When we think of the many evils that plague our world today, vampires do not make our top 100 list. This wasn’t the case for our early ancestors, though. Even at the cusp of our understanding of modern science and medicine, there was a genuine fear of vampires and their potential to kill entire villages. Yes, we’re talking about the undead rising from their graves to feed on the blood of the living, causing infections, and transmitting vampirism like a contagious disease.
This folklore didn’t just spread among the uneducated or ill-informed. Some of the most learned and intelligent men at the time were documenting proof of the existence of vampires. Trusted authorities sparked the mass vampire hysteria that brought European and American villages to their knees. They supported their townspeople’s wild stories and combined them with real facts. We are talking about doctors, government officials, clergymen, and yes, the media.
Today we will take a look at four of the most famous documented cases of “real vampires” in our history and the measures people went through to rid themselves of the evil that threatened their way of life.
England
1. The Vampire Specter of Buckinghamshire
One of the oldest documented accounts of vampirism comes from Buckinghamshire in 12th century England. The historical recording was made by William of Newburgh and was based on an oral account from Archdeacon Stephen – the holy man who was called upon to combat the undead fiend.
According to Archdeacon Stephen, there was a man who died in 1192. This man was buried in the “traditional and proper way”. On the first night after his passing, he left his grave, entered his house, and jumped onto his wife as she slept, nearly killing her from the pressure of his weight. Fearing that she might sound crazy, the grief-stricken wife did not mention this ordeal to anyone – a choice she would soon regret. On the second night, her husband returned and tormented her by pummeling her and suffocating her with his mass.
Too afraid to sleep alone, the wife confided in some friends who she asked to stay awake with her on the third night. They kept watch for her dead husband and, sure enough, he appeared again. When his wife and her friends saw him, they shrieked and cried, which served to repel him away and drive him elsewhere. As it would turn out, the man visited his brothers instead and throttled them in their sleep. They, too, began to stay awake at night and drive the dead man away by making loud noises.
The undead man began harassing other people in the town, first as they slept, and then appearing in daylight. Large groups of people confirmed seeing the dead man’s evil apparition and appealed to the Archdeacon for help.
Archdeacon Stephen
Unsure of how to handle this evil presence, the Archdeacon reached out to St. Hugh, the bishop of Lincoln. St. Hugh consulted with other theologians across the nation and discovered that similar cases were happening all over England. He was told that the evil they were dealing with was a vampire and that the only way to bring peace to the community was to dig up the corpse and burn the body.
This was a lot to take in for St. Hugh. He also felt that digging up corpses and setting them on fire was in poor taste, so he developed his own, more holy, method for dispatching of the vampire. St. Hugh wrote an absolution on a parchment and gave it to the Archdeacon with specific instructions. The bishop believed that absolving the evil entity’s sins would allow the man’s soul to rest.
Absolution
When Stephen opened the man’s tomb, he found the corpse to be in perfect condition with no signs of decomposition. This served to confirm that he was in the presence of a vampire. He said a prayer, laid the absolution on the man’s chest, per the Bishop, and resealed the tomb. Though this was not a traditional vampire burial, the undead man was not reported to be seen again.
Though this particular vampire was an unnamed man, it is the most complete and documented English vampire story on record. As of 2017, the medieval remains of over 100 “vampire corpses” have been discovered in Yorkshire. The burial site revealed burnt and mutilated bodies, deliberately performed on the dead in order to prevent them from coming back to life and harming the living.
Serbia
provided by Groubani at English Wikipedia.
2. Vampire – Petar Blagojević
Petar Blagojević lived in a small Serbian village in the1700s. He was an unremarkable man in life, but in death, his name would live on in infamy.
In an era of conflict and despair, Petar was in a part of the country that was taken over by Austria in the Treaty of Passarowitz and then later passed back to the Ottomans with the Treaty of Belgrade. It was a tumultuous time in the village. When Petar died of an unknown illness in 1725, the villagers went into a hysterical tail spin. Not because of the loss of Blagojević, but because the man appeared to have taken a string of people to the grave with him.
Nine people (including Blagojević’s son) fell ill and passed away within 24 hours. The villagers were desperate for answers. Surely someone was to blame. This is when the families began to come forward with the stories their now deceased loved ones told them before they died.
The Victims Point to Blagojević
When the villagers came together to compare notes, they discovered that many of the victims claimed to be accosted by Blagojević in the middle of the night. One report claimed that Blagojević’s own son was visited and Blagojević demanded food. When the son refused, his father murdered him. Even Petar’s wife came forward and said her husband visited her from beyond the grave. She claimed he asked her to bring him his shoes. Though she lived to see the dawn, she was so afraid that she moved to another village.
The townspeople needed to take action. They needed to understand why Blagojević’s dead corpse was wreaking so much havoc, so they turned to two men of the administration: Kameralprovisor Frombald and a local priest. They insisted that the administration test Petar’s body for signs of vampirism.
