Morbid - Episode 264: The New England Vampire Panic

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

Today Alaina decided to take it to a vampiric place. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries New England was struggling with severe outbreaks of Consumption.  To better explain this plague that caused severe pain, bloody hacking coughs and the victim to seemingly waste away without explanation, they turned to the supernatural. When entire families began falling victim to its brutal clutches, it simply had to be vampires who had taken host in their loved ones ailing bodies to suck the life from the remaining members. Come on in for a dive into a world where eating the ashes of an exhumed family member's decomposing heart was considered medicine. Great resources used: Mercy: The Last New England Vampire by Sarah L. Thomson  Food For the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires by Michael E. Bell  A History of Vampires in New England by Thomas D A'gostino  As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Get up to fourteen free meals—including free shipping! — with code morbid14 at HelloFresh.com/morbid14 Babbel: Right now, when you purchase a 3-month Babbel subscription, you’ll get an additional 3 months for FREE. Simplisafe: SimpliSafe is offering 20% off your entire new system and your first month of monitoring service FREE, when you enroll inInteractive Monitoring! Visit SIMPLISAFE.com/morbid Caliper: You can try Caliper CBD risk-free for 30 days at TRYCALIPER.COM/MORBID If you don’t love it they’ll give you a full refund! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey, Weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alena. And this is morbid. While what a week, guys. The true crime world is going off. Stuff is just happening, some good justice being served stuff, and then some really scary stuff.

So we just wanted to quickly touch upon it because I'm sure everybody's got it in their heads. That Robert Durst was convicted of first-degree murder, which I feel like a lot of people are like, he wasn't already. Okay, I know because when I think, did you say it last night or did you? Yeah, he was like, oh, and I was like, he wasn't.

I thought that happened. Cool. Yeah, I mean, it's great, like awesome. Yeah. The jinx, if you haven't watched it, go watch it. Yeah, I mean, Lux agrees, so. I don't know if you heard that little me. Yeah, we're at my house today.

And you might hear a catter too. You might hear some Lux, might hear some Franklin, probably more Lux. Either way, go watch The Jinks on HBO. It was really good. The other huge thing that happened, it's a case we have not covered yet, but it's always been on my list. And now there's some amazing closure at least to this case. There's been an arrest made in the Faith Hedge Peth case.

This happened in 2012, Faith's murder. That's so crazy that like just now, what's happening? Yeah, and it was, they were able to match a DNA from the crime scene to the DNA of Miguel and Rique Olivaris. And he is being charged with first degree murder. Yikes. It's, this case is brutal, it's awful, it's so senseless. And I'm so glad that her family has got at least something.

I know her mother came out and said, you know, all she did was cry when she got the news. Because like, what else do you do? But it doesn't change anything. It doesn't't bring them back it doesn't make it better but they at least now know they have some kind of cap on it this person did this and we're going to get him off the streets at least there's that so that was huge like so huge I'm so glad it happened but those two things were like boom boom and then last night we find out that Brian Laundry who is Gabby Petito's fiance or boyfriend. I read in

some cases in some places that they had split like they had like changed their engagement status and decided not to go forward with it. Significant other. Significant other exactly. But yeah he just fled And the police don't know where he is. So he is on the run. Yeah, but there's a lot of places, and I think it's really important to note this, that are saying he's missing. He's not missing. He's not missing. No one kidnapped him. Regardless of what happened here, he went on the run. He's not missing. Like, regardless of whether he is guilty innocent or somewhere in between. Right. That is to say he's missing is just not true. And I believe Gabby's family

came out and said like he's he's not missing Gabby is Gabby's missing. There's a lot of weird stuff going on with this case. We're not going to repeat any of the things that have been floating around. Because I think it's until things are confirmed and until things are officially said about it. I don't want to sit here and go, well, I heard that this happened. I heard that this happened. Of course not. Because all we know for absolute sure is the last time he was seen was on Tuesday by his parents. That's what they say to police. And that he is currently in places unknown. Yeah. the attorney for his family said, be advised that the whereabouts of Brian Laundry are currently unknown.

The FBI is currently at the Laundry residence for moving property to assist in locating Brian. As of now, the FBI is looking for both Gabby and Brian. And then a few hours ago, actually, I think about six hours ago, it came out that his family says they believe he entered this area earlier this week. And this area is the vast Carlton Reserve. It's a 24,565 acre preserve, which is north of his home. And they think he might be there. So police are out there, like right now, looking around and searching. This, I mean, this just gets weirder and weirder as it goes. But I'm, I mean, I'm still hopeful.

And I hope that there's going to be some kind of happy ending here. It's a very, it's like very bizarre. It's strange. I don't know what to make of it, but just weird. All I keep thinking about is like, I really hope that Gabby's okay. And you know, I feel so hard for her family. Like, her parents just break my heart. And I really hope that they get a happy ending out of this.

I really do know. And let's keep talking about it. Let's keep spreading her picture. Yeah, and make sure. Yeah, and make sure. You know, don't spread any pictures that are like photoshop, because I know suddenly people are getting it on this and being like, I saw this for a while.

I saw them. I saw them and it's like, no. So, just make sure when you share stuff that you make sure it's like confirmed stuff. It's easy to like make the mistake of sharing something that you think might be real because we've all done it. Yeah, of course. Just try to like look just to make sure that we're sharing stuff that's going to help her family and not. And from like a valid source.

Exactly. Which I know, I know you all will do. Of course. I'm just saying. But yeah, so we are still thinking about Gabby Petito and we hope that this has a happy ending, but we'll see. But yeah, that's the first ones that could come to mind were the Gabby Petito case. Yes.

The twists and turns happening in that and then rubbered herds and then Faith Hedgepath that was a really happy one and a really good one. So Let's end on that one before we begin this but today I I don't know if you guys have noticed but I I did a couple of Pretty gnarly intense two partners-parters. You did? I didn't notice. I don't know if you noticed.

Sponsor. Yeah, but I felt that. Yeah, I felt it really hard. My psyche was right there. Yeah, so I was like, you know what? I got to go in a different direction this week. I got to take my own mind into a different direction. And I feel like it's the beginning of spooky season.

Yeah, like get it. Less spooky. So I wanted it's, you know, it's the beginning of spooky season. Yeah, like get it. Less spooky. So I wanted, you know, New England during spooky season during the fall is just my, I mean, I love where I live, but I also just in the fall, it's like, it's like a dream land. It's a gift. Like I love it here.

It's really, it's a gift. It's not real. Like as soon, there's trees in my yard that the top of them are starting to turn yellow. Yes. And I was watching it and I was like this, I just love it here. Hell yeah.

