Snake Hill (2007)

From 1870 to 1962, New Jersey's infamous Snake Hill institutions were the last stop for thousands of terminally ill patients, indigents, "lunatics" and prisoners. Approximately 10,000 bodies and their belongings were buried two-deep on the grounds. Abandoned and forsaken, they lay in deplorable conditions for decades as millions of unsuspecting motorists passed by on the New Jersey Turnpike every day. When a 2002 Turnpike excavation unearthed human remains at Snake Hill, one man's 22 year search for his grandfather took a dramatic turn. As the only living lineal descendants on record, Patrick Andriani and his father, Gennaro, served as the impetus for a court ordered disinterment/re-interment project that became the largest of its kind in U.S. History and inspired additional descendants to come forward.