14 Super Terrifying Haunted Asylums

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Louisville, Kentucky, opened in 1910 to treat tuberculosis patients. Around 63,000 patients died there during its operation. A special tunnel moved materials, like dead bodies, out of the building down the hill. This tunnel is now called the "body chute." Many hauntings at Waverly Hills center on the tunnel—ghosts of dead patients or doctors who drained patients before transport. Strange shadows, closing doors, and ghostly apparitions often occur.

A ghost, a uniformed nurse, haunts the sanatorium. This nurse tells people to leave Room 502. A nurse reportedly hung herself in that room. Another nurse reportedly jumped from the sanatorium's top after working in Room 502.

Pennhurst Asylum is home to the spirits of disgruntled children in the list of 14 super terrifying haunted asylums.Pennhurst Asylum opened in Pennsylvania in the early 20th century for mentally disabled children. The asylum was overcrowded, understaffed, and lacked government funding. This caused overworked staff to use cruel punishments. They drugged children, chained them to beds, and isolated them for long periods. A reporter showed the asylum's horrors in 1968. The asylum closed a few years later.

Now a haunted house, previous caretakers claim upset spirits haunt the property.Some reports describe Pennhurst Asylum.include footsteps, screams from empty rooms, and slamming doors. Investigators experienced negative paranormal activity, such as being touched, shoved, or having objects thrown. One investigator even got scratched by an entity.

The Athens Lunatic Asylum has a permanent patient imprint.Athens Lunatic Asylum has a permanent patient imprint in the list of 14 super terrifying haunted asylums.This asylum opened in 1874 in Athens, Ohio. It treated mentally and criminally insane patients. The cemetery nearby holds many patients' burials. Many people report ghost sightings and unidentifiable screams there.

A popular story about Athens involves a patient named Margaret Schilling. In December 1978, Margaret played hide-and-seek with nurses who became distracted by other patients' needs. The nurses forgot about Margaret. A year later, a maintenance worker found her body. An imprint of Margaret's body, clothes, and hair remains visible on the floor, even after decades of cleaning.

The Norwich State Hospital housed violent criminals.Norwich State Hospital for the Mentally Insane housed violent criminals in the list of 14 super terrifying haunted asylums.This hospital built in Preston, Connecticut, in 1904. It housed patients with mental illness, tuberculosis, chemical dependency, and violent tendencies. The hospital also held criminally insane patients charged with murder and rape.

People claim they heard intense screams from humans and non-humans. They also heard footsteps and children's voices. Lights, shadows, and mists appeared. Wheelchairs and gurneys moved. Some saw human faces in broken windows.

The Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, where over 3,000 patients died.Beechworth Lunatic Asylum.This asylum is in Victoria, Australia. It dates to 1867. Over 3,000 patients died there in just 128 years. This makes the place a hotspot for paranormal activity.

Matron Sharpe is one ghost often seen. She walks into classrooms and old dorm areas. She glides down a granite staircase on the grounds. Legend says Sharpe showed unusual kindness to patients. Even after death, she appears to comfort them. Nurses reported seeing the Matron sit with patients facing electro-shock. Witnesses say the room felt icy cold, but her presence offered comfort.

Tommy Kennedy haunts Beechworth. He was a patient who got a kitchen-hand job. Tommy died in the kitchen, now the Bijou Theater. People feel someone pulling their clothes or poking their ribs inside this theater. Tommy is thought to be the cause.

A scarier ghost is a patient who vanished and reappeared weeks later in a tree. Max, the resident dog, was found chewing a leg near the grounds entrance. The lost patient was found there, decomposed so much his leg had fallen off. The ghost of this patient haunts the asylum entrance early in the morning.

St John’s Asylum.St John’s Asylum is in Lincolnshire, England. It opened in 1852. Staff mistreated patients and used painful procedures, like electro-shock therapy. This explains why many patients are believed to have committed suicide there.

A known story involves a patient hanging himself at the top of a set of stairs inside the asylum. Loud screams have been heard in the asylum ruins. Fires appeared from the windows. A nearby pub reported seeing ghosts of nurses and patients walking around.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum memorializes a playful ghost girl.Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.This asylum is in Weston, West Virginia. It admitted its first patients in 1864. The asylum treated shock therapy and cage confinement as normal. "Ice-pick" lobotomies, where a pronged device went through the eye socket into the brain, were also a preferred treatment method there.

