The New England Vampire Epidemic
March 19, 1892
On March 19, 1892, the Evening Herald of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania printed a story describing what it called a “horrible superstition.”
A family in Rhode Island had been suffering from a terrible disease which at the time was called “Consumption” due to the way the ill wasted away. Although they did the best they could to manage the disease, all but two of the families members survived.
Desperate for an answer, the two turned to a local folklore belief that said when members of the same family passed away due to consumption it was due to a diseased loved one draining their life force from beyond the grave.
The solution at the time is still heralded to this day as one of the most macabre and insane remedies of modern times. The family would dig up the bodies…
And burn the organs
Intro Music: Moonlight Hall - Stings by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)