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- [00:03]
Carter Roy
The year 2020 was marked by fear. A mysterious new virus spread worldwide. People were worried their families were dying. It created a hotbed for conspiracy theories. For example, the COVID vaccine will turn you into a vampire. Proponents of the theory pointed to the Will Smith movie I am Legendary saying the vampires in the film were created by a vaccine against a deadly plague. Therefore, the COVID 19 vaccine would turn people into vampires and those vampires would kill us all. Obviously that didn't happen. People who get the COVID shot are not blood sucking demons. But the vampire conspiracy theory wasn't new. Throughout history, there are cases of people legitimately suggesting, hey, our problems are caused by vampires and we need to fight them. The I am legend vaccine theory is debunked. But why did it spread? To find out, we'll examine some historical vampire conspiracy theories. Theories that led people to cannibalism and murder. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram he conspiracypod and we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts for the month of October. We're examining classic monsters and the conspiracy theories around them. Today we're covering conspiracy theories that vampires are real. Whether they're scapegoats, scams, or government agents. Stay with us.
- [02:05]
Buzzballs
This episode is brought to you by Buzzballs. Every time I see these guys in the store, I have to smile. They are hilarious and so cute. My favorite flavor is Watermelon Smash. Thanks to Buzzballs, you can get delicious cocktails in these cute ready to drink ball cans. They're made with real fruit juices and creams. Plus they're kosher certified and gluten free. There's a Buzzballs for every cocktail taste. Find a Buzz balls near you. Buzzballs 15% ABV Carrollton, Texas. Please enjoy responsibly.
- [02:36]
Blair
Hi, I'm Blair. Wanna hear something scary? Join me as I read the creepiest urban legends, folk tales and ghost stories that I learn on my travels around the world and that we receive from listeners like you. But only if you think you can handle it. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time. Sweet screams.
- [03:06]
Science Versus Host
There's tons of people online making these huge claims about how you should live your life on Science versus. We take those claims on. This season we're finding out are microplastics as scary as they sound?
- [03:21]
Carter Roy
Microplastics have now been discovered in human testicles.
- [03:25]
Science Versus Host
Is Social media rotting your brain. Have we hit the climate tipping point?
- [03:29]
Carter Roy
Is it Waterworld? Is it Kevin Costner, Waterworld?
- [03:32]
Science Versus Host
New episodes of Science Versus, that's Science Versus. Are out now.
- [03:36]
Carter Roy
We'll start with a story that, according to legend, inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. In the 1880s, a mysterious disease plagued New England. No one knew where it came from. No one knew how to cure it. Most times, it was deadly. For rural communities like Exeter, Rhode island, the disease was devastating. Even before the plague struck, it was a harsh, inhospitable place. The president of the Exeter Historical association told Smithsonian magazine that Exeter's farmland was rocks, rocks and more rocks. Even though Exeter residents made efforts to farm, they had to rely on each other to survive. Residents like George Brown maintained a membership at the Exeter Grange, a sort of social club based around community gardens. Not that there were many members. Civil War casualties had sharply reduced the population, and many former soldiers used the burgeoning railroad system to flock to greener pastures out west. Still, George Brown built a life for himself in Rhode Island. He married a woman named Mary eliza, and by 1872, the Browns had three children, Edwin, Mary Olive and Mercy Lena. The youngest daughter is commonly known to history as Mercy or Mercy Brown, but she actually went by Lena, so we'll call her that. When Lena was about 10, her mother got sick. What at first seemed like an innocuous cough grew much more severe. Mrs. Brown developed a high fever and her cough soon resulted in blood soaked handkerchiefs, her body visibly wasted away. But before anyone could figure out what was plaguing Mrs. Brown, she died. The Brown family barely had time to grieve before their older daughter, Mary Olive, came down with the same illness. Fever, weight loss, coughing blood. Within a year, the Browns were at their second funeral, and from the sound of it, Mary Eliza had died a horrible death. Her obituary read. The last few hours she lived was of great suffering. Still, death was a fact of life for New Englanders at the time. George, Lena and Edwin moved on as best they could. Edwin grew up, and five years later, in 