Paul Barber
Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire
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Paul Barber
Such accounts accounts became became common in the eighteenth eighteenth century, an d the of vampire stories, told of events attested of them, the locus events that tha t occurred occurred in i n the twenties, twenties, near Belgrade, Belgrade, when a man named name d Arnold Paole Paol e diedan die danacc accide identa ntall death, death, after after which sever several alpeople died died suddenly suddenly of what what had ha d been tradition tradit ionally ally viewed viewed as “vampirism.” Forty days after after his buria bu rial, l, Paole Paol e was exhumed: [It was found] that he was complete and incorrupt, also that completely fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, ears, and nose, and the shirt and graveclothes graveclothes were also bloody. The Th e old nails on on his hands hands and and feet, along
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY A N D THE EUROPEAN VAMPIRE folk -hypothesis hypothesis that seek seekss to explain expla in otherwise puzzling puzzling phenomena phenome na as sociat sociated ed with death and an d decomposition decomposition phenomena that are now well understood. Viewed as a theory, the vampire lore may be as we now know quite wrong, but like the Ptolemaic astronomy, i t is capable of describing events events accurately accurately an a n d has predictive predictive value. value. In its history, how ever ever,, it differs from such theories theories as Ptolemy’s i n that i t was not of a single si ngle pers person on an d no single ever ever cam camee forth to refute it that was done piecem pie cemeal eal,, over centuries centuries so that i n modern times times we we no longer even even understand unders tand how a nd why it came about. T o complicate complic ate the th e matter further, furt her, while modern forens forensic ic analysis has
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bodi bodies es.. It I t is just in the telling that they they dive diverge, rge, and the principal princip al source of their divergence is base based d on o n an ingenious interpretation of a but quit qu itee normal phenomenon phenomeno n assoc associa iate ted d with death and decompositi decomposition on (see below, This is not the reason, however, why I will not concern myse myself lf with wit h the t he much -debated typologi ty pological cal distinctions betwee between n the vampire, the revenant, revenan t, and an d their the ir other relatives: relatives: it proves unexpectedly unexpectedly diffidiffi cult to talk about the genus “revenant” without doing violence, from time to time, ti me, to the technical technica l terms for the various specie species. s. Consequently Conse quently,, rather rathe r than either qualify my term termss endlessly endlessly or make u p a new, all encompassing term, I shall shal l ask the reader reader to accept accept for now now the following
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY AND THE EUROPEAN VAMPIRE 5.
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T h e friends and neighbors of of the revenant die after after his 6. He can be heard in the grave, grave, chewing chewi ng o n his extremities or on the shroud, especially in times of 7. He is most likely to be about in the winter.” Hi s body body is warm to the 8. His 9. He has an evil Hi s body body shows sho ws no signs sign s of rigor rig or 10.. His 10 11. His hair and nails have continued to grow after 12.. His principal 12 prin cipal natural natu ral enemie enemiess are wol wolve vess and an d T h e revenant revenant cannot cr cros osss and an d must retur r eturn n to his grave grave by
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This idea was given added force when the makers of the th e movie version of Bra Bram m Stoker Stoker’s ’s novel novel chose a Hung Hu ngar aria ian n Lugosi) to play play the part par t of Coun Co untt Dracula, a figu f igure re derive derived d from Vlad Vlad the a Prince Prince (not (no t a count) of Wallachia (not Transylvani Transylvania), a), who wh o has in common with the Hungar Hun garian ianss the fa fact ct that no n o tradition tradition of vampirism at in folklore at least least attaches to
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As noted, any attempt atte mpt to make ma ke sens sensee ou t of the folklore of death must
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from to T h e temper temperat ature ure of the ground, a few feet below the surf surfac ace, e, is normall nor mally y well below this ideal temperature. Europe Eur opean an gists, in fact, expect the temperature of a wine cave to around Fah renheit. renheit. It will be seen from this th is that th at a body will not, i n fact, fact, decompose decompose quickl quickly y i n a grave grave a t all. “It may be acc accept epted ed as a general gener al principle,” princip le,” says says Glaist Glaister, er, “tha “t hatt a body decomposes decomposes i n ai a i r twice twice as quickly quickl y as in water, water, and an d eight eight times times as rapidly rapidly as in i n earth.”“ earth.” “ Moreo Moreove ver, r, under und er certain conditi con ditions ons bodies bodies may may not n ot decompose decompose at all. all . Where here there there are hot, desiccating sands, sands, or o r currents curren ts of d r y air, air , mummifica mummifica-
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they they are a re inadequately inadequ ately buried, the t he first f irst two for obvious rreas easons ons murderers tend to give give only limited attention atten tion to the niceties of funerar fun erary y procedures, while suicides ignore ignor e them completely completely the last because, t hatt buria bu riall was was often ve very hasty. The Th e in so many people died tha fact, fac t, quot qu otee one informan info rmantt who w ho actually defi define ness the Gree Greek k as a n unattende unat tended d dead bod body: “These were were dead dead people who wh o had died alone alon e and had h ad no one the there re to take care of And the people of burg, getti g etting ng right righ t to the heart of of thematter, came to the the conclusi conclusion on that tha t vampirism could occur simply because a body was not buried deep enough.)’