Like I love it here. I love Massachusetts. I love New England. Yeah, absolutely. I'm such a New Englander. But so I decided I was like, you know what, I wanna stay here. We have all that spooky history.

I gotta find something good. Hell yeah. And you know what? I found something good. Okay, and Massachusetts. Well, it's in New England. So, and it includes Massachusetts. Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness. Meal to choose it, you don't say. Oh New England. And it includes Massachusetts. Oh my goodness. Me and the two suits, you don't say. Oh my God. But I had heard about this. I've always wanted to go further into it and finally I did. So we are going to talk about the vampire panic. Yes, I said vampire panic in New England in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Oh, okay.

I'm ready. I was born ready. Yes. Now, before we get into ready. I was born ready. Yes. Now, before we get into this, so this is like fascinating to me. The empire is really is. The fact that this is real. Yeah, and just like what people thought vampires were,

how they, how this all differs from country to country and place to place. But first we got to talk about a little bit about like death, practices and death, like beliefs in these centuries because while things were different. Yeah, I would, I would go as far as to say that they were probably pretty different. Yeah, like how different, you say?

Well, when someone, often people would die in the home, which obviously happens still, but it's, you're stepping like a lot more back then. There was also like less places. There was just a, you were just dying in your home. Right. It was just gonna happen. But when somebody died in your household, it was important to never stand at the foot

of their bed because that may block their spirits entry into the next world. I kind of love that. So like don't do it. Which I imagine people probably still practice today in some places. Yeah. A lot of people think like not even death death-related, but sleeping, that you're not supposed to sleep with your feet, like a window at the end of your bed. Oh really? Because bad spirits.

Because like bad, I don't know. Because like bad. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, so you should also open all the doors and the windows when someone has passed away so that their spirit has easy passage into the next realm.

They don't, you don't want them doing like the bird thing where they go, ah, bang right into the window. You don't want that. So you open the windows so that they can just, and also might start to smell in your house. So that's a good call. For practical reasons, and it's funny that you said that, because the next thing I wrote in my notes was,

this also to me is good for practical reasons, like allowing the smell of rotting decomp to slowly come out of the home and you're not breathing in death fumes. Like, fresh air is for dead people unless there's dead people in your house in which case fresh air, fresh air is for them. So, exactly.

So, the fresh air is indeed for the dead people also I almost elbowed Franklin and that's why I said oh don't do that but yeah so you know you open the windows open the doors you don't want them running into a you know a glass door thinking a really clean glass door we all know how you know you love a good windex moment my jam but that can be really tough for a spirit trying to get out of the world. I got it. I see it. So don't do it. What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times, or fell in love with a vampire, or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed? What would

you do? I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice, to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer. You'll hear their first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening.

Follow this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wunderly app. free on the Amazon Music or Wonder app. Hey there, fellow podcast listener, it's Elena and us. And we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa, you know, when you would come home from high school, and it was only a few hours until that TV show, everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer,

we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee high boots and pace that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse. Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten store. Hey, wear nose. Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action and romance. Episode by episode. Slacy, follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen early and add free on the Amazon music or Wondery app. Darn, ee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un live in ass. If they're going out feet second, then they're watching you as they're leaving. Okay. So they can look at you. And if they look at you, you'll be dead in a few months time. Wow. I mean, that's a stretch and a half, but like, yeah. I love this superstition of like the early days. I love it. The early days. Oh, yeah. But it was all just to like explain away the fact that everyone was dying at like age 25. So it was like, it was like, you got looked at by a dead person

as they were bringing them out. And so you have to go feet first. You can't let them look at you. Yeah, it's like maybe we're not. It's just because we're throwing our poop in the streets. Yeah, it's mainly because we don't understand the transmission of diseases. Probably because we don't brush our teeth

two times a day. Which literally is what this episode is about, is that we really didn't understand the transmission of diseases back then. Also, everything should be covered in white linen or black cloth when someone died, like everything in the home. Because chic.

Everything in the house just draped in the spookiest fabric you can find because why the fuck not? Early Gothic century chic. Why not just lean right into it? I love it. I would do it now. I'm here for it Then there's mirrors. We all know that mirrors are a lot our tough the most mirrors are tough. They are we love them But we hate them. We do correct love them because we can we can Jewish Jewish the hair do the makes check if there's some lipstick on your teeth. Yeah. All that good stuff.

Yeah, just to stare in them for endless hours. We hate them because they are often other worldly portals to a damn telescope. Oh, I don't understand. To a damn telescope. So, how can, here's my question. Ask away. Sometimes I do feel a little bit like I'm living in a damn

telescope occasionally from time to time. You might be the other side of the mirror. But here's the thing. I never hear about all like the portals to like why do all the portals lead to bad places? You know what I mean? Maybe because it's just like it's all bad. That sucks.

Isn't that depressing? Yeah. Maybe it is. Or maybe I don't know. Maybe that is bleak. Maybe it's what you make of it. Maybe we all just Or maybe I don't know. Maybe that is bleak. Maybe it's what you make of it. Maybe we all just assume it's a bad place. So when we go there, like you want a bad place, you got a bad place. It's true. Maybe if we assume it's some kind of

whimsical, like, you know, Netherrealm, where there's fairies that are nice. Not the fair. Not the fair. We don't talk about them. But like the actual like, you know, like Tinkerbell. Yeah. Like tinkerbells over there. She's kind of a dick. She's kind of a dick. Yeah. Like the girls watch tinkerbell and I'm like, don't listen.

Don't ask a temper. I'm like, get over yourself, girlfriend. When steam comes out of your ears. Yeah, she's mad. But you know what I mean? Yeah, no, I do. Maybe this like little goblins that are happy and will give you pie.

Or like, it's just like a tropical beach, but it's fall time at the tropical beach, but like warm on the tropical beach, but like it's fall at the same time. And you get to have like an apple cider drink and you get to have a pumpkin patch over there. And I hate that the beach was interwoven into this. But those are my, I like the beach,

but I also like fall. This is your other portal, Liz. Well yours is literally just a spooky forest. Oh hell yeah. A spooky forest in the fall with a graveyard nearby. Yeah. And. But like, what's the best thing there?

An apple or a shirt to the left. And like who's there? And a pumpkin patch straight ahead. And what do you get to do? I get to pick pumpkins. Yes. I get to take hayrads to very, very well-produced haunted houses. Okay.

Corn mazes. Okay. Haunted hayrads. Hayrads mazes. All of those corn mazes. Sure you go. All of that. Okay.

There's apple cider donuts. Yeah, there are. We have some of those this week. Endless ingredients for me to bake endless amounts of fall food. I love it. I think that's what's on the other side of the mirror for me. I didn't think mine threw enough.

