Episode 315 - The Vampire Epidemic of Medveđa: A True Horror Story

Episode 315 - The Vampire Epidemic of Medveđa: A True Horror Story What if we told you that one of the most terrifying vampire stories ever… is actually documented in government records? 😱 In this episode, we unearth the chilling legend of Arnold Paole, a Serbian soldier whose alleged undead rampage left an entire town convinced that vampires were real. We’re talking about bodies that refused to decay, villagers dropping dead after seeing a ghostly figure at the foot of their bed, and an official military investigation that left even the skeptics shook. Was this a case of mass hysteria? A mysterious disease? Or did vampires actually stalk 18th-century Serbia? But before we sink our teeth into that, Sabrina meets a special someone and might just have manifested a paranormal investigation with her… PLUS: A listener story about a mysterious bite mark and lost time experience that’ll make you rethink doing laundry alone. 🧛‍♂️ The findings discussed in this episode are in an official government report titled Visum et Repertum (Seen & Discovered) and you can read it, translated to English: https://web.archive.org/web/20060315125133/http://www.vampgirl.com/visum.html Watch the video version here. Have ghost stories of your own? E-mail them to us at [email protected] New Episodes are released every Sunday at 12am PST/3am EST (the witching hour, of course). Corinne and Sabrina hand select a couple of paranormal encounters from our inbox to read in each episode, from demons, to cryptids, to aliens, to creepy kids... the list goes on and on. If you have a story of your own that you'd like us to share on an upcoming episode, we invite you to email them to us! This episode is sponsored by Lume, Fast Growing Trees, Ollie, BetterHelp, iRestore, and Bubbly Cleaning. Use code TGOG for 15% off your first purchase at Lumedeodorant.com This Spring they have the best deals, for your yard, up to half off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase when using the code TGOG at checkout. Fastgrowingtrees.com/tgog Take the online quiz and introduce Ollie to your pet. Visit https://ollie.com/TGOG today for 60% off your first box of meals! #ToKnowThemIsToLoveThem Your well-being is worth it. Visit BetterHelp.com/TGOG to get 10% off your first month Give your skin the love it deserves this Spring. For a limited time only, our listeners get $205 off their Illumina Face Mask with code TGOG25 at iRestorelaser.com. Take home cleaning off your plate this Spring by using Bubbly Cleaning! Head to BubblyCleaning.com/TwoGirlsOneGhost to get your first 3 hours of cleaning for only $19! If you enjoy our show, please consider joining our Patreon, rating and reviewing on iTunes & Spotify and following us on social media! Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Discord. Edited and produced by Jaimi Ryan, original music by Arms Akimbo! Disclaimer: the use of white sage and smudging is a closed practice. If you’re looking to cleanse your space, here are some great alternatives! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Corinne Vien?

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let's talk numbers right now. Traditional in-person therapy can cost anywhere from $100 to $250 per session, and that adds up really fast. But with BetterHelp online therapy, you can save on average up to 50% per session. With BetterHelp, you pay a flat fee for weekly sessions, saving you big on cost and on time, because therapy should feel accessible, not like a luxury. And with online therapy, you get quality care at a price that makes sense and can help you with anything from anxiety to everyday stress. I have used it for years for many different things, and most recently, my postpartum journey. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally.

• 0:43Corinne Vien?

  It's convenient, too, so you can join a session with a click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life. You could do it on vacation. You could do it on your ghost hunt. And you can switch therapists at any time. Your well-being is worth it. Visit betterhelp.com/tgog to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, dot com slash T-G-O-G.

• 1:03Speaker 01

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• 1:06Speaker 02

  Nah, I got this. Hmm, okay, I don't got this.

• 1:12Speaker 01

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• 1:23Speaker 01

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• 1:24Speaker 03

  Nyquil Intense Flu, the nighttime sniffling, aching, aching fever, best sleep with the flu medicine. Uses directed, keep out of reach of children.

• 1:51Corinne Vien?

  Very spooky.

• 1:55Corinne Vien?

  This is Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 1:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Two Girls, One Ghost. And we are your ghostesses. That is Corinne.

• 2:00Corinne Vien?

  Hello.

• 2:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm Sabrina. And we have a story for you to sink your teeth into.

• 2:05Corinne Vien?

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Can you guess what we're talking about?

• 2:09Corinne Vien?

  Spoiler alert.

• 2:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Sorry.

• 2:11Corinne Vien?

  The hill to suck your blood.

• 2:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We're here to suck your blood.

• 2:16Corinne Vien?

  You're a different person, though. Because you went somewhere and you met a person that has been on your idol bucket list for years. And then you called me and I was like, oh, my gosh, I'll call you back later. And then I was like, I'm just gonna wait two days. I want you to tell me about it on the podcast.

• 2:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I met my hero, my idol, and a woman who has been such an instrumental part of my life. Like, literally, when I posted the photo on my story, people from middle school were messaging me like, holy shit, did you die? Because they know how big of a role she played in my life.

• 2:49Corinne Vien?

  From a poster in your middle school childhood bedroom to meeting her in Austin, Texas. Sabrina met?

• 2:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I met Kesha.

• 2:58Corinne Vien?

  So wild, and you have a photo.

• 3:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It was such a surreal moment. So we were in Austin for South by Southwest. And we were there for the iHeart Podcast Awards. Payne was presenting and was nominated. It was one of these weird moments. Like, it's a great place to network, just generally. But like, the woman Andrea Gunning, who won Best True Crime Podcast for Betrayal, shout out to Betrayal. She's from Pennsylvania area. And I said, I'm from New Jersey. And she goes, oh, do you know PDS? The high school I went to. Her cousin is someone I went to high school with, like, a year older than me.

• 3:28Corinne Vien?

  That's wild.

• 3:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like, so small world.

• 3:30Corinne Vien?

  But also, that's so podcasting. Because even we were on a meeting the other day. And I was like, where's everyone from? Are you all in LA? And they're like, no, I'm in San Francisco. Oh, I'm in Indiana. Oh, I'm in Pennsylvania. Oh, I'm in Texas. Like, podcasting, well, I guess also just, like, remote work.

• 3:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's a global industry.

• 3:47Corinne Vien?

  Everywhere.

• 3:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Everywhere and nowhere all at once.

• 3:50Corinne Vien?

  Yep.

• 3:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Haunting your ears wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm in the airport for the flight back to Boston. And we're sitting at a bar like right next to our gate. And I'm like, oh, I feel like we should be boarding soon. So I get up to go check and see if we're boarding. And I'm walking back and I see this woman sitting at a table right next to where we were sitting. And it just instantly, I will know that face anywhere. And I walk over to Payne and Mike, like my heart was beating so fast. And I go, he's like Kesha. And then I like sat down in my bar stool and I was just like, I think that's Kesha.

• 4:22Corinne Vien?

  Say it ain't so, oh my God.

• 4:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And Payne's like, you have to go say hi. And I was like, okay.

• 4:27Corinne Vien?

  What if it wasn't?

• 4:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, then that's a compliment to whoever it was, but it was her. So I gather myself as much as I possibly could. And I just go over and I'm like, hey, I don't want to bother you, but I just need you to know I'm such a big fan. And then I mentioned some connections that we have. And the guy that she was with was like, oh yeah, we've been talking to your team. So she knew who we were. And then she starts asking me all these questions about paranormal investigating. And she's like, are you a ghost hunter? And I was like, I mean, I wouldn't say professionally, but we dabble. We're hobbyists. And then she starts telling me as if I didn't already know that she had a TV show called Conjuring Kesha. And they went and did a bunch of things. I was like, no way.