The Examination
With the help of the priest, a reluctant Frombald dug up and examined the body of Petar Blagojević. He was astonished by what he found. He documented that the body had no decomposition, the hair and beard had gown longer, new skin and nails had grown and the old ones were peeled away, there was blood inside the mouth.
The villagers were certain they had a fierce and dangerous predator on their hands. While Blagojević’s body lay still, the townspeople found sharp tools and stabbed him through the chest repeatedly. This caused blood to seep from Petar’s ears and mouth, which served as further proof that the man was a vampire. To prevent Blagojević from rising again, the villagers burned his body to ashes.
The Media Takes Hold
This was the first documented testimony regarding the existence of vampires in Eastern Europe. Petar’s case, along with the case of Arnold Paole (which we well get to next), was reported in a Viennese newspaper. The newspaper ended up being translated into Western and Northern languages and distributed throughout Europe, some copies even made their way to the Americas. The result? Genuine and wide spread fear of vampires. After all, if its in the newspaper, it has to be true, right?
3. Vampire – Arnold Paole
Arnold Paole was a Serbian peasant who lived his adult life as a militiaman in the village of Medveda. He, too, was living through the impacts of the Passarowitz treaty of 1718 which annexed most of Serbia, giving the Austrians control of what used to be part of the Ottoman Empire. Life was hard and the aftermath of the Austrian-Ottoman wars left the land in ruins.
While working in Medveda, Arnold frequently spoke to his fellow militiamen about how he used to be disturbed by a vampire while living in Kosovo. They hung onto his every word. There weren’t too many people who have encountered a vampire and lived to tell the tale, after all. He told his comrades that he was able to rid himself of the evil creature’s visits by ingesting the soil from the vampire’s grave and by covering himself with the vampire’s blood. They marveled at this incredible tale of survival.
Paole’s Accident
One day in 1725, Arnold Paole fell and broke his neck while riding a hay wagon. He was killed instantly. Within days of his death, four villagers came forward with complaints that Arnold Paole had visited them at night. Strangely, those people died very shortly after voicing their complaints. Arnold’s old comrades knew exactly what to do!
If Arnold was able to stop the vampire that was plaguing him years ago by eating grave dirt and smearing himself with the vampire’s blood, surely the villagers of Medveda could practice the same cure.
The Evidence
The villagers assembled and opened Paole’s grave. There, they would find absolute evidence that Arnold was indeed an arch-vampire. After all: his corpse had not decomposed, his veins were full of blood, blood seeped from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, his hair, beard, and nails had grown, and his body took on a red hue.
To save themselves, they staked his heart. This caused his body to emit a noise that sounded like a shriek. The villagers believed he was alive and had to act quickly.
They removed Paole’s head and burned his body, but this wasn’t enough to make them feel safe. What if Paole’s four victims were also infected with the vampire malady? The villagers were not going to take any chances.
Stake in hand, the townspeople marched over to the other four grave sites where they performed the exact same ritual: stake through the heart, decapitation, burning. Through their quick actions, the villagers enjoyed five years of vampire-free living.
The Vampires Return
It was the winter of 1731 when 17 people fell gravely ill. Their sickness kept them in a attenuated state, rendering them bedridden for weeks before they died. The victims varied in age and included both men and women, some of whom had recently given birth. Though we won’t discuss all 17 cases here, it is important to mention the first and the fifth case: a 69-year-old woman named Milica and a 20-year-old woman named Stana.
Milica and Stana
Milica and Stana had both come from Ottoman-controlled territories a six years prior to the outbreak. The Ottoman lands were thought to be very active with vampires at the time. Though the locals of the village believed both Milica and Stana to be good neighbours, both women were quickly blamed for starting the plague of vampirism in their community.
After Milica had passed away, one of her neighbours recalled Milica mentioning that before she moved into the village, that she had eaten two sheep that had been killed by vampires in the Ottoman lands. Another neighbour recalled Stanna admitting that while she lived in the Ottomans, she smeared herself with vampire blood in order to protect herself from the undead creatures. According to the locals, it was clear: Milica and Stana had become vampires upon their deaths due to their prior history and interactions with the undead creatures.
As each of the victims lay in bed dying, they complained about feeling stabbing pains in their sides and in their chest. They broke out into fever and could not control the random jerking of their limbs. They cried out that they were being tormented at night by those who had already passed away. Once again, the villagers demanded the Austrian authorities do something at once.
Imperial Contagions-Medicus Glaser To The Rescue!
Based on the complaints of the villagers, the Austrian authorities feared an epidemic of some kind of contagious disease. The Austrian military commander sent Glaser, an infections disease specialist to the village to investigate. When Glaser arrived, he inspected the villagers and their homes, but could not find any signs of contagion. His conclusion was that the deaths were caused by malnutrition and the tradition of Eastern Orthodox practice of fasting.
The villagers were outraged by Glaser’s findings. They were certain they were dealing with vampires and insisted that Glaser exhume the bodies of the suspected undead.