You didn't. I'll get back to you later. I think shopping, like free designer clothing. That would be on yours, that fits me. But unfortunately, this all sounds great. Yeah, the unfortunate reality though, is like portals are not good. I don't think mirrors really lead to that unfortunately,

or at least we don't think they do. Yeah, so when someone dies, you gotta cover that mirror. Cover that mirror. I didn't know that. It do that. The whole act of covering a mirror seems so fucking creepy to me.

Very spooky. Like, well, I gotta cover that shit, but then you just cover it, like when the dead person's gone. Yeah, well, and the thing is too, you can't just cover the mirror. Like, you can't just be like, oh, I'll do it guys, don't worry about it. Yeah, like about this.

The oldest person in the home has to cover the mirror or they have to turn the mirrors to face the wall. For some reason, that's creepier to me. Right, turning the mirror to face the wall. First time you said that's creepier to me. Right, turning the mirror to face the wall. Yeah, I don't like that. That's very bluish project of everyone. And this is, so they thought that they were fearing that the person who died could actually become trapped

in the mirror because once the spirit leaves, I picture it like the spirit leaves the body, or this is what they're thinking happens. And just like ping-pongs around the room. And so you need to give it as many, just holes for it to go, whoop, and it's true. It's like pinball. Yeah, yeah.

And it just goes, and then it finally hits that open, like, whoosh, out the window. And also, why is the spirit so confused? Because is the spirit not just the person and the body is the vessel? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe, I mean, I imagine it's stressful

like vacating your worldly body. I mean, next. So maybe it's just like that you're stressed and you don't understand what's going on. Yeah, so you start ping-pong everywhere and if a mirror is there, it's true. It's gonna act like a window or a door and you're gonna go through it

but you're gonna go into this shitty mirror realm when you're gonna be stuck there. Wow. And then I don't know how to get you out. Horrible. I don't know how to get you out of just me. I'm just a lane. I don't know. Do you know how to get them out?

I don't know how to get them out. I think that's how death protests too much. I just don't know. Well, and also while you're doing this, by the way, I'll disperse in the house. Covering the mirrors or turning the mirror out. Make sure that you don't accidentally look into the mirror before this is done and see your own reflection.

I am far too vague. Yeah, you would be fucked. Because some people think that means you're next. If you see your reflection in the mirror while you're turning it around. You would be dead in a few months time because of your goddamn vanity. If you see yourself in the mirror

while you're turning the mirror around, like that just seems like in your mouth the whole. So while you're turning around, you just have to like, look up, like don't look. And so you gotta make sure those mirrors are turned or covered, and that the body is out of the home and in the ground safely before you turn them around or uncover them.

Okay, you can't do it. And also, this one's interesting. I don't think this is done now, but let me know. Sometimes they would have a family member literally inhale the last, like, dying breath of the dying family member. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire fucking life.

Like, that's why you died next. Yeah. I mean, that's like, I'm dying. Like, I don't want, no. It's like that, and so much. I love you so much, but I would not literally never, like, I'm dying. Like I don't want for sure. It's like that. I love you so much, but I'm not literally never. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat your dying breath.

I'm also not going to. It's okay. It's not a cuisine I'm looking to taste, but not a cuisine. Not a kid's cuisine. I'm excited for. Like death rattle cuisine is not a cuisine. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not to taste, but not a quiz.

Not a kid's quiz. I'm excited for death rattle. Quasine is not in the freezer section of your local grocery store. But now almost every mention, and I say I say all this because during that time, a lot of people were dying of a lot of different things. You don't say.

And so people were dying all over the place. Oftentimes at a young age. And so people needed reasons. They, you know, medical technology was not advanced. Medicine was really not telling you, like, here's what a germ is, here's what a bacteria is, here's what a virus is. So they were just looking for anything

that could explain what the hell was happening around them. Right them and why people were just kicking it at an alarming rate, usually in families. Yeah. So now almost every mention of a vampire panic that happened because they happened all over the place. I definitely want to revisit this again because there's so many I could have gone on for hours and hours. So crazy to me. Now when you see a vampire panic mention, especially in New England at this time, it's usually because there was a massive consumption outbreak. Consumption is in tuberculosis, but they didn't know it as tuberculosis back then. They called it consumption, and they called that because it literally consumes the sufferer. And if you didn't know what it was, you would just be watching someone become consumed

by this disease. So they got a consumption. Now, obviously, we know it as tuberculosis. At the time, it was also called the Great White Plague, because it made its sufferers unbelievably pale. Ooh, like us. Like us. It was a very big deal in New England and elsewhere, but I'm concentrating on New England obviously. We know a lot about it now. It's an infectious bacterial disease. It attacks the lungs. It really came to play in New England in the 1730s. Health officials in New England started recording mortality rates in the area in 1786 for the disease. And between 1786 and 1800, so 14 years. 2% of the population of New England

had died of consumption. Wow. 2%. That's like a lot. I was gonna say. And New England, like. Exactly. The disease itself is horrific.

Yeah. It caused a crazy hacking cough. Blood would spew out constantly each time you coughed eventually. There was debilitating pain involved, a punishing fever, extreme exhaustion. It would start with like a little blood each time and then eventually you would be like straight-up vomiting blood. Oh my god, that's like I can't even handle that. Now the person who was infected would also lose all color and seemingly waste away. And it was kind of like a slow end, usually.

Sounds like it. Yeah, it often was slow because they wouldn't be able to eat. Right. They would just literally waste what they didn't want to eat. And they're just vomiting a blood out there. And it literally seemed to most people at the time that something, like some unseen force, was violently sucking the life

out of their loved ones, and they were just powerless to stop it. And if you think about it, they're pale. You're walking into their room and they have blood dripping down the sides of their mouths. They are, you know, they're doing these hacking cops. They're probably awake at night. They're probably doing, it's like sounds like a vampire to me.

Yeah. Like, because they like, sounds like a vampire to me. Yeah. Like, because they were known to like all the time have blood dripping down from the sides of their mouth. It's not so crazy that people were like, well, well, gotta be that. And, but on top of all this, is the fact that entire families would just be wiped out from this. So once one of them got it,

it was like a ticking time bomb to see if it attacked the other family members in the house. And at this point, disease itself was just not understood. Right, not at all. Consumption, what they were understanding it was, did not understand that at all. They didn't understand transmission in the slightest. They didn't know that this was something you could pass to somebody else. They weren't wearing their masks. So they would just be everyone hanging out together. And if someone had it, they were not like quarantined from the rest of the family.

