WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:05.960 Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, tuberculosis was everywhere 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.560 in New England, but people didn't call it that. They 3 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:14.160 called it consumption, and the name kind of fit now. 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:17.239 It looked like something was consuming you from the inside out. 5 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:20.480 It started with a cough and then a fever, and 6 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.160 then over time your body would start wasting away. Your 7 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:28.719 face would get pale or maybe completely flushed, weight would drop, 8 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:32.039 eyes would sink deep into the sockets, and the coughing 9 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:36.320 sometimes brought up blood. Now, for the people living back 10 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.479 in that era, it looked like someone or something was 11 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.640 draining the life out of their loved ones. Times were different, 12 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.119 though there wasn't much understanding of what was really happening. 13 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:51.159 Germ theory, for example, didn't exist yet, and doctors couldn't 14 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:53.840 explain why so many people in the same family were 15 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.000 dying one after the other, often within just a few months. 16 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:02.439 When your mother died of consumption, and then a sister followed, 17 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.519 and now your brother was coughing blood, it kind of 18 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.239 felt like a curse. In some towns, especially the smaller, 19 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:14.280 more isolated ones, people thought that something, maybe someone will 20 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:20.439 still hanging around after death, feeding on the living, because 21 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:23.120 he would bury someone, and then the next family member 22 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.840 would get sick, and then another. It just felt like 23 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:30.560 the dead were not staying dead. All of these beliefs 24 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.879 would eventually lead to an unsettling account of one person 25 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:37.640 in particular, who was thought to be a vampire because 26 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:40.599 when they looked at her corpse, she still appeared to 27 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:47.000 be alive. This is the well documented tragedy of Mercy Brown. 28 00:01:50.359 --> 00:01:58.560 My name is Edwin, and here's a horror story. Because 29 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.840 there were no real answers, especially in rural communities far 30 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.879 from medical knowledge or resources, people turned to what they did, 31 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.319 no folk beliefs, old stories, and rituals passed down by 32 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.280 word of mouth. Now these weren't exactly places dominated by 33 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.599 churches or strict doctrine. A lot of New England at 34 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:21.759 the time was unchurched, with people mixing Christian ideas with 35 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:32.039 folk remedies, superstition, and a little occult thinking. Tuberculosis was terrifying, 36 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:35.039 and it created the perfect conditions for fear to turn 37 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:40.280 into something supernatural. When science couldn't offer solutions, belief would 38 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.759 step in and that's where the idea of vampires, or 39 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:48.240 more accurately, the undead, started to take hold in New England. 40 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.039 But I'm not talking about the legend creatures from Europe. Now. 41 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:56.159 These were something quieter and more personal. A dead loved 42 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:59.759 one who, for reasons no one could fully understand, hadn't 43 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:04.240 found on peace, and until that connection was broken, they 44 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.719 believed that the living would keep dying because of it. 45 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:11.960 Today you might look up these cases by typing in 46 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:15.520 vampire in a Google search, but people in New England 47 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:18.960 didn't usually use the word vampire back then. That was 48 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.360 more of an outside label used later by newspapers or 49 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.439 curious writers. People from within those towns would say things 50 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:29.479 like someone was not at rest, or that the dead 51 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:33.759 were somehow still tied to the living. It wasn't always 52 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.960 clear what exactly they thought was happening, but the general 53 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:40.240 idea was that a deceased person, especially one that had 54 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:44.080 died of consumption, might still be lingering in some in 55 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:49.639 between state. If someone in the family started getting sick afterward, 56 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.960 it meant that the connection had not been broken. What 57 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:57.159 they would do in response to this belief was pretty serious. 58 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:00.439 If enough people in a family died or or someone 59 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:03.919 else started showing signs, especially the kind of slow, drawn 60 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:09.039 out illness consumption caused neighbors would get involved. Sometimes entire 61 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.840 communities would come together and they would dig up the 62 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:15.520 bodies of the recently deceased. They would head out to 63 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:19.399 the cemeteries determined to find signs that they were still alive. 