Case File 02 — October 13, 1911 

NEIGHBORS VOICE CONCERNS OVER ASYLUM GROUNDS
Burbank Tales Times — October 13, 1911

WHAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION

The second preserved newspaper makes the first one more interesting.

Again, the asylum appears prominently. And again, the date falls on the 13th.

That alone might not mean much. Newspapers report unusual events all the time, and two dates hardly establish a pattern.

But there are details here that suggest someone may already have been watching what was happening around the institution.

Reports connected to the asylum describe increasingly unusual behavior and incidents that are difficult to reconcile with the image of a modern medical institution presented when it opened.

The surrounding property is important as well. The first newspaper contained a farmer's warning that “the land has never been quite right.” Now another surviving page brings our attention back to the same general area.

Nothing in either newspaper explicitly connects these events.

And we should be careful not to connect them simply because the pages happened to be found together.

But that raises another question:

Why were these particular pages found together?

October 13, 1910.

Then another 13th.

The asylum.

The surrounding land.

It is too early to call this a pattern. But it may be the beginning of one.

FROM THE JOURNAL