Hush

From the Fillydelphia Star

Scandal at Insane Asylum to be Shut Down

September 27, 984

Fillydelphia, Equestria

What might be the greatest scandal in Fillydelphia's history, Sanctuary's Mental Hospital is to be shut down by the end of the month. A close examination of the activities that go on behind closed doors has been unearthed, leading legal charges to be pressed in a class action lawsuit for corruption and horrific abuse by staff.

Opened since the turn of the century, Sanctuary's Mental Hospital has been seen as a refuge to both the insane and orphans alike as the latter has been the oldest known orphanage in the city. For decades it has boasted of its hospitality and latest scientific cures for the mentally disturbed. Often prized itself for its cleanliness, its compassion, and its dedication to improving those who have been committed to this institution.

However, on Saturday, one patient, a colt who wishes to be anonymous, has bravely taken an act of courage to escape the hospital through a garbage truck. He was later found by authorities in a state of emotional distress. Yet, once they calmed him down, he was to explain the shocking true side of Sanctuary's.

He described the hospital where patient and foal alike were not only treated the same but they too were subjected to experimentation without their consent. Where electroshock therapy is taken to extremes to see how much a patient can endure. To being clean by high-powered firehoses strapped to a chair. Being operated on without anesthetic. And even use lobotomy as a form of punishment if any of the staff deem fit.

When further investigation has pressed the hospital, they were reluctant to give any confirmation to these claims. Yet, when they were caught redhoofed in actively destroying hospital records, it was clear that the staff was trying to hide something. Soon, thanks to the testimonials of orphans, patients, and staff alike, not only were the claims of the anonymous colt confirmed, but they were given more gruesome details. For the past thirty years, medical students who had enough bribing money could run whatever experiment without the repercussions of any ethics committees. Abuse of nearly every conceivable kind was a daily occurrence. And even outright murders were always covered up.

The Head Medical Examiner, Dr. Red Cross, has been put into custody as of Tuesday, along with seven of the more offending staff members are waiting for trial with charges ranging from tampering of evidence to foal abuse. The trial date is yet to be determined.

In the meantime, patients and orphans have been transferred away from the hospital into proper care. The anonymous foal will be looked at by a foster family, it is the least the city could do for the hero who brought down the most corrupt institution in Fillydelphia's history.

Guilty! Dr. Red Cross Sentenced Life in Prison

November 13, 985

Fillydephia, Equestria

The trial of the century came to an end yesterday when a jury convicted Dr. Red Cross, finding him guilty of all counts of malicious malpractice, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment, torture, abuse towards patients and foals alike, first and second-degree murder, numerous accounts of serious injury, and lying to patient and their families.

Judge Fair Balance, after the conviction, had remarked before giving the sentence. "In my twenty years of serving on the bench, this case is the grossest abuse of power. The grossest betrayal of public and private trust under the guise of medicine, the likes of which make this particular case the most disgusting to date. In any other kingdom, your actions during your time at a mental hospital would have earned you the death penalty. In Equestria, however, I can only give you the maximum punishment I could muster."

Red Cross was to be stripped of his medical degree and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Last year, Red Cross had run the privately run Sanctuary Mental Hospital until an anonymous escaped patient had exposed the true horrors of the sadistic staff there. Red Cross had ordered a cover-up for their practices by destroying their official records but were intervened just in time by authorities.

The investigation that was launched and the trial that came about exposed the true horrors hidden from the public. Those who were committed to the hospital and the orphans who were housed there suffered countless abuses. It quickly became a breeding ground for medical students to conduct whatever experiments they wanted. However, those who paid that fee sometimes didn't do so for medical knowledge.

"Sometimes the medical students we get would pay us to spend some time with one of the patients there." According to the testimony of Nurse Crimson. "There was a one in four chance that the patient or foal was probably assaulted in some way. And just as much chance that they would end up killed somehow. Of course, due to our policy, we write it off as a medical misadventure. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if one or two of those students might have been serial killers."

The horrors revealed in the trial didn't stop with medical students. One powerful emotional testimony from a patient named Rosey Cheeks was operated on without anesthetics when the victim was in tears as she recounted her trauma. "I wanted to scream at them to stop," she said, "but they gagged me and just went on cutting and cutting until I passed out."

This was merely the tip of the iceberg in the long, long list of those who testified. Mountains of evidence ranging from the instruments used at the hospital to photographs of burns, cuts, and scares showed the unneeded surgeries, cruel experiments, and even a film that shocked the court where Dr. Red Cross personally performed a lobotomy on a ten-year-old colt.

When it was Red Cross's turn to take the stand, he insisted that everything that he and the hospital staff had done was for the good of society. When questioned if he ever cared about the families of patients who had sent their loved ones to be cured, he stunned the court with his honesty when he said: "In any other hospital, of course, there would be those who care about if the patient makes a full recovery. But at ours, an insane asylum, do you honestly think that the patients who were sent there have that same expectation? No. This is a place where the outcasts, the difficult, the unwanted are sent. Ponies that if they were all to suddenly drop dead, no one would be given any notice. No one had asked so much as a wake when they passed on. No one came to the hospital to demand their so-called loved one back. I find it more remarkable that any of you care now when only mere months ago none of you didn't want to so much as care or think about what really happens to them."

When asked if there was anything he regretted during his reign at the hospital, he said coldly. "My only regret is that I didn't give the colt who tattled on us a lobotomy."

After the sentence was produced, cheers were heard in the back of the courtroom.

Interviews were given to the patients who had suffered from Red Cross's treatment. One patient who didn't testify, a stallion that wishes to remain anonymous said it best: "What disturbs me is that Dr. Red Cross had done all of this, while he was teaching those students. I shudder to imagine what sort of lessons he was passing on, and those who might have taken it to heart."

