MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 56 | She Haunts Me

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

In the late 1800s, a young man in rural New England comes down with a deadly illness known as “the White Death.” When his doctor can’t help, the man’s neighbors propose a bizarre treatment… that involves the supernatural.Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 49-56 early and ad-free on Amazon Music.Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 57 through 64 right now and ad free on Amazon Music. Download the app today! In the early spring of 1892, an older woman in a tiny Rhode Island town shuffled into her kitchen at 1 a.m. to make a late night cup of tea. And as she passed by her front window, she saw a man riding on horseback down the dirt road outside holding up a flickering lantern. She recognized this man. He was the only doctor in town and she could tell he was headed towards a large farm at the end of the road. And the woman had heard rumors that the farmer's son was deathly ill. She knew a house call in the middle of the night

was not a good sign, but she also knew the doctor could not save the farmer's son. However she could, so she threw on her coat, lit her own lantern, and set off into the night. From Ballin Studios in Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballen and this is Mr. Ballen's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. And for this week's special Halloween episode, we're exploring something even more terrifying,

the supernatural. For centuries, people believed that monsters, demons, and other horrors could cause deadly diseases and all kinds of misery. Nowadays, we tend to reject those explanations as ignorance and superstition, but for one New England farming family in the 1800s, that distinction wasn't so clear. Were they being plagued by a mysterious disease, or were they actually being preyed on by a creature thought only to exist in legend? So if you like today's story, tell the follow button that you want to play the Flora's Lava Game with them, but be sure to hide thumbtacks all over the room before you start

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With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. And Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as a part of your everyday routine, without needing to set aside extra time. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog. Explore themes of friendship, loss, and hope

with Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Find what piques your imagination. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. This episode is called She Haunts Me. On a spring morning in 1889, a 29-year-old doctor named Harold Metcalf was sitting in his parlor in the tiny town of Exeter, Rhode Island, when he heard his telegraph machine start clicking.

He got up, walked over to the large metal machine and watched it slowly print text onto a long, thin piece of paper. When it finished printing, Dr. Metcalf tore off the paper and read the telegram. It was a message from one of his neighbors, a farmer named George Brown. George said in this telegram that his only son, 22-year-old Edwin, had fallen ill and he desperately needed Dr. Metcalf's help. The doctor let out a long sigh. He knew the Browns well. They'd once been a happy family of nine, with George, his wife, their six daughters and their son, but Dr. Metcalf was

all too aware of the tragedy that had struck the family over the past few years. Seven years ago, George's wife had come down with a mysterious disease that some locals called the White Death. It caused horrible symptoms like chronic fevers, extreme weight loss, and uncontrollable coughing. People with the disease grew pale and weak, and they got so emaciated that they looked like skeletons. It was like the disease literally drained the life out of them. Now, there were a lot of supposed treatments for the white death, things like riding on horseback every day or drinking brown sugar mixed with water, but Dr. Metcalf knew these remedies did not work.

In fact, he knew there was just no proven way to cure the white death. Now, Dr. Metcalf had tried to help George's wife seven years earlier by prescribing healthy food and exercise, but she still just kept on getting sicker. And in fact, she would die a year later and then almost immediately afterwards, one of George's daughters also began showing symptoms of the dreaded disease. And again, Dr. Metcalf tried to help, but there was nothing he could do, and she also died within just a few months. Even though Dr. Metcalf knew the white death was basically incurable, he still felt guilty for not being able to help George and his loved ones. And now, after reading George's telegram, Dr. Metcalf feared

that Edwin might be the latest member of the Brown family to contract the deadly disease. But there was only one way to find out. Dr. Metcalf quickly packed his medical bag, threw a saddle on his horse, and raced off towards the Browns Farm. 15 minutes later, Dr. Metcalf trotted his horse along a thin country road in Exeter. To his right, he saw a vast field overgrown with weeds with a crumbling country house right in the center. It was once a prosperous farm, but was now abandoned. The sight made Dr. Metcalf sad. He'd lived in Exeter his whole life, and he'd watched the quaint farming community

turn into sort of a ghost town. The Civil War and the White Death had decimated the community, leaving only a third of the population alive. In fact, these days, the town was more commonly known by its nickname, Deserted Exeter. After riding for a few more minutes, Dr. Metcalf reached a modest house on 40 acres of farmland. He knocked on the door and right away George Brown answered. He looked haggard and he quickly led Dr. Metcalf to Edwin's bedroom. Inside the room, the doctor saw Edwin's wife and five remaining sisters crowded around

