Halloween triggers my ghoulish spirit.....

I love learning about the hauntings of abandon castles with diabolical dungeons, eerie cemeteries filled with nefarious spirits, and ethereal beings lurking in the shadows of murderous forests but what I love the most are asylums.  I know but there you go.  I also love Italy.  I say that all the time so when I came across an abandon asylum in Milan, I turned on the Italian ghostbuster in me and found a gem of a wicked place full of history dating back all the way to 1863.


If you happen to be heading off to Milan, Italy, you might want to check this place out and please let me tag along.

Lesson in Italian, Manicomio is the Italian word for mental hospital.

The hospital was built in 1863 in Limbiate, Italy, close to Milan.  This place has a rather intriguing past to say the least.  The villa was constructed by the family of Lombard noblemen Pusterla.  The villa changed hands a few more times and became the headquarters of Napoleon Bonaparte (Villa Napoloen) during the French Revolutionary War while he was campaigning in Italy.  I did another post about Napoleon's time in Italy, and you can read that here if you like.

The villa was ultimately abandoned and was purchased by the Municipality of Milan (a fancy way of saying city council).  They decided to reconstruct the villa and transform it into a psychiatric hospital (Mombello di Limbiate).  In 1879, the Ospedale Psichiatrico Giuseppe Antonini was opened as the psychiatric hospital of Milan.

This new hospital could accommodate up to 900 patients but when they opened were already overcrowded and had upwards of 1200 patients.  There were only six doctors so you can do the math on that one and to complicate matters further, during the First World War, there were 3,500 patients.  This was the largest psychiatric hospital in Italy during the twentieth century.  They divided the patients up by degree of illness and severity of their disease.

There is documented proof that the earliest forms of electroshock therapy, a.k.a. electroconvulsive therapy, a.k.a. ECT, was developed by Dr. Ugo Cerletti, an Italian neurologist.  It is said he had this idea when he was at a slaughterhouse in Rome.  He observed the responses of pigs being electrically shocked prior to slaughter which cause them to convulse and become docile which in turn made it easier to kill them.  I guess he just thought, hey, lets electrocute humans to induce convulsions and see how it goes, which he did.

Those lucky patients with schizophrenia and depression were shocked to the point of convulsion repeatedly.  And while there were improvements, 80+ years later, psychiatrists will admit they are unclear how this technique actually works.  A few believe that this procedure causes a "good kind of brain damage" what ever that is.  Someone should have tested out this method on the good doctor himself.

In 1978, the asylum was shut down due to the Basaglia Law (Italian Mental Health Act of 1978).  The property was neglected and abandoned.  The buildings became dilapidated and were vandalized.  A few buildings were spared and are in use by a high school and a smaller healthcare facility but they are on borrowed time and will most likely be shut down in the near future.

I also found two random factoids that I thought were interesting, for example, did you know it is illegal for anyone to name a pig Napoleon in France.

I know, this is not really relevant but since Napoleon once resided here, I just thought I would throw that in here.  I do what I want to do.

Here is a better one.  The hospital (Mombello di Limbiate) hosted the illegitimate son of deadbeat dictator, Benito Mussolini.  (You can learn more about him here if you like but FYI, he is a total douche bag).

Yeah, so, it turns out that Mussolini attempted to arrange the death of Ida Dasler (his first wife) and his son with her, Benito, Jr.  Mussolini sent a couple of his fascist thugs to erase all evidence that either of them existed and kill them both.  Not only had the thugs failed to kill them, they missed a very important piece of information, a marriage certificate.  Oh, and there was also a document ordering Mussolini to pay child support (poor guy, he did not realize he was actually supposed to support his own children).

Mussolini eventually forced Ida Dasler into a mental hospital to silence her, and she was told her that her son was dead, which in reality he was not.  She ended up dying of a brain hemorrhage in 1937.  (They called it a brain hemorrhage but I am pretty sure a bullet in the brain can cause a brain hemorrhage but what do I know).  Benito, Jr., was kidnapped and imprisoned at Mombello di Limbiate.  In 1940, he tried to escape but that did not go so well.  He was captured and eventually died in 1942 under "mysterious circumstances."  That story is mentale, right?  I get on a roll and literally cannot stop.

If you are ready to head out and take a tour, click here for info.


I found this great video on YouTube if you want to take a look inside.

In bocco al lupo and Ciao!

