tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65047029338835996842024-03-19T23:05:31.635-07:00Friends of Bishop Seán ManchesterFoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-91901557284332855782013-12-31T04:00:00.000-08:002013-12-31T22:13:48.867-08:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #c0a154; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Statement</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 30px;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 30px;">— </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Bishop Se</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">án Manchester</span></span></span></h3>
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<a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/The%20Right%20Reverend%20Sean%20Manchester.htm"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSr7StnqdRhZmL4iM1awxnuhsvOZhpcQlHMVmt_SeJCE7tEw4kTTpK2SJ_RGnZ0CKfUJQwITO8dh9naOoLnXDu9UTM8p5TObOB9LG-tOmYplwbDw_mwuDB1BmboZY_lB97J4Zzt222-Q/s400/BSM-12.jpg" width="341" /></a></div>
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<strong style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Statement issued on 13 December 2013 by Bishop Seán Manchester regarding his status altering from public figure to private person:</span></strong><span style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #f9cb9c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: black; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #ffffcc;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I find today's world, particularly the cyber-world, all too frenetic and reactive. This jars with my own desire for creative contemplation instead of the tumult I see around me which being a public figure only serves to exacerbate. This reflective approach to everyday existence is at odds with being under public scrutiny, somewhere I have found myself for the past forty-four years. What most brought me to public attention were the television and radio programmes I regularly appeared on and also the books and documentary films associated with topics which hold the public imagination in thrall. It is for that reason I have not submitted a book for publication since the beginning of the 21st century. Likewise, I scaled back my broadcasts in the media to a point where I no longer make them. I ceased giving interviews to the print media decades ago and only then in quality magazines. Moreover, it will soon be three years since I declared I am no longer prepared to provide interviews on matters relating to Highgate. What there was to say has been said many times over. I found myself answering the same questions over and over again; questions which invariably are already answered in my published accounts. One of the problems, I quickly came to realise many years ago, is that interviewers, regardless of the subject, simply do not know the right questions and the questions are every bit as important as the answers. Another problem in the new century has been one of trust. Seldom have I encountered an interviewer in recent years who keeps his or her word. Consequently, any condition I might have set for providing a contribution was frequently and almost immediately compromised. Without trust and a sense of honour there is nothing. I cannot interact in that way and would rather stay silent than witness yet another agreement broken. I am still having to regularly turn down television and radio interview requests, along with a plethora of other invitations to partake in projects that would maintain a perception of me remaining a public figure, which, I accept, is exactly what I have been for most of my life. What made me so, however, is very much in the past. The memoir I began to write a decade ago will probably never see the light of day. This is for the best if I wish my privacy to be respected. The concomitants of being a public figure have slowly eroded over the last thirteen years to a point where I stand at the <span class="SpellE">threshhold</span> of finally achieving meaningful privacy. Hence, I have now stepped over that <span class="SpellE">threshhold </span>and become a private individual. This will not affect my <span class="SpellE">episcopal</span> duties, sacerdotal ministry, art and music<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>etc, but involvement in secular preoccupations and the expression of views on same in the public hemisphere <span class="GramE">is</span> now at an end.” </span></span></i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></strong><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 16.046875px; text-align: left;">† </span><strong style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Seán Manchester</span></strong></span></span></div>
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FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-52298843002827840122012-05-15T22:33:00.008-07:002012-05-15T22:41:19.747-07:00Official Statement — Isaac Ben Jacob<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Official Statement sent on 15 April 2012 by Isaac Ben Jacob and his wife to Bishop Seán Manchester regarding David Robert Donovan Farrant and the person calling herself "Della Farrant":</span></strong><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span><br />
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<em>"Me and my wife have discovered with a lot of surprise the existence of several blogs where we are notably being associated with David Farrant and his wife or girlfriend (I don't know if she is his wife or his girlfriend), whereas we have absolutely no contact with him, and we absolutely do not share his ideas.</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<em>"I wish to underline that my wife met David Farrant once or twice during meetings, and that it was David Farrant who started to talk to her, whereas she didn't know anything about him or his past. We recently found out that the reason why David Farrant initially made contact with my wife was in order to manipulate us, and to make you believe she was Della. If you look closely at the pictures of Della [posted in blogs], you will notice that the Della shown on the photos is always hiding her face, and that she always takes a posture which does not allow anyone to determine exactly how tall she is.</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<em>"I have attended a meeting myself three months ago, and I have seen Della and David Farrant together at this occasion. And when I tried to take a picture of them, Della immediately threw herself at me and my wife in order to force us to delete the photo from our camera.</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<em>"We do not have any relation or contact with Della and David Farrant, and we don't want to be associated with these two persons in any way, shape or form, because they have a sulfurous past, they have a reputation of being Satanists, and they are acquainted with people like Jean-Paul Bourre, whom I don't want to hear about.</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<em>"I know you have done research about me, and consequently you know I am an earnest academic researcher who uses scientific methods. Therefore you also know that I reject and condemn all magical practices, heretical deviancies, and obviously people, such as David Farrant, who have practised Satanism.</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<em>"I think that you and I have been manipulated in this case, and that you could help us reestablish the truth."</em><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #999999;">Source:</span><br />
<em><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></em><br />
<a href="http://therightreverendseanmanchester.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/official-statement-from-isaac-ben-jacob.html"><span style="color: #990000;">http://therightreverendseanmanchester.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/official-statement-from-isaac-ben-jacob.html</span></a><span style="color: #990000;"></span></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-38000594028926297102012-01-13T10:13:00.000-08:002012-01-19T05:32:03.774-08:00Coming Soon: The Vampire In Europe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4K6n6zGwF0kfxrJ-ud1Nw4dYlqFFGWWC2wG7HITwHJ63mT3soNVwU8TpdFIPMLaQa8bnlP1RPLSaposSJ47U2TNsRXaAjsOCVxf20R4-HHaPAHnB88IMzTW1ELQLDQJ-OjA8as5R9BuM/s1600/VampInEuropeOrigDustJacket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4K6n6zGwF0kfxrJ-ud1Nw4dYlqFFGWWC2wG7HITwHJ63mT3soNVwU8TpdFIPMLaQa8bnlP1RPLSaposSJ47U2TNsRXaAjsOCVxf20R4-HHaPAHnB88IMzTW1ELQLDQJ-OjA8as5R9BuM/s640/VampInEuropeOrigDustJacket.jpg" width="395" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>A new edition of Montague Summers' <em>The Vampire in Europe</em> will be published later in 2012.</strong></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong></strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>This will be a special edition with freshly contributed additional material. Watch this space ...</strong></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Montague%20Summers.htm"><img border="0" height="400" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQLrEUVY3ZX7-T79Us930uzXNgCQp1xzy_12nzMjp6bGR0zZ1FN1-nbV0jdPRCj2HOM80x8le1gIQlr60krdUyqbrHK944YkWeGyRAShnYCRahyJfiY-bFtaMIXKZ3W_ojQDxqlywny_w/s400/MontagueSummers1.jpg" width="358" /></a></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-89203918918874391782012-01-12T05:12:00.000-08:002012-01-12T05:28:14.998-08:00Shadows In The Nave<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGVrz6zIGSby9dCiA_m78QM7sy783MOZXs2pZtcrZyiuOp4OU-VO7IqKGfrbUo5DkgcXgatbsud5_OVVuS42TNcGjFi3YtHjM8MoBkHCv0eRerdmxPVBhgI6sy-LW2LdSWytLCa_dwik/s1600/ShadowsInTheNave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGVrz6zIGSby9dCiA_m78QM7sy783MOZXs2pZtcrZyiuOp4OU-VO7IqKGfrbUo5DkgcXgatbsud5_OVVuS42TNcGjFi3YtHjM8MoBkHCv0eRerdmxPVBhgI6sy-LW2LdSWytLCa_dwik/s640/ShadowsInTheNave.jpg" width="442" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Shadows In The Nave: A</span> <span style="font-size: large;">G</span>uide to the <span style="font-size: large;">H</span>aunted <span style="font-size: large;">C</span>hurches of <span style="font-size: large;">E</span>ngland </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Paperback]</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Paul Adams, Eddie Brazil & Peter Underwood (Authors) </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Publisher</strong>: The History Press (2011)</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Co-written by Bishop Seán Manchester's friend and colleague of many years, <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Underwood.htm"><span style="color: black;">Peter Underwood</span></a>, <span class="byLinePipe">this haunted history of England's churches and chapels is brought vividly to life in this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated modern guide. Here you will encounter the world of the unseen linked with a thousand years of worship <em><span style="font-family: Times;">—</span></em> including the Tudor phantom of Rycote, the lonely monk of Minsden Chapel and the sinister ghosts of Clophill, to name but a few. From the authors of <em>The Borley Rectory Companion</em> comes this eerie book, which covers seventy-five of the most notorious and lesser known of our haunted ecclesiastical buildings. Combining a wealth of historical and paranormal information with stunning original and atmospheric photographs, this volume is perfect for researchers and armchair ghost hunters alike. Paranormal historian Paul Adams and writer and photographer Eddie Brazil join Peter Underwood, the UK's most experienced ghost hunter and author of fifty books on the supernatural, in another literary partnership that will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts. </span></div><span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-35680103254861345732011-10-01T01:01:00.000-07:002012-01-12T05:05:43.424-08:00Out Of The Shadows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTi3Izz7z72Fl92_r7DGJCT3KiwXzt2_UUPU0FJpfjA2ecyCMDEnYtGD4XKR9712kYCtmTzophNyGctpWPwjJUxmw5GG0yXzsdJ0xX_p_yis8sDByN298h6PWBTSin4Q4J97B00m3OP-g/s1600/OutOfTheShadowsExorcist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTi3Izz7z72Fl92_r7DGJCT3KiwXzt2_UUPU0FJpfjA2ecyCMDEnYtGD4XKR9712kYCtmTzophNyGctpWPwjJUxmw5GG0yXzsdJ0xX_p_yis8sDByN298h6PWBTSin4Q4J97B00m3OP-g/s640/OutOfTheShadowsExorcist.jpg" t$="true" width="412" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center"><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows</span></strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[Paperback]</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bob McCabe (Author)</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Omnibus Press: Re-issue edition (1999)</span></div></div><div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bob McCabe is a movie buff who has written books about the work of Seán Connery and Terry Gilliam. He has also produced a rough guide to the comedy film genre. <em>The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows</em>, however, concerns itself with something much darker: the three films made about demonic possession in <em>The Exorcist</em> trilogy, but principally the first and by far the best of the three movies.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 1973 horror film <em>The Exorcist</em> is probably one of the most effective ever made about demonic possession. Movie patrons and critics alike praise the film which is still considered to be one of the scariest ever made. The film is based on a William Peter Blatty novel, but the novel found its inspirations from a source based in reality, the exorcism of Robbie Mannheim.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Released around the time of <em>The Exorcist</em>'s cinema re-release in the UK in 1998, preceding its long-awaited release on home video formats, it's an excellent overview of the making and release of this classic about the possession of a young girl. McCabe also includes small sections on the sequels, including <em>Exorcist II: The Heretic</em>, which is definitely very bizarre, and, of course, <em>The Exorcist III</em>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bob McCabe's <em>The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows</em> is an entertaining book about an interesting set of films.</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMdTMPkGLGT6SKLkRL1maOGg7ZP9PWDaGjTCXMlfffo18iltpbasz6f11WCextu2DmANssgbudznTUg8l1BSx3LVF2nWGc-_QuP_pj2SfPgIPMr-nI_PVrV1krWvaH4se2fY8AOzCojI/s1600/OutOfTheShadowsMcCabe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMdTMPkGLGT6SKLkRL1maOGg7ZP9PWDaGjTCXMlfffo18iltpbasz6f11WCextu2DmANssgbudznTUg8l1BSx3LVF2nWGc-_QuP_pj2SfPgIPMr-nI_PVrV1krWvaH4se2fY8AOzCojI/s400/OutOfTheShadowsMcCabe.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-19406768983217047112011-10-01T01:00:00.000-07:002012-01-12T05:05:19.050-08:00In The Shadow Of The Vampire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDw3dH167YbimLTikd6RoCK_7WR1OfqYUDuoA1t42SHbpyDnePIxPNdidS4YLYYWhbgmHeQxDmV3LRLISOvSG0UO63y45AUMceABQzCH0mWYe-iDaCA7fb3DBMyPHi_2NVwqlnBVtgfc/s1600/InTheShadowOfTheVampireCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDw3dH167YbimLTikd6RoCK_7WR1OfqYUDuoA1t42SHbpyDnePIxPNdidS4YLYYWhbgmHeQxDmV3LRLISOvSG0UO63y45AUMceABQzCH0mWYe-iDaCA7fb3DBMyPHi_2NVwqlnBVtgfc/s640/InTheShadowOfTheVampireCover.jpg" width="438" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center"><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In the Shadow of the Vampire: </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reflections from the World of Anne Rice</span></strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[Paperback]</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bob McCabe (Author)</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Thunder Mouth Press: Re-issue edition (1997)</span></div></div><div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> <br />
<div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper">Award-winning documentary photographer Jana Marcus has always been drawn to the fringe. One of her earlier collections was entitled <i>Midnight in Manhattan: A Decade of Subcultures and the Alternative Scene</i>. Staying with that theme, <i>In the Shadow of the Vampire</i> assembles portraits of and interviews with the devotees and acolytes of Anne Rice. And who are these people? Office administrators, translators, shop owners, students, and the more flamboyant (blood drinking vampiroids, assorted perverts, role-players <em>etc</em>). <br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<em>"Her books allow people to think about their place in society and identify their feelings through her characters' exploration of unconventional lifestyles,"</em> she opines. <em>"It is extraordinary how many people I've spoken to who had never read a book before they read an Anne Rice novel."</em> It might come as a culture shock to think of Anne Rice as an inadvertent champion of literacy! As may be expected, the reflections are a mixture of the banal and the more provocative. The phenomenon of Anne Rice's celebrity is, after all, <em>phenomenal</em>. The enormity of her appeal has given birth to the annual <em>Gathering of The Coven Ball</em> in New Orleans, cinema films, an Anne Rice tour company, a perfume line, a Lestat wine, and T-shirts emblasoned with an MRI of Rice's brain. If all that leaves the reader colder than sleeping alone in a coffin, then Goth-types and vampiroids might want to pick up a copy for tips on wardrobe and make-up. </div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper"></div></div><div><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