Dr. Red Cross Passes Away in Prison

Jun 24, 993

Fillydelphia, Equestria

At 11:20 AM inside the walls of the Iron Lock Penitentiary, Red Cross, former doctor and Head Medical Examiner of the infamous Sanctuary's Mental Hospital has been found dead in his cell. Guards found him passed away from natural causes. He was 79.

Born Feb 12, 914 in Manehattan, Dr. Red Cross was the only child of a privileged family that lived on the West Side of the island. At the age of twenty-eight, he earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Hypocraticies. He spent the first ten years of his career as a brain surgeon at 17th Street Hospital before he transferred over to Sanctuary's. For the next thirty-two years, he would climb up the ranks to become the Head Medical Examiner where he would carry out his insidious reign of terror.

To his staff, he was an efficient stallion who for the longest time knew how to keep the secrets of the institution. To Medical Students with enough money, he was their dealer to sell out his patients so that they could carry out anything they wanted with them without question. To the thousands of patients under his care, he was known by his now-famous nickname: Dr. Lobottomy. Until the eventual discovery, he was allowed do to anything to his patients inside the walls of the privately run hospital. Yet, since the investigation, it is now known that he has conducted acts from malicious malpractice, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment, torture, abuse towards patients and foals alike, first and second-degree murder, numerous accounts of serious injury, and lying to patients and their families.

He was given a life sentence and has remained at Iron Lock Penitentiary ever since. Ponies have tried and failed to get an interview or even a book deal from him. Yet, he is known to be a reserved stallion who rarely talks about his time at Sanctuary's.

The only time he did this was when a guard asked him if there was anything he wished he could have done differently, he supposedly answered: "If I had my way, I wished I could have sewn that darling's mouth shut."

Red Cross is to be cremated, and his ashes are to be scattered in a secret location.

Changeling Murdered by Serlial Killer

Oct 28, 1014

Fillydelphia, Equestria

In an unbelievable twist, the suspect Resto the Changeling was murdered yesterday while in custody at River Side Hospital. Yesterday, one of the hospital staff, Dr. Lovejoy had used a hallucinate drug to scare the Changeling to death. The doctor has fled the scene. Police are currently searching for the whereabouts of what they believe to be a serial killer.

From the footage of the security camera that was installed in the Changeling's room, and the recently recovered film from the triple murders of the three teenagers at Sanctuary's Mental Hospital, police have pieced together this rather unusual mystery.

Dr. Lovejoy used a fungus found at the asylum to brainwash and control the Changeling into carrying out the murders. It is believed that he also used this to convince Resto to believe in fictitious events to help cover his tracks. Then before Resto could be questioned a second time by Detective Hoof Print, the doctor killed the Changeling by making him believe he was trapped in a nightmare of his own making.

Further investigations into Dr. Lovejoy's past have revealed some tantalizing clues. Such as he had often visited Sanctuary's Mental Hospital as a medical student and had been taught by the notorious Dr. Red Cross. Given the horror stories from the asylum, he might have started his killings there while the corrupted institution covered it up. After going through Lovejoy's apartment, there is evidence to suspect that his earliest victims may include Shining Star, Caramel Chai, Pumpkin Spice, and Blue Ribbon. This investigation is still ongoing.

Little is currently known about Dr. Lovejoy. He was from Fillydelphia and earned his doctorate under the tutorage of another infamous Doctor - Dr. Red Cross. It is said he wanted to be a photographer but had made his living as a surgeon before becoming a psychologist. He is described as a caring persuasive individual, yet incredibly dangerous.

If there is any information about the Doctor of his whereabouts, please inform the authorities.

Asylum to be Torn Down

Sep 29th, 1024

Fillydelphia, Equestria

After nearly forty years since its closing and ten years since the quadruple murders from the psychopath Dr. Lovejoy, it is announced that Sanctuary Mental Hospital is to be torn down.

Last night, the Fillydelphia City Council passed a motion to have the asylum be demolished. While an argument has been made for the asylum to be preserved for historical preservation, it is agreed that the sheer cost to restore and up keep is too much and too dangerous to be kept standing. The resolution passed 6 - 1.

One of the most infamous and insidious institutions in Equestria, Sanctuary's was once considered a respectable institution since the turn of the century for both doubling as an orphanage and for its advanced medical care. Yet decades ago, it came to light that it was anything but respectable. Thanks to an escaped orphan who helped expose the horrific practices that went behind closed doors.

The shutting down of the asylum and the trial of Dr. Red Cross had given birth to the idea that with all the atrocities committed the asylum must be haunted. Ranging everything from unnecessary surgeries without anesthetic, unethical medical and psychological experiments, and even abuse of both patients and foals alike were enough to earn the nickname: “The Most Evil Place in the World.”

Shortly after the asylum was shut down, numerous ghost stories sprang up that ranged everything from a nurse who committed suicide to foals who still play in the now empty hallows.

But more recent events that took place have certainly cemented its reputation. The murders of Carrot Bit, Cloud Buster, Book Binder, and later Resto the Changeling. All of whom were manipulated and killed by now infamous serial killer, Dr. Lovejoy, it has made the property permanently unsellable for any potential buyers.

From the investigation, it is revealed that the hospital has grown a unique species of toxic, psychedelic mold. Therefore visiting the property unprotected is extremely dangerous. So much so, that the mold was used on Resto where he hallucinated and died being scared to death.

It is due to this, and the decaying age of the building that the city council has voted that it must be torn down, beginning on October 7th.