Hollywood is obsessed sure. We often think of obsessions like sex violence, gigantic robots and, of course, epic battles between good and evil, but another obsession of Hollywood is vampires. You have to admit, though, that there is a lot of love about vampires immortality, of power and superhuman abilities such as flight and strength. Yes, they come with trade offs, such as incredibly bad sunburns. At every movie. I've seen and I've seen a lot. Believe me tends to show vampires that are fairly happy with their lot in life. My exposure to the world, the vampires happened in the late nineties when I was in college, a friend of mine. Recommended the an rice novel interview with the vampire I d,

That and many of the sequels, their fun reeds and they serve they set the tone for a decade or more vampire, centred entertainment. I won't on the vampires of the twilight books, mostly because I haven't read them, but I will say this: those books. Ever lambasted they have been by critics, have shown. The popular culture is love of all things. Vampire. This is as undying as the creatures themselves. I'm Erin Monkey, and this is lore. When most people think of vampire they envision, something that is a purely european creation of foreign accent, victorian era, dress and dark manner, homes and cast

it's a common visual language for most of the western world, so I don't blame movies in books for portraying that image, but it's one small facet of a legend that has hundreds of expressions The single most prominent historical figure attached to the modern notion of vampire rhythm is, of course, blood, the third of Valencia, otherwise known as the law, the employer law What was the ruler of the small eastern european Kingdom of Wallachia and ruled from one thousand four hundred and fifty six to one thousand four hundred and sixty two. Blood was known as law the impale, because he preferred to execute his enemies by impelling them on stakes. The ottomans called Lord. In paler, after entering his kingdom, define forests of impaled victims. Laud was. Island guy, you see rather blood thirsty, you might say, and he like his father before him belong to something known as the order of the dragon a group established to protect Christians

From the invading Ottoman Empire blood's father law, the second was known as blood draw, cool or blood the dragon. When blood, the third the power he took the hereditary title and was known as Blah Dracula. The son of the dragon. That name might sound very similar to the most famous vampire story in the world and that's because Brahms Stoker when creating his famous creature of the night used of law, the third as his inspiration well part of it, but we'll get to more of that later. The roots of most vampire stories, however, can be traced back to superstitions rooted in ancient cultures. All across The world Western Europe played hosted countless stories of reanimated dead, known as residents. These words animated corpses that climbed out of the grave to torment the living. The word residence comes from the Latin that means to come back, come back to do what you might ask

I'm glad you did at first it was just a terrorized, the living, but as the centuries past the legend became more specific residents were said to return, from the grave to torment their living relatives and neighbours. What was key, though was that residents were specific people, not enough miss like the ones from our modern horror genre. These things had passed and a purpose. in North mythology, we can find tales of a creature known as the drugstore again walkers, who would return from the grave and wreak havoc on the living. These creatures possessed superhuman strength, smelled of decay and were pretty ugly in since they could enter the dreams of the living and, while doing that, they were said to leave a tangible object near the sleeping victim so that upon waking no they're dreams were more real than they feared. Let's go back you're than the middle ages, though the legend of some ancient cultures, spoke of creatures that, while not immune

we similar to the vampire we know today none the less there many core characteristics burst. We have the greek myth of emphasis who was a daughter of equity, and producer was said to lure young men at night and then feast on their blood before moving on to the main course their flesh, another Greek, too, involves Lama, the mistress of Zeus, who becomes cursed by Zeus's wife, Hara and doomed to hunt children devouring them Stories of undead creatures are creatures that feed on the blood of the law seemed nearly as common as written language itself, even the small, isolated island of Madagascar, there are legends of

sure known as the Rwanda, which was known to attack nobles drinking their blood and eating their nail clippings yeah. I said now clippings deal with it. are vampires real I'll. Let you make the final decision on that, but what is clear is that most of these stories find their genesis in the human need to explain the unexplainable. For instance, early Europeans use the myth as a way of explaining why a corpse wasn't decomposing that the normal expected rate you can see of this in Bulgaria were graves dating back over eight hundred years have been opened up, reveal in iron rods forced through the chest of the skeletons and in its

I'm when it was very common to bury someone that was thought to be dead only to find out that they really weren't, you can imagine that stories would quickly circulate that the dead were coming back to life as a result, Taffir Phobia, the fear of being buried alive, swept Europe and the United States. Of course, once medical science caught up people got more practical by building alert systems into Justin The person woke up and wanted out. I realise the being buried alive sounds like a rare occurrence, but it happened frequently enough that many people were sufficiently paranoid about it to actually spend time. Looking for a solution, one of those people happened to be a medical doctor. A man named Adolph Good Smith, in eighteen, twenty, two and driven by the fear of being buried alive. He invented a safety coffin for his own interment and he tested it out himself tested it out.

