BEDLAM'S CONSPIRACY

"The Rambling Madness"

"The Invalid's Crutch"

"Insanities Anchor"

Original box design, art & written research by Eric Gross 

During ongoing renovations at the Philadelphia College of Medicine in 1998, two workmen installing fiber optic cable discovered a walled up entryway to a hidden sub-basement.  The Director of the College decided it best to keep the news of this discovery on a need to know basis only.  It was explained to the Board of Regents that disclosing a discovery of this magnitude on the institute’s grounds would turn the running of the facility into a media circus.  The college would make plans to announce any findings to the press in a manner more suitable, if and when the time arrived.

The actual reason why this information was suppressed was most probably due to the discovery of corpses found by the archaeological survey team.  Ongoing examination revealed that the sub-basement was used as a sanitarium, though there are no records of it are in existence. No information pertaining to the excavation, findings and the subsequent investigation have ever been released publicly.

The college received several sizable contributions from an undisclosed Fraternal Organization which is believed to have kept all of this information in the dark. In exchange for continued silence, this group has also acquired several items from the excavation by private auction:

• A History on Unorthodox Medical Treatments for the Incurably Insane and Perilously Wounded  by Doctor Elias T. White
• The Journal of Doctor Elias T. White - believed to be a pseudonym used by Phillip LeMarchand
• The Arcanum Masonica penned by Poor Richard Saunders, Ben Franklin's pseudonym
• A brass puzzle box referred to in  Dr. White's Journal by the names Bedlam’s Conspiracy - "The Invalid's Crutch", and "Insanities Anchor"

Several entries in Dr. White's Journal tell of secret meetings held at the sanitarium recalling the involvement of a great number of America's Founding Fathers.  Later passages go on to mention strange initiation rites performed by the secret orders members on the mentally disturbed patients.  

Mentioned also among these well known historical figures is a surgeon of great skill who came to be referred to only as The Cutter  who was placed in control of overseeing the operation of the entire ward. 

Other passages describe cruel and unnecessary medical procedures being performed and taught to the students in a small make shift medical theater. The entries about The Cutter describe him/her as being a pioneer in innovation, knowledge, skill, and amputation.  The Cutter's teachings were elevated to an art form and widely used during the American Revolution and Civil War.

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