An American Vampire

Mercy Brown's headstone

Mercy Lena Brown, perhaps America's most famous vampire, lies in her grave within the quiet, rural Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island. Her tragic tale is the best-documented case in America of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation.

In 1886, Mercy's mother, Mary Eliza, died of tuberculosis, a devastating and much-feared disease called "consumption" at that time. Mary's oldest daughter, Mary Olive, died of the same disease in 1888. In 1891, both Mercy and her brother, Edwin, became sick with "consumption." In accordance with superstitious beliefs, multiple deaths within an individual family in a relatively short time was due to undead activity. This was particularly true of tuberculosis since a common symptom of the disease is significant weight loss, giving the impression that life was slowly being sucked out of the patient. It was thought the undead were desperate to live again thus they drained the life out of their loved ones.  

The crypt where Mercy's body was kept

Mercy died on January 17, 1892, just 19 years old. Due to the ground being frozen in the middle of winter, her body was stored in an above-ground crypt until it was possible to give her a proper burial when the ground thawed. Family members, nearby villagers and the local doctor and priest pressured Mary's father,  George, to allow the exhumation of Mary Eliza and Mary Olive and to open Mercy's coffin as they believed one of them must be a vampire and was the cause of Edwin's continued illness. 

On March 17, two months after Mercy's death, two coffins were pried from the frozen ground. The bodies of Mary Eliza and Mary Olive both showed the expected levels of decomposition, but when the coffin of Mercy was opened, the body exhibited almost no decay and, in fact, looked exactly as she had the day she died. After being thawed near a fire, further examination showed liquid blood to be in her heart. Her lack of decomposition was no doubt due to her body being solidly frozen during the two months it had been stored in the crypt, but this was not understood at that time so it was taken as a sure sign that Mercy was undead and the agent for Edwin's illness.

As the superstitious beliefs dictated, Mercy's heart and liver were cut from her body, thoroughly burned and the ashes mixed with water. What remained of her body was then desecrated and placed back in her coffin lying face down. Edwin was made to drink the tonic in an effort to cure his illness and stop the influence of the undead. It didn't work. Edwin died two months later. Eventually, poor Mercy was buried where she now lies.

This unfortunate incident became known to Bram Stoker, the author of the novel Dracula. He based the novel's character Lucy Westenra on Mercy. It is also referred to in H. P. Lovecraft's The Shunned House. Today, visitors to Mercy's grave frequently leave hand-written notes, little trinkets, and plastic vampire teeth. Cemetery workers periodically remove them, only to have them re-stocked by later sightseers and curious visitors.

The Digitized Man

Joseph Jernigan's arrest photo

On August 5, 1993, a few minutes past midnight, Joseph Paul Jernigan lay strapped down on a gurney in the execution chamber of the Huntsville State Prison in Texas. Ten years ago, he had been convicted of murder and sentenced to die. All of his appeals had been denied and he knew he would soon be dead. 

Before the deadly needle was pushed into his arm, he confessed that he was indeed guilty of the vicious murder of a 75-year-old man. While he and an accomplice were in the process of stealing a microwave oven, the homeowner unexpectedly returned. Even though the old, infirm gentleman offered no danger to the thieves, Jernigan, afraid he would identify them, repeatedly beat him in the head with a heavy ashtray, then stabbed him multiple times in the heart with a butcher knife he found in the kitchen and then blew a large hole in his chest with a shotgun blast.

Like most condemned prisoners, Jernigan found religion as his death date drew near. A priest convinced him to repay society by donating his body to science. As he lay on the gurney, he had no idea what was to become of his donated corpse, but at that very moment, a team of researchers was eagerly waiting.

After execution, his body was prepared for travel, air freighted to a lab in Colorado (postage, $201.88) and exactly 8 hours later, became the property of The Center for Human Simulation. The goal of the organization was to digitize an entire cadaver into a versatile, medically accurate, three-dimensional model of human anatomy. Joseph Paul Jernigan would become the new definition of man.

Jernigan's thorax

Sparing you the very gross process it took to render, the whole of Jernigan's body (except for a missing appendix and one testicle) was cut into pieces and then eventually sliced into thousands of individual slices thinner than a piece of pre-wrapped cheese. It took 9 months to complete. Each slice was then photographed and subjected to CT and MRI scans. 

Once this process was completed, he was reconstituted into 15 gigabytes of data and made available on the internet. Once there, the convicted murderer was reincarnated into the Visible Human, an interactive model that can be explored by anyone with a web browser. 

Joseph Paul Jernigan now lives on via computers all over the world and anyone who cares to, can enjoy fly-throughs of his body - his bones, his brain, his heart, and even his one testicle. Few, however, know they are actually looking at a convicted murderer.