Bet Doktor Gunsmith allowed himself to be buried underground in his new safety coffin for several hours during which, had meals delivered to him through a feeding tube enjoyed, a wonderful meal of soup, sausages and local beer sounds like a great date. Nine destination. Doktor Timothy Smith of New Haven Vermont was another paranoid inventor. He created a grave, can be visited to this day. If you happened to be passing by evergreen cemetery, it was a crept back in the usual manner, but it had a cement to positioned over the face of the body, a glass plate was affixed to the top of the tube at ground level. Doktor Smith died a real natural death and was buried in his fancy,

often with a view, you never woke up but early visitors to his grave reported that they had a clear view of his decomposing head until condensation obscured the glass side. Note vampires, no longer scare me waking up inside a small box buried six feet below the surface of the earth is what true fright looks like to me. Another culprits: inhumanity you said, the vampire label was Porfirio a rare blood disorder, but modern science has pretty much close the case on that. One saying that it's too far of a stretch to connect the two topics. Rabies of all issues has also been used as an explanation for the rise of vampire mythology. Surprise Finally, there are a lot of commonalities between them, such as sensitivity to light and garlic as well as altered sleep patterns. The most Recent medical condition with strong connection to vampire mythology was actually tuberculosis. Those who suffered from tee.

He had no vampire like symptoms, though, and that makes this one a harder connection to explain. It's also, incidentally, where one of my favorite New England Legends comes into the picture. Allow. we need to introduce to you mercy Brown. Lena mercy. Brown was a young woman who lived in the latter half of the nineteenth century in the rural town of Exeter, Rhode Island and was a major player in what is now known as the great New England vampire panic stories like this can be found repeated all across Rhode, Island Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. code in the lives of others in similar situations and the results.

Surprising connections to both the modern idea vampires, as well as the ancient stories. As we will see, First person to die was mercies mother, Mary Eliza, was December of eighteen. Eighty two and she fell victim to what was then called consumption consumption because, as the tuberculosis ravage the body, the person would appear to waste away consumed if you will by the illness. She, of course, was buried because that's what you do with the loved who passes away the next year, though mercy Sister, Mary Olive, died at the age of twenty same illness same symptoms. Not sure when the people of Exit or Rhode Island started to wonder if the deaths were connected, but it might have been then or it might have been a few years later, when mercies brother Edwin took ill Edwin, though with smart he packed up and moved across the country to Colorado Springs, which had a great reputation for the healing properties of its dry,

climate when he returned from the resorts out west. Some years later, he was alive, but not doing well and in December of eighteen. Ninety one he took a turn for the worse. That was also the month of mercy. Herself became ill. Her tuberculosis move fast, though they called it. The galloping kind move through her body quickly by January at eighteen. Ninety two she was dead and the people of x There were more worried than ever. You see they suspected something supernatural now this was surprising can during how close Exeter is to Newport. That's the sea side, Eddie known for the summer cottages of the wealthy books like the Vanderbilt, the asters, the wide nurse and the wet Mars. It was the pinnacle of educated society, yet just a hand. Full of miles away. One small town that should have known better was about to do something very, very creepy, Edward was still alive. You see someone

got it in their mind that one of the women who died before him either his mother. or one of his sisters with somehow draining him of his life from beyond the grave. They were so convinced of this. You see that they wanted to dig them all up. Yes, of them once they receive the fathers permission to do this horrible thing. A group of men, gathered in the cemetery on the morning of March Seventeenth and began to dig up the bodies what they were looking Four was any evidence of an unnatural state blood in the heart blood around the mouth or other similar signs. The first Mary Eliza, the mother was satisfactorily decomposed, though so they ruled her out. And, of course she was you might say. Been dead and buried for a decade, Mary Olive was also in a normal state of decomposition again being dead. Ten Here's usually helps convince people that you're really dead but when they examined mercies body a body that

not been buried because she died in the middle of winter, but instead had been stored in a stone building that was essentially a walk in freezer. They discovered a remarkable state of preservation, shocking, I know. So what did they do? While these superstitious townsfolk did what they had learned from their ancestors, they cut out mercies, heart and liver, then which they found red clotted blood, burn them on a nearby stone which, by the way, is still there near her heads. In the cemetery and then mix the ashes with tonic? That tonic was given to Edwin drink? Yes, admin Brown drank his own sisters, liver in heart

Didn't work, Nope Edwin died less than two months later. What it They do, however, was set up mercy, brown to be the first american vampire. I suppose it's not potent dimension that she wasn't really a vampire because you're an intelligent person, but it doesn't hurt to say it as unused well as an event like this must sound. You might be surprised to learn It happen quite frequently in eighteen seventeen nearly a century before mercy, Browns, exclamation, Dartmouth, college student name, Frederick Ransom, died of tuberculosis. His either so worried that the young man would leave the grave and attack the family. Had him dug up ransoms heart was cut out and burned on blacksmiths, forge even Henry David throw heard tat. of these types of events and mentioned one in his personal journal. He wrote on September twenty six of eighteen, fifty nine, the

average and man is never quite eradicated. I have just read. Of a family in Vermont who several its members having died of consumption justice In the lungs parts and liver of the last deceased, in order to prevent any more from having it, so of course, word spread about what happened to Mercy Brown, as it usually did when the body was dug up and carved in The pieces like that mercies case actually made it into a newspaper called the New York World and it may quite an impression on the people who read it. How do we know because a clipping of that article was found in the personal papers of a London stage manager after his death you see his theatre coming had been touring America in eighteen. Ninety two, he evidently the story inspiring so much so that he sat down.

a few years later and wrote a book who was the man Brown Stoker in the book? Oh I'm sure you guess that already it was Dracula published in eighteen. Ninety seven. I hope you enjoy your tour of the bizarre and tragic events that took place in Exeter, Rhode, island in eighteen. Ninety, two amazingly It's not unique, and there are many other examples throughout the history of New England.

