In 1800s America, something terrifying is feeding on the quiet town of Exeter. As members of George Brown’s family succumb one by one, the town considers drastic measures to protect the living from the dead.
Members of the Cautionary Club have access to all episodes ad-free, monthly bonus episodes, monthly behind-the-scenes video conversations, and our newsletter.
[Apple] [Spotify] [Stitcher] [Patreon]
Further Reading
Books
Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires (2013) by Michael Bell.
Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (2025) by John Green.
Articles
“New England ‘Vampire’ Was Likely a Farmer Named John” by Jason Daley, Smithsonian Magazine (5th August 2019). Available here.
“Old cemetery revealing its secrets” by Jenn Heldt, The Bulletin (24th March 1990). Available here.
“Cemetery Holds Tales of Vampires” by Sam Libby, New York Times (16th February 1922). Available here.
“The Great New England Vampire Panic” by Abigail Tucker, Smithsonian (October 2012). Available here.
“The Man with a Fish on His Back” by Diane Wendy, Distillations Magazine (3rd April 2010). Available here.
“Exeter Hill”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (5th February 1887).
“Greene Valley”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (5th April 1889).
“Exeter Hill and the Vicinity”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (29th May 1891).
“Exeter Hill and Vicinity”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (27th November 1891).
“Exeter Hill and Vicnity”, Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner (22nd January 1892).
“Exeter Hill and Vicinity”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (26th February 1892).
“Exeter Hill and the Vicinity”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (25th October 1892).
“Exeter Hill”, Pautuxet Valley Gleaner (22nd June 1900).
“Exhumed the Bodies: Testing a Horrible Superstition in the Town of Exeter, The Providence Journal (19th March 1892).
“The Vampire Theory: That Search for the Spectral Ghoul in the Exeter Graves”, The Providence Journal (21st March 1892).
“Exeter”, Rhode Island Pendulum (31st July 1891).
“Exeter”, Rhode Island Pendulum (13th May 1892).
“Edwin A. Brown”, The Standard (20th May 1892).
Academic Articles and Historical Surveys
“Historical and Architectural Resources of South Kingstown, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report”, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission (1984). Available here.
“DNA Testing Reveals the Putative Identity of JB55, a 19th Century Vampire Buried in Griswold, Connecticut” by Jennifer Daniels-Higginbotham et al., Genes (Basel), 22nd August 2019, 10(9), p. 636. Available here.
“Bioarcheological and Biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief” by Paul Sledzik and Nicholas Bellantoni, The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, June 1994, 94(2), pp. 269-74. Available here.
“Late-life cardiac interventions and the treatment imperative” by Janet K Shim, Ann J Russ and Sharon R Kaufman, PLOS Medicine, 4 March 2008, 5(3). Available here.
“Death and the treatment imperative: Decision-making in late-stage cancer” by Alexandra Tate, Social Science & Medicine, August 2022, 306. Available here.
Blogs and Websites
“Tuberculosis: A Fashionable Disease?” by Imogen Clarke, Science Museum (24th March 2019). Available here.
“Tuberculosis Part Two: Treatments and Cures”, Science Museum (6th February 2024). Available here.
“Story of Us – T is for Tuberculosis”, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Available here.
“Some Sweet Day, By and By”, Hymnary.org. Available here.
“Have Mercy…” by Jennifer L. Galpern, Rhode Island Historical Society (31st October 2016). Available here.
“Exeter History”, Town of Exeter Rhode Island. Available here.
“Tuberculosis”, Saint John’s Cancer Institute. Available here.