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and the settling of the earth would also presumably disturb distu rb the sur facee of the grav fac grave. e. bur ied, there is noth no th 3. 3 . The body body is intact and is bloated. If the body is buried, ing surprising surprisin g about i t s preservation, since i t has been protected from air, moisture moisture,, maggots, and warmth, the principa prin cipall agents of of decomposition. a body body will sometimes remain intact for a But even if i t is lying in long time, especially in cold weather. The bloating occurs because the internal organs, which decompose first, first, produce gases gases that th at then have no escape escape route. Krauss remarks that the Slavs believed believed that tha t “ein Vampyr Vam pyr ware von dem d em Blute Blute der Menschen,
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dead body body is a more compli com plicat cated ed matter matte r than th an is suggested by this t his ver very brie brieff analysis, analys is, because decompositi decom position on also changes the color of the skin. skin . 5 . There is blood at decom lips and nose. nose. Again, this is normal in a decom posin po sing g body. It occurs becaus because e the lungs, which are rich rich in i n blood, deterio rate after death and an d are under und er pressure from the bloating of of the internal inter nal organs. A blood-stained fluid is force forced d out ou t throu t hrough gh the mouth and nose nose.. I t will wil l be seen seen now why it was believe believed d that tha t the vampire vamp ire drank dra nk blood: here you have have a bod body y that tha t is clearly clearl y full ful l of of som s ometh ething ing that tha t was was not there when you buried buried it it is bloated and there are are obvious traces traces of of bloo bl ood d at
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FORENSIC PATHOLOGY AN D THE EUROPEAN VAMPIRE Hereford Hereford calf that was was under un dergoin going g this t his dreadful experience. T h e pressure of the gases gases was was forcin fo rcing g what wha t is called called “pu “ purg rgee flui fl uid” d” to escape from the body body.. Th T h i s was ver very y audible, audible , even from some distance distanc e away away indeed, I heard the body before I saw saw it. Th T h e emission of purge pur ge fluid, incidenta in cidentally, lly, would seem seem to account acco unt for stories stori es of bodies bodies that t hat are heard hea rd making mak ing noises in the grave, grave, are dug du g up, up , and a nd are a re found to be be “lacerated and swimming i n It could be, incidentally, that th at this belief belief that the th e dead can be heard heard chewing in i n their graves graves reinforc reinforced ed the age -old custom of providing the dead dead with food food and an d drink. drink .
