On Leeches, Lust and Lunacy here in Good Olde New Yawk!
American Journalist, Nellie Bly a pseudonym for Elizabeth Chohran (1864-1922), was only 23 years old when she took her first assignment from Joseph Pulitzer of The New York World. Nellie Bly feigned insanity to expose rampant rumors of horrific treatment &conditions of female patients sent to recover in “The Asylum” on Blackwell Island. Well, Bly got herself commited easily, was diagnosed with dementia praecox, that’s schizophrenia and delusional disorders; labeled a lunatic at Bellevue Hospital as the moon certainly had to have something to do with insanity, right? She was transferred quickly over to Blackwell Asylum. She was with 1600 other poor, physically sick, immigrants, mentally stressed woman being tortured, froand that no doubt would suffer long term trauma from this horrific institution. New York’s poor and unwell, with no support, or defiant women sent there to rest by family, were forced onto Blackwell’s Island, where conditions were deplorable, with beatings, torture, experimentation, spoiled food, hung in chains, and she survived to expose what the heck went down in this now landmarked NYC spooky ruin on Blackwell Island. Bly was a pioneer in investigative journalism in a male dominated industry. She investigated, experienced and lived to report on the horrific torture, freezing conditions, abusive treatment, unsanitary conditions, brutality and neglect at the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell Island. In 1887 Bly wrote Island of Lost Souls: A History of Madness and Medicine on Roosevelt. You should read it! When the Hospital got word of inspection after this article was published and the people whom she interviewed disappeared, and they quickly tried to mask their evil inhumane ways.