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The Red Vein Army Wants To Help You Hunt For The Richmond Vampire

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The Ashland-based troupe of haunters have expanded beyond their annual Halloween-focused activities to open Red Vein Escape, an escape room with experiences based around some classic Richmond spook stories.

Every town has a legend. In West Passaic, New Jersey, it’s the 10-mile Clinton Road; in Stull, Kansas, legend has it that the local cemetery holds a gateway to Hell. Richmond’s ghost stories run rampant due to the city’s long history, but one story has reigned supreme for nearly 100 years: the legend of an old mausoleum, located in the famous Hollywood Cemetery, that houses the remains of a vampire.

Some hear about it for the first time around a campfire, others as they walk the campus of nearby Virginia Commonwealth University, the air growing colder as the night grows near. Ryan Sligh, member of the Red Vein Army, has known about it pretty much his whole life. And now he’s made it a big part of the Red Vein Army’s latest venture: Red Vein Escape Room.

The Story 

The legend itself is fairly straightforward. On October 25, 1925, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad’s tunnel, under Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood collapsed, tragically burying several workers alive. In the midst of all the chaos, rescue workers spotted a ghoulish, blood-covered humanoid creature with jagged teeth and skin sloughing off of its body crouching amongst the bodies of the dead. Pursued by a group of men, the creature escaped from the cave-in and made its way towards the James River, where it allegedly disappeared into a mausoleum at Hollywood Cemetery bearing the name of W.W. Pool.

The mausoleum itself is where a majority of the vampire connections to Pool were made. This place of death may be the birthplace of the rumors that claim Pool was driven out of England in the late 1800s for being a vampire. Above the door of the mausoleum are Pool’s first and middle initials, along with his last name: “W.W. Pool.” Some, perhaps wanting to give people a spook, proposed that the double W’s resembled fangs. Combined with the various Masonic and Egyptian elements incorporated into the structure and the fact that the year of death is listed as 1913, nine years before Pool actually died (spoiler alert: 1913 is the year that his wife died), all combine to tell a pretty terrifying tale: there really IS a vampire buried deep within that mausoleum. 

Unfortunately, anyone feeling an itch to go vampire hunting will ultimately be disappointed; while creepy, the truth behind the story of our undead friend is ultimately as paranormal as a toaster oven. According to Gregory Maitland, a paranormal researcher with the Virginia Ghosts and Haunting Research Society, the ghoulish looking person that somehow made it out of the cave-in was none other than railroad foreman Benjamin F. Mosby, who made the mistake of working in a steam train without a shirt on, and was fatally scalded when the boiler that he had been shoveling coal into exploded. A grotesque sight, with shattered teeth and skin hanging off of his body, Mosby ran for his life from the tunnel, later dying from his injuries at nearby Grace Hospital.

What is the Red Vein Army?

Founded in 2011,Red Vein Army (RVA) is described by Sligh as “a group of haunters who can’t quite sit still.” They began as a group traveling around to different haunted houses, usually staying at each one for around a week. In 2016, they opened Red Vein Haunted House, a yearly event at Hanover Vegetable Farm consisting of four different attractions that visitors go through consecutively: The Witch’s Plague, Redvyn Asylum, Rabbit’s Cry Field, and Providence’s Home for Wayward Children.

For the group, details are everything. The haunted house, which runs during the fall leading up to Halloween, bases their various haunts around the legend of the Ashland Witch, taking local folklore and weaving original ideas and details through it. The fictional diary of Thomas Redvyn, the missing husband of alleged Ashland witch Emily Redvyn, is available for download via Kindle. The backstories of each of these attractions intersect with each other, creating a terrifying tale that will leave you thankful that the Redvyn family isn’t real. 

Along with the haunt, the group also hosts a horror movie club (the only horror movie club in Richmond) and a horror book club, along with the Ashland Haunted History Tour, run by Red Vein Outreach Coordinator Kitty Barnes.

We’re Going on a Vampire Hunt

In August of 2019, Sligh, along with three other members of the Red Vein Army (Barnes, Andrew Powers, and David Hayworth) opened their latest Ashland-based, horror-themed venture, Red Vein Escape, featuring its signature attraction: Hunt for the Richmond Vampire. Inspired by the legend, they put their own spin on it. Pursued by vampire hunters, our undead friend has set up camp in a railroad tunnel in Ashland, Virginia. Charged with the task of assisting the vampire hunters in killing the vampire, we have to do so before dusk — or else. 

Somewhat appropriately, the room itself doesn’t resemble an actual crypt; after all, he’s packed up and moved 20 minutes north. Not only has the Red Vein crew done an incredible job of designing the various sets, but the vampire should consider getting into interior decorating during his stay in Ashland, because he’s done a great job of making a railroad tunnel look like home. Bookshelves line the walls, well stocked with an assortment of ancient-looking books, along with a skull. On the adjacent wall is a portrait of the man himself in all of his menacing glory. On the other side of the room are more books, another fairly decrepit-looking skull, and a rather eerie-looking stained glass window featuring some hooded figures with candles. I also got a nice little jump scare when I walk in, courtesy of a railroad worker.

Along with “Hunt for the Richmond Vampire” is a second escape room, “Phobia: An Experiment in Fear,” with a backstory that ties into the rest of their attractions. According to the website, a scientific organization known as Unexplained Virginia, which has investigated haunts such as the Ashland Witch, the Richmond Vampire, and the Order of Red Vein, is conducting an experiment on how the human body experiences fear. In order to conduct this experiment, UV has designed and built a special chamber where, submerged completely in pitch-black darkness, participants will be subjected to a 10-minute/two-person challenge testing just how much fear their nervous system can take. There is no help; if you find the series of tasks too challenging, or you become overwhelmed with fear, you’re promptly removed from the game.

Coming soon is a submarine-themed escape room based the Jules Verne adventure classic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Judging by the job the Red Vein crew have done on the first two, I wouldn’t be surprised to have to fend off an octopus tentacle or two in order to solve a puzzle.

Ultimately, whether through Phobia, or the Hunt For the Richmond Vampire, Red Vein promises you’ll have a scary good time. The only question is — what happens when the time runs out?

Red Vein Escape Room can be contacted for booking at redveinescape.com.

Photos courtesy Red Vein Army

VCU ASPiRE: Engaging Beyond Campus

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VCU’s ASPiRE program helps students at Richmond’s largest college discover, engage, and make a difference in the city outside their campus.

VCU ASPiRE is a program at Virginia Commonwealth University that focuses on students learning about the history of Richmond, with the aim of sparking community engagement for areas of the city that are in need. Established in 2012, it has expanded its partnerships from campus-based organizations or organizations near the campus to habitat restoration centers in the northside, landscaping and renovations at the Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School and community center, aided in renovations for historic African American East End cemeteries by finding lost grave markers, and more. 

During the last two years of my college tenure, I was enrolled in VCU ASPiRE’s community engagement program, and when I graduated last May, I received not only a bachelor’s in Health, Physical Education, and Exercise Science but also a certificate in community engagement through the VCU ASPiRE program. A native of Richmond, Southside born and raised — Jefferson Davis Highway and Terminal Avenue, to be specific — I grew up in the former murder capital all my life, and I have seen the city change. To quote Noah-O from his first visit on Sway in The Morning, “I’m from the RIC before it became RVA.”

I joined VCU ASPiRE because I wanted to bring my own perspective to it from a true local standpoint, having grown up in poverty, in the middle of food deserts and gang influences, living in a part of Richmond that was once highly known for sex and drug trafficking. It was an indirect challenge from an old teacher inspired me to become a part of the program. Mr. Stevens, my old math teacher from Thomas Jefferson High School, said to me months before my high school graduation, “Get out of Richmond — there’s nothing for you here.” Years later, I found a way to challenge what he had told me through working with VCU ASPiRE.

Thanks to the program, I learned more about the story of the African American neighborhood of Navy Hill, how it was torn down to build I-95, and how Jeff Davis (aka Route 1) was I-95 before I-95. I expanded my knowledge about the origins of Oregon Hill, learning that it was a blue-collar neighborhood in the 1900s. I even heard the story of the Richmond Vampire, who ran all the way from Church Hill to the Richmond Cemetery [more on the truth behind this legend coming soon from RVA Mag -ed].

By becoming a part of the program, my love for helping the community that I once starved in truly grew. I went back and volunteered at homeless shelters in Southside, and helped renovate the same community center where I used to work out, which influenced my eventual degree. The program also aided in connecting me to resources in the city that I can refer other people and organizations to.

In my second year at VCU ASPiRE, when I was able to do independent events for my required hours, I used my contributions to Richmond’s hip hop culture, such as organizing events and speaking at WRIR for Lovelace Magazine and HennyNCoke, along with lecturing at VCU, the University of Richmond, and Virginia State University in the same semester. The program even allowed me to get volunteer hours when I organized a community hooping session at the basketball courts in Randolph, where friends from ATL and artists like Mally Goku and Van Silke helped bring people out and donated food and drinks.

Through the program, I was also able to create volunteering opportunities at the Richmond City Health District when I was an intern in the opioid department, during my very last semester of college. In February 2019, I represented the program alongside other classmates at the National Impact Conference at UVA. For a former grade school dropout who once lied about going to college, I never could have imagined myself representing a university in a national conference coming straight out of Richmond. But VCU ASPiRE brought me there.

VCU ASPiRE helps inform students about the city, showing them how to find hidden gems well beyond the campus and the popular downtown and Carytown scenes usually affiliated with the RVA tourist brand. I’m grateful for the opportunities it brought to me and brings to many VCU students, and very appreciative of the program’s staff, including Erin Brown, Michael Rackett, Nanette Bailey, former staff member Samuel Brown, Nerice Lochansky, and everyone else invloved.

If you’re a VCU student and the opportunity to engage with your city beyond the campus sounds appealing, look into the VCU ASPiRE program at community.vcu.edu/aspire.