Elena

Well, when things go untreated for so long.

Yeah, they just get worse.

And I mean, who knows what they were treating like these symptoms were by then.

This came to a very tragic head in 1906 when Lizzie attacked and killed Nellie Wicks, the head ward at Matawan.

Oh my god.

This is so fucked up.

Unlike most of the other staff at Matawan, Wicks treated the patients with respect and kindness.

She believed they were deserving of compassion rather than scorn and abuse.

As a result, Lizzie developed an extreme fondness for her, and Wicks was one of the only, if not the only, staff member that she would listen to.

By that time, Lizzie was in seclusion, very isolated from the other patients, so her contact with other people was very limited.

Which is fine.

Yeah, so Wicks would likely have been one of the only few people she saw or spoke to on a regular basis and was probably the only one who treated her with any respect.

This attachment became a problem in 1906 when Wicks announced to her supervisors that she was engaged to be married and would be leaving her job.

While the staff at Matawan was happy for Wicks, they did warn her, Lizzie is not going to take this well.

So she felt she knew Lizzie better than they did.

She was like, no, it's fine.

But she was like, I'll wait until my final week here to let her know.

So when the final week came, Wicks went to Lizzie's room and told her she would be leaving the hospital at the end of the week.

And Lizzie stared directly in her eyes and said, you won't leave me.

So Wicks was like, I will be leaving by the end of the week.