Its easy to have preconceptions about this book, obsessed individuals and excessive make up immediately spring to mind. But this book is not like that. In fact this book is very touching. The people who have contributed in interviews and photographic portraits within this book represent a fair cross section of society. Their stories are told with feeling and honesty. Most write in some way about the way Anne Rice's books have reflected or have helped in some way with their lives. Many feel parallels with the loneliness or isolation of her vampire characters, but the message is not depressing for many more seem to have found a sense of belonging or uplift from the Anne Rice books. This book presents a range of characters to the reader with glimpses into each of their lives and finishes with a pictorial overview of the Memnoch Ball, New Orleans, annually held by Anne Rice.</div><div></div><div><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
This book also gives a partial glance into the world of Anne Rice fans. However, it may affirm or disprove the notion that her fans are all weirdos. The book features college students, accountants, writers, exotic dancers, make-up artists <em>etc</em>. While it features intriguing people from all walks of life, it is probably not an entirely accurate view of her fans. The book perpetuates a certain fan stereotype, as though reading Anne Rice makes you estranged from the rest of society. <br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
It has been noted by others that Anne Rice is mainstream. Admitting you are a fan is not a taboo like declaring you are a dominatrix. There are fans who never made it to the infamous Balls when they were still in progress; there are fans who have no interest in exploring New Orleans outside of the books; and there are fans who detest Goth subculture, but still devour every single book Anne Rice releases. It would have been a far more representative book had it featured a larger diversity of fans. <br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
However, the book is still wonderfully constructed. The photographs are nothing short of superb, the fan accounts fascinating to read, and one really does walk away feeling that maybe those stereotypes are wrong.<br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><em>"Photojournalist Marcus compiles the thoughts and moody, moony photos of a hundred attendees at Rice's annual Gathering of the Coven Ball. For every partygoer who enthuses about blood-drinking rituals, ten more thoughtfully grapple with Rice's work, persona, and commercialism (they're not thrilled with her Lestat-themed restaurant). This passionate subculture comes, if not quite alive, then certainly undead on the page."</em> <span style="font-family: Times;">—</span> <i>Entertainment Weekly</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></em></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-70640512713128187052011-09-30T05:00:00.000-07:002011-09-30T08:19:10.016-07:00Klinger's Annotated Dracula<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UqqBHgoPt_rb5YJ_s-lmJVBAR2fRRBI_Sq3ALTf7owMcHAAQ-B52oPwVcLHHskNMalFTu2Lk_kg7xhWS5tWlr8GUODOpKZQSepEV_7EKpBt5oZvG0yVGiDLDu8w76vrUxvAy8_JNJk4/s1600/NewAnnotatedDraculaLeslieKlinger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UqqBHgoPt_rb5YJ_s-lmJVBAR2fRRBI_Sq3ALTf7owMcHAAQ-B52oPwVcLHHskNMalFTu2Lk_kg7xhWS5tWlr8GUODOpKZQSepEV_7EKpBt5oZvG0yVGiDLDu8w76vrUxvAy8_JNJk4/s640/NewAnnotatedDraculaLeslieKlinger.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="buying"><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The New Annotated Dracula </span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[Hardback]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bram Stoker <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author) - Leslie S </span></span>Klinger <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Editor)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Publisher: W W Norton & Co (2008)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Travelling through two hundred years of popular culture and myth as well as graveyards and the wilds of Transylvania, Leslie S Klinger illuminates aspects of Bram Stoker's gothic novel, including an examination of the original typescript with its shockingly different ending. He investigates the many subtexts - from the masochistic, necrophilic, homoerotic and dentophilic implications of the story to its political, economic, feminist, psychological and historical threads. Employing his literary detective skills, Klinger mines this 1897 masterpiece for nuggets that will surprise even the most die-hard <em>Dracula</em> student and enthusiast.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>The New Annotated Dracula</em> is a feature-packed presentation of Bram Stoker's original 1897 novel, presented in its unabridged version, together with 1500 notes, maps, illustrations, points of history and trivia, excerpts from Stoker's edited additional material. In brief, everything the <em>Dracula</em> acionado could want in a volume, including additional chapters on Stoker's life, information on TV and Film versions of the story <em>etc</em>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The editor has applied his brand of detective work to the Victorian novel about vampires that has no equal, and his edition is an extension of Stoker's attempt to give a work of fiction authenticity by telling it in the form of letters, diaries and such like. Examining their often faulty chronology has given commentators much entertainment. The notes are quite informative. For example, the hair-raising arrival of the Russian ship <em>Demeter</em> in Whitby harbour with the dead Captain lashed to the wheel was based on a real-life (but less unpleasant) incident from 1885. Bram Stoker, who made little money from his vampire novel, would have been surprised, but surely pleased, if he could have known what an impact it has had on our culture. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The illustrations, though interesting in themselves, however, are very poorly reproduced. This is a hefty tome, and the notes are informative for any scholar of Victorian literature. Less impressive are the essays on vampire films and subsequent literature which are little more than Klinger's personal taste and biased opinion. </span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The editor's conceit of taking the text as a factual narrative is at first amusing, but for some will be found ultimately unsatisifying. Leonard Wolf's 1975 edition is vastly superior in this regard, and somehow has an impact and atmospheric effect which Klinger's more recent effort does not achieve.</span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="buying" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bram Stoker deserves to be taken more seriously as a writer in the Anglo-Irish tradition and a more precise approach to this great cultural influence is deserved. Klinger's edition will still appeal to many collectors.</span></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-39872520716174489502011-09-29T01:00:00.001-07:002011-09-30T08:15:55.060-07:00Wolf's Annotated Dracula<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpNqUrS6cxA8tifox08IY7GsxaKlxXQ4uMbVsOX_bPH84jwOtcNAHPkZMJfDW50IFtA3GOf7eVgr3WQj1cL7BJ06NHiOVjpDT87yuOLJTJ-0mzLkVEaKBdKnUzzTXpwkRjt-yzksQ2Zw/s1600/AnnotatedDraculaLeonardWold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpNqUrS6cxA8tifox08IY7GsxaKlxXQ4uMbVsOX_bPH84jwOtcNAHPkZMJfDW50IFtA3GOf7eVgr3WQj1cL7BJ06NHiOVjpDT87yuOLJTJ-0mzLkVEaKBdKnUzzTXpwkRjt-yzksQ2Zw/s640/AnnotatedDraculaLeonardWold.jpg" width="579" /></a></div><div align="center"></div><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Annotated Dracula </span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">[Hardback]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bram Stoker <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author) - </span></span>Leonard Wolf <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Editor)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Crown (1975)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leonard Wolf has been described as the world's most revered <em>Dracula</em> scholar. A native of Transylvania who left <em>"the land beyond the forest"</em> as a child, Wolf has taught and written about Bram Stoker's gothic masterpiece for decades. In 1975, he published <em>The Annotated Dracula</em>, which remains to this day the most elaborately annotated edition of the novel and has been the version found in <a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bishop Seán Manchester</span></span></a>'s extensive private library since its publication. <br />
<br />
<em>The Annotated Dracula</em> is a large book whose many illustrations and interesting notes are a pleasure to peruse. The text of Bram Stoker's <em>Dracula</em> is taken from the second printing of the first edition, with typos in tact. The annotations include over one hundred illustrations, drawings and monochrome photographs. Fifteen full-page drawings by the artist Sätty (Wilfried Podreich) are also featured. These are captivating expressionist interpretations of scenes from <em>Dracula</em>. All the illustrations are black and white. <br />
<br />
Sadly, <em>The Annotated Dracula</em> has been out of print for some considerable time. Its latest incarnation is <em>The Essential Dracula</em>, a handsome softcover edition released in 2004. <em>The Essential Dracula</em> retains and, in some cases, augments the footnotes found in <em>The Annotated Dracula</em>, but dispenses with most of its illustrations, all of the Sätty drawings, and the Appendixes. For those who simply want the information contained in the notes, <em>The Essential Dracula</em> will suffice; though the notes border on microscopic and can be difficult to read. <em>The Annotated Dracula</em>, with its maps, charts, and abundant illustrations, is a far more elaborate edition. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mpaDC3FThZKrnYiY3qSn2SadlXjtAGpMnWkXCpkIHwHlfiavFb3se-305tA9D9wBVl9GFDC0mgtCqThruwHCuI_lRMrckmbPidCLVTC_munXJN0n897ugLOf9k-DLBcusE9_IFPEztg/s1600/LeonardWolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mpaDC3FThZKrnYiY3qSn2SadlXjtAGpMnWkXCpkIHwHlfiavFb3se-305tA9D9wBVl9GFDC0mgtCqThruwHCuI_lRMrckmbPidCLVTC_munXJN0n897ugLOf9k-DLBcusE9_IFPEztg/s200/LeonardWolf.jpg" width="140" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Leonard Wolf was born in Vulcan, Transylvania. There are two villages named "Vulcan" in Transylvania. They are known in German as <em>Wolkendorf bei Kronstadt</em> (Vulcan near Braşov) and <em>Wolkendorf bei Schäßburg</em> (Vulcan near Sighişoara). Which, we must ponder, does Wolf hail from? <span class="text">Wolf is best known for his authoritative works on horror genre literature and film. He was the editor of <em>The Essential Frankenstein</em> and <em>The Essential Dracula</em> and technical advisor on the early 1990s films <em>Bram Stoker's Dracula</em> and <em>Mary Shelley's Frankenstein</em>. Wolf is also a much-published writer of poetry, fiction, social history, and biography, and a leading translator of literature. His writing in the horror genre has twice been honoured with the Anne Radcliffe Award for Literature. His most recent book as an editor is <em>The World According to Itzik: Selected Prose and Poetry</em>, a compilation of the works of folk writer Itzik Manger. Leonard Wolf lives in New York City.</span><br clear="all" /><br />
A native of Transylvania who left <em>"the land beyond the forest"</em> as a child, Wolf has taught and written about Bram Stoker's immortal novel for decades. <br />
<br />
<em>The Annotated Dracula</em> is a large book whose many illustrations and fascinating notes are a sheer pleasure to peruse. In his introduction, the author takes the reader on a tour of the traditions and circumstances from which <em>Dracula</em> eventually emerged at the hand of Bram Stoker. He discusses Gothic Romance literature, the vampire literature that preceded <em>Dracula</em>, Eastern European vampire folklore, Vlad Tepes (the 15th century Wallachian Prince from whom Count Dracula takes his name), and, finally, the life of the novel's enigmatic author, Bram Stoker. Annotations in the form of margin notes are found on most pages of the novel. Wolf has included explanations for every imaginable allusion in the text, as well as interesting personal comments. The reader receives quite a history lesson just reading the notes. Some of the most intriguing notes include: recipes for the Romanian dishes on which Jonathan Harker dines, population demographics for Transylvania in the late 19th century, translations of old Mr Swales' dialect, explanations of Victorian figures of speech, and the particulars of Victorian typewriters that Mina employs so frequently. Reading straight through the abundant notes might prove a too much for the average reader because reading them while following the novel can prove distracting. They are nevertheless ideal for afcionados, enthusiasts and students concentrating on one chapter or passage at a time and ceratinly add to the enjoyment of the novel when absorbed in moderate doses. <br />
<br />
The Appendixes contain maps of Transylvania, Europe, England and Wales, Whitby, London, and the Zoological Gardens in London, with places from the novel marked. A calendar of incidents charts the events of the novel from May to November 1887 (the year <em>Dracula</em> takes place) in coherent form. Students and aficionados may appreciate "Dracula Onstage," a chart of Count Dracula's appearances in the novel, with page numbers. There is a Selected Filmography that includes notable <em>Dracula</em> films, 1922-1974, including films featuring the Count Dracula character, not necessarily based on Stoker's novel. British, American, and foreign-language editions of <em>Dracula</em> from 1897 to 1973 are also listed. There is an Index for the novel that is helpful but not comprehensive. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The marvelously sinister etchings by Satty (of Ramparts and the Berkeley Barb), this reprints Brain Stoker's deathless (undead?) story with copious annotations and informative illustrations make this an absolutely essential collector's item. Trivia such as what a yew branch looks like, or a trephining apparatus, or to know the Orient Express connections to Bulgaria before 1894, along with all the rest of the weird and wonderful additions, serve to make Leonard Wolf's <em>The Annotated Dracula</em> the best edition in existence.</span></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-41294827450094761472011-09-01T01:00:00.001-07:002011-09-01T01:16:02.545-07:00A Vampire Tale<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrgrKQyaLoF9XmYrTBnyCbrAGD9A2NbLYS4cLVMEZR1X4aF8QwiGpufNv1qzOr3vR3-uUN1IbW_YX3RBfJtut3iFwehG4hEuWz37fmpBSZ3EVhYuO1nsfUizYnqUREslCKlNZe78hbds/s640/CarmelDraculaSequel.jpg" width="418" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Carmel: A Vampire Tale</strong> </span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: justify;"><div align="center"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Paperback]</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seán Manchester</span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> </span><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gothic Press</span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (2000)</span></div><br />
<br />
<em>"We are transported into that fearful realm of supernatural evil peculiar to vampires as the author skillfully restores those near-extinct elements from yestercentury. At the centre is a story painfully real. It is the story of the holder of the name of the book’s title. Is she an actual person? Or merely a novelistic embellishment? Just as the case of the Highgate Vampire inspired much of this sequel to Stoker's Victorian vampire tale, so the person of book title's name inspired the persona of the main character. Based on some real events, the effect of CARMEL as a vampire tale will chill your blood. Here is a terrifying exploration into the nether world of the undead where the reader is found wandering betwixt Victorian tombstones as the original contagion spreads its venom in 20th century England. Do not fret - Transylvania is not forgotten."</em> — Katrina Garforth-Bles (National Secretary, <a href="http://vampireresearchsociety.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black;">V.R.S.</span></a>)</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>“Seán Manchester is the natural writer of any attempt to resume the story of DRACULA.”</em> — Vincent Hillyer (author of <em>Vampires</em>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>“There is but one person who can write the definitive sequel to Stoker’s original masterpiece . . . one person who will imbue it with the same eerie atmosphere and remain true to the tradition . . . that author is Seán Manchester.”</em> — Devendra P Varma (author of <em>The Gothic Flame</em>) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>“This vampire tale is a most enchanting read. Seán Manchester’s style, imagination and sensibility makes CARMEL quite a jewel. Stoker has, at last, a literary heir worthy of writing a sequel.”</em> — Sylvaine Charlet (authoress of <em>Lits de Pierres</em>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>“I felt I had to say how much I enjoyed CARMEL - easily the best vampire novel I have read since the original DRACULA. Absolutely enthralling. Tremendous atmosphere and a mounting tension that in my experience has only been equalled by Bram Stoker’s masterpiece. Congratulations! Congratulations!”</em> — Peter Underwood (author of <em>Exorcism! </em>and<em> The Vampire's Bedside Companion</em>)</div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-77744839491310571742011-08-31T01:00:00.000-07:002011-09-03T03:07:52.682-07:00From Demons To Dracula<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssvazkaegOYXjyPV8ueY2XNDWaaeNMQ2K5NJyOT25hrJkMdYMI_dbRTrQ23hyphenhyphen6VfdgIE-AQsv0evM6rDxLcYkb2s0nZz-vlsRUGKVGWvAiyGF770zYN-dHnjfGzsnE2JXKkQgmH25f_8/s1600/FromDemonsToDracula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssvazkaegOYXjyPV8ueY2XNDWaaeNMQ2K5NJyOT25hrJkMdYMI_dbRTrQ23hyphenhyphen6VfdgIE-AQsv0evM6rDxLcYkb2s0nZz-vlsRUGKVGWvAiyGF770zYN-dHnjfGzsnE2JXKkQgmH25f_8/s640/FromDemonsToDracula.jpg" width="406" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">From Demons To Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">[Paperback]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Matthew Beresford <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Reaktion Books Ltd (2008)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><i>From Demons To Dracula</i> is structured around a number of key periods and important events that have driven the evolution of the vampire legend throughout history. Matthew Beresford considers the importance of real-life sightings and genuine belief, historical figures, literary and cinematic portrayals, and contemporary sub-cultures, all of which have had some influence on the emergence of the instantly recognisable contemporary vampire, and the conventions we associate with it, like living in darkness, drinking blood, and aversion to religious items, particularly Christian symbols. <br />
