Vampanic: Exploring New England Vampire Stories

 

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “satanic panic” to describe America’s fear and fascination with the Devil from the 1970s to the 1990s. In this post, guest contributor Missy Lathrop explores another “panic” that once gripped America, a “vampanic,” in this intriguing examination of New England vampire stories.  Enjoy!

New England Vampanic?
by Missy Lathrop

Throughout New England, dating back to the early settlers, diseases took hold and killed thousands upon thousands. A village’s population would dwindle, and family names would be almost erased from history.

One of the most well-known diseases is what we now call tuberculosis (TB) but back then, it was known as consumption.

Consumption and the Transylvania of America

Consumption would consume your body from the inside out. It attacked your lungs, made you weak and fragile, caused major weight loss, and you became pale and discolored. People coughed up spots of blood, even handfuls at times if not more. Those fighting consumption would wake up with dried blood around their mouths and bloodstains on their bed linens. A person with consumption quite literally looked like the dead.

How this disease affected and took hold of the body was different for everyone; some lived for years, months, or at worse, weeks. There were lucky individuals that never showed signs or symptoms or were very close to death and made a full recovery.

The cure for consumption, created by Selman Waksman, did not come until 1943 but was not administered to a TB patient until 1949. Throughout the late 1700s and 1800s, there were many “quack ideas and cures” to help people live and fight the disease. However, most of these ideas just helped the spread of consumption. Here in the Northeast corner of America, there was an unusual and almost supernatural practice to rid this disease.

The Eastern European practice of unburying the dead kin of sick family member(s) had been seen and was recorded 80 times in New England. Parts of New York and Pennsylvania also had their fair share of unburying the dead. Rhode Island, the smallest state in America, clocked in with the most cases. It had also been given the nickname, “Transylvania of America.”

Mercy Lena Brown: New England’s First “Vampire”?

Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by Roger William who left Massachusetts Bay Colony due to religious persecution. Rhode Island was more of an open and radical state of its time. One of the state’s strangest stories is that of Mercy Lena Brown.

She lived in the town of Exeter with her parents, brother and sister. Like so many in New England, they were a farming family. In 1883, Mercy’s mother and sister passed away. Though she was just a child at the time, she knew that consumption was a death sentence.

Not long after, her brother came down with the “illness” and was advised by doctors to travel to Colorado Springs for cleaner air. Again, one of those “quack ideas and cures” of the time. While gone, Mercy came down with the “illness” as well and passed away in January 1892.

Her brother returned home and seemed to be cured, but in March his health took a turn for the worst. Neighbors came and spoke to the father asking him for permission to unbury his wife and two daughters to inspect their bodies. The neighbors believed that his dead wife and daughters were sucking the life out of their son and that it would soon spread throughout the town.

Being extremely skeptical but understanding the concern of his fellow neighbors, he granted permission. The local doctor oversaw the mission and inspected the oldest daughter and mother’s bodies first.

Normal decomposition had taken its course. Mercy, however, had passed during the winter. She hadn’t received a proper burial. Her body had been stored in the cemetery’s crypt until spring. Once they opened her coffin, they found that her body was considered to be in “living condition,” meaning her heart and liver still had liquid blood.

Because of this, they believed her to be a “vampire.”

Though that term had never been used in any of these cases prior, the idea of her sucking the life from her living brother’s body was thought to be keeping her preserved and life-like. They believed that her body was never going to be fully at rest so the doctor and neighbors removed Mercy’s heart and burned it.

There is a legend that says the ashes of her heart were given to her brother to help heal him but historians have been unable to confirm this.

Shortly after the unburying and burning of Mercy’s heart, her brother passed away. The peculiarity of Mercy’s story even garnered the attention of The Boston Globe, which wrote about her vampiric account in 1892.

New England Vampires: Eastern European Origins

The idea of unburying the dead and removing the heart goes back to early Eastern Europe. Vampires, or vampyres, have been seen in many different cultures and lore.

The method that is seen in the New England cases is more akin to that of Eastern Europe methods. In some New England cases, the entire body was burned, However, at that time, the burning of a body went against most religious beliefs and practices. A more common practice within the 80 cases from New England and some beyond was not only the removal of the heart and burning it but also having the family inhale the smoke from the searing organ.