• 5:06Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my God.

• 5:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  What did you experience? I actually haven't watched it weirdly, but she was like, wow. Like this is making me want to go do an investigation. And I was like, come to Massachusetts, we'll do one with you.

• 5:17Corinne Vien?

  We have so many places to go.

• 5:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And I was very much like, anyway, I don't really want to bother you. I just wanted to introduce myself. My name's Sabrina.

• 5:24Corinne Vien?

  I'm just a cool girl.

• 5:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I was like, nice to meet you. Meanwhile, like dripping sweat under my sweatshirt and like my heart is still pounding. And I go up to Mike and Payne, I'm like, I need to go take a lap because I was like, not okay. And that's when I immediately called you and texted in all caps, I just met Kesha. And then I'm walking back and I see Payne talking to her. And he was like, listen, she probably didn't say this, but she's like really a big fan. Like you've made such an impact on her life. And she was like, oh my, does she want a picture? And then I see this and I'm so embarrassed, like I feel like a little kid.

• 5:54Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 5:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But I am really grateful I got a picture. And because of Payne, she followed me up. On Instagram and messaged me. And my last message to her was in 2018, when I was at her concert in LA. And I was waiting for her to come out and I sent her a message. I'm going to pee myself when you come on the stage.

• 6:12Corinne Vien?

  That's so cute. Honestly, Sabrina, thank God it was just one message. Can you imagine if she went back and it was like from the time that Instagram first became a thing in like 2011? If you were just nonstop messaging her.

• 6:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which 2011 was the peak of my obsession with her.

• 6:27Corinne Vien?

  Right, I know.

• 6:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. Anyway, it was a beautiful moment that I'm still not sure really ever happened, but I would love if it turns into us actually doing an investigation with her.

• 6:39Corinne Vien?

  That would be.

• 6:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  How cool.

• 6:41Corinne Vien?

  I like can't even fathom it happening. Like it just feels so, it feels like untouchable.

• 6:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm still nervous thinking about it.

• 6:50Corinne Vien?

  You're making me nervous. I'm not even.

• 6:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But I am also glad that the first time I met her is not when we're doing something with her, because I got that out of the way, you know?

• 6:59Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Anyway, Kesha, if you're listening to this, I love you. And I would make out if you wanted.

• 7:08Corinne Vien?

  We gotta clip that, put that on your personal Instagram, make sure Kesha sees it.

• 7:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, man.

• 7:13Corinne Vien?

  So yeah, this is a paranormal show, but also.

• 7:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Sometimes it's paranormal when you meet people you love. It feels otherworldly.

• 7:20Corinne Vien?

  It does.

• 7:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And it was destiny calling.

• 7:22Corinne Vien?

  And I feel like it's also a great reminder that the paranormal touches everyone. Everyone experiences ghosts to some degree.

• 7:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly. Whether you believe in the paranormal itself or not.

• 7:32Corinne Vien?

  And if you're extra unlucky, you might experience something else.

• 7:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, maybe you're lucky. It depends what you want.

• 7:39Corinne Vien?

  Oh, well, I don't, I'm not sure because I'm thinking about your topic today.

• 7:43Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. So some people have like sexy dreams about vampires, thanks to Twilight and some vampire smut things. But today we are talking about a vampire, a certain specific vampire from Serbia.

• 7:59Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 8:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And similar to the legend of vampires being eternal, everlasting and surviving off of blood and never dying, I have a gift for you, a gift that will never die.

• 8:11Corinne Vien?

  I got excited for one second and then it immediately turned to fear.

• 8:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, no, it's not fearful. This is a gift for you.

• 8:18Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my gosh. These are Rose Forever. Oh, my God, Sabrina.

• 8:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  These are for you.

• 8:23Corinne Vien?

  So nice. This is for us.

• 8:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's for us.

• 8:25Corinne Vien?

  It can be in here.

• 8:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They're like floating in this like really cool.

• 8:29Corinne Vien?

  So cool.

• 8:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Anyway, I got them.

• 8:31Corinne Vien?

  Do they smell? How do you smell them?

• 8:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, they do smell really nice.

• 8:33Corinne Vien?

  They do smell like roses?

• 8:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 8:34Corinne Vien?

  I'll do what they do in perfumeries. Smell the lid first. It smells like nothing. There's a scent, a small wee scent.

• 8:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But they'll never die.

• 8:42Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my gosh. Wow, how cool.

• 8:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Aren't they really pretty?

• 8:45Corinne Vien?

  These are really pretty. Rose Forever New York.

• 8:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I thought it was very appropriate for this story and for our podcast, which we could keep these.

• 8:53Corinne Vien?

  Whoa.

• 8:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, yeah, there's a drawer.

• 8:54Corinne Vien?

  There's a drawer.

• 8:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We could put crystals in there.

• 8:56Corinne Vien?

  Send us knickknacks.

• 8:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Send us haunted objects.

• 9:00Corinne Vien?

  To keep all our roses.

• 9:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But.

• 9:02Corinne Vien?

  Thank you, Sabrina. That's very sweet.

• 9:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You're welcome. And also, if anyone else wants to purchase Rose Forever for yourself or for other people, we do have a little promo code and it's linked down in the show notes, but you can use twogirls20, T W O girls two zero.

• 9:16Corinne Vien?

  I feel like a little kid because I now I'm not gonna be able to focus. I want to like fidget and touch them.

• 9:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know.

• 9:21Corinne Vien?

  They feel like real roses because they are, but it's so weird. It's like this wild thing. How? How? Magic.

• 9:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It is magic.

• 9:28Corinne Vien?

  It's spooky.

• 9:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It is. And I do think to to preserve them, you should touch them a little less than Corinne's touching them.

• 9:34Corinne Vien?

  Sorry, the oils on my finger don't make them last longer.

• 9:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I get it. When there's things around you, you just want to touch them.

• 9:40Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 9:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Touch it, touch it. Anyway, vampires, something else that does not die or is difficult to kill. Corinne, do you believe in vampires? Because I feel like vampires are usually not the most believed in entity. It feels very Dracula fantasy.

• 10:00Corinne Vien?

  It does.

• 10:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Text.

• 10:01Corinne Vien?

  I feel like it's a hard thing for people to digest to hear me say that I truly, a wholeheartedly, 100% believe in Bigfoot, but that I might not believe in vampires. And I also believe in mermaids and fairies, but I might not believe in vampires. But I will say I don't believe in vampires with the caveat that I do specifically believe in New Orleans vampires.

• 10:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Interesting. Like, I feel like vampires as a whole, global sort of, you know, it just exists, doesn't exist, but there's something weird going on in New Orleans. And there's maybe just this weird mutation pocket of vampires. But they came from Europe. That's the story. The women who came in coffins. Right. I don't know. I don't know what to believe. What do you believe? Who am I to say what is real and what is not? I think anything is possible. And I do think that if vampires exist, they're not as sexy as I'd like them to be. They're not gonna like be like True Blood and Twilight. Stefan. Romance me. Yeah. Vampire Diaries. But who do you choose Stefan or Damian? Damian for sure. Obviously. Obviously. Okay, and then?

• 11:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Damian, if you want to make out with me, you can. Who do you choose from the Cullen Crew? Edward or? Is Jasper the really weird one? Yes. I think Jasper. I named my car after Jasper, after the actor that played Jasper. Really? My high school car I named. I love that. Jackson. So weird. Okay, but who would you choose? Him, obviously. Jasper. Well, we'll battle it out. We have a lifetime of living as vampires. You can have him for a century. I'll take him for a century. We'll just swap. We'll trade. Let's swap. Okay, perfect. So this is, we're both turning into vampires in this situation? I guess, yeah. Okay, cool. So I feel like vampires are less believed in, especially because the lore is that they are humans turned into vampires.