a big four-poster bed. Edwin was lying on the mattress in plain sight, but Dr. Metcalf barely could recognize him. The once husky farmhand had become bony and pale. His cheeks were sunken, his eyes were glassy, and when he tried to speak, he fell into a violent coughing fit. It was obvious to everyone, including the doctor, that Edwin had been gripped by the white death. As Edwin tried to catch his breath, his father, George, approached the side of the bed and

looked at the doctor and asked if there was anything he could do. Dr. Metcalf began rattling off his regular treatment plan, healthy food and exercise, but George stopped him. He said they'd already tried those things with his wife and his daughter and they hadn't worked. There had to be something different they could try. Dr. Metcalf hesitated but then he said yeah, there was another option, but he told them it was an experimental treatment and so he couldn't guarantee it would work.

George said he didn't care. At this point, he was willing to try anything to help Edwin. So Dr. Metcalf explained that some physicians believed that the white death was caused, or at least was made worse, by living in humid climates like Rhode Island. So it might help if Edwin moved out of Rhode Island and went somewhere with completely different weather. The doctor suggested Colorado Springs, Colorado because it was a mountain town with very dry air and high elevations and so it would be a drastic change from Rhode Island. But there was one really obvious problem. To get to Colorado, Edwin would have to travel 2,000 miles, and this would mean days and

days of riding trains and horses, all while Edwin was severely ill, like it wasn't clear if he would live through the journey. Plus, his whole family couldn't just go with him, it would basically be Edwin and maybe his wife. And so after explaining this experimental protocol, Dr. Metcalf went quiet and just watched the Browns as they considered what he had just said. And it was obvious the entire family was very upset and didn't know what to make of this, but at the same time, they knew they had no other choice. And so as the sisters kind of held back tears and whispered

amongst each other and as George looked up at the doctor not sure what to say, finally Edwin, from the bed croaked out the first words he'd said that day. He said that yes, he and his wife would go to Colorado. Three years later, in January of 1892, Edwin held his wife's hand as they walked through the snow in the Rocky Mountains. The high elevation and dry air in Colorado Springs had worked like a charm. Edwin was back to feeling like his normal self again. After walking a bit longer, Edwin told his wife they should head back home for lunch.

When they got to their house, Edwin's wife rushed inside out of the cold, but Edwin stayed for a second and checked the mailbox for any letters from his dad and sisters. And he found there was an envelope, so he opened it and he unfolded the note inside. It was a handwritten letter from his father. And as Edwin scanned the paper, his face fell. The note said that one of Edwin's little sisters, 19-year-old Mercy, had unfortunately passed away. Edwin knew that Mercy had been sick. She'd contracted the white death almost a year earlier. He had tried to convince her to move out to Colorado with him and his wife because he knew that would

cure this. But Mercy said she didn't think she could make the long journey and she didn't want to leave behind her sisters and so she had stayed. But now, Mercy was gone. And so Edwin knew he would need to head back to Rhode Island and be there to grieve with his family. A few weeks later, back in Rhode Island, Edwin and his father braced themselves against the harsh winter cold in Exeter, and together, they silently dug rocks out of the frozen ground. They were trying to prepare the field for planting in the spring. It was hard work, but the physical labor was actually a welcome distraction from their grief. Edwin pushed a sharp shovel into the ground, and as he wedged another rock out of the soil,

he suddenly felt like a heavy weight was pressing down on his chest. He dropped his shovel and started coughing so hard that it stung his throat. He put a hand over his mouth to block the cough and when he caught his breath and moved his hand away, he saw that his palm was now speckled with blood. When he looked up, Edwin saw his father staring at him with a horrified expression. They both knew what this meant. Now that he was back in Rhode Island, Edwin's case of the white death had returned. In March, about a month later, George woke in the night to the sound of his only son

coughing violently. George jumped out of bed and rushed to the kitchen to grab a cup of water and then made his way into Edwin's room, which was dimly lit by an oil lamp. Edwin had become so sick after contracting the white death that he couldn't go anywhere and he had been bedridden for the last two weeks here in Rhode Island. It was like all the progress he'd made living in Colorado had now been undone and he was now sicker than he'd been before. He looked frail and gray and George could see spots on the white bedsheet from where Edwin had been coughing up blood. George held out the cup of water for his son, and Edwin grabbed the glass with shaky hands and drank it in between coughs. Then Edwin looked at his father, and in a hoarse and frightened

voice he said something that terrified George. He said, She was here. She haunts me. George just stared at his son. He had no idea what his son was talking about, but before George could ask, Edwin was gripped by another coughing fit and the only thing George could think to do was send for Dr. Metcalf. Less than an hour later, George stood by Edwin's bedside as Dr. Metcalf examined his son. Now George knew his son was in very bad shape at this point, but he was still shocked when Dr. Metcalf, after examining Edwin, turned to George and just said, it's in God's hands now.

