Unearthing the forgotten history of American vampires and other death-defiers in ‘Exhumed’

All among the living and undead know Count Dracula. But vampires have a long and more established pedigree than readers of Bram Stoker may recognize. These bloodsuckers have even made their ways to American shores. In his new book, “Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire” (Running Press), Aaron Mahnke starts with the “vampire panic” of Rhode Island in the 1890s — which appears to have inspired Stoker — before diving deep into the historic and folkloric past. Mahnke takes us to backwaters across the globe. Among the most intriguing is the town of Kisiljevo, where more than 150 years before the American vampire panic there was a Serbian one. In this little village, nine people had died from a mysterious illness. “Anyone who studies history would view this sort of story as ‘n