Like, no, they were hacking in your face at breakfast and sleeping in the same room with 14 brothers and sisters just spewing all over each other. No, no, no, that's not the way to take care of them. No, and it's called quarantine, baby. And that's the thing. So they didn't understand that that was something. They would just live life. So they didn't understand that that was such, they would just, of course, live life.

So they didn't understand it. So it would just go through the entire home and they were like, what's happening? Right. Speed the devil. So of empire. And cures, obviously, were not like what we have today. Not at all.

So cures, they came up with things like drinking brown sugar and water. I mean, it sounds really sweet. And my personal favorite favorite frequent horseback riding to shake the devil out of you? No. It was because it all, no. Because it was allowing the patient to have fresh air,

which, but it was fresh air, that you were not having to become out of breath to get, because you were sitting on a horse. Oh, okay. So the horse was giving you the fresh air. I guess they tried. You could get on that horse, go ride through the country, hackin' up blood. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere.

Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere.

Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. Go spread your tuberculosis everywhere. but you're sucking in that fresh colonial air as you do. Yeah. And in 1692, a doctor named Dr. Thomas Sidonham published this about this cure that he had found because he came out and was like, you got to ride a horse. I got this.

He said, but he said, quote, but the best remedy, hitherto discovered in this case, is riding sufficiently long journeys on horseback. Provide this exercise be long enough continued, observing that the middle aged person must persist in it much longer than children or young persons. So if you old, get on that horse

and you gotta start riding and don't stop riding, but if you're a child, you can ride for a little bit and then get off. What's that talking about, like Mustang, Sally? Mustang, Sally. But yeah, get on your horse and start riding through the country. Get on your high horse. That's gonna help you out.

I guess. It's for Chylosis out of here. I mean, at the time and even later, with tuberculosis patients, fresh air was like a huge thing. Yeah, we said that in the Eastern State Penitentiary, they had special self-designed. Like open air cells. Yeah. And they would like tuberculosis wards.

They would have beds that the head of the bed would be outside, and they would be like an awning over you to like protect you from the weather, but your head would just be hanging outside. Wow. Yeah. It is interesting like what they tried to do, and you can see the logic in some of it. The wheels were turning. They were. They were turning. They were.

They were turning. They were getting the right idea. They knew it was longs. They knew they were like, they were on the right path. We all got to get there. It's gonna take a while. But this was also really heavily into the period of time when doctors would just like bleed people.

Oh yeah. Like you have a cold, let's cut you. Let's put you in the oven. You have a headache, let's cut you. You wanna dance the headache. Let's cut you. You want to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. Let's cut you. Let's do it. Like they just were going to cut you. That's what we're going to do. But I'll cut you. Hi, I have a hang now. Let's cut you and see what happens. Like they just hemorrhaged out everybody. I don't

know why that was the it was just the blood. They were like, we know blood is important. We're sure of that. And it is. And they were right. They were like, we know blood's important. We're sure of that. And it is. And they were right. Blood is very important. But they were like, I feel like if we just cut you open and just drain a ton of it out of you,

we'll figure it out. I don't know. They were wrong. But they were. So a lot of tuberculosis patients and consumption patients would just be blood out. That was the same thing. I don't know why I just said it, as like two different diseases.

But they knew it as consumption. We know it as regular. So you're just clarifying yourself. Just clarifying. But a lot of them would be like blood. Just like, I think like George Washington was blood when he had a cold, and he got in bed like,

and he literally would have lived. He just like, didn't need to be blood. Right. No, who does? Who really needs to be blood? Not me. Not me. Eventually,. Not me. No. Eventually, it became a belief that the first one who died was going to return at night to suck

the life out of the remaining family members. Obviously. Because they were like, obviously if it's just knocking everybody down in a row, that first one that did it, the whole thing wasn't that like that person was evil, per se. It was that some evil entity was using their body as a host. Okay. Okay. That was the idea. I, for the most part, I'm sure some people thought their family members were evil. I'm sure we all have family members that we feel like I think they are the evil entity. I don't think they're

the host. I think it's them. Yeah. Now, so they were like, okay, we, we should just like start digging up graves to like figure this out. We gotta dig up the corpses. Again, obvious. Cause the corpses are coming out of their graves at night. So, let's see what's the haps underground here. What is the 411 underground? What is the 411?

What's the cost from the cemetery? So, it was a very common practice to exume bodies at this time just to be like, I'd have they moved. What's going on in there? Like maybe. No. So they were like, they are becoming soldiers after death. We need to figure out who patient zero is basically

in each family. Right. Because remember, back then, it's not like they're getting their news from like medical journals or like the news. No. They're getting them from local taverns. Yeah. And people pop in into local taverns and be like, have you heard the word from

Perd? He said that if you bleed this person out after exhuming their body, like it's ridiculous. And apparently in New England, taverns were like everywhere, which is not shocking to me. They were very popular. They were very popular. Pretty famous dude, like infamous dude named Cotton Mather.

I think a lot of New Englanders know this man. He was quoted as saying in the late 1600s that every other house in Boston was one of these, quote unquote, public houses. Now, people told all of their hot goss and any intel about their travels or things happening around them in these taverns. So it's kind, it becomes more obvious

how some serious shit could be stirred this way. Oh yeah. And make everyone think these crazy curers are gonna work for your vampirically a afflicted family member. Well, and you're probably desperate. Of course. Please help me your vampirically afflicted family member. Well, and you're probably desperate. So, of course. Please help me vampirically afflicted family member. Because you just want your family members to stop dying of the serific disease.

So, you're like, if you're telling me that it's a vampire and I have to burn the, like, person in the ground, do anything. And the taverns would be near meeting houses or sometimes act as the meeting houses of the time. So, they're like really, I mean, food and drink, baby. I'm saying, they would also definitely always be near the whipping post, the gallows or the stocks because all of those things like really bring in thirsty customers.

So points in town. It's just good, like, it's just good planning. It is. It's a good architecture, like genius. So to stop this whole consumption thing from taking over entire families, often they would exume the corpse of the first infected. And this could happen just with family members present

with family and neighbors who knew the deceased, or sometimes it would raise the attention of like, you know, the town elders and the clergymen and shit. And they would all vote on it and it became a whole shabang. And like, and voting on something like that. They would like vote to be like yeah we should exume Henry over there and see if everyone say hi let's do this. No the whole idea was you take the person out you check their heart and vital organs and see if there's fresh blood in there. Mainly I guess they were looking for bright red blood as opposed to like congealed darker

blood because that would be old blood. Right. If there was fresh blood, you had yourself a vampire and you better put a stop to this. It's weird that we were talking about fresh blood, or excuse me, it's weird that we're talking about fresh blood and we talked about the jinx. The jinx and that theme song. The eel is great. So good.

