In 1990, archaeologists discovered a corpse that had been disturbed during the Great New England Vampire Panic
Old farm cemeteries are common in New England, and this one wasn’t very remarkable, except for burial number four. Abigail Tucker, writing in Smithsonian magazine, reported in 2012 that the coffin, marked with tacks that spelled out “JB 55,” contained a body whose skull had been hacked from the spine and placed on the chest, which had been broken open, along with the femurs to create a skull and crossbones. JB 55 had been in the ground around five years when someone exhumed him and tried to remove his heart, part of ritual to stop a suspected vampire from preying on the living.
The scares were caused by outbreaks of tuberculosis, aka consumption, a lung disease that spread through families. Sufferers of the disease wasted away, their skin turning gray and their eyes becoming sunken. Sometimes blood would trickle from the edges of their mouths.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-englands-mystery-vampire-was-likely-farmer-named-john-180972815/