64 00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:23.639 And no, they weren't looking for open eyes or someone 65 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:26.600 climbing out of a coffin. What they were checking for 66 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:30.920 were specific signs a body that hadn't decomposed the way 67 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:35.399 that they expected, skin that looked fresh, or blood still 68 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:39.680 present in the organs, especially in the heart. All of 69 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:43.720 these things they thought pointing to someone who wasn't truly dead. 70 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:47.839 Now today we know that bodies buried in the winter 71 00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:51.120 and cold ground can stay preserved for quite a while, 72 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.959 but at the time, if someone who had been buried 73 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.800 for weeks or months and still looked alive, it could 74 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:02.680 be terrifying. People described things like flushed cheeks, soft skin, 75 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.160 even what they thought was breath escaping from the nose, 76 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:09.319 and that was enough to convince them that they found 77 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:13.720 the cause of the sickness. What came next was a 78 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:17.240 little more disturbing. If they believed that the person was 79 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:21.040 feeding on their family after death, they might cut out 80 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:25.279 the heart and liver, and burn them. The smoke they 81 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:28.720 believed would break the connection, and in some cases the 82 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.040 ashes were mixed with water and given to the sick 83 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:36.959 relative to drink as kind of a remedy that sounds 84 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:39.680 really weird and gruesome now, but it was seen as 85 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.879 the last resort, a desperate act from people who had 86 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:48.000 no other way to fight what was happening to them. 87 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:51.399 These rituals were concentrated in rural parts of Rhode Island, 88 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:55.360 eastern Connecticut, Vermont, and a few other corners of New England, 89 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:59.079 places that were far enough away from outside influence enough 90 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:02.439 that they developed their own explanations and ways of dealing 91 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.839 with fear. Now, these were part of a larger belief 92 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.639 system that tried to explain what science couldn't. When someone 93 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:12.879 you loved was wasting away and doctors couldn't help, all 94 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.160 the people around you believed it might be the dead 95 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:18.199 causing it. It was hard not to go along with it, 96 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.600 especially if you thought it might save someone else. That 97 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:25.560 belief alone, while it might sound strange now, made sense 98 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:30.800 to the people back then. But how long exactly we're 99 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.800 talking about here? When did this happen? Now? I realized 100 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:36.000 I hadn't mentioned it just yet. But we're in the 101 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.959 late eighteen hundreds, and for now, in this part of 102 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:41.319 the story, i'll tell you about the small town of Exeter. 103 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.279 We're in Rhode Island now, where the Brown family had 104 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:50.480 already lost some family members, more than most, actually. George 105 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:54.160 Brown's wife Mary Elisa was the first. She died in 106 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:58.519 eighteen eighty three after a long fight with consumption. Just 107 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.199 a year later, their eldest daughter, Mary Olive, also died 108 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:06.160 from it. That left George with several children still at home, 109 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:11.240 including Mercy Leina Brown and his only son Edwin. He 110 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:14.399 started showing signs of illness a few years later. It 111 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:18.160 didn't come all at once. He had nightmares, terrible dreams 112 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:22.879 of suffocating, and gradually became weaker. The coughing and weight 113 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:25.800 loss followed the same pattern that had taken his mother 114 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:29.680 and sister. Hoping for a cure, George sent Edwin to 115 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.319 Colorado Springs in eighteen ninety one, the place people thought 116 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:36.600 that might help with lung disease because of its dry air, 117 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:41.560 but it didn't work. Edwin came home worse than before. 118 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:46.279 Around the same time, Mercy Leina got sick as well. 119 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:51.040 She declined rapidly, though. It was what doctors called galloping consumption, 120 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:55.040 a fast moving form of tuberculosis that could kill in weeks. 121 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.839 On January seventeenth, eighteen ninety two, Mercy died at just 122 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:05.920 nineteen years old. Because the ground was frozen, her body 123 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:08.920 wasn't buried right away. It was placed in the family's 124 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.680 above ground crypt at Chestnut Hill Cemetery. By the time 125 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.160 Edwin came back and began to get worse, the neighbors 126 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:21.720 were convinced that something was wrong. People around George started talking. 127 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.959 Too many members of his family had already died one 128 00:08:25.319 --> 00:08:27.959 after another. It was too much for it to be 129 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:31.759 a coincidence or normal illness. They believed that one of 130 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:36.759 the brown women wasn't resting peacefully and was draining Edwin's life, 131 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:39.639 and I believe was strong enough that they urged George 132 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:44.240 to let them do something about it. George didn't believe 133 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.120 in the vampire theory, but he had watched nearly his 134 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:50.879 entire family die and his son looked like he would 135 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:55.039 be next. So, whether it was out of desperation, pressure 136 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:57.679 from his neighbors, or just a desire to feel like 137 00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:03.879 he had tried everything, he gave his permission. The day 138 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:07.279 they opened Mercy's tomb was cold and the ground was 139 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:12.440 still hard from winter. Was March seventeenth, eighteen ninety two. 140 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:16.120 She hadn't been buried underground like the others since January, 141 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:20.159 waiting for the weather to change, and that fact, more 142 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:22.480 than anything else, is probably why she looked the way 143 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:25.919 that she did. But at the time none of that mattered. 