The Jewett City Vampires and the Ray Family in Connecticut

The Ray Family: A Family Struck by Death

The story centers around the Ray family, whose seemingly cursed lineage became the focus of the town’s fear and superstition. The Rays were a large farming family that were greatly affected by the tuberculosis epidemic ravaging the coast of New England. Between 1845 and 1854, several members of the Ray family died in rapid succession from tuberculosis. In an age before germ theory, the illness seemed almost supernatural — wasting away the victim’s body, leaving them pale, weak, and sunken-eyed, sometimes for years before death.

And in those uncertain days, when science faltered, folklore eagerly filled the void.

The neighbors of Jewett City began to murmur. Surely this wasn’t natural. The idea took hold that perhaps the dead of the Ray family were not resting peacefully in their graves, but rather rising at night to drain the life from their surviving kin.

The Exhumation of The Jewett City Vampires

The first in the family to die of consumption was 24 year old Lemuel Ray in 1845. Then his father, Henry B. Ray followed in 1851 and his brother, 26 year old Elisha Ray in 1853.

The eldest son in the family, Henry Ray got the disease the year after and panic started to set into the community. Surely there was something supernatural at play?

In 1854, driven by grief and superstition, the surviving members of the Ray family took a drastic step. According to contemporary accounts, they exhumed the bodies of Lemuel and Elisha from the Jewett City Cemetery on the 8th of May. The remaining and extended Ray family together with their friends and neighbors, gathered in the cemetery to perform the ritual.

At the time, it was believed that if a body was too well-preserved — particularly the heart or vital organs — it meant the deceased was still spiritually active and preying upon the living. In such cases, the suspected vampire’s heart would be cut out and ritually burned to sever the unnatural bond.

Records from the era confirm that at least one body was exhumed and burned on a nearby hill. The hope was that this morbid ritual would stop the deaths within the family and finally lay the restless spirit to peace.

They burned the heart of the corpses in the graveyard and most likely mixed the ashes of it into a mixture for Henry to drink or ingest in some way. This was believed to protect and cure him from the vampiric feeding they believed his brother did. Or was it enough to burn their bodies to keep them rising from their graves at night to feed on their remaining family? The sources of this detail remain inconclusive.

But what happened to Henry? Some say that they don’t know and that Henry most likely lived on and that the ritual cured him. Perhaps this is because his tombstone is not right next to his brothers in the cemetery that people believe it. Other sources claim that he died the same year, only 34 years old. In addition to his demise, his own children and wife also followed shortly. Because, a little further behind his brothers and family, his grave can be seen.

Echoes of a Broader Vampire Panic

What makes the Jewett City Vampire Panic especially significant is that it wasn’t a lone case of morbid superstition — it was part of a broader phenomenon that plagued New England throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

Between 1790 and 1890, multiple cases of so-called vampire exhumations were documented in Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. All were responses to consumption outbreaks that ravaged families and small towns, where fear was a tangible, everyday companion.

The famous Mercy Brown case in 1892 was the last well-documented vampire exhumation in America, but the events in Jewett City nearly forty years earlier reflect just how widespread and desperate these beliefs were.

Modern Discovery and Legacy of Vampire Graves in Connecticut

The graves of the Ray family remained largely undisturbed until 1990, when nearby, another unsettling discovery was made — the now-famous Griswold “J.B.” vampire grave, with remains arranged in a classic anti-vampire configuration: skull and thigh bones crossed beneath it.

Though unconnected officially to the Ray family, the proximity of these two cases in Griswold illustrates just how deep the vampire panic had gripped rural New England communities. Had the Rays heard about the rituals the Walton family had done decades before? Was the contagious disease actually fear?

Today, the Jewett City Cemetery still stands, an unassuming plot of land in a quiet town. Although the original graves from the cemetery were moved in recent years because of a building project. The graves of the Ray family look like they are still buried, six feet under.

Newest Posts

The Fat Ghost at Maxtor Gate at Maximilianplatz31. July 2026
Through the city gates in Munich on dark evenings, people have long talked about being chased by a ghost around the Maxtor gate and the surrounding square, only described as a fat and pale man.
The White Lady of Köhlholz Forest29. July 2026
In a forest near Kemoding in Germany, the pregnant Anna Schwarzenberger was murdered. Since then, people have spoken of the White Lady of Köhlholz, who finds no peace. A cross now stands as a reminder of this event.
Soucouyant: The Skin-Shedding Vampire of the Caribbean27. July 2026
As one of the shapeshifting vampiric witches of the Caribbean, the Soucouyant has been the nightmare for generations and the fear lurking in the dark.
Hiyang Athouba: The Neglected and Forgotten Corpse Returned from the Dead20. July 2026
In Meitei tradition, tales about the Hiyang Athouba warn about the dangers of not taking proper care about the dead and ill in your community and family. Left alone to decay, a corpse can sometimes rise as a vampiric monster.
The Iron Maiden and the Haunted Jungfernturmstraße 17. July 2026
In the ruins of the Jungfernturm in Munich, some say the victims of the mythical torture device is still haunting the street where the tower once stood.
The Yara-ma-yha-who: Australia’s Daylight Vampire Beneath the Fig Tree16. July 2026
Not all vampires rise with the moon and dwell in dark castles. Some wait in the heat of the Australian wilderness. Like the monster Yara-ma-yha-who from Aboriginal folklore, found under the Australian Fig Trees.
La Patasola: The One-Legged Hunger of the Colombian Wilds15. July 2026
Deep from the Colombian wilderness, there is a vampiric entity said to lay in wait. The one-legged La Patasola is said to lure away those threatening to harm her forests.
Kanjirottu Yakshi: The Vampire Spirit of the Sacred Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple13. July 2026
Sealed away in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala is an old and bloodthirsty deity said to pray to atone for her sins. Known as the vampiric Kanjirottu Yakshi, people still fear her wrath and refuse to open her vault.
Krasue: The Floating Head of Southeast Asian Nightmares6. July 2026
Floating in the air in rural parts of Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia, the disembodied ghost of the Krasue is hunting for blood.
A Vrykolakas Vampire in Sunny Mykonos30. June 2026
A vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore was said to terrorize the inhabitants on Mykonos island. To stop the haunting, they exhumed, burned and buried the remains of the body on an inhabited island. But did it work?
Manananggal: The Night Splitter of Filipino Folklore29. June 2026
As part of the shapeshifting Aswang demons of the Phillipines, the Manananggal was soaring the sky in her bat-like appearance on her hunt for human blood.
The Atoning Vrykolakas Vampire in Santorini25. June 2026
After a man died before atoning for his crimes, he came back from the dead as a vampiric Vrykolakas when his wife failed to follow his final wishes. What followed was a month full of terror and haunting.