Vampire Panics and the Rule of Law

Rev'd Prof Helen Hall, Nottingham Law School https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/law/helen-hall

With spooky season in full swing, and the scent of pumpkin spice in the air, monsters are high in the public consciousness. Alongside ghosts, werewolves and zombies, vampires feature prominently and are instantly recognisable when they appear as decorations or Halloween costumes. The modern image of the vampire owes a lot to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the genre of books and films that followed in his wake. Contemporary vampires may be presented as evil and predatory or tortured and misunderstood, but either way they are usually sophisticated, well-groomed and look as though they use expensive aftershave. We don’t imagine them filthy from scrabbling through graveyard dirt with their bare hands or clad in tattered and blood-soaked rags. There are good reasons why vampire romance is a multi-million pound industry, whereas zombie romance is a lot more niche.

However, this image of the vampire is a relatively recent creation. A very different breed of “vampire” was causing social and legal problems in the late nineteenth century. Although the communities experiencing anxiety about vampires did not actually use that term, the press most certainly did when reporting on events that became known as the New England Vampire panic.

The best documented case is that of Mercy Brown and occurred in the 1890s in Rhode Island. Like her mother and sister, Mercy had died from tuberculosis. When her brother Edwin showed the alarming symptoms of the same disease, neighbours began insisting that one of the deceased family members was responsible, harming him from beyond the grave. They piled so much pressure on Mercy and Edwin’s father, George Brown, that he consented to an exhumation, although understandably was not present himself. When examined, Mercy’s mother and sister showed the anticipated signs of decomposition, but Mercy appeared untouched by decay.

Overlooking the important detail that Mercy had died far more recently, and at a cold time of year, the villagers concluded that she was preying on her brother. Consequently, Mercy’s heart and liver were burnt, and the ashes mixed with water so that Edwin could drink them as a curative potion. Sadly, but not at all surprisingly, this did not help, and he died two months later.

Strikingly, these events all took place very publicly. It was the Brown’s neighbours who had clamoured for the exhumation, and many of them turned up to witness the process. Authorities were well aware of what was happening and although they did not condone it, no steps were taken to prosecute anyone involved. For scholars of law and history, the decision not to invoke the criminal law is intriguing. It is a “curious incident of the dog in the nighttime”. In other words, there is a puzzle about why the logical, expected response from the criminal justice system was absent.

Contemporaries were well aware what was happening. Late Victorians were well aware that tuberculosis was ravaging communities in both rural and urban settings, and by this stage Robert Koch had even identified the bacteria responsible. Many generations had passed since educated elites would have considered blaming a supernatural being for disease, and newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic ridiculed the superstition of the farming communities blaming a revenant for a biological reality.

There had long been provisions in place to prohibit unauthorised exhumations across the Common Law world, largely as a result of bodies being taken and sold to doctors and medical students for dissection. The Burial Act 1857 is one example of this kind of provision. Although concern for the feelings of family members and maintaining social norms in respect of treating the dead with dignity were the primary considerations driving these laws, hygiene was also a factor. There were multiple reasons for prohibiting the disturbance of graves without good reason and due process. Yet the New England Vampire panic saw little in the way of any attempt at a clamp down. The prevailing attitude seemed to be one of mocking pity, rather than condemnation, and a belief that education was likely to be more effective than punishment. In short, they refrained from prosecuting because in the particular circumstances, it was likely to be counterproductive.    

Whilst a prejudiced and condescending stance towards rural populations was obviously extremely regrettable, it was correct that a behavioural shift was more likely to come about through attitudinal change, and that improving access to knowledge would advance this more effectively than imposing penalties. The rule of law depends upon a certain level of consensus and voluntary compliance. Furthermore, coercive sanctions are especially unlikely to be effective if individuals are afraid of something more terrible than any punishment that the state can dispense. Ultimately, these vampire beliefs and rituals came about through very real fear, and a desperate desire to take practical action in a dire situation. A painful and inexorable form of death was pursuing people, and there was no predicting who might be next.

This reflection about when and how we use the criminal law certainly has relevance in a 21^st century paradigm, including in relation to medicine and healthcare. When and how we use the more extreme power of the state is needs careful thought and planning. Sometimes it is very necessary in respect of a public health crisis, as the recent Covid 19 pandemic demonstrated. However, criminal law is only one tool at our disposal as society, and even when we use it, its effectiveness is dependent on sufficient acceptance and buy in.

It is also worth bearing in mind that Mercy Brown had a sister called Hattie, who survived until 1954. There are a lot of people alive today who remember having met and spoken with people of Mercy’s generation. Some of them knew grandparents, babysitters and kind elderly neighbours who gave them sweets, and these figures would have been adults in the 1890s. It is very likely that some of those fondly remembered individuals who gave toffees to children destined to eventually became the older citizens of the 2020s, had once been young adults, standing in the bitter cold in a New England graveyard, watching anxiously as a former neighbour was unearthed. We are not as far away from the New England Vampire panic as we might think.

Further Reading 

Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History (Yale University Press: New Haven)

Michael Bell, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England Vampires (Wesleyan University Press: Middletown) 2013

“Vampire Panic in New England” Cranberry Country Magazine (2 April 2017) https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2017/04/vampire-panic-in-new-england.html