"Cuckoo's Nest" Hospital Remains: 3,500 Unclaimed Souls

The mental hospital where "One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed is seeking survivors of 3,500 former patients and inmates. The 1975 movie starred Jack Nicholson as a disruptive mental patient. (Warner Bros. Entertainment/IMDB)

(CBS/AP) They call it the "room of forgotten souls:" the storage area at Oregon's state mental hospital where the cremated remains of 3,500 former patients and inmates were stashed away. Now the decrepit, 128-year-old hospital - the site where "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed - is trying to match the remains with surviving relatives.

It won't be an easy task.

On Friday, the Oregon State Hospital published online the names, birthdays, and dates of death for the former patients and prison inmates, who died between 1914 and the 1970s. The remains were discovered in 2004 in corroding copper canisters. Some of them had fused together after years of neglect.

The 1975 movie, in which Jack Nicholson played a wily mental patient, drew national attention to the treatment of patients in psychiatric hospitals. Nearly 30 years later, a group of lawmakers stumbled upon the remains while touring the hospital and vowed to improve mental health treatment.

Their discovery was a catalyst for the approval of a new state mental hospital and a boost in staffing.

Officials were able to identify all but four canisters of remains. Relatives have claimed those belonging to 120 people since lawmakers first drew attention to the cans seven years ago.

The first patients moved into Oregon's new 620-bed mental institution this month, leaving behind a crumbling hospital that had toxic paint, asbestos and a leaky roof. Forty percent of it was unusable, left to collect pigeon droppings and piles of antique medical equipment.

The old building was designed around outdated theories of mental health treatment. The hospital was harshly criticized in 2008 for poor management practices after federal investigators found mice in rooms, deaths from pneumonia and outbreaks of scabies, along with nearly 400 cases of patient-against-patient assault during one year.

The new facility is built with shatterproof glass instead of jail-like bars. To provide the privacy that helps with treatment, many patients have their own rooms.

With any luck, the former patients and inmates may soon have their own places too.

[RSWG77]

The truth of the cremains that the Oregon State Hospital hid away, some for nearly a century, is not that they were "unclaimed" or that family members "refused to claim the cremains" as the State of Oregon and their state funded and operated hospital has repeatedly been quoted as labeling the cremains and their attempt to justify the discovery. The existence of the urns was discovered and stumbled upon, the Oregon State Hospital did not make any attempt prior to the "discovery" of their existence in 2004 to locate relatives or family when the patients died or at any time during the 20th century. The urns were moved from one inappropriate place to another where they suffered such decay that the names of the PEOPLE who died were no longer visible.
Seven years later, the list the hospital has put together is the names they could connect with the engraved numbers on the canisters. My g-granduncles died while in the institution. They were committed because of epilepsy; the mother disowned them after their father died. After years of research my cousin and I found this information.
The Oregon State Hospital has repeatedly told us they do not know where their remains are. Their reasons are contradicted by the records we found. Now I recognize one of the cremains listed as my g-granduncle, one of the brothers they denied knowledge of the location of his remains.
I just sent off the necessary information in order to finally claim our relative.
Just an FYI, if you are one of the unfortunate people who do recognize a family member on their list and want to secure their cremains, the woman in charge of the process has as much sensitivity as a piece of card board.
The State of Oregon plans a Memorial for the "unclaimed" cremains. In the interest in getting more funds for their construction project and to appear that they "care" about the people who died and whose cremains THEY never told anyone about and left in rotting urns with no names.
I don't understand why the U.S. Government has not pressed criminal charges against them, not to mention the thousands of people who died, why should we accept the reason the OSH recorded as cause of death when they've proven to show the least amount of respect for these people.