What happened
In the family of farmer George Brown of Exeter, tuberculosis took his wife in 1883, his eldest daughter a year later and, in January 1892, 19-year-old Mercy Lena. His only son, Edwin, was also ill. Neighbours persuaded the father that one of the dead was draining the life of the living – the way people in New England explained a series of deaths in one family, though they did not use the word “vampire.” On 17 March 1892, with the local doctor and a reporter present, the graves were opened. The bodies of the mother and older sister were as decayed as the years suggested, but Mercy, who had been kept in a crypt over the winter, looked too well preserved, and blood was found in her heart. Her heart and liver were burned on a rock, the ashes were dissolved in water and given to Edwin to drink. The young man died two months later.
Witnesses
Her father George Brown, neighbours, Dr. Harold Metcalf and a reporter of the “Providence Journal”; the case was researched in detail by folklorist Michael E. Bell.
Explanations and hypotheses
The Mercy Brown case is the best-documented episode of the so-called New England vampire panic, in which tuberculosis victims had been exhumed since the late 18th century. The good condition of the body was due to her dying in midwinter and lying in a cold crypt; the doctor present at the exhumation considered it normal. The disease simply spread among members of the household. Newspapers covered the case, and scholars suggest it may have inspired Bram Stoker.
Explained The phenomenon has a widely accepted, down-to-earth explanation.
Sources
- Michael E. Bell, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires (Carroll & Graf, 2001)
- Rhode Island Historical Society – Have Mercy… (2016)
- Smithsonian Magazine – The Great New England Vampire Panic (2012)
More: Wikipedia (en)