How these ideas came to New England is still unknown, however, some believe that it was born from the concerned and desperate town folks who were hopeless for a cure. Others have acknowledged that some of the Hessians (German soldiers) may have stayed after the Revolutionary War and shared their cultural practices.

Vampires, the Dead, and the Living

The vampiric notion of the dead sustaining themselves from the living was first reported in 1784 when a local doctor from Willington, Connecticut, fought to exhume two children. As this practice became more common all throughout America, people started to believe that the dead were finally at peace and were no longer able to drain the lifeforce from the living.

With that being said, the idea that a loved one would intentionally suck the life from a family member was not the case for exhuming the dead. Families were desperate for a cure; love and fear are powerful, and when that is coupled with the superstitious folk of New England, it’s surprising that the practice didn’t last longer.

The Case of the Forgotten Connecticut Cemetery and the Mysterious Coffin

While I was aware of the New England vampire stories, once I started to dive a little deeper into recent articles, I found an intriguing case that has not been discussed often.

In the 1990s, while two boys were playing in a gravel pit in Griswold, Connecticut, they discovered a human skull. They ran home to tell their mother who, of course, called the police.

After some investigation, the authorities first suspected the skull to be from a still-unsolved, local serial killer case. However, upon further viewing, they found that the skull was much older.

Archeologists were called in to study and remove the remains. Their findings were quite mind-blowing to everyone. They discovered that a small, 29-plot cemetery had been forgotten. Many of the people buried there were children.

The timeline for this cemetery is thought to have been between the 1700s and 1800s. The most interesting find came from plot #4. When it was eventually uncovered, they found a coffin with bronze tacks that spelled out “JB 55”.

Once they opened the coffin, they discovered that the corpse’s head had been completely removed and placed on top of femur bones that were placed over its ribs and heart area. A visual equivalent would be the Jolly Roger pirate flag.

During that time frame, when people were laid to rest, they were often faced to the east for what was called, the Day of Resurrection. However, the removal of the skull was not common and the archaeologist who studied this case couldn’t determine why it was done.

The weirdest thing of all is that this was done years after their death. They found cut marks in the bones that were also determined to be postmortem. And they could see white-like particles in the ribs, which is a sign of consumption.

They believe the person in plot 4 died in 1834 and that their name was Jonathan Barber. They believe that “JB 55” was Barber’s initials and age.

There were two other coffins buried next to “JB 55” that also had the bronze tack buttons. One was labeled “NB 13” and “IB”. Nathan Barber is believed to be “NB 13.” The other is still unknown.

Researching the different cultures, societies, and even the people handling the sicknesses and diseases of the 1700s and 1800s turned into a two-year rabbit hole for me. It may be due to all of us living through the Covid-19 pandemic, but in the end, I am grateful to be living during the time of modern science and medicine.

Check-In

Were you familiar with any of these New England vampire stories?

Sources

Tucker, A,(2012 Oct) The Great New England Vampire Panic.
Smithsonian.com https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/

Point, C,(2019, 28 Oct) When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths.
History.com https://www.history.com/news/vampires-tuberculosis-consumption-new-england

Guest Contributor Info

Missy is a paranormal investigator from Maine, and the paranormal has always been a huge part of her life, starting in childhood.

Her family team, Paranormal Five, consists of her husband, her three children, and herself. She is also a member of Maine Paranormal Society, which is TAPS family team. Missy and her family believe in giving back to their community in “spooky ways”. They do multiple fundraisers throughout the year with paranormal investigations, teaching paranormal classes, and doing paranormal meet-ups for the public. Missy was also featured in The Feminine Macabre, Vol. 2, which was released in 2021. She describes herself as a “skeptical believer,” and is always trying to find the answers to the unknown and unexplained.

Missy’s favorite haunted location is Gettysburg, PA. She has been visiting there since she was a young child and now shares that love and passion for the area with her family. With her love for history, she believes that it is one of the greatest tools to use when it comes to paranormal investigation.