~

War, terrible war.............

In the end it does not matter whose side you are on.  Innocent people are dying.  Pray for all the innocent lives that were lost today.

UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syria/ … ISLAMIC RELIEF: http://islamicreliefcanada.org/appeals/syria-crisis/ … SAVE THE CHILDREN: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/where-we-work/greater-middle-east-eurasia/syria …

My thoughts on Dunkirk............

The girls and I saw Dunkirk today, and I will admit my main objective was to see eye-candy Harry Styles, I love him!

I am interested in history but a war movie is really not my kind of flick but let me tell you that ten minutes in, I was completely hooked by this movie.  I was still waiting to see Harry, but the movie was holding my attention.  Completely invested.

We saw the movie in IMAX which was insanely ((((loud)))), I am talking hideously loud, and despite the topic of war, the scenes were visually stunning.



Christopher Nolan kept me on the edge of my seat with this ticking-clock thriller.

So many things were going on from plunging planes, sinking ships, explosions, beach bombardments, and drownings.

This is a must see movie.

I would not be surprised if this movie is the movie of the year.  Bravo!

Influential, dictator, political, and controversial? Comparable to the likes of Hitler

Lets talk about Stalin:  Renegade rebel causing Hell on earth.

Joseph Stalin was an epic leader of the powerhouse known as the USSR for more than 30 years.  He is considered the dictator/person who is responsible for more deaths than any other dictator/person in history.  Here are a few factoids of his life.

~He was born in the small village of Gori, Georgia (formerly the Georgian Empire in Medieval times) on December 18, 1879.  Most people are taught that Stalin was Russian but he was actually Georgian.

~His birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Junghashvili.  The name Stalin comes from the Russian word for steel which is the name Stalin was given while he was a revolutionary.

~He experienced many difficulties growing up (don't we all?) for example, he was born with two adjoined toes on his left foot, he suffered from Smallpox around the age of seven which left his face scarred and caused his left arm to be permanently damaged with a length discrepancy compared to his right arm, at the age of 12 he was in an accident involving a horse-drawn carriage, and he was the victim of domestic violence/abuse by his alcoholic father.

The Russian Orthodox Theological Seminary
from the side of the Soldier's Bazaar, 1870s.

~His mother enrolled him in a church school so he could become a priest but unfortunately for the world, he dropped out.  He actually became an atheist.

~In 1906, he married Ekaterina Syanidze who was presumably already one month pregnant.  Ekaterina gave birth to a baby boy, Iakob.  Ekaterina died in August 1907 from typhus.  Their son, Iakob died in prison during WWII in Germany of a gunshot wound to the head; suicide was not ruled out.

~Stalin gave marriage a second chance with Nadezhda Alliluyeva, the youngest child of a Russian Revolutionary.  They were married from 1919 until 1932.  Alliluyeva, allegedly, shot herself in the head after she fought with Stalin pubicly at a party but official documents claim she died of an appendicitis.

Other interesting facts include:

~As I previously stated, Stalin killed more people than any other person in history but ironically he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, not once but twice.

~Did I mention he was only 5'4?

~He was a lover of red wine.

~He used to air brush his photos to make himself appear more attractive.

~He claimed to be John Wayne's biggest fan.

~Can you believe that the legendary Johnny Cash knew that Stalin had died even before President Dwight Eisenhower?  Yep, turns out, Johnny Cash was trained to decipher Russian Morse Code. Cash was working as a radio operator that very day when the message came through.  Another side note on Johnny is that job bought him his first guitar.

~It is alleged that Stalin was trying to make a hybrid ape-man.  He wanted to create semi-intelligent super beings.  Strong, super beings that could eat bad food and work long hours.  Basically, he wanted war machines.  He ordered a Russian scientist to create this being but when he failed, he was arrested and exiled.  You can check out this documentary here.

~Stalin died March 5, 1953.  He was 74 years old.

Find out more:
History.com
Ducksters
Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
More about the ape-man super beings here.

World War I, aka the Great War, aka the War of the Nations, aka the War to End All Wars.....

No matter what you call it, this four-year conflict was the sixth deadliest war in the history of the world, cost the US a whopping $30 billion, left 17 million dead, 20 million injured, and caused the collapse of four major world empires which include the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, and the Russian Empire.

Another interesting fact is that the WW1 battles were fought over every ocean and almost every continent but the majority of the battles were fought on European land.

