Lunatic Asylum

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia is said to be the most haunted hospital in America. It was also known as Weston State Hospital at one time in its history.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was built in 1858 to house individuals who were afflicted with mental illness. The building was supposed to contain only 250 patients but by 1950, it held over 2400. The severe overcrowding resulted in terrible living conditions for the poor souls who stayed there.

There were frequent reports of violence at the abandoned lunatic asylum. Patients killed other patients and often attacked female members of staff.

One night, a young nurse who worked there went missing under mysterious circumstances. Nearly two months later, her dead body was finally found. Patients had hidden her corpse at the bottom of an unused staircase.

On another occasion, a crazed man stabbed another patient 17 times. The victim crawled down the corridor, leaving a trail of blood behind him, but died before he could reach the nurses’ aide station for help.

Yet another horrible incident occurred when two insane men hung another patient from a pipe, using bed sheets. When that failed to kill him, they laid him down under a steel bed frame, and crushed his head.

The doctors at Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum performed frontal lobotomies and electro-shock therapy on many of the violent patients. Records show that there were thousands of deaths and many people were buried on the hospital grounds.

Ever since it closed down in 1994, there have been many unexplained events. People often hear muffled conversations in vacant hallways, mysterious sounds of gurneys being pushed up and down the hallways and inexplicable banging noises moving about the building. There have been reports of screams coming from the electro-shock area and frequent giggling and laughing has been heard all around the facility.

Some people have also seen the ghostly apparitions of patients within the rooms and hallways of the abandoned lunatic asylum.

A woman was taking a tour of the old lunatic asylum with her daughter. As they walked down a hallway, an unseen force shoved the woman violently against the wall, while her daughter watched in horror.

The hospital is now open to the public and if you go there you can take a tour of the most haunted hotspots. The Ghost Adventures team recently locked themselves into the hospital overnight for their live Halloween Special.

Ghost Hunters did an investigation of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in 2008 and collected compelling evidence of paranormal activity. They recorded strange banging sounds, a high-pitched female laugh and a disembodied voice ordering them to “Go Home”. They even spotted a ghostly apparition standing in the corner of the room. It put its hands over its head and looked like it was being sucked out of the room.