Mercy Brown vampire incident

Did You Know?

• Scholars have suggested that Bram Stoker knew about the Mercy Brown case through newspaper articles and based the character Lucy Westenra upon her in his novel Dracula.
• The MonsterQuest episode 'Vampires In America' investigated the Mercy Brown case and used it as a reference.
• The American rock band Clutch have a song titled 'Mercy Brown' on their 2022 album, Sunrise on Slaughter Beach.

History

In Exeter, Rhode Island, the Brown family was struck by a series of tuberculosis infections during the 1880s and 1890s. At the time, the disease was known as consumption and carried a terrifying reputation. The first to succumb was Mary Eliza Brown on December 8, 1883. Her eldest daughter, Mary Olive, followed on June 6, 1884, at age twenty, as recorded on her gravestone. In 1891, two more children fell ill: Mercy Lena Brown and her brother Edwin "Eddie" Atwood Brown. Local friends and neighbors, drawing on folk beliefs that linked multiple family deaths to the influence of the undead, suspected that one of the deceased relatives was responsible for Edwin's worsening condition, though they never used the word "vampire." Consumption was poorly understood and heavily shrouded in superstition.

George Brown, the father, was eventually persuaded to allow the exhumation of several family members. On March 17, 1892, a group that included villagers, the local physician Dr. Harold Metcalf, and a newspaper reporter dug up the bodies. The remains of Mary Eliza and Mary Olive showed the typical decay expected after years in the ground, so they were ruled out as the cause. When Mercy Brown's body was examined, Dr. Metcalf noted that her decomposition was also normal. Some blood had seeped from her heart and liver, but the doctor stated this was no more than what would be expected from a corpse buried for that length of time.

Despite this, local superstition dictated a specific remedy. Mercy's heart and liver were removed, burned, and the ashes mixed with water to create a tonic. This was given to Edwin in hopes of curing his illness and stopping the undead influence. He died two months later. The remaining parts of Mercy's body were reburied in the cemetery of the Baptist Church in Exeter. George Brown himself never contracted tuberculosis, living until 1922. He lived long enough to see the development of the BCG vaccine by Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin, a treatment still used to reduce the risk of severe tuberculosis.