Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Legend of Mercy Brown



Q: Who was Mercy Brown and where is she buried?

A: Mercy Brown was a young girl when she died of tuberculosis in January, 1892. Her body was exhumed a few months later from its burial site in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Exeter, RI. Dr. Michael Bell from the Rhode Island Folklife Society writes, “they examined her organs. The newspaper said her heart and liver had blood in it. It was liquid blood, which they interpreted as fresh blood”. The evidence of liquid blood and the fact that Mercy’s body was so well-preserved after being buried for three months led to the theory that Mercy was a vampire.

Information gathered from Food for the Dead: on the Trail of New England's Vampires by Dr. Michael Bell.

Click here to request this book from our library catalog.

Submitted by Kasia Piasecka, Reference Assistant

October 7, 2009

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Im very interested in Mercy Brown and I'm looking for a local libary that has the book "Mercy Brown Nee England's Last Vampire". I saw that Amazon has it but if thr libary has it the better.

West Warwick Public Library said...

There are several libraries in Rhode Island that do own copies of Mercy: The Last New England Vampire. If you have a Rhode Island library card you can request a copy online at this link, http://catalog.oslri.net/search/?searchtype=t&SORT=D&searcharg=Mercy+the+last&searchscope=1.