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This exploration begins with the antiquity’s obsession with death rituals that include excarnation (the de-fleshing of the body), mummification, the building of cairns, placing coins on the eyes or in the mouth, and communal burial chambers. These practices, being closely linked with spiritual beliefs in existence after death, opened the way for the superstition that an improper or incomplete ritual may lead to a person becoming un-dead or a vampire. Beresford goes on discuss the vampire throughout the Middle Ages, focusing on the link between the vampire and the Devil since the evolution of Christianity as the dominant European religion. At this time, according to Beresford, conceptions of vampirism were closely related to issues of morality, and in repressing and undermining pagan and occult practices. Here then, the vampire becomes a symbol of evil and a heretical scapegoat of Christianity, linked to Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Christ and immoral behaviour including aberrant sexual activities. This can be seen in the common belief that living an evil life or being excommunicated by the Church could lead to an exceedingly wicke person becoming a vampire. <br />
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The chronicle goes on to explore the emergence of the vampire in literature and cinema, and accounts for the most famous and impacting works in relation to our continuing enthralment of the vampire legend. Dracula, of course, is given significant attention, as is Vlad Tepes, the historical figure on whom Bram Stoker apparently based his demonic Count. Beresford is rigorous in showing a chronology of fictional development, looking at early poetry such as <em>Dante’s Inferno</em> and <em>Beowulf</em>, the first fictional depictions such as James Malcolm Rymer’s <em>Varney the Vampire</em>, then moving on to Stoker’s <em>Dracula</em>, and Anne Rice’s <em>Vampire Chronicles</em>. Cinematic portrayals are also duly considered. Beresford's emphasis that cinema has played a key, if not the key role in the development of our modern conception of vampires, is central to his approach. He explores this cinematic evolution through Murnau’s <em>Nosferatu</em>, Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee’s portrayals of Dracula, through to <em>The Lost Boys</em> and the <em>Blade</em> franchise. Through these examples, Beresford illustrates how the vampire legend has been transformed over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, reflecting social and cultural conditions that allowed the vampire to evolve from a grotesque Victorian monster, as is the case in Nosferatu, to a beautiful, erotic and tragic being in <em>Interview with a Vampire</em>, to an action figure in <em>Underworld</em>. <br />
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While Beresford suggests that our modern day conception of the vampire has dissipated any real belief or fear of vampires as real threats, he goes on to explore contemporary examples of vampiristic activity such as sanguinarians who actively drink blood — though usually from a willing donor — and instances of genuine modern vampire fears as in the case of the <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm"><span style="color: black;">Highgate Vampire</span></a>. He asks whether it is <em>"coincidence that both the Rev'd Montague Summers, who wrote two important works on the vampire in the 1920s, and the priest Se<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">á</span>n Manchester, the self-proclaimed exorcist of the Highgate Vampire, the only modern case of a vampire scare in England, are or were devout believers in the vampire?"</em> What he does not ask is why these two Catholics became <em>"devout believers in the vampire,"</em> and whether this had anything to do with them each being personally confronted by such supernatural manifestations of demonic evil? Later he refers to Bishop Se<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">á</span>n Manchester's and other people's assertion that <em>"both Eastern and Western churches accepted the existence of vampires ...</em><em> supported by the fifteenth century book Malleus Maleficarum"</em> where vampirism is considered to be <em>"one of the worst manifestations of the Devil."</em><br />
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An entire chapter is devoted to the bare bones of the Highgate Vampire case which is largely gleaned from Se<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">á</span>n Manchester's <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm"><span style="color: black;">bestselling account</span></a> from which a quoted extract appropriately heads Beresford's offering. There is also some mention of interloping bandwagoneers, including <em>"a gang of youths"</em> arrested two days after <em>"the Wessex Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomena announced they would hold a vigil at the tomb of a suspected vampire"</em> in September 1978 <em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">—</span></em> four years after the vampire had been successfully exorcised! <em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">—</span></em> and, unsurprisingly, <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-farrant.html"><span style="color: black;">David Farrant</span></a> in whom Matthew Beresford constantly discovered<em> "further contradictions in his story,"</em> that he <em>"was arrested and jailed for five years in 1974 for tomb vandalism"</em> and <em>"the fact that Manchester was never in trouble with the police, even though according to his accounts it was he who performed exorcisms, gained entry to graves and tombs on several occasions and ultimately destroyed the vampire,"</em> concluding <em>"it is therefore difficult not to take Manchester's side in the proceedings."</em> </div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-89472353763063611772011-08-30T02:00:00.001-07:002011-08-30T02:17:06.848-07:00The Browning Version<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgUUbxP3ZGKBP45kdBy0kuRPqkORm3ipBxYwqA1yfn3Gpy-Txaxy5nVUPmqksLBy-wCB-gyJpXaTyfZCTC5wOBQ35XiZFZprVisTbYTR2HJxlnZfgDSjvz1F2HwzPjYxhELFgrd7V9Nw/s1600/VampireKith%2526Kin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgUUbxP3ZGKBP45kdBy0kuRPqkORm3ipBxYwqA1yfn3Gpy-Txaxy5nVUPmqksLBy-wCB-gyJpXaTyfZCTC5wOBQ35XiZFZprVisTbYTR2HJxlnZfgDSjvz1F2HwzPjYxhELFgrd7V9Nw/s640/VampireKith%2526Kin.jpg" width="416" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
<h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Vampire: His Kith & Kin | A Critical Edition</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Montague Summers <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author) - </span></span>John Edgar Browning <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Editor)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Apocryphile Press (2011)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In all the dark pages of the supernatural there is no more terrible tradition than that of the Vampire, a pariah even among demons. Foul are his ravages; gruesome and seemingly barbaric are the ancient and approved methods by which folk rid themselves of this hideous pest. The tradition is world-wide and of the greatest antiquity. How did it arise? How did it spread? Does it indeed contain some vestige of truth, some memory of savage practice, some trace of cannibalism or worse? These and similar problems inevitably suggested by a consideration of Vampirism in its various aspects are fully discussed in this work which may not unfairly claim to be the first serious and fully documented study of a subject that in its details is of absorbing interest, although the circumstances are of necessity macabre and ghastly in the highest degree. Included in this critical edition are the authoritative text, rare contextual and source materials, correspondence, illustrations, as well as Greek and Latin translations. A biographical note and chronology are also included. The latest edition of Montague Summers' very first literary foray into the world of the undead (published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner in 1928) is edited by John Edgar Browning with an Introduction from Rosemary Ellen Guiley (<span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires Among Us</span>, 1991; <span style="font-style: italic;">The Complete Vampire Companion</span>, 1994; <span style="font-style: italic;">The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters</span>, 2004/2011; <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires</span>, 2008), and an Afterword by Carol A Senf (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Vampire in Nineteenth Century English Literature</span>, 1988). A Foreword is offered by J Gordon Melton (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead</span>, 1994/1999/2011). </span></div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">John Edgar Browning (born 14 October 1980 in Nashville, USA) is a PhD. student and Arthur A Schomburg Fellow in the American Studies Department at The State University of New York at Buffalo. He has contracted and co-written eight books, including <em>Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture</em> (Scarecrow, 2009); <em>Dracula in Visual Media: Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921–2010</em> (McFarland, 2010), <em>The Vampire, His Kith and Kin: A Critical Edition</em> (Apocryphile Press, 2011), and <em>Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology</em> (Palgrave Macmillan, contracted and forthcoming); chapters for <em>Asian Gothic: Essays on Literature, Film, and Anime</em> (McFarland, 2008), <em>The Encyclopedia of the Vampire</em> (Greenwood, 2010), <em>Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore and Religion in the PC and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series</em> (SmartPop, 2011), and <em>Schooling Ghouls: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Pedagogy of Horror</em> (accepted and forthcoming); plus articles for various journals, including <em>Film & History, Horror Studies, Studies in the Fantastic</em>, and <em>Dead Reckonings: A Review Magazine for the Horror Field</em>. Additionally, he has spent nearly two years conducting an ethnographic study of persons living in New Orleans who self-identify as vampire, a project that has become the focal point of his doctoral dissertation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span></div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="text-align: justify;"><em>"Although published too late to help Professor Van Helsing defeat Dracula, every modern vampire-hunter needs Summers's seminal compendium of folklore and mythology. Browning's critical edition, with commentary by leading vampirologists and rich biographical material, is a treasure-trove for students and scholars alike!"</em> — Leslie S Klinger, editor, <i>The New Annotated Dracula</i><br />
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<em>"Summers's extensive albeit curious research on vampires has long been a classic in the field, and it's exciting to see it being rescued from oblivion, as well as framed by such a renowned yet diverse group of scholars."</em> — Katherine Ramsland, <i>The Science of Vampires</i><br />
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<em>"This new edition cannot be recommended too highly to anyone with the faintest interest in Montague Summers or the origin of vampires."</em> — Nigel Suckling, <i>Book of the Vampire</i></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-89461948709646910132011-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:002016-03-22T01:57:28.783-07:00Exorcism!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVxT7y-VV43qRDWCNv5tjObPUACQTx6rG90AZ2cBpPMpiK8j8iwUTerSwmreeR5QmzQTEHFCOVzjcDiNl9b0X6L9aq_YbJCEtsFQ1DoqSt6Vyex1o4DoiGSlG3G4tviWijUZgM9Rc95M/s1600/ExorcismPeterUnderwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVxT7y-VV43qRDWCNv5tjObPUACQTx6rG90AZ2cBpPMpiK8j8iwUTerSwmreeR5QmzQTEHFCOVzjcDiNl9b0X6L9aq_YbJCEtsFQ1DoqSt6Vyex1o4DoiGSlG3G4tviWijUZgM9Rc95M/s640/ExorcismPeterUnderwood.jpg" width="438" xaa="true" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Exorcism!</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">[Hardback]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Underwood.htm"><span style="color: black;">Peter Underwood</span></a> <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author)</span></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Robert Hale (1990)</span></div>
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<i>Exorcism!</i> is an investigation of the truths and myths behind an age-old ceremony. Throughout history, the practice of exorcism has been used for the purpose of driving out evil spirits and demons thought to possess human beings and the places they inhabit. But there are more startling instances where exorcism has been used: to cure a trawler that seemed to be cursed; to expel demons from Bram Stoker's black "vampire" dog; even to rid Loch Ness and the Bermuda Trinagle of their evil ambience. Peter Underwood explores this frightening ritual in relation to witches, vampires and animals, while his far-flung researches have unearthed dramatic cases in Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and the United States, as well as the British Isles where chapter six returns to the familiar case of the Highgate Vampire. Peter Underwood explains on page 139:<br />
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<em>"When I was researching The Vampire's Bedside Companion in 1974, Seán Manchester, president of the British Occult Society [dissolved two year's prior to the publication of Exorcism!] and something of an expert on present-day vampires was kind enough to contribute a chapter and I will paraphrase his remarkable story of the Highgate Vampire [up to and including the failed exorcism attempt in the summer of 1970]." </em><br />
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The book contains a striking full-page photograph of Seán Manchester wearing a Transylvanian fur hat and accompanying Eastern European attire suitable for a cold winter's night with an array of crucifixes spread out before him.<br />
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The photograph on the dust jacket (see above) shows an exorcism in Grimsby in 1981. <br />
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Peter Underwood had been president of the Ghost Club (latterly known as the Ghost Club Society) since 1960 and has probably heard more first-hand ghost stories than any man alive. Long-standing member of the Society for Psychical Research, the British Occult Society (1860-1988) and Vampire Research Society, he had lectured, written and broadcast extensively. He took part in the first official investigation into a haunting and was present at numerous exorcisms. Peter Underwood (born 1923) sadly died in the winter of 2014.<br />
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<em>Exorcism!</em> offers some thought-provoking insights into a mysterious and powerful phenomenon, and the book's nine chapters covering this topic make for some fascinating reading.<br />
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FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-39997838528423080152011-08-01T00:00:00.001-07:002011-08-01T00:48:04.602-07:00Infernal World Of The Undead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0SeivXz5bp2xTrzVXLe1gxFF_sMkSc5qfgXEgb4dZ1HPn99jIAUg_qi6O2wGdfFjfGqBn8LFadyBz5ck2it9xGxLk02FwOs92_N_PNFMGGNAuHq6Bk2u-b5ITui4-7cFjlwcC7JdCoI/s640/THVfrontcover.jpg" t$="true" width="436" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: center;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Highgate Cemetery and Environs</strong> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Hardback]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seán Manchester</span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> </span><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gothic Press</span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (1991)</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the definitive account of the UK’s best documented contemporary vampire case written by the man who led the only investigation into the spectral hauntings, nightly visitations, demonic disturbances and blood-lettings at Highgate Cemetery and environs. Spectres rising from tombs, ghostly manifestations in moon</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: inherit;">lit lanes, nocturnal attacks on people and animals, corpses drained of blood — almost everyone has heard tales of the Highgate Vampire. Only this book offers the full and unexpurgated account written by the man who was at the epicentre of the official investigation into these mysterious and terrifying happenings. Illustrated with case file photographs from the author's own archive plus line drawings inspired by the recorded history, this revised and handsomely updated edition in hardback has already become a collectors' item. Copies are signed by the author. This enlarged edition stands as the last word on the case by the man who investigated it from start to finish.<br />