1888, he married a local girl. Everything seemed rosier until Edwin got sick. Sometime around 1890, he developed a worrisome cough. The healthy 24 year old began to falter in daily tasks. Terrified of losing another family member, George Brown sent Edwin and his wife to Colorado Springs, where he hoped the mountaineer would restore Edwin's health. Whether it would, no one could be sure. Most doctors were taking a throw spaghetti at the wall approach, prescribing everything from skin blistering to diets, leeches, to opium purges, to ocean voyages In Exeter. Nobody knew what caused this disease and nobody knew how to treat it. Not long after Edwin left for Colorado, the Browns got more bad news. Lena was sick. And unlike Edwin, her illness moved fast. Desperate, George Brown called the local doctor, Harold Metcalf. He diagnosed Lena's disease as the quote, galloping variant. Basically, don't bother to treat her, she's terminal. Sadly, Dr. Metcalf was correct. In January 1892, 19 year old Lena Brown died. The following month, Edwin Brown took the train back to Rhode island from Colorado, not to mourn his sister Lena, but to prepare for his own death. At this point, it was clear Edwin was going to die of the same disease that killed his mother and sisters, which meant he had to come home. You see, in 1800s, New England people didn't die at hospitals. They died at home, surrounded by friends and loved ones. For Edwin, the thought of dying alone might have been more frightening than the thought of death itself. Which could explain why he made a difficult journey in such poor health. Back home, he knew he'd be able to die in peace, thanks to a local tradition of so called Watchers. In 1800s, New England Watchers stayed with the dying person around the clock, attending to the physical and emotional needs of those on their deathbed. Sort of like an unpaid hospice nurse or set of nurses. Since it was typically a community effort, being asked to be someone's watcher was an honor. So it probably came as a surprise when Edwin did not ask his father, George. It turned out George's only remaining family member didn't want him around as he died, Edwin came all the way back to Rhode island to die with his wife's family. George Brown was alone in the world mostly. Late one night, not long after Edwin returned home, A group of neighbors knocked on George's door. They claimed they knew how to save Edwin. George was all ears until he heard the plan. His neighbors insisted Edwin wasn't sick. He was being slowly devoured by an undead spirit. To stop it, they wanted to exhume George's dead wife and daughters to see which of them was the creature sucking the life out of Edwin. Each night, then they'd kill it. And don't worry, they'd done this before. Back in 1872, a member of the Exeter town council, William Rose, lost his daughter to the same disease as the Brown family. When other family members grew sick, he dug up her body and performed the ceremony. Not long after, the entire Rose family was cured. As for where Rose Got the idea his wife's great grandfather did it back in 1799. And it wasn't just the Rose family. The June 1784 edition of the Connecticut Current and Weekly Intelligencer published an account of a local doctor prescribing the same cure. Dig up your dead relatives and destroy them. Between 1784 and 1892, over 80 suspected vampires were removed from graves across New England. And it's likely more exhumations happened off the record because not everyone believed in vampires. George Brown, for one. When his neighbors first proposed the idea, he balked. He wasn't comfortable digging up his dead wife and daughters and potentially desecrating their bodies. But George knew that to survive in 1800s New England, he needed his community's approval. If he said no, then someone else in town got sick, he'd take the blame. He'd be a pariah. Plus, as a father, he was likely desperate to save his son, even if their relationship was strained. Edwin was George's only remaining family member. So after some convincing, George gave his neighbors permission to dig up his family's graves. If one of them was a vampire, she'd show obvious signs of life and vitality. If she wasn't, she'd look like a regular decomposing corpse. On March 17, 1892, a group of neighbors, including Dr. Metcalf, the same doctor who'd said Lena was too far gone to save, went to the cemetery to dig up the brown women. Notably, Dr. Metcalf didn't really believe in vampires either. But in a town with a population under 1000, there wasn't much else in the way of entertainment. And as a doctor, he'd be asked to perform autopsies if there were signs any of the Browns were undead. First up, Mary Eliza. Her remains were little more than a skeleton, what you'd expect after nine years in the grave. The group reburied her, then moved on to the next grave. Mary Olive, AKA Ollie. Like her mother, Ollie's remains