Disturb These 5 Real-Life Vampire Graves at Your Peril...

In 2022, an archeologist knee-deep in a Polish grave came face-to-face with a "vampire." How did they know? A padlock on the skeleton's toe and a sickle positioned to slice the neck!

Read on to unearth more vampire burials, such as...

• The Body Buried Beneath a Blade
• The Venetian Plague Vampire of Lazzaretto Nuovo
• The Undead Terror of Medieval Yorkshire
• Mercy Brown, the Rhode Island Vampire
• A Modern Day Romanian Vampire Slaying

The Body Buried Beneath a Blade

In 2022, archeologists discovered a burial straight out of a horror movie. The 17th century female skeleton was interred with a sickle blade poised above the neck, blade angled to separate head from shoulders if the corpse began to rise. There was also a lock placed on her toe, a folk belief intended to prevent the body from leaving the grave.

It seems that the sickle may have been a later measure, as the body was repositioned shortly after the initial burial. This further step may have been added after the death of a relative, an outbreak of illness or crop failure - the restless dead were often blamed for these misfortunes.

The skeleton of "Zosia" offers a few clues about her identity. She was around twenty when she died and though buried in Pień, Poland, was of Scandinavian descent. She also seems to have been from a wealthy background - silk and precious metals were used in her burial clothing.

Forensic analysis of the remains suggests that she was prone to headaches and fainting. Her sternum was also abnormal (which may have caused a painful and visible growth on her chest) but her actual cause of death is unknown.

So, Zosia may have been an outsider to her community, non-native, wealthy, sickly and possibly deformed... which may explain why the locals took steps to prevent her from becoming undead!

The Venetian Plague Vampire of Lazzaretto Nuovo

It's hard to picture what could be more disturbing than excavating a 16th century plague pit, but finding the skull of a vampire nestled amongst the remains would surely qualify!

Researchers were digging amongst the dead of the 1576 Venetian Plague on Lazzaretto Nuovo, a small island in the Venetian lagoon that was used as a hospice for the plagued. This particular skull stood out from the others because of a brick wedged between its jaws.

You might be wondering how that ties into vampires. Well, the folklore of the living dead was a lot less glamorous than that of Dracula and True Blood, being based on limited (and poorly understood) observations of bloated and partially decayed corpses.

People reasoned that the prospective vampire would need to build up strength before rising to attack the living, so the first step was to consume the shroud it was buried in. The vampire would then start to gnaw on other bodies, before finally rising to trouble the living.

These "shroud-eaters" were really the result of natural decay. Fluids and bacteria escaping from the mouth of the corpse would soak into the fabric and rapidly rot it... but what conclusion do you think a medieval grave digger greeted by teeth showing through an otherwise intact shroud would draw?

Of course, the corpse couldn't get strong if it couldn't feed. Wedging a brick between the jaws meant no shroud-eating, no corpse-gnawing and thus no vampire!

The Undead Terror of Medieval Yorkshire

It turns out that Dracula's arrival in Whitby isn't the first brush Yorkshire has had with the undead.

In 2017 researchers finally got around to examining a collection of skeletal remains recovered from the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy in the 1960s.

The bodies date back to between the 11th-14th centuries and show signs of deliberate and thorough mutilation. Cut marks are clear on the bones of the upper bodies (as well as the tell-tale signs of fire) suggesting that the remains were dismembered and burnt. It doesn't seem like a case of cannibalism either - typically cuts are found around the joints in those circumstances.

At least ten different people contributed to the remains, with the youngest being around two and the oldest around fifty. They also seem to have been locals due to the strontium isotope levels found in their teeth being standard for the region.

We still don't really know exactly what these bodies did to get such special treatment, but one thing's for sure - someone really didn't want them getting back up!

Mercy Brown, the Rhode Island Vampire

Mercy "Lena" Brown died after a brief battle with consumption in 1892... but her story wasn't quite finished.

Mercy and her family lived in Exeter on Rhode Island, where it must be said they had some awful luck. Tuberculosis was rampant in the area, with first her mother and then her sister falling ill and dying to the disease. In 1889, her brother Edwin began to show symptoms of the disease and was packed off to the healing springs of Colorado... where it seemed that the disease halted its progress.

Now it's worth mentioning a few things about tuberculosis (or as it was called, consumption.) Coughing, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss and exhaustion are all standard symptoms... as well as anemia. The result is a pale, bloodless-looking individual who seems to be wasting away, almost as though something is sucking the life right out of them.

Mercy herself may have been infected but mostly asymptomatic - there was little time between the signs of tuberculosis showing and her death. As a dutiful brother, Edwin returned to pay his respects... only for his own symptoms to swiftly return. There was a twist though - as Edwin writhed in fever dreams, he would exclaim that “she was here” and “she wants me to come with her.”

It didn't take long for the folk of Exeter to make the connection - fearing that Mercy had become a vampire, they demanded that her corpse be exhumed before she could spread more pestilence and death.

Eventually her father caved to the demands and had Mercy (along with her mother and sister) exhumed and examined by Dr Harold Metcalf. Only the recently buried Mercy still had flesh, which the doctor declared to be normal. The little blood that seeped from her removed heart and liver was also declared normal - but just to be sure, the organs were cremated. Supposedly the ashes were administered to Edwin as a tonic (some folklore suggests that a vampire's attacks can be undone by consuming some of their remains) but he still passed away within a few months.

A Modern Day Romanian Vampire Slaying

In 2004 Romania, six men gathered around the farmer Petre Toma at midnight. They split his chest open with a pitchfork, removed his heart, drove stakes through the body and sprinkled garlic into the remains. This wasn't a ritual murder - in fact, it was really an attempt to save the life of his sick niece.

Petre Toma had died in 2003 near Christmas, the victim of an accident in the fields... but his sister claimed that he didn't rest quietly in the grave. Instead, she said that he had become strigoi and was the cause of her own daughter's sickness.

It seems that many inhabitants of Marotinu de Sus agreed. Though the six vampire hunters were arrested and sentenced to six months in jail, they didn't serve any time and seem to have the support of the other villagers.

You might also be wondering what they did with the heart. They burned the extracted organ and mixed the ashes with water, making a tonic for the niece to drink. Apparently she recovered from her illness, so maybe there is something to this disturbing remedy?

Thanks for reading - perhaps you'd also be interested in...

• Read About These 7 Halloween Homicides for a Dose of Horror on Vocal
• 6 Disturbed Modern Criminals Behind Bloody "Vampire" Attacks on Blogspot

Sources and Further Info:

• Researchers are learning more about ‘Zosia,’ the 17th century ‘vampire’ buried with a blade over her neck
• "Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave
• Medieval villagers mutilated the dead to stop them rising, study finds
• The Rhode Island Historical Society: Have Mercy…
• A village still in thrall to Dracula