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Finally. Finall y. the reader reader ma may y protest that t hat the bursting burst ing of the body, body, being a n event of limited limited duration and taking tak ing place place under thegro the ground und,, would presumably not be easily easily notice noticed. d. Th T h i s is of course true, which is why it i s that such things tend to happen hap pen durin du ring g epide epidemi mics cs that is, when hun hu ndreds of people are being buried, and an d not very deep at that. I t could could be be that th at at such times i t would be hard not to notice such s uch sounds, sound s, especially especially since people would be frequent freq uenting ing the graveyard graveyard more than tha n usual. In any cas case, e, folklore folkl ore is rich in i n accounts acco unts of sounds being b eing emitted from 8. He is most likely to be be about in i n the the wint wi nter er.. Here we we must recall that t hat a
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FORENSIC PATHOLOGY AND T HE EUROPEAN VAMPIRE
Hi s hair and nails have continued to grow after death. Sometimes 12. His the the teeth teeth grow as well, altho alt houg ugh h this is more more commonly noted noted in i n fictional vampire vampiress than in i n thoseof folklore. T h e hair, nails, and an d teet teeth h do d o not in fa fact ct grow grow afte af terr death: they they merely merely appear appe ar to do so as the skin shrinks back. Eventually two other othe r events take take plac place: e: the nails fall of off and a phenom pheno menon known as slip sl ippa page ge”” occurs occu rs (bot (b oth h these these events ma may y be seen seen in the account of Arnold in Sec Section tion I). A rec recent ent article in i n National Geographic shows and an d discuss discusses es this phenomenon nomeno n of the t he appare app arent nt lengthen l engthening ing of of the are wolves and dogs. This belief Hi principal natural
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ble, is no n o match for a wolf wolf:: “he “h e [the wolf] bites bites his leg off, whereupon the retreats into in to his grave grave and decide decidess to remain quiet quie t from from now It ma may y also account for for the origin orig in of stories i n European folklore of how a hand reac reaches hes out of the grave. Sometimes the hand han d is that of a child child that tha t it is that struck its t hat of someonewho has brought brought down acurse acur se upon himself, such as a patricide, a thief, or a perjuror a group grou p not unlike that of o u r standard Here the curse may be less significant signifi cant than tha n the inadequate inadequat e burial. Such stor stories ies,, how howev ever er,, occur in various variou s degree degreess of elaboration, and I do not mean to suggest suggest that each of
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was was believ believed ed to be responsible responsible for droughts droug hts,, the practi pra ctice ce arose of digging digg ing up the body and throwing it into a lake or stream, apparently on the assumption assum ption that, with a sufficiency sufficiency of water at its it s disposal, dispos al, it would leave leave the clouds 15. Potential Potential revenants may li ght may of in swamps. Some light practi ce mere merely ly by by ask a sking ingabo about ut alternatives altern atives.. Eve Even leav leavbe thrown on this practice ing aside the hydrotropic character charac ter of the soul, which which is presented as as the for numerous funerary rationale for the possibilit possi bilities ies are limited by the If you the nature natur e ofthe you wish to dispose dispose of a dange da ngero rous us corpse, choose that is i s awa away y from from human habitat habi tation. ion. You you will naturally choose
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earth for for that length lengt h of time. As As for the actual time tim e required for a bod body y to “become “become a vampire” (which (wh ich is is to say, become swollen and discolored), that th at is simply sim ply incalcu incalculable lable:: there are many variables. 17. To youmustpierce him him a vampire makes a certain kind of sens sensee when whe n you consider consider that what w hat is being bei ng “killed” “kill ed” is a bloated corpse. corpse. Th T h e most direct direct way way of of reducing red ucing it to what it was was is to pun punctur cturee it. Th is puncturing puncturing of the bo body dy is comm co mmon on even before before burial, as a pro phylactic measure measure:: “should “shou ld the devi devill inflate inflat e [the [th e skin of the body], then the air would Other examples f such puncturi
FORENSIC FORENSIC PATHOLOG PATHOLOGY Y A ND T H E EUROPEAN EUROPEAN VAM VAMPIRE PIRE
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implements may have been intended “to prevent the return of the soul into the Frequently Frequ ently thedeterrent thedet errent effe ffect of these objects has been attributed to the magical quality of and while it is beyond the scope of this article to deal with the subject adequately, I cannot help wondering if the weight and sharpness of iron were not originally the significant characteristics (weight for holding the b o d y down, sharpness for puncturing it), especially since there are common reports of other, non no n-ferrous ferro us implements implem ents being used in i n this way. way. Often, for example, we we are told told of sharpe sha rpened ned stakes stakes that tha t have bee been driven into in to grave graves, s, so that the body bo dy might mig ht be pun punctur ctured ed if i t tries to come to the th e an d Krauss Krauss
