The telephone rings, and a male voice is on the other end.

Professional, practiced.

His voice is so measured, in fact, that it takes you a moment to realize the truth.

This is a bad, bad phone call.

The calm voice on the other end is actually giving you the worst news you've ever received in your life.

Your little girl, the voice explains, is dead.

She passed away at her school and there was nothing the staff could do to save her.

But what the voice doesn't tell you is that your daughter is not the first to die, or disappear,

or be tortured within the walls of this school.

In fact, this isn't even the first phone call like this he's made,

and it certainly won't be the last. The It's 1938 and New York has a problem. Across the state, special needs children are being neglected, mistreated even.

Maybe it's the stigma. Maybe it's that families are reeling from the Great Depression

and don't have the means to take care of disabled children. But the fact is, not enough people

are stepping up to care for these kids.

In an attempt to correct this horrifying trend, the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene

is tasked with building an institution capable of housing all of them.

A suitable tract of land over 300 acres in size is found in the borough of Staten Island.

But the local residents immediately revolt. They're convinced that a mental institution will flood their neighborhood with insane criminals.

Department of Mental Hygiene Commissioner Fred McCurdy is spearheading the initiative.

The last thing he wants is for the project to get mired in local politics and lose momentum.

And so, he tells a little white lie.

To get construction underway, McCurdy assures the residents of Staten Island

...