There was apparently nothing he or anyone else could do to help Edwin. George was beyond devastated. He had lost his wife, two daughters, and now he was just counting the days until his only son passed away too. He felt totally powerless. But Edwin, despite hearing this grave news, was putting on a brave face. With his voice still hoarse from coughing, he asked his father if he had any whiskey. If his days were indeed numbered, well, they might as well enjoy the last few moments. George nodded and headed to the kitchen, and as he was taking glasses out of the cabinet for the whiskey,

he heard a knock at the door, which was odd because it was well past midnight and he never had visitors this late. George set the glasses down, made his way to the door and opened it up to see six of his neighbors standing there on the porch. One of them, an older woman with graying hair, said they'd heard that his son Edwin was sick and a few of them had seen Dr. Metcalf come over earlier and so they were concerned. But they said they were not just here to pay their condolences, they were here to try to save him. George had to stop himself from letting out a very bitter laugh.

He already knew no one could help his son, no one had been able to help anybody else in his family when they had the white death and it was just a matter of time before his son died. But he let the neighbors inside anyway, if only because seeing a few familiar faces might lift his son's spirits. When George and the visitors rounded the corner into Edwin's room, most of the neighbors went to Edwin's bedside to say hello, but the older woman walked directly towards Dr. Metcalf and began speaking to him in a very hushed voice. George was curious so he walked closer to listen and he heard this woman tell Dr. Metcalf that she actually knew how to cure Edwin. The doctor told her that was not possible, nobody could cure this sickness. But the woman said Edwin was not

sick, he was actually cursed by a vampire. George watched Dr. Metcalfe's face go red with anger. He told the woman that she was being absolutely ridiculous. The doctor then looked over at George like he wanted somebody to back him up here, but George was desperate enough to consider anything at this point. And as crazy as a vampire's curse sounded, he didn't think it was that far-fetched, and so he wanted to hear more from this woman. After all, the white death had made his loved ones look like the life was being sucked out of them, almost like a vampire was draining their blood. And just earlier that night, Edwin had said something to George that totally caught him off guard when he said, she was here, she haunts me. And so George wondered if maybe his son was referencing this vampire.

she haunts me. And so George wondered if maybe his son was referencing this vampire. And so George turned from the doctor to his son and asked him about what he had said earlier about somebody being in the room with him, somebody haunting him. And Edwin croaked out that earlier when he was alone in the room, he had seen this woman standing in the corner of his bedroom staring at him with cold, dead eyes. Now, he said he didn't know if this had been a dream or not, but it had felt so real that now he was scared to death from the experience. To George, his son's testimony only seemed to strengthen the neighbor's vampire theory. However, George told the older woman that he wanted proof that this really is what was

going on, that a vampire was behind what was happening to his family. And so, the older woman called over another one of the neighbors, a farmer that George sometimes shared crops with, and he told George and Dr. Metcalf that he'd seen cases like this before. He explained that sometimes, when a person died, a dark supernatural force would take over their body and cause them to leech the life out of their surviving loved ones, even from beyond the grave. These people were not really dead, the farmer said. They were vampires. At this point, the older woman interrupted the farmer and said, to figure out which one

of George's deceased family members was the vampire, all they had to do was exhume the bodies of his wife and two daughters. If one of the women's bodies hadn't yet decomposed, or if her heart still contained blood, that was a telltale sign that she was the vampire. To George, this whole process sounded barbaric, and he couldn't bear the thought of seeing his wife and children's decomposing bodies. But for all he knew, his neighbors could be right, and this could be his only chance to save his only son. So George gave the neighbors his blessing to go dig up his family members bodies.

And then George turned to Dr. Metcalf and said he couldn't go and see this and so asked the doctor to please go to the graveyard on his behalf. That way the doctor could be his eyes and also be the voice of reason. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes, even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today.

