17. Briarcliff Asylum is moulded around the horrors of Willowbrook State School
The model for season 2’s creepy Asylum, Briarcliff Manor, was potentially Statten Island’s Willowbrook State School.
Briarcliff Manor, the setting for season 2
Willowbrook was a state-funded institution in the mid 20th century that housed thousands of mentally disabled children in gruesome conditions.
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Due to mass public outcry, the school closed down in 1987 after a series of unethical studies and experiments were exposed by American attorney Geraldo Rivera.
The deplorable conditions at Willowbrook
Although they had hidden it for decades, many of the staff at Willowbrook would subject the children to heinous physical and sexual abuse.
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Some children went missing, hundreds were infected with hepatitis for “research”, and upon its closure, police detectives found jars filled with human remains.
Hundreds of kids were abused at the state school
Although Murphy and Falchuk have never confirmed nor denied this, it is clear to see some resemblance between the frankly horrifying Willowbrook tale, and the setting of American Horror Story’s Asylum.
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