Episode 64: The New England Vampire Panic
Mercy “Lena” Brown’s headstone
In the 19th century and over 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials, another mass hysteria swept New England. Tuberculosis, known then as consumption, spread rapidly and quickly became the leading cause of death in the 1800’s. Once a family member became ill with the brutal symptoms it was only a matter of time before entire families contracted it.
The intense fevers, hacking cough with bloody sputum, ashen skin and weight loss made victims appear to be wasting away, and it soon became a belief that after they died these victims were coming back and “consuming” the lives of their family members and neighbors and spreading the disease. To spare the lives of afflicted family members, the corpses of those who died of consumption were dug up and various rituals would be performed.
In Maine and northern Massachusetts, the corpses of the consumed would simply be turned in their graves. In Vermont, Connecticut, parts of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, the bodies would be examined for what was believed to be signs of vampirism, such as a lack of decomposition and “unusually fresh” blood in the heart and other organs. If a corpse had these signs the body would be cut open and the heart removed and then burned, and the afflicted would inhale the smoke or even consume the ashes that were made into a tonic. In other cases the corpses would be decapitated or their bones placed in a skull and crossbone in their graves.
One of the most famous cases from the Vampire Panic was that of Mercy Brown in Rhode Island. Her mother contracted consumption and passed away in 1882 with her sister following a year later. Mercy’s brother Edwin contracted the illness several years later, and finally in 1892 Mercy developed symptoms and quickly passed away. When neighbors pressed Mercy’s father George to exhume the bodies to find out if Edwin’s symptoms were the result of one of the family members being a vampire, all three women were examined.
Mercy’s mother and sister had been dead over a decade, so all that was left of their bodies were their bones. As Mercy had passed just two months prior and was kept in an above ground crypt in the cold winter, her body was barely decomposed and villagers found blood in her organs, leading them to burn her heart and feed its ashes to Edwin as a cure. The cure was ineffective and he passed away two months later. It is believed that Mercy’s story inspired the novel “Dracula”.
Throughout the Vampire Panic, at least 80 bodies are recorded to have been exhumed out of the fear that they were causing the outbreak of consumption.
Image sources:
history.howstuffworks.com - “The New England Vampire Panic Was Very Real and Very Deadly”