Highgate Vampire Domain
“I became convinced that, more than
anyone else, the president of the Vampire Research Society knew the full story
of the Highgate Vampire.” ~ Peter
Underwood, President of the Ghost Club Society
In 1990, Peter Underwood retold the events of the Highgate
Vampire case (up to the first discovery of the suspect tomb in Highgate
Cemetery) in his book Exorcism! He commented in chapter six:
“The Hon Ralph Shirley told me in the 1940s that he had
studied the subject in some depth, sifted through the evidence and concluded
that vampirism was by no means as dead as many people supposed; more likely, he
thought, the facts were concealed. … My old friend Montague Summers has, to his
own satisfaction, at least, traced back ‘the dark tradition of the vampire’
until it is ‘lost amid the ages of a dateless antiquity’.”
In his anthology, The Vampire's Bedside Companion
(1975) which contains a chapter with photographic evidence from the Vampire
Research Society, written and contributed by VRS founder and president Seán
Manchester, Peter Underwood wrote:
“Alleged sightings of a vampire-like creature ~ a grey
spectre ~ lurking among the graves and tombstones have resulted in many vampire
hunts. … In 1968, I heard first-hand evidence of such a sighting and my
informant maintained that he and his companion had secreted themselves in one
of the vaults and watched a dark figure flit among the catacombs and disappear
into a huge vault from which the vampire … did not reappear. Subsequent search
revealed no trace inside the vault but I was told that a trail of drops of
blood stopped at an area of massive coffins which could have hidden a dozen
vampires.”
And probably did! In the previous year, two schoolgirls
had reported seeing the spectre rise from its tomb. One of these would be interviewed
by Seán Manchester. The case of the Highgate Vampire was about to open.
The reason why Seán Manchester initially wrote his
bestselling book (The Highgate Vampire) was due to so many
people contacting him to ask what really happened. Letters ran into hundreds,
and this accumulated following the commission from Peter Underwood and his
publisher, Leslie Frewin Books, to give an account of events up to and
including the spoken exorcism attempt of August 1970. Seán Manchester thought
this might stem the flow, but the case itself was yet to be solved, and reports
of unsavoury incidents continued to filter into the columns of local
newspapers. Hence the complete and unexpurgated account first published in
1985. A more intimate account was given in a special edition published by
Gothic Press in 1991 where the rear fly on the dust jacket states:
“[The author] recognises the immense public interest in
the Highgate Vampire case which is why he has written the present volume as a
final comment on what, in his own words, is ‘hopefully the last frenzied
flutterings of a force so dight with fearful fascination that even legend could
not contain it’.”
It was never Seán Manchester's intention to try and
convince anyone of the existence of the supernatural, yet still he receives
correspondence asking him to do precisely that. Nor was it his wish to
stimulate undue interest in these matters; though he accepts this has been an
unintentional by-product. By writing a comprehensive recounting of those events
surrounding the mystery, he merely sought to provide a record of his unearthly
experience for those who wanted to read about it.
In the wake of his book, and personal appearances where he
discussed its contents, some individuals were not slow to engage in shameless
exploitation of his work. The majority of enthusiastic readers of Seán
Manchester's work, however, have shown immense sympathy and encouragement.
The Vampire Research Society still has members living in
the vicinity of Highgate Cemetery and they know of no recent sighting from any
credible witness. No latter-day witnesses have been identified whose testimony
can be checked. Not one person has independently come forward to verify the
claim ~ a claim that still remains totally unsubstantiated. A lone,
amateur “vampire hunter” is as much a danger to himself as he is to any
investigation that might already be in progress. It is surely fundamental
common sense that if the pursuit of supernatural evil is a dangerous occupation
to embark upon, then the last thing anyone needs are meddlers drawing attention
to themselves in the media as invariably always happens. The outcome is a
breakdown in relations between officials, landowners and perhaps potential
witnesses and the bona fide researchers. This certainly happened at Highgate
Cemetery in London, and at Kirklees Hall Estate in West Yorkshire. One amateur
“vampire hunter” is bad enough, but each of those investigations became plagued
with all too many amateurs who only served to add to the mayhem. The curious
thing is that some subsequent reporting of events at a very much later date by
journalists who could not be bothered to do their homework only referred to the
antics of meddlers and amateurs in the Highgate Vampire case and made absolutely
no mention of the genuine VRS investigation that took place over a period of
thirteen years. The Vampire Research Society, though informally a specialist
unit within the BOS from 1967, became autonomous in February 1970. On 13 March
1970, Seán Manchester made a transmission for Thames Television as the head of
that organisation, and its parent BOS, where he warned against lone “vampire
hunting” by amateurs. Seán Manchester reiterated his disapproval on 15 October
1970 for a BBC television documentary that also included brief footage of one
such amateur brandishing a home-made stake and cross.
Message
Boards:
http://groups.msn.com/TheCrossandTheStake
http://groups.msn.com/HighgateVampire
http://highgatevampire.proboards22.com
http://groups.msn.com/VampireResearchSociety
http://groups.msn.com/BritishOccultSociety
http://groups.msn.com/KirkleesVampire
(Click
on titles in bright red)
Recordings:
The Highgate Vampire Recordings: Double CD of audio archive material relating to the Highgate Vampire case.
Books:
The Highgate Vampire: The World of the Undead Unearthed at London’s
Highgate Cemetery
(Published 1985, BOS; revised & updated edition 1991, Gothic Press)
The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook: A Concise Vampirological Guide
(Published 1997, Gothic Press)
Carmel:
A Vampire Tale
(Published 2000, Gothic Press)
(Click
on titles in bright red)
Discussion
of Books:
http://groups.msn.com/The-Highgate-Vampire
http://groups.msn.com/Carmel-AVampireTale
(Click
on titles in bright red)
