Name Percival Goodhouse | Died August 2, 1774 | |
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Percival Goodhouse Top # 5 Facts
Percival Goodhouse (c. 1752 - August 2, 1774) was one of the first patients admitted to the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia, after its opening on October 12, 1773. A paranoid schizophrenic, Goodhouse escaped the asylum shortly after his admittance and fled to the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. He was found in the Palace's garden maze, clutching a large knife. Goodhouse was tried and convicted of treason for attempting to assassinate the governor (John Murray, Lord Dunmore) and was hanged on August 2, 1774. His body was left to rot in a field just beyond the old College campus. Students often uncovered his remains as a prank.
Several instances of supposed ghost sightings in the garden maze have been attributed to Goodhouse. One account describes the encounter of a student from the College of William & Mary with a pair of "milky, white, transparent" feet which disappeared upon closer examination. Another story, concerning the murder of a female student in the 1960s, has sometimes been mistakenly associated with Goodhouse.