A journalist snuck into a mental hospital in New York and revealed many shocking secrets

In 1887, 23-year-old journalist Elizabeth Cochran (1864–1922), who went by the pseudonym Nellie Bly, came to New York City with big dreams of working for the country’s prestigious New York World newspaper. The story of “America’s best journalist” was told by Miloserdie.

The editor-in-chief and owner of the newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer, gave her an almost impossible task: to infiltrate the mental hospital on Blackwell Island, which is between Long Island and Manhattan, stay there for a while and write a report about the life of patients from the inside. Pulitzer, if she successfully completed this task, promised to take her to work.

Without much understanding of what awaits her and how she will cope with such a difficult mission, Nellie decided to accept the challenge. She asked Pulitzer the only question: how can you get out of there, because it is known that few people return from such establishments? The tycoon just shrugged and said, “I have no idea.”

Teeth chattering from cold and fear

Cochran agreed to use the pseudonym Nellie Brown in order to remain in the editorial view and report her observations honestly.

To begin with, she rented a room in a hostel for young workers and began to imitate insanity. Her behavior became ridiculous: incoherent speeches, unexpected tantrums, night wanderings along the corridors and attacks of aggression. The manager, in fear, called the police and then an ambulance.

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Three days later, Bly was taken to the Blackwell Women’s Psychiatric Hospital, where women from working backgrounds, poor and lonely were sent. However, the encounter with the psychiatric hospital was horrendous. She was immediately lowered into a bath of ice water, which ten people had already “enjoyed” before her. The crazy old woman began to cruelly “clean” her with an emery brush, causing pain and suffering. Teeth were chattering from cold and fear as three buckets of ice-cold water were suddenly poured over her head, enveloping her face and body. Nellie was out of breath; she seemed to be drowning.

“You hit me, you want to kill me”

Trembling and terrified (“For once I really looked crazy,” she would write later in the report), she was locked in a room for the night, and she became afraid – what if there was a fire? Every door was locked from the outside, the windows were barred, it was impossible to get out. She began to knock on the door, barely holding back her hysteria, but she realized that this could harm her cause, and managed to gather her strength.

The next day, Nellie saw how “dangerous” patients were forcibly drugged and taken for a walk. Each of the fifty-two women was wearing a wide leather belt, to which they tied a huge and strong rope, thus uniting everyone in one line. They stumbled over each other and fell, and at the end of the rope was tied a heavy iron cart in which sat two women. One of them constantly yelled at the nurse: “You are hitting me, you want to kill me,” and did not stop crying.

“God help them!” Nellie whispered in horror at the suffering of these poor women.

Guilty without guilt

Nellie was young, strong and fearless, able to endure a lot, but her real fear was that her deceit might be discovered, and she would not be able to complete her mission. However, as it turned out, it was something else to be afraid of.

The most unexpected and terrifying thing for her was that there were many healthy women around who did not have signs of mental disorders. They ended up here because of difficult life circumstances, nervous shocks, after difficult childbirth, physical exhaustion, or because of overwork. Many of them were immigrants.

Nellie met a German woman named Louise Schanz, who did not speak English. Mrs. Schantz begged in German to be let out. But it was all in vain, they only mocked her. And the more she panicked, the more firmly the doctors asserted – “she is completely insane.”

In addition, in the late 19th century USA, men had the right to incarcerate their perfectly normal wife or daughter and declare them insane – this could be because of revenge, money, inheritance, or simply because they wanted to start a new family. Women, however, did not have such power over their husbands.

Kindness is not here

Once in a psychiatric hospital, Nellie stopped playing the role of a lunatic, but her reasonable behavior and reasonable words only convinced the doctors and nurses even more of her madness. Fear seized her when four experienced doctors confirmed her “madness”.

Whether the patient was truly mentally unstable or perfectly healthy, she was treated with the same cruelty. When Nelly tried to defend her rights, she was told: “You are in a state institution. This is charity and you should be grateful for what you get.” “But the city runs this establishment and pays people to be kind to the unfortunate people brought here,” she replied. “Don’t expect kindness here, you won’t get it,” the doctor grinned.

There is no one to complain to

In the hospital, women endured brutal beatings, strangulation for “educational” purposes, force-feeding rotten food, and long periods in a punishment cell. They were tormented by thirst: they were given drugs that led to severe dehydration, but the patients had to “deserve” water. Some of these atrocities did not survive.

What happened in the hospital drove even those who came here in their right mind into madness. “What can lead to insanity faster than this treatment? Women went crazy in a couple of months,” Nellie Bly wrote in her article for the newspaper.

But there was no one to complain to. The nurses threatened the unfortunate with reprisals if they dared to say a word to the doctors. And the women, realizing that it was useless to complain to doctors, were silent, because this is the same as asking for protection from their tormentors.

long-awaited freedom

Ten days later, with the help of an experienced lawyer provided by the editors, Nellie Bly managed to get out of Blackwell. Although the tycoon Pulitzer said she would have to deal with this on her own, he did everything he could to help Elizabeth.

Nellie Bly’s articles in the New York World, and later her book Ten Days in a Lunatic Asylum, caused a tremendous outcry in the country. Public attention focused on what was going on behind the walls of psychiatric hospitals.

City officials launched an investigation into Blackwell’s “therapeutic practices” and Nellie Bly testified in court. Since the articles were published, New York City City Hall has invested heavily in improving care for the mentally ill. Many sadistic nurses were fired, and the number of doctors increased. Nellie was happy that her work had brought about such a change.

Gonzo journalism

Nellie Bly’s reporting was so unusual that it spawned a new genre of undercover journalism, or gonzo journalism. Reporters penetrated closed institutions and handed over materials about state institutions, drug and labor dens, and abortion services to the editors.

Nellie Bly was the best of them all. She wrote about New York’s horrendous “human meat” trade, heartless mothers and greedy midwives who sold babies, police brutality against women, and exposed political corruption.

unexpected marriage

In 1895, she surprised everyone by marrying millionaire Robert Seaman, who was 42 years older. The couple had no children of their own, but when Nelly’s brother died, she took care of his children and widow.

After Robert’s death in 1904, Nellie took over as president of his industrial companies. She took control of the business and offered workers unique working conditions for the time: wage increases, health insurance, entertainment centers and libraries.

Russian soldier

In 1914, at the age of 50, Nellie Bly returned to journalism. During World War I (1914-1918), she became a war correspondent for the New York Evening Journal, the first woman journalist to report from the trenches on the front lines.

In 1915, Nellie Bly wrote a poignant pacifist report on the horrors of war based on her experiences at the American Red Cross Hospital. She spoke about a Russian soldier who lost both legs and what was left of him. He was wounded and lay for eight days without help in the trench. Now he is dying alone in a foreign country where no one speaks his native language. Even Nelly, who had seen a lot of suffering in her life, could not endure such pain and grief. He looked at her silently, as if asking questions she could not answer.

“How can they live, sleep at night, all these emperors, kings and kings, sending people to a painful slaughter?” Nellie once asked a military doctor. “It’s just that they don’t see every day what we see,” he replied softly.

“Only by witnessing such horrors can one understand them…” Bly wrote in the article “The Horrors of War, February 4, 1915.” – Thousands of wounded, frozen, hungry, dying in terrible agony. And when they die, thousands more come to the lice-infested trenches to be killed in the same way. Nothing can heal and save what man so senselessly destroys. Unbearable”.

Nellie Bly died on January 27, 1922 from pneumonia. The next day, the press announced the death of America’s best journalist. Her life and works have left an indelible mark on the history of American journalism.