Do Vampires Exist? The Paranormal Mystery of Arnold Paole and the Flückinger Report | Documentary

In early 18th century Eastern Europe, the countryside was said to be plagued by a disease that infected local inhabitants, their food, and ultimately their souls. The disease had the power to turn men into voracious, blood-sucking creatures. These beastmen slept in their graves during the day and rose at night to feast on the blood of cows, sheep, and even humans. It was also said that they even cannibalized their victims. For those lucky enough to survive an attack, their mutilated body would live for three days... only to then die and join the legion of the damned, cursed with an insatiable appetite for blood.

These creatures would feast on the living, with indomitable strength and even the ability to transform into any number of animals, mostly wolves and bats. They were known as

vampires

. Vampire stories had been common in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. However, a plague of bloodsuckers was relatively unknown in the West. It wasn't until a doctor and royal Austrian army officer, Johann Flü

ckinger

, published a

report

titled "Seen and Discovered" in 1732 that

vampires

began to become a sensation. Flü

ckinger

's

report

was written simply and plainly, but its content was extraordinary. The report concerned a hajduk named Arnold Paole, who had fallen from a hay cart and died in 1727, near Medvegia, in present-day Serbia.

The circumstances of Paole's death were the only mundane element of the entire report. Because he then described how the unfortunate militiaman had supposedly been haunted by a vampire throughout his life. In an attempt to get rid of the creature, the report described how he "had eaten the dirt from the vampire's grave and had smeared himself with the vampire's blood." This apparently had little effect. Because fifteen days after his death, he would be about to be attacked by his fellow villagers. Four people and much of the livestock died from Paole's bloody claws over the following weeks. By day 40, the villagers had had enough.

They exhumed Paole's body and were horrified by what they saw. Fresh blood flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Otherwise, his paleness seemed fresh and intact, with new hair, nails, and skin on his body. This was proof enough for the villagers that they did indeed have a vampire in their midst. So, with the wooden stake in their hand, they stabbed the spear deep into his heart. Arnold Paole is said to have gasped and groaned as fresh red blood gushed copiously from his chest. Finally, the vampire was dead. However, even from beyond the grave, Paole would continue his slaughter of him.

The villagers, aware of the danger posed by Arnold's illness, unearthed his four known victims. They were found in a similar condition, so a stake was also driven through their hearts. However, even as the moans of the dead echoed through the Serbian countryside, the plague of vampirism was spreading more strongly. Many had eaten Paole's brutalized cattle, and who knows if the four he had killed had not already attacked and infected others. News of the spread of the plague eventually reached the attention of the Imperial Austrian army that ruled the region. A lieutenant colonel named Schnezzer was the first to send a medical officer to investigate the area to verify that it was not an epidemic disease.

The doctor's name was Glasser. When he arrived in December 1731, thirteen people were known to have died, supposedly from vampirism. In his report, Glasser stated that he could find no evidence of an epidemic and that diseases, such as fever, were simply the cause of deaths. However, this did little to allay the panic. The villagers threatened to leave the area if the dead were not treated properly. Thus, in his desire to calm the hysteria, the doctor dug up ten of the corpses. Some of them had decomposed, but others had blood gushing from orifices in their faces, almost as if they had recently feasted on bloody delights.

Fearing for their own safety, the villagers demanded that the vampires must be killed. Glasser had no choice but to write to his commander to ask permission to execute the corpses. At that time, the imperial authorities decided to send a regimental surgeon, Johann Flückinger, and his team to follow up on Glasser's investigation. As these men had served as doctors in the war against the Turks from 1714 to 1718, they had a lot of experience handling corpses. It was hoped that his experience could solve the riddle of the vampires. When Flückinger and his team arrived, the vampires were busier than ever.

According to his subsequent report, “17 people died, young and old, among them some who, without any previous illness, died within two or at most three days.” With the death toll increasing, Flückinger exhumed all the bodies for inspection and dissection. He would confirm Glasser's report that most of the corpses were covered in blood. Not only that, “the vessels of the arteries and veins were not, as usual, full of coagulated blood, and all the viscera, that is, the lung, liver, stomach, spleen and intestines, were quite fresh as they should. be in a healthy person. Also that they had died mysteriously from an illness that had lasted only three days.” It was almost as if the bodies of the dead were still alive.

