OT - Home Grown Vampire

[CyrusL]

I found the following article online which covers an alleged "real" vampire right here in my Richmond Va area. While I can definitely state many of the events covered in the article are documented, most especially the Shockoe train wreck and the location of Hollywood cemetery (named for the trees, not any other place, as it was founded mid 19th Century), and others are real, I think other parts of the story are, well, you decide.

http://virginiaghosts.com/vampire_update.htm          

Anyone visiting Richmond should not miss Hollywood Cemetery, its wonderfully gothic, great mausoleums (one or two with Tiffany stained glass windows), a few notables including two US presidents (three if you count ol'Jeff Davis) and the walking tour mentions the plethora of local legends and ghosts.    

Michael

[jeffreywj777]

A very interesting story Michael. Have there been other stories associated with Mr. Poole? Is there something unusual about his life or death that has lead to this speculation of his being a vampire?

Jeff

[CyrusL]

Hello Jeffrey,
       I found a nice photo of Poole's gravesite/mausoleum     

http://www.sendcoffee.com/richmond/tours/2wwpool.html   

So much of Richmond haunts, like all the other tours I've been on, have legend and facts all mixed up. The only thing I remember is asking about him to a alocal pagan group and they got very quiet and nervous when I asked. I suspect he like many people of the 19th century may have been known to dabble in spiritualism. When I find out more I'll let you know.

Anyone coming to Richmond, let me know, I can give you tips on great spooky places, including the one house I KNOW is haunted. That house convinced me there are ghosts. 

Michael

[D_Friedlander]

A very interesting story Michael. Have there been other stories associated with Mr. Poole? Is there something unusual about his life or death that has lead to this speculation of his being a vampire?

What should one make of the fact that President James Monroe appears to be buried in a CAGE? 
(That was the next picture on the site.)

[CyrusL]

What should one make of the fact that President James Monroe appears to be buried in a CAGE? 
(That was the next picture on the site.)

Actually I'm not sure why President Monroe has such a large structure, except that he was an early President, fifth actually, and he was one of the early interrments. I think it was probably a promotion for the cememtery when it was new, kind of, spend eternity with a founding father. However, nearby is President Tyler, who was burried here due to fear the Union would disturb his remains as he was a supporter of the South and the Union had threatened to burn and destroy his estate, which was outside Richmond along the James River. When you visit his home, they show you the gravesite he had planned to use before the war. Now you may be surprised to think the soldiers would actually disturb graves, but in Savannah Georgia, there is an old cemetery where Sherman's soldiers, who were occupying the town, actually moved the headstones to the wall so they could camp there. As a matter of fact, the stone marker for Button Gwinnett, signer of the Declaration now states, he is burried "in the general area." Mausoleums on the site in Savannah were prized as tempoary campsites, and there were problems with soldiers cooking in them!

As for Poole, I still haven;t found any direct connection to anything bizarre he did while alive, but his bones were stolen from his tomb at least once and found "reaaranged" elsewhere on the grounds of Hollywood. The most frequent ghosts reported on the site are Confederate dead, which isn't unusual considering the thousands in the mass grave section near General Pickett.

Michael

[CyrusL]

I ran into L.B. Taylor who has authored something like 12 books on ghosts in Virginia this past weekend, and we talked about the most haunted places I've been to around Virginia. I brought up the subject of W.W. Poole with him and he stated he had looked into the story and found very little other than Poole being "an eccentric" and stated the earlier story about his appearence linked with that of the old trolly tunnel accident was linked.
    Fun books by the way. Especially those on a possible sighting of Poe's ghost in Richmond.

Michael