Before there was Dracula, there was the real life, well documented vampire of New England, Mercy Brown. Or at least that’s what some liked to call her.

Show Notes

During the New England Vampire Panic, townspeople exhumed their loved ones, burned their hearts, and fed the ashes to the ill in hopes it would heal them. However, Mercy Brown is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse to perform such rituals with goals to banish an undead manifestation – to get rid of the “vampire.” 

Sources

Tucker, Abigail (October 2012). “Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad,” Smithsonian Magazine, retrieved from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-the-real-life-vampires-of-new-england-and-abroad-42639093/

“Mercy Lena Brown,” FindAGrave.com, retrieved from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6628164/mercy-lena-brown

Tucker, Abigail (October 2012), “The Great New England Vampire Panic,” Smithsonian Magazine, retrieved from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/

JWOcker (n.d.), “Grave of Mercy Brown,” Atlas Obscura, retrieved from: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-mercy-brown

Klein, Christopher (October 31, 2014), “The Last American Vampire,” History Channel, retrieved from: https://www.history.com/news/the-last-american-vampire