Short Stuff: The Sad, Strange Tale of Margaret Schilling | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff. here's Josh here's Chuck there's Jerry. Dave's not here but we're thinking of. them so it's short stuff let's go uh can. I start this with an anecdote yeah so in. the uh mid1 1990s a a young Scrappy. young student at Ohio University named. Emily coken M did her senior uh. telecommunications film project on what.

was called at the time uh I don't know. what they call it at the time. actually it had a lot of names over the. years but uh the Athens Lunatic Asylum. or the Athens Hospital for the insane oh. wow uh right there in Athens Ohio where. my wife went to college and she said I. tried to do a a spooky sort of ghosty. thing and it didn't turn out so great. but that was her senior project that's. awesome I'd love to see that yeah I. would too actually oh you haven't no I. don't know if she still has that stuff I. should ask well she does and she's.

willing to let me see it I'd love to. it's probably like beta tape or. something like that so good luck right. um so yeah you said this this um. Hospital the state hospital had uh names. many names over the years it started out. as the Athens Lunatic Asylum when it was. opened in. 1874 and it ran all the way to. 1993 um and when it opened it was one of. those giant Gothic amazing 19th century. Mental Hospitals and I didn't know this.

but you know the US is just populated. with these and they're starting to tear. them down more and more um but there was. a guy who basically came up with the. blueprint for these things his name was. Dr Thomas story kirkbride and he. basically said hey you know how we keep. um the mentally ill chained in in. basements and in jails now we should not. do that we should do the opposite we. should build huge hospitals on big. rambling beautiful grounds with lots of. sunlight and open air and we call it the.

moral treatment of the insane that's. really what we should get behind and he. wrote a book called on the construction. organization and general Arrangements of. hospitals for the insane and he. literally wrote the book on this and. changed everything so when you see those. amazing old um institutes or. institutions I should say um they all. basically follow this pattern that Dr. Thomas kirkbride came up with yeah we've. talked about him on another episode uh. for sure yeah yeah absolutely but um.

Emily said that there were and I. couldn't find pictures of this online. the buildings themselves this campus is. amazing looking this beautiful Victorian. buildings uh but Emily said that there. were ponds on the campus that were in. the shape of playing card suits and. that's the one thing she remembers I. could yeah I couldn't find those. anywhere but uh I imagine she didn't. imagine those sure that's a weird thing. to just suddenly make up or you know get. wrong and now that I'm looking at the. date I mean this it might have have. either just had been closed when she did.

this it been closed in '93 but uh she. called it The Ridges is I remember now. because that's what it's called now yeah. because uh Ohio University has has. bought uh that area and now is it's part. of the school but none of that has to do. with our story uh which is a story of. Margaret Schilling who was a 53-year-old. woman uh at the time not a lot was known. about her um she obviously had some sort. of uh mental illness that led her there.

sadly uh but uh apparently some people. say she was about an hour north of there. had a husband and a son but what we do. know is that she was uh a good patient. and well trusted uh so much so that you. know she was just sort of allowed to uh. roam freely about the grounds and no one. really worried about her too much yeah. we should say that like this is one of. those stories that because little of her. was known but her story is so fantastic. um lazy writers have felt totally um.

liberated to to basically add little. details or assume little details or. something like that so there's a there's. a definite like uh silhouette to this. story as we'll see um that that does. seem to like hold shape but it's um it's. just the little details you have to kind. of take with a grain of salt essentially. but yes apparently the one thing one one. of the things that I have seen in a lot. of places that um because she was free. to roam the grounds and I don't know if.

it was just her or she was among a a. special few or something when she didn't. show up for breakfast that didn't that. didn't raise any alarms literally it. wasn't until on December 1st uh 1978. that she didn't show up for dinner later. that evening that it literally raised. the alarm because they now realized they. had a patient missing that's right uh so. they called a code round which meant. someone is missing uh we need to go. search this sprawling enormous campus uh.

I think I saw 700,000 square feet in. total I saw that too and I think that. might be a good place for a cliff hangy. break yes how much does 700,000 Square. fet translate to in acres. [Music].

all right so where we left off there was. a a search being conducted for Margaret. Schilling uh they looked they thought. everywhere uh seemingly turned that. place upside down but one of the only. places they didn't look is the place. where she was uh which was uh a fourth. floor room uh on the campus um pretty.

frustrating they couldn't find her my. guess is that U I think parts of this. campus had been shut down over the years. um by this time and it was in one of the. buildings that was shut down because. everywhere online I saw she was in one. of those two magnificent Towers up front. but there's no way it could have been. that from the looks of the room and the. windows okay yeah I I didn't know how. you knew that but yes you see everywhere. everybody's like she was in the tower. she's in the tower the tower was unused.

