- I just, from a very young age, was fascinated by these types of stories that had something that no one could explain.

- [Pamela] Stories like the Tale of Mercy Brown.

Rhode Island author, Mary Elizabeth Reilly-McGreen, says she grew up near the place where Brown is buried in Exeter and later exhumed in the 1800s on suspicion of being a local vampire.

Instead of frightening Reilly-McGreen, it was the fuel to start collecting macabre and mysterious local lore.

Do you ever get a strange feeling when you're working on these stories?

- I wish I could say I do.

I've never, I will characterize myself as ghost repellent.

- Reilly-McGreen has written extensively on Rhode Island legends, publishing several books on the topic of monsters and haunted hallows.

Does Rhode Island, though, have an inordinate amount of these stories for a little state?

I was impressed by the amount of material that was available.

You find that Rhode Island's breadth of folklore, in terms of the different types of stories, are remarkable.

- [Pamela] She says many stories came from people worldwide sailing through Newport.

Reilly-McGreen says, the late John Updyke, author of "The Witches of Eastwick," had an expression for it.

- Updyke called it "A state of mercurial uncaring," and I loved that.

I was like, yeah, I think Rhode Island really doesn't care what anybody else thinks of it.

- [Pamela] One of those non-conformist Rhode Islanders might be Theodore Montgomery Davis, copper tycoon, lawyer, and millionaire financier.

Davis built an estate on Majestic Brenton Point in Newport.

His mansion was called The Reef.

- He was an explorer and an archeologist, and he was responsible for some of the most important and sensational discoveries of his day in terms of Egyptian artifacts.

- [Pamela] Davis funded explorations that uncovered the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

Here are where lie the rock tombs built for ancient royal families and their possessions.

Davis carved the way for British archeologist, Howard Carter, to eventually discover King Tut's burial site.

Carter was financed by British Earl, Lord Carnarvon.

Davis collected many artifacts from his own excavations.

- Not everything went to museums.

Some things the the archeologists claimed for their own personal collections.

He had many, many priceless artifacts.

- Right in Rhode Island?

In Rhode Island.

- In his gilded mansion.

- Exactly.

- Davis's home, where he kept the rare Egyptian antiquities, was later destroyed by fire.

All that remains today is the dangerous, decaying, vine-covered stable, now known as The Bells.

Was it a haunted house?

- It depends on your belief system.

So if you're inclined to believe that houses can be haunted, objects can be haunted, then yes, I would say it is a haunted house.

- [Pamela] Haunted perhaps because of what's known as the Curse of the Mummy.

- Death, eternal punishment for anyone who opens this casket.

- [Pamela] Woe to those who disturbed the repose of the pharaohs, an often told tale scaring up several Hollywood movies.

- The Curse of the Pharaoh was put in place to ward off anyone from disturbing the final resting place of the Pharaohs.

The penalty for doing so was death.

We called them archeologists, the Egyptians would've called them grave robbers.

It was a desecration.

- Reilly-McGreen read us an excerpt from her book on Rhode Island legends where she describes the curse as a dark winged thing.

- "From the dust she'd risen, hot, angry, and thirsty for the blood of the infidels, commoners who'd hollowed out the Valley of the Kings."

- [Pamela] And she writes, horrible deaths would shadow these treasure hunters of the early 20th century.

Howard Carter died of cancer.

Lord Carnarvon died in Egypt of an infected mosquito bite only months after finding King Tut's tomb.

It was Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who publicly speculated on the mummy's curse, bolstering the myth.

Davis died in Florida at age 78.

Did he escape the curse?

- That is the curse of the Pharaoh, and Theodore M. Davis, who died unremarked upon in Miami, far away from those objects that he prized most in life.

- [Pamela] So while Davis did not die an untimely death, he did perish in relative obscurity.

The Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings have eternal fame.

Davis's ashes are interred in Island Cemetery Newport, largely forgotten.

(bright music)