• 11:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Whereas Bigfoot is this otherworldly creature. That doesn't really crossbreed with humans, unfortunately. Sorry for you. I never say ever. That's true. They have not yet, but it's still a possibility. And I feel like when you hear the word vampire, we think of Dracula, we think of Nosferatu, we think of True Blood, Twilight. We think of like horror and smut. And then, you know, if you think more historical, you probably think Vlad the Impaler, who we talked about, I can't remember what episode, but we talked about his castle. Yeah. Vlad also inspired Dracula, so it kind of makes sense. Every time we've talked about vampires, it's been you covering it. Because I really like.

• 12:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I think they're so fascinating. And like, in doing the research for this episode, I realized how many historical stories of vampires there are that we have, I've never heard of.

• 12:42Corinne Vien?

  It's like, one of those confusing things where it's like, is it because of the time in which they were created in these sort of like Gothic fairy tales? Or is it something coming out of Transylvania?

• 12:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Also, I think we think of cannibalism, or you probably think of cannibalism when you think of vampires.

• 12:58Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 12:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. So this story I'm going to tell you is actually documented in government records. So this is not lore. This is not legend. This is not a story inspired by a story that created Dracula. This is documented in government records. You can read the English translated version of the record if you want to. We'll link it in the show notes.

• 13:21Corinne Vien?

  Was this like government propaganda? Or is this like, holy shit, there's something going on. We're documenting it.

• 13:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's, holy shit, something's going on. We're documenting it.

• 13:28Corinne Vien?

  Wow.

• 13:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We'll digest that in a little bit.

• 13:30Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 13:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  This is the monster of Mvidza.

• 13:35Corinne Vien?

  Mvidza.

• 13:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It was early 1700s, and young Arnold Powell, or Pol, I always want to call him Arnold Palmer, because it's like similar, was a soldier from Serbia, and he was on duty in Greece. He was proud to fight for his country, to defend what was controlled by Austria, and even to die for his country. He'd imagined his death many times. Each imagining came with pride and a fight well fought, sweat beads gripping his eyebrow. Each iteration, he knew his last thought would be of his beloved wife, who was back home in Serbia. Whether a bullet pierced his armor, or a blade struck his entrails, he knew, or thought he knew, his death would be honorable.

• 14:15Corinne Vien?

  I have never seen or witnessed someone say the word entrails with love in their heart as they said it.

• 14:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And a smile on their face.

• 14:23Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 14:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 14:24Corinne Vien?

  It's just part of a romantic love story that you, their entrails.

• 14:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Their guts and organs being skewered out.

• 14:31Corinne Vien?

  But he thought of his wife the whole time.

• 14:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 14:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But then the day came, and he was attacked while on duty. But this attack was not like anything he had prepared for. No skewering, no being shot. And instead of his last thought being of his wife, his last thought was, what the fuck? Am I being eaten by a vampire? In those words, exactly.

• 14:53Corinne Vien?

  The first documented use of fuck.

• 14:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. I'm just painting the picture. You get the idea. He's like, what the fuck is happening? There's someone sucking my blood. That is right. Aron Powell was being attacked by a vampire. But he didn't die, not immediately. After the attack, he's still alive. He's studying his body. He sees bite marks. He realizes his entire body has gone pale. He looks pecked and ill. Like he is sickly and going to die. But he didn't want to die. He was not going to die by a vampire bite. No, that is not what he imagined. So he does everything he can. He researches who attacked him, who was this person? And he finds out that the person who attacked him had been dead. So then he's like, okay, for sure, this is a vampire. What is happening?

• 15:40Corinne Vien?

  I have so many questions too about being buried. So I don't know. I just kind of thought of vampires as being these like missing people. Instead of people that like literally had to claw their way out of the ground after a like false death.

• 15:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yep.

• 15:54Corinne Vien?

  And burial.

• 15:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yep. He goes to the burial site, the grave of this man, and decides to dig him up. And I don't know where this came from. I think there was probably, and doing some research, I think during this time, there was a lot of study and conjecture about vampires. So I think he probably had read or learned of how to proceed. So he ate some of the dirt from the grave. And then when he found the body, he saw that it did not decay. It was not decaying like a normal body would. It still seemed very lively.

• 16:31Corinne Vien?

  This is so confusing because it's like, how do you get in and out of the grave without disturbing the land above you as a vampire if his, if his body's still there?

• 16:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know. That's what's confusing. And there's gonna be a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions, but I think at the, so at the end of this whole story, we'll do a dissection and an analysis of that time.

• 16:51Corinne Vien?

  Or wait, hold on.

• 16:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Please tell.

• 16:53Corinne Vien?

  I have an idea.

• 16:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay.

• 16:54Corinne Vien?

  Okay. Because you know, in What We Do in the Shadows, they just kind of like poof into bats. What if you can poof into anything? And he poofs into like a mole, little worm or something, works his way up and then poofs back into his vampire body.

• 17:08Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe.

• 17:09Corinne Vien?

  That makes total sense to me. I understand how he gets in and out now. No more questions.

• 17:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Continuing now.

• 17:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You know what? I'm just gonna read from Arnold's words himself, from his mouth. This is later documented and written down. Arnold stated that he had eaten from the earth of the vampire's grave and smeared himself with the vampire's blood in order to be free of the vexation he had suffered. And it worked. He survived.

• 17:36Corinne Vien?

  Wow.

• 17:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And he returns back to his wife and his home of Medvedza, Serbia. Just a little bit of context of this time, this is 1725 now. And in the early 1700s, Austria had just taken control of Serbia and some other areas after like the Ottoman Empire and there was like an Austria-Ottoman fight, war, battle, all those words. And so basically, a lot of this land was pretty devastated after the wars. And winters, weather was really, really harsh. Farming was pretty, like agriculture was pretty desolate. And so now in Austrian control, there's like a lot of desire to boom the economy.

• 18:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And they decide to focus a lot of their energy into agriculture in this area.

• 18:27Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 18:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But they're still recovering.

• 18:28Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, feed the people and then rebuild.

• 18:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly. So they're still recovering. And this area remained in Austrian control until 1739. And Austria kind of had this like benefit to people who lived in the area, which is why Arnold found himself in Greece in the first place. So they had, in order to protect the borders that they had just won in the war, they hired and recruited militia men known as hadruks, which is a word that you'll hear later on. But they're basically military men protecting the border. And in exchange for doing this work, they were promised a lot of land.

• 19:04Corinne Vien?

  Ah.

• 19:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So here we are now, 1725. Arnold is now back from battle. He returns to his homeland with his wife and he's ready to amass all of his land that he was promised.

• 19:14Corinne Vien?

  Wait, can you remind me, was it at home or was it in Greece that he encountered?

• 19:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Greece.

• 19:19Corinne Vien?

  The vampire?

• 19:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 19:20Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 19:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A Grekian vampire. Okay. So now he's like trying to settle down. He's with his wife in Medvedza. And he starts telling people of his encounter with death and of defeating the grim reaper and a vampire. And so this is now pretty well known in the town. And so he's like.

• 19:40Corinne Vien?

  Goodbye, death. You're no longer my worry, no longer my problem. I'm not dreaming and thinking about how I'm gonna die anymore because I just defeated death.

