On Jan. 27, 1896, the Boston Globe published a story on superstitious beliefs in rural Rhode Island that vampires were the cause of unexplained deaths. In the 19th century a mysterious illness afflicted rural New England. Often called the Great White Plague for how pale it made its victims, it was also called ‘consumption’ because of the way it literally consumed people from the inside out, gradually making them weaker, paler, and more lifeless until they were gone.

Today we know it as tuberculosis, an infectious bacterial disease that attacks the lungs and causes a hacking cough, a wasting fever, and night sweats. But back then the main suspect was vampires.