From the American Revolution to the end of the 1800s, a mysterious ritual spread across New England...and beyond. Graves were broken into, the organs of the dead were burned and turned into horrifying forms of medicine. The reason why: to ward off vampires. Over time, stories of these exhumations vanished into rumor and legend, but new evidence has brought these ghoulish practices back into focus. So, were 19th-century farmers really fighting vampires? Or were they facing off against a predatory phantom that was even deadlier? See how a silent, invisible, and very real threat turned 19th century New England farmers into vampire hunters.