were essentially a skeleton with clothes and hair. They reburied her and went to the crypt to pry open Lena's coffin, even though Lena had only been dead about two months and would certainly be more than a skeleton. Dr. Metcalfe knew what to expect, but that wasn't what he saw. First off, according to the Brown family lore, Lena had moved in her grave, turning over from her back to her stomach. Adding to that, Dr. Metcalfe couldn't mark any of the early stages of decomposition and he couldn't explain the blood in her mouth. To investigate, they cut Lena open and removed her heart. When they cut that open, it was filled with more blood. Liquid blood. Blood that appeared fresh to the neighbors. This was the sign. Lena Brown was a vampire. Their theory was right. She was the monster they feared. But finding the vampire was only the first step. In order to stop her from killing Edwin Brown, they'd have to cut out her heart and feed it to Edwin. This episode is brought to you by Simplisafe. We talk about a lot of complex mysteries and theories on this podcast, so let's take a moment and discuss something simpler. If you want to secure your home, you need Simplisafe. There's a lot of home security systems on the market. Simplisafe is one of the best. And they make it so easy to protect what matters most to you. And I speak from personal experience. I had a break in about three years ago. Somebody pried open a window, climbed in and robbed me while I slept. It is one of the worst feelings in the world. A feeling of vulnerability and violation. I needed to feel safe. I got Simplisafe. And I cannot express to you enough the difference it's made me feel. And it was so easy. You could hire someone to set it up, but I did it myself in under an hour. If you're going to trust anyone with you and your family's safety, trust Simplisafe. They've been named best home security system by U.S. news and World Report for five years running. And right now, you can get an exclusive 50% discount on a new system, plus a free indoor security camera with fast protect monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com conspiracy this offer is available for a limited time only, so be sure to order today. That's SimpliSafe.com conspiracy there's no safe like SimpliSafe. In the 19th century, citizens of Exeter, Rhode island, thought a vampire was killing, killing off a local family. To make it worse, it was her own family. Suspected vampire Lena Brown had died of consumption just a few months before. But her neighbors believed she'd come back from the dead and was preying on her brother Edwin. And once she killed him, anyone in town could be next. In their minds, the only way to stop the vampire was to engage in ritual cannibalism. The town doctor, Dr. Metcalf, tried to talk the townspeople out of it. This was the 1890s, after all. But even Lena and Edwin's father, George Brown, agreed. The best course of action was to feed his dead daughter's heart to his ailing son. Luckily for Edwin, they wouldn't make him eat his dead sister's heart raw. The group removed Lena's heart from her body as well as her liver. They set them on a rock outside and burned them. Then they mixed the ashes with water and brought Edwin his so called tonic. It's unknown if anyone told Edwin the ingredients of his drink, but he glugged it down without question. Over the next few weeks, Edwin's health improved. It seemed like the vampire theory was proven right until about two months later when Edwin died. Now George was truly the last family member standing. And incredibly, he lived until 1922 when he died from old age, which made some people think they really had stopped the vampire. Yes, Edwin died, but he'd been under attack for years. Once they performed the ritual, George became immune. Immune, at least in the eyes of his neighbors in Exeter. But within George's lifetime, science provided some different explanations. You've probably already caught onto a few, but I'll break down the so called signs of a vampire and what was really going on. First, sign of a vampire, the lack of decomposition. Eerie for sure, but remember Lina's corpse was kept outside in a harsh New England winter when temperatures routinely go below freezing. In the two months following her death, Lina's body was essentially in refrigeration. And even if there was no visual sign of decomposition, this doesn't mean it wasn't happening. Which brings us to the second the blood in Lena's mouth and heart. After death, the brain liquefies and that dark blood, like fluid, leaks into the heart and lungs. This is probably what George's neighbors found when they cut open Lena's heart. This process also accounts for blood being found in her mouth. With the help of gravity, this fluid can leak out of a corpse's nose and mouth, giving the impression that it's feeding on the living. Other alleged signs of life in Lena and other vampires