The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily comes the new podcast, The Real History of Dracula. We'll reveal how author Bram Stoker rated ancient folklore, exploited Victorian fears around sex, science, and religion, and how even today we remain enthralled to his strange creatures of the night. You can binge all episodes of The Real History of Dracula exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus and the Wondria, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

I'm Tristan Redmond, and as a journalist, I've never believed in ghosts. But when I discovered that my wife's great- great grandmother was murdered in the house next door to where I grew up, I started wondering about the inexplicable things that happened in my childhood bedroom. When I tried to find out more, I discovered that someone who slept in my room after me, someone I'd never met, was visited by the ghost of a faceless woman. So I started digging into the murder in my wife's family. And I unearthed family secrets nobody could have imagined. Ghost Story won Best Documentary Podcast at the 2024 Ambys and is a Best True Crying nominee at the British Podcast Awards 2024.

Ghost Story is now the first ever Apple Podcast Series essential. Each month, Apple Podcast editors spotlight one series that has captivated listeners with masterful storytelling, creative excellence and a unique creative voice and vision. To recognize Ghost Story being chosen as the first series essential, Wondry has made it ad-free for a limited time only on Apple Podcast. If you haven't listened yet, head over to Apple Podcast to hear for yourself. A few minutes later, Dr. Metcalf trudged through the dirt, lagging behind the neighbors, as they made their way toward the Chestnut Hill Cemetery. Between the seven of them, they had three small lanterns, one of which Dr. Metcalf was

holding to light his way. As the doctor walked along, he could hear the neighbors up ahead of him whispering about this vampire and what they were going to do. And it was hard for the doctor not to feel totally annoyed because he did not believe a curse was behind what was happening to George's family. But he reminded himself that George was utterly desperate and had really kind of convinced himself that maybe this curse really was the thing, and Dr. Metcalfe didn't have the heart to just completely shoot it down. And so if this is what it took, going along with the neighbors to the graveyard, to prove that George's son Edwin was not suffering from some kind of ridiculous curse,

then ultimately this was worth it. Eventually the neighbors and the doctor reached the cemetery's iron gates, which creaked as the farmer pushed them open. To the right of the entrance, Dr. Metcalf could see a stone crypt, and next to it he could see the Brown family's plot, and it didn't take long for the group to locate the tombstones they were looking for. Dr. Metcalfe stood a few feet away and watched while two of the neighbors held up lanterns and three others stuck shovels into George's wife's grave. They threw dirt to the side until eventually they unearthed her wooden coffin. The leader of the neighbors, the

older woman who brought up the vampire curse, unlatched the casket, pulled it open, and revealed the dusty skeleton of George's late wife. She'd been dead for nine years and so her body had, like Dr. Metcalfe had expected, totally decomposed. To the neighbors though, this only meant that George's wife was not the vampire, but one of the two daughters was. So they reburied the wife and dug up George's first daughter, the one who had died just a few months after George's wife. And again, when they opened up the coffin, it was just full of bones, and so they reburied

the daughter as well. And then finally, the neighbors exhumed Mercy, the second daughter who had died just eight weeks earlier. And what they found inside of her casket struck even Dr. Metcalf, the most skeptical person there, as absolutely inexplicable. Despite having been dead for two full months by this point, Mercy's body had not even begun to decompose. And to make things even stranger, Mercy's body was lying on its side as if she had literally turned over in her grave after being

buried. The gray-haired woman turned to Dr. Metcalf and pointed and said, Look, there's your vampire. The doctor, who was admittedly kind of shaken up, still insisted there had to be some kind of rational medical explanation for this, but the neighbors wouldn't listen. They had already begun performing a ritual that they believed would kill the vampire, break the curse, and save Edwin's life. The neighbors gathered up twigs and arranged them on top of a nearby boulder. Then the farmer flicked a match and kindled the flame into a small bonfire. And then Dr. Metcalf watched in stunned silence as the older woman pulled something out of a bag that she'd carried into the cemetery. And

in the flickering light, he saw a flash of silver, and he realized what the woman had pulled from her bag was a huge kitchen knife. And then Dr. Metcalf looked on in horror as the woman stuck that blade directly into Mercy's abdomen, slicing her stomach open, and then the woman reached up under Mercy's ribs and pulled out her liver and her heart. And then after opening them up, both organs were indeed still full of coagulated blood, as though Mercy's body had been using these organs recently. At this point, the old woman placed Mercy's organs on top of the fire and let them burn down to ash. But after that, the ritual was not done. The older woman pulled something else out of her bag,

