One thing about this story is that it was really studied, starting in the 1990s! That's fairly recent by some of timelines we've looked at in the past. Anyway, it's not that far away!
The Vampires Of New England
There weren’t many tales of vampires in America—until the dark discovery of a grave in Griswold, Connecticut in 1990. The grave contained the bodies of farmers from the 1700s. All were normal except for one. One body had been beheaded, and its skeleton was rearranged into the shape of a jolly roger.
It was decided that this wasn’t just a simple grave robbery, as it had been done 10 years after death no valuables were removed. It mirrored a case in neighboring Jewett City where, around the same time, 29 bodies were exhumed postmortem and burned. This was something of a vampire epidemic. The most famous case from this time is that of Mercy Brown, a girl who died from tuberculosis. Some time later, the rest of her family started to fall ill and die one by one until Mercy’s body was dug up, found to be remarkably un-corpsefied, and burned.
I know that we often think of vampire stories being mostly a European thing, so it's kind of a rarity to find one here in the states! Something to think about over coffee, right?
Speaking of coffee, let's try and sit on the patio this morning. Maybe the rain will cut us a break!
I wish the rain would give us a break. It was nice and sunny in NC and I came home to deluge. Geeeesh. Cleaned the cage around the overflow pipe yesterday morning and will have to do it again either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Again....geeeesh.
ReplyDeleteI use to love stories about vampires - not that I wanted to meet one. Back in the late 60's my favorite show on TV was Dark Shadows - I loved Barnabas Collins (the vampire in the story). Today it's a different story, don't like vampires but it is interesting to read stories like this one. Raining here today.
ReplyDeleteAnyone here remember the show with Zacherley? He was a real hoot. I think it played on TV back in the late 50's. He was the host of a show that usually aired vampire movies lat at night. His "dead" wife was a vampire. I'll bring a big box of jelly donuts for all!
ReplyDeleteI remember those 2 programs. They were very popular I think Zacherley had to be more in the
ReplyDelete60's watching that in my parent's home would never fly.
It is back in the triple digits here. Hope it's cooler on the patio for coffee and jelly donuts.
Well up here in East Texas I wish the rain would give us a break, maybe about two or three inches of a break. Darn burn bans ! Afraid to even mow the lawn worrying about hitting a rock and sparking a fire.
ReplyDeleteNot that long ago, nor so far away.
ReplyDeleteOff to repair my deck, so I can enjoy coffee on the deck.
The govenment has taken over the roll of the old vampires trying to suck the fluids of life out of our bodies.
ReplyDeleteI'd happily take some of that rain if you want to point it in my direction!
ReplyDeleteThat soap opera was called Dark Shadows. It's 98 here and feels like 103, and the high humidity makes it impossible to dry off after a shower. I'm not leaving the house unless it starts burning.
ReplyDelete