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turb the surface surface of the earth, or even even to p o p up u p to the surfa surface ce if the ground is waterlogged. I have befor beforee me me a photo ph otogra graph ph (from the second page of the float ing in in a Times, dated 11/1/85) that shows a coffin floating floode flooded d graveyard, i n Louisi Lou isiana ana.. According According to the caption capt ion,, severa severall coffins coffins ou t of the ground floated floated u p out gro und in i n the floodwaters floodwaters left left by by Hurr H urrica icane ne Juan. This Th is parti p articula cularr one on e was was tied to a tree by someo s omeone newho believed, believed, appa ap pare rent nt ly, that a dead body body could not only leave leave the grave, grave, under the right ri ght condi tions, but could not n ot even even be counted on to remain in i t s vicinity. vicinity . Sealed Sealed coffins, like bloated bodies, are remarkably buoyant. It must come as no surprise to find that we have large quantities of
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territor territory, y, the stake had to i n at one blow. blow. A second second blow blow revived the This is perhaps one of the reasons why the last -resort method of dispos disposing ing of of a vampire vampi re is always that of burning him. While I had no doub d oubtt that flames flames would shoo s hoott from the th e bod body y of of a burnburn ing ”vampire,” I thought i t best to get the opinion of an authority authority and aske asked d Dr. Dr. Allen abo a bout ut this t his theory. He offere offered d me a more strik str iking ing confir mation than I could have have hoped for, saying that th at he had a colleague colleague who hadacquired thehabitofdramatizing thepresenceofgasesinadeadbody by touchin to uching g them of off with a match when he made his first incision. incisio n. T h e resulting resulti ng flame, flame, according to Dr. Allen, Allen, shot betwee between n one and a nd two feett in in tw o fee
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long lo ng since bee been n a literary motif, bu t not, not , it seems seems,, a scientific scie ntific study. Finally, note the “overkill.” The body is beheaded, a stake is driven into in to the th e hear heart, t, an d the corpse corpse is then burned. T h e account itse itself lf is very straightforward, but bu t the th e rather extremeefforts to kill the reve revenan nantt hint hi nt at the climate of fea fearr in i n which the events events took place. place. T h e hyster hysteria ia over can be seen in Kohler’s accounts of conflicts, in the eighteenth century, between between citizens citizens and an d the th e authoritie author itiess over over whether a suicide a potential revenant) was to be buried in the churchyard conflicts that were often resolved by military As for the movement of the body, clearly this occurs because the
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well: the fear of them was simply the fear of death, brought about by agents that were were known to be contagious, while theact th eactual ual mechanis mechanism m of contagion conta gion was was not n ot understood. (Sinc (Sincee we d o understand understan d the mec mechani hanism, sm, we are not afraid to “c “cat atch ch our o ur death” deat h” from a victim victim of stro stroke ke;; but bu t our o ur recent rec ent experience with the AIDS AIDS epidemic epide mic has had some similarities with the vampire scares scares of the past.) 23. Vampir Vam pires es and other revena revenants nts are are frequently frequentl y descri described bed sitti si tting ng up or coffin. Such stories are so persistent, after after death, sometimes someti mes in the and an d they occur occu r over over such a wide that I finally final ly began began to wonder if ther theree was was some so meth thin ing g to them them,, althoug alth oug h I could not think of a satisfactory
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ca n attes can att est, t, by grace of the th e L.A. Medical Examiner’s Office, Office, that tha t the gape gap e of a decomposing decompos ing body body (brou (br ought ght about abo ut by by the swelling) swelling ) is a particularly particularl y strik str iking ing and an d unforgettable unforgettable sight. Th T h i s is one on e of of the reas reasons ons why, why, eve even n now no w i n Greece Greece,, the mouth is tied In addition, he gives three he finds unintelligible. T h e sec secon ond d two would seem seem to be derived from from the root from from which our ou r lamp is deri derive ved, d, and an d sho s houl uld d mean, respectively, “that which is lit up” (abstract noun) and “that which lights u p” (agent (agent form). Lawson would wo uld seem seem to be ignoring the obvi logies logies be they they d make sense unless,
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY A N D THE EUROPEAN VAMPIRE
when when rigor rigo r mortis m ortis ends, as i t must, mus t, gravity may aga a gain in cause some movement, ment, whic w hich h could cou ld account i n part pa rt for the extremely extremely common stories stories of bodi bodies es being bei ng foun f ound d in i n a changed (T he bloating and bursti bursting ng of the body would woul d also change its posit position, ion, and an d such changes presum presumabl ably y contribute to the idea that the body had left the Cremation causes considerable movement of the corpse. And movement would certainly occur seemingly seemingly at the volition volitio n of the th e corpse corpse if one were to try try the limbs of the body body while it was was in i n rigor rigo r mortis: they they would spring sprin g back back to t o their original position. Finally, Finally, though, thoug h, I acknowledge acknowledge that I have found fou nd sufficient sufficiently ly
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f these: pp. 145, Tr igg g has an informat informative ive discussion discussion of these: 127. Trig Mercure quoted in Hock,p. 34. i n Stur S turm m and Volk Volker, er, 451. 129. See “Stana” i n Section I. Also Arnold Burkhart, 221; Perkowski, “Rom. Folk. Vamp.,” p. Wuttke, 221-22; Richard (Berlin, p. 188; I would
versions of helpful.
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for his valuable valuable comments o n tw o most article. The Th e refereeing process