144 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.440 When they lifted the lid off the stone vault and 145 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:33.759 saw her, people were shaken. Her body wasn't decayed like 146 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:37.279 Mary Elisa's or Mary Olives. Her face still had color, 147 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.759 her skin hadn't stiffened completely. And when they cut her open, 148 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:47.679 yeah they actually did that. They found blood dark and clotted, 149 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:52.039 but still there in her heart. For the people standing there, 150 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.080 it was the final piece of proof Mercy was not 151 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:02.320 at rest. They had I had an official medical examiner there, 152 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:06.360 doctor Harold Metcalf, but he didn't believe any of it. 153 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:08.919 He said the signs that they saw were exactly what 154 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.039 he expected from a body that had been in cold conditions. 155 00:10:12.759 --> 00:10:14.799 But he also knew his opinion wasn't going to stop 156 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:19.720 what was happening. George Brown had reluctantly agreed to the exhumation, 157 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:21.960 and the rest of the group had already made up 158 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.159 their minds. They believed that they had found a source 159 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:31.200 of Edwin's illness. So they got to work, and once 160 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:34.159 the organs were removed, they built a fire right there 161 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:37.919 in the cemetery. Mercy's heart and liver were placed on 162 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:41.600 the flames and burned until they were reduced to ash. 163 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:44.559 Some accounts say that the ashes were gathered into a 164 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:49.120 container mixed with water and given to Edwin that same day. 165 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.240 And it wasn't some symbolic gesture. They genuinely believed that 166 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:59.519 this mixture, what it called a bitter draft, could cure him. 167 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:02.720 Edwin didn't fight it. He drank the mixture, just like 168 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.240 people hoped that he would, but it didn't save him. 169 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:12.799 He died less than two months later. The whole thing 170 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:15.360 might have faded into local memory if it hadn't been 171 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:19.799 for the newspapers. The Providence Journal published the story immediately, 172 00:11:19.960 --> 00:11:24.120 calling it testing a horrible superstition in the town of Exeter. 173 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:28.399 Then a follow up editorial was even harsher, warning that 174 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:32.919 this kind of thinking was dangerous to civilization itself. Other 175 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.399 papers picked it up, and soon the story was being 176 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:39.799 talked about far beyond Rhode Island. The term vampire was 177 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:43.519 used more freely now, not by townspeople but by journalists 178 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:47.639 trying to explain what had happened, and Mercy Brown, a 179 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.919 quiet young woman from a small town, was suddenly being 180 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:53.720 written about like she was something more than just another 181 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.159 victim of disease. Her name, her story, the image of 182 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:01.480 her heart being burned to save her brother. It all 183 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:03.879 caught on in a way that no one in Exeter 184 00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:07.759 could have expected, and while Edwin's death confirmed that the 185 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:11.600 ritual had failed, it didn't stop the story from growing. 186 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:17.320 By the time Mercy Brown's story made headlines, things were 187 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.679 already starting to change. Not overnight and not everywhere, but 188 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:24.679 the old explanations were losing ground. Ten years earlier, in 189 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.000 eighteen eighty two, a German scientist named Robert Koch had 190 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.360 discovered the actual cause of tuberculosis. It was a turning point. 191 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.320 German theory was slowly becoming accepted, and people were beginning 192 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:40.840 to understand that disease spread through invisible micro organisms, not 193 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:45.159 through the influence of the dead. But still news traveled 194 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.759 slowly in rural parts of New England. In places like Exeter, 195 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:52.639 folk beliefs didn't disappear just because a scientist across the 196 00:12:52.679 --> 00:12:56.840 ocean had made a discovery, And for many people, those 197 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.639 old traditions were still more familiar and more comfort than 198 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:04.600 what modern medicine had to offer. You couldn't see a bacterium, 199 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:06.799 but you could look at the faces of the people 200 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:09.360 you'd buried and wonder if one of them was still 201 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:15.840 somehow connected to the sick among you. Mercy's case ended 202 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.000 up symbolizing that shift where old ways met new knowledge. 