Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, Part l

Almost every old psychiatric hospital in the U.S. has ghost stories that surround them. Most often it is said-- because of all the negative energy connected to these facilities that they must be haunted.

Marlboro Hospital

Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital located in Marlboro Township in New Jersey is no exception to this rule.

The hospitals history did produce quite a bit of negative energy. It opened its doors in 1931. It first treated adult, adolescent and children but by the 1980s it was being used for just male and female adult patients.

The facility had a long list of problems.

Early on, rumors started to spread that this facility abused it patients. Local residents often complained that the patients were seen unsupervised outside the hospital’s fences.

One female patient disappeared for 48 hours and was later found outside frozen to death.

In 1979, one hundred and thirty one patients became ill with food poisoning--4 of them died.

Another female patient who was on a liquid diet because of an eating disorder was forced to eat a peanut butter sandwich and choked to death.

A male patient was restrained for 80 hours over the course of 5 days. These restraints should have been loosened every 2 hours. This was not done. He died as a result of blood clots that were caused by these restraints.

Marlboro Cemetery

Over the hospitals sixty-plus years in service there were over 1,500 patients who died while being cared for here. The hospital’s cemetery located across the road from the hospital has over 900 graves--those buried here had no relatives to claim them.

This cemetery is off County Route 520 and is open to the public. Recent paranormal investigators claim this area is haunted. Several interesting EVP’s have been recorded.

In 1993, Senator Richard Codey established a fake background for himself--which reflected he was a known sex offender. Despite this he was hired to be an orderly at the hospital. During his undercover investigation he observed all kinds of abuse in the hospital.

He found rampant patient abuse, wasteful spending and other illegal practices. As a result the hospital was closed down several years later.

After it closed rumors ran rampant that the old buildings on the property were haunted.

Claims of shadow people being seen in the old slaughterhouse on the property as well as other buildings resulted in many people trespassing in hopes of encountering a ghost or two. Because of this security had to be tightened on the property.

The state of New Jersey solved this problem by having the buildings torn down in 2013. Today this rural site is managed by the Monmouth County Park system. The area is now Big Bear Park.

In Part ll of Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, I share a scary ghost legend that was told for years about this hospital.