In 1892, a 19-year-old girl named Mercy Brown died of tuberculosis in Exeter, Rhode Island. Two months later, the people of her village exhumed her body, cut out her heart and lungs, burned them on a pile of rocks, and mixed the ashes into a tonic for her dying brother. She is the most famous example of the New England Vampire Panic.

Across 19th-century New England, tuberculosis—then known as "consumption"—was the leading cause of death. When it struck entire families, rural communities often turned to old-world superstition: they believed the first person to die in a cluster of cases was a vampire rising from the grave to feed on the life force of their surviving relatives. To stop the "undead," families exhumed suspected bodies, checked for fresh blood in the heart, and ritually burned the organs.

Mercy Brown's case is the best-documented incident of this folklore. Her brother Edwin, who was also dying, consumed the ash mixture in a desperate attempt to cure himself—but he died two months later. Bram Stoker, the author of *Dracula*, is believed to have known about the case through newspaper accounts. Nearly 130 years later, the "Griswold vampire"—a skeleton known only as "JB55"—was identified using DNA as John Barber, a tuberculosis victim whose bones were arranged in a skull-and-crossbones formation to prevent him from rising. These were not barbarians, but grieving people doing the best they could in moments of deep fear and need.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/black-lantern--7264324/support.