Dark Shadows/M

Magda Rakosi
Magda Rakosi was a Gyspy woman and a fortune teller. She was married to a man named Sandor and was the older sister of Jenny Rakosi. Magda and Sandor once worked at a traveling carnival where she assisted him as a knife thrower. As they grew older, Magda achieved some success with fortune telling and used a crystal ball and tarot cards as the instruments of her craft.

By the late 19th century, Magda had become the spiritual adviser to old Edith Collins of Collinsport, Maine. Though none of the other family members held any regard for the Gypsies, Edith valued Magda's skills immensely. To this end, she allowed Magda and Sandor to stay at the dilapidated ruins of the Old House on the Collinwood estate.

As Edith came closer to death, Sandor and Magda knew that they were quickly coming to the end of their easy lifestyle. To prepare for their eventual removal from the estate, Magda had Sandor break into the Great House in search of the fabled Collins family jewels. When this failed to produce the desired results, Magda consulted her crystal ball. She saw an image of a chained coffin inside of a secret room in the Collins family mausoleum. She sent Sandor to the cemetery to investigate it, but what he found in the coffin was not jewels, but rather an awakened vampire named Barnabas Collins.

Barnabas used his vampire powers to take control of Sandor, who brought him back to the Old House. Magda immediately recognized the "Mark of Death" upon him and correctly identified him as a vampire. Seeing as how the Gypsy's greed overwhelmed her own fear of the vampire, Barnabas offered her a meager portion of the Collins family jewels in exchange for her cooperation in protecting his secret.

Maine
Maine is a state in the continental United States and is the most northern state in the New England region. The coastal fishing village known as Collinsport is located in Maine. Collinsport was 50 miles from Bangor, and near the town of Logansport. Notable locales within Collinsport include the Blue Whale, St. Eustasce Island, Widows' Hill and Collinwood. Collinwood is the ancestral estate of the Collins family. It is located atop Widows' Hill in the coastal city of Collinsport. In 1970, the head of the family was Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. Following her death, the estate was inherited by a distant cousin named Quentin Collins and his wife, Tracy.

Mister Wells
Mister Wells was the innkeeper and nightime manager of the Collinsport Inn. He knew several of the regular citizens of the town such as Burke Devlin, whom he had known since Burke was a boy. In 1961, Burke Devlin left Collinsport to serve a five-year prison sentence on a false charge of manslaughter. When he got out, he returned to Collinsport and telegraphed Mister Wells, reserving three rooms at the inn. Mister Wells was overjoyed to see Burke again, but Mister Devlin was in no mood for niceties. Devlin told Wells to call a taxicab for a young woman named Victoria Winters who had just come into town. Wells told him that his regular cab driver, Harry Jones, was unavailable because he had a flat on his cab. Wells called ahead anyway and arranged for Harry to bring Vicki to Collinwood. Afterward, Burke had Mister Wells take his bags up to his room.

Mrs. Hopewell
Mrs. Hopewell was the administrator of the Hammond Foundling Home in the state of New York. One of the teachers in her employ was a young woman named Victoria Winters, who had grown up in the foundling home ever since being dropped off there as an infant. Another one of Mrs. Hopewell's charges was a woman named Sandy, who was also a friend of Miss Winters.

In 1966, Victoria approached Mrs. Hopewell and showed her a letter sent by the Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. The letter was an offer of job employment as a governess for the family's young son, David Collins. Vicki noted that Collinsport was only fifty miles away from Bangor - a location that had some significance to her. Mrs. Hopewell recognized the significance, and also recognized that Vicki's would-be employer, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was offering a very fair rate of pay.

Mrs. Mitchell
Mrs. Mitchell was an elderly woman who, in 1966, was on board a train coming from New York bound for Collinsport, Maine. She sat next to another passenger named Victoria Winters, who was one of only two people getting off at Collinsport. Mrs. Mitchell made small talk with Vicki during the train ride, commenting about how the winters could be particularly brutal in New England. Mrs. Mitchell had lived in that part of the country her entire life and only went to Collinsport once which, as she put it, was more than enough for her. As Mrs. Mitchell chatted on to Victoria, the younger woman drifted off into her own thoughts of her recent past. When she snapped out of it, Mitchell declared that she had not heard a single word she had said.