It's a good, fresh blood, good theme song. That's how my brain good. It's a very fresh blood good theme song. That's how my brain works. It's a great song. Now, because according to an article published in 1896 in the American Anthropologist, it was by George R. Stetson. It says, quote, in New England, the vampire superstition is unknown by its proper name.

It is there believed that consumption is not a physical but a spiritual disease, obsession or visitation, that as long as the body of a dead, consumptive relative has blood in its heart, it is proof that an occult influence steals from it for death, and is at work draining the blood of the living into the heart of the dead and causing his rapid decline. In some places, the specter appears as in the flesh, walks, talks, infests, villages, ill uses both men and beasts, sucks the blood of their near relations, makes them ill and finally causes their death.

The late Mosho, Mosho, de, Vesemmo. Are you using Babel too? I am. You could tell, right? That was really good. Wow, good job. Counselor of the Chamber of the Courts of Bar was informed by public report in Monravia that it was a common enough in that country to see men who had died sometime before, quote, present themselves at a party

and sit down to table with persons of their acquaintances without saying a word and nodding to one of the party. The one indicated would infallibly die after some days. Who made that up? I feel like that's hearsay, but I don't know. Was Ann Putnam here? I believe she was. She was around.

It says about 1735 on the frontier of Hungary, a dead person appeared after, now this is in an article like the American anthropologist. Yeah, this is for real, this guy. This is not like somebody being like, let me tell you legends, this is not a blog. So about 1735 on the frontier of Hungary, a dead person appeared after 10 years burial and caused the death of his father.

In 1730 in Turkish Serbia, it was believed that those who had been passive vampires during life became active after death. In Russia, that the vampire does not stop his unwelcome visits at a single member of the family, but it extends his visits to the last member, which is the Rhode Island belief as well. In the same village resides Mr. Redacted. It's Redacted. Mr. Vampire. An intelligent man by trade of Mason. I feel like his name was probably like Mr. Mason.

Is there like by trade of Mason, I'm like, he gave it away. That's it. I love it. Who is a living witness of the superstition and of the efficacy of the treatment of the dead, which it prescribes. He informed me that he had lost two brothers by consumption.

Upon the attack of the second brother, his father was advised by Mr. Redacted, the head of the family before mentioned, to take up the first body and burn its heart. But the brother attacked, objected to the sacrilege, and in consequence subsequently died. When he was attacked by the disease in his turn, redacted's advice prevailed, and the body of the brother last dead was exhumed, and living blood being found in the heart and in circulation, it was cremated. And the sufferer began immediately to mend, and stood before me in hell, hearty, and vigorous man of fifty years.

When questioned as to his understanding of the miraculous influence, he could suggest nothing and did not recognize the superstition even by name. He remembered that the doctors did not believe in its efficacy, but he and many others did. His father saw the brother's body and the arterial blood. The attitude of several other persons in regard to the practice was agnostic, either from fear of public opinion or other reasons. And the replies to my inquiries were in the same temper of mind as that of a blind man in the gospel of St. John, who did not dare to express his belief, but answered, and said whether he was a sinner or no,

I know not one thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see. So poetic at the end, but like all the way through. I'm like, you're really. He got lit up at the end. So this is stuff that is like to really show you that this is stuff that people are taking seriously. Yeah. These are stories that people were like this happened. People were mended because of this.

Like consumption was gone because we burned the heart of the first person to die in the family. I just can't imagine living during this time. It would have been a wild, wild time to live during. And apparently in Maine and in Massachusetts, mainly Plymouth, they would just open the graves and flip the corpse over on its face. Oh, they were like, that'll take care of it. They felt good about that. Interesting.

I love that they're like, you know, we're not going to do too much. Yeah, keep it simple. It's a lot. Exactly. Like kiss. All right, it's just let's chill. Let's keep this casual. Right.

Let's just flip it over and then he can't get out now. How would he get out? How would they get out? I was literally not. How would they know? How would they know? And apparently it worked for us. So, and that was it?

Massachusetts out here doing the best. Like flip them over on their face and just slay to Harbinger Avival today. I had a big day at work today. Tossed to get a dead guy right around and you know, flipped him right over. Saving lives day by day. Saving everybody from death.

Cooked out of a soup. Well, in Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island, though, they got like real gnarly with it. Oh. Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, you were very metal back then. We heard that Massachusetts wasn't. Yeah, I think Massachusetts at the time was like,

hi, we had that whole sail of trails. We got real gnarly with it, so like it's your turn now. Yeah, like we're very tired. We got real gnarly with it, so it's your turn now. We took a part. We just took a little little nap during this time. We're just going to flip dead people over. We're not going to do anything sacrilegious to them. We're just going to, don't worry, we'll be back at it. We're going to let Connecticut for Montenrod Island take care of this right now.

It's fine. First in Rhode Island, vampires were thought to only be women and only between the ages of 15 and 22. Oh, we're good and the clear. That's such a random ass. Like what Rhode Island? What 15 and 22 and your 23rd birthday, you are safe, BB. You're good. And everywhere else, it was not age or gender specific.

It was just Rhode Island. I just thought that in Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island as well, they would exume the person. This is when they would check for the fresh blood in the heart. If so, they would cut out the heart, burn the heart, and sometimes they would even use the fumes and smoke from the smoldering heart as a cure. They would also have people inhale the smoke from the burning tuberculosis heart because I thought that would aid in seeing healthy. I'm willing to bet that it probably didn't. Yikes. Yeah.

No, not good. That's a wicked bad idea. Wicked bad idea, can't. Wicked bad idea. Not bad. Sometimes though, they would be plagued with this vampire curse for years as a just mowed down family member after family member. And they would not discover what they believed was the cause for those years.

So sometimes when they finally found who they believed to be the origin of the vampire activity, they would be dead for so long that there was no heart left to take out. Yeah. I was wondering when they were going to run into that. Yeah. And we'll see what happens when there's no heart to take out. Yeah. I was wondering when they were gonna run into that. Yeah, like, and we'll see what happens when there's no heart to take out later on. Oh, I feel like it's gonna be wild. And by later on, I mean, we're gonna find it out

in the next case. So the next case comes from Griswold, Connecticut. And we are going to start this kind of recently in 1990. Oh, okay. More recent than the 1700s at least. Yeah. 1990 to me still feels like 10 years ago, so I don't know. I don't understand. Oh, no, like I was saying like, oh, okay, like wow, we're starting there. But like, that sounds recent to me. Yeah, recent enough. Well, in 1990, three boys were playing outside. And now it was 1990,

so they were not like scooting around on a hoverboard or like playing games where you have to like use technology. They were outside. A Pokemon or some shit. Like they were playing in a sand and gravel pit in the town because that's what you did. Fun. Like good wholesome f**k.

