This Week In Dust

When the state labeled Marina Couture “feeble-minded,” it was the start of a decades-long sentence — poverty, family rejection, and a brutal system that refused to let go. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on a hidden chapter of Rhode Island’s institutional history, tracing Marina’s journey from mill worker to “streetwalker” to a life defined by judgment and survival inside the almshouse and asylum. Her rare 1922 confession — recorded in her own words — reveals the realities of sex work, scandal, accusations of abuse, and a system designed to keep the vulnerable forgotten.

Based on original archival records and a lost clinical interview, this is a raw, unvarnished portrait of life inside Rhode Island's State Farm.

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 1952, a nine-year-old boy disappeared from the Exeter School — later known as the Ladd School — and what followed became the largest manhunt in Rhode Island history. Bloodhounds, helicopters, and hundreds of searchers scoured the countryside, yet the trail only grew stranger. This episode revisits the disappearance, the search, and the unsettling questions that remain.

The book: The Bones of Gary Hayman. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982504977?maas=maas_adg_2890FAF5FDCAAB9A5CCEEA045DDA7E15_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

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

In 1955, lawmakers toured the Ladd School — and what they found shocked Rhode Island. Overcrowded dorms, understaffed wards, and human suffering described in chilling detail led one legislator to call it “the home of the eternally doomed.” This episode takes you inside that visit, and into the shadows of an institution on the brink of collapse.

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.

At the turn of the 20th century, Rhode Island's State Farm at Howard housed the almshouse, asylum, prison, and reformatory. Through the rare firsthand account of Dr. Henry Aaron Jones, a physician who spent decades inside, we uncover shackled arrivals, the doctrine of force in the prison, exploitation of asylum patients, and the degradation of the almshouse. Yet Jones also pushed for reform—better sanitation, education, and dignity. His 1943 book, The Dark Days of Social Welfare, captures Howard's transformation from a 'castle of despair' toward a city of healing.

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 2006, heavy rains in Cranston, Rhode Island exposed something no one expected: human remains buried beneath a modern roadway. What followed was a stunning archeological investigation into a long-lost cemetery—once used by state institutions to bury the unclaimed, the poor, and the forgotten.

This episode follows the discovery of the State Farm Cemetery, the stories revealed through forensic and historical analysis, and the lives hidden just beneath the surface. From pipe-faceted teeth to gold-filled dentures, the bones speak—and finally, these individuals were given the recognition they were denied in life.

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 1962, Dr. Hans Unger recorded a rare three-LP set of interviews with patients at the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, capturing unfiltered conversations about isolation, delusion, faith, and resilience. Drawing from these recordings, newspaper clippings, and the asylum’s history, we revisit the voices he preserved — and the haunting events that followed. 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 February 1947, 17-year-old Rita Bouchard was found brutally murdered near the Ten Mile River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Drawing from forgotten police reports, newspaper accounts, and institutional records, we revisit the baffling contradictions in the investigation, the strange confession of a former Ladd School inmate, and the enduring mystery marked only by a scarred tree along a bike path. 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.

This episode explores the real letters of three women — Evelyn, Cora, and Dorothy — committed to the Exeter School (later known as the Ladd School) in the 1920s and 30s. Their words reveal a harrowing reality: forced sterilization, denied correspondence, institutional confinement, and lives governed by eugenic ideology. Drawing from Exeter Girls: Letters from a Feeble-Minded School, we examine how reproductive control and moral judgment shaped the fate of women labeled “feeble-minded” in early 20th-century Rhode Island.

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.

Who was Dr. Joseph Ladd — the man whose name still defines Rhode Island’s most infamous institution? In this episode, we explore his life, his shifting beliefs, and the contradictions at the heart of early 20th-century institutional care, including his advocacy for eugenics.

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 MotionArray.

Errata: Dr. Ladd established the Exeter School in February, 1908. The Spanish Flu epidemic was in 1918.

In October 1942, a string of devastating arsons shook Providence, Rhode Island — including the destruction of the Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. This episode examines a forgotten newspaper report detailing the arrest of Donald Bennett, a 23-year-old former resident of the Ladd School, and the deeper questions his case raised about institutional failure, public safety, and how society defined and managed “defective delinquents.” Based on a 1942 article from the Providence Journal and archival research from the Ladd School Historical Society.

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.