Folklorist Speaks About Vampire's Bloody Past in New England

Folklorist Dr. Michael Bell put a nail in the coffin of the vampire myth Tuesday night during a lecture on American Vampire Traditions at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport. “This isn’t exactly the heart of vampire country, but we’re close,” he said.

The Rhode Island native has spent his life studying American folklore. Although, he said his journey into American vampire folklore studies only began in 1981 after he met Lewis Everett Peck, a RI farmer and decedent of a vampire. Upon meeting with Peck for the first time, Bell could tell right away he was passionate about his family’s history. Peck began to retell the tale of his late ancestor who had been accused of being a vampire and his story would influence Bell to begin his research. Research Bell said, that spans across nearly three- decades.

“Take a look through those,” Peck pointed to a pile of newspaper clippings on his coffee table, “They Burned Her Heart,” one headline read. It wasn’t a sick Halloween prank or a twisted joke. The headline was referring to a relative of Peck, a young woman whose heart had been torn from her unearthed corpse, and burned inside the town cemetery. “I don’t know how she’s related to me she just is,” said Peck.

According to the story, in 1892 12 townsmen dug up the corpse of Mercy Brown in the town of Exeter, RI and proceeded to cut out her heart then burn it. “When they cut her heart out, they knew something wasn’t right. There was fresh blood still inside it, so they burned it,” said Peck. Bell began investigating the mysterious case of the young woman accused of being a vampire and came to realize the case of Mercy Brown was not all that uncommon.

During his research, Bell discovered over 81 cases of exhumation throughout New England. The unearthing of a corpse, disembodiment of a major organ like the heart or lungs, and then the burning of them was not uncommon he said. The reason for all of this was indeed the work of vampires explained Bell. “People were helpless and terrified. They were confused and didn’t know what was going on.”

But Bell said the Hollywood vampires we have all come to love and fear were not the ones responsible. The deaths attributed to these vampires he said, was nothing more than the bacterial infection commonly known as Tuberculosis. “A common remedy in those days was to cut out the heart of a relative, burn it and feed the ashes to a sick family member,” said Bell.

Bell said other remedies ranged from turning corpses over in their graves, rebuilding their skeletal structure by rearranging their bones—especially the skull, or burning the heart of the corpse. He said these unconventional cures were brought over by Dutch and German immigrants living in the Pennsylvania valley. The ashes of Mercy Brown’s heart were supposedly fed to her brother who was sick with Tuberculosis.

According to Bell’s research one out of every ten deaths in North America in the 1800’s can be attributed to Tuberculosis. “Both vampires and Tuberculosis are very similar,” he said “Both are consumptions, both are walking corpses.” To illustrate his point he presented a picture of Count Orlok from 1922 classic Vampire film Nosferatu. “The pale colored skin, the sunken eyes,  caved in chest, even the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth,” he said “These are all visual characteristics of a tuberculosis victim.”

Many books have spurred from the Mercy Brown case over the years, even a short film, Exhumation of Mercy Brown by the Trinity Repertory Company of RI.  In his book, Food for the Dead: on the Trail of New England’s Vampires, Bell said only when antibiotics became more sophisticated, did a real cure for Tuberculosis seem achievable. Between 1945 and 1960 Bell said, progress to control the disease was remarkable, and that many sanatoriums began closing.

In fact one of the most famous of these sanatoriums was located right in New England. Seaside Sanatorium in Waterford, Connecticut overlooks the state’s shoreline and the Long Island sound and in the 1930’s it served as a medical facility for children who suffered from Tuberculosis. It was eventually shut-down in 1996 after an unusual number of patients began to perish and the property has since been abandoned.

The Folklorist and Author admits that prior to his research he envisioned what a true vampire would look like and that it was always something similar to the ones being portrayed in TV shows, movies or books. “When I tell you hundreds of corpses were discovered in America, then would you believe vampires were real?” Bell asked. “Vampires were very much a real thing, they were microscopic, and they were in the form of a life sucking disease.”