Welcome to So Dead, a podcast hosted by two women that some might say are certifiably insane.

I'm Jen Carpenter.

And I'm Danny Fairman.

Happy True Crime Tuesday.

And happy Taco Tuesday, Deadheads.

Today, we're going to be talking about a staple of mid-Michigan creepy history and lore,

the Ionia Asylum.

Ionia is a city located about 40 miles northwest of Lansing.

It's basically midway between Lansing and Grand Rapids, and in 1885, it became home to the

Michigan Asylum for insane criminals. The facility quickly changes name to the more user-friendly, Ionia State Hospital.

And for nearly 100 years, the institution housed insane felons and criminal sexual psychopaths.

So this was not one of those asylums that was like a general home for mental patients and just some of them also happened

to be criminals because they were insane and did insane things. No, this place was specifically

for mentally ill criminals. So what went on inside those walls was all bad. Or what they

considered mentally ill. Right.

And we'll get into that.

Yes.

And what went on when patients made it outside those walls was even worse.

The hospital closed in 1977, but that was years too late for several mid-Michigan families

who paid the ultimate price when inmates managed to escape the asylum.

It's Saturday, April 1st, 1967, in the Hankins?

Hankins.

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