By Trace Ahmuty

Police report that on the 17th of July 1923, 59 year old Alice Brown was found dead in the closet of her room at the Oxford Retreat. Brown was found hanging by the neck by her own hair. No suspects are being questioned as the coroner has concluded that Brown had obviously committed suicide. Brown, a resident of Middletown, was being treated at the asylum for sickness of the mind. On two prior occasions Brown had unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself, stopped at the last moment by hospital workers.

This case is yet another chapter in the allegedly shady narrative of the Oxford Retreat. The asylum has recently earned a reputation for being abusive of many of its patients. According to one of the Retreat’s earliest clients, a Mrs. Fred MacMillan, the hospital uses drugs to manipulate the patients and to keep them incarcerated. MacMillan, daughter of W.H.H. Campbell, had been placed into the care of the hospital against her will several years ago. MacMillan claimed that she had been wrongfully committed and attempted to appeal the decision to place her in the care of the Retreat doctors. According to MacMillan, her attempts to check out of the hospital were hampered by the strict rules which forbid any outside contact. As part of the treatment plan at the Retreat, patients are not allowed to see any family or friends during their stay and mail is censored or, in some cases, forbidden. The doctors at the Retreat say that these measures are necessary in order to create the least stressful environment possible for the patients, most of who are there for the mental condition of nervousness. Some have argued that these measures are not necessary and there has recently been questioning into the validity of many of the asylum’s diagnoses of nervousness.

As more of these stories come to light, the hospital will need to give some explanations. No part of the hospital’s administration has been charged with any wrong doing and a hospital spokesman has insisted that Brown’s death was an isolated occurrence.