it was a jar full of water, and she unscrewed the cap. Then she scooped the ashes of the organs and put them into this water, then closed the jar and shook up the contents. The woman said the ritual was almost complete. All they needed to do now was now have Edwin drink this entire concoction of water and his sister's burned organs. The neighbors turned and began marching out of the cemetery and Dr. Metcalf, who was still just shocked by everything he had just seen, kind of chased after them, begging them to stop. But none of them even looked back. They were on a mission. They were on a mission. A little while later that evening, Edwin was propped up in bed feeling lifeless and miserable,

surrounded by his father, Dr. Metcalf and the group of neighbors. Edwin held the jar of black liquid in his hands, but he hadn't drunk any of it yet. Instead, he listened as Dr. Metcalf and the older woman argued. Dr. Metcalf said that if Edwin drank that, it would only make him sicker. But the older woman insisted it was the only medicine that would cure him. Edwin looked to his father for some advice about what to do, but George told Edwin it was up to him. Staring at the watery ashes of his own sister's heart and liver, Edwin almost began to gag.

He couldn't decide what to do. If he drank this vile liquid, he could die, but if he didn't drink it, he would still very likely die. So he ultimately decided he had nothing to lose. He unscrewed the jar's cap, brought the black water to his lips, and began to drink. But despite drinking his sister's burned liver and heart, two months after this ritual, Edwin still died of the White Death. The ritual had not worked. And after losing his only son, George Brown's life continued to get worse. Over the next six years, three more

of his daughters would die of the White Death, leaving him with only one child, his daughter Hattie. George lived another two decades. However, his one remaining child, Hattie, would outlive George by about another 40 years. She would die in 1954. But she lived long enough to actually see a cure developed for the white death. Because it would turn out the white death was not some curse caused by a vampire, it was actually a very common and very deadly infectious disease called tuberculosis, and by 1954 a vaccine had been developed. But back in the late 1800s, tuberculosis was a global epidemic. It was highly infectious, often spreading amongst families or other tight-knit social groups, and it accounted for 25% of all deaths in the Northeastern United States where the Brown family lived.

But despite how common it was, tuberculosis was very poorly understood. There were many different types and the symptoms could vary widely, so it wasn't always accurately diagnosed, and even when it was, there was no effective medications so treatment was mostly guesswork. Although almost everyone in New England at the time knew someone who had died of tuberculosis, the Brown family had a uniquely horrible experience. They lived in an isolated, half-abandoned community where superstition reigned. So when they started coming down with the so-called White Death, which was a nickname for tuberculosis, their neighbors thought they'd become the victim of a vampire and when they exhumed

Mercy and found that her body had not decomposed, they took that as proof that she possessed supernatural powers and was behind the curse. But just like Dr. Metcalf suspected on the night where they exhumed her, there actually was a rational explanation for why Mercy's body had not decomposed. Mercy died in the middle of the harsh New England winter when the ground was so frozen that it would have been impossible to actually dig a grave. So instead of being buried underground in the cemetery next to her mother and sister, she was still buried in the cemetery but above ground in that stone crypt where her body

was naturally frozen and preserved. As for why her body appeared to have rolled over inside of her coffin, that was most likely because the neighbors had moved the casket as they opened it and sort of accidentally shifted her remains. However, Mercy's reputation as a vampire lived on and her story made headlines all across the country and in fact in 1896 one article about Mercy the Vampire made it into the hands of an aspiring novelist named Bram Stoker. He would release Dracula one year later and the book featured a young woman who was turned into a vampire and later had her body exhumed.

The character's name was Lucy, a combination of Mercy and her middle name, which was Lena. subscribers can listen to Mr. Bollin's medical mysteries ad free. Join Wondry Plus today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at listenersurvey.com. From Bollin Studios and Wondry, this is Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Bollin. A quick note about our stories. We do sometimes use aliases because we don't know the names of the real people involved. And also, in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said in these stories, but everything is based on research. And also a reminder,

the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Karis Alan Pash-Cooper. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Andre Pluss. Our coordinating producer is Sophia Martins. Our senior producer is Alex Benedon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Teja Palakonda.

Fact checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our Coordinating Producer is Samantha Collins. Production Support by Avery Siegel. Executive Producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and also Nick Whitters. For Wondry, our Head of Sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Senior Producers are Laura Donna Palavota and Dave Schilling.

Senior Managing Producer is Ryan Lohr. Our Executive Producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondry. Voda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Lewy for Wondering. For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast American History Tellers, Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world-altering decisions, and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation. You'll be there when the very foundations

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