were hair, teeth and fingernail growth, all explained by soft tissues shrinking from dehydration. This is more noticeable when the body is somewhat preserved. And lastly, some New England vampires were reported to scream or make noise when they were cut open or stabbed. But as corpses decompose, gases build up and the release of those gases can be, well, noisy. So pretty much everything about the New England vampires can be explained by science. But in an era when medical knowledge was still limited, you can understand how people concluded their relatives were vampires. They were scared. They didn't know what was happening and they needed a scapegoat. The deaths of George Brown's entire family wasn't just a Tragedy. Someone had to be targeting him. Someone had to be blamed. The disease that afflicted the Brown family was known informally as consumption because it looked like something was literally consumed the patients. At the time of Lena's passing, consumption was a leading cause of death for people living in rural New England. It killed one out of every four. And it stood out from other diseases. Illnesses like cholera and smallpox infected groups in deadly bursts before going dormant as people developed immunities. But consumption was a constant threat. If you got it, you died. It was just a matter of when. So when consumption came to town, mass hysteria tagged along. As for why people might blame their dead relatives. Have you ever gotten the flu from a family member and felt angry at them for giving it to you? It's an extension of the same impulse. Blame the source you can see. Since viruses and bacteria are invisible, or were. Until German microbiologist Robert Koch discovered the real tuberculosis, New Englanders weren't plagued by vampires, but bacteria. Koch's experiments made the invisible monster visible. But even if the Brown family had known it was tuberculosis killing them, they were still helpless. There was no surefire way to stop tuberculosis until the vaccine came out in 1921. Until then, the disease was an unknown factor. So people claimed vampires were attacking them. You might be thinking, if it was a disease, why didn't George Brown ever catch tuberculosis? The answer was likely natural resistance. A 2009 study discovered that about 20% of people show a genetic resistance to tuberculosis. That's one in five. And George was the only one of the five Browns who never fell ill. There's just one part of this story. Science doesn't explain how Lena was found lying on her stomach as if she'd rolled in her grave, Especially because in New England's vampire lore, the undead didn't physically leave their resting places to feast on blood. They had a spiritual connection that tied them to the living and allowed them to SAP the life force of their nearest and dearest. This lines up neatly with tuberculosis, but implies that even if Lena was a vampire, her body wouldn't have moved. There are a few possible explanations. Someone reported the facts wrong, mourners dropped her coffin. Or most horrifyingly, she was buried alive, which wasn't uncommon. In fact, there used to be a device hooked up to coffins that allowed the recently interred to ring a bell if they realized they were buried alive. Hearing the signal, cemetery workers would dig them up. This outcome wasn't considered in Lena's case, perhaps because it's much more palatable to imagine an undead spirit haunting you than to admit you buried your kid alive. George Brown said he didn't believe in vampires, but there were social and emotional reasons for him to go along with the lore and to keep spreading the lie. Which leads into our next vampire conspiracy story. Years after tuberculosis was discovered and cured, vampire panics kept happening. In the late 1960s, nearly 70 years after the New England vampire panic, reports arose of a vampire roaming Highgate Cemetery in London, England. England. And once again, vampire hysteria hit. Highgate Cemetery had been built back in the 1830s, but by 1970, the cemetery was run down and subject to frequent vandalism. This included broken monuments, opened graves and even small fires. Amidst the vandalism, people reported strange dark figures walking in the cemetery. Some even claim the figures temporarily paralyzed them. One 24 year old David Farrant reported seeing a 7 foot tall gray figure in the cemetery. Farrant was so spooked he willingly tattled on himself for breaking and entering. He wrote a letter to the Hampstead and Highgate Express, known locally as the Ham and High, on February 6, 1970. In his letter, he described the incident. He asked if anyone had experienced something similar. The letter's publication yielded a flood of a man in a tall top hat, a ghostly cyclist, a woman dressed all in white, a pale face peering through a gate, someone wading into a pond, an ethereal gliding figure and sounds including ringing bells