Editor's Note: This is the last of a five-part series exploring the haunted tales of Athens. The Post's culture staff writes from one person's point of view and journey's through coffins, ghost stories and The Ridges to declare fact from fiction.
I had heard so many versions of the story about the woman who died at The Ridges that I wasn't even sure if she was a real person. A mental hospital, the outline of a dead body, whispers of a possessed student - it had to be included in my tour of Athens' spooky sites.
This much I knew: the buildings and land that overlook Ohio University, now owned by OU and known as The Ridges, once were a mental health hospital. I was not so knowledgeable about the details of what happened there.
In order to get things straight, I made another visit to Doug McCabe at Alden
Library's archives collection. He gave me the lowdown on the patient who died, Margaret Schilling, by referencing old newspaper articles and digging from his extensive knowledge of the topic.
A January 1979 article in The Post reported Schilling's death. It confirmed she was a low-security patient who had privileges to roam the facility freely as long as she returned by curfew. When she turned up missing in December 1978, hospital staff assumed she left.
After six weeks, an employee discovered Schilling's decomposing body in the long-vacant ward. Officials do not know how she got locked in the room. It was so isolated from the rest of the hospital that it would have been impossible to hear her cries for help. She eventually lay down and died of starvation, leaving an enduring mark on the floor.
The stain looks like a person
McCabe said. He said the shape on the concrete likely was caused by sunlight from a bay window shining for weeks on her bodily fluids.
So Schilling really did die, trapped and starved, at age 53. But what about the girl who was possessed by Schilling after she touched the stain?
In an article published 25 years ago, Oct. 31, 1978, The Post detailed the experiences of Wilson Hall resident Debbie Ralph Southall and Resident Assistants Susan Herrington and Sue Goetschius. They reported a number of supernatural occurrences, including a large, inhuman night creature and a flying jar of Noxzema.
Those incidents have been twisted until it became legend that Southall visited Schilling's stain, was possessed and later committed suicide. However, there was no suicide by Southall or anyone else. She was quoted in the 1978 Post article - proof she did not commit suicide when the events in Wilson Hall happened.
But the real spoiler is this: the Wilson disturbances reported in The Post- and in places in these buildings it's just all over the floors Daniels said. We're being fairly restrictive because of the lead.
I conducted my own investigation and approached The Ridges one night anyway. Unfortunately, all doors were locked, and I couldn't get inside.
The only way I could see the stain was with the Internet. Even those images made the hair stand up on my neck. But perhaps I already was on edge from my week of excursions to Athens' scariest spots. I'm losing sleep, biting my nails, watching my back. I need to relax. Time to hit the Halloween parties.
THE END.
17
Archives
Chris DeVille
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Lin Hall, a former insane asylum, looms over The Ridges Wednesday afternoon. The Ridges is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of mental patients who died there.
