An American Vampire in New England (or: Bricks in the Trap part 3)

The interesting thing about these American vampires is the fact that members of their community, and in some cases even their own family members, were concerned enough about the possibility of vampires that they were willing to open a person's grave and desecrate their body in order to set their minds at ease. If you ask yourself what it would take for you to do that to one of your own family members, it gives you some small idea of how truly freaked out these people must have been by the events happening around them. Faced with the possibility that death (in the form of consumption) might come for them next, they sought to take control of the situation in the only way that they knew how, even though it was gruesome and ultimately futile.

Bodysnatching for Science: Charles Byrne’s Stolen Bones

Hello! I have returned from another inordinately long break in between posts to talk at  length about things relating to dead people once again. I've been busy with Funeral School and my Funeral Job, and, through a fault that was entirely my own, had to spend the majority of my evenings that past couple of… Continue reading Bodysnatching for Science: Charles Byrne’s Stolen Bones

Gordon Truesdale’s Gaseous Head: A Tale of Grave-Robbing and Gas Gangrene

Whew, hello, it's been a while! I want to say that it's working full time and trying to stay on top of funeral school that's keeping me busy, but the real culprit is that there's too much good TV to watch and I can't multi-task. If I could research and write while simultaneously watching Stranger… Continue reading Gordon Truesdale’s Gaseous Head: A Tale of Grave-Robbing and Gas Gangrene

Mummy Dearest: A series, probably

There's been a few mummies in the news lately, which naturally reminded me that mummies are freakin' awesome and cool. Climate change less so, but I'm not here to talk about that so mummies it is. As I was thinking about what, exactly, to say about mummies it occurred to me that there are a WHOLE… Continue reading Mummy Dearest: A series, probably

Deconstructing Decomposition: The Process of Decay

So, since this is a death-and-related-things focused blog, I figured that I might as well delve into a pretty fundamental aspect of the whole death thing and write about what happens to something that was alive after it dies. Of course, decomposition isn't the only thing that can happen to an organism after it dies (I… Continue reading Deconstructing Decomposition: The Process of Decay