and calling voices. Turns out a lot of people thought there was something weird at Highgate Cemetery. It became a major story around the town. People wanted to talk about the so called specter in the graveyard, including another young man named Sean Manchester. He told the Hammond High he'd seen a lot of dead animals around the cemetery and it looked like something had sucked out their blood. Manchester said the figure Ferrant had seen had to be a king vampire. Manchester claimed the vampire had been a medieval nobleman from Wallachia in modern day Romania. This nobleman was an avid practitioner of black magic and after he died, his followers brought him to England and buried him on the site that later became Highgate Cemetery. In the Hammond Highs article, which bore the sensational headline Does a Vampire Walk in Highgate? Manchester said the vampire had been raised from the dead by modern Satanists. Most importantly, the vampire was responsible for the cemetery's vandalism. It was the reason the cemetery was so run down. To stop the vampire vandal, a stake had to be driven through its heart and then it must be beheaded and burned. The only problem was that doing so would be very illegal. It required either assaulting a person believed to be a vampire or desecrating a corpse. Meanwhile, David Farrant was on his own hunt for the supernatural and didn't like Manchester's attempt to steal the spotlight. Farrant felt that Manchester's letter was fake and the man was just riding his coattails. The mainstream press picked up the rivalry between the two so called vampire hunters and public interest continued to grow around what was now named the Highgate Vampire. Around this time, Farrant started saying it was actually a vampire he saw. Like George Brown, he reversed his previously stated beliefs. Why? Perhaps because after Manchester started advertising a vampire, there were opportunities for fame and money. For example, when Manchester announced he'd lead a hunt to find a vampire, a local TV network set up interviews with both Manchester and Farrant as well as other people who claim to have seen supernatural entities in the Highgate cemetery. The interviews, including Manchester's call to join his hunt, aired in the early evening of March 13, 1970. Friday the 13th. Within a few hours, Highgate Cemetery was flooded with eager stake wielding vampire hunters. The police were quickly overwhelmed. At least a hundred people broke into the cemetery that night. It was a Friday night in 1970 and the hot thing to do was vampire hunting. Manchester took advantage of the chaos, sneaking into a catacomb through a hole in its roof. However, Manchester didn't find the vampires he sought. The coffins inside were empty. Presumably, the Highgate vampires were out hunting. Manchester sprinkled the coffins with holy water and put garlic inside them to kill the vampires. When they returned, he claimed the job was done. The vampires were stopped. But the hysteria he'd ignited wasn't Vandalism of graves and bodies at Highgate Cemetery continued for months. The police arrested several young people who allegedly entered the cemetery for vampire hunting and occult rituals. In one incident, a woman's burnt and decapitated corpse was found near the catacombs. It's unknown who defeated this vampire. Not long after, authorities arrested Farrant in the churchyard next to Highgate Cemetery. He was accused of desecrating graves and human remains. They found him in possession of a wooden stake and a crucifix. Farrant claimed to the local magistrate that he was trying to conduct a seance and speak to the spirit of the dead vampire. The magistrate dismissed the case. Meanwhile, Manchester returned to the cemetery. This time during the day. Using his supposedly psychic friend as a guide, Manchester was able to open a family vault. He wanted to drive a stake through one of the bodies, but one of his friends convinced him not to. He placed garlic and incense in the tomb instead not long after that, he spoke to the BBC for a documentary. The story was bigger than Highgate. It was of national interest. Ferrant and Manchester both went on to publish books and continued their TV appearances for years, fully monetizing the Highgate vampire story. Ferrant even used his fame to run for political office. Considering that it's up for debate if one or both of them conspired to defraud the public from the very beginning, they may have even conspired together. Despite their public feuding, both were members of the same club, the British Occult Society. But even if it was a hoax engineered to make money, there's the question of the mass hysteria. In 1970, crowds of Brits who wouldn't normally enter a cemetery at night picked up their garlic and crucifixes. It's difficult to fathom that all these people actually believed they'd find a vampire, but they still showed up in droves. Meanwhile, dozens