• 19:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Unfortunately, that same year, 1725, uh, death came for him. And not in any way that Arnold had thought of. He fell out of a hay wagon, broke his neck, and died.

• 20:00Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my god.

• 20:02Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Sorry, Arnold. And this time, there was no defeating death.

• 20:05Corinne Vien?

  But also, I have to say, I'm a little bit surprised that Arnold just accepted his resurrection and went home because maybe it's the storyteller side of me. I truly thought that he was gonna be like, whoa, I found a secret potion, and he was gonna start taking from the grave continuously, like, bits of dirt and selling them. Like, I thought he was gonna open like a dirt apothecary.

• 20:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, to like combat vampires?

• 20:30Corinne Vien?

  To cure people.

• 20:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I think it was specifically if you were bit by a vampire, you had to eat from that vampire's grave.

• 20:37Corinne Vien?

  Oh, okay. I thought there was just like some weird magical mineral spell composition of the dirt.

• 20:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  No.

• 20:44Corinne Vien?

  And then it was just like a cure-all for, you get to prolong your life a little bit longer.

• 20:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Unfortunately, no.

• 20:49Corinne Vien?

  All right, Arthur, I understand why you weren't trying to...

• 20:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Similar.

• 20:55Corinne Vien?

  What's up, A?

• 20:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  What's up, A? So Arnold is buried, and the town kind of moves on. Obviously, there's some sadness, but the town moves on until about three weeks later, when something strange starts to happen in this town. Arnold was reported to have been taunting and visiting people in their sleep throughout the town. This man is dead. How is he doing that? He would appear suddenly at the ends of their beds, keeping them up at night, terrifying them. And after seeing this visage of Arnold, these people would suffer ailments. And after about three weeks from the burial and death of Arnold, four people in the town suddenly drop dead. Four, as well as some sheep and livestock.

• 21:41Corinne Vien?

  Whoa.

• 21:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which, keep the sheep in mind for later.

• 21:43Corinne Vien?

  Okay. This is also, I do have one outstanding question, and I'm not sure that this is something that will be answered, because this feels like something we would have to interview a vampire about.

• 21:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay.

• 21:52Corinne Vien?

  Is there any difference to the vampire themselves, whether someone who you've just eaten from survives by taking from your grave or not? Does it hurt them or harm them to have survivors?

• 22:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I don't know. That's a good question. I think what this proves is that he didn't actually survive, because clearly he's coming back and he's haunting and hurting people.

• 22:13Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 22:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So it just took him actually dying to turn into a vampire.

• 22:17Corinne Vien?

  A vampire.

• 22:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So I think that's the problem, because it's like, oh shit, he said he defeated it, but did he?

• 22:22Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 22:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So now, the townspeople are like, this is strange. Four people mysteriously dying, and all of these people had reported seeing a visage of Arnold's spirit, spirit, prior to dying. So the townspeople start to put the story together. And perhaps that tale that Arnold told of his time in Greece and the vampire attack was more than just a story. Perhaps it was true, and perhaps Arnold had in fact become a vampire. Recalling the manner in which Arnold rid himself of the vampire, the townspeople decide to do the same. So this is now 40 days postmortem. They go and visit Arnold's grave and unearth his remains. Only, they're not as they expected it to be. His remains are not decaying at all.

• 23:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  In fact, he is looking very spry, very lively. And they also noticed that there is blood on his shirt, as if he had feasted recently.

• 23:16Corinne Vien?

  Oh, God.

• 23:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Not only that, but the nails on his hands and feet, and the hair on his head and his beard, had grown.

• 23:23Corinne Vien?

  Ah, yuck.

• 23:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  As they would if he was still alive for those 40 days. So I mean, you can probably imagine the gasp that was guffawed in that moment. The entire town, like that's probably residual haunting now, at that cemetery.

• 23:38Corinne Vien?

  Oh.

• 23:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And there are more gasps that were guffawed later on at this very same cemetery. So the villagers were like, we got a new- Something about this vampire that is now plaguing our town and prevent it from rampaging and killing anymore.

• 23:51Corinne Vien?

  Also, what what were his wife's thoughts? Like, she's still alive, right?

• 23:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Unfortunately, the wife is not really mentioned in the story, aside from my added element of him having her be his last thought. That's not his words, those are mine. So they drove a wooden stake into Arnold's heart and apparently blood spewed and Arnold let out a shriek. And so they were like, oh, he for sure was alive. So he shrieks, blood starts oozing out of his chest. And then he lets out a final groan as if dying. But they were like, this is not enough. We need to be extra sure. So they, this is a little bit gruesome, they chop his head off, dismembering his head from his body. And then they throw his head and his body into a fire until there is nothing but ash left over.

• 24:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They proceeded to do that same manner of disposal to the four victims that had died. Because they're like, we don't want to take our chances. If they now become vampires, let's just do the same for all of them.

• 24:48Corinne Vien?

  Actually, I like that. They're really thinking ahead here.

• 24:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly. As far as they know, that puts an end to the vampire epidemic in Mivedza, or so they think.

• 24:59Corinne Vien?

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• 26:27Corinne Vien?

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• 27:11Corinne Vien?

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• 27:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Five years later, in 1731, 17 people fell ill and died. Is it the sheep? Hold on to the sheep. The sheep are going to come back in a way that you're not expecting.

• 27:47Corinne Vien?

  Okay, I thought vampire sheep were coming for the whole town now.

• 27:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But again, not from accidental causes. They are just dropping dead and they varied from the age of 10 to 70. They all fell ill with stabbing sensations in their sides, chest pain and involuntary jerking of their limbs. But they're like scrambling. They're like, why are so many people dying? And there's this young woman named Zanoska who fell ill and woke up to a boy trying to strangle her. And she was totally fine, like she was fine, but she's asleep. She wakes up to a boy trying to strangle her and she starts screaming, obviously, because she's like, what the fuck, someone trying to kill me? And the boy daggers backwards and she looks him in the eye and she realizes that is the boy who had died one week earlier. So she starts screaming even more and the boy disappears.

• 28:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Immediately after that encounter, she falls ill and just three days later, she dies from this illness.

• 28:37Corinne Vien?

  Wow.

• 28:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So now this time with the death toll climbing, they are like, there's another vampire, something is amok. And so this time they realized that they clearly had not succeeded in ridding the town of the vampire the last time. And so they call for help. They report this to the Austrian military and the commander sends an infectious disease specialist, Imperial Contagions Medicus Glaser to Mivetza. Glaser comes to Mivetza and he's examining the bodies and he's like, this is not a vampire, this is malnutrition. But people in town are so certain that it is more than malnutrition. They're like, we are doing the best we've done with our crops.

• 29:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like, people are eating and they're so certain it's a vampire that people are packing up their bags and they're like, we're gonna leave. And obviously, to continue with economy and booming, they don't want people relocating or leaving Serbia. So this time Glaser is like, okay, you know what? I will go look at the bodies with you. And he thinks he's just gonna prove to them that it's malnutrition. But they go to the graves, they dig up the bodies and a gasp was gasped. A guffaw was guffawed because Glaser-

• 29:47Corinne Vien?

  The people were aghast.

• 29:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They were aghast, but the people weren't, just Glaser was, because he realizes these bodies are not decaying the way that they should. They are ripe and some of them look better than they did when they had been alive. And one of them has like blood stained lips. And so he is like, oh my gosh, they're not crazy, there is a vampire. So Glaser reports this back to Supreme Command and recommends that they send military to execute the vampire. As requested, word reaches Vienna where the Austrian emperor literally rose from his throne and goes, my goodness, we must send some military officials and medical professionals to go examine and get rid of this problem.