Because sand lot. While they are pollutants. But because sand lot Because Sandlot. Sandlot. Those aren't the same thing. No, I know about like Sand. It's like Sandlot. I made me think of it. Yeah. Sandlot. A baseball field, a gravel pit. Yeah, sandlot. Honestly, some baseball fields felt like gravel. Because...

Because... because of dirt. Don't hurt. Doesn't. Hahaha. Now while they're playing, suddenly a very old-looking human skull just starts rolling down the hill next to them. Yippee-ki-yay! Blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop-blop- just rolled out of its burial spot and was just like hanging out with them. That'll change you. Luckily, certainly. Well, luckily they ran home. And we're like, mom, dad, help.

And the parents contacted authorities. So everybody did what they were supposed to do here. Good, good. And at first, the authorities were like, well, shit. This must be a serial killer at work. Like, we found grades. This is bad. Yeah.

And they thought this, because another skull popped out of the earth as well while they were looking for this other one. So like that makes sense. Two skulls rolling down the hill. Yeah. You're right. You're like, oh shit. What's going on here? And at the time it's important to note that a serial killer had just been caught in the area. His name was Michael Ross and he brutally raped and killed at least eight girls and women between the ages of 14 and 25. He did this between the years of 1981 and 1984. Wow.

So they were thinking, maybe this is just victim, we don't know about. Or it's a new serial killer, because now they're like, well, we now know they're serial killers. So. But when they started looking at these skulls, they were like, these are like way older.

Like these are not recent skulls. So they called in the state archeologist named Nick Bellatoni and he came in to take a look. He was like, yep, these are old as fuck and definitely not to work. And he's like, can confirm those are old. And he said these are not the work of a modern day serial killer. When they dug a bit further,

he came to the conclusion that this sand and gravel pit was actually on top of an old family cemetery. Okay. Later, it was identified as the Walton Family Cemetery from the 1800s. There were 29 graves. Seven men, eight women, and 14 children were present. And they now had to be moved, like carefully and respectfully.

Yeah. Now, at the time of their deaths, these women men and children were all put in pretty plain wood coffins, as was common at the time. Right. Once they got to, so they're looking through these coffins,

they're just like trying to identify people, trying to see how many like women and children they have. Yeah. Once they got to the fourth coffin that they were looking at though, it was marked, and they were like, that's that strange and it was strangely marked. Uh-oh. It had brass tacks like drilled into the top of it and the tacks spelled out JB55. Okay. And they were like that's weird on the lid

of a coffin. Why is this the only person labeled? So they opened it up and they don't find a skeleton just lying there. Oh God. They find a partially disarticulated skeleton, like intentionally disarticulated. Oh, man. The skull had been literally cut off the neck and placed on the chest, and under it, under it also on the chest were the man's two femurs. What?

They had been placed in the arrangement of a cross with the skull on top of them. They also found broken ribs and evidence of lesions of the ribs. That was indicative that this person probably died of consumption, or at least had consumption, which they died of it. So obviously, they had hacked this guy's head off and an attempt to stop him from coming back as a vampire and killing the rest of the family. What?

His chest was obviously cut into as well. And they said they believed that they went into his chest to find his heart. And when they couldn't find his heart because he had been gone for too long, that's when they took his femurs off and his head off, and they put it in that cross pattern to do what they could. That is bananas. And after inspection, they believed he was likely dug up

about four or five years after his initial death, because the family was probably going through trying to figure out who the initial person was. Right. And like I said, they couldn't find the heart, so that's why they did this. Now, his bones were sent to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Springs, Maryland, and they were able to get some DNA from the thigh bone. We loved a DNA test. It wasn't until recently, though, that they could actually take that DNA and do anything

with it, because it was in 1990. They were like, we can do a little with it, but now we can do stuff. It was all just, we can do stuff. Now they used Y chromosomeal DNA profiling and genealogy surname prediction methods, and they figured out his last name was Barbara. They were able to find what his last name was.

I didn't even know that that was a thing. Geneologiologist, say it again, genealogy, surname, prediction methods. I didn't even know that was a thing. And why chromosomal DNA profiling is pretty cool. It's basically like a method of DNA typing that allows you to look at the patrilineal strands of DNA. So the ones that go into the father's ancestry, which helps with the surname thing, especially for bones long since deceased, because why DNA chromosomes are passed down

from father to son, and they're basically unchanged as they pass. So they use this information to search for barbers who lived in the area. Right. Because at the time, obviously everyone's, surnames are important, especially back then. Yeah.

Like back then, surnames, that was the identifier. So once they were able to trace that DNA, that Y chromosome back to that surname, that's when they started searching in Connecticut for barbers who had died at the time that the age were born, were of age two. And they ended up finding a farmer named John Barber, JB. Hello.

And he had died in Griswald, and he was about 55 years old. Okay, so whoop there it is. So they also found an obituary from 1826 for a 12 year old named Nicholas Barber. Oh, that's sad. And his father, John Barber, was included in that. Ah. Upon further inspection, a coffin with the initials NB-13 was also found. Oh, so that totally.

Nicholas Barber. And it was near John Barber. So only John's was the way it was like arranged like that. Right. And the position of the body was totally different from everyone else's. Like, it just everyone else was in that normal burial position, hands over the chest or by the sides. So he was buried but exhumed when further family members were definitely suffering from consumption like Nicholas. And so they did what they had been told to do, which like, because when you see this, you're like, what the fuck, like you hacked the head off of a corpse, what are you doing? Yeah.

But they were told to do this. Like they were confronted with what they were told was vampiric activity. And it was like, that was killing children. It was crazy to say, but it was the norm. They were told this is what is happening. So that's like what you do. And when you don't know any better,

you have no kind of science to back anything up. So it's like you're just going off of, yeah. Like obviously for us, it sounds fucking crazy. But if we had lived back then, we would have been doing this shit. Yeah, that's what you were told to do. And when no heart was found, this is all they knew to do was you got to put it

in the sign of the cross and put his head on top of it and you'll be fine. Call it a day. It's crazy. So a little side note about consumption too, because this is why it can be very difficult for people to trace it. There are different ways in which it can present in different people. Some people are asymptomatic and it's called latent TB infection. They carry the disease but they can't pass it until it turns active.

So they're not passing into people else latent. They show no symptoms themselves. Other people have it for years sometimes and they struggle and like slowly succumb to it. I didn't know that. Yeah. And others have what is known as the galloping variety. And this can either be a latent TB infection that suddenly becomes active and goes like hard and fast. Or it's just one that comes on quick and it's quick, it's merciless and it's like fast and it takes you down to the end just as fast. That's why it's like galloping.

