The Vampire of New England....
The brown family of Exeter, Rhode Island
So many cases of tuberculosis occurred in the Brown family that Friends and neighbors believed this was due to the possible influence of the undead.
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George and Mary Brown's family suffered from tuberculosis infections hitting several family members.
Tuberculosis infections in the later 19th century was rampant it was also called "consumption" at the time, and was a very devastating disease.
The mother, Mary Eliza, was the first to die of the disease, followed in 1886 by their eldest daughter, Mary Olive.
In 1891, Mercy and her brother Edwin also contracted the disease.
Mercy died 1n January 1892 at the age of 19.
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The locals believed that one of the deceased family members was actually a vampire that had caused the rest of the family's illness.
This belief was based on folklore that speaks of a link between multiple members of a family dying and it's link to the visitation by a vampire.
Tuberculosis was a poorly understood disease at the time and was followed by a lot of superstition.
After much persuasion George Brown eventually gave permission to exhume several bodies of his now deceased family members.
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This was a big event in the area drawing in Villagers, the local doctor, and even a newspaper reporter to witness the body's being exhumed on March 17, 1892.
The bodies of both Mary and Mary Olive showed the expected level of decomposition you would expect given the amount of time they where in the ground so they were apparently cleared of suspicion in the vampire case....
However, the body of a Mercy, showed almost no decomposition, and still had blood in the heart.
The locals took this as a sign that the she was in fact undead and by that extension the cause Edwin's current poor condition.
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Her lack of decomposition was most likely due to her body being stored in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground crypt during the first two months after her death.
An old Romanian superstition says that to cure the sickness brought by undead, the vampires heart and or liver must be burned, and the ashes mixed with water to create a tonic.
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Dr. Harold Metcalf, who had raised his objection to the entire affair, assured everyone that the lack of decomposition of Mercy’s body was perfectly consistent with the fact that she had been dead for less than two months. Knowing that medicine had done nothing to save the Browns, the people of Exeter ignored the doctor’s proclamations and took the presence of fresh blood in Mercy’s heart as a sign that she was undead.
They gathered firewood and kindled a bonfire on a pile of nearby rocks. Then they cut out Mercy’s heart and lungs and cremated them on the pyre.
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This was not the first time the old remedy of burning the organs of the dead and mixing the ashes into an tonic for the sick had been tried in Rhode Island, even in Exeter.
In 1799, the townspeople exhumed the body of Sarah Tillinghast, suspecting her of being a vampire. Author Diana Ross McCain reports there were 18 documented instances of the exhumation of family members in suspected vampire cases throughout New England in the 18th and 19th century, but the case of Mercy Brown would be the last.
After removing and burning her heart, Mercy Brown was re buried at the Chestnut Hill Cemetery where she now rests in peace.
Unfortunately Edwin died just two months later.
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Mercy Browns Grave
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Further reading......
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Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft drew inspiration from this case for there respective works..
Bram Stokers character Lucy Westernra and H.P. Lovecrafts character Mercy Dexter..
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Mercy Brown's story was also the inspiration for the young adult novel Mercy: The Last New England Vampire by Sarah L. Thomson.
There's also an account of the events as told by the remaining descendants of Mercy is available in Michael E. Bell's Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires.
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