SOUL SUCKERS

Highgate Cemetery in north London is a spooky place at the best of times, and rumours of ghosts occupying its Victorian crypts and tombs have existed since its consecration in 1839. And the fact that Karl Marx, father of communism, is buried there only adds to its mystique. However, when a phantom figure was seen in the cemetery in 1967, followed by the discovery of animals sucked of blood in nearly Waterloo Park, rumours began of a vampire.
The situation was not helped when a local paper dubbed the phantom the Highgate Vampire in 1970. And on Friday, 13 March of that year, a mass vampire hunt was organised. Hundreds of vampire hunters invaded the cemetery, armed with stakes, garlic and crosses. No vampire was caught, but much vandalism took place and a female corpse was exhumed. In 1974, a further, smaller hunt organised by famed vampire hunter David Farrant, led to claims that a vampire had been caught and destroyed. But rumours of sightings and dead animals continued well into the 1980s.

DOG PRIEST

Many sceptics blame Farrant for the hysteria that led to the mania indulged at Highgate. And a similar character existed in the 12th century in the form of William of Newburgh. Chronicling many cases of ‘vampires’, one story was that of a chaplain of low repute who attended a high-ranking lady.
Earning the nickname, Dog Priest, he ignored his vows and spent his time hunting. When he died, he was buried in Melrose Abbey, but several nights later he rose and stalked the building. When monks repulsed him, he appeared in the bedroom of the woman he had served.
Terrified, she called the monks to save her. After many more appearances, including one in which he was attacked by a battle-axe, monks forced him back to the grave. Digging up the corpse, the monks burned it.

VAMPIRE OF CROGLIN

Such vampire tales are actually quite rare in Britain. But one exception occurred in 1875 when Australian Amelia Cranswell and her two brothers were leasing Croglin Low Hall in Cumbria. One night she looked out the window to see a tall, spindly figure approaching.
Soon it was scratching at the window, and once inside, bit her violently about the neck. Hearing her screams, her brothers chased it off. Leaving the hall for a while, in March the following year, the identical incident occurred, and her brothers followed the man to a churchyard. At dawn they entered and found a ‘vampire’ in a state of suspended animation under a slab. They built a bonfire and burned the creature.

VAMPIRIC HABITS

No monster terrifies more than a monster in human form. And no human monster arouses such passion as the vampire. Traditionally believed to be a disturbed soul unable to rest, it must sustain itself with life-giving blood.
Shunning the day light hours, it rests in its coffin until night, when it rises to seek out its cravings, sucking blood from its victim through a bite on the neck. Associated with the vampire bat, it can take this creature’s form to travel.
Once the lair of the vampire is identified, this other¬worldly creature is usually ruddy of complexion and remarkably fit looking. However, it can be identified by its long finger¬nails and protruding eye teeth, required to accomplish its feeding.
If freshly fed, blood will be smeared about the mouth. To dispose of the creature, a stake must be thrust through its heart, the vampire issuing a terrifying scream as you do so. Following this, it must be burned to a cinder without delay.
If come upon whilst awake, your only protection is garlic or a crucifix. If unprotected, and it feeds on you, then death may be disturbed. For you might become a vampire yourself. At least, that is the mythology. But is there any reality to the vampire?

VAMPIRES IN LITERATURE

The vampire has been kept alive by a healthy tradition in literature and history. Goethe, Tolstoy, Lord Byron and Dumas all wrote about the vampire, and in 1847 an otherwise unremarkable writer, Thomas Prest, wrote the bestselling novel, ‘Varney the Vampire; Or, The Feast Of Blood.’
Even in modern times the genre is kept alive by the likes of Stephen King, with his novel ‘Salem’s Lot,’ and the TV series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ brought it to a whole new generation.
However, never was the genre so celebrated than the 1897 publication of ‘Dracula’ by Irish writer Bram Stoker. Eventually fuelling a string of vampire movies, the image has become stereotyped as a well dressed supernatural aristocrat immortalised by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.

