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Mercy Brown, Rhode Island's Vampire Part2

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 7:27 pm
by auntiebi0tic
An article in the same newspaper on March 21, 1892, explained in detail the definition of vampires and the vampire cult, attributing its origins to the Slavic people of Russian, Poland, Bohemia and other parts of Europe. The article went on:

How the tradition got to Rhode Island and planted itself firmly here, cannot be said. It was in existence in Connecticut and Maine 50 and 100 years ago, and the people of the South County say they got it from their ancestors, as far back in some cases as the beginning of the eighteenth century. The idea never seems to have been accepted in the northern part of the state, but every five or ten years it has cropped up in Coventry, West Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond and the neighboring towns.

Brown himself had "no confidence in the old-time theory," but also received little help from the medical community. He finally acquiesced to pressure and agreed to dig up the bodies of Mary, Olive and Mercy, in order to try to save his son.