and it was uh you could only access it. through essentially a hidden stairway. and that's why they didn't find her but. that's odd that they didn't find her if. they searched everywhere you know well. they clearly didn't search everywhere. but they um because they couldn't find. her uh did you say the police were. called in. eventually uh no okay so the police were. called they start helping too there's. like a a genuine like Bonafide search. for Margaret Schilling and they finally. just come up empty and so the police are.

like I think that you have an escape. patient on your hands let's just call it. that so we can go back home cuz it's. cold and over the next few weeks. starting from December and into January. um Ohio Winters can be pretty bad but I. get the impression that this was not one. of the the lighter ones that it was. pretty pretty rough um and over the over. this time like Margaret Schilling was. just missing on January 12th 1979 about. 6 weeks after she went missing she was.

discovered and I don't know how she was. discovered if by accident I saw. somewhere that somebody noticed a smell. and and followed it and found her body. but however she was found um she was no. longer alive she was dead she was found. dead somewhere in a room on that. campus yeah and it was pretty. distressing what comes next because she. was found uh unclosed uh with her. clothes beside her folded very neatly uh. as if I guess she had just given up or.

something um who knows no one can say. for sure but they ruled her death a. heart failure even though they're not. exactly sure um you know sub-freezing. temperatures no food and water so you. know you're not going to survive for too. long uh she would be buried by her. family but what is really um sort of key. to this story is this stain on the floor. of the outline of her body that could. not be cleaned off yeah so if you have a. body that decomposes over say 6 weeks.

let's say she died very quickly and even. though there were subfreezing. temperatures that room that she was. found in had a lot of windows with that. were exposed to bright sunlight so. clearly her body was exposed to enough. um heat from the Sun that it allowed. decomposition to take place and under. any circumstance that somebody's going. to leave some residue behind them gross. as it is after 6 weeks the thing is the. thing that made Margaret Schilling's. Legend grow very quick.

in addition to her sad story was that. that that that remnant of her that. silhouette that um outline that she left. it would not come clean despite the. several efforts by the maintenance crew. to remove it and so if you have a woman. who died mysteriously alone in a mental. hospital uh who left a stain behind that. won't come clean her Legend's going to. grow pretty quickly yeah and you know. you can look up this picture of the. stain and it's.

um it's a very clear picture of a of a. human body uh you know like any part of. her skin that made contact with the CIT. floor made an impression uh like a. literal impression and it's you know. it's just one of those really really. creepy things it's lived on and um you. know as kind of a a ghost story kind of. thing yeah because I mean like this this. was like if if you go to college you. remember Chuck like you just love. stories like this some like remember the. the the ghost that you saw in Athens uh.

Georgia sure uh in the middle of the. road like when you're in college it's. prime time for that kind of thing there. was literally a stain left by a woman. who died mysteriously on campus there. like right there um so I can't imagine. what that what that must have done to. the student body just freaked him out on. the daily I would guess but the fact. that it wouldn't come clean it was just. a mystery forever like clearly she had. cursed this this hospital that that was. probably the biggest explanation for it.

but in 2007 some Ohio University. biochemists um did a study of the stain. to figure out exactly what was going on. and they came to some pretty um pretty. standard conclusions that still are just. fascinating but it seems to have been. the attempts to clean it had the. opposite effect they actually locked it. in place in that concrete floor they. used some sort of acid I think to clean. this off and it um it locked in place.

the atopos here which is known as Grave. wax which we've talked about before. which comes from the breakdown of fatty. acids but this was special atap POS here. um in that the sodium ions in it in this. grave wax interacted with the concrete. and were replaced by calcium ions from. the concrete so it was like unusual. grave wax and then when they added these. acidic cleaners to clean it off it. actually locked it into the concrete. created a white silhouette outlined with.

a darker kind of smudgy almost. watercolor outline of the silhouette and. that as far as we can tell is what's. still in that concrete today yeah what. I'm curious about is if that room. obviously that's closed down like they. use a lot of that campus for stuff today. as The Ridges but there there's no way. like they let people in there no there. was a group called preservation works. that's dedicated to to preserving. kirkbride hospitals kirkbride style. hospitals um and they did a tour as. recently as 20 8 and suggested like Hey.

by keeping this locked away away from. the public it's all it's doing is making. it seem creepier and weirder and and um. scandalous like maybe you should come up. with a respectful way to get the story. across and allow the public to. respectfully you know visit it h i I. know that'd be a tough one to pull off. for sure yeah I'm I'm not sure about. that idea yeah but I mean what the. alternative is just you know college. students breaking in and touching it and. and dying afterward that's the legend oh. so Emily I hadn't heard of this one in.

particular which I thought was. interesting cuz she did say that there. obviously were all kinds of you know. ghost stories and campus stories yeah. for sure I mean like a an indelible Mark. left by a decomposed body from a woman. who died mysteriously in a mental. institution it doesn't get it's almost. readymade it's almost like you made a. Mad Libs for a ghost story plot you know. yeah uh you got anything else I got. nothing else well rip Margaret Schilling. and uh I think since I said that the.

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