Hidden In The Basement of Danvers State Hospital

What happens when a wall hides more than it should? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro explore two unsettling, very real stories where history was quietly sealed away—literally and figuratively. First, we descend into the forgotten basement of Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts, where renovation crews in the 1990s uncovered a bricked-over corridor that didn’t exist on any blueprints. Inside were intact treatment rooms, restraint fixtures, and medical equipment from an era psychiatric institutions would rather forget. No records. No documentation. And once discovered, the space was quietly sealed again. Then we shift to a powerful and often overlooked chapter in American medical history: Freedom House Ambulance Service in Pittsburgh. In the 1960s, a group of Black paramedics—trained at an unprecedented level—quietly invented modern emergency medical care. They saved hundreds of lives, revolutionized on-scene treatment, and laid the foundation for today’s EMS systems… before being erased from history when the city took over the program. Along the way, we talk about institutional amnesia, medical ethics, abandoned practices, historical erasure, and why the scariest stories are often the ones that actually happened. Because sometimes the question isn’t what’s haunting a place—It’s what was deliberately forgotten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(991)

Inbox Of Oddities #102

Inbox of Oddities: Ghostly Voices, Time Travel & Homesick Nipples The Freak Family has spoken, and once again, we're questioning whether any of you should be allowed out in public unsupervised. In t...

9 Loka 24min

Inside the Hindenburg & The Dunes That Swallowed a Town

You’ve seen the Hindenburg footage. You’ve heard the famous radio broadcast. But what was it actually like to be inside the Hindenburg when it caught fire? Kat and Jethro revisit one of history’s mos...

7 Loka 32min

The Body in the Glacier & The Woman Who Wouldn’t Stay Buried

A body emerges from a California glacier more than sixty years after a World War II training plane vanished in the Sierra Nevada. He’s still wearing his military uniform, carrying coins, a fountain pe...

5 Loka 33min

The Gods Below & The Boy Beyond

It’s time for another Freak Family Favorite, pulled from deep inside The Box of Oddities archives! First, Kat explores the surprisingly widespread history of dwarf mythology and reverence. From ancie...

2 Loka 34min

The Letter That Fell From the Sky

A letter disappears in one of the deadliest tornadoes in American history—then turns up 130 miles away. In 1925, the catastrophic Tri-State Tornado destroyed the Indiana home of Will Jones. Among the...

30 Syys 35min

San Francisco’s Buried Ships & Bizarre Toilet World Records

What if the streets beneath San Francisco aren’t sitting on solid ground at all—but on the remains of abandoned ships? During the California Gold Rush, crews deserted vessels by the hundreds, leaving...

28 Syys 32min

Inbox Of Oddities #101

The Inbox of Oddities is open, and the Freak Family has delivered another beautifully strange collection of listener stories. This time, Kat and Jethro dive into an accidentally perfect sign at a spa...

25 Syys 18min

Cursed Bread and Pink Dolphins

A quiet French town is hit by a wave of sickness, terror, and impossible visions after its residents eat the same bread. Were the horrors of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951 caused by ergot poisoning, contam...

23 Syys 30min