New England Vampire Scare (1800s)

In the early 1800s, New England experienced a bizarre vampire scare, fueled by fears of tuberculosis outbreaks, which was called "consumption" at the time. Believing that the dead were rising as vampires to consume the living, residents resorted to exhuming corpses, decapitating bodies, and burning organs as protective measures. The limited education and a desire to explain the devastating disease drove the vampire hysteria, resulting in peculiar rituals such as flipping corpses over and even inhaling or consuming burnt remains to avoid becoming vampires themselves.