The Night Doctors - Part 1

This is a story which can go in several directions, depending upon how the Keeper wants it to unfold, or what kind of tale they wish to tell. On the one hand it can be a complete scübidüberism; on the other hand it can be a Mythos encounter; or it can be both.

Backstory

After the American Civil War, former slave keepers tried to prevent ex-slaves from drifting north by disseminating tales of predatory medical practitioners roaming the northern states and body-snatching African-American individuals, newly-arrived and looking for work. The idea was that, although now landowners could not own people to work their estates, they still needed to employ them to work their land. Having freed workers strike out to new territories meant that there was a potential drain on expertise and familiarity with local and regional work practises. On top of this, the Northern states sent labour scouts into the South to entice African-American workers away and, while southern landowners lobbied for restrictive laws to prevent such head-hunting, the drift away from the South continued.

Northern researchers into slavery conditions in the South, were confronted by white landowners’ insistence that their slaves were “stupid”, “sluggish” and “unmotivated”, requiring constant supervision by overseers in order to maintain quotas. These same researchers however, discovered that the slaves were intelligent, industrious and keen, but only on their own time, during the hours of darkness: it seemed the slaves reserved their best efforts for themselves and their own communities, while unobserved in their own settlements. Not that the slave-keepers were unaware that there were things going on after hours: the landowners disseminated wild rumours about ghosts and haunted locales, feeding into the superstitious natures of the slaves and which, backed up by Klansmen in white sheets riding night patrols (sometimes referred to as “patterollers”) effectively kept the black communities inside at night.

It might seem to be a bit of a stretch nowadays, to think that these tissues of flim-flammery would actually work, but it wasn’t all fairytales built upon nothing: Klan patrols regularly lynched slaves who were thought of as “uppity” and many recently-built medical institutions – particularly in the northern states – fell foul of rumours claiming that over-eager educators and students had taken to grave-robbing and body-snatching. There was enough smoke in the air over these incidents to indicate that offences had definitely taken place.

Some Southern landholders would dress up in sheets – attempting to appear as medical practitioners in scrubs – and stalk around African-American communities late at night, sometimes riding masked and roughshod through townships. Many of these appearances were services provided by Klansmen, so the white sheets were the simplest of disguises to affect. From this initial piece of theatricality, the superstition of the ex-slaves took over: the “Night Doctors”, as they became known, crept around the townships usually in pairs, assaulting lone walkers after hours, or breaking into unattended homes to steal sleeping children. The white sheets of the staged events, were soon replaced by the Ulster Coats that many field surgeons habitually wore and which were thought to hide and transport the bodies of suffocated infants. In some cases, the Night Doctors took on aspects of full-blown urban myth, with sharpened hook-fingers, poisonous breath, invisibility and the ability to call down death upon entire households.

Obviously, this was hysteria in full-swing. However, there were enough scandalous incidents taking place in America’s fledgling medical institutions to lend credence to the phenomenon and to have the desired effect that the southern landholders intended. In 1884, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported an incident in Ohio where medical instructors paid grave-robbers to provide specimens, which they did – a family of three freshly-murdered victims. In the same year, the Ohio Medical College hired a black cleaner for their institution who, when he saw some partially dissected bodies, panicked and fell down some stairs, breaking his neck: the matter was hushed up and the dead worker dissected; however, the facts eventually came to light. The Boston Herald ran a story in 1889 about a rumour amongst the black folk of Clarendon, Williamsburg and Sumter Counties that a white doctor with the power to turn invisible was anaesthetising the locals for medical experiments. A series of articles appeared in 1872, highlighting the tendency of black communities to go in fear of the Night Doctors, and these appeared as far afield as the Washington “Evening Star”, Ohio’s “Cleveland Morning Daily Herald”, Indiana’s “Indianapolis News” and the “Janesville Daily Gazette” of Wisconsin. As early as 1827, the black newspaper “Freedom’s Journal” was advertising cheap “mortsafes” - coffins designed to make a nocturnal disinterment long-winded and potentially dangerous for those embarked upon the procedure – a perfect gift for those frightened of post-mortem interference.

In Washington DC, the area which became the focus for the phenomenon, doctors serving the local community started to come under attack, if their work took them out among the black communities after hours. Mobs would appear to drive them away and several doctors were ruthlessly knifed and bashed. In one instance, the life of a black man – whom the doctors were trying to save – was forfeit due to such resistance. The phenomenon became so entrenched in the public consciousness that art began to imitate life, as anyone who has read Ambrose Bierce’s “One Summer Night” can attest.

Set Up

This story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, around the year 1895. Many later Night Doctor stories were associated with Johns Hopkins University and its medical school, so the Keeper needs to create a reason why his party of Investigators would be here at this time (obviously, if their usual quests and obsessions have drawn them here, then that’s just a bonus!). As a few ideas, one or more members of the party could be returning here to receive their degree at an award ceremony, or have come back to receive accreditation in a new medical procedure (anaesthesiology is a good one). Perhaps, an old lecturer, or mentor, is retiring and there’s a farewell bash? Otherwise, libraries tend to be places where Investigators congregate, so perhaps there’s a volume of Lore which the party needs to examine here.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital is part of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which itself is part of the Johns Hopkins University. The Hospital is specifically a teaching one, rotating students from the School of Medicine straight into the business of healing. The School is an imposing building with a grand dome and signifies the prestige with which the institution is regarded. When dealing with the authorities here, the Investigators should be made very aware that the School’s reputation is held as the highest priority in all matters.

A necessity for teaching institutions such as this one is the constant supply of cadavers for students to anatomise. Such bodies are taken from gallows, or from morgues, where the identity and relatives of the deceased cannot be verified. In fact, any person buried at County expense is fair game for the anatomists. Understandably, this causes some friction with the locals, and Johns Hopkins is looked upon with a wary eye by the lower classes.

And not without good reason. Medical institutions were not above advertising the fact that they were flagrantly exploiting the loopholes. The Medical College of South Carolina used this text in an advertisement of 1824:

“Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected with this institution, which it may be proper to point out. No place in the United States offers as great opportunities for the acquisition of anatomical knowledge. Subjects being obtained from the coloured population in sufficient numbers for every purpose, and proper dissection carried out without offending any individuals in the community.”

The word “individuals” here, meaning “white folk”.

Local law upholds that the bodies of blacks who die in the Hospital are the rightful property of the teaching establishment. In many cases, where the victim’s family is known and has showed concern for their stricken relative, the body is released to them after the patient’s demise; however, if quotas are not being met by the School, such concern is often waived. In essence, it’s bad luck to be sick or injured if you are poor and/or black; this is why folk medicines and supernatural healing alternatives were a burgeoning industry at this time.

Of course, along with witchcraft, grave-robbing was also on the rise. Those buried in “Potters’ Fields”, or in unguarded cemeteries, were fair game for bodysnatchers, and bodies - especially those who had died without the marks of violence upon them – earned a pretty penny from the stewards and other functionaries of the Hospital. Such trade was done without the direct knowledge of the respectable doctors, but their support of the crime was implicit.

Our Investigators should arrive at the Hospital during the Autumn or Winter months when – traditionally – supplies of cadavers were at their lowest and demand the highest. Those characters with medical backgrounds or other connexions to the University are able to be put up at their old college residence with the proviso that they put in some hours at the Hospital clinic, to pad out staff numbers during the semester. Keepers will establish some other form of accommodation for other members of the party and see them onto whatever purpose brings them thither. Rest assured that both groups will come together again before too long.

To Be Continued...