Howard Hall, Government Hospital for the Insane

Though attendants usually had the upper hand when it came to violent interactions with patients in asylums, patients could also be violent and harbor great animosity toward those in charge of their treatment. The May 22, 1911 issue of the Washington Post detailed what could have been a blood bath at St. Elizabeths (Government Hospital for the Insane) in Washington, DC if not for the loyalty or conscience of an asylum patient.

“The plot was hatched in Howard Hall, the building in which are imprisoned all of the criminally insane patients of the hospital,” the paper explained. A man named Charles Fletcher and “nine other desperate criminals” planned to kill the attendants in the Hall and escape. Another patient, Arthur D. Barnes, overheard the plot, and saw the conspirators hide files, iron bars, and chair legs in preparation for the break.

Dr. William A. White, Superintendent at St. Elizabeths, courtesy National Library of Medicine

“When he was sure he knew everything about the plot, he told Dr. White [superintendent at St. Elizabeths]. His story was found to be true,” the paper went on. Fletcher was taken to “the United States jail for safekeeping” while the others were confined in separate cells.

President William Howard Taft

Someone on Barnes’ behalf presented a petition for pardon to President Taft, who was to rule on it the day after the story broke. Barnes had originally been sent to the penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia for life, for killing a man “in a fit of jealous rage. Later, he showed traces of insanity, and was transferred to the government hospital,” the Washington Post explained.