• 30:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So he sends multiple officers and military surgeons to the town of Mavedza to investigate. The charge of this group is regimental field surgeon Johann Fluckender. I'm sorry if I said your name wrong, but Johann is the one who goes on.

• 30:46Corinne Vien?

  I'm just thinking about the guy in Frozen that, yoohoo, big summer blowout. I feel like that's how this guy.

• 30:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Johann Fluckender?

• 30:55Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 30:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes, but so Johann is the one who goes on to write the official document. That is the reason we have the government record of the story.

• 31:03Corinne Vien?

  Also, I just want to say, I appreciate that the people, this whole time I'm thinking about the witch trials and how it's like, you know, there's somewhat, you see the image of someone, like their spectral being is visiting you in the night or whatever, but I think at least in this situation, everyone is already dead.

• 31:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly.

• 31:21Corinne Vien?

  And that is the one difference between accusing.

• 31:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Pretty big difference.

• 31:26Corinne Vien?

  The living or accusing the dead.

• 31:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right, which is why I think the vampire stories are less horrific. And there are certain places where they do attack living people. And this is just specifically a story in Serbia that they did not kill any living people. So shortly after arriving, two more people in the town die. And the village is like, we have to continue disintering all the bodies and look at them. And Johann is there for the disintering of and the digging up of these bodies. They found similar results, lively looking corpses, some even had fresh blood in their organs and looking more youthful than they did in their life. Upon seeing this, Johann reported that the bodies were das vampirische Stand,

• 32:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  in vampiric condition, and that is filed in the official report. What further solidified the belief that this was in fact a vampire epidemic is that they learned that the first few people who died in 1731 had one thing in common, Arnold Powell. So remember the sheep that died in 1725 along with the four people? Well, in 1725, crops and agriculture and food was not a plenty. And they were like, we can't let these go to waste. So some people ate the sheep.

• 32:41Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my God.

• 32:43Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  One such woman, her name was Stana. And Stana was the first to die in 1731.

• 32:51Corinne Vien?

  So normally, you could just assume like a diseased sheep. But if, I don't know, this is okay.

• 32:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But it's five years later, right? This is what it says in the English translation of the document. If people want to look it up, it is down below. But it is called "Villiam and Repertum", which translates to "seen and discovered". So you can read that, but this is verbatim. And I'm going to read a couple excerpts from it. But this is about Stana. "A woman by the name of Stana, 20 years old, who had died in childbirth two months ago after a three-day illness, and who had herself said before her death that she had painted herself with the blood of a vampire, who for both she and her child, which had died right after birth, and because of a careless burial, this is really morbid, had half been eaten by dogs,

• 33:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  must also become vampires. She was quite complete and undecayed. After opening the body, there was found in the cavitat pectoris a quantity of fresh extravascular blood. The vessels of the arteries and veins were not, as is usual, filled with coagulated blood, and the whole viscera, that is, the lung, liver, stomach, spleen, and intestines were quite fresh as they would be in a healthy person. The uterus was, however, quite enlarged and very inflamed externally, for the placenta had remained in place, wherefore the same was incomplete putridine. The skin on her hands and feet, along with the nails, fell away on their own, but on the other hand, completely new nails were evident, along with fresh and vivid skin."

• 34:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So basically, when she had died before they buried her, she was decaying. And then when they dug her up, like her nails had grown again, her skin had kind of refreshed itself.

• 34:35Corinne Vien?

  Which is so weird, that there could be this dormancy with certain victims, but then not others. But then that also makes me question whether...

• 34:44Corinne Vien?

  Okay, so we're believing that it's the sheep here that could be the connection.

• 34:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Sure.

• 34:48Corinne Vien?

  But here's another pitch that I have. What if sometimes vampires feast on fresh corpses that are already in the ground? So you would, you would see the initial decay because there's some sort of like incubation period before it hits.

• 35:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like, so you're saying a vampire could feast on a dead body and bring the dead body back to life?

• 35:08Corinne Vien?

  Almost, yeah. Or like to turn it postmortem into a vampire. Yeah.

• 35:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Who are we to say? We don't make the rules.

• 35:14Corinne Vien?

  I just, I don't know why it would be decaying and then not decaying, so.

• 35:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right, it doesn't make sense. I do believe that there's probably an incubation period that after death, it takes some time to actually turn into. Because with Arnold's case, it took three weeks.

• 35:27Corinne Vien?

  Oh, that's true. But with the boy, it only took one, the little boy. But he has a smaller body.

• 35:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe.

• 35:32Corinne Vien?

  Perhaps, of course.

• 35:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, his metabolism is faster.

• 35:34Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 35:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  His vampire metabolism. Okay, so field surgeon Johannes Fluckinger goes, I don't need any other evidence. He is now certain that the town is being impacted by vampires. So he orders all of the recently deceased to be dug up. This is forty bodies in total. Seventeen of those were seemingly preserved and believed to be vampires. And I'm just gonna read a couple of reports. So they, they look at all forty bodies and in the report, it does talk about some that do look decayed so that they are not vampires. But there are a couple, and there's a lot of talk of, I mean, this is the seventeen hundreds, a lot of children and women died during childbirth. And so there's a lot of young children who died. I'm just gonna read a couple.

• 36:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But this one is a woman by the name of Milica, sixty years old, who had died after three months sickness and had been buried ninety some days earlier than when they were dug up. There was in the chest much liquid blood found and like those mentioned before, the organs were in good condition. During her dissection, all of the militia men had dukes who were standing around marveled greatly at her plumpness and her perfect body. Because apparently through life, she was very lean and dried up. So they emphasized that it was such a surprise that now. She was so plump despite being dead and in the grave for 90 days.

• 36:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So yes, this woman who was otherwise, to the men examining her body, frail and skinny in life was now plump and sexy in death. So that to them was another sign that this was a vampire. And this is also another person who had eaten the sheep. So again, connected to Arnold.

• 37:18Corinne Vien?

  This is one of those times too, where I wish I knew more about the like postmortem sort of reactions that bodies can have, because I know that they can

• 37:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Bloat, yeah.

• 37:27Corinne Vien?

  Bloat, but like for how long? And I know bacteria as they eat can also contribute to that, but like, again, for how long?

• 37:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And also, you would think that they're reporting a terrible stench. And I don't think that they, or at least it's not documented. So in contradiction, there were two bodies, again, of a mother and a young child who died during childbirth, that while dying around the same time and having been buried in the exact same soil, just next to the grave of a woman who they determined to be a vampire, both bodies were decomposed. So it's like

• 38:05Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 38:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Of the 40 bodies, all buried in the same soil, same land, seemingly dying of the same illnesses, like being struck by something and dying, although some of them childbirth, it's different, are decaying differently.

• 38:18Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 38:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So 17 of the 40 are determined to not have decayed.

• 38:23Corinne Vien?

  So you can't blame, basically like the way that we view bog bodies,

• 38:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly.

• 38:27Corinne Vien?

  Where it's like, there's a certain set of conditions that keep these bodies from decaying normally. But that can't be true if these, if all the conditions are the same and they're quite literally feet apart from each other.

• 38:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. There was a girl of no less than 10 years of age who had died two months previously, found herself in the above mentioned condition, quite complete and undecked, and had much fresh blood in her chest. But then there was a Haduk named Raid, who was 21 years old, who had died after a three month long illness, and after a five week burial was found completely decomposed. So it's like, even though these people both Died of like a three week long illness and buried similar times. One's decomposed, one is not. So it's like, even though we're not scientists and we don't have extreme knowledge of the burial process or how bodies decompose, there's no consistency.

