Tyler Stump

Tyler Stump

Contributor

Tyler Stump is an archivist at the Pennsylvania State Archives. He is responsible for records appraisal/acquisition and specializes in records created by government-run institutions, particularly prisons and mental institutions. He has degrees in history and library science from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Killing Clio

Louis “The Laughing Eel” Ross and the Road of No Return: Incarcerating the “Criminally Insane”

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In 1921 a burglar called the “Laughing Eel” began serving a ten-year prison term, but it was 33 years before he got his freedom back. Like thousands of other incarcerated people with mental illnesses, Louis Ross was diagnosed as “criminally insane” and moved to a state hospital with a virtual life sentence. Despite his slippery… Read more →