Commitment Criteria Volume II: 30 More Women Patients of Camarillo State Mental Hospital

This second volume in the series, Commitment Criteria, follows the paths of 30 more women who were committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital from 1937-1984. (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.Included in this volume are Dorothy Comingore, star in Orson Welles' movie "Citizen Kane" who later was black listed in Hollywood for Communism; Craig Rice, a famous mystery novel writer whose books were made into Hollywood movies; Mary Alice Meza whose case was essential in the capital punishment case of famous Death Row author Caryl Chessman who was portrayed by Alan Alda in a story of his life; as well as women who escaped from the hospital; women who committed heinous crimes and would be in prison if not at the hospital; women who died in the hospital; and others. The book also includes over 50 original photographs of the abandoned hospital grounds, taken by the author. Many of the photographs have never been published before.