The Mystery

After World War II, the U.S. government and military didn’t want the Fuhrer’s powerful brain trust to be a wasted resource. As such, many prominent scientists were pardoned of their crimes under the Nazi regime and brought to the U.S. to assist in various projects.

Two scientists and several their assistants were brought into the states and kept secret from even the highest levels of regular government. Doctors Hans Rudi Bracken and Lena Hart were at the forefront of research into the creation of super soldiers. Dr. Hart specialized in the creation of “Fleshlumpkins”, parasitic creatures borne from the runaway growth potential of teratoma cells, and Dr. Bracken specialized in psychology.

By implanting the Fleshlumpkin creatures into host bodies, living or dead, Dr. Hart was able to imbue the consequent symbiote with superlative physical strength. The unfortunate consequence of this symbiosis was the effect it had on the host’s mental state. After full connection with a Fleshlumpkin was established, the host would exhibit violent and uncontrollable behavior and various forms of psychosis. This is where Dr. Bracken’s specialty in psychology would come in handy.

Using their respective talents to both encourage and harness the potentiality present in psychotic super strong animals and humans, the two doctors needed a facility where they could continue their research without the hindrance of ethical oversight. As such, The BrackenHart Home for the Criminally Insane was established in the often-overlooked Portland neighborhood of Louisville, KY.

The hospital staff scoured the streets for the mentally-handicapped vagrants that wandered aimlessly around the hospital to use as “host bodies”. Resultant of all this freely available “raw material”, the two doctor’s work progressed with great speed and varying levels of success. Consequently, distracted by their hubris and the all-consuming nature of the work itself, the two doctors failed to notice the increasing amount of creatures and “patients” that were slipping out of the facility.

One escapee was taken into local police custody, muttering to herself about horrendous experiments and bodies being burned in the furnaces in the basement of the hospital. Dismissed as another crazy person, only one officer chose to go scope out BrackenHart. The next morning, his body was found hung, drawn, quartered, and on display as a warning at the gates to the Hospital complex.

This forced police to investigate the site from both local law enforcement and the FBI. However, upon their arrival to the hospital, the only thing left to investigate was a burned-out husk of a building with evidence of human and animal cremations in the basement. Dr. Bracken and Dr. Hart were conspicuously missing, along with all the hospital’s patients and staff. The only potential witnesses to the atrocities that took place at The BrackenHart Home for the Criminally Insane were a handful of shell-shocked individuals, wandering the parking lot and babbling incoherently.

Documentation of the investigations revealed that several of the officers on the scene all reported hearing disembodied whispers and screams and catching shadowy figures out of the corner of their eye. What could be causing the sensations the investigators reported? Why would otherwise sensible people not dismiss the seemingly supernatural experiences they had while investigating? What became of the staff and patients that seemingly vanished out of existence? Just how far did Doctors Bracken and Hart go in their horrific pursuits, and where are they now? 

We may never find answers to these questions, victims to the maddening hauntings of this whispering mystery for the rest of our lives.