The show you're about to listen to may contain themes of violence, occult activities, strong language, and other sensitive material.

With an emphasis on cult's murder and other adult matters, listener discretion is advised.

On cult leader, I strive for telling stories in a truthful matter, though press, media, and other resources cannot always be verified.

Sources can be found in the show notes. Hello and welcome back to cold leader.

I'm your cult leader, Spencer Henry, and I don't know about you, babes. But lately I've been thinking I could use a little time away, if you know what I mean. Like a tiny little 5150 vacation. You're not by picking up when I'm putting down. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. Ben there, done that. Bought the t-shirt, babe. I'm allowed to say it. Okay, he has been 50-150 before, but I,

I'm stable now. Okay, he graduated therapy, remember? Totally stable. Nobody's ever had it more

together than I have right now. That's right. You're looking at the peak of mental health. You're

looking at a normal person. That guy, he's normal. No problems here. Nothing to check. Nothing to,

nothing to worry about or concern ourselves with. He's allowed everywhere. That guy? Yeah,

he's allowed everywhere. In all seriousness. I did take a little digital trip to the psych ward

over the weekend. And no, it didn't involve me zooming with the

psychologist. It was me going through the online archives, reading all about this psych ward, and oh my

God, I cannot wait to get into this one. Philly babes might already know what's coming. But for everyone

else, let me introduce you to Byberry.

Officially known as the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry, which sounds almost like a fancy little

elegant place until you learn about what actually happened there. Now, we're no stranger to some

fucked up asylum history on Col cult leader, but you guys,

this one might take the cake. We got to obviously give a little backstory first. Talk about how

this all came to be, because before Byberry became, well, what it was, what it later became,

it was actually just some quiet farmland way out in northeast Philly. Is it annoying to say Philly? Is it like a dead giveaway? Because in California, for instance, when people say Cali, I'm like, okay, I'm clocking it. You're not from here. Or I'm from the Bay Area originally. So when people are like, oh, San Fran, I'm like, I know what's going on here. Okay, I know you're a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Or is it like, yeah, I'm from Philly. I say Philly. Philadelphia, babes. You got to let us know. But I'm probably going to say it more on this show. So if it's annoying, just take a shot every time I bother you. Everyone's blacked out. Anyway, back in the late 1600s, there were these four Quaker brothers

named Walton, who came over from England and they settled there and named it after their old

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