Have one in mind that I think you're going to love stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it when the Vermont standard ran the headline on the front page of their little newspaper in the fall of eighteen. Ninety, it smacked of sensationalism tourism in Vermont. It said it's pretty hard. offer your readers and more scandalous risky and downright laughable news bulletin than that. The trouble was a small town of Woodstock Indeed, when dealing with a vampire problem- and they had been for years- yes record comes from the unpublished memoirs of a local man named Daniel Ransom found in the Woodstock Public Library in its ran.

Describe the events that happened in one thousand eight hundred and seventeen when he was just three years old. His older brother, Frederick, was twenty at the time and attended school at Dartmouth College. Just twenty miles away. Frederick had come home for the Christmas season, but took ill around that time with consumption. What we know tuberculosis. The local doktor tried his best to help the young man fight the sickness, but Frederick failed to recover. He died on the fourteenth of February after weeks of wasting away and was buried in Cushing Cemetery. Reflecting back on the events. Ransom commented on the popular belief at the time that illness was how hereditary in he'd been told that consumption with silk- and in his family that he himself shouldn't expect the live, pass the age of thirty. It wasn't a hopeless situation, though, because they also believed in occur. If the hearts of a family member killed by the illness could be dug up and burnt. No other relatives would suffer the same fate.

so that's what they did, I'm not sure if it was weeks or months later, but eventually the body of Frederick Ransom was examined by his father and the other locals. His heart was cut out and burn then the men we buried the body, their hope with simple. No one else had to die now. Unfortunately, Daniel was the only one to escape the family curse between eight In twenty one in eighteen, thirty, two each of his remaining siblings, as well as his mother, passed away as a result of tuberculosis, is no record of what happened to his father. Normally, we have to jump to a new states and village to find another tail with similar events, but not this time, because just thirteen years later, Woodstock played hosts to another vampire scare. This time it was the Corwin family suffered, the oldest of Corwin sons, had passed away in December of eighteen, twenty, nine and buried shortly after by June of eight

In thirty, others in the family were sick as well mode. Severely. The only remaining son was ill and it wasn't looking good for him, so the local doktor was called in at that time duck Joseph Gallop serve the community therein Woodstock, but he was joined by others from the medical field who wanted to help an olive and were united in their diagnosis, the Corwin ways. Illness was a result, a vampire ism upon it. Recommendation, family friends and all the doctors gathered together in Cushing Cemetery in the middle of June to exude the dead Corwin boy. It was well attend, by others from the community. In fact, we know that Events happened thanks to a woman who witnessed it all herself. Her description is equal parts chilling and familiar Corwin was dug up. His chest was cut open, and the heart was examined to their surprise. It was found to be full of fresh blood, and so the doctors recommend that it be removed and burn a rather than do it there they cut the high

out and paraded it to the village green, where it was burned in front of the entire town. Afterward the ashes were scooped up and placed in an iron pot, and then a deep hole was dug right there in the green. The pot was placed the bottom and then the blood of a bull with sprinkled on it to ward off the curse after that date filled in the hole and placed a large slab of granite over it. Apparently you can't be too careful when it comes to vampires Incidentally, some of the ash had been set aside before the pot was buried. Doktor gallop took the ash and mixed with more of the bulls blood before giving it the sick, Corwin boy as a cure. There's no record as to whether or not he survived, there's a legend in Woodstock that the story did an end their according to the story. Hold in town about a decade after the ashes were buried in the green, some local teenagers decided to dig them back up again. They.

each other in the middle of the night, with shovels and began to dig down toward the berry pot as theirs apples got closer and closer to the bottom, though something began to happen. A noise began to come from the whole quiet at first, but quickly growing louder to them. It sounded like the roaring of a great fire, as if hell itself or down beneath those last few feet of dirt and stone. Without a word, the boys, climbed out and quickly filled the whole back in no one. They say as touch the location sense. This epoch,

the floor, was researched, written and produced by me. Aaron monkey with music by Chad, Lawson Lore, is much more than just a pod cast. Now, there's a book series available and bookstores and on line and two seasons of the television show on Amazon, prime video check them both out. If you want more lore and your life, I also make an executive produce a whole bunch of other podcast, all of which I think you'd enjoy my production company grim and mild specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and the historical more about all of those shows, and everything else going on over in one central place grim and mild dot com, and you can also

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