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<em>“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, he knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire.”</em> — Peter Underwood, ghost hunter & author, The Ghost Club Society, London, England<br />
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<em>“I am very impressed by the body of scholarship you have created. Seán Manchester is undoubtedly the father of modern vampirological research.”</em> — John Godl, paranormal researcher and writer, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia<br />
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<em>“Seán Manchester is to be congratulated on this fine piece of research work which I confess to enjoying to the extreme.”</em> — Professor Devendra P Varma, vampirologist & author, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada<br />
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<em>“Seán Manchester is the most celebrated vampirologist of the twentieth century.”</em> — Shaun Marin, reviewer and sub-editor, <em>Encounters</em> magazine, England<br />
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<em>“A most interesting and useful addition to the literature of the subject.”</em> — Reverend Basil Youdell, Literary Editor of <em>Orthodox News</em>, Christ the Saviour, Woolwich, England<br />
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<em>“This book will certainly be read in a hundred years time, two hundred years time, three hundred years time </em>—<em> in short, for as long as mankind is interested in the supernatural. It has the most genuine power to grip. Once you have started to read it, it is virtually impossible to put it down.”</em> — Lyndall Mack, <em>Udolpho</em> magazine, Chislehurst, England<br />
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Elizabeth and Barbara, two sixteen-year-old students of La Sainte Union Convent, were walking home late at night after visiting friends in Highgate Village in early 1967. Their journey took them down Swains Lane which intersects Highgate Cemetery, a Victorian graveyard in two halves on a steep hill. These intelligent students could not believe their eyes as they passed the cemetery's north gate at the beginning of their downward path between the two graveyards. For there before them, amongst the jutting tombstones and stone vaults, the dead seemed to be emerging from their graves. The two schoolgirls walked in eerie silence until they reached the bottom of the lane. Here they spoke for the first time, having finally found their voice, and confirmed they had both experienced the same terrifying scene. So frightening was their experience that Barbara would not talk about it again. Elizabeth, however, gave the author her account some months later. It was tape-recorded and can be heard in a television film documentary about the Highgate Vampire case. Elizabeth recounted: <em>"We both saw this scene of graves directly in front of us. And the graves were opening up; and the people were rising. We were not conscious of walking down the lane. We were only conscious of this graveyard scene."</em> Demonry later took hold on Elizabeth where her elocuted and very attractive feminine voice would suddenly erupt into a distorted masculine sound, deep and harsh, that issued threats. Her boyfriend, Keith, recalled this phenomenon in an interview he gave for a documentary (<em>True Horror: Vampires</em> distributed by Discovery Channel) which DVD also includes archive recordings of Elizabeth speaking about her vision and the punctures on her neck.</span></span></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The revised and updated edition was preceded by the first edition in 1985, which was published in paperback by the British Occult Society. Rare <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0951060600/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new"><span style="color: black;">new copies</span></a> can be obtained from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Highgate-Vampire-Infernal-Unearthed-Cemetery/dp/0951060600/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312108046&sr=1-3"><span style="color: black;">Amazon</span></a>. Its front and rear covers appear below:</span></span><br />
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<h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Vampire's Bedside Companion: The Amazing World of Vampires in Fact and Fiction</span> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[Hardback]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Underwood.htm"><span style="color: black;">Peter Underwood</span></a> <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author & Editor)</span></span> </span></div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> Leslie Frewin Books (1975)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><i>The Vampire's Bedside Companion</i> is a riveting compendium of new facts and fiction on the undying' theme of vampirism.<br />
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Here is a new theory on the genesis of <i>Dracula</i> (surely literature's most compelling and macabre figure?); thoughts on allusions to vampirism in <i>Wuthering Heights</i>; first-hand experience of vampires in Highgate and Hampstead, London, by <a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: black;">Seán Manchester</span></a> who renders the first account of the Highgate Vampire in print up to and including his attempted exorcism in the summer of 1970; publication for the first time of the story of a fifteenth-century vampire protection medallion that Montague Summers presented to the author; an account by Professor Devendra P Varma, Dalhousie University, of a visit to Transylvania — <i>The Vampire's Bedside Companion</i> contains these and a wealth of other hitherto unpublished material on a subject that is of enduring interest: the vampire legend.<br />
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To many people, vampires are creatures only of legend and fantasy with no reality outside the pages of books. Others, who have studied the folklore of many countries and the continuing reports of vampirism, maintain that there is extensive evidence not only that vampires once existed but that, in fact, they still do exist. In this fascinating book the author, himself an acknowledged expert on these occult matters, presents true accounts of vampire infestation in England, America, Ireland, Hungary, China and France. Records of vampires and vampirism are, he claims, as old as the world and as recent as yesterday.<br />
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Four new, exciting and authentic vampire fictional stories by Peter Allan, Crispin Derby, Richard Howard and James Turner complete this compelling companion for dark nights, solitude and howling winds!<br />
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Illustrated with many striking photographs, <i>The Vampire's Bedside Companion</i> also contains original and evocative drawings by Geoffrey Bourne-Taylor.<br />
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In the following year, Coronet published a paperback edition. Its front cover appears below:</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs45x2T3nK1UbYQuiBMQJBxQQ6u5CXMtdDUPnVvLnBFHA8TWlo7NDhhqqi61Wi4Yj2r5kxCNMQ0sw3u69_ZD6E_vG8Eflwa_qAW4I-tZL62_FTuZXt014Cb0Wb3xTPf7xEgMzZlUdHk8Y/s1600/TVBCpb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs45x2T3nK1UbYQuiBMQJBxQQ6u5CXMtdDUPnVvLnBFHA8TWlo7NDhhqqi61Wi4Yj2r5kxCNMQ0sw3u69_ZD6E_vG8Eflwa_qAW4I-tZL62_FTuZXt014Cb0Wb3xTPf7xEgMzZlUdHk8Y/s400/TVBCpb.jpg" t$="true" width="252" /></a></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-29251206026912709432011-07-30T22:00:00.000-07:002011-07-30T23:12:26.257-07:00Vampirological Guide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq96KryDpprCmjUO_q8DmH1RlF8oQd9nJsflzNR2Di8xenU9R3gOTHpr_-sMM4F2N7A5l17FKQerlNAH0H7ibhkXmA-b3_I3ixwaUfYdBnqyK69tUZLvqbcST4bPROE92kfHFalWhJrEU/s640/TVHHfront.jpg" t$="true" width="411" /></a></div><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span id="btAsinTitle"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h1><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Vampire Hunter's Handbook: A Concise Vampirological Guide</span> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></h1><div class="buying" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[Paperback]</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: black;">Seán Manchester</span></a> <span class="byLinePipe"><span style="color: #666666;">(Author)</span></span> </div><div align="justify" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Publisher:</strong> <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><span style="color: black;">Gothic Press</span></a> (1997)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><em>"This book is not about fictional vampires of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula genre, but real life blood sucking monsters. It should also be pointed out that there is a long tradition of people who hunt down and kill vampires. This book is not for the faint-hearted, or those people who live alone in rambling houses located on deserted moor</em><span class="text_exposed_show"><em>s."</em> — Shaun Marin (<em>Encounters</em> magazine)<br />
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<em>"Seán Manchester is, unsurprisingly, very well read in both classical and more recent sources on vampires and vampirism, and cites them with great authority while taking the reader through a brief tour of vampire lore and mythology. This is a book I’d recommend to anybody with an interest in the author or vampires. The parts which deal with vampires are obviously based on years of substantial research and personal experience."</em> — Joe McNally (<em>Fortean Times</em> magazine) <br />
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The vampire has been defined down the ages as an accursed body which cannot rest in the kindly earth, but nightly leaves its grave to prey on sleeping men and women through whom they are believed to maintain a semblance of life by sucking thence the warm blood of such victims while they sleep. Sir James Frazer in the second volume of his work <em>The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religions</em> (1934) is in no doubt that vampires are <em>“malicious ghosts who issue from their graves to suck the blood of the living, and stringent measures are deemed necessary to hinder or arrest this horrible proceeding.”</em><br />
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They are, of course, demonic. In certain circumstances (though these are few and far between) those who expire from the parasitic undead's visitations and quaffing of their life-blood will themselves be at risk of becoming undead in their turn. This does not occur where the person is in a state of grace; where any mortal sin that stains their soul has been absolved. And by no means are the great majority of victims destined to return as undead. It would seem that those who become undead in this way are fewer than might be imagined. This nevertheless remains an enigma where probable candidates are those who have led a life of more than ordinary immorality and unbridled wickedness; where the individual has possessed a surfeit of selfish passions, evil ambitions and cruelty. Such undead, however, are thought to be those who have delighted in blood and devoted themselves during their life to the practice of diabolism and the black arts. Thus an undead is more likely to result from exceedingly base and cruel actions; especially where devil worship and devotion to the black arts has occurred.<br />
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The supernatural agency is demonic and, whilst human beings cannot actually transform into demons themselves, they may be possessed by them, and thus appear transformed. In the case of contamination followed by expiry of a candidate there exists the possibility that their malevolence sets in action forces which might prove powerful for terror and destruction even beyond the grave. It is hardly to be supposed that such persons would rest undisturbed while it is less difficult to contemplate the existence of this hideous life in death where the demonic is extant and seemingly manifests itself as a corporeal form. The smallest drop of blood can be employed by a demonic entity, enabling the wraith to form in a tangible manner. Such revenants are attracted to blood which allows them to effect their purpose. The ancient Israelites would not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Hebrew word that translates as “life” in Deuteronomy 12: 23 (<em>“Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life”</em>) also signifies “soul.”<br />
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The undead partakes of the dark nature and mysterious qualities of both revenant and demon. The exorcist must always be mindful of these alarming characteristics - not least the undead's terrible blood lust — and must never go unprotected when putting himself at risk during operative field work. Manifestation via the blood is the undead’s means of metamorphosis into a form often indistiguishable from a corpse. Since the undead do not exist in time — they dwell in what is described as "anti-time" - they will cast no shadow, nor will their reflection be seen in a mirror or water’s surface. The crucifix symbol itself is utterly abhorred by them, and indeed all forms of evil. The object and what it is made of does not possess any power, yet it is so strongly symbolic of the triumph of good over evil that it alone repels evil and whatever is an emissary of evil. However, when employed by a person the intent and faith of the person employing it is paramount. This might seem like a paradox. Christian items and holy places utterly repel evil people who oftentimes delight in their sacrilege. Likewise supernatural evil shuns these holy items.<br />
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It is indubitably unwise for these sacred symbols to be adopted as mere fashion accesories. Similarly, of course, it is unwise in the extreme for diabolical symbols to be adopted and worn. So the power of the crucifix exists, but will be magnified one thousandfold when supported by faith. Exorcism does not "kill" the demonic agent. It rids our sphere or dimension of the supernatural predatory wraith. The corporeal host once exorcised obviously returns to its true state and is no longer plagued by the apparent supernatural ability to manifest as though it were living.<br />
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<em>“Whether we are justified in supposing that cases of vampirism are less frequent today than in past centuries, I am far from certain. But one thing is plain — not that they do not occur, but that they are carefully hushed up and stifled.”</em> — Montague Summers (<em>The Vampire in Europe</em>, 1929).</span></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-87666022733126205352011-07-29T02:00:00.000-07:002011-10-16T11:00:16.828-07:00BBC's "24 Hours" - 15 October 1970<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="UIImageBlock clearfix" data-ft="{"type":10}" style="text-align: center;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}" style="color: #660000;"><a __untrusted="true" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WBBwNa4CA" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v<wbr><span class="word_break"></span>=01WBBwNa4CA</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="UIImageBlock clearfix" data-ft="{"type":10}" style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="UIImageBlock clearfix" data-ft="{"type":10}" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WBBwNa4CA"><img alt="" class="img" height="300" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBacVB2bURJwzPS&w=130&h=130&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F01WBBwNa4CA%2Fdefault.jpg" width="400" /><i></i></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WBBwNa4CA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Seán Manchester - Cimitero di Highgate (Storia di un Vampiro)</strong></span></span></a><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><span class="caption"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3b5998;"><span style="color: #999999;">www.youtube.com</span></span></a></span> </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">An alarmingly abridged version of BBC television's <em>24 Hours</em> programme has been uploaded onto YouTube by <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ezDZBOZZcVQ"><span style="color: black;">David Farrant</span></a>. It reveals the bandwagoneer contradicting virtually everything he nowadays claims about his arrest at Highgate Cemetery while he was prowling amongst the tombs on the night of 17 August 1970 and exposes him as a revisionist at best and a liar at worst. His addiction to publicity makes anything which includes him to be suitable for dissemination, even when it exposes his contradictory claims. The bulk of the original programme focussed, of course, on Bishop Seán Manchester's investigation into the mysterious case of the Highgate Vampire at its inception. Mr Farrant obviously does not want anyone seeing this material and has therefore deleted all the footage where Bishop Seán Manchester features and also all reference to the <a href="http://britishoccultsociety.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black;">British Occult Society</span></a>, an organisation to which Mr Farrant owed no connection whatsoever despite his fraudulent claim to the contrary in the years that followed. Some of the material showing Bishop Seán Manchester deleted by Mr Farrant appears above in the Italian language version of a Discovery Channel programme's inclusion of the original 1970 television footage. <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-farrant.html"><span style="color: black;">Mr Farrant</span></a>'s highly selective version of the programme appears below.</span></div><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </div><div class="commentContent UIImageBlock_Content UIImageBlock_SMALL_Content" data-ft="{"type":33}" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #660000;">http://www.youtube.com/wat<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>ch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY</span></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY"><img border="0" height="287" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9oGuI86E1zO6TN-lIywdRubaGjZ1xmyM2tUpsK2IQrPpFnM8wSsDpzy1me4_IqhCmWn-jtcq-WME9dVVzsULo8WmpiD6VUq936vvBx_q6IdSMCLACyQGyl4XpJOhqxoUmieB8zfjMJ0/s400/FarrantBBC1970.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>David Farrant - BBC "24 Hours" Oct 1970 (expurgated)</strong></span></span></a> <br />
