October 06, 2025

Episode 174 Southern Asylums and the Spirits Within

35 minutes

Across the South, asylums were built with the promise of healing — but inside their walls, countless lives were marked by fear, neglect, and cruelty. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, explore the haunting history of institutions like Broughton Hospital, Cherry Hospital, Central State, and Bryce. From mysterious deaths and forced sterilizations to the tragedy of the Eller twins and the lifetime confinement of Junius Wilson, these are the real horrors that gave rise to Southern asylum ghost stories — and the suffering that still echoes through their halls.

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Episode Sources

Associated Press coverage, April 1962 — “Twin Sisters Die Together in Asylum.”

Winston-Salem Journal, April 1962 (coverage of coroner Dr. John C. Reece’s statements).

Morganton News Herald, April 1971 coverage of Dr. Paul Douglas Boyles and Betty Cheek Yarborough.

Associated Press regional wire, April 14–15, 1971.

Find a Grave – Betty Jo Eller & Bobbie Jean Eller memorials.

Southern Spirit Guide: “Ill Defined and Unknown Cause of Morbidity and Mortality.”

Asheville Terrors: “Broughton Hospital.”

Schoen, Johanna. Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Segrest, Mab. Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum. New Press, 2020.

Pennsylvania Hospital Archives – Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride papers.

Grob, Gerald N. The Mad Among Us: A History of the Care of America’s Mentally Ill. Harvard University Press, 1994.

Yanni, Carla. The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

“Central State Hospital Cemetery Restoration Project.” Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution archival coverage on Central State Hospital.

The Crimson White (University of Alabama student paper):

“The Hidden History Behind Bryce Hospital” (2023).

“Bryce Uncovered: A Look at the Asylum’s Short-Lived Newspaper” (2017).

Wyatt v. Stickney, 325 F. Supp. 781 (M.D. Ala. 1971).

Alabama Department of Mental Health archives.

HauntedPlaces.org – “Bryce Hospital.”

Ghost Hunts USA – “Bryce Hospital.”

Ghost City Tours – “Central State Hospital.”

US Ghost Adventures – “Central State Hospital.”

UNC–Chapel Hill Southern Oral History Program — Junius Wilson case archives.

News & Observer (Raleigh) coverage of Junius Wilson’s release and life, 1990s–2000s.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

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By Shannon Ballard

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