The President's Vampire: Strange-But-True Tales of the United States of America
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This led to long lists of possible subjects most of which could not be used. In one case, my source claimed to have personal knowledge of a traffic accident involving a Navajo man and a skinwalker (shape-shifting sorcerer), but he could not be found. Other stories were discarded because they were thin stuff, like the anecdotes from the barbershop and grocery store, and I wanted something more substantial.
Take the title chapter. I was expecting to write the history of an early American serial killer and living vampire, but after doing the research, it became clear that James Brown’s reputation was largely undeserved. He was a murderer and a lunatic and apparently posed a danger to other inmates, but no evidence emerged of either blood-drinking or additional victims. Several versions of the Eagle’s vampire article remain in circulation, but while Brown was not responsible for decimating the crew of the Atlantic, his real life was gothic enough. There were the years in St. Elizabeth’s, where discipline was maintained, literally, with an iron rod, the possible connections to Mercy Brown and Dracula, plus some uncommon details of 19th century life, like the tattoo-by-tattoo inventory of Brown’s body, and a lawyer paid in whale oil. This capacity for illuminating odd corners of the past is one of the most attractive features of the strange-but-true.
The history (or histories) of Pedro, for example, involves economics as well as mummies. Unemployment led to the revival of amateur prospecting and the looting of ancient sites, which probably resulted in Pedro’s discovery. These activities were not unique to Wyoming, or 1932, but it was the “cruelest year” of the Great Depression and the appearance of several mummies, and possibly the carved pygmy heads, suggests that poverty made them more common. The recent discovery of another mummy also means that the story is really just beginning. DNA analysis and other techniques will doubtless raise questions that will keep scientists busy for years because once research has started, it never really ends. Which leads us back to a question I posed at the opening of this section; why do I spend my time on these things?
At one time it left me stumped. How could anyone not be fascinated by weird things? Years later, I understood that an occasional horror movie or “In Search of…” documentary satisfied the general public’s appetite for oddities, and that they don’t really understand an interest in the strange that goes deeper. Louis Pasteur can mess around with beakers all day and that’s fine, what with rabid dogs and everything, but searching for a vintage 1692 phantom musket ball seems to require an explanation. Why then, are certain people drawn to the bizarre?
Some have had unexplained experiences and/or see the mysterious as a source of knowledge and power. Others consider anomalies to be natural occurrences, little different than electromagnetism or tarantulas, and just as susceptible to study and rational understanding. Then there are people like me who just seem to have a natural affinity for the off-kilter. It may be genetic or the results of Mercury being in retrograde; your guess is as good as mine.
I have seen what looked like paranormal phenomena twice, and taken part in parapsychology experiments, but these were incidental to my interest in the strange-but-true as history. That is what drives the research, and research is the core of my work. Many writers consider it the dullest part of their job but for me it’s a combination of Christmas morning, piecing together a dinosaur skeleton, and playing Battleship (“Hey! You sunk my unsubstantiated conclusion!”). There are always new challenges and no way of knowing where an investigation might lead. Presumably, most people write because they have a powerful urge to tell stories, but I do it to tell everyone what I found in those stacks of books and spools of microfilm.
I can’t close this without taking the opportunity to thank you for reading… and to ask for your help. If you can answer any of the questions that appear in this book, or have any information to add, please write to me. Likewise, if you know of a local oddity, something strange and little known, I would like to hear from you.
Robert Damon Schneck
Email: presidentsvampire@earthlink.net
Perhaps we can solve an old mystery or, more likely, hatch some new ones.
NOTES
Introduction
1. Back cover of R. DeWitt Miller, Impossible –Yet it Happened! (New York: Ace Books 1947).
2. Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort (New York: Dover Publications Inc. 1974), 1033.
3. Ibid., 210.
4. Ibid., 901.
5. Taken from the front cover of R. DeWitt Miller, Impossible –Yet it Happened! (New York: Ace Books 1947).
6. “Mystery of the Opera Star: Did Someone Try to Kill Her?” The Sun, Baltimore, 24 July 1951.