203 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:24.080 Newspapers and cities called it a superstition, something out of 204 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:28.159 step with modern thinking. They would use words like ignorance 205 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:32.600 and barbaric to them. The exhumation and exeter was left 206 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:35.799 over peace of the past, a kind of medieval thinking 207 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.080 that had no place in the modern world. And in 208 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.600 some ways they were right, But it also missed a 209 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:46.559 reality of life in those small rural towns, where families 210 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:50.000 were isolated and desperate, and where science hadn't yet answered 211 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:54.240 most of their urgent questions. Other things helped bring the 212 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:58.039 panic to an end as well. Embalming was becoming more common, 213 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.480 especially after the Civil War. Families wanted the bodies of 214 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:05.360 the fallen soldiers brought home for burial. The chemicals used 215 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.960 in embalming changed the way that corpse is decomposed. With 216 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:12.480 blood drained from the body and organs treated or removed, 217 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.120 there was less chance of finding signs like liquid blood 218 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.399 or preserved tissue, things that had been once interpreted as 219 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:24.799 signs of the undead. Over time, science and medicine changed 220 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:28.559 the rituals around death. The body, once feared as a 221 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.840 possible threat was now something to be preserved, clinged, displayed. 222 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:38.279 Hospitals and funeral homes replaced a role that neighbors and 223 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.960 family had once filled. That shift, combined with medical advances 224 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:46.000 and new public health efforts, meant that the old fears 225 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:50.320 gradually faded. People still got sick, but they didn't dig 226 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:55.519 up their relatives to stop it a Mercy Brown's case 227 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:58.320 was one of the last widely known incidents of this kind. 228 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:02.240 After eighteen nine two, you don't see many more exhumations 229 00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:06.240 like hers in the records. The vampire panic, as it 230 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:12.679 came to be known, started to quiet down. Mercy Brown 231 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:16.399 never really disappeared to a lot of people. She became 232 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:19.200 the face of an era when fear and belief pushed 233 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:22.000 people to do things They never would have considered under 234 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.799 normal circumstances. Writers actually started picking up the story not 235 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:30.480 long after it happened. One of them was Bram Stoker. 236 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:34.200 He never mentioned Mercy by name, but it's widely believed 237 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.559 that he read about her case while researching for his 238 00:15:36.679 --> 00:15:40.960 novel Dracula, which was published in eighteen ninety seven. The 239 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.360 character Lucy Westenra, a young woman who dies of a 240 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:47.559 wasting illness and is later exhumed to destroy by her 241 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:51.000 friends because they believe she's a vampire, bears a strong 242 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:55.519 resemblance to Mercy, and whether or not Stoker directly based 243 00:15:55.600 --> 00:16:00.919 Lucy on her, the similarities are hard to ignore. P Lovecraft, 244 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:05.159 another writer from Providence, referenced the incidents more openly in 245 00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:08.480 his story The Shunt House. He described an old house 246 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:12.120 and Rhode Island haunted by a mysterious force connected to 247 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.519 a woman who died of consumption. Lovecraft was fascinated by 248 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:19.720 local legends, and Mercy's story fit right into the kind 249 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:27.399 of eerie, real world horror he liked to explore. Mercy's 250 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:31.559 grave still draws visitors. He's a simple headstone and Chestnut 251 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:34.679 Hill Cemetery not far from where he heart was burned, 252 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:39.720 people leave coins, flowers, and notes. Some just come out 253 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:43.399 of curiosity, Others seem to feel a connection to the story. 254 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:49.399 The mix of tragedy, fear, and something still unresolved, she's 255 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:53.000 become a kind of local legend, and unlike most, it 256 00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:56.080 wasn't because of what she did in life, but because 257 00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:00.960 of what others believed about her after death. Mercy was 258 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:04.079 just a teenager who got sick during an epidemic that 259 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:08.079 had already taken most of her family. The decisions made 260 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:11.519 after her death weren't hers. They came from a community 261 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:15.160 that was scared, grieving, and desperate to stop the spread 262 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:19.240 of a disease they didn't understand. What happened to her 263 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.759 was about fear and what fear can do when people 264 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:29.000 don't have answers. The story reminds us that folklore often 265 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:34.079 comes from pain, from uncertainty, and from the human need 266 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:42.640 to find meaning in the middle of suffering. This episode 267 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:46.680 of Horror Story was researched and produced by me Edwin Kowarubias. 268 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:49.440 Thanks for the ideas you've sent to my email. I've 269 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.839 actually encouraged these for future episodes already, so just keep 270 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:56.279 an eye out for those. But anyway, if you're subscribed 271 00:17:56.279 --> 00:17:59.359 to this podcast, I'll be back next week with another story. 272 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:02.400 Thank you so much, by the way, for all your 273 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.039 support and for our members. Huge shout out to our 274 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:08.880 Scary Plus supporters. That's all for now, Thank you very 275 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:13.119 much for listening. Keep it Scary everyone, See you soon.