one of those guys that's like, we can't get De Niro. Well, you can get De Niro for anything these days. Wow. Yeah.

Well, he goes straight to video on all of his movies now. De Niro? Oh, yeah. Think he'd do a voice for us? One of our podcasts? He might be hard up for the money. All right. It's not like getting Denzel. It's like, well, let's get Stephen Lang then. Yeah. Because he's cheap. Well, there you go. But I'll have to watch that. I'm always looking for new movies. Put it on the list. So the Lad School is one of those, everyone in Rhode Island knows it. They remember hearing the stories because those ruins were so prominent. Yeah.

And that building is so, I can't stress how ugly. Go to our website. We have a picture of it. It's just, I mean, it's ripped right out of the Brady Bunch. Like the architecture of the 60s and 70s does not hold up. There was a lot of drugs back then. It's just perfectly round circle building with the orange and the tan. I can picture it. Absolutely. Without even seeing the picture, I can picture that. You're just like, oh, you know, it's ugly. It's like that shag carpet in the wallpaper. If shag carpet was a building...

It would be this hospital building. And yeah, you just look at it and you're like, oh gosh, if that was anywhere today, you'd be like, tear it down. That is just, that doesn't deserve to live. And what a violent crime we told in this story. Yeah, so really troubling. The skeleton was never found, the rest of the body. Obviously this kid was abducted and murdered

brutally murdered. And then to put the head in a bag. Yeah. And in a tree. We're talking like to be found. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's right there at eye level. Yeah. That's not, that's, we're talking about something, we're serious psychosis. Yeah. You know, this is somebody that belongs in a institution like that. Right. So yeah, we're talking about something really, really dark and awful. And, um,

Was that in the movie too? Was this coming in the movie? I didn't see the movie. I'll watch it today. Yeah. And I'll report back. Okay. Yeah. But, but, um, but so, so, so troubling. Uh, there was a book written about, I forget the title, forgive me, but, but it would mention like the bones of Gary Heyman and, and, um, uh, yeah. And then there was another girl too. And that's a whole other story. We just didn't cover it. Um, but yeah, that's the kind of thing where you're just like,

And whoever did it got away with it. And that's the other thing. Right. Right? Scary that that person was still walking among us. The only thing worse than what happened is that the person got away with it. Yeah. And may have done it to other people. Right. Right. Who knows? And, you know, for all we know, probably someone in the school. Right. Right? Who knew Gary. Right.

Right. Well, it would have to be, right? I mean, unless he was on the ground. To lure him out and say, hey, let's go for a walk. Yeah. And then do this horrible thing. Oof. And then go back. And like nothing happened. Well, that's how they were treated back then. Like non-people. Yeah. Non-human. So terrible. I remember working on a Ghost Adventures episode way back, Pennhurst School, right outside of Philadelphia. Yeah.

talking to one of the doctors about the atrocities. And by the way, I mean, people kept in dog kennels, tied to beds so they couldn't get up, just awful, awful conditions. You would never, like no human being should be treated like that. Prisoners, like prisoners that did horrible, horrible things would never be treated like this. And these were human beings that were just needed help. And I remember the doctor said, that I interviewed, he said,

as soon as you think of a group of people as someone less than yourself, there's no limit to how bad you can treat them. Oh, absolutely. And you just go, oh, God. And this is the world we're in now, right? When people are saying, oh, you're a Democrat? You're less than. You're a Republican? You're less than. You're whatever, right? Like any group you choose to put people in, suddenly when you think of them as less than,

this is troubling. And all you have to do is go to Facebook to see the proof, the way people talk to each other. Don't take our word for it. Jump on social media and say, or you could say anything. And somebody is going to say, Oh, of course from a Biden fan or women. That wasn't what I was talking about. My lunch. That's it. I took a picture of my, my macaroni and cheese. Or how did that become political? Oh, you're a Trump voter. Like, yeah, it's suddenly like everything is, everything is, is so polarized. Yeah. And, um, uh,

And hey, when we're divided, it's pretty easy to take advantage of us. Just saying. Watch your back, everybody. And please be careful out there. And I do think even though the building's gone, it's important that we still talk about places like the Ladd School.

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I am Christopher Titus of the Titus Podcast. I am Rachel. And I'm Ken Highland, a.k.a. The Highlander. When the rest of the world is screaming insanity, we scream sanity. We do a satire, comedy, news and events podcast. First and foremost, funny first. Whatever's happening in the world, if you want to hear it in a way that doesn't rip your soul out, we'll make you laugh with it. At the end of the day, we just scream sanity. That's what we do. Can't we just talk sanity? No, you have to scream sanity so nobody's going to hear it. So tired of you guys screaming. I talk stupidity. Well, that's true.

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In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right. In the Navajo Nation today, a third of our households don't have running water. But that's not something they chose for themselves. Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water and contend with the government's legacy of control and neglect? Our water, our future. Our water, our future.

That's in the next season of Reclaimed, the lifeblood of Navajo Nation. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.