Chapter 1: The Devil’s Militia
1. Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002), XLIV.
2. The Complete Poetical Works of Whittier (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894), 53.
3. Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, March 9, 1818.
4. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (Hartford: Silas Andrus, 1820), 621.
5. Roach, 195.
6. Mather, 621.
7. “The Cocheco Massacre”
8. Mather, 621.
9. Mary Brooks, “Through Old Gloucester: A Walking Tour Guide.”
10. Mather, 622.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., 622-623.
16. Ibid., 623.
17. Ibid., 622.
18. Marshall W.S. Swan, “The Bedevilment of Cape Ann (1692)” (Essex Institute Historical Collections Vol. 117, July 1981. No 3), 164.
19. John J. Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester Cape Ann (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1972), 207.
20. James R. Pringle, History of Gloucester (The City of Gloucester Archives Committee Ten Pound Island Book, 1997), 32.
21. Richard Weisman, Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th century Massachusetts (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1984) 125.
22. Catherina Finney-MacDougal, The Babson Genealogy 1637-1977 (Watertown: Eaton Press, 1978), 11.
23. Roach, 189.
24. Thomas Babson, “Riverdale Story” (1950), 78.
25. Roach, 266-269.
26. Cotton Mather, 623.
27. Ibid.
28. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report (New York: Dell 1977), 214.
29. Michele Carlton, “Kelly Green Men,” Kentucky New Era, 30 December 2002.
30. John Green, Sasquatch: The Ape Among Us (Blaine: Hancock House, 1981), 92.
31. Ibid., 94.
32. Fred Beck, as told to his son, Ronald A. Beck,” I FOUGHT THE APEMEN OF MOUNT ST. HELENS, WA.,” (1967)
33. Ibid.
34. Green, 91.
35. Letter from Mary H. Sibbalds to the author, 6 February 2003.
Chapter 2: Bribing the Dead
1. David Young, The Wonderful History of the Morristown Ghost (Brooklyn: Printed and Published by James K. Magie, 1850), 4.
Magie may have known the story of Ransford Rogers before publishing the story. He was born in Morris County, New Jersey, in 1827 and lived there till he was 14. A short biography of him appears in “Old Settlers of Fulton County, Illinois” from the Atlas Map of Fulton County, Illinois, dated 1871 and published by Andreas, Lyter, and Co., Davenport, Iowa. The excerpt is available online at:
2. James J. Flynn and Charles Huegenin, “The Hoax of the Pedagogues” (Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, October 1958), 241.
3. David Young, 3.
4. Flynn and Huegenin, 243.
5. James Truslow Adams, Provincial Society, 1690-1763 (New York: Macmillan, 1927), 75.
6. Flynn and Huegenin, 246.
7. Richardson Wright, Grandfather was Queer (Philadelphia, New York: Lippincott & Company
, 1939), 56.
8. Flynn and Huegenin, 245.
9. E-mail from Ben Robinson to author, 5 March 2003.
10. Giambattists Della Porta, Natural, Magick (New York: Basic Books, 1957).
11. Flynn and Huegenin, 262.
12. Lewis Spence, The Encyclopedia of the Occult (London: Bracken Books London, 1994) 18.
13. Michael E. Bell, Food for the Dead: on the trail of New England’s Vampires (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001), 258-260.
14. Pennsylvania Gazette, October 22, 1730.
15. “The New Jersey Law Journal, Vol XVII,” (Plainfield: New Jersey Law Journal Publishing Company, 1894), 169-172.
16. Lewis Spence, 471.
17. John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Vol. I (Philadelphia: Lippincott & Company, 1870), 270-271.
18. Flynn and Huegenin, 247-248.
19. David Young, 9-10.
20. Ibid., 12.
21. Donald B. Kiddoo, “Ransford Rogers The Morristown Ghost of 1788/89” (Whippany: published by the author, 1989), 10.
22. Ibid.
23. David Young, 8.
24. Flynn and Huegenin, 251.
25. Lewis Spence, 125.
26. David Young, 17.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid., 21.
29. Donald B. Kiddoo, 18-19.
30. Carl Sifakis, The Encyclopedia of American Crime (New York: Facts on File, 1982), 311.
31. David Young, 22.
32. Flynn and Huegenin, 263.
33. Donald B. Kiddoo, 22.
34. David Young, 24.
35. I. Daniel Rupp, History of the Counties of Berks and Lebanon (Spartanburg: The Reprint Company, 1984 [originally published 1844]), 355.
36. Ibid., 356.
37. Donald B. Kiddoo, 18.
38. Flynn and Huegenin, 247.
39. Ibid., 264.
Chapter 3: The God Machine
1. Slater Brown, The Heyday of Spiritualism (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1970), 167.
2. Maurice A. Canney, An Encyclopedia of Religions (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1970), 370.
3. The Foxes were Methodists, a denomination founded by John Wesley, whose family experienced poltergeist phenomena when he was a child.
4. Alan Delgado, Victorian Entertainment (New York: American Heritage Press, 1971), 15.
5. Andrew V. Rapoza, “Touched by the ‘Invisibles’’ from No Race of Imitators: Lynn and her People – an anthology, edited by Elizabeth Hope Cushing, 69.
6. Emma Hardinge, Modern American Spiritualism (self-published, 1870), 220.
7. Slater Brown, 170.
8.
9. The Hutchinson Family Singers became very popular and their descendants still perform programs of 19th-century music.
10. It was probably Mrs. Newton; though Spear’s wife, Betsey, and Semantha Mettler have also been mentioned. Nandor Fodor, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science (New York: University Books, 1966), 354-355.
11. Slater Brown, 171.
12.
13. Slater Brown, 172.
14. Ibid.
15. Slater Brown, 173.
16. Emma Hardinge, 221.
17. Andrew V Rapoza, 71.
18. Emma Hardinge, 223.
19. Emma Hardinge, 223–7.
Chapter 4: The President’s Vampire
1. Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort (New York: Dover, 1974), 881.
2. “A Human Vampire and a Murderer,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 4 Nov. 1892.
3. “The NIJ [National Institute of Justice] defines serial killing as ‘a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period of time ranging from hours to years.’” Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (New York: Checkmark Books, 2000), 205.
4. Paul S. Sledzik and Nicholas Bellantoni, “Bioarcheological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief,” The American Journal of Physical Anthropology No.94 (1994).
5. Joseph Citro, Passing Strange (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996-97), 220-230.
6. Dr. Richard Von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965), 157.
7. The Portuguese don’t have a tradition of vampires as reanimated corpses feeding on the living. In Portugal they are blood-sucking female witches called bruxsa that take the form of birds and attack travelers and their own children. Matthew Bunson, The Vampire Encyclopedia (New York, Crown, 1993), 34.
8. President Andrew Johnson’s commutation of James Brown’s death sentence. T-967, RG59, Roll 3, October 8, 1857-August 13, 1867. National Archive, NY.
9. A “bark” has three masts that are square rigged on the fore and main masts and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzenmast. This is a slightly different arrangement than a “ship” and requires a smaller crew. “Barks Brigs, Ships and Schooners.”
10. “Shipwreck of the Whaling Bark, ATLANTIC.”
11. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 23 Jan 1867.
12. Ibid., 12 Nov 1866.
13. Ohio Penitentiary Prison Register No.15. Feb 1889-Jan 1891, 30-32. It describes James Brown as “Medium built, forehead rounding back and medium; Nose sl. concave, slight depressed, m. deep; Chin round, Beard black, Boot 9, Hat 7, Hair thin over top of head; large scar 2X2 inches at base of back of head, a cataract on inside of both Eyes, on left forearm in India Ink a shield with three flags on each side, a spread eagle above & a circle band below also R.M.Z. beneath. An anchor on base of thumb & star to left, a heart in center of back of hand, on right forearm a woman with skirt to hip.” The “shield with three flags… spread eagle” etc., may represent the coat-of-arms of New Grenada. But who was R.M.Z.?
14. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 12 Nov 1866. Brown’s “Nativity” was recorded in the Prison Register as “South Amerika”(sic).
15. “True Bill” found by Grand Jury in case of James Brown, 11 Sept 1866. With the finding of a True Bill the Grand Jury declares there is enough evidence to hold a trial and Brown was tried as Case # 339 U.S. vs. Brown.
16. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 12 Nov 1866.
17. Logbook of the “Atlantic.” ODHS #797. Kendall Institute, New Bedford Whaling Museum.
18. The Charlestown State Prison also held 14-year-old serial killer Jesse Pomeroy, “The Boy Fiend,” who spent forty-one years in solitary confinement. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were imprisoned and electrocuted there in 1927.
19. The U.S. Government Insane Asylum is also known as St. Elizabeths. It is still operating.
20. Ohio Penitentiary Prison Register No.15., Feb 1889-Jan 1891, 32.
21. Michael E. Bell, Food for the Dead-On the Trail of New England’s Vampires (New York: Carroll& Graf, 2001), 18-38.
22. Mercy Brown’s story appeared on the front page of the Providence Journal on March 19, 1892, eight months before the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article about James Brown.
23. Christopher Frayling, editor, The Vampyre: A Bedside Companion (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978), 71.
24. “Shipwreck of the Whaling Bark, ATLANTIC.”
Chapter 5: One Little Indian
1. Editors of the Reader’s Digest, Mysteries of the Unexplained (Pleasantville, New York, Montreal: The Readers Digest Association, Inc., 1992), 39.
2. William R. Corliss, Ancient Man: A Handbook of Puzzling Artifacts (Glen Arm: Sourcebook Project, 1978).
3. Karl P. N. Shuker, The Unexplained (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997), 151.
4. The Holy Bible (New York: American Bible Society, 1611), 5
5. Shuker, 151.
6. Various Wyoming newspapers, 1932.
7. Lee K
rystek’s “Unmuseum-Science Over the Edge,”
8. “Mummifed Dwarf is Found Near Pathfinder Reservoir,” The Casper Tribune Herald, 22 Oct 1932.
9. “Origin of Mummy Remains a Mystery,” The Casper Tribune Herald, 22 Oct 1933(?).
10. Ibid.
11. “Mummy Returned to its Owner Monday,” Casper Herald Tribune, 24 Oct 1932.
12. Eugene Bashor, “Were TWO Pygmy Indian Mummies Found in the Pedro Mountains in 1932?” Date unavailable, may be unpublished.
13. Telephone interview with G.G. Kortes, 2 July 2003.
14. Kate Brown, “Pedro Mountain’s Mystery Munchkin” LATIGO Natrona County High School, Spring 1982.
15. Ibid.
16. John Bonar, “The Mystery of the Dwarf Demons,” Argosy, April, 1978.
17. Ibid.
18. E-mail from Jennifer MacLeod to author 3 July 2003.
19. E-mail from Dr. George Gill to author, August 2003.
20. Bonar, “Mystery.”
21. Ibid. E-mail from Dr. George Gill.
22. “Prospecting for Gold in the United States” by Harold Kirkemo,
23. Bashor, “ TWO Pygmy Indian Mummies.”
24. Bonar, “Mystery.”
25. Ibid. E-mail from Jennifer MacLeod.
26. Ibid.
27. “Ivan P. Goodman Dies in Denver,” The Casper Tribune Herald, 12 November 1950.
28. Bonar, “Mystery.”
29. Ibid. “Ivan Goodman Dies in Denver.”
30. E-mail from Lee Underbrink to the author, 23 July 2003.
31. E-mail from George Hebbert to the author, 20 August 2003.