dancin'hamster Posted September 24, 2003 #1 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I expect many of you have heard whispers of 'The Highgate Vampire'. I'd be interested to know what you all make of the story......... The following article is taken from The Highgate Website.. Two seemingly unconnected incidents occurred within weeks of one another in early 1967. The first involved two 16-year-old convent girls who were walking home at night after having visited friends in Highgate Village. Their return journey took them down Swains Lane past the cemetery. They could not believe their eyes as they passed the graveyard’s north gate at the top of the lane, for in front of them bodies appeared to be emerging from their tombs. One of these schoolgirls later suffered nightly visitations and blood loss. The second incident, some weeks later, involved an engaged couple who were walking down the same lane. Suddenly the female shrieked as she glimpsed something hideous hovering behind the gate’s iron railings. Then her fiancé saw it. They both stood frozen to the ground as the spectre held them in thrall. Its face bore an expression of basilisk horror. Soon others sighted the same phenomenon as it hovered along the path behind the gate where gravestones are visible either side until consumed in darkness. Before long people were talking in hushed tones about the rumoured haunting in local pubs. Some who actually witnessed the spectral figure wrote to their local newspaper to share their experience. Discovery was made of animal carcasses drained of blood. They had been so exsanguinated that a forensic sample could not be found. It was only a matter of time before a person was found in the cemetery in a pool of blood. This victim died of wounds to the throat. The police made every attempt to cover-up the vampiristic nature of the death. Seán Manchester informed the public on 27 February 1970 that the cause was most probably a vampire. He appeared on television on 13 March 1970 and repeated his theory. The VRS, whose specialist unit within a larger investigatory organisation (now defunct) had opened the case twelve months earlier, established a history of similar hauntings that went back to before the graveyard existed. A suspected tomb was located and a spoken exorcism performed. This proved to be ineffective. The hauntings and animal deaths continued. Indeed, they multiplied. By now all sorts of people were jumping on the vampire bandwagon; including film-makers and rock musicians. Most were frightened off. Some who interloped became fascinated by the black arts with disastrous consequences. Meanwhile, serious researchers considered the possibility that a nest of vampires might be active in the area. Yet there seemed to be one principal source which the media had already dubbed a “King Vampire of the Undead.” Seán Manchester led the thirteen year investigation from beginning to end. There was indeed more than one vampire for the VRS to confront. However, in early 1974 he tracked the principal source of the contamination, known as the Highgate Vampire, to a neo-Gothic mansion on the Highgate borders. Here he employed the ancient and approved remedy. No vampire has been sighted in or near Highgate Cemetery and its environs since that time. Hammy x x x PS - don't worry Cuffy, I won't let the nasty vampire get you honey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted September 24, 2003 #2 Share Posted September 24, 2003 PS - don't worry Cuffy, I won't let the nasty vampire get you honey I feel emasculated and yet strangely aroused at the same time... Actually Hammy, I've heard some of this Highgate stuff before. My sister is a budding horror writer, and she's into vampires (not a first for this site, I suspect). I'm normally a bit dismissive of vampires, but the highgate stories went on for years, as you said, and maybe, (maybe) there could be something in all this. Perhaps not vampires in the Christopher Lee sense, but creatures like ghouls, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thistle Posted September 24, 2003 #3 Share Posted September 24, 2003 < Puts skeptic head on > Didn't stories of vampires in highgate cemetary appear round about the time Bram Stoker wrote Dracula? He apparently used Highgate as inspiration for the graveyard where Lucy was interred - only to reappear as a member of the un-dead. Gross fact for the day: apparently one of Stoker's neighbours was the poet Dante who had second thoughts about burying a manuscript of poetry with his wife's body so he jolly well had her dug up..........7 years later!!!!!!!!....... so that he could get it back again. Her body was amazingly well preserved and funnily enough she was buried in Highgate......Inspiration for Stoker???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 25, 2003 Author #4 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Hhhhmmmmmmmmmmm................. I thought the inspiration behind 'Dracula' was an incident in Ireland......and Whitby harbour. There is something enduringly erotic about Vampires isn't there...? The thought of a magneticly attractive creature that seduces the living and bites on their necks, draining them of any will.............or is it just me who finds that a turn-on I suppose it must be the Goth in me Many different cultures have their own Vampire legends and beliefs. The theory I find most....well..........'believeable' is that of the psychic vampire, a person or negative force who drains energy away. We've all met someone who seems to sap the life out of us havn't we ? (I married one ) Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anirbas Posted September 25, 2003 #5 Share Posted September 25, 2003 I agree that vampries are kinda sexy and erotic- it's like they have control and permission to do naughty things.....or soemthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted September 25, 2003 #6 Share Posted September 25, 2003 I thought it was common knowledge that Stoker's inspiration for Dracula was not from an actual vampire ..but from the Carpathian ( or some former eastern European contry ) ruler Vlad the Impalor ( i really cant spell). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted September 25, 2003 #7 Share Posted September 25, 2003 There is something enduringly erotic about Vampires isn't there...? The thought of a magneticly attractive creature that seduces the living and bites on their necks, draining them of any will.............or is it just me who finds that a turn-on I have a confession, Hammy. I'm a vampire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 25, 2003 Author #8 Share Posted September 25, 2003 erm.............not sure if I believe you Cuffy...........can you prove it Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engulf Posted September 25, 2003 #9 Share Posted September 25, 2003 I agree that vampries are kinda sexy and erotic- it's like they have control and permission to do naughty things.....or soemthing well maybe this could be connected to some of those unsolved rape cases.... (they're humans after-all ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thistle Posted September 25, 2003 #10 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Hhhhmmmmmmmmmmm................. I thought the inspiration behind 'Dracula' was an incident in Ireland......and Whitby harbour. yeah, sorry Hammy maybe could have made my point a bit clearer. Highgate cemetary is not the setting for the whole story but it is the inspiration for the fictional graveyard which he describes in the book during Lucy's funeral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted September 25, 2003 #11 Share Posted September 25, 2003 erm.............not sure if I believe you Cuffy...........can you prove it Hammy x x x Well, Hammy, I'm extremely pale, and I don't tend to go out much in daylight. Hang on, that just means I'm a writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaMHD Posted September 25, 2003 #12 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Heres an aritcle I found on Vlad Dracula aka Vlad the Impalor. Quite interesting. Vlad Dracula Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engulf Posted September 25, 2003 #13 Share Posted September 25, 2003 that was a great link Lisa,thank you anyway i got to know this in some site (couldn't remember anymore as it was a long time ago) that this Vlad Tepes actually caught passing rats in a dungeon where he was held captive (forgot where this one happen too ) and sucked off thier bloods.....anyone heard of this before?maybe i'm wrong but i bet i'm really close here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 25, 2003 Author #14 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Well, Hammy, I'm extremely pale, and I don't tend to go out much in daylight. Hang on, that just means I'm a writer. *looks disappointed* oh............. Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted September 25, 2003 #15 Share Posted September 25, 2003 *looks disappointed* oh............. Hammy x x x What if I pretended to be one? I vant to dreenk your blood. How's that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 25, 2003 Author #16 Share Posted September 25, 2003 that's much better............... Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaMHD Posted September 25, 2003 #17 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Engulf, Vlad was known to dring the blood of his prisoners, the people he impaled and animals. He was also known to have feasts whare he would eat bread, dipped in victims blood. Heres a link with more history on Vlad, and whare he was imprisoned. Transylvania Castles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent_21 Posted September 26, 2003 #18 Share Posted September 26, 2003 The Highgate vampire stories were stirred up in the 60s-70s by the activities of a couple of self-publicists called Manchester and Farrant. The latter, I remember, seemed somewhat unsavoury. There was some scandal in the media about him stalking the blues singer John Baldrey, sending him coffins and black magic paraphernalia etc. Although I have my doubts about vampires, the place is atmospheric and other accounts suggest that something paranormal is/has been going on there. Time for an investigation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky girl Posted September 26, 2003 #19 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Vampires are one of my favorite tales. Also I really beleive in them. I know I sound really dumb right now and that's because I'm new. Sometimes secretly I wish I were a vampire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent_21 Posted September 26, 2003 #20 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Here are a couple of relevant links: Highgate Lowgate - http://members.lycos.co.uk/Hirudo/manchester.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 27, 2003 Author #21 Share Posted September 27, 2003 If anyone is interested, heres a link to an interview with Sean Manchester, the UK's only 'Vampire Hunter'............... it's worth a look.........but personally I think it's bunkham! http://mysterymag.com/current/html/sean_ma..._interview.html Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engulf Posted September 27, 2003 #22 Share Posted September 27, 2003 Engulf, Vlad was known to dring the blood of his prisoners, the people he impaled and animals. He was also known to have feasts whare he would eat bread, dipped in victims blood. Heres a link with more history on Vlad, and whare he was imprisoned. Transylvania Castles oh i got it right then but....prisoners too? this guy's a psycho..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent_21 Posted September 27, 2003 #23 Share Posted September 27, 2003 Quote from Hammy's link: '...when two 16-year old girls saw what seemed to be bodies rising in Highgate cemetary in 1967. 1967 - a lot of odd things were seen that year by some 16-year olds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engulf Posted September 27, 2003 #24 Share Posted September 27, 2003 If anyone is interested, heres a link to an interview with Sean Manchester, the UK's only 'Vampire Hunter'............... it's worth a look.........but personally I think it's bunkham! Hammy x x x thank you hammy for your link. but i especially loved this one: To people who believe that Buffy is real: please, wake up and smell the garlic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancin'hamster Posted September 28, 2003 Author #25 Share Posted September 28, 2003 hee-hee!!!! Yes, some pretty weird stuff going on around Highgate wasn't there? Hammy x x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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