The Vampire Crypt

The Vampire Crypt at Erie Cemetery is one of the region’s most enduring and eerie legends—a brooding mausoleum wrapped in mystery, folklore, and whispers of the undead. Known for its dark marble façade and the conspicuous absence of a family name, the crypt is marked only by a strange “V,” which has fueled speculation for decades. Though officially owned by Gertrude Brown, no one by that name is buried inside. The first interment was G.W. Goodrich in 1884, but it’s the unnamed Romanian man said to have died of tuberculosis—then known as “consumption”—who anchors the vampire lore.

According to legend, this man arrived in Erie in the late 1800s and succumbed to the disease shortly after. His symptoms—coughing blood, wasting away—mirrored the classic vampire narrative, and soon after his burial, strange events began to unfold. Bodies were reportedly found in the suburbs with puncture wounds at the neck and signs of blood loss. A cemetery groundskeeper allegedly witnessed a shadowy figure emerging from the crypt at night and, in a desperate attempt to stop the killings, set the mausoleum ablaze. But the fire didn’t end the story—it only deepened the mystery. The vampire’s mortal body may have been destroyed, but his ghost, some say, still roams the grounds.

The crypt has become a rite of passage for Erie thrill-seekers and skeptics alike. In the 1930s, a high school student famously bet his friends he wasn’t afraid of the vampire and entered the crypt alone—only to flee moments later, pale and shaken. Today, the Vampire Crypt is a highlight of Erie Cemetery’s Ghosts and Legends Tours, where guides share both the folklore and the facts, inviting visitors to decide for themselves what’s myth and what might be lingering truth. Whether you believe in vampires or not, the crypt’s chilling aura and ambiguous history make it one of Erie’s most captivating haunted landmarks.