The informant says she lives in a small town called Yorktown Heights in New York, just an hour outside of New York City itself. Because it’s a small town, urban legends are well known to almost everyone there, and almost anyone who visits the town hears a version of the legend from someone who lives there. One of the town’s more prominent urban legends has to do with the old insane asylum in the area.

Letchworth Village was an insane asylum that was shut down when allegations of malpractice and abuse surfaced. Due to the circumstances of the asylum’s closing, most people in her town believe the abandoned building to be haunted by the ghosts of patients who perished inside. Kids, including the informant’s friends, still trespass onto the property year-round in order to take pictures, especially for class photo projects despite the illegality of their actions. She says they like the creepy vibe, but the photos they bring back really scare her. She says the pictures show chains bolted to the walls where they would restrain patients who were having fits. She said there were smears of blood next to the chains in the pictures.

She believes that if ghosts were to haunt any place near her town, the asylum is the most likely place for the hauntings to occur because the patients would want revenge, or perhaps simply couldn’t sever their ties to the asylum. She’s always believed in ghosts, and says she got this belief from her father. She says her mother believes more in spirits instead of in malevolent entities. She says her parents hold their paranormal beliefs close, and that the beliefs stem from personal beliefs instead of from religion.

Not everyone truly believes that Letchworth Village is haunted, though everyone is familiar with the legend. The informant says that everyone agrees it’s a good story, and that the asylum itself looks like “something straight out of Scooby-Doo.” “People like to be scared,” she said. “They like the thrill of it. Everyone’s curious about the creepy, haunted asylum, and the intrigue and the fear of the unknown really keep the legend going.”