A Mental Institution for Lizzie?

snokkums · Post by **snokkums** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:21 am

I got to thinking after reading and taking Harry's poll, "What shall we do about Lizzie?"

Question was: "If found quilty what should Lizzies' penalty be? One of the choices was commitment to a mental instituiton. well, that's got me to thinking: Maye she needed to be commited to an institution.

You'd have to be alittle crazy to be that brutal. and, from what I understand, to commit that brutal of a crime towards your parents, it usually means there was some kind of abuse. If she did do it, it would be be interesting to find out why she did. I hae always thought she might have be abused from someone in the family.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:26 am

I beleive the Taunton State Hospital would have been her fate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taunton_State_Hospital

http://www.fallout-ue.com/locations/tsh/

kssunflower · Post by **kssunflower** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:30 pm

Richard, that looks like a good place for TAPS (Ghost Hunters) to pay a visit to!

snokkums · Post by **snokkums** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:43 am

I know! Gives me the same feeling. The building gives me the creeps!

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 8:00 pm

Good idea, kssunflower! You should send it in to them. Oh, wait ... A while back there was a fire in the old part. I don't know how much is left of it now.

Lizzie would have been hanged if she were found guilty. The electric chair was invented by then. I used to wonder if she'd have been given that, but the press of the day, and I think in the trial material it says she'd be hung.

I wonder, if she were found insane, if she would have been put in a private, cushy sanitarium. But I don't think Taunton's hospital was bad.

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:33 pm

Somewhere here on the forum we had a very long thread about the old Taunton Lunatic Asylum. Some of the Victorian buildings are still in existence
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylu ... index.html

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:28 pm

Yes, Shelley. I think it was 'Audrey Martin' who posted a news article on the fire out there.

I was there some time before the fire (as a tourist, not a patient

) and it was really interesting. The big, what I look at as the 'main part' with the domed ceilng was still there, with a black fence around it. The grounds were beautiful, tho the grass was not cut recently. There was a cement bench I sat on on the side of the roadway, and I remember wondering if it was an old bench and served as a respite for patients of the past. There were some other old things there that I would have loved to know what they used to be.

There was a "newer" apartment-like building that housed offices and, I think, patients that are there today. That place would benefit from an informational brochure. I was intrigued by it.

Thanks for the link.

I'll come back later and follow it.