Column: Legends, Lore, Superstitions, and More
We think about vampires and we imagine characters like Draculaura from Monster High and vampires from shows and movies like My Babysitter is a Vampire and Twilight. There are many stories about people who drink blood from people’s necks, but this is not one of those stories. The Richmond Vampire is a tale from Richmond, Virginia about what locals thought to be a vampire.
In 1925, the Church Hill Train Tunnel collapsed as a work train was passing. When the tunnel collapsed, four men were trapped inside. People near the tunnel had reported seeing a strange human-like figure walk out of the tunnel and into a mausoleum. It has been said that this human-like figure had sharp teeth and was bloody.
The Richmond Vampire isn’t known for sucking blood. There were no blood-sucking reports for decades after the sighting.
The local people truly believed this was some sort of vampire coming from the collapsed tunnel, but they were wrong.
The truth behind the tale of The Richmond Vampire starts when the Church Hill Train Tunnel collapsed. A train that was supposed to be loaded with dirt by construction workers was passing through the tunnel when it collapsed. Benjamin Mosby was on the train when the tunnel collapsed. As the tunnel was caving in, some of the construction workers, including Mosby, were able to climb underneath the flatcars and make their way out through the east entrance of the tunnel.
Even though Mosby made it out alive, he was badly burned and cut. He even broke some of his teeth. Instead of a spooky Vampire exiting the tunnel, locals saw Mosby and just thought he was a vampire. In a local hospital, Mosby died from his injuries.
The tale of The Richmond Vampire wasn’t actually about a vampire, but the overactive imaginations of Richmond locals. Even though we now know the truth behind this story, it is still passed down and told today.
I think when it comes down to stuff like vampires and such, who knows if it's truly real or not because if I were a vampire, I'd keep it a secret and I'm sure it'd be easy to do that but it also goes to show just how wild our imagination really is.
i didn't know about this it sounds interesting giving me vampire diaries and the originals vibe.
Wow I did not know anything of the Richmond vampire until I read your article. I like how it was very informing and the lifted the veil of fiction from facts.