As the summer comes to a close and students everywhere head back to school, I sometimes think about New York City’s Hudson University – and wonder if the incoming class has any idea they’re about to set foot on the most dangerous campus in America.
In 2009, Iraq War vet Greg Tanner, pictured below on the quad, was found dead in a Hudson University parking garage. Chief suspect? Hudson Law School professor Kevin Franklin.
In 2002, a Hudson University president and his assistant were both found murdered in their office on campus, possibly over their decision to appoint a new department head.
In 1994, Professor Edward Manning, a Hudson physicist seen below in the campus’s nuclear reactor (!!), was the prime suspect in the mailbombing death of his former girlfriend, until it was discovered to have been the work of former Hudson post-doc student Max Weiss.
Simply having any affiliation with Hudson University seems to tie you to trouble. In 2009, police discovered the child of Hudson U. biology professors Harold and Joyce Foley murdered in their Manhattan townhouse (seen below), a crime possibly motivated by their research into a controversial new drug.
In 2014, a series of murders targeting wealthy couples was believed to have been committed by Hudson’s campus bookstore manager Harvey Reynolds until university dean Adrien Proctor (below) was unmasked as the killer.
In 2008, former Hudson professor Dr. Hoffman was questioned as a potential link in a near-fatal mailbombing.
In 2001, after a medical research tech was murdered by a monkey released in his lab, a Hudson University animal rights activist was considered a potential suspect.
In 1997, two Hudson students were accused of killing their newborn son and hiding the body.
And in 2007, following the death of prominent astrophysicist Marie Subbarao by explosive decompression, detectives investigated Hudson’s altitude chamber, which might have been used in the murder.
These incidents represent just a small sample of the literally hundreds of horrific, and at times, absolutely ridiculous crimes that have taken place at Hudson University over the years. How is it that they’ve been able to maintain their reputation as one of New York City’s preeminent institutions??
Thankfully, because Hudson University doesn’t actually exist.
When you’re scouting for a college to serve as the scene of a crime, university and college campuses are often surprisingly flexible, so long as you portray it as a fictional entity. The Law & Order staff realized this pretty quickly into the series and decided to use Hudson University as their go-to for murders and other sordid crimes.
In fact, the the Hudson monicker had been in use prior to Law & Order, most notably in the DC Universe as Dick Grayson’s (aka Robin) alma mater, and as Cliff Huxtable’s medical school. But it was L&W that made Hudson as famous as Morley Cigarettes and Oceanic Airlines in the world of fictional brands, and it soon began to appear in other crime dramas like Castle, Unforgettable, and Blue Bloods.
As a location scout, my favorite thing about Hudson is that just about every college in NYC has stood in for it at some point, with Lehman College, Union Theological, and Brooklyn College probably the most frequent. But even the more reluctant NYU and Columbia have been used at times.
There’s just something nice about seeing all of New York’s collegiate institutions come together to create one of the most dangerous fictional locations in TV history.
-SCOUT