<div class="UIImageBlock_Content UIImageBlock_MED_Content fsm fwn fcg" data-ft="{"type":10}" style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3b5998;"><span style="color: #999999;">www.youtube.com</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #999999;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-92174868228249455972011-07-15T02:00:00.000-07:002015-02-25T04:22:52.156-08:00Post Script<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8xgAtRDGtuliS2leoDQBuQmto4T4iYa-nAYTis_i9R6fa9Bp78Bm8faEdJJ8uu82E5LrBo-_nWeCyN1ItB6iI2v5OGxhVdVust_Y4C-4znwAuayfZ3brh5a4R1CmZjSRX84KAKG30_Wk/s1600/DeadLetterBox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8xgAtRDGtuliS2leoDQBuQmto4T4iYa-nAYTis_i9R6fa9Bp78Bm8faEdJJ8uu82E5LrBo-_nWeCyN1ItB6iI2v5OGxhVdVust_Y4C-4znwAuayfZ3brh5a4R1CmZjSRX84KAKG30_Wk/s400/DeadLetterBox.jpg" height="148" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“I have spent most of my life studying accounts of vampirism, and have indeed visited Highgate Cemetery on numerous occasions. How it has changed over the years! I am interested in research into any accounts of actual vampirism, from the writings of Dom Augustine Calmet through to modern day accounts. I have a copy of The Highgate Vampire [by Seán Manchester] which I found very interesting. I remember the events at the time they happened and the various newspaper reports. It was then that I first came across the name ‘David Farrant.’ I met him once in a pub near Highgate and found him to be a compulsive liar and there was something shifty about his mannerism. I have since warned many people to stay clear of him.”</em> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Andy Pryce, Paranormal Researcher, (19 February 2001)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnsEfp4aIETy_pFK_AlOdCDgVpIEXq3oC_dwD2c6QyM-t4MGRl5TmG8tSMl-2odFYb3hLMVeUdbR2TiFbiW69jHfea3ad3dJ37yHCc5wrs8JH2oPo9mVN1PZDrpVhmyMX5PIEcfSt4Xg/s1600/FarrantStillBonkers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnsEfp4aIETy_pFK_AlOdCDgVpIEXq3oC_dwD2c6QyM-t4MGRl5TmG8tSMl-2odFYb3hLMVeUdbR2TiFbiW69jHfea3ad3dJ37yHCc5wrs8JH2oPo9mVN1PZDrpVhmyMX5PIEcfSt4Xg/s400/FarrantStillBonkers.jpg" height="400" t="" true="" width="295" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><em>"Mr P J Bucknell, prosecuting, said Mr Farant had painted circles on the ground, lit with candles, and had told reporters and possibly the police of what he was doing. 'This appears to be a sordid attempt to obtain publicity,' he said."</em> <em>— Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, 24 November 1972</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“But for the results of his actions, this scruffy little witch could be laughed at. But no one can laugh at a man who admits slitting the throat of a live cat before launching a blood-smeared orgy. Or at a man who has helped reduce at least two women to frightened misery.”</em> <em>— </em> Sue Kentish, <em>News of the World</em>, 23 September 1973</span></div>
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<span style="color: #ccffcc; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><em>“The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant — she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton — said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband. They have not lived together for three years.”</em> — <em>The Sun</em></span><span style="color: black;">, 21 June 1974</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“All he talked about was his witchcraft. He was very vain.”</em> — Julia Batsford (ex-girlfriend quoted in the <em>Daily Mail</em>) 26 June 1974</span><br />
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<em>“I cannot believe for one moment that he is a serious student of the occult. In fact I believe him to be evil and entirely to be deplored.”</em> — Dennis Wheatley, <em>Daily Express</em>, 26 June 1974</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“I think he’s crazy.”</em> — Canon John Pearce Higgins, <em>Daily Express</em>, 26 June 1974</span><br />
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<em>“The jury were shown folders of pictures of naked girls and corpses, and told about a black-clothed altar in Farrant's flat with a large drawing of a vampire's face. When questioned, Farrant said: 'A corpse was needed to talk to spirits of another world'.”</em> — George Hunter & Richard Wright, <em>Daily Express</em>, 26 June 1974<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“The judge [Michael Argyle QC] said any interference with a corpse during black magic rituals could properly be regarded as a ‘great scandal and a disgrace to religion, decency and morality’.” </em>—<em> The Sun</em>, 26 June 1974</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #ccffcc; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><em>“Judge Michael Argyle QC passed sentence after reading medical and mental reports. He said that Farrant — self-styled High Priest of the British Occult Society [sic] — had acted ‘quite regardless of the feelings of ordinary people,’ by messing about at Highgate Cemetery.”</em></span></span><span style="color: #ccffcc; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ccffcc; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">— <i>Hornsey Journal</i>, 19 July 1974</span></span><br />
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<em>“The programme [for the Fortean Times Convention 1996] came up with ‘His investigations had far reaching and disturbing consequences’ which I said meant he’d been arrested a lot. Strangely enough, this is more or less what he said. God, I felt old being the only member of [my] group who could remember this nutter being arrested every few weeks.”</em> — Maureen Speller (April 1996)</div>
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<em><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Our enemies should not be the people of this world, but rather the spirits of evil that have entered this world. He is a lost soul who has very likely attracted something spiritually malevolent early in his life which has ever since influenced him and darkened his thoughts. I first met him four decades ago when he contacted his local newspaper after making vague claims about an apparition he had sighted. It soon became clear he was more interested in the limelight than anything genuinely paranormal. He also developed a fascination with me which quickly turned into an obsession — by which time he had taken to emulating me to no small degree. When I distanced myself a few months later, he turned unpleasant and court cases ensued. This was followed by his fraudulent adoption of my title and the name of the research society I then presided over. Things began to spiral downwards at an alarming rate as he turned to what ostensibly appeared to be diabolism, but in truth was just further attention-seeking for the sake of the media.</span> </span></em><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>I prefer to deny this man the oxygen of publicity where I am concerned and advise others to do the same. Those who feel enraged by his behaviour should remember he is still one of God's creatures, and if possible they should pray for him. Pray for his state of mind and endangered soul. Otherwise, please just ignore him."</em> — Bishop Seán Manchester (<a href="http://therightreverendseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2009/11/adventus.html"><span style="color: black;">November 2009</span></a>)</span></div>
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FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-73297646340379719162011-06-08T04:00:00.000-07:002011-11-09T07:18:14.614-08:00The Last Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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The owner and administrator of the <em>Supernatural World</em> forum today announced:<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"After much consideration I have decided to close all Highgate-related topics permanently. I've taken in to account several factors which I feel have left me with no other option. <br />
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"My main concern is the impact these topics are having on the site's appeal to visitors and current members. Many members clearly have issues with the way these topics have dominated proceedings for well over 6 months now. When there is a negative impact in this way it's important I heed the warnings and take the appropriate course of action. <br />
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"I also believe that after all these months there has been no real progression in the discussion, the dialogue continues in a repetitive manner and seems to be heading nowhere. I would also add that the amount of administration these topics have required is not acceptable. The number of complaints I've received is more than any other topic in the 8 years this site has been online. Granted the vast majority have come from the Manchester camp, but still, the amount of attention these topics have required has meant the rest of the site has suffered. <br />
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"One aspect that has concerned me is the obsessive manner with which certain individuals carry themselves. I feel this obsession is unhealthy, particularly when you take in to account that certain individuals have never met the two men in question. I feel this had led to some very strong comments and views which can only end in disaster.<br />
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"All the topics are now closed but will remain open for visitors and members to read.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"I'd like to thank those who have participated in the Highgate forum and would hope you continue to contribute to other forums on the board."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The above announcement was signed by "Phen" (<em>aka</em> "Phenomenon" <em>aka</em> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/brendankilmartin?v=wall"><span style="color: black;">Brendan Kilmartin</span></a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">None of the topics about Highgate Cemetery and related matters, however, remained open for visitors. Even ordinary members could not access the pages unless carefully vetted and personally approved by Brendan Kilmartin who is somewhat economical with the truth where these controversies arise. Mr Farrant and his handful of hangers-on, moreover, continued to post on the hidden forum pages after Mr Kilmartin's public declaration, but, of course, without any opposition. Bishop Manchester, needless to say, continues to be a prime target for abuse and misrepresentation from the usual offenders.<br />
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Out of the three members posting rebuttal comments in support of Bishop Manchester, only one remained. The others had been banned. One because he asked for a temporary ban to be made permanent. He is not an acquaintance of Bishop Manchester. The other because Mr Kilmartin suspected him of alerting Bishop Manchester to infringement of the bishop's copyright which led to a legal DMCA notice being served and the stolen material subsequently being removed. He was banned on the vague suspicion that he assisted in the removal of illegally uploaded images. <em>Veritas</em> alone remained free to post refutation and balancing statements. Although known to the bishop, <em>Veritas</em> had not once complained to the moderators over the vitriolic and frequently defamatory comments aimed at Bishop Manchester and anyone sympathetic to him. <em>Veritas</em> ceased posting on the Highgate forum in the previous month, having commented that the arguments were largely circular, repetitive and obsessive. <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/anthony-hogg.html"><span style="color: black;">Anthony Hogg</span></a> and <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-farrant.html"><span style="color: black;">David Farrant</span></a> are the worst offenders when it comes to compulsive, repetitive posts. They have been exchanging comments that go nowhere for most of this century. This fruitless exercise has served to bore everyone and muddy the waters when it comes to examining the bare bones of the Highgate matter. <em>Veritas'</em> penultimate post on the Highgate forum observed: <em>"The bottom line is that Farrant hates the truth. He cannot abide it. He will say and do anything to cover it up, but always without example, evidence or proof of any kind."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No surprise when the last member to post anything on the forum was found to be <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/anthony-hogg.html"><span style="color: black;">Anthony Hogg</span></a>. He had posted no less than one thousand and sixty-nine times! In fact, Mr Hogg was the very last person to post comments on seven of the Highgate forum's topics before closure stopped him in his tracks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ironically, David Farrant was well and truly on the ropes when the final curtain came to anyone not sympathetic to him. Cú Chulainn had unintentionally hung his friend out to dry by uploading an article he had found (on public library microfilm) from the <em>Hampstead and Highgate Express</em>, 15 October 1971, which reveals Mr Farrant using a Catholic crucifix and Christian bible to defeat vampires with attributed quotes to confirm this. Those who had been going along with Mr Farrant's latter-day denials about such things suddenly found they had egg on their face. David Farrant also admitted in the article that, as well as Christian symbols and a bible, he armed himself with garlic to ward off <em>"the king of the undead"</em> (another quote directly attributed to him by the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> newspaper).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final "open" post to appear on the Highgate forum was also a real humdinger. <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/anthony-hogg.html"><span style="color: black;">Anthony Hogg</span></a> had disovered some of David Farrant's trial testimony online, and wondered what Cú Chulainn (real name <a href="http://www.facebook.com/redmond.mcwilliams"><span style="color: black;">Redmond McWilliams</span></a> who describes himself on Brendan Kilmartin's forum as "Roman Catholic" but gives "Agnostic" as his religion on Facebook where he declares himself to be in a homosexual relationship) might make of Victoria Jervis' revelations under oath when called as a witness. He offered two quotes from her court testimony:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Victoria Jervis and David Farrant's arrest in 1972.</strong></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"I have tried to put most of what happened out of my mind. The false letters I wrote to a local paper were to stimulate publicity for the accused. I saw him almost every weekend in the second half of 1972 and I went to Spain with him for a fortnight at the end of June that same year. I was arrested with him in Monken Hadley Churchyard. That incident upset me very much. Afterwards, my doctor prescribed tranquilisers for me."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Facing Mr Farrant in court to address him, Miss Jervis added:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"You have photograhed me a number of times in your flat with no clothes on. One photograph was published in 1972 with a false caption claiming I was a member of your Society, which I never was."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On another occasion, she recalled, she'd written psuedonymously to a local newspaper at Mr Farrant's request <em>"to stimulate publicity for the accused."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No response was forthcoming from Cú Chulainn (<a href="http://www.facebook.com/redmond.mcwilliams"><span style="color: black;">Redmond McWilliams</span></a>), David Farrant or anyone else. The forum appeared to choke on its own revelations and abruptly stumbled into an abyss. Brendan Kilmartin, a Facebook friend of David Farrant and Jamie Coster (Mr Farrant's eldest son, now calling himself "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1516926414&sk=wall"><span style="color: black;">Jamie Farrant</span></a>"), closed the Highgate forum to visitors and regular members within a couple of days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When <em>Veritas</em> had earlier commented <em>"Bishop Manchester upholds what is found in Corinthians 6: 9-11, Romans 1: 25-27 and 1 Timothy 1: 8-10"</em> in response to Cú Chulainn (himself an active homosexual) falsely claiming that homosexual acts are acceptable for Christians, even Roman Catholics like himself, Brendan Kilmartin piped in with <em>"I find your view of homosexuality sickening to the core!"</em> Adding: <em>"Fortunately for you Veritas you are not sat on a neighbouring stool in my local, if you were, and you muttered such horse crap in my earshot I'd introduce you to the back of my right hand."