Flückinger's report describes the case of a 20-year-old woman named Stana. She had died in childbirth after an illness of three days, about two months before the surgeon's arrival. Her baby had also died and, due to a careless burial, had been half eaten by dogs. Before her death, she had confessed to Stana that a vampire had been stalking her. In an attempt to protect herself from her, she had painted herself with her blood. However, upon examination by Flückinger's team, Stana's corpse was found to be "quite complete and undecayed" with "fresh, vivid skin." One of the most bloodthirsty vampires said to have succeeded Paole was Miloe, who had died and supposedly turned six weeks old before Flückinger's visit.

It is believed that he was the one who strangled another twenty-year-old girl. She had managed to survive the assault, only to die just three days later from the terrible illness. Having been infected by Miloe, she too became a vampire. As with her other bodies, when Flückinger dug her up 18 days later, fresh blood gushed from her nose and her internal organs, skin and nails were "as if completely fresh." Once the medical team finished their examinations, the supposed vampires were beheaded by local gypsies. Then the gypsies burned the heads and threw the damn ashes into the river.

Once the report was archived and examined by the emperor, it would later be published publicly and become a best-seller throughout Europe. Translated into all languages, it would one day reach the hands of an obscure Irish theater director named Bram Stoker, who undoubtedly inspired his book Dracula. However, despite the cultural importance of Flückinger's report, science does not see anything too extraordinary in this case. The decomposition process is better understood today than in the 18th century. Science can now report that as a corpse decays, it is normal for the deceased's lungs to fill with blood. The brain also liquefies during decomposition.

And, as it was customary for suspected vampires to be buried face down (believed to make it more difficult for them to escape their graves), the liquefied brain could have quite easily oozed through the facial orifices, thus giving the appearance of an overfed leech. In addition, gases are trapped in the lungs of the corpse. If one were to drive a stake through them, they might make a gasp or groan under the pressure. Additionally, science now knows that if a corpse is buried eight feet underground in near-freezing temperatures, as it would have been in Serbia, it takes much longer for the body to decompose.

Even the supposed vampire illness can be explained. Juan Gómez-Alonso, a Spanish neurologist, has suggested that vampirism is actually rabies. Proof of this is that rabies spreads in the same way as vampirism, causing fever, madness and physical aggression. At this point, it must be remembered that the smooth and seductive vampire of literature and cinema is a modern invention. Traditionally, they had been depicted as something akin to a grotesque, shape-shifting living corpse. Folklore appears to add credence to Gomez's theory, as it was often said that vampires could transform into wolves and bats, two animals known to carry rabies.

However, while this may partly explain vampirism, some questions remain. In Flückinger's case, the burials of all those believed to be affected by vampirism were not always so methodical. Stana's baby, as mentioned above, was buried so carelessly that dogs ate part of the corpse. This detail conflicts with the theory that bodies are preserved by careful burial in cold temperatures. Furthermore, according to Flückinger's report, many of the victims succumbed after a rapid illness that lasted three days. Rabies can take from 10 days to two years to culminate in death. Furthermore, it has been claimed that doctors knew that there had been a rabies plague in Serbia between the years 1721 and 1728.

In fact, rabies is one of the oldest known diseases, having been recognized in both Ancient Egypt and Greece. . Surely someone with as much experience as Flückinger, a veteran regimental surgeon, would have alluded to a rabies epidemic as a possible explanation. Instead, he himself concluded that the bodies were actually "vampires." He had no other way to describe what he was seeing. Every year, archaeologists find new “vampire graves” across Europe, filled with headless skeletons or prone bodies. Corpses have also been found with stones forced into their mouths, to stop the vampire's bloodlust. Previously, science had dismissed such findings and beliefs in vampirism as a mix of local hysteria and misunderstood illnesses.

However, this view is being challenged, leaving no scientific consensus on what traditional cases of vampirism might have been. One example is a recent study in Poland, which found that skeletons in a vampire grave showed no real difference in disease or malformations than those buried in normal graves. The reasons for his peculiar burial are unknown. Ultimately, the truth behind the curious case of Arnold Paole is still not fully understood. As such, the question remains: did the disease of vampirism ever

exist

? And, more terrifyingly, could the vampire plague one day return? Thanks for watching. If you think someone you know might be interested in this video, share it on social media!

Remember, the more you know, the more you have to fear.