Rumors, Lies, and Exaggerations
The following websites attempt to provide brief background history on the hospital and Dr. DeJarnette before fully diving into ghost stories. The history provided often contains wrong dates and exaggerations. The language used to describe the hospital is harsh and accusatory towards the doctors and the science practiced on the patients. These problems reflect the authors' failure to interpret the situation and information in the appropriate time context that the eugenics movement occurred. It appears that these websites relied on one another and wikipedia for information, instead of providing original research. As a result, they are continously perpetuating this rewriting of DeJarnette's legacy.
Click on these websites to explore examples
Accepting and Perpetuating the Lies
Why should the public care about these lies and false history? Is it really impacting and influencing the public's understanding of the hospital? Sadly, yes they are. These claims surrounding DeJarnette have been accepted as fact for the most part. People researching the abandoned buildings of Western State are interested because of the "dark history" that surrounds the mental hospital. As a result, many naively accept these websites as truth and continue to contribute to the conversation about their own personal experiences. These two websites offer just a glimpse into the obsession of ghost activity happening at the DeJarnette buildings and the perpetuation of inaccurate history.