Focalorist Michael Bell is known to be one of the leading researchers on this vampire panic that occurred. And I read in one of his interviews that people also believe Edgar Garellen Poe had the asymptomatic type of TB. Why? Which definitely could have been true because he was around a lot of... Yeah, he was around a lot of active TB sufferers. Right. His mother being the first one who died of consumption when he was only three years old. That's so sad. His wife later, like all, you know, all his wife died of it. His, like, everybody around him was dying of TV. And in fact, Poe wrote a story you may all know called the Mask of the Red Death.

Yes. I love this story. That's a good one. It's such a good post story. It's one of my favorites. It was about a plague consuming society and mostly starting to eat away at the poorest and least fortunate in society. Right. society and mostly starting to eat away at the poorest and least fortunate in society.

Right. And the plague makes you feel intense pain and bleed from the pores, which sounds a lot like an artistic rendering of consumption. It really does. And eventually, the richer in society begin to fear that it will leap the bounds of class and come for them as well. So they think they can use their privileged status to hide away and wait it out till it's gone.

They don't actually care about those people suffering in the shadows, they just want to escape it themselves. And the character, Prince Prospero, decides to quarantine and is like giant mansion. But he makes it glamorous, like quarantine, but make it glamorous by throwing a lavish party for everyone hiding away. Like all these nods. No more teams. And he hides himself away in like a thousand other fancy noble guests in his fortress. And at one point, there's like all these rooms in the story where like all, it's all these different like lit rooms.

It's really cool. Sounds like a cool party until the end. But until the end. That's usually how those parties are. And Dan, Dan really got to that. At one point, they notice a figure standing there in a funeral shroud. That's like blood spattered in the rank of mask. And they don't know who this figure is.

And they all just kind of like follow it from room to room while the prince is like holding a dagger and acts like he can fight this thing. And eventually the figure is cornered and it turns to face the prince and the prince just sees it and falls down dead in his tracks. And when the rest of the revelers, like, you know, unmasked the figure, there's nothing underneath. And everyone just falls down and dies of the plague.

It's wild. And the last line of the story is, and darkness and decay and the red death held a limitable dominion overall. And I think that's so rad. of the story is, and darkness and decay and the red death held a limitable dominion overall. And I think that's so rad. I just fucking love Poe. You do.

Oh, I fucking love Poe. It's such a good one. How can you not? And it's so relevant. I mean, when you think of that, it's really relevant today. Of course it is. Like, with what's going on, which is very interesting. It's also very relevant with consumption. And considering Poe was surrounded by the disease's going on, which is very interesting. It's also very relevant with consumption,

and considering Poe was surrounded by the disease's whole life, it was definitely about that, in my opinion. I mean, yeah. It's also a really strong allegory for the fact that no one escapes deaths, not even the rich, which is a very another thing that is very relevant right now with what's going on, like no one can escape it. You're not safe from it, Rich poor, everything in between.

It's not discriminatory. Just saying. So that's interesting. But either way, speaking of Griswold, Connecticut, now that we've talked about John Baker, there's a gnarly case of Vampire Mania that hails from the village of Jewett City, which is inside the town of Griswold.

Okay. On March 9th, 1845, a family started a fall to the plague of consumption. On that day, 24-year-old Lemuel Billings Ray passed away from consumption. He was the son of Lucy and Henry B. Ray. By July 3rd, 1849, his father Henry B. Ray had died of consumption as well. His brother, who was 26 years old, Alicia Ray, died of that on February 1st, 1851, and soon more family members were all falling ill to consumption. And finally, they were like, wait a second! It's gotta be ghouls. Obvi, must be ghouls. must be ghouls. So in 1854, another son, Henry Nelson Ray, was coming down with it, and he was starting

to waste away. And seemingly to them by the hands of an unseen force, that was just sucking the life right out of him. So that unseen force was germs, but they went with the bolder choice, which is vampire. Germs vampire, same thing. It's germs, like the answer is germs, but they went with vampire. Multiple choice, so.

So, they went with vampire today. So, they did what everyone else was doing at the time. It was invoked to exume recent victims of consumption and see if there was fresh blood in their heart. So, if there was, you got yourself a vampire, you got to get rid of that organ or the entire corpse itself to break the curse of consumption or the surviving family members are all just going to keep dying. So they dug up Lemuel, Henry, and Alicia. And Alicia was said to have fresh blood in the corpse's heart. I mean, they were also the last one to die.

So the corpse was the freshest. I don't know, Lena could be vampires. Could be, and I don't know about fresh blood, but who might argue? I wasn't there. Yeah. Like, I was not present at this exclamation, I was only two. I'm just kidding, I wasn't. I was like, I feel like I heard the date, Rob.

It was in the 1840s. I was only two. I was just being mean to myself. But so they figured Henry could go back into his otherworldly home, because they were like, he's probably good. That's fine. But Alicia and Lemuel had to go.

They were like, no, I feel it in both of you. So you're going, Lemuel for good measure, I suppose, because he didn't have any heart. Lemuel, right. Yeah, let's get rid of him too. So they burned them in their coffins, essentially just like cremating their remains. But they did it in a huge bonfire on site, which was spooky and ominous.

And they figured out, you know, that would do the trick. And I guess you can find the site of this grave, this graveyard is still there, the site of the bonfire is still there. That's interesting. Yeah. So they figured that was going to do the trick, but it didn't. It didn't. Henry Nelson Ray died the same year, very soon after,

and his wife and three children also died of consumption. That's so sad. It did not do it. This made the papers because of the whole bonfire thing. Go off. And they were referred to and still are referred to as the Jewett City vampires. Wow.

It's like what a name to get out of. Like still are referred to? Yeah, maybe we should stop. It's like what a name to get out. Like still are referred to. Yeah. Maybe we should stop. It's like such a metal nickname. Maybe we should recognize what actually happened. Exactly. But you know what? None of us are there. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what they found. I don't know. Now that brings us to the case, which some people may know, Mercy Lena Brown. It does sound familiar. In 1883, George T. Brown was a respected farmer in the town of Exeter, Rhode Island. Exeter. Exeter. His wife Mary Eliza died of consumption that year in 1883. Seven months after she died, their daughter Mary all of

died of consumption as well. She was only 20. Shortly after that, his son Edwin was showing signs of consumption because they were probably all eating at the same kitchen table. Yes. He was a pay- he was like pale, didn't want to eat anything, was getting that hacking cough. They actually sent Edwin to Colorado for a while to see if they could he could get better air, which like, okay, they hope dude would make him better and he, you know and he just got worse. I've definitely heard this. He got worse, he came back home. Meanwhile, while this is going on, neighbors have been talking to farmer Brown

and the local doctor, which was a man named Dr. Metcalf. And he had heard that a few of them wanted Dr. a farmer Brown to have his wife and daughter Mary all of exhumed to see if there was fresh blood in their hearts. If there was, then it was likely that they were sucking the life out of Edwin, and that was the reason for his suffering. So he thought this was nuts.