The big question is what exactly started WWI, there are a few causes actually from Imperialism to alliances to differences in foreign policies to some people just believed that Germany wanted to go to war but whatever the case may be, certainly the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (heir to the throne of Austria and Hungary) and his pregnant wife, Sophie, is what flipped the switch on this war.

 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

The assassination was planned and carried out by a Serbian terrorist group, The Black Hand, and Gavrilo Princip a Bosnian revolutionary.

The assassination took place on June 28, 1914 and a month later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and subsequently in August 1914, Turkey (Ottoman Empire) and Germany negotiated a secret alliance, the following day Germany declared war on France, a day later Germany invaded Belgium which in turn forced Britain to declare war on Germany, and finally by August 10, 1914, Austria-Hungary invaded Russia.

So to sum it all up, the assassination of Ferdinand of Austria caused an already critical situation in Europe to erupted into a full blown war between the British Empire, the Soviet Union, the United States which was previously "neutral" (entered on April 6, 1917), and France on one side and Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Austro-Hungary on the other.  Of course, torpedoing passenger ships such as the Lusitania and submarine warfare by the Germans certainly did not help anything so we will just conclude with there were several reasons for WWI.

~Interesting or lesser known facts from WWI.

*Private George Edwin Ellison was the last British solider to die in WWI at 11 a.m., on November 11, 1918.

*Post-war: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland were recognized as independent nations. Whoo-hoo!!

*Ever hear of canary women?  With the majority of the men off at war, a million women worked long hours in poor condition with dangerous chemicals which caused them to have toxic jaundice and turned their skin yellow.

Dr. Gillies

*New Zealand-born surgeon Harold Gillies basically paved the way for plastic surgery.

He is known as the father of plastic surgery.  You see, shrapnel cause many severe facial injuries during WWI so Dr. Gillies helped the victims with facial reconstruction.
Just because I like to ramble on and lose my focus, later in Dr. Gillies' plastic surgery practice, he carried out the first modern day sex reassignment surgery from male to female which is now the norm for the procedures done today.

Yep!  I am totally out of focus.
What was I saying?

You can read more about his patient here.

Just another really random side note because again, I like to ramble............., Dr. Gillies was the great-great-grandfather of Daniel Gillies who plays Elijah in the Originals.  LoVe HiM!!!



*Sidney Lewis was the youngest British solider in WWI.  He was only 12 years old but he lied about his age.  The law required you to be 19 at the time.

Lewis.

Did you know that the first known use of chemical weapons was during WWI?  Mustard gas or Yperite was used by the German Army in September 1917.

This is considered the most lethal of all poisonous chemicals used during the war.

It is odorless, highly explosive, and took over 12 hours to take effect resulting in blisters, internal bleeding, attack of the bronchial tubes, stripping mucous membranes, pain, sore eyes, and vomiting.

*Blood banks were also established during WWI.

*Was the Red Baron real?  Yep, he was born Manfred von Richthofen.  The British gave him the nickname of the Red Baron because during WWI, he flew a small red plane.  The French called him Le Petit Rouge.  He was the highest ranked fighter pilot in all of Germany.  Read more here.

*The British created an endless supply of slang terms/nicknames during WWI, for example, New Zealanders were Kiwis, Canadians were Canucks, Aussies were Diggers, Irish were Paddies, Germans were Jerries, and the Scots were referred to as Jocks.  They referred to cemeteries as rest camps and chaplains were devil dodgers.  Other words still used today include crummy, cooties (lice), lousy, pushing up daisies (death), and thingamajig.

*Zippers, Kotex pads, sun lamps, Kleenex, wrist watches, pilot communication systems, and stainless steel were all invented during WWI and surprisingly enough so were vegetarian soy sausages.  No kidding, Konrad Adenauer, the first German chancellor, created the Friedenswurst a.k.a. the peace sausage due to the lack of supply and cost of meat.  Cheers Chancellor Adenauer!!!  Vegetarians salute you!

*Winnie The Pooh creator, AA Milne and JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings author both served in WWI.

*Trench warfare is an idea that wound not be repeated in subsequent wars by any country.  Basically, soldiers dug out long ditches to stand in and fight but turns out, this was the worst idea ever!

*Ever heard of the Harlem Hellfighters?  They were the first African-American regiment to serve during WWI.

