In 1892, a grieving father in Exeter, Rhode Island watched his neighbors dig up his family members, burn his daughter’s organs, and feed the ashes to his dying son. This is that story.

George Brown had already lost his wife and daughter to tuberculosis when the community turned its desperation into something darker. Mercy Brown, just 19 years old, had been stored in an above-ground crypt through winter. When her body showed minimal decomposition, her neighbors saw vampirism. They removed her heart and liver, burned them, and gave the remains to her brother Edwin as medicine. He died weeks later.

What does it say about us that even a scientific voice like Dr. Metcalf could not stop what fear had already set in motion?

Incredibly, the incident reportedly inspired Bram Stoker’s famous vampire novel and represented  ...