of others did report seeing a vampire or another supernatural entity. Though Manchester and Farrant gained the most from the panic, something else was going on with the people of Hampstead and Highgate. Perhaps it was the fact that much like incurable tuberculosis, they face something big, scary and invisible. A recession in the 1960s, a declining economy made it hard for young people to find work. By 1972, there were over a million unemployed people in Great Britain, with many under the age of 30. And that may have influenced included Ferrant, Manchester and their fellow Occult society members. On top of the fear, anger and disillusionment among young people, the town of Highgate didn't have the means to repair their rundown, vandalized cemetery. There wasn't a simple solution to their problems. It's not like you can drive a stake in the heart of unemployment, but you can drive a stake in the heart of the vampire. Like Lena Brown, the Highgate vampire was a supernatural scapegoat for an invisible problem. People want an evil that can be easily fought. And it's one thing when the scapegoat for all evil is a dead body. But what happens when the public goes after a living person? Vampire panics in the 1890s and even the 1970s feel like a thing of the past. But there's more than one case from this century. In Malawi in 2002, rumors spread of anomopopa, or blood suckers. They appeared to be normal humans, but they were actually secret agents working with the government to steal people's blood. The government then traded that blood for food supplies, at least according to the Conspiracy theory. Like Western vampires, some Animapopa can shapeshift into animals. And they have special tools or abilities that allow them to paralyze or incapacitate their targets. The Anomapopa need human blood to survive. But instead of eating it directly, they sell it to make a living. It's vampirism with an extra step. As the conspiracy theories spread in 2002, the paranoia got so bad that farmers left their fields untended lest they risk becoming the Animapopas next victims. This left local people with the choice between famine and killing. The blood sucking demons. Sound familiar? Yeah. But here's where this one gets wild. The people the Malawians identified as Anamapopa weren't dead. They were outsiders and allegedly government agents. But that didn't make them less scary. Before long, three of these outsiders were viciously attacked until someone recognized them as visiting priests. Priests couldn't be involved with demons, so the people let them go. The fourth man identified as Animapopa wasn't so lucky. He was murdered. In light of the murder, Malawian President Bekele Muluzi intervened. He stated that the rumors of Anamapopa were made up as part of a political smear campaign. According to the BBC, President Muluzi blamed unknown politicians in the opposing party. He said they spread the stories as an effort to undermine the government. And he reiterated that the government of Malawi was not stealing citizens blood. The fervor died down for a time. In 2017 there was another burst of Animapopa fueled violence. According to reporting by Vice News, the whispers began in Mozambique which borders Malawi to the east. It was rumored the Mozambican police were protecting Animapopa. Once again the government was conspiring to steal citizens blood. As the story spread to Malawi, people again took justice into their own hands. In Blantyre, Malawi's second biggest city, six people were killed. Police set up checkpoints in an effort to stop the violence. But unlike in 2002, the government's intervention didn't stop the attacks. Two more people suspected of being or aiding Anamapopa were killed. One of the victims, a 22 year old epileptic man walking home from the hospital was burned to death in full view of a police checkpoint. The situation grew so dangerous the United nations pulled their staff from two districts in the southern part of Malawi and the latest Malawian president stepped in. He personally visited the affected parts of the country in order to calm the situation and set a nationwide curfew from 7pm to 5am Local officials arrested over 200 suspected vigilantes. But all this did was fuel the theory that the government was behind the Animapopa. If people had to be home at a certain time, the Animapopa knew when to come for their blood. With government mistrust at an all time high religious leaders stepped up with a slightly different tack. Don't denounce the theories, just the violent responses. American researcher Adam Ashforth told Vice News. This was the right thing to do. If people are told their conspiracy theories are wrong, they tend to double down and believe it more. The mobs eventually disbanded, but the Anomapopa rumors didn't. Unlike the New England vampire panic, when new science helped end exhumation rituals, modern technology, AKA social media, keeps