THE NEW ENGLAND VAMPIRE PANIC: Burned Hearts, Beheaded Corpses, and The White Death

Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Read a full-length even DEEPER-DIVE article about the New England Vampire Panic in my blog at https://weirddarkness.com/vampires-new-england-mercy-brown/
Across 19th-century New England, over 80 documented exhumations reveal a forgotten chapter of American history where rural communities were stirred into a vampire panic, causing them to dig up graves and burn the hearts of their own dead relatives.
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IN THIS EPISODE: If you are convinced that someone you know is possessed, never try to exorcise the demon on your own – always call an expert. One woman didn’t do that. (My Couch Is Possessed By The Devil) *** When the unsinkable ship, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sent 1,500 people to an icy grave, why did many people blame it on the curse of a mummy – a mummy that wasn’t even onboard the ship, but was sitting in a British museum? (Did a Mummy’s Curse Sink the Titanic) **** An investigation of San Francisco's famed White Lady of Stow Lake revealed some interesting findings about the City By The Bay’s most infamous phantom resident. (The Real Story Behind San Francisco’s Most Famous Ghost) *** Two hundred years after the Salem witch trials, farmers became convinced that their relatives were returning from the grave to feed on the living. We’ll look at the great New England panic around blood-sucking creatures of the night. (The Great Vampire Panic)
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Cold Open
00:03:21.686 = Show Open
00:05:05.721 = The Great Vampire Panic
00:38:44.175 = My Couch Is Possessed By The Devil
00:42:25.783 = Did a Mummy’s Curse Sink The Titanic?
00:53:15.637 = The Real Story Behind San Francisco’s Most Famous Ghost
00:59:02.193 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…BOOK: “Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires” by Michael Bell: https://amzn.to/2zORTSy
BOOK: “Vampires, Burials and Death” by Paul Barber”: https://amzn.to/36ctToA
BOOK: “The New England Vampire Belief: Image of the Decline” by Faye Ringel: https://tinyurl.com/yap5h2kh(More from Faye Ringel: https://amzn.to/40qgCov)
“My Couch Is Possessed by The Devil” by Paul Seaburn for Mysterious Universe: https://tinyurl.com/ycbl95w6
“Did a Mummy’s Curse Sink The Titanic?” by Jacob Shelton for Ranker: https://tinyurl.com/ybzdckrr
“The Real Story Behind San Francisco’s Most Famous Ghost” by Katie Dowd for SF Gate: https://tinyurl.com/ydyxvnq2
“The Great Vampire Panic” by Abigail Tucker for Smithsonian Magazine: https://tinyurl.com/ycy29ucu=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: May 19, 2020
NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/VampirePanic
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