Interesting, Almost Unbelievable Story

Bruce J. Ennis' Prisoners of Psychiatry tells the story of an Edna Dalton Long. Ennis' version of the story is she was apparently hospitalized in New York in 1952 because of "psychosis due to alcohol" and who was kept locked for 15 years. During that time, she received no therapy, not even any medications--but she was kept busy doing menial labor at the state hospital. After the death of her husband in 1960, the state moved to have her declared incompetent so that his pension and their assets ($9000 that she had saved up before she was hospitalized) could be tapped to pay for her involuntary hospital care. Then, a lawyer appointed by the state to "manage" her assets (since she was incompetent) managed to make 86% of it disappear, some of it his fees for taking care of her finances. Apparently, at the point in 1967 that Long became too physically ill to continue working at the state mental hospital, and within a week of a new lawyer being appointed to be her financial guardian, the hospital declared her competent, and released her.

Now, if Ennis' version of what happened to Long is correct and complete, it is monstrous--she was essentially slave labor--and unlike a slave, she had some wealth of her own ($9000 was a lot of money in 1952), and the state allowed lawyers to loot her estate. Also unlike a slave, when she ceased to be useful, they disposed of her.

Now, I have some reasons to distrust Ennis' version of these cases, based on the examples that I posted earlier. Also, Ennis was a lawyer (strike two against him). Ennis was also a major ideologue on this subject, claiming that less than 5% of those in mental hospitals were a danger to themselves or others.

There's also one aspect to Ennis' account that makes me suspect that there is more to this story. If Mrs. Long had been single, I can see why she might have lacked an advocate on the outside. But she was married for the first eight years she was hospitalized. It seems a bit strange that if she was just prone to drinking until she saw pink elephants that her husband didn't make more of an attempt to get her out.

Now, the looting of her estate by a lawyer--that I don't find hard to believe. One, it was a lawyer. Two, it was a New York lawyer. But from Ennis' account, this was a common part of how things were done at the time--stealing people's assets was apparently a perk of being a lawyer. Any suggestions on where to find more details about this?

Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck finding the court cases. Ennis' book has no footnotes, and Long as a plaintiff name does not get you very far when searching for U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals decisions. Any ideas?