Freaky Friday: The Young Witch Has Become a Vampire

Thought that might get your attention... but it is kind of true. I work all night and then I go to bed in the morning and sleep until about 4 when my alarm goes off or if I'm really exhausted, I snooze the alarm and cause my grandparents' dog concern when I'm not there to help take his coat off after getting back from the farm.

The only reassuring thing is that I eat way too much garlic to be a vampire...though I haven't eaten any in a while, so now I'm only half sure.

But you know what? I had so much fun last week writing about the Winchester House, I thought it'd be fun to do something similar this week and talk about my life long love of the supernatural (my parents will say false, but just because I was absolutely terrified of Haunted Houses, Spooky rides, and Ghost tours until I was in my teens doesn't mean I didn't love the supernatural. It just means I have some instinct of self-preservation.)

So this week... we're talking about Vampires. And not just any Vampires... New England Vampires....that I had to do a little research on because as often as I've heard this story, it's not such quick succession as my Winchester visits.

Cool, huh? Always thinking about New England Witches, but never about the vampires!

Anywho!

So way, way back in the late 1800s in Rhode Island, there was a young lady named Mercy Lena Brown. Mercy lived with her parents, her sister and her brother when she was young, but lost her mother and sister to tuberculosis, one right after the other. This was pretty common as the disease wasn't widely understood at the time and most diseases we can take care of now, couldn't or weren't as easy to then.

A few years later, her brother became sick with tuberculosis as well. He headed to Colorado in order to see if a change in atmosphere might help.

Eventually, Mercy herself fell ill (according to Smithsonian, she was infected since her mother and sister's deaths but was asymptomatic). According to her doctor she was beyond help, and she to succumbed to the disease.

Her brother, who seemed to be better, came to see her while she was dying. Then he began to take a turn for the worst himself.

Her father, George, had neighbors begin to come up to him and suggest that his family was under an evil influence and that's why his family was dying. Some even suggested something most of us wouldn't even think of today: that one of the women was a vampire, and was feasting on his son, if not others.

Oof. Big oof. Big BIG oof.

But George agreed to let his neighbors dig up the bodies of his DEAD WIFE AND DAUGHTERS in WINTER. Yes, it was March, but March in New England is WINTER. And they did this in the morning, so I know these people are obviously insane.

Personal feelings aside.

George elected not to attend, but his family doctor did (and hopefully mocked them all). They dug up the bodies and opened each of the caskets. Mercy's mother and sister were not much more than bones after being dead for about a decade. Mercy on the other hand.

Mercy was very much still intact and looked very similar to how she did in life.

The neighbors took this as a sure sign the Mercy was in fact the vampire they said she was. They cut her open. took out her heart and liver and burnt them nearby. The doctor did note to them however, that Mercy insides did prove she had tuberculosis and reminded them that when winter come around things tend to be pretty preserved. They ignored him.

They took the ashes they had burned and brought them to Mercy's brother, whom they then fed them too.

Yes. Nothing is better for tuberculosis than your dead sister's brunt organs. Does a body good.

He did not seem to agree with that, as he died two months later.

Mercy's story was told by relatives who remembered and honored her every year and thought about all the event had happened. Her story traveled much farther than Rhode Island though.

Many heard the story. Reporter came to investigate and would ask to look her corpse. Others came to find out about the superstition of vampires and how it could live on, as Mercy was not the only victim of this thinking. Smithsonian says, Bram Stoker even based the character of Lucy on her (they said it was a combination of her first and middle name). Mercy truly lived on.

New England's most famous "Vampire."

Now obviously we know she wasn't one. I just put quotation marks around it. But I've got to say...it's definitely fun to make believe.