THE DAILY STATE JOURNAL — OCTOBER 16, 1873
This queer fancy has been revived in Europe. It is one of the strangest superstitions that ever existed, and is that a buried than or woman, with its life still conscious, rises from its grave by night and sucks the life blood of its nearest relatives ; and, what is worse than this, every person bitten by the vampire also becomes a vampire, and is forever doomed to follow this dreadful vocation. It is now many years since anything has been heard of the superstition, but two or three law suits recently decided in Prussia show that it is not dead. One of these has just come to a close, after two years of wrangling. On the 5th of February, 1870, a Polish nobleman of the name of Pobloki, died in Western Prussia. A short time afterward the eldest son died also. Immediately afterwards four members of the family were taken sick, and, upon consultation together, they decided that their father was the vampire engaged in drinking their blood. One of them therefore determined to apply a remedy, which was to behead the corpse, and place its mouth downward. This he succeeded in doing by bribing the undertaker. Subsequently, however, the latter informed the village clergyman, and the son of Poboloki was arrested for desecrating his father’s grave. On the trial it was also shown that the blood had been removed from the body, and that the various members of the family drank it. After two years wrangling, the case was dismissed upon the ground
