Commitment Criteria: 23 Women Patients of Camarillo State Mental Hospital: A Look Inside One of America’s Most Infamous Mental Asylums

By Kirsten Anderberg

Follow 23 women's paths into Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California. (Camarillo Hospital was open from 1936-1997 and in its heyday, housed 7,000 patients at a time.) Due to its proximity to Los Angeles, Camarillo Hospital had an abnormal amount of Hollywood connections. Life stories in this book range from the criminally insane to women who were committed due to controlling husbands. In this first volume, 23 women's stories are told, including those of Marilyn Monroe's mother, Comedian Bob "Bazooka" Burns' daughter, Actress Gia Scala (who starred in movies with Glenn Ford, Gregory Peck and more), Edward G. Robinson's daughter-in-law, Silent film actress Catherine Smith, Actress and race horse stable owner Paula Stanway Thorpe, One of the first women run for CA governor Hazel Younger, Ex-wife of Diamond Walnut Growers Inc.'s founder, and the 4th woman gassed to death in CA's then 111 year history of the death sentence by gas chamber. These stories range from 1942-1986. Includes 22 photographs of the abandoned hospital taken by the author. These photographs have never been published in a book before.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1466253169
• ISBN13: 9781466253162
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"