DASKALOS

The Cypriot mystic known as Daskalos was fascinated by vampire cases. He told of a case in southern France. When the parents of a 25 year old girl forbade her marriage to a 50 year old shepherd called Loizo, she was devastated.
Loizo died in a car crash and five years later he visited the girl, coming through the walls and kissing her with a sucking fashion. Doctors discovered that she was no longer a virgin after this, but concluded she had deflowered herself with her fingers. Daskalos, however, found two reddish marks on her. Contacting Loizo through mediumistic means, he told him to leave her alone, and she was not bothered again.
We can, of course, dismiss the ideas of Daskalos, deciding Loizo was some form of discarnate spirit. Sleep paralysis, genetic deformity and illness, combined with good old human depravity or sexuality, can go a long way to banishing the vampire from its supernatural origins.
Rather than being the living dead, vampires can be seen as very real human anomolies. Except that there is a further area of vampire anecdotes that has not yet been taken into account – the fact that a vampire can affect a community as well as an individual.

WILLIAM OF NEWBURGH

The 12th century chronicler William of Newburgh – whom we met earlier – recounted many tales of ‘revenants’, as vampires used to be called. The following was told to him by a priest.
A depraved Yorkshireman who lived a life of sin eventually went to Alnwick Castle, where he married but became convinced his wife was unfaithful. Saying he was going away for a few days, he hid in the roof above his bed.
When his wife took her lover to his bed, he fell from the roof and injured himself. A priest tried to get a confession out of the Yorkshireman but he died. Even though unrepentant, he was given a Christian burial but soon his corpse was seen by many wandering the streets and houses in the town.
People barred their doors at night and an unbearable stench led to a plague, forcing many to leave. Eventually two men dug up his grave and found him gorged and swollen. They struck him with a spade and dragged him off to be burned. The plague then stopped.
William also wrote of an unnamed Buckinghamshire man who died in 1192. The night after burial he appeared in his wife’s room and tried to have sex with her. This happened again the following night, and by the third, family members sat up with her.
When the dead husband appeared, they drove him off, but he later attacked his brothers. Following this, he began to appear in other households, forcing everyone to stay awake at night. Soon, it was even seen by groups of people during the day.
Finally, the Bishop of Lincoln became involved. Digging up the husband, he was found to be undecayed. He placed a written absolution on his chest and reburied him. The troubles ceased.

THE BRESLAU VAMPIRE

Similar cases have existed down the centuries. A vampire terrorised the town of Breslau, Germany, following the suicide of a shoemaker on 20 September 1591. The family hid the cause of death, resulting in the body receiving a Christian burial, but rumours of suicide leaked out.
Soon, the shoemaker’s ghost began to appear in the town. At first, nightmares and noises disturbed the population, then it began sexually assaulting women in their beds. Appearing every night, some people even bore marks on their necks where its fingers had pressed.
After eight months of this the town council exhumed the body of the shoemaker. It was found undecayed. The widow then admitted her husband had committed suicide. Hence, they cut off its head, took out the heart, burned it on a pyre and threw the ashes into the river.
The hauntings ceased, but for a time afterwards, the shoemaker’s maid, who had also died, began appearing in homes and assaulting women. She, too, was exhumed and burned. The troubles ceased.

THE WASHINGTON VAMPIRE

What are we to make of the idea that a wider population can see the vampires involved, even being assaulted by them? Perhaps a hint can be given by the famed Washington DC Vampires.
In 1897 a spate of vampire stories circulated around Washington DC. One concerned a girl from a well-to-do family who had fallen in love with a European prince in the 1850s.Eventually her corpse was found drained of blood with marks on her neck. Buried in a white lace dress, her ghost was often seen.
One woodcutter who saw her was also found dead, drained of blood. This caused a panic with people protecting themselves with garlic, and guards were placed on the family vault.
One night during a thunderstorm, the girl appeared, causing the guards to run off. The next morning, the slab of the vault had been moved. The girl was found in her coffin with blood on her lips. The family became distressed and moved away, the vault falling into ruin.

OLD STORY, DIFFERENT CULTURE

Could we be dealing, here, with simple hysteria causing a form of communal hallucination? If so, how did it first manifest? Perhaps the year – 1897 – holds a clue. It was the year of the publication of Dracula. And the vault, the girl in the white dress, the nocturnal wanderings, the corpse with blood on its lips – they are all classic scenes from the novel.
There are, of course, many possible reasons for the vampire that are not covered by this short essay. But it seems, good reader, that the bulk of the vampire stories may be nothing more than a process of storytelling, superstition, hallucination and hysteria, providing nothing more than a cultural variation of the classic psychodrama involved in the poltergeist.
However, this does not detract from the fascination vampire cases hold for research. Indeed, it enhances it, identifying the power of storytelling to, not only entertain, but have a real effect upon culture and society.

© Anthony North, August 2007

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