Visitors, guides, and investigators report seeing apparitions of patients, nurses, and doctors in the halls now that Trans-Allegheny is a public attraction. Civil War soldier shadows also appear on the property. The asylum's main ghost is a young girl named Lily. She shows herself by interacting with toys in a paint-peeled room set for her.

Lily is not the only child ghost at Trans-Allegheny. Reports exist of children haunting upper floors, trailing people, and sometimes following them home.

In 1880, the Buffalo State Asylum existed.Buffalo State Asylum.The Buffalo State Asylum opened in New York. This facility used terrifying experiments on the mentally insane. These included cutting patients' heads to get brain sections, electro-shock therapy, and submerging patients in water for long periods. Most reported ghost activity there involves sounds, not sights.

A frequent sound is a blood-curdling scream coming from the end room of each wing. Investigators find nothing when they check these screams.

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital faces many rumors.Many deaths occurred at the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in South Korea. Local stories claim a series of mysterious deaths caused the hospital to close. Doctors often went insane. The hospital closed because of sanitation and sewage problems.

Unwelcome trespassersTrespassers and paranormal investigators claim they saw bloody scratches and glass shards thrown across rooms and hallways. Shadows appear, and voices, moans, and screams are heard throughout the old building.

Byberry Mental Hospital, built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1906, sits over catacombs.Byberry Mental Hospital.Byberry Mental Hospital started as a small place, but its population grew fast by the 1930s. Later, many patients lived in small, bare rooms with little to no interaction or watching.

The catacombs under the asylum create intense stories. Local legend says a former violent patient paces the tunnels, holding a large knife. The story's basis is unknown, but someone may have seen an apparition. Satanic occultists allegedly used the building for rituals; growling sounds and marks and scratches have been reported.

Rolling Hills Asylum was a poorhouse.East Bethany, New York, started as a poorhouse in 1826. The county kept people unable to care for themselves there. This included mentally ill people, outcasts, women, and children. Residents called themselves inmates. They worked the land to feed themselves and the rest of the poorhouse. About 1,700 bodies lie in unmarked graves behind Rolling Hills.

Roy, a ghost of Rolling Hills, was born with gigantism. This gave him bulging facial features and huge limbs. His ashamed father left him at Rolling Hills when Roy was 12. Roy died there at age 62, standing 7 feet tall. Many people report seeing his 7-foot shadow in hallways. Some people claim they photographed it.

Danvers State Hospital has one known apparition.Massachusetts built the Danvers State Hospital in the 1880s for mentally ill children. In the 1920s, staff used horrific treatments on the kids. These included lobotomies, long-term restraint, and neglect. Most of the hospital is gone now. Few ghost hunters entered while it was still standing to find proof. People mostly report phantom footsteps and eerie shadows. One person saw a ghost named Jeralyn Levasseur when she was a child. The old, scowling woman allegedly pulled the sheets but made no threat.

The Danvers State Hospital Cemetery remains open to the public. Hundreds of patients are buried there. Graves bear numbers, not names.

Lier Sykehus still functions as a mental hospital.Norway opened Lier Sykehus in 1926. The hospital tested new medications on patients. The pharmaceutical industry refused to test these drugs on humans because they seemed too risky. Most of the place closed in 1985. Some areas still operate as a mental hospital.

Current patients share space with paranormal activity like apparitions and noises. Trespassers claim to see ghosts and shadows, but solid accounts about Lier Sykehus are few. Still, it is considered one of Norway's most haunted places.

The Narrenturm is now the Anatomical-Pathological Museum.The Narrenturm is now the Anatomical-Pathological Museum.Vienna, Austria built the Narrenturm in 1784 for the mentally ill. It was Europe's first insane asylum. Treatment did not exist then, so most 'patients' were just locked up.

Newly renovated, the Narrenturm now houses the Anatomical-Pathological Museum. It displays thousands of abnormalities, like fetuses in jars, physical human oddities, and wax models of diseases.