*My final interesting factoid for WWI is that dogs were used as messengers in WWI.  Like this little cutie, Stubby.  Check him out in the Smithsonian where he is on display or check out their "The Price of Freedom Exhibit" here that tells all about Stubby and his accomplishments.

Sergeant Stubby from World War I
Sadly, it seems that WWI does not get as much attention called to it as other wars but as you can tell by just what we discovered, it is a very important part of history and should have more time dedicated to it.  So keep reading about it through the awesome links in this post.

Crash Course World History John Green video.

More on Ferdinand. 
BBC trenches

The original pirate of the Caribbean.

The Mystery of History volume 4 brings us to more cool history.  Visit Bright Ideas Press to pick up your copy of the Mystery of History volume 4 here.   You will love it!

Jean Lafitte National Park

Learning about the War of 1812 has brought our attention to a debonair, cultured, French pirate named Jean Lafitte.  He was literally the King Pirate.  He was one of the last pirates to make a name for himself in the Caribbean before he died February 5, 1823.  This is how the story goes.

Jean Lafitte and his brother, Pierre, led an organized group of pirates on a small island in Louisiana (1810).  His cover business was a blacksmith shop located in the French Quarter of Louisiana.

Lafitte's blacksmith shop is the oldest bar in the US today.  This structure has been there since 1700.

They seized ships, stole the cargo from the ships, and smuggled the goods illegally into Barataria Bay which is a bay/island off the Gulf of Mexico located between Empire, Grand Isle, and Louisiana.

Map 1813 of Grand Isle and Grand Terre

You have to remember the time frame here.  This is during the time of the War of 1812.

The US had just imposed a trade embargo with regards to merchant ships in this area so while the new settlers of The Louisiana Territory were happy to have Lafitte smuggling in all sorts of exotic goodies, the federal government, however, was not.  Imagine that, the government not happy with something.

Lafitte was so successful smuggling in the goods that the Governor of Louisiana offered a $500 reward to anyone who captured him.  Lafitte was amused at this idea and made a counteroffer of $1000 for anyone who captured the governor.

The news of Lafitte spread throughout the colonies and back to Britain.  King George III wrote a letter to Lafitte promising him citizenship and land if he would join their side.  The king also made it clear that is he declined, his island and everything and everyone on it would be destroyed.  Lafitte ended up going to New Orleans to warn the Americans that the English were coming.  Turns out, Lafitte favored the Americans over the English.

In the end, that did him little good.  The Americans responded to the warning about the English coming by locking up Lafitte's men and raiding the tiny island.  Andrew Jackson realized New Orleans was not prepared for a British attack so Lafitte and his men were released on the condition that they assist the U.S. Navy against the Brits.  Lafitte and his band of pirates are the reason New Orleans did not fall to the British.

Lafitte and Pierre moved to Galveston, Texas (1817) where they started up a pirate colony (around 1,000 people).  It is interesting to note Lafitte was the first known European settler in Galveston.
Lafitte made money hand over fist selling contraband, smuggling, selling slaves, and open piracy.

He built a home which he named Maison Rouge (red house).

Located at 1417 Harborside, Galveston, Texas

In 1821, Lafitte was forced to leave Galveston as the result of one of his men attacking an American ship.  He did leave but not before he burned down the town behind him.

Allegedly, Lafitte had buried much of his treasures in parts of Galveston and New Orleans.  No one has claimed to have found any of those treasures.  

Now for my favorite part.  The hauntings.  I love a good ghost story.  It is said that the ghost of swashbuckler Jean Lafitte still roams around Galveston Island, especially in and around his house.  The most commonly reported sightings are of ghostly figures and lights; balls of light in random colors such as blue, white, red, and yellow have been seen.  Apparently the neighbors say that these ghostly figures and balls of light are such a common occurrence, they do not pay them any attention any more.

There are also multiple reports of screams, voices, and mumbling that are unexplained.  Perhaps the most frightening accounts (to me) are the hounds.
Reportedly, the Maison Rouge is also home to a pack of supernatural black dogs with flaming eyes.  Reports of growling, barking, and the smell of wet dogs have been reported.  Seeing these dogs is considered an omen of impending disaster...........Legend has it that Pirate King Jean Lafitte had several black dogs, he called devil dogs, which he used for hunting.  These dogs were trained to hunt animal and humans.

