November 6th, 2008
It’s Real
In case you ever doubted the legitimacy of “The Stain” inside the Athens State Hospital Kirkbride, Ohio University researcher Glen Jackson has found that it is indeed a remnant of Margaret Schilling’s decomposing body. You can read about Jackson’s findings in The Athens News: Forensics Tackles Athens Lore. As the article explains, a residue of decomposed human tissue and a chemical cleaner mixed to cause the discoloration.
While there really wasn’t much room for skepticism as to whether Schilling’s corpse caused the stain 30 years ago, there was a bit of mystery over what process actually left the mark. This study dispels most of that mystery, but as Jackson says, it’s still not clear how the stain took the form of a human body. If somebody had cleaned the floor the way you’d expect them to, the stain would have been much more irregular. It might be wrong to expect people to always do things the way you’d expect them to though.
I’m a librarian at Ohio University working on compiling some information on the Ridges and its legends for our students. I’ve come across your site and think it’s wonderful and will be linking to it on my site. One thing, though: the Athens News has recently redone their site and all their links have changed. The article you link to in the above piece can now be found at http://athensnews.com/component/content/article/1-local-news/23910-forensics-tackles-athens-lore
Thanks, Marne!