Glaser Reluctantly Obliges
Glaser was a man of science. A man who understood the nature of infections and their effects on a wide population. A man who knew the principles of proper nutrition and its importance in keeping a person healthy. He did not want to exhume dead bodies, but his superiors pressured him to indulge the villagers and put their concerns of a vampire outbreak to rest.
Glaser, put his head down and got to work, knowing full well there was no such thing as vampires. Or was there?
Glaser’s Medical Training Goes Out the Window
As Glaser began to examine the bodies of the recently deceased, he was shocked to his core. Everything he thought he knew about the human body came into question. Many of the corpses had not decomposed. Their bodies were swollen and didn’t look like they were malnourished at all. They had blood in their mouths and new fingernail and hair growth. By contrast, some of the bodies were quite decomposed. This served as evidence that there was something supernatural about the bodies that showed little to no decomposition.
In the end, the once rational Glaser put in his recommendation to the Supreme Command in Belgrade: execute the vampires.
The Austrians Send More Experts
Fearful and curious about the ordeal in the village, the Austrian military sent three military surgeons, two officers, and two lieutenant colonels to verify Glaser’s findings. On January 7th, these men, along with a hand full of the village gypsies, investigated each of the 17 corpses. Their conclusion: five of the corpses indicated natural decomposition while the other twelve corpses were absolutely, positively, incontestably vampires!
The Gypsies of the village removed the heads from the vampire corpses, burned the heads as well as their bodies, and disposed of the ashes in the West Morava river. The regular “non-vampire” bodies were laid back to rest in their original graves.
America
4. The Brown Family
George and Mary Brown lived in Exeter with their three children: Mary-Olive, Edwin, and Mercy. They were an unremarkable family until Mary fell ill in the1880s. Within a very short time, her illness escalated from frequent coughing, to rapid weight loss, to being bedridden due to lack of strength. Mary-Olive was the next to pass away in 1888, suffering the same symptoms as her mother. Two years after the death of his sister, Edwin also began showing signs of the illness. Though he was weakened, he continued working through the months and years as best he could manage.
Sadly, the last of the Brown children, Mercy, became ill and died in January of 1892. With three of the Brown family dead and one critically ill, George looked to his community for aid. The villagers thought that the number of deaths was too high to be a coincidence and convinced George that something evil was attacking his family. With each of the Brown victims, the weight loss and weakness hinted that something was stealing their blood. This sounded like the work of a vampire, and so the investigation began.
The villagers convinced George that one of his deceased family members could be responsible for killing the others. Desperate to save his still living son, George complied with what the townspeople wanted to do: dig up his wife and daughters and see if they showed signs of vampirism.
In March of 1892, George’s wife, Mary, and daughter, Mary-Olive were dug out of the frozen ground. When their caskets were pried open, their bodies revealed the expected amount of rot and decay. All attention turned to Mercy.
Mercy Brown
Since Mercy had passed away in January, the ground was too frozen to bury her casket. As was the common practice during the cold winter months in Rhode Island, her casket was temporarily stored above ground until such time as the ground thawed.
When Mercy’s casket was opened, George and the villagers were horrified to find that the girl’s corpse had not decomposed at all. In fact, it appeared that her hair and fingernails had grown. George needed more. He asked the physician to open her body to determine whether it was filled with fresh blood. Sure enough, red liquid blood was found in Mercy Brown’s heart.
That Settles it – She’s a Vampire
Once the liquid blood was discovered in Mercy’s heart, the townspeople began to report that they had seen Mercy walking through the graveyard and fields at night. Clearly she was the one who was killing Edwin. She had to be stopped and Edwin needed a cure.
The solution was simple. The physician removed Mercy’s heart and burned it to ashes. The ashes were then added to a tea that Edwin drank which would ward off any further abuses from his vampire sister. Despite having endured the gruesome act of drinking the ashes of his sister’s heart, Edwin succumbed to his illness a few months later.
What We Now Understand
Reading about the scientific findings of the conditions of the alleged “vampires”, we understand that bodies will decompose in different ways depending on the environmental conditions to which the corpse has been exposed. As skin begins to recede, hair and nails can appear to be longer.
The sudden and mysterious illnesses these people suffered can be traced back to outbreaks of Tuberculosis. This highly contagious disease is spread through the air, so infecting one’s own family and nearby neighbors would have been extremely easy.
And what about the townspeople who claimed they saw vampires in the middle of the night? Well, when people are under extreme duress (i.e. dying a slow and painful death or taking care of an ill loved one), even the smallest flicker seen out of the corner of an eye can resemble a our worst fear – the monster under the bed or the vampire invading the village. This, combined with a little embellishment (the monster looked like my neighbor) to throw suspicion away from one’s own family, and a “witness” will attest to just about anything.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petar_Blagojevi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paole https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/english-vampire-0010927 https://www.historicmysteries.com/mercy-brown/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-the-real-life-vampires-of-new-england-and-abroad-42639093/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region