the Animapopa rumors afloat. You see, Malawi and other sub Saharan African countries actually have a long, complicated history with vampirism. The first recorded claims came from Zambia, which borders Malawi to the west during the 19th 30s. Some people believe that their blood was being taken to manufacture cough drops for Europeans. Malawi specifically was subject to foreign missionaries starting around the 1870s and conquered as a British colony in 1891. Europeans took everything from the local people, their resources, their land, their labor. So why not their blood too? Blood represents the essence of one's being, and having it taken forcibly might reflect the anxiety and lack of control Malawians felt under colonialism. Even though Malawi became an independent nation in 1964, the fears remained. According to Vice, news stories and rumors of Animapopa arise frequently in Malawi during times of stress, often when farmers wait on the result of their crops. If there is a bountiful harvest, the rumors usually go away. But they can get worse if there's a food shortage. Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries, so it gets a lot of foreign aid from organizations like the United Nations. In times of famine, it can be hard to believe that someone would just give you food for free. Hence the Anima Popa explanation. The theory goes that people are paying for this food with their blood. Like the New England and Highgate vampires, the Anomapopa theories pop up when people face an invisible, deadly, forced disease, recession or famine. Here's one more modern example. In 2005, a group of Romanian men exhumed a dead body, burned its heart, mixed the ashes in water and drank it. They were arrested, but explained the actions were in self defense. The body they dug up was a vampire. That same year, international news coverage spread fears of a new strain of bird flu. The mysterious disease was found in Romania, and people feared it would spread to humans in the event that that happened. No one knew how to cure it. The case is extremely similar to the New England Vampire Panic, where a mysterious illness spread and there was no surefire way to protect yourself with that context. As ghastly as these practices seem, these people aren't villains or gleeful grave robbers. They were desperate, and if you look at it a certain way, you could say they were following a version of the scientific method. Invisible monsters were threatening their loved ones, so they sought them out and killed them. In a sense, they were right. It's just that the monsters were disease, colonialism and economic hardship. There might always be some among us who prefer to believe in vampires over these terrors, especially when there are details we still can't explain. Some of Lena Brown's distant family still lives in Exeter, Rhode Island. One of their most prized possessions is a quilt Lena sewed herself. Textile scholars from the University of Rhode island have identified its materials as coming from the 1870s and 1880s. She would have sewn it when she was just a child. But there's still a dark side to the lore. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the pattern of her quilt was very rare for Rhode Island. Legend says that anyone who sleeps under a quilt with this pattern, known as the Wandering Foot, becomes lost to their family and is doomed to wander forever. Some suggest that Lena Brown still wanders, haunting the area. In 1981, folklorist Michael E. Bell interviewed Lewis Everett Peck, a Brown family descendant who still lived in Exeter. Peck provided or confirmed most of the stories around his relatives, and he agreed that Lena wasn't a vampire. But he added something else a personal experience. Keep in mind this was reported nearly a century after Lena's death and exhumation. Peck said when he was a teenager, he and his brother were out driving an Exeter. Out the car window they spotted a fireball. It wasn't moving and it wasn't burning anything visible. The ball of fire simply hovered at waist height, Peck recalled. The fireball was football sized and blue. It freaked him and his brother out, so of course they told their cousins who lived nearby. And it turned out the cousins had seen it to right near Lena Brown's grave. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram he Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or even email us@conspiracy storiespotify.com until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written by Alex Benedaugh and Maggie Admire, edited by Chelsea Wood and TTU Fact checked by Laurie Siegel and sound designed by Spencer Howard. Our head of programming is Julian Boirau. Our head of production is Nick Johnson and Spencer Howard is our post production supervisor. I'm your host, Carter Roy.
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Buzzballs
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