The Great New England Vampire Panic (2012)

> In Manchester, hundreds of people flocked to a 1793 heart-burning ceremony at a blacksmith’s forge: “Timothy Mead officiated at the altar in the sacrifice to the Demon Vampire who it was believed was still sucking the blood of the then living wife of Captain Burton,” an early town history says. “It was the month of February and good sleighing.”

Yeah, Captain Burton, bruh, your wife was banging someone else. I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few of these vampire allegations were just clever "outs" for a lot of clever people back in the time period.

It also has the advantage of not killing a living person (like a witch accusation might); so, perhaps this was the sophisticated safe and intelligent lie to cover your tracks...

/shrug

Beheaded burials can occur for other reasons. A few hundred years ago, some people were so afraid of being buried alive that they instructed they be beheaded before burial. The proceedure was not always documented. Dig up that grave for some reason years later and it will look very odd. Others, including some English kings, had thier hearts removed so it could be buried elsewhere, or go on crusade. That too would look very odd. Combine the two and you have a very vampire burial.

Interesting story! I grew up in that area and heard nothing about this.

> In Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont, though, they frequently burned the dead person’s heart, sometimes inhaling the smoke as a cure.

That sounds like an attempt at vaccination, but grounded in woo. Some of the heart-burning described predates the invention of the first vaccination in 1796 (although inoculation was known to the West by the early 1700s). How did wrong methods come so close to a real preventative protocol?