They weren't going to be burning hearts or anything. He was like, no. But he was like, you know what? They just kept coming at me. The neighbors won't shut up about it. I'm starting to think it might be real. And either that or he was, maybe he was believing it and he was like a bit embarrassed to admit it.

Yeah, sure. Like maybe. But either way, he said he just gave in. They were starting to sway him. Somebody was swaying him. And this is when Edwin was sent to Colorado to try that last ditch effort to get him better. And while he was there,

their other daughter, 19 year old Mercy Lena Brown, was showing signs of becoming very ill with consumption as well. Of course. She progressed very quickly. Like she clearly had the galloping time. Just gonna say that.

And she died and was buried in January 1892. Also, before she died, a doctor came to her bedside to try to perform some kind of aid on her or like comfort her symptoms. And he just looked at Mercy and was like, yeah, sorry, she's at the end. Like there's nothing we can do. Don't even try. Awesome. Like, way harsh tie. Thanks. Like, that's like, wow, way harsh. So now farmer brown is ready to do this. He's like, okay, now that mercy has died, like, he's got no one left. He's a believer. So he calls the doctor and says he would like them exhumed. And he would like this doctor to perform an autopsy to see if there's

fresh blood somewhere. So the doctor shows up at Shrub Hill Cemetery on March 17th, 1892, and they've already exhumed the bodies of the wife and Mary olive. Both of them were dead for a while and were basically just skeletons. Yeah. Their hearts were not filled with blood and likely maybe not even there still. At least I was wondering if they would even be there. At least in Mary Eliza's case, the mother, I don't think her was there. Now Mercy Lena had been buried for only two months

and it was cold. Yeah, so she was not too bad in bad condition. She was kind of preserved in a way. I was gonna say what she looks like. I'm gonna put a little bit. So they removed her heart and liver and reports say there was of preserved in a way. I was going to say what she looks like. I'm going to say a little bit. So they removed her heart and liver. In reports say there was fresh blood in her heart. While other reports from the scene say that there was like normal, old, congealed blood.

So they was blood. The results vary. We know there was blood. It should be noted also that farmer brown was not present at this exhumation in ritual, but there is nothing to say he didn't give his blessing. Okay. Just didn't want to be there and I kind of get that. I, 100% get that. Either way, they removed them, the liver in the heart, and took them to a rock nearby.

Surrounding the rock, the liver and heart were burned to ashes. Okay. Once they reduced to ash, they took some of the ashes and forced Edwin to eat them. So that probably made him worse. They felt this would cure him of his melody. But two months later Edwin died. I mean, another two months of that. Two months. Two months horrible.

After you ate the ashes of your dead sister's heart and liver. Yeah. Now, interestingly, this news went way further than New England. And in 1896, and that's the last story. I'm going to tell a bit about it, but I just need to end on this because it was interesting. In 1896, there was an article about this that Bram Stoker had read this article. I don't know if you know Bram Stoker. Who?

Who am I supposed to do that? He was touring in the US with his stage company at the time. And he had not yet finished Dracula. Okay. Okay. I came out in 1897, so the following year. Some people think this was the inspiration behind that because there are a lot of similarities between the illness and death of Mercy Lena and Lucy and Dracula. But that's a no. And I'm here to tell you that's a no. You're like, it's not true. You heard it first. I read in several sources that it took him upwards of seven years for him to write Dracula.

So the timeline doesn't add up. But he said, he was like, no. But who knows if maybe the story could have added like flavor to the already written manuscript? Like you could have added a little bit of like, just flare. Like sure. Like maybe he added some of the already written manuscript. You could have added a little bit of flair. Like maybe he added some of the little details in there, I don't know. There's nothing to say that.

But either way, the vampire panic of New England is so much further reaching than this. There's, I mean, a million other things, like so interesting. So interesting. But I think the mercy brown one is the one that a lot of people hear. Yeah. Again, you can like see these grave stones.

You can see these people really existed. The timeline's that up. There's old newspaper articles to confirm all these. I read a bunch of different books about them that I'll link here because they were fascinating. Oh my god, Alina was showing me her Kindle Library the other day. And I was like, it's so funny too, because it's all these fucking terrifying books and then it's like Vampirina, like intertale of the chef and then it's like bad seed plays with new friends. It's just funny. I love it so much. It's amazing. My Kindle is a real it's a real chaotic journey. It's a real

dichotomy. It's a real chaotic journey through my life. This is what it is. But I think I had like four books on this that I just could not stop reading. Yeah It's a real chaotic journey. It's a real dichotomy. It's a real chaotic journey through my life. This one is. This is through my life. But I think I had like four books on this that I just could not stop reading. Yeah, because you were like, I read this one, oh, and then I found this one. And then there was also this one. I found another one.

Okay, like I was like, how long does this have something about to be? I was thinking that too bad. I decided I was gonna keep it to only if it's fun. It's what it's fun. But I definitely wanna read this at this. Could you do a part two? It's real fascinating.

So this might be like vampire panic of New England part one. Or like volume one. And like, yeah, I was gonna say like a later on down down vibe. Yeah, a little later on down the line, I'll throw another one in there. I like it. I like it a lot. But yeah, I hope you guys thought that was interesting. I thought it was a fun like spooky journey. And learning about consumption was like weirdly interesting.

It is. It's very fascinating to learn about. Franklin gives this five paws. I love that. I mean, five pole paws. I don't know. He's only got four. He'll give it extra one. Four beans.

He gives it a lot of props. I appreciate it. Yeah. Me out. All right. Well, this was super fun. I like to see a lot. Yeah.

See, I had to bring it to like a fun space. Yeah, I needed that. I needed to sit here and not be like, I mean, I this was super fun. I like it. See I had to bring it to like a fun space Yeah, I needed that I needed to sit here and not be like I mean I was horrified still like I mean consumption is not fun It was different like it wasn't like a different thing. Yeah, you know it wasn't like well Sunset strip slayers are the hillside string. Correct. Well, that's all that matters anyways We hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it Anyways, we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it But that's where that when your family members dying you stand over them and you inhale their last breath because I think somebody might find that weird and I think you probably make it sick So hopefully you don't do that. Thanks. K. Bye Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple

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