This Week In Dust

In 1851, Rhode Island’s towns auctioned their poor to the lowest bidder. This episode exposes the grim reality of the poor farm system—where children, the elderly, and disabled people were chained, locked in sheds, or left to starve for the sake of municipal budgets. Drawing from the original Hazard report, we follow the stories of Willard Wade, Mary Slocum, and Rebecca Gibbs—lives marked by suffering, survival, and a system built on cruelty.

The book: Howard! 1900 A.D. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504926?maas=maas_adg_680B45DD54B73EEBABE0AA8854BE6480_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

In 1910, a terrifying disease erupted inside Rhode Island’s state asylum — patients wasting away with dementia, skin lesions, and panic no one could explain. Experts blamed everything from contaminated maize to exotic germs, but the real cause was hiding in plain sight.

This episode uncovers how pellagra spread behind locked doors, why officials tried to bury the evidence, and how one physician’s shocking self-experiments finally exposed the truth.

Based on original archival research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: Howard! 1900 A.D. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504926?maas=maas_adg_680B45DD54B73EEBABE0AA8854BE6480_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

In early 20th-century Rhode Island, young women deemed sexually promiscuous or simply defiant faced a "treatment" that doctors insisted was scientific progress. Wrapped in water-soaked sheets and bound to their beds, these women experienced something the medical establishment called hydrotherapy — but what was it really? This episode examines the methods used to control female bodies under the banner of institutional care.

Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: Vox Humana. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504950?maas=maas_adg_4F641E2EF7222C0D3186C423DC073975_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: Shivering From Hell" by Frequently Asked Music and "Endless Nightmare" by Oliver Garcia; licensed via Motion Array.

Behind locked doors and under watchful eyes, Rhode Island tried to save its “wayward youth” by putting them on parade. Boys drilled in military formation. Girls lined up on the lawn, performing for crowds of young millworkers. But what looked like “correction” was often something stranger: a public theater of shame, spectacle, and control. This episode peels back the curtain on the Sockanosset School for Boys and Oaklawn School for Girls, where the state’s experiments in obedience left lasting scars — and the traces still haunt the land.

Archival audio excerpt from Juvenile Delinquency: Welfare Programs for Youth (National Probation Association/U.S. Office of Education, 1936)

The book: Exeter Girls, Volume II. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504942?maas=maas_adg_2F3BE7099A7D0782577CA255E0D6F932_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

Every Halloween, Rhode Island’s most infamous institution stirs with ghost stories — chilling true accounts of hauntings, poltergeists, and unexplained encounters at the Ladd School. Former staff, urban explorers, and locals recount phantom footsteps, voices in the dark, and vanishing lights, all pulled from the viral Facebook thread that resurfaces each October.

But not everyone is convinced. Through a tangle of belief and skepticism, we follow those who swear they’ve felt the cold grip of the unknown, and those who insist nothing ever haunted these halls.

The book: House Dogs in the Turnips. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504969?maas=maas_adg_CB587186D6291B70C0F00DD4DEE4AA25_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

Urban legends swirled for decades around the abandoned Ladd School in Exeter, Rhode Island — secret tunnels, hidden experiments, wild farm plots, and stories of people still living deep inside the ruins. But where did these rumors come from? And how close were they to the truth?

This episode follows the strange overlap between myth and fact, as history reveals something even more unsettling: a real discovery inside a long-abandoned building in 2001, so bizarre it defies explanation... and still hasn’t been forgotten.

Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: House Dogs in the Turnips. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504969?maas=maas_adg_CB587186D6291B70C0F00DD4DEE4AA25_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

In early 20th-century Rhode Island, love could be a crime inside the walls of state institutions. This episode unravels three real stories of relationships that turned volatile behind locked doors — where longing was pathologized, intimacy was policed, and the consequences were severe. Drawing from rare case files, newspaper archives, and institutional records, we explore how the state criminalized desire and turned heartbreak into violence.

Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: Exeter Girls, Volume I. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504934?maas=maas_adg_2EF8DB7918BF3F3B64402220044CCFE5_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

Beneath moss and cracked stone on the edge of Exeter, ninety-one lives lie hidden — silent, unclaimed, and nearly erased. Historic Cemetery No. 35 isn’t just a graveyard. It’s a ledger of vanished names, lost families, and secrets the state tried to bury for good.

Who were they? Why did no one come? And what does the earth remember when everyone else has forgotten?

Journey inside the Ladd School’s shadowy past — where records whisper, graves sink, and Rhode Island’s most vulnerable simply disappeared.

Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: House Dogs in the Turnips. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504969?maas=maas_adg_CB587186D6291B70C0F00DD4DEE4AA25_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.

In 19th-century Rhode Island, tuberculosis was a relentless killer — and desperation gave rise to vampire folklore. Families exhumed loved ones, cut out hearts, and burned them in hopes of stopping the disease, while the state built almshouses and asylums that only spread the contagion further. From the famous case of Mercy Brown to hidden deaths inside Exeter and Howard, this episode traces how fear, folklore, and failed institutions blurred the line between medicine and superstition. Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

The book: Vox Humana. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504950?maas=maas_adg_4F641E2EF7222C0D3186C423DC073975_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array

In 1940s Rhode Island, accusations of witchcraft weren’t confined to the distant past—they were used as evidence in modern courtrooms. This episode uncovers the true story of Concetta DeSanto, a woman whose poverty, immigrant background, and belief in curses collided with state power and psychiatric authority. Drawing from rare archival records and forgotten case files, we explore how folk beliefs, social judgment, and generational poverty shaped one family’s fate—and how the shadow of the Salem witch trials lingered long after the last colonial execution.

The book: Exeter Girls, Volume I. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504934?maas=maas_adg_2EF8DB7918BF3F3B64402220044CCFE5_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.