For Sale: Creepy Island That Neither Hannibal Lecter Nor Jesse Ventura Were Excited About

From "The Silence of the Lambs":

"Plum Island. The Plum Island Animal Disease Center. (Federal, hoof and mouth disease research), it says. Sounds charming."

Hannibal Lecter may not have been excited by the prospect of moving to Plum Island, and it turns out Uncle Sam isn't too jazzed on the place either anymore: The federal government is looking to sell the islet, off the coast of Long Island, New York.

Plum Island. (Image via USDA / Associated Press)

The island has long been the home of the aforementioned animal disease center, and while that facility is moving to Kansas, the island still has something of an image problem, as the New York Times reported last year:

Its reputation as a place of mystery has endured. In 2010, the former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura featured the island on his TruTV program, “Conspiracy Theory,” calling it a “real-life island of horror” serving as “a secret bio warfare lab,” that could, he said, “kill us all.”

When the so-called Montauk Monster, a badly deformed animal carcass of undetermined origins, washed up on the South Shore a couple of years earlier, some said they saw the handiwork of Plum Island scientists.

The Times noted that federal estimates say the island could support as many as 500 private residences, though environmental advocates have expressed opposition to development.

—

Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter