Ep. 63: Mercy Brown & the New England Vampire Panic

In 1892, 19-year-old Mercy Brown's corpse was exhumed and her vital organs were ritually burned by Exeter, Rhode Island townsfolk convinced the recent consumption victim was a vampire, feasting on her surviving younger brother's life force from the grave. As Sean shows us this week, the desecration of Mercy's corpse was only the latest in a hundred-year trend of rural New England vampire exorcisms, known as the "New England Vampire Panic". Were these "oddly preserved" corpses really blood-drinking creatures of the night? Of course not! But no matter - we dig into hundreds of years of folklore to try and figure out just where New England Vampiremania came from.________________________________________Connect with us on social media:Facebook: www.facebook.com/aintitscaryTwitter: @aintitscaryInstagram: @aintitscaryPatreon: www.patreon.com/aintitscary___________________________________________Thank you to our sponsors:BetterHelp - Special offer for Ain’t it Scary? listeners: Get 10% off your first month at www.betterhelp.com/aintitscaryAudible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-Day Free Trial at www.audibletrial.com/aintitscaryBarkBox - Enjoy a FREE month of BarkBox on us when you sign up for a 6 or 12-month BarkBox subscription! Visit www.barkbox.com/aintitscary for more detailsHunt a Killer - Receive 20% off your first Hunt a Killer subscription box at www.huntakiller.com with the code SCARYSQUAD at checkout!--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aintitscary/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices