forensic pathology and the european vampire - paul barber

8/3/2019 Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire - Paul Barber

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PaulBarber

Forensic Pathology and the Europe

If there is in this world a well-attested account, i tNothing is lacking: official reports affidavitsof


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Such accounts became common in the eighteenth

attested ofthem, the locus classicw ofvampire storioccurred in the twenties, near Belgrade, when a mandiedanaccidental death, after which several people dhad been traditionally viewed as vampirism. Fort

Paole was exhumed:

[It was found] that he was complete and incorrupfresh blood had flowed from his eyes, ears, and graveclothes were also bloody. The old nails on hiwith the skin, had fallen off, and new oneshad growfrom this that he was a true vampire they drovea


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FORENSIC PATHOLOGY AND THE EUROPEAN V

folk-hypothesis that seeks to explain otherwise puz

sociated with death and decomposition-phenom

understood. Viewed as a theory, the vampire loreknow-

quite wrong, but like the Ptolemaic astron

describing events accurately and has predictive valu

ever, it differs from such theories as Ptolemys in th

tion ofa single person and no single Copernicus evit

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that was donepiecemeal, over centuries

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so thano longer even understand how and why it came a

To complicate the matter further, while modernbrought about an understanding ofthe phenomena

iti thi d t di i l h t h d


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bodies. It is just in the telling that they diverge, andof their divergence is based on an ingenious interp

but quite normal phenomenon associated with deat(see below, #4). This is not the reason, however, whmyself with the much-debated typological distinctipire, the revenant, and their other relatives: it prove

cult to talk about the genus revenant without d

time to time, to the technical terms for the various sprather than either qualify my terms endlessly or encompassing term, I shall ask the reader to accept fworking definition of a vampirehevenant: any de


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5. The friends and neighbors of the revenant di6. He can be heard in the grave, chewing on his

shroud, especially in times ofplague.167. He is most likely to be about in the winter.8. His body is warm to the touch.109. He has an evil smell.19

10. His body shows no signs of rigor mortis.2011. His hair and nails have continued to grow af12. His principal natural enemies are wolves andIS.The revenant cannot cross waterZ3and must r14 P i l b di d f i

sunrise.2


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Hungary.42 This idea was given added force whmovie version ofBram Stokers novel chose a Hungplay the part ofCount Dracula, a figure derived froPrince (not a count) of Wallachia (notTransylvamon with the Hungarians the fact that no tradition

in folklore at least-attaches to him.+5111

As noted, any attempt to make sense out ofthe begin with considering the factsofdeath, We shallf ll i t i


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from 70 to 100.46The temperature of the ground, surface, is normally well below this ideal temperaturgists, in fact, expect the temperature ofa winecave trenheit. It will be seen from this that a body will no

quickly in a grave at all. It may beaccepted as a genGlaister, that a body decomposes in air twice as qui

eight times as rapidly as in earth.Moreover, under certain conditions bodies may n

Where there are hot, desiccating sands, or currents oftion may take place.4BWhere there is a superabundani d f i i ll d


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they are inadequately buried, the first two for obviotend to give only limited attention to the niceties o

while suicides ignore them completely

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the last beics, somany people died that burial was often veryfact, quote one informant who actually defines than unattended dead body: These were dead peop

and had no one there to take care of them.52 Andburg, getting right to the heart of thematter, camevampirism could occur simply because a body

enough.)This is because what is really happening is not t

i t t b t th t th i t th t


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#13)and the settling ofthe earth would also presumface of the grave.

3. The body is intact andisbloated. If the body is bing surprising about its preservation, sinceit has beemoisture, maggots, and warmth, the principal agenBut even if i t is lying in theopen a body will sometimlong time, especially in cold weather.

The bloating occurs because the internal organsfirst, produce gases that then have no escape route.the Slavs believed that ein Vampyr ware von dem B

die er ausgesogen, ganz rot und aufgeblaht.59 (Aand swollen from the blood of the people whom h


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dead body is a more complicated matter than is

brief analysis, because decomposition also change5 . There is blood at the lips and nose. Again, thisposing body. It occurs because the lungs, which arerate after death and are under pressure from the blorgans. A blood-stained fluid is forced out through

It will be seen now why it was believed that the here you have a body that is clearly full of someth

when you buried it-it is bloated-and there are obvthe lips. Furthermore, the gravesite is.disturbed (body) The villagers instead of remarking to one a


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Hereford calf that was undergoing this dreadful expof the gases was forcing what is called purge fluidbody. This was very audible, even from some distaheard the body before I saw it. The emission of purgwould seem to account for stories of bodies that arein the grave, are dug up, and are found to be lacera

blood.66 It could be, incidentally, that this belief-heard chewing in their graves

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reinforced the age-oing the dead with food and drink.

If the swollen body is punctured, of course, the rsuddenand dramatic and this process has been unfo


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Finally. the reader may protest that the bursting

eventoflimited duration and taking place under thsumably not be easily noticed. This is ofcourse trthat such things tend to happen during epidemicdredsofpeople are being buried, and not very deep aat such times i t would be hardnot to notice such so

people would be frequenting the graveyard more thfolklore is rich in accounts of sounds being emitte8.He is mostlikely to be about in the winter. Her

vampire is characterized, among other. things, by

decayproperly Thedecayof thebody is of coursere


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12.His hair and nails have continuedtogrow afthe teeth grow as well, although this is more commovampires than in thoseof folklore. The hair, nails, agrow after death: they merely appear to do so as thEventually two other events take place: the nails faenon known as skin slippage occurs (both these the account ofArnold Paole in Section I).

A recent article in National Geographicshows annomenon of the apparent lengthening of the finger

IS.His principal naturalenemies are wolves aclearly arises out of a misinterpretation ofa comm



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ble, is no match for a wolf: he [the wolf] bites his l

lugat retreats into his grave and decides to remain It may also account for the origin of storiesin Eurohand reaches out of the grave. Sometimes the hanstruck itsmother,800rit is that of someone who hasupon himself, such as a patricide, a thief, or a punlike that ofour standard revenants.81Here toosignificant than the inadequate burial. Such stor

various degrees ofelaboration, and I do not mean them had its origin in an actual event-only thimprobable as it must seem at first sight


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was believed to be responsible for droughts, the practiup the body and throwing it into a lake or stream, assumption that, with a sufficiency of water at its dispothe clouds alone.83

15.Potentialrevenantsmay bedisposed ofinswampbe thrown on this practice merely by askingabout altering aside the hydrotropic character of the soul, which

rationalefor numerous funeraryprocedures,84the possiby the natureoftheprob1e;n. Ifyou wish to dispose of ayou will naturally chooseasite that is away from humacould go into the hills, if there are hills, but it must be


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earth for that length oftime. As for the actual time become a vampire (which is to say, become swthat is simply incalculable: there are too many var

17. To kil lavampire, youmustpierce him withaa vampire makes a certain kind ofsense when youbeing killed is a bloated corpse. The most directwhat it was is to puncture it.

This puncturing of the body is common even bphylactic measure: should the devil inflate [the s

the air would escape.gOOther examplesofsuch puin the


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implements may have been intended to preventinto the body.100 Frequently thedeterrent effect ofattributed to the magical quality ofiron,l01 and scope of this article to deal with the subject adeqwondering if the weight and sharpness of iron w

significant characteristics (weight for holding thefor puncturing it), especially since there are com

non-ferrous implements being used in this way. Oare told ofsharpened stakes that have been driven ibody might be punctured ifi t tries to come to thedescribes both knives and hawthorn stakes being


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18turb the surfaceofthe earth, or even to pop up to theis waterlogged. I have before me a photograph (fro

the Los Angeles Times,dated 11/1/85) that showsflooded graveyard, in Louisiana. According to the cafloated up out of the ground in the floodwaters lefThis particular one was tied to a tree by someone whly, that a dead body could not only leave the grave, u

tions, but could not even be counted on to remain coffins, like bloated bodies, are remarkably buoyan

It must come as no surprise to find that we havarchaeological evidence demonstrating that bodies w

i d i h d d d i d ib


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territory, the stake had to bedriven in at one blow. A sthe vampire.I0This is perhaps one of the reasons method ofdisposing of a vampire is always that ofb

While I had no doubt that flames would shoot froming vampire, I thought i t best to get the opinion oasked Dr. Allen about this theory. He offered me a mmation than I could have hoped for, saying that he h

hadacquired thehabitofdramatizingthepresenceofby touching them off with a match when he made hisresulting flame, according to Dr. Allen, shot between the air.

21 When a vampire is hilled in his grave he is apt


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long since been a literary motif, but not, it seems, a

Finally, note the overkill. The body is behead

into the heart, and the corpse is then burned. The straightforward, but the rather extremeefforts tokil

the climate offear in which the events took place. Thpirism can be seen in Kohlers accounts ofconfliccentury, between citizens and the authorities over wh

potential revenant) was to be buried in the churchwere often resolved by military force.11s

As for the movement of the body, clearly this

attempt to drive a stake through it causes a redistrib


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well: the fear ofthem was simply the fear ofdeathagents that were known tobe contagious, while thea

contagion was not understood. (Since we do understwe are not afraid to catch our death from a victi

recent experience with the AIDS epidemic has had so

the vampire scares of the past.)23. Vampires and other revenants are frequently

after death, sometimes inthe grave orcoffin. Such stoand they occur over such a wide area,116that I finallythere was something to them, although I could not thexplanation. The evidence remains contradictory: D


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can attest, by grace of the L.A. Medical Examiners O

a decomposing body (brought about by the swell

striking and unforgettable sight. This is one of the re

in Greece, the mouth is tied shut.120In addition, he gives three terms-&u&ppaxo,

cuorpo-that he finds unintelligible. The second twderived from the root Xaprr-, from which our lampmean, respectively, that which is lit up (abstrwhich lights up (agent form).Lawson would see

obvious etymologies because they do not appear to

that is, one notices that such terms all seem to be re


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when rigor mortis ends, as it must, gravity may aga

ment, which could account in part for the extreme

bodies being found in a changed position.I*Z(The bofthe body would also change its position, and suchcontribute to the idea that the body had left the

causes considerable movement of the corpse. 124 Ancertainly occur-seemingly at the volition of the co

try toadjust the limbs ofthe body while it was in rigospring back to their original position.

Finally, though, I must acknowledge that I have nclear evidence here to persuade me that I have loca


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92

127.128.129.190.

Trigg has an informative discussion of these: pp

Mercure galant, quoted in Hock,p. 34.See Stana in Section I. Also Arnold Paole in SBurkhart, p. 221; Perkowski, Rom. Folk. Vam

221-22; Richard Beitl,Deutsche Volhshunde (Berlin, 1pp. 261-62.I wouldl iketo thank Professor Felix Oinusfor his valversions of the manuscript off h i sarticle. The referhelpful.

forensic pathology and the european vampire - paul barber

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