More on the Vampire Burial

National Geographic has more on the "vampire plague burial" I wrote about here. Further analysis of the skeleton, buried with a brick in its mouth to keep it from eating its way out of the ground, suggests that it was a woman in her 60s, probably poor. Wondering why a poor, old woman would be particularly feared, the investigators come up with the suggestion that perhaps she was reputed to be a witch.

Witch, plague victim, vampire -- a real trifecta of European nightmares.