• 39:18Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 39:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And like, you could say, oh, like, there's a soil or water or whatever, but why wouldn't both be the same?

• 39:25Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 39:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Of these forty bodies, seventeen were determined to have been vampires and they disposed of them.

• 39:32Corinne Vien?

  That's a lot.

• 39:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know, there's a lot. So they were all staked in the hearts, beheaded and burned, just like Arnold Powell was. The rest of the bodies were returned to the graves and the sudden deaths just stopped, just like that. Granted, not just like that because it took a lot of effort, but

• 39:46Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 39:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  After disposing of these seventeen bodies, it stopped.

• 39:50Corinne Vien?

  Wow.

• 39:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Field surgeon Johann Fluckinger put all of his findings into an official report, which at the time was very difficult to discount as it was signed by no less than five officers in the army of Charles VI, the Austrian emperor. Three of them were doctors, all very familiar with corpses. The accounts of everything that occurred with Arnold Powell are recorded secondhand in the report, but the rest of the report that was written in seventeen thirty-one was written firsthand by those who witnessed and observed what they could only describe as a vampire attack. The report became quite popular and traversed nations and towns, eventually landing in the hands of the Catholic Church, who was taken aback by the mutilation and digging up of these Catholic bodies, who in their eyes would no longer be able to reach heaven.

• 40:33Corinne Vien?

  Hmm.

• 40:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So there's controversy starting here. Then there's more controversy when a French Benedictine monk, who had dedicated his life studying apparitions of spirits and vampires, concluded that these people who had been called vampires were not actually vampires, but instead were being animated by demonic forces. The Catholic Church argued that no, the people who burned and accused these people of being vampires were being controlled by demonic forces. A really big, true controversy started brewing between scholars of all types of pedigree, until Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who is Marie Antoinette's mother, sent her personal Physician to get involved.

• 41:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And Gerard Van Sweeten, who's her personal physician, is like, there are no such thing as vampires. They don't exist, which is all the Empress needed. And so she passed laws that prohibited opening graves or desecrating bodies. So some people are like, was she working with the Catholic Church to prevent this from happening? But if we want to do a little bit of conspiracy, put our tinfoil hats. Was she working with the vampires, trying to let them keep turning other people into vampires?

• 41:43Corinne Vien?

  Right. It was an inside job. It was an inside job. The vampires all over the world thanked her.

• 41:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

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• 42:09Corinne Vien?

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• 42:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

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• 42:38Corinne Vien?

  Someone asked us the other day if we had our makeup professionally done when we were wearing a bunch of Thrive and we're like, wow, no, but thanks.

• 42:43Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Toss, toss.

• 42:44Corinne Vien?

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• 42:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Two girls, one ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost is the most haunted podcast in America.

• 43:03Corinne Vien?

  Where each week we dive into all things strange, spooky, and supernatural, and share stories of paranormal encounters from our community of listeners.

• 43:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

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• 43:16Corinne Vien?

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• 43:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  At two girls, one ghost. But be warned, side effects might include a haunting or two. Listen at your own risk. That is the story of Arnold Powell and the monster of Mavenza. But if it was not a vampire, what was it? How do we dissect this story? So I wanted to like briefly look at the history of and the origin of vampires. And I'm just going to say right now, this is like a little like fingernail scratch of the folklore origins of vampires, but just helps us understand. The term vampire actually didn't exist until this time in Serbia, where like all the vampire epidemic or hysteria, as I call it, happened.

• 44:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But there are many ancient beliefs of something otherworldly and supernatural that consumed blood or the flesh of the living. The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have stories of blood drinking demons. Ancient Babylonia had the mythical Lulutu, similar to Lilith, who was a demon that survived off of the blood of babies. Then there's Vlad the Impaler, who is said to have inspired Dracula, who lived and died in 1476. Dracula was not released until 1897. So we're like, what is happening in 1725 in Serbia to stir up this conversation of vampires? Or is it just vampires? I don't think it's just vampires.

• 44:37Corinne Vien?

  It's so weird. It's like, I have so many questions because part of me is like, how many other places was this happening? Because the way that it works, at least in this story, it makes me think that this would happen in many other towns and pockets. But then I'm also like, well, did it go more unnoticed because those were more populated places that that was happening in? And this was more of like a, I don't know anything about this town or like where it is, but I'm picturing it as like this hard to get to.

• 45:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, so there's a lot happening in this time. There's like the age of enlightenment. There's Christianity, Catholicism coming in and like taking over. There's wars, there's diseases that are running rampage that like people didn't have the medical knowledge that we do now. So I think we've seen in a lot of different stories, it's easier to blame it on like demons or something supernatural because they didn't have the knowledge.

• 45:28Corinne Vien?

  Right. But this feels like it goes beyond blame because there's effort in digging up bodies and medical examiners and third parties brought in to observe and

• 45:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 45:38Corinne Vien?

  report on what's being seen. So I am confused by this and maybe I am starting to believe in vampires.

• 45:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's so complicated because when you, I was trying to like string together the origins and like, where did the stories of vampires begin and how did it travel? And it does kind of travel from Greece to Serbia. And the story begins in Greece where Arnold was attacked by a vampire. So it's like, did he, were they trading stories on the front lines and

• 46:06Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 46:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  got caught up in it?

• 46:08Corinne Vien?

  Is this all really a story of psychosis in a way?

• 46:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. So Christianity definitely had a large role. During the medieval period, a lot of vampire myths arose with the arrival of Christianity in Greece and other parts of Europe. In 1672, there was a panic among the locals of a region called Istria, now part of modern Croatia, where a man became a vampire after dying, drinking blood from his victims, and also sexually harassing his widow. The offender's body was staked and beheaded. Then, starting in 1679, so now like a good 50 years before Arnold and his encounter, multiple people are writing essays on the subject. The below, or if you're watching, is a photo of one of those written in 1734. So it's like 1679, people start writing essays on it,

• 46:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  and it's continuing through the 1700s. The title translates to "The Treaties on Chewing and Smacking of the Dead in Graves," which I imagine is a really bad translation, but it was written by Michael Ramp.

• 47:05Corinne Vien?

  Chewing and snacking.

• 47:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, of bodies in graves.

• 47:09Corinne Vien?

  Yuck.

• 47:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which I guess is kind, that kind of makes sense. It's like you don't chew and smack unless you're alive.

• 47:14Corinne Vien?

  It's an interesting choice.

• 47:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's the 1700s there, and it's a different language. So then there was a vampire panic slash mass hysteria that spread throughout much of Europe in the 18th century in tandem with the Age of Enlightenment. So Arnold Powell is not the only vampire case in 1725 in Serbia. There's another very infamous case of vampirism not too far away. So now there's this pattern arising. When you look at the history, there are multiple cases of Vampires in Serbia in the 18th century. But again, why? Why is this happening? What's happening in that time is Austria is gaining control of northern Serbia. And this trend of locals hunting and killing vampires is growing. This hysteria lasts a generation until the Austrian empress passes that law

• 47:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  that people are not allowed to dig up or desecrate bodies. And then it kind of fizzles out. So it's like

• 48:04Corinne Vien?

  Oh, interesting.

• 48:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe it's this like because people are digging up bodies and looking at bodies when they're recently buried that we hadn't done before, that it's bringing up all these questions. And instead of studying the way bodies decompose, they're now thinking there's a discrepancy, meaning

• 48:20Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 48:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  some of the vampire.