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such rhetoric was a familiar tool in dealing with certain topics raised on the forum, and David Farrant flunkies such as Rob Milne are a dab hand at reeling-out libellous insult laced with threats of violence. Mr Farrant's eldest son (born in November 1967) also indulges in vulgar language and not-so-veiled threats. Jamie Coster <em>aka</em> Jamie Farrant had stayed out of the picture for over four decades before deciding to seek out his deviant father to the chagrin of the rest of his family. <em></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Veritas</em> commented:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"After forty years of managing to avoid Farrant's curse, Jamie Farrant (chatty.gef) has finally had the sins of the father visited upon him. Now approaching forty-four, he seems every bit as reprehensible as the man whose poisonous legacy he continues by colluding in a vendetta almost as old as himself. Jamie Farrant suddenly sought out his father and decided to change the surname, which had served him for the best part of four decades, from 'Coster' to 'Farrant.' And if anyone objects to me mentioning names, I also object to perfectly innocent people from the past being identified on this forum by Farrant, Vallicrus, Milne and others of that ilk. The guilty parties seem to think that because Farrant has done this elsewhere on the internet they are allowed to do the same and name in full people who do not engage in any of these conversations and are only being maligned by Farrant because of a connection they might have, currently or historically, with Bishop Manchester."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://thehighgatevampire.blogspot.com/2009/02/seventeen.html"><span style="color: black;">Della Vallicrus</span></a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001902018288"><span style="color: black;">Tony Sheridan</span></a> are a couple of sock puppets who, even if they existed in their own right, have no substance or indeed friends beyond David Farrant and some of that small clique which swarm like flies around him. Cú Chulainn <em>aka</em> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/redmond.mcwilliams"><span style="color: black;">Redmond McWilliams</span></a> does exist and has visited David Farrant at his north London hovel on various occasion, as has Mr Farrant visited Mr McWilliams at Morden in Surrey. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Veritas</em>, in his last post on the forum, had this to say about Cú Chulainn (<a href="http://www.facebook.com/redmond.mcwilliams"><span style="color: black;">Redmond McWilliams</span></a>):</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"Cú Chulainn hypocritically talks about 'love and compassion for your fellow man' a matter of hours after suggesting to the administrator that I should be banned from the forum. His claim that Farrant's <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2011/04/friends-of-bishop-sean-manchester.html"><span style="color: black;">dubiously truncated press cutting</span></a> is pukka, and much else besides to provide alibis for his friend, leaves me in little doubt that he has an agenda not so very far removed from that of Farrant. That he is out to blacken the name of Bishop Manchester is as plain as day. He tries to dress his smear campaign with a veneer of reason, but it quickly peels off upon inspection. He might not be as harsh and as gruff as Farrant and son, but he is patently batting on their team. He sought out Farrant and visited him at his Muswell Hill abode. This he might say is because of his interest in the subject. Yet he has at no time sought out Bishop Manchester, and, even though he repeats the taunts of Jamie Farrant regarding the bishop's ministry, has not seen fit to contact him by any means whatsoever."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his last forum post, <em>Veritas</em> further observed:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"David Farrant has been obsessed with it for over forty years, and Anthony Hogg has been compulsively posting about it on the internet for most of this century. Both do so on an almost daily basis; sometimes lasting for hours on any given day. They do not just post about it here, but also on other people's forums and on their own blogs and boards There is something unhealthy, abnormal and decidedly dark about obsessiveness at this level. It is verging on what might be described as a psychotic disorder. I have contributed over the last few weeks, and again briefly before Christmas last year, but there is nothing left to say because all I find are people like Hogg repeating misconceptions which have already previously been addressed. Nobody is going to allow themselves to be subjected to the sort of cross-examination Hogg would like to exact, and he is never going to be satisfied with an answer given by either camp. So discussions enter a vortex and merely end up going in never-ending circles. I want no part of that exercise as I do not feel the compulsion shown by some here to keep going round in circles for the remainder of their lives. Farrant will always keep plugging away at his propaganda because he feels compelled to attack Bishop Manchester at every available opportunity despite the fact that the bishop now ignores him and no longer gives interviews on the topic which links them in the minds of some people."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the day before <a href="http://www.facebook.com/brendankilmartin?v=wall"><span style="color: black;">Brendan Kilmartin</span></a> closed down the Highgate forum to visitors and existing members not part of the anti-Bishop Manchester clique, David Farrant published on his blog the latest photograph of himself. In it he is wearing yet another anti-Bishop Seán Manchester T-shirt whilst clutching an unlit cigarette in his crippled left hand. He had been invited to a fancy dress party, he claimed, and the T-shirt was the best he could come up with. Mr Farrant's "best" has always turned out to be his worst. There is a bubble coming out of the depiction of the bishop on the T-shirt, which says: <em>"I curse thee, Farrant!"</em> Nothing could be further from the truth, which is precisely why the most sympathetic and charitable quote sock puppet <a href="http://thehighgatevampire.blogspot.com/2009/02/seventeen.html?zx=38170754efe3777e"><span style="color: black;">Della Vallicrus</span></a> could come up with on her <em>Supernatural World</em> forum signature is something written by Seán Manchester in the first edition of <em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm"><span style="color: black;">The Highgate Vampire</span></a></em>, which states: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In all the years I have known David Farrant, I have found not a single shred of evidence to suggest that the least of these things are true. I do not believe that he has ever partaken in a real black magic ceremony, nor do I believe that he is capable of harming an animal, not even for publicity. Of the charges relating to graveyard damage I believe him to be innocent also." </span></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These words appear at the foot of every comment posted by the person using the nomenclature <a href="http://thehighgatevampire.blogspot.com/2009/02/seventeen.html?zx=38170754efe3777e"><span style="color: black;">Della Vallicrus</span></a>. David Farrant never posed any real threat to animals, even if he falsely claimed he sacrificed them in witchcraft ceremonies (solely for the sake of attracting media attention), and the dead had nothing to fear from this man whose asinine nocturnal antics in graveyards, as attested by his wife under oath, were merely for a <em>"<a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Shroudeater_files/image006.jpg"><span style="color: black;">for a bit of a laugh and a joke</span></a>"</em> and, of course, the thing he is addicted to more than booze and fags — publicity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The damage Farrant inflicted has always been on the living who fell victim to his depraved behaviour, sick pranks, charlatanry and insatiable lust for fame. Instead of becoming famous, <a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/FarrantFacts.htm"><span style="color: black;">David Robert Donovan Farrant</span></a> became infamous in the worst way imaginable and his name has now become synonymous with fakery, falsehood and foolishness.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil36WYrI8sLTRcRJI04fXmYdY9BMuTQtnCM2RE8a81Eh1EwTsDX6w5gDQurbPP-F0P1Sa2fbZmSXtfT9gSB5Iau3eY2__1V_tkR2Bueve0AMI24nqt49lnN2x_IlJJFIOQiwSN0eDB8jA/s1600/DFNewAnti-BSMt-Shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil36WYrI8sLTRcRJI04fXmYdY9BMuTQtnCM2RE8a81Eh1EwTsDX6w5gDQurbPP-F0P1Sa2fbZmSXtfT9gSB5Iau3eY2__1V_tkR2Bueve0AMI24nqt49lnN2x_IlJJFIOQiwSN0eDB8jA/s640/DFNewAnti-BSMt-Shirt.jpg" t8="true" width="398" /></a></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant wearing his anti-Bishop Seán Manchester T-shirt.</strong></em></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmTcMyGdTMKfN6H2c-ws0kyIc38qt8BcAj1g2IlB1EO_ss9DnJfVOpqU646oexHF6q8Bz8psauPYoSW4GUVOWy0wHYTkjmTVRBA6tSOS8Ele8wWMDPz2MpTMJyZx3q2ZaQQkmM1v_zA2E/s1600/ImpostorFarrant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmTcMyGdTMKfN6H2c-ws0kyIc38qt8BcAj1g2IlB1EO_ss9DnJfVOpqU646oexHF6q8Bz8psauPYoSW4GUVOWy0wHYTkjmTVRBA6tSOS8Ele8wWMDPz2MpTMJyZx3q2ZaQQkmM1v_zA2E/s400/ImpostorFarrant.jpg" t8="true" width="400" /></a></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Blasphemous parody and poor imitation of Bishop Seán Manchester.</strong></em></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvLLs8Qb6ZmvJSNlB42T_qy69xQmmORhPsVvdTzCfwSfdFiFSrtbreHDVumu7ZycZEvrCoNmrIi-1p92zN9Xhwiu_VtHUNuuJ9OXeRe23TJ3WmETZZjjfAAVU9w-4lwaSURpH2c8KXno/s1600/ImpostorPriest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvLLs8Qb6ZmvJSNlB42T_qy69xQmmORhPsVvdTzCfwSfdFiFSrtbreHDVumu7ZycZEvrCoNmrIi-1p92zN9Xhwiu_VtHUNuuJ9OXeRe23TJ3WmETZZjjfAAVU9w-4lwaSURpH2c8KXno/s640/ImpostorPriest.jpg" t8="true" width="481" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><em><strong>Where the only spirit is whiskey and the only incense is cancerous smoke.</strong></em><br />
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-567374664915158282011-05-31T01:00:00.000-07:002011-06-22T01:26:16.677-07:00Impersonation<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEVi3VZvx6hWyQggYfXVmzGk_RegTTuSG3VLZyzOAbLjskrKv7sXZM_iYW8qCY6JVFEcUa-1ZiwHz3hbmxL98SzI0gp4Kleuv4f5nR6f2fTlHFNZmLCqa5BTA3ixN0EO8yAQXZuYevPU/s1600/RealPriest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEVi3VZvx6hWyQggYfXVmzGk_RegTTuSG3VLZyzOAbLjskrKv7sXZM_iYW8qCY6JVFEcUa-1ZiwHz3hbmxL98SzI0gp4Kleuv4f5nR6f2fTlHFNZmLCqa5BTA3ixN0EO8yAQXZuYevPU/s200/RealPriest.jpg" t8="true" width="149" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVnL36Iw_sZLUBxTsfRqlfN4kdXHQVE4jgUUthLkEIhhNfRIWvnzy0I_auP2Dzr5XhJnbswX00pAcoJ2mWHfujYTMr0jNgmBIzu5zjh8s0AnLpuRnPGvoCii7t5xRV08VR9RZxfCvoLU/s1600/FakePriest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVnL36Iw_sZLUBxTsfRqlfN4kdXHQVE4jgUUthLkEIhhNfRIWvnzy0I_auP2Dzr5XhJnbswX00pAcoJ2mWHfujYTMr0jNgmBIzu5zjh8s0AnLpuRnPGvoCii7t5xRV08VR9RZxfCvoLU/s200/FakePriest.jpg" t8="true" width="136" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><em><strong>Real cleric. Fake cleric.</strong></em></div><br />
<span style="color: black;">It is illegal to impersonate a <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2"><span style="color: black;">person</span></span> of the clergy unless it is transparently obvious that it is intended as a fancy dress costume at a fancy dress party, or something of that kind, and the intention, wittingly or unwittingly, is not to deceive anyone into believing the fake cleric is actually an ordained clergyman in holy orders. Someone who has impersonated another person for many years, for example, might be clinically diagnosed as having a mental disorder for compulsive impostorising. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Impostor syndrome</span>, sometimes called impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome, however, is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalise their accomplishments, and should not be confused with the kind of malicious impersonation being described here which is often accompanied by acts that are to the detriment of the impersonated. In many countries it is a crime to impersonate somebody on the internet, and it is certainly illegal to dress up as a priest if the person doing so could be confused with a real clergyman.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qpTNHsCxZd8eY5Ix9D3MbO3XhE1kJqhxPe8v4DSXa-2Ya2VXKPiuFX54aMZf3jPGCLxZfag3cjsFry-u8jXcecvcBnVQG-dXDqfo-kLGTFamyh_5Ja8emPKU18uDPb-hlmXXQbrVM4g/s1600/SMmeetsDFMarch1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qpTNHsCxZd8eY5Ix9D3MbO3XhE1kJqhxPe8v4DSXa-2Ya2VXKPiuFX54aMZf3jPGCLxZfag3cjsFry-u8jXcecvcBnVQG-dXDqfo-kLGTFamyh_5Ja8emPKU18uDPb-hlmXXQbrVM4g/s320/SMmeetsDFMarch1970.jpg" t8="true" width="209" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXQ9cd8qEyM6giC9PZdq8rpCMlnwzEYY6bZIS17ImwyW_Ga3cym6zNipETDRfPcDIFDK7CHtFBHV_5sz6r5PZ2-5ZQgq0hjxhjtcn7HVQXbNusPfGPyyEDzhpQEY06iMTiBFdIK1nJvs/s1600/GhostlyWalkMarch1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXQ9cd8qEyM6giC9PZdq8rpCMlnwzEYY6bZIS17ImwyW_Ga3cym6zNipETDRfPcDIFDK7CHtFBHV_5sz6r5PZ2-5ZQgq0hjxhjtcn7HVQXbNusPfGPyyEDzhpQEY06iMTiBFdIK1nJvs/s320/GhostlyWalkMarch1970.jpg" t8="true" width="206" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant's first meeting with <span style="font-family: inherit;">Seán</span> Manchester in early 1970.</strong></em></div><br />
Due to an attention-seeker called David Robert Donovan Farrant having his letter published in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, Seán Manchester agreed to meet him at Highgate Cemetery so Mr Farrant could point out the spot where he allegedly sighted the spectral entity mentioned in his correspondence. Seán Manchester was not impressed by David Farrant, a scruffy individual who harped on about potential media coverage of the alleged ghost he said he had seen. Their meeting nevertheless made front page news in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, 6 March 1970, with the photograph (above, left) appearing next to the newspaper's headline <em>"Why do the foxes die?"</em><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT7ulEkKI_iAMe5Z6X2ffz39EO91I1xnv3MFLGbpvLWUua1yrYPZaMFDK-MPo7gNLbiDhyair1GENtCinv_dI8lWkkJjxW0kIr1UacUNwnvMWC7wdfB368uVWt_qdYkx0ba5qX56Z5Js/s1600/Ham%2526HighFoxes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT7ulEkKI_iAMe5Z6X2ffz39EO91I1xnv3MFLGbpvLWUua1yrYPZaMFDK-MPo7gNLbiDhyair1GENtCinv_dI8lWkkJjxW0kIr1UacUNwnvMWC7wdfB368uVWt_qdYkx0ba5qX56Z5Js/s320/Ham%2526HighFoxes.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Seán Manchester in those days often wore a bow tie and, indeed, was frequently formally attired. He was wearing one when he met Farrant, and also when he appeared on Thames Television's <em>Today</em> programme on 13 March 1970 to present the findings of the British Occult Society who had been investigating a predatory demonic manifestation experienced at Highgate Cemetery in the months and years prior. David Farrant, very nervous and dishevelled in appearance, was briefly interviewed along with other witnesses on the same programme.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4n5PbutUDrJapBvC0W-Vm2YA3eoNDRtHFCxia88nR1PLMg5STmBpydDatXt5yzqv0ho_OFQl_x1Pfkxibvo13PXbIYgkj58YbFPsThDmN-l-NRMjwPo68Y-_EM3l8ut_QkP6xTZoazKw/s1600/SMthamestv1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4n5PbutUDrJapBvC0W-Vm2YA3eoNDRtHFCxia88nR1PLMg5STmBpydDatXt5yzqv0ho_OFQl_x1Pfkxibvo13PXbIYgkj58YbFPsThDmN-l-NRMjwPo68Y-_EM3l8ut_QkP6xTZoazKw/s320/SMthamestv1970.jpg" t8="true" width="272" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Image from 13 March 1970 TV transmission.</strong></em></div><br />
Seán Manchester took the opportunity to warn against antics such as Mr Farrant was considering when he was interviewed, saying that the investigation of the malefic phenomenon should be left to those who knew what they were doing. In his published letter of 6 February 1970, David Farrant had proclaimed: <em>"</em><a href="http://highgatevampire.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-two-or-three-vampire-sightings.html"><span style="color: black;"><em>I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.</em></span></a><em>"</em><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5feo74EqBo9ECZNxZIGcUF6eMnFSMHPC1Zm_QpRYhsULEUkLb9nXmDkCIH_W6m5ZHuX_QNt1VhV0pVaf8ncgJWWZ69iMrQuo9OgGX9RnDyzx5H_tqvzCYtM2dqGe7m64Yg8U6s20QCw0/s1600/FarrantFeb1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5feo74EqBo9ECZNxZIGcUF6eMnFSMHPC1Zm_QpRYhsULEUkLb9nXmDkCIH_W6m5ZHuX_QNt1VhV0pVaf8ncgJWWZ69iMrQuo9OgGX9RnDyzx5H_tqvzCYtM2dqGe7m64Yg8U6s20QCw0/s200/FarrantFeb1970.jpg" t8="true" width="132" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjva8wMkIrszRBdE1I1BxsJUaX5Pq2P93GS95EEjONzl2v1rqOxjsWiwwkroB1mgFPFEHNFeoVfORqlmk1qNh1dG8L59p-0T0_-mmzkM4lpJJxM5kjma3lEqnmVgglY-cbmMUc-UPKHKys/s1600/DFbowtieImpostorising.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjva8wMkIrszRBdE1I1BxsJUaX5Pq2P93GS95EEjONzl2v1rqOxjsWiwwkroB1mgFPFEHNFeoVfORqlmk1qNh1dG8L59p-0T0_-mmzkM4lpJJxM5kjma3lEqnmVgglY-cbmMUc-UPKHKys/s200/DFbowtieImpostorising.jpg" t8="true" width="147" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Before (left) and after (right) meeting Seán Manchester.</strong></em></div><br />
Seán Manchester demonstrated on the television programme how such manifestations were traditionally despatched according to vampire lore and tradition. Five months later, ignoring the public warning issued by the BOS president that individuals should not take matters into their own hands in this way, David Farrant was arrested at midnight in Highgate Cemetery by police who found in his possession a cross and wooden stake.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant, Highgate Cemetery, 1970.</strong></em></div><br />
