Episode 115: The Ladd School

True Crime New England

Join Katie and Liz on the third episode of this year's special Halloween themed True Crime New England cases. This week, the girls dive wicked deep into the tragically complicated and sinister history of the Ladd School, an institution that was built in 1909 in Exeter, Rhode Island with the sole purpose of housing individuals with intellectual disabilities and teaching them life skills to reintegrate them into society. This very decent-sounding plan did not last very long, as for the next nearly nine decades, hundreds of people were subjected to extreme neglect, deplorable living conditions, and lack of basic human rights. This was largely done with the hidden motive of eugenics- the idea of stopping people of "an undesirable stock" from reproducing. In 1994, the Ladd School finally closed, leaving a legacy of haunting memories and deep regret in its place.