• 48:22Corinne Vien?

  We might actually gain answers soon because I have an episode that I'm going to do based on the book Stiff, which I haven't

• 48:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Ooh.

• 48:29Corinne Vien?

  read yet, but it's been on my list forever, which is all about like what happens

• 48:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, to bodies.

• 48:34Corinne Vien?

  postmortem. So maybe we'll learn about different stages of decomposition.

• 48:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. Well, that's why I think body farms are so interesting because bodies do decompose. And again, we're not experts, but from the bare minimum knowledge that we have, bodies do decompose differently based on environment, based on how they died, like what the disease does to your body afterwards, things bloating, decaying at different rates. Yeah. Also, this is before the time where they're doing, um, what's it called? Where they're like taking all the organs out before burying it and like draining the body of blood and stuff.

• 49:08Corinne Vien?

  Oh, I don't remember the term.

• 49:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They're like burying fresh dead bodies back then. So they're not doing the postmortem practices that we do now. Anyway, it's not clear what really caused the hysteria, but most people do think it is and has to do with a combination of things like new power, Christianity coming in, people dying from things that they don't understand and new diseases traveling. But it's very similar to the witch hysteria where it's spreading throughout places and traveling. So it's like one person travels with the story and it comes up, it pops up somewhere else. It's likely that these beliefs were easier to understand than the spread of unknown diseases. I mean, the movie Nosferatu, the original. Was made to personify the spread of disease and how it arrives and can decimate a village.

• 49:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And there are two possible diseases that could be responsible for all of this in Serbia in seventeen twenty five. Pilegra and rabies. Pilegra is a disease caused by the imbalance of B three and tytofen, which causes a variety of symptoms, including sensitivity to sunlight is a big thing in vampires.

• 50:12Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 50:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Foul breath and anemia, which are other traits of vampires, like they are very white and looking anemic. And this disease entered the region in the time of the eighteenth century, when corn was introduced to the diets.

• 50:27Corinne Vien?

  Hmm.

• 50:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So a new disease could have really confused people and been like, what the heck? And then there's also several hundred cases of rabies recorded, spread initially by rabid wolves and then people.

• 50:39Corinne Vien?

  Which this makes sense too, because some of the examiners were like, oh, this is malnutrition. And they're like, well, we have so much food, but when you have rabies, one of the late stage symptoms is like, you are hydrophobic, like you, you won't consume food or water. You basically, yeah, you become malnourished despite the resources that you have available to you to not be.

• 51:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And since a lot of wolves were the ones who were spreading rabies, wolves are another symbol of vampires. So another connection there. And then rabies is spread through biting. A lot of victims do avoid sunlight and are repelled by strong odors like garlic. So again, being bit to get the disease and garlic repelling them. Two more connections with vampires that we now believe.

• 51:26Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, which is interesting because one of the diseases says that they have stinky breath, but garlic also gives you stinky breath.

• 51:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Depends on if you like the smell of garlic or not, which I do. But so these two are diseases that people are like, well, maybe it was these two things.

• 51:41Corinne Vien?

  Mm hmm.

• 51:42Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And this hysteria actually started to spread into the rest of Europe, led to the word vampire from Serbia. First entering Germany around seventeen twenty six as der Vampir. And later into English as vampire by seventeen thirty four at the latest. So this is the time where the. Term vampire is now becoming a part of our vocabulary. And this vampire epidemic lasted about eight years from seventeen twenty five until roughly seventeen fifty five. So it's like the Arnold Powell story is in the heart of that.

• 52:15Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, and I guess this would make sense why like one village would see so much of it. And then also why it's not, you know, like just because there's a disease doesn't mean everyone's gonna get it. But a good chunk, like it was almost fifty percent of the people who died in this one town.

• 52:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Looked like they died.

• 52:33Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 52:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And became vampires.

• 52:34Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 52:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But if there's this new disease that came in, does that disease cause a different type of decay to the body? Or does rabies cause a body to decay differently?

• 52:44Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 52:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And they also reported having like convulsions of their body that they couldn't control, so.

• 52:49Corinne Vien?

  It does sound like rabies. I don't know anything really about the other disease, but.

• 52:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 52:53Corinne Vien?

  Rabies is still very much a thing.

• 52:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And if you look at vampire stories and hysterias that travel, even though they're different pockets and different times. Like there's a New England vampire epidemic that happened in the eighteenth century as well, but it was like with the rise of tuberculosis. And diseases like that. And then came the weird medical practice of ingesting your recently deceased loved ones. Like body parts to help prevent you from like contracting what they had, which actually made you get it.

• 53:25Corinne Vien?

  Right. Ew.

• 53:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 53:26Corinne Vien?

  God, so cannibalism.

• 53:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yep.

• 53:29Corinne Vien?

  They're pro cannibalism.

• 53:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But it makes sense because remember they were like. Vaccines are you like do give yourself a part of, not all vaccines, but some vaccines are made with a part of the illness. To help build immunity against it.

• 53:43Corinne Vien?

  Exactly. And this is making me think of when I went to, I almost said the body farm. I've never been to the body farm.

• 53:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I was so, I was gonna be like, I'm jealous.

• 53:49Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, I went last week, sorry.

• 53:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You didn't invite me?

• 53:53Corinne Vien?

  When I went to the cannibalism exhibit that was in San Diego. There was that whole, like at the very end, it was like, do you consider this to be cannibalism or not? And one of them was like a practice that they used to have where they would like grind up human brains or something like that into like a powder to ingest.

• 54:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  What was that for?

• 54:12Corinne Vien?

  I don't remember.

• 54:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I mean, listen, people like consume placenta.

• 54:17Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 54:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So.

• 54:18Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, but yeah.

• 54:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Is that considered cannibalism? What about colostrum? Like, those things are all really good for you and.

• 54:24Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, but I guess colostrum's like produced by you.

• 54:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's true.

• 54:27Corinne Vien?

  And like regenerates.

• 54:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But placenta is like, kind of like alive.

• 54:31Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, no, it's a, it's an organ.

• 54:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 54:33Corinne Vien?

  But again, it's like something that comes. No, my placenta's in the, in the deep freezer downstairs.

• 54:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Is it really?

• 54:38Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 54:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Can we go look at it?

• 54:40Corinne Vien?

  I haven't looked.

• 54:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You've never looked at it?

• 54:42Corinne Vien?

  No, it's buried beneath many, many frozen breastmilk pouches.

• 54:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I want to see what it looks like.

• 54:47Corinne Vien?

  Well, I'll invite you over in the spring. I want to plant a tree.

• 54:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, with you?

• 54:51Corinne Vien?

  On top of the placenta.

• 54:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's so witchy of you.

• 54:54Corinne Vien?

  I think a lot of people do it.

• 54:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I love that idea.

• 54:57Corinne Vien?

  Doesn't everyone take the placenta and do something with it?

• 54:59Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I support that idea more than eating it.

• 55:01Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, no, I have no interest in eating my placenta, but I'm going to.

• 55:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And that's not to like, at anyone who does. To each their own. Personally, I'd rather.

• 55:09Corinne Vien?

  I want to eat things that are grown from the nutrients of the placenta.

• 55:14Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm on board with that.

• 55:14Corinne Vien?

  So I don't know what I'm gonna grow yet, but some sort of tree.

• 55:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I like that.

• 55:18Corinne Vien?

  I'm fit you over, we'll have a placenta party.

• 55:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then we'll dance around it.

• 55:21Corinne Vien?

