Halloween at the Asylum
On Halloween night in Philadelphia in 1995, three friends set out to explore the abandoned ruins of Byberry Mental Institution, unaware that some places never truly close their doors.

Billy, Mike, and George had grown up hearing the stories. Byberry loomed on the edge of their neighborhood, a monstrous institution packed with the insane, the forgotten, and the cruelly mistreated. Even as kids, they had listened to neighbors whisper about the screams echoing at night, the patients wandering the grounds, and the guards who seemed more like predators than caretakers. By 1995, the hospital had been closed for five years, but its shadow still stretched across the Northeast part of the city. On Halloween night, they sat in Sunrise bar, beers in hand, swapping tales of Byberry. George leaned in, eyes glinting. “Let’s go tonight. See the place for ourselves.” Mike hesitated. Billy just laughed, almost too loud. “What the…