Vampire feud still gets the blood up
‘SUPERNATURAL’ SIGHTINGS AT CEMETERY LED TO MAGICIANS’ VENDETTA
IT’S been dubbed the creepiest cemetery in London, but it was also the site of a pretty hilarious series of events (in hindsight, admittedly).
Local newspapers in the 1970s caught onto a story that would attract national attention – there was a vampire on the loose in Highgate cemetery, and two men were competing to be the first to catch it.
The cemetery, in North London , was the ‘it place’ for the resting souls of wealthy Londoners in the 19th century.
The graveyard is an impressive landscape of intricate tombstones, gothic busts battling unruly ivy, and an A-list guestbook of permanent residents including German philosopher Karl Marx and novelist George Eliot.
By the end of the Second World War, the cemetery was in need of some serious TLC. It was run-down, making it a perfect filming location for horror movies such as From Beyond the Grave and Taste the Blood of Dracula in the early 70s.
Sightings of a sinister, dark figure with blood-red eyes who appeared to glide above the grounds started cropping up in local newspapers. There was no other plausible explanation – it must be a vampire.
One of the sightings was recounted in a letter written by young Wicca (Pagan witchcraft) enthusiast David Farrant and published in the Hampstead and Highgate Express. Farrant claimed he had seen a tall, grey figure floating in the cemetery on Christmas Eve in 1969, and that he had since found foxes in the ground with their throats slit.
As president of the Psychic and Occult Society, it is no surprise that he jumped to paranormal conclusions.
Shortly after Farrant’s letter was published, a second man, Sean Manchester, was interviewed by the same newspaper for an article titled ‘Does a Vampyr Walk in Highgate?’
Mr Manchester claimed that the figure was in fact a ‘King Vampire,’ a medieval black magician who had practised magic in Wallachia, the home of Dracula, before being buried in the cemetery.
His body, Mr Manchester claimed, had been resurrected by a modern satanist and his demonic form now stalked the graveyard at night.
Mr Manchester, president of the ‘British Occult Society,’ self-professed exorcist and vampire-slayer, and alleged bishop of some unknown church, declared that he would be the one to rid the cemetery of the vampire.
Farrant hit back, saying that the vampire myth had been blown out of proportion with the unhelpful influence of the media, and that the figure was in fact nothing more than your common garden ghost.
In 1970 Manchester published The Highgate Vampire. Farrant came back with his publication of Beyond The Highgate Vampire.
Proving that hell hath no fury like a magician scorned, the two developed a feud that continues to this day, and their antics around the Highgate vampire hysteria attracted the attention of the national press.
Stories about the Highgate vampire got so out of control that on Friday March 13, 1970, an ITV special report about the cemetery prompted an angry mob to descend on Highgate, determined to rid their town of the vampire tormenting local residents.
Both Mr Manchester and Mr Farrant had been interviewed for the report, with Mr Manchester taunting his rival by announcing that he would be leading a vampire hunt at the cemetery every night.
Eager ‘hunters’ lined the gates and climbed over the walls to witness the event. Despite police efforts to control the mob, several graves were opened and corpses were beheaded and mutilated with spikes, both on that night and during subsequent ‘hunts.’
Although several hunters claimed to witness the dark figure in the cemetery, the cunning vampire remained unslewn.
Mr Farrant and Mr Manchester continued to compete, both claiming they would be the first to find and kill their undead neighbour.
The two decided to hold a duel to decide once and for all which of the two of them was the greater magician and paranormalist.
Flyers started to appear in London underground stations advertising the ‘magical duel,’ which was scheduled for April 13, 1973 on Parliament Hill in Hampstead.
Rumours swirled around the media that the two were planning to sacrifice a cat in the presence of ‘naked virgins.’
When a local man’s beloved pet failed to return home one day, Mr Farrant was villainised by the RSPCA and the media for allegedly having beheaded the animal as part of a pagan ritual.
The duel never took place, and Mr Farrant was arrested in 1974 next to Highgate Cemetery carrying a crucifix and wooden stake. He was convicted of damaging memorials and interfering with the dead remains.
But he successfully sued News of the World for making him look like a cat-killer.