  We'll bury the placenta at night.

• 55:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh.

• 55:24Corinne Vien?

  You wake up and there's a new tree. Suddenly it's grown five feet.

• 55:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's like practical magic.

• 55:28Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 55:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Um, you teased me that the story that you have to read for this episode is exciting, so.

• 55:34Corinne Vien?

  Oh, it's good. It's short, but it's so good. Hey, sisters from another mista.

• 55:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Can we know the subject line?

• 55:40Corinne Vien?

  Sure. I mean, it just says laundry room vampire bite and Yahoo messenger.

• 55:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay.

• 55:44Corinne Vien?

  My name is Sin.

• 55:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Or Kin.

• 55:47Corinne Vien?

  And my now estranged hubby, we will call him A. And then my messenger friend, we'll call him Big T.

• 55:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  For big teeth?

• 55:56Corinne Vien?

  Big titties.

• 55:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Big titties. I said big teeth.

• 55:59Corinne Vien?

  I know, and I said big titties.

• 56:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's what we call you.

• 56:03Corinne Vien?

  Me and A, so this was estranged hubby A. Went to go wash our clothes. We lived in an apartment and we had to walk down half a block to get to where we would wash our laundry. So while we were in the laundry area, we were folding our clothes and after they were done washing, I'm very OCD, so I have a very particular way about how I want to fold my blankets and my towels and to wash clothes.

• 56:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Sounds like you.

• 56:27Corinne Vien?

  It does.

• 56:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's like I offered to do laundry for you way back then. And I was like, I know she's not gonna accept it because she has her way of doing it.

• 56:34Corinne Vien?

  So I was taking my time. We were there for a little while. But then when the laundry room is done, my hubby and I head back to our home and my hubby suddenly gets a stiff neck. And he has to sort of walk with his head tilted as he pulls our clothing cart behind him. And then all of a sudden, he screams, ouch, fuck, what was that? We were almost home at this point. So I said, I'll look when we go inside. So we get inside, we go up to the bathroom and I'm looking at his neck and his head to figure out what is going on. And I find two puncture holes in his neck. My first instinct was to pour rubbing alcohol onto the wounds. So I literally poured them into the holes. And then I covered up with this big bandage.

• 57:16Corinne Vien?

  And so we get into our room and I get on my computer and I start texting Big T. And at this point in time, I looked at the time that I sent a message to Big T. It was 3:01 PM and I don't know how soon after that, we either knocked out or we both fell asleep.

• 57:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Both of them?

• 57:32Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, just like middle of the afternoon. I looked at the time on my computer when we woke up and it was 3:34. We do not recall the 33 minutes of time going by from when I first messaged Big T to when I came to. Me and my hubby then go back into the bathroom to look at his neck. And the puncture wounds are now gone. I don't know what happened. I don't know if this was a glitch in the matrix type thing, vampirism. Anyway, keep up the great work. I've been binge listening since 2024, early in the year. I'll send more stories soon. But I wanted to send this one because I'm curious what your opinion is on it. Love, peace, and no hair grease. Love, peace, and no hair grease. Sin or kin? I don't know how to pronounce it.

• 58:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, I'm really curious because they both were knocked out. Like, did they both get bit? Because they were so focused on A. Because A had like the feeling. Did they look at Sin Kin's neck at all?

• 58:31Corinne Vien?

  Right. I know.

• 58:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And was this more of like a sleeping, like it almost makes me think like they were injected with something rather than their blood being sucked.

• 58:40Corinne Vien?

  Well, and I also felt this one was, the reason I was so excited to read this one too, was because I feel like oftentimes, like in the story that you told, it was like you see the visage of a, of a person, like they appear in ashen form or their physical body, but before you, and you have like the actual body of a vampire. But this one, it was like completely invisible.

• 59:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe they were bit by a spider and next email we'll get, they turned into Spider-Man. Cause he also gets really tired after being bit and falls asleep and then wakes up.

• 59:09Corinne Vien?

  That's true.

• 59:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And he's got muscles and can do pushups. And this is the Tobey Maguire version and he no longer needs his glasses.

• 59:16Corinne Vien?

  Cause if, if there's one thing spider bites do, it's fix your vision.

• 59:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 59:21Corinne Vien?

  But it's weird that they both fell asleep, like right after a certain period of time. It could be one thing if he did and he was just knocked out usually.

• 59:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But both of them.

• 59:29Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. And it was mid-conversation with Big T, with a friend. Like you're messaging, messaging like, oh, something weird is going on. Like, let me tell you this story, my dear friend. And then boom, all of a sudden you're knocked out. And they're assuming, here's the other thing, they're assuming they fell asleep because they don't have any recollection of time. They just suddenly came to again.

• 59:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And at the same time.

• 59:49Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 59:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Whereas like usually if you nap, like you're aware of, oh, I'm really tired. I'm gonna nap. Or someone falls asleep and then you're like, well, I guess I might nap too. Like they both get knocked out at the same time.

• 1:00:00Corinne Vien?

  Brought back at the same time.

• 1:00:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And brought back, which yeah, I, I don't know.

• 1:00:04Corinne Vien?

  Weird.

• 1:00:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Vampire at the laundromat or aliens or Spider-Man.

• 1:00:10Corinne Vien?

  Only one of those three.

• 1:00:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  What do you think? What's your take?

• 1:00:13Corinne Vien?

  Wow. Okay. Isn't that scary? You could be bit by a vampire that you don't even see at three in the afternoon, broad daylight, wheeling your laundry cart back to your home.

• 1:00:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's so wild. All right. Well, what do you think? Do you believe in vampires after this story? Or are they just a way of dealing with unknown diseases?

• 1:00:30Corinne Vien?

  I still don't know.

• 1:00:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Me neither.

• 1:00:31Corinne Vien?

  But I would be open to the idea.

• 1:00:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm more open than when we began. I think also humans are so obsessed with this idea of like living forever.

• 1:00:40Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And not dying, not me personally, but is that also a part of the vampire lore and legend?

• 1:00:46Corinne Vien?

  We're also just such weird creatures. Like, I obviously believe in evolution, but if we didn't have evidence of evolving, I very quickly could be like, we are aliens. Like, we don't, it feels so weird that we're here. It feels-

• 1:01:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Technically, aliens are called aliens because they're like an unidentified-

• 1:01:04Corinne Vien?

  Unknown.

• 1:01:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Species.

• 1:01:05Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, we don't understand what we're seeing.

• 1:01:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So we are-

• 1:01:09Corinne Vien?

  Alien.

• 1:01:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Innocent.

• 1:01:10Corinne Vien?

  We don't understand ourselves, basically.

• 1:01:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  No, we don't.

• 1:01:12Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Learning a lot here at Two Girls One Goes. If you have any vampire stories, or ghost stories, or cryptid stories, or anything odd and paranormal, please email them to us at [email protected]. And if you want episodes ad-free, one week early, plus bonus episodes, plus campfire stories every Tuesday, join us on Patreon.

• 1:01:34Corinne Vien?

  You can follow us on social media. You can tell everyone about our podcast. You can write an review. All the things that help keep this podcast alive. And thank you for coming back every week. Thank you to our editor and producer, Jamie Ryan.

• 1:01:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And everyone, go tell Kesha to be on Two Girls One Goes podcast.

• 1:01:50Corinne Vien?

  And we will-

• 1:01:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Love you.

• 1:01:53Corinne Vien?

  And-

• 1:01:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And we will-

• 1:01:54Corinne Vien?

  See you-

• 1:01:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  On the other side.