Mr Farrant was alone and claimed to be in pursuit of the legendary vampire said to haunt Highgate Cemetery. Although he originally pleaded <em>guilty</em>, he later changed his plea to one of <em>not guilty</em> after being held on remand at Brixton Prison for the remainder of that month. Charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purspose, he was eventually acquitted and released as Highgate Cemetery does not qualify as being an <em>"enclosed area."</em> <em>The Daily Express</em>, 19 August 1970, reported that David Farrant told the police (as read out in court from his statement): <em>"My intention was to search out the supernatural being and destroy it by plunging the stake</em> [found in his possession when arrested by police on the night in question, <em>ie</em> 17 August 1970] <em>in its heart."</em> Mr farrant later reconstructed what he was doing on the night of his arrest for BBC television's <em>24 Hours</em>, 15 October 1970.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi231KvZ7xh7KKM4r2p28vS20YQUn_2Dopwl8Ey9FyS4EV2mWCrcH2hdKgsjNadYKSCt_6okCEJiFZhwFK3fRSVY1HyRdcf7ZijTZzfXQOBHZArEqOnZ5xHplJUsh3s3ih7WkjjrHPaLno/s1600/FarrantBBC1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi231KvZ7xh7KKM4r2p28vS20YQUn_2Dopwl8Ey9FyS4EV2mWCrcH2hdKgsjNadYKSCt_6okCEJiFZhwFK3fRSVY1HyRdcf7ZijTZzfXQOBHZArEqOnZ5xHplJUsh3s3ih7WkjjrHPaLno/s320/FarrantBBC1970.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant reconstructing his vampire hunt on TV.</strong></em></div><br />
While inside prison David Farrant had written to Seán Manchester to request support from the British Occult Society to which Mr Farrant owed no connection. He was visited while on remand and told that the Society could not possibly countenance his behaviour. Soon afterwards, Mr Farrant began to falsely associate himself with the BOS, which immediately led to rebuttals appearing in various newspapers. It was only a matter of time before Farrant began to fraudulently describe himself as the <em>"president of the British Occult Society."</em><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Bow tie acquired .... David Farrant's impersonation </strong></em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>of Seán Manchester nevertheless went up in smoke.</strong></em></div><br />
On 28 August 1970, the <em>Hornsey Journal</em> recorded under its headline "Secret Exorcism at Highgate Tomb": <em>"Seven crucifixes, four white candles, and four cups of holy water from a Catholic Church, were used in the fifteen-minute ceremony. It was carried out by four men and a woman who met on an August afternoon near the entrance of a vault where a headless woman's corspe had been found. Incense was burned and holy water was sprinkled near the vault, and the banishment of evil powers, including words in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and English, was read by Seán Manchester, President of the British Occult Society."</em><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnPW4_wX8jbXzwOofOF5EAm-etnO8AUvtWrAp8yRQ3sIn7IbyLnlzzNN8nIVqUcxz5bm7z2AdQ40qGZcR5bLXTiy9-LHk_rjx9DhXO_yGG3ZTBK69KayWmkquDfp_9z6YEUeOk19lEd8/s1600/SMtomb1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnPW4_wX8jbXzwOofOF5EAm-etnO8AUvtWrAp8yRQ3sIn7IbyLnlzzNN8nIVqUcxz5bm7z2AdQ40qGZcR5bLXTiy9-LHk_rjx9DhXO_yGG3ZTBK69KayWmkquDfp_9z6YEUeOk19lEd8/s320/SMtomb1970.jpg" t8="true" width="226" /></a></div><br />
<div align="center"><em><strong>Seán Manchester exorcising the tomb in 1970.</strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>The newspaper account is reiterated on page 58 of the first edition of <em>The Highgate Vampire</em>, published by the British Occult Society. Fourteen months later, however, another newspaper article appeared. This time it was in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> and amounted to nothing more than a pathetic attempt to mimic the exorcism carried out over a year earlier. David Farrant's blatant bandwagoneering was less an impersonation than a perverse parody aimed at garnering publicity off the back of the <em>bona fide</em> British Occult Society and its president. It fooled nobody, but, unfortunately, Mr Farrant's concoted claims gave the press something sensational, <em>ie</em> "naked virgins," to write about. This is what the article in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, 15 October 1971, reported:<br />
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<em>"Despite a warning from police that he could be prosecuted, occultist David Farrant said this week he might return to Highgate Cemetery to 'exorcise a vampire' and fight a black magic sect. In the early hours of last Friday Mr Farrant, who is founder of the British Occult Society, performed an exorcism ceremony involving six other young men and two naked girls at a chapel in the cemetery. After the ceremony, one of the girls claimed she saw a shadowy figure which Mr Farrant said was the cemetery's vampire, 'the king of the undead.' ... Armed with a crucifix, a bible, herbs such as camomile, dill and garlic, and holy water taken from St Joseph's Church in Highgate Hill, and accompanied by six other society members, he had climbed over the cemetery wall just before midnight ... etc."</em><br />
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Later in the article one of the alleged naked females is identified as David Farrant's girlfriend Martine de Sacy. The newspaper reported: <em>"He denied the ceremony involved sexual practices."</em> Then it quoted Farrant explaining: <em>"That's black magic, which involves getting your rewards before you die </em>—<em> wealth, prosperity, sex. Christian belief is that you get your reward after death. The elaborate things involved in the exorcism were purely symbolic, the most important thing was to have people present who believed in God and the bible. The girls were naked as symbols of purity </em>—<em> they were virgins."</em><br />
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This, at least, is what he had told the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> in October 1971. Four years later, however, he told readers of <em>New Witchcraft</em> magazine, issue #4, something far removed from the supposed exorcism with naked girls which did not involve sexual practices, as had been fed by him to the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express.</em> When describing the same ceremony is an unedited article penned at the behest of the magazine's editor from his prison cell, David Farrant now claimed:<br />
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<em>"The intrinsic details regarding this part of the ceremony however, must remain secret; suffice it is to say here that the entity (in its now omniscient form) was to be magically induced by the ritual act of blood-letting, then brought to visible appearance through the use of the sex act. ... I disrobed the Priestess and myself and, with the consecrated blood, made the secret sigils of the Deity on her mouth, breast, and all the openings of her body. We then lay in the Pentagram and began love-making, all the time visualizing the Satanic Force so that it could </em>—<em> temporarily </em>—<em> take possession of our bodies."</em><br />
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On his 1975 article and the <em>"sex angle,"</em> Mr Farrant later recalled (to his friend and collaborator Kev Demant): <em>"When I had time to spare I wrote a few articles. I sent one to New Witchcraft which was used, and I mean, every single word was used. It was written on old scraps of paper, anything I could get together because obviously, they wouldn't have given me official writing paper to do that, apart from which, it would have been stopped anyway. That was smuggled out and used. I also wrote one for Penthouse, because ... they'd played up the sex angle in court and all the papers were implying ... I thought, well, it's a magazine, they could be half-serious. I mean, bloody hell, it was sold in W H Smiths!"</em><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQzMuVsO1H6IJ0q2RJrRaL4T26-EqGiqEav9DQyXFmdDuWNlqhsQi71D76-rk-kLVo9BibmPwmdkl4O7aNRT0c9hNK4IKqlCS72t9_ty39PeE6en7ZqUjZQVyE6b6r2x-MXfTftUEJko/s1600/DFBourreHC1980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQzMuVsO1H6IJ0q2RJrRaL4T26-EqGiqEav9DQyXFmdDuWNlqhsQi71D76-rk-kLVo9BibmPwmdkl4O7aNRT0c9hNK4IKqlCS72t9_ty39PeE6en7ZqUjZQVyE6b6r2x-MXfTftUEJko/s320/DFBourreHC1980.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant with Satanist J P Bourre, Highgate Cemetery.</strong></em></div><br />
At this point, David Farrant had contrived an infamous persona where necromantic diabolism overshadowed his earlier attempts to mimic Seán Manchester. He adopted a phoney form of witchcraft where he manufactured quasi-satanic stunts for the benefit of the press. These cost him his liberty and he ended up being sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment in 1974. Though similar publicity stunts ensued upon his release, he would never again catch the attention of the media in the same way as he did prior to and during his notorious trials at the Old Bailey, and slowly returned to the bandwagon he originally boarded in 1970. Once again, Mr Farrant began to impersonate Bishop Seán Manchester, having publicly eschewed the trappings of manufactured devilry. In May 2011 he published pictures of himself dressed as a Christian priest carrying a bible. Such impersonation, of course, is illegal in the UK.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPGlDxn2W3Lgt7Du98GoJJp7JyaUZxyz_Re6V7B_WipSf3bNmhl633eQnCSdQ5OG90KU1f1ee-AiZH8Ris02bJdL4zP-8RJIMnC1r6FnWlELzLT9F0bzxju5toM0xl44tBJK4Hm64Cuqs/s1600/FakePriest13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPGlDxn2W3Lgt7Du98GoJJp7JyaUZxyz_Re6V7B_WipSf3bNmhl633eQnCSdQ5OG90KU1f1ee-AiZH8Ris02bJdL4zP-8RJIMnC1r6FnWlELzLT9F0bzxju5toM0xl44tBJK4Hm64Cuqs/s400/FakePriest13.jpg" t8="true" width="251" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>David Farrant impersonating Bishop </strong></em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Seán </strong></em><em><strong>Manchester again in May 2011.</strong></em></div><br />
</div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-12319637086523391062011-04-13T23:00:00.000-07:002011-06-22T01:30:02.386-07:00David Farrant's Disappearing Trick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnR1iKecfVWt-aRJsiDOQtIE2mKIxQMAulfzPonInQZv56CBAbdSuGQVLvwlaOiTfEb7EucWT8nns6puiPc5gVffutQWnANRYUnLTZwxxkElrCdp5WCfkagHBG8RO3WCOSmn1HGo2VSg/s1600/DFt-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnR1iKecfVWt-aRJsiDOQtIE2mKIxQMAulfzPonInQZv56CBAbdSuGQVLvwlaOiTfEb7EucWT8nns6puiPc5gVffutQWnANRYUnLTZwxxkElrCdp5WCfkagHBG8RO3WCOSmn1HGo2VSg/s400/DFt-shirt.jpg" t8="true" width="291" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<em><strong>Charlatan David Farrant forty-one years on.</strong></em></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">David Farrant wrote a letter to the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> which <a href="http://bjr.sagepub.com/content/9/4/71.extract"><span style="color: black;">Gerald Isaaman</span></a> published unedited on 6 February 1970. This is the original letter as it appeared in the newspaper:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcApLyFNPdgq2-IL6ir_mqubj7blnSFAmp-iYGZQ9OD9P54ihglEhIaIOmUinxNS2az4KfSUdE1UIF5IlIgvC2IjHMPHrYXwwyus4K6qYLOCgqs7_Q3cOiBYhye0PBpMBTdy8Sj9QwQK4/s1600/GhostlyWalksHam%2526High6.2.70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcApLyFNPdgq2-IL6ir_mqubj7blnSFAmp-iYGZQ9OD9P54ihglEhIaIOmUinxNS2az4KfSUdE1UIF5IlIgvC2IjHMPHrYXwwyus4K6qYLOCgqs7_Q3cOiBYhye0PBpMBTdy8Sj9QwQK4/s640/GhostlyWalksHam%2526High6.2.70.jpg" t8="true" width="209" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not how it looks these days, however, when David Farrant supplies it to people wanting old press cuttings. This is what they receive from him:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTBrRPW3R-k35pUKmEwe8hJTjHfQU0zpIC3KFbhEd92wMoeEjrfooE5ulyDP5X5GjY4JdFCRce-mneM-LBdVD4GX73jYg8Cj0pCfix3KTxmQEJ1_g15RBE2gg0tUVFBhkqloZNRX7yMg/s1600/GhostlyWalksCutSpliced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTBrRPW3R-k35pUKmEwe8hJTjHfQU0zpIC3KFbhEd92wMoeEjrfooE5ulyDP5X5GjY4JdFCRce-mneM-LBdVD4GX73jYg8Cj0pCfix3KTxmQEJ1_g15RBE2gg0tUVFBhkqloZNRX7yMg/s640/GhostlyWalksCutSpliced.jpg" t8="true" width="259" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Notice anything missing? It's the last paragraph of his letter. The one that says: <em><strong>"<a href="http://highgatevampire.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-two-or-three-vampire-sightings.html"><span style="color: black;">I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.</span></a>"</strong></em> His latter-day revisionism claims that he was already knowledgeable and had been actively investigating the supernatural occurrences at Highgate Cemetery for some time prior to his letter to the newspaper. All of which we know to be entirely fraudulent because he only decided to concoct a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ThY6UlS4rz4VMYDRt4qlhkgJc25JWAG4kIyB4Dj8vSog8JG6qxAZVyq_XQ0WYBO2aHZf5KZjMVGCgrrshxDXraEOqFCjYaQl2ZZWMc1BU37luSh6MYbYTPwegjnc6Kzhuk1tKmGntNs/s1600/DFclownHC.jpg"><span style="color: black;">fake ghost story</span></a> in the month before his letter was published, and, as his wife would later confirm in court, his only interest in the cemetery was <em>"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWBgEPzrZ-zdEgU4_1spXl-PT24GJhpYzOKzH-06neXHqXj4NmbHwt6h6hrlp-n2zU5phTzWupPbH9TMqOSDH8NQwuaoSAm3jJOd7OxUBA3pNRxKduxd4aUohYXJwm1Emt9Yj5H-JEyQE/s1600-h/MaryFarrantTestimony.jpg"><span style="color: black;">for a bit of a laugh and a joke and to look round</span></a>"</em> after the pubs had closed. Take another look at the expurgated version proffered by Mr Farrant. Something is certainly not as it should be when you examine it more closely.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PU3cKj-1RmdztDOQgF3KNnPq0amWjlOnfnxrNtF3VUEsK50vuyfoIdrxnjoFob1HjPJ58wrMgz6goQhLPHByZmUyHx2cwLz9gGx8IQMGUl5XOvmzdh-VttMl8bYe6SkQCKVLson8HAM/s1600/GhostlyWalksInfraRed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PU3cKj-1RmdztDOQgF3KNnPq0amWjlOnfnxrNtF3VUEsK50vuyfoIdrxnjoFob1HjPJ58wrMgz6goQhLPHByZmUyHx2cwLz9gGx8IQMGUl5XOvmzdh-VttMl8bYe6SkQCKVLson8HAM/s640/GhostlyWalksInfraRed.jpg" t8="true" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note that his name and address now superimposes over where the last paragraph should be. The line where his name appears in capitals is too close, however, to the line above, and under infra red you can see where the cut and splice occurs. The quality of the print can differ from batch to batch of newspapers printed because it was still the old method in those days, but the layout does not alter, and you will find that the layout of both versions is absolutely identical except for one thing. The last paragraph has been removed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtUVKfBy8baRfc6jLJr7cJQBc339jxvH1zzUoXamWkx3hDhjuT8Wmf6fCL7BVWK5hepIv260J6ohc6vIooCQL-tKl6XD9l0pcL5L2b1uQA7NfXvOH8NJ4s329m7ZEiuGXCvAaK7TDSmc/s1600/GhostlyWalksMissingParagraph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtUVKfBy8baRfc6jLJr7cJQBc339jxvH1zzUoXamWkx3hDhjuT8Wmf6fCL7BVWK5hepIv260J6ohc6vIooCQL-tKl6XD9l0pcL5L2b1uQA7NfXvOH8NJ4s329m7ZEiuGXCvAaK7TDSmc/s400/GhostlyWalksMissingParagraph.jpg" t8="true" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>The original paragraph now expurgated by David Farrant.</strong></em></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-28066290050141950032011-02-27T01:00:00.000-08:002011-04-09T01:28:35.950-07:00The Last Highgate Vampire Interview<div align="center"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;">.</span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaLMUPJC_Tm94qn4kees2u2ki1njZ6tgS-SOinUIUo2Ff7_ihNFp2rxsG2ShpU4RadQNDQG24nWOO-8nWclrmXTTKPJ0nB67cd-f7Ck-HwcwXWTnz58oRdoU3a3VAvol1S_COgDoOkqT-/s1600-h/Ham&High27.2.07.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307413764675566322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaLMUPJC_Tm94qn4kees2u2ki1njZ6tgS-SOinUIUo2Ff7_ihNFp2rxsG2ShpU4RadQNDQG24nWOO-8nWclrmXTTKPJ0nB67cd-f7Ck-HwcwXWTnz58oRdoU3a3VAvol1S_COgDoOkqT-/s400/Ham&High27.2.07.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 244px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 430px;" /></a><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the morning of 27 February 1970 a banner headline across the newspapers — "</span><a href="http://highgatevampire.blogspot.com/2008/12/when-wampry-went-public.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Does A Wampyr Walk In Highgate?</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">" — quickly followed by appearances on television and in a host of periodicals made Bishop Seán Manchester a household name where the Highgate Vampire case was concerned. For more than forty years he gave interviews and contributed to countless film documentaries about his mysterious investigations that lasted from the 1960s to the 1980s until the case was finally closed and its files archived.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAHvQ-LNq0psBGmURcPPJMZEKwdBSskOaESuWC9Xp2anzuR_AmwMhcLmIaxJwmbRZkNbsmVoY95gcNSA0dRufiOGrobzre5UlX0XjslOH0dvebcWogpAAm03cULnboXnLSjTCrK3ZcDNM/s1600/BishopInterview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAHvQ-LNq0psBGmURcPPJMZEKwdBSskOaESuWC9Xp2anzuR_AmwMhcLmIaxJwmbRZkNbsmVoY95gcNSA0dRufiOGrobzre5UlX0XjslOH0dvebcWogpAAm03cULnboXnLSjTCrK3ZcDNM/s640/BishopInterview.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Now Bishop <span class="SpellE">Seán</span> Manchester has given his final interview on the matter. He spoke for over two hours as three cameras recorded the historic occasion for posterity on the forty-first anniversary of the time he first brought to public attention the existence of a contagion at Highgate Cemetery. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hampstead & Highgate Express</i>, 27 February 1970, filled its front page with his startling revelations, albeit misquoting him and misrepresenting another exorcist, Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith, in their article written by <span class="GramE">editor</span> Gerald <span class="SpellE">Isaaman</span>. Since then the bishop has contributed to literally hundreds of interviews and television documentaries about his mysterious investigations spanning a period of no less than thirteen years. Now he feels that everything there is to say about the case has been said. He finds himself answering the same questions he was being asked four decades ago, and while Bishop Manchester fully understands the enduring fascination the case holds ─ he wrote his </span><a href="http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Books.htm"><span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">book</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> about his experiences to satisfy this need ─ the time has now come to draw a line under the topic.</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite that day in February 1970 becoming a defining moment in his life, Bishop <span class="SpellE">Seán</span> Manchester believes enough is enough and wants no longer to talk about it. In an opening chapter of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Highgate Vampire</i> back in the previous century he wrote: </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: maroon; font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The reality I once experienced exists no longer and although its memories are the most potent that I possess, they now seem so far away ─ possibly because next to the hunger to experience a thing, there is no stronger hunger than to forget.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div align="justify"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6EJt-Iv6Dunjk2jCvKQhUU-ZZFTHCJ0hB4qBG66yvsLFXHauCsJyJBGsfJWN-czMtZ5SeImvwXmvxxHj-wIYpnQ8HMl7K8R81mI6_RETvuKISnC7QqnBFXcJFBluIxq9imZO25sVWvc/s1600/BishopInterview2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6EJt-Iv6Dunjk2jCvKQhUU-ZZFTHCJ0hB4qBG66yvsLFXHauCsJyJBGsfJWN-czMtZ5SeImvwXmvxxHj-wIYpnQ8HMl7K8R81mI6_RETvuKISnC7QqnBFXcJFBluIxq9imZO25sVWvc/s320/BishopInterview2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He had informed the public on 27 February 1970 that demonic disturbances and manifestations in the vicinity of Highgate Cemetery were vampiric. Shortly afterwards he appeared on television on 13 March 1970 to repeat his theory. The suspected tomb was located and an exorcism performed in August 1970. This proved ineffective as the hauntings and animal deaths continued. Indeed, they multiplied. All manner of people were by now jumping on the bandwagon; including film-makers, rock musicians and sundry publicity-seekers. Most were frightened off. Some who interloped became fascinated by the black arts with disastrous consequences. In the meantime, Bishop Manchester and his colleagues pursued the principal source of the contagion at Highgate until it was properly exorcised in the correct manner in 1974. The nightmare journey, however, continued for another eight years, witnessing the bishop entering further into a nether region inhabited by terrifying corporeal manifestations. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, he knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire.”</em> — Peter Underwood, The Ghost Club Society, London, England“</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“I am very impressed by the body of scholarship you have created. Seán Manchester is undoubtedly the father of modern vampirological research.”</em> — John Godl, paranormal researcher and writer, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“Seán Manchester is the most celebrated vampirologist of the twentieth century.”</em> — Shaun Marin, reviewer and sub-editor, <em>Encounters</em> magazine, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“A most interesting and useful addition to the literature of the subject.”</em> — Reverend Basil Youdell, Literary Editor, <em>Orthodox News</em>, Christ the Saviour, Woolwich, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“</em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm" target="_top"><span style="color: black;"><em>The Highgate Vampire</em></span></a><em> will certainly be read in a hundred years time, two hundred years time, three hundred years time — in short, for as long as mankind is interested in the supernatural. It has the most genuine power to grip. Once you have started to read it, it is virtually impossible to put it down.”</em> — Lyndall Mack (<em>aka</em> Jennie Gray), Udolpho (magazine of the Gothic Society), Chislehurst, Kent, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“Seán Manchester, the most authentic vampire hunter in the world today, penetrated the very heart of the mystery whose necrogenic setting has such impressionistic power that within the shades of dark ebon the most disbelieving sceptic will witness something spectral in the ghostly whiteness of moonbeams shining on marble tombs.”</em> — Devendra P Varma, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“Seán Manchester is, unsurprisingly, very well read in both classical and more recent sources on vampires and vampirism, and cites them with great authority.”</em> — Joe McNally, contributing editor, <em>Fortean Times</em> magazine, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“His lectures at universities and organisations led to my inviting him to address members of the Ghost Club Society which he duly did. We met at that time at the Swedenborg Hall in Bloomsbury and the President of the Vampire Research Society arrived, suitably attired, and gave a memorable and in many ways remarkable lecture. Certainly we had had nothing like it before and have never had anything like it since; not a few members at the crowded meeting revised their opinion on vampires and vampirism after that evening.”</em> — Peter Underwood, President, The Ghost Club Society, London, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">.</span><br />
<em>“One of the most notable figures to visit the haunted site under cover of darkness was Seán Manchester, who has been called one of Britain’s foremost exorcists.”</em> — Craig Miller, associate editor, <em>Fate</em> magazine, Minnesota, USA </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“I believe Seán Manchester is this country’s only genuine vampirologist.”</em> — Nicole Lampert, journalist, features department, <em>The Sun</em> newspaper, London, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“Seán Manchester doesn’t just acknowledge the possibility; he knows that vampires exist.”</em> — Stephen Jarvis, author and researcher of strange pursuits, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<em>“First thrust into the public eye in the Seventies after a spate of gruesome reports about North London’s Highgate Cemetery, Seán Manchester is now acknowledged as a serious vampirologist with a God-given mission.”</em> — Frances Hubbard, features’ writer, IPC magazines, London, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“Seán Manchester has spent a significant proportion of his life pursuing reports of vampiric and necromantic activity.</em><em>”</em> — Stevan Keane, features’ writer, <em>City Limits</em> magazine, London, England<br />
<span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“The shadow of a stone angel stole across Seán Manchester’s face as he laid out the tools of his trade: old Italianate crucifixes, holy water ... Traditional instruments of protection. … Risking life and soul is all part of a night’s work for Manchester … the founding president of the Vampire Research Society.”</em> — Beverley d’Silva, features’ writer, <em>Sunday Times</em> magazine, London, England</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“Seán Manchester’s Vampire Research Society grew out of his previous leadership role in an occult investigation bureau. The society investigates all aspects of ‘supernatural vampire phenomena,’ a task that has led to a variety of research projects, including the famous Highgate Vampire.”</em> — J Gordon Melton, chronicler of vampire topics, Santa Barbara, USA<span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span> </div><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRbXmcCxzJBwZnTx3e0q3Cxl5cku3V0aKzOfMRvBUMGD82JhWU9SWej2FGErXidcrNTWrXfys9POrQn23JfiC6t7cqssPiv4d4rmXEKDTlw6zikZpSXB0sT4u6w_gnl6iJRwXuyDlWl0M/s1600-h/Ham&High6.3.70.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307413194807051186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRbXmcCxzJBwZnTx3e0q3Cxl5cku3V0aKzOfMRvBUMGD82JhWU9SWej2FGErXidcrNTWrXfys9POrQn23JfiC6t7cqssPiv4d4rmXEKDTlw6zikZpSXB0sT4u6w_gnl6iJRwXuyDlWl0M/s400/Ham&High6.3.70.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 351px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 411px;" /></a><span style="color: #ffcc99;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The mass vampire hunt at Highgate Cemetery on 13 March 1970, following reports in local and national newspapers, plus a television interview with various witnesses earlier that evening on British television, led to a spate of amateur vampire hunters inflicting themselves on Highgate Cemetery with home-made stakes, crosses, garlic, holy water, but very little knowledge about how to deal with the suspected undead if they encountered it. Bishop Manchester had made an appeal on the <em>Today</em> programme at 6.00pm to request the public not to get involved, nor put into jeopardy the investigation already in progress. Not everyone heeded his words. Over the following months a wide variety of independent vampire hunters descended on the graveyard — only to be frightened off by its eerie atmosphere and what they believed might have been the vampire. Some were quickly arrested by police patrolling the area. The public were advised that a full-scale investigation was taking place. Individual efforts by those merely seeking thrills, however, served only to endanger all concerned and frustrate the official hunt. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simon Wiles and John White armed themselves with a crucifix and a sharpened stake, and set off to see if they could locate the vampire’s tomb. Like others who followed in their wake, they were arrested by police who found their rucksack and its contents: an eight inch long wooden stake, sharpened to a point. Mr White later explained at Clerkenwell Court: <em>“Legend has it that if one meets a vampire, one drives a stake through its heart.”</em> He was wearing a crucifix round his neck and Mr Wiles had one in his pocket. They were eventually discharged. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus began a trend. A 25-year-old history teacher from Billericay, <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Alan%20Blood.htm"><span style="color: black;">Alan Blood</span></a>, also descended on Highgate after seeing the <em>Today</em> report, but he, at least, had the good sense not to enter the infamous graveyard. Though described by the <em>Evening News</em>, 14 March 1970, as a “vampire expert,” Mr Blood, in a later interview given to the <em>Hampstead and Highgate Express</em>, 20 March 1970, admitted that he was no such thing. <em>“I have taken an interest in the black arts since boyhood, but I’m by no means an expert on vampires,”</em> he told them. Following a drink in the local pub, <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Amateur%20Vampire%20Hunters.htm"><span style="color: black;">Alan Blood</span></a> joined a crowd of onlookers outside the cemetery’s north gate, but he did not enter. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The bishop (on the <em>Today</em> programme, 13 March 1970) warned one particular <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-farrant.html"><span style="color: black;">amateur vampire hunter</span></a>, who had appeared on the same programme as one of several witnesses, to leave things he did not understand alone. Apparently he had received <em>“a horrible fright”</em> a few weeks earlier when he allegedly caught sight of the vampire by the north gate of Highgate Cemetery and immediately wrote to his local newspaper about the experience, concluding with these words: <em>“I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.”</em> (Letters to the Editor, <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, 6 February 1970). In the following month he revealed to the media that he had seen something at the north gate that was <em>“evil”</em> and that it <em>“looked like it had been dead for a long time”</em> (as told by him to Sandra Harris on the <em>Today</em> programme). Bishop Seán Manchester gave a warning on television that this man’s declared intention of staking the vampire alone went <em>“against my explicit wish for his own safety.”</em> </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Police searching the cemetery arrested the <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2011/02/false-witness.html"><span style="color: black;">amateur vampire hunter</span></a> five months later. He was found to be in possession of a wooden stake and a crucifix. Charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose, he was later released because, in the strict sense of the wording, Highgate Cemetery is not an enclosed area. The lone intruder had made his television debut five months earlier, employing on that occasion the name on his birth certificate. Now he adopted a pseudonym which appeared in many (but not all) of the newspaper reports covering his arrest and court appearance. When the American vampire aficionado Donald F Glut came to write his book <em>True Vampires of History</em> (1971) he referred only to <em>"Allan Farrow who was arrested for trespassing in a London Graveyard."</em> </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpdXxro6gxlq8J8s2JbSM2ApG5PXDBhi-D4BhZgu08poIsbiRKI-kS2k2GComdGoL6hnHlPMku6kAsg7wC1ZHCpEJQlpKdOa0UdUdW5PFeXebIszzDSrg8AATuKAo8mO97SWz0IglDdmY/s1600/BishopInterview3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpdXxro6gxlq8J8s2JbSM2ApG5PXDBhi-D4BhZgu08poIsbiRKI-kS2k2GComdGoL6hnHlPMku6kAsg7wC1ZHCpEJQlpKdOa0UdUdW5PFeXebIszzDSrg8AATuKAo8mO97SWz0IglDdmY/s400/BishopInterview3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div align="center"><span style="color: #ffcc99;"></span><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-size: 78%;">.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyText3" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/kev-demant.html"><span style="color: black;">Kev Demant</span></a> jumped the gun by two decades with his "Last Highgate Vampire Interview" in <em>Udolpho</em> magazine. He conducted his interview with Bishop Seán Manchester, who was gradually persuaded and hesitatingly consented, in writing. The bishop's schedule prevented a face to face interview, which obliged Mr Demant to ask questions on the magazine editor’s behalf <em>via</em> correspondence and the bishop answering them through the same medium. </span></span><br />
<div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit; font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“This is certainly a strange way of conducting an interview,”</em> <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/kev-demant.html"><span style="color: black;">Kev Demant</span></a> wrote on 20 February 1992. <em>“Jennie sets the questions, you do all the hard work and I get my name to the results! … I hope I can do you justice.”</em> A week later, having received Bishop Seán Manchester's answers, Mr Demant replied: <em>“You have not balked at the more ‘difficult’ questions.”</em> </span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit; font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When he saw Jennie Gray’s expurgated outcome in print, however, <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/10/kev-demant.html"><span style="color: black;">Kev Demant</span></a> was somewhat less enthusiastic when he wrote on 27 February 1992: </span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit; font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“To be honest, I don’t know what to feel about the article, a somewhat sanitised version of the material submitted. Many of your responses have been truncated while my own contribution has been edited, certain sentences have been rewritten (badly in my opinion and without my consent) and ultimately censored. … I wonder what all these aesthetes, decadents, intellectuals and yuppies who constitute the readership are going to make of it all!”</em><br />
<span style="color: #ffcc99; font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It did not take long to discover what they made of it all. Within a month all six hundred copies sold out. Publishing editor Jennie Gray ordered an unprecedented extra hundred copies. Her now defunct specialist magazine had reached its peak at this point. On December 14th, Kev Demant wrote to Bishop Manchester: </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>“Somehow I think it is your prestigious interview which had much to do with the favourable response.”</em></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The final interview would actually take place many years later in the following century.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbn5JEaqT8Q6mh2NrcAX57UeeGlVa1Gbq6PdoFF4ushhleqMfOB6ocX_YvmIt-CCT5CZYaw0nHoMajUPxTywIGjDyJaHhZBuzuSCamNg40blajlLan2VnbjLyWBXc7xXtVyomIC0_scCw/s1600/BishopInterview1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbn5JEaqT8Q6mh2NrcAX57UeeGlVa1Gbq6PdoFF4ushhleqMfOB6ocX_YvmIt-CCT5CZYaw0nHoMajUPxTywIGjDyJaHhZBuzuSCamNg40blajlLan2VnbjLyWBXc7xXtVyomIC0_scCw/s400/BishopInterview1.jpg" width="336" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Bishop <span class="SpellE">Seán</span> Manchester, an opponent of the suffocating influence of modernism and the dictatorial liberal elite in both secular and ecclesial life, will continue to make broadcast contributions where it is in the public interest or where an opportunity to address an injustice arises. He will not, however, be