Buzz
The term 'vampire' first appeared in English in 1732, but Europeans had been chronicling tales of undead, blood-drinking beings for centuries. Even during the early Enlightenment, belief in vampires was pervasive. While most Europeans abandoned these beliefs over the following century, reports of vampire encounters and sightings continued in certain regions well into the 1900s.
10. The Dekekuoi Mass Vampire Incident
In Bulgarian folklore, vampires initially existed as spectral entities before gaining the ability to physically emerge from their graves. In this early phase, they were barely visible to the naked eye. However, at night, their forms emitted distinct, glowing sparks that were impossible to miss.
In 1863, the village of Dekekuoi was said to be terrorized by a group of young sparkling vampires. These spectral beings assaulted villagers, shrieked outside their houses, and hurled cow dung at images of saints. Despite lacking physical forms, their glowing presence was unmistakable as they shimmered in the streets.
A seasoned witch eventually intervened, deciding the chaos had gone on long enough. She visited a nearby graveyard and discovered the vampires’ graves, noticing they were escaping through gaps in their tombstones. After sealing these openings, the village of Dekekuoi was freed from vampire disturbances forever.
9. The Katakhanas of Crete
In his 1837 publication, Travels in Crete, English traveler Robert Pashley documented a bizarre vampire tale. Before Pashley’s arrival, a shepherd had unintentionally dozed off in front of the tomb of a katakhanas, a regional vampire species.
That evening, a voice from the grave urged the shepherd to relocate his weapons, which he had inadvertently arranged in the shape of a cross. Realizing the voice belonged to a katakhanas, the shepherd agreed to comply on the condition that the vampire would harm no one. Despite this, the creature went on to murder a newlywed couple and returned with a liver.
The hospitable katakhanas shared a portion of his gruesome meal with the shepherd, who later informed local priests of the incident. A crowd soon assembled at the tomb, burning the vampire to ashes. Interestingly, one of its fingernails required a second attempt before it was completely incinerated.
8. Justina Yuschkov
In 19th-century Russia, peasants frequently attributed epidemics to vampires. They believed the first victim of an outbreak was a vampire and that eliminating the vampire was the only way to halt the disease.
Amid a cholera outbreak in August 1848, a medical officer named Rubtsov accused a deceased pregnant girl, Justina Yuschkov, of being a vampire. Upon inspecting her body, villagers noticed her open mouth, which they interpreted as evidence of her vampiric nature.
The villagers proceeded to dissect Justina’s body and found her baby missing. The infant’s body was later discovered in her coffin. Convinced this confirmed her vampirism, they drove a stake through her mouth. While the villagers were content, a local pastor was horrified and reported the incident to a district judge.
7. The Vampire of Blau
In the 14th century, a shepherd named Myslata from the village of Blau in Bohemia passed away and returned as a vampire. He began haunting the village nightly, possessing the eerie ability to kill anyone whose name he called out, with the victim dying within eight days.
Villagers attempted to drive a stake through Myslata’s heart, but he ridiculed them, claiming he would use the stake to fend off dogs instead. When this failed, a skilled executioner was summoned to deal with the vampire.
The executioner and his team transported Myslata out of the village. Throughout the journey, the vampire screamed and thrashed violently. To ensure his permanent demise, they drove multiple stakes into his body and burned him to ashes.
6. The Wollschlager Vampire
German vampires were notorious for targeting their own relatives. In a well-documented 18th-century case, multiple members of the aristocratic Wollschlager family mysteriously perished following the death of an elderly male relative. Suspecting the deceased man was to blame, the family dispatched Joseph, the accused vampire’s nephew, to deal with the situation.
Equipped with an axe and accompanied by a monk carrying a candle, Joseph entered the family crypt in what is now Jacobsdorf, Germany. While the monk fled in fear, Joseph remained resolute. He beheaded his uncle’s corpse without hesitation, collecting some of the vampire’s blood as a keepsake. Remarkably, the headless Wollschlager vampire was reportedly still in the crypt over a century later.
5. Johannes Cuntius
Johannes Cuntius, a prosperous alderman from the Silesian town of Pentsch, fell gravely ill in 1592 after being kicked by a horse. As his condition worsened, he descended into madness, confessing on his deathbed that he was a grievous sinner.
Following his burial, rumors spread throughout the town that Johannes had returned as a vampire, raping a woman, haunting his former residence, and attacking several locals, including a blacksmith’s son. His undead exploits frightened traders and travelers, driving them away from Pentsch.
After enduring six months of terror, the townspeople exhumed Johannes’s grave. With judicial approval, his body was dismembered into small pieces and burned to ashes.
4. The Vampire of Anantis Castle
In the late 12th century, historian William of Newburgh shared a tale from an elderly monk about a blood-drinking, reanimated corpse that haunted the vicinity of Anantis Castle.
The vampire was once a man from Yorkshire who sought shelter in the castle, possibly evading enemies or the law. In life, he was a despicable individual, and in death, he became even more monstrous. His foul odor tainted the air wherever he roamed, and he was perpetually pursued by demonic hounds sent by the Devil.
After the town was nearly deserted, two brothers exhumed the vampire’s corpse and struck it with a shovel. The body was swollen, and upon impact, it released a torrent of the blood it had consumed. To ensure its destruction, the brothers removed its heart and burned the remains.
3. The Medveda Vampire Epidemic
In late 1731, the Serbian village of Medveda experienced the sudden deaths of 13 residents within just six weeks. Authorities initially suspected a plague outbreak and dispatched a medical expert to investigate. However, no evidence of plague was found. Instead, villagers blamed the deaths on a vampire named Arnold Paole.
Paole had terrorized the village years earlier, accused of murdering four people and attacking livestock. The 13 villagers who perished in the epidemic had consumed meat from these infected animals, which was believed to have caused their deaths.
By January, the death count had climbed to 17, with some victims reportedly turning into vampires. Following a thorough investigation, including autopsies on all the deceased, the suspected vampires’ bodies were destroyed. The investigation’s findings gained widespread attention, making the story famous across Western Europe.
2. Paja Tomic
While most Europeans dismissed vampires as superstition by the 20th century, some rural communities still held firm beliefs. In the Bosnian village of Tupanari, a vampire was said to be active between April and May 1923. Cvija Tomic, a widow, claimed her deceased husband, Paja, had returned as a vampire and roamed her house nightly.
While some neighbors doubted Cvija’s story, others believed her. A month later, her sons, Stevo and Krsto, organized a village meeting and decided to destroy their father’s remains.
They gathered a group of villagers and exhumed Paja’s body. The mob pierced the corpse with a hawthorn stake, burned it, and threw the remaining bones back into the grave.
1. The Vampire of Buckinghamshire
William of Newburgh shared a fascinating tale about a vampire in Buckinghamshire, England. After being buried, the vampire returned the next day to haunt his wife, attempting to kill her in her sleep. He reappeared on two subsequent nights until neighbors intervened and drove him away. Following this, the vampire began targeting other villagers, even attacking groups during daylight hours.
Bishop Hugh of Lincoln was consulted for a solution. While his colleagues suggested cremating the vampire’s body, Hugh deemed it sacrilegious. Instead, he wrote a letter absolving the vampire of its sins and placed it on the corpse’s chest. Remarkably, the letter worked, and the vampire ceased its attacks.