Did I mention that Lafitte's blacksmith shop is also haunted?  It is according to the locals.  Reports of manifestations, haunted women's restroom, furniture moving, piano playing with no one there, and so on.

Multiple people have said they have seen Jean Lafitte himself in the fire place and in dark corners.  People have also claimed to see an image of a woman in a mirror on the second floor.  It is also said a male and female also maneuver around the place.  Sounds like my kind of place!

Take a swamp tour.
Read more here.
Learn more about lost loot.
More on the haunted blacksmith's shop and here.

Louisiana Purchase

We left off just after the French Revolution was quieting down and Napoleon Bonaparte became a key player.  You can read that blog post here.

Here is the story of the greatest real estate deal in the history of the US to date.  With the wrap up of the French and Indian War in 1762 (the French lost Quebec to the Brits in this war and was nearly bankrupt) France ended up deeding the Louisiana territory to Spain to cover their enormous debts.  In October 1800, Spain ceded the Louisiana territory back to France in a secret arrangement.

This land was a massive 828,000 square miles.  Bonaparte planned to revive the French Empire in the New World.  He thought the Louisiana territory would be the perfect place to do just that.

So in 1802, the French took possession of the Louisiana territory (officially).  The French sent an army ship to St. Domingue and another to New Orleans (a huge French settlement at the time).  This was a source of apprehension for the westerns that were already there.  They were not excited by the fact that the French would have more power and control.  Thomas Jefferson (president at the time) sent James Monroe (5th President of the US) to meet Robert Livingston (US minister to France) in France to purchase West Florida and New Orleans from the French for $10 million dollars.  When that plan did not pan out, they went to England to try and form a military alliance.

In the meantime, the entire French army stationed in St. Domingue was decimated by yellow fever and France and England were still in war mode.  It was because of this and financial problems that Napoleon decided to offer Monroe and Livingston all of the Louisiana territory for $15 million dollars (about three cents an acre).  This was approximately double the land that President Jefferson had originally asked for but Napoleon wanted the money and Jefferson wanted the land so it was a good deal for both parties.  This transaction is called the Louisiana Treaty.

The Louisiana Territory included the Mississippi River, westward to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico in the New Orleans area all the way up to the Red River to the Canadian border.  There are historians that believe Napoleon had no right to sell this land to the US since he made secret dealings to get the land back from Spain.

There was a problem with this, however.  Jefferson had a policy of strict adherence to the Constitution but according to the Constitution, Jefferson did not actually have the power to purchase the Louisiana Territory so he tweaked the Constitution just a bit to make it legit, shhhh!!!

This is the point that President Jefferson hires Lewis and Clark to explore this unknown territory. And this is the point where we stop because Lewis and Clark need their own blog post so that will be up next.  Check out the great links below.

Ducksters
Meriwether Lewis
William Clark
More facts
Science of Lewis and Clark

Benedict Arnold from patriot to spy.......

Benedict Arnold is a name synonymous with being the most famous traitor in American history, but why?

Well for starters in 1779, he was assisting the British in the American Revolutionary War for well-over 16 months before his espionage activities were discovered.  Turns out Arnold was passing along secrets to the British, specifically Captain John Andre (British spy chief).  Arnold's wife, Peggy, helped out with this using codes and invisible ink.  These letters detailed all sorts of goodies for the British including troop positions, the

number of troops, and how many supplies the colonist were in possession of.

The second scandal Arnold was involved with was in 1780 when Arnold became commander of Fort West Point.  He basically handed over control of West Point to the British (Captain Andre) by agreeing to surrender the fort for 20,000 pounds.

The Americans captured Captain Andre, and they found the detailed papers outlining the plot to take over West Point in his possession.  Andre was hanged for his crimes.  With his co-conspirator, Andre, deceased, Arnold quickly fled and hid out with the British.  Arnold was granted land in Canada by the British government.

After the war, Arnold moved to England where he set up a merchant trading business with the West Indies.  He had an unsavory business ethic to say the least. It was said that no one single person in the world trusted him.  He spent the rest of his life in London where he died in 1801 at the age of 60.  He
left behind a massive amount of debt.  It was thought his death was related to issues involving an anxiety/nervous disorder.  I guess with all that debt and lying it would be hard not to be nervous and stressed out.
Fact monster
Bio.
History.com
US History
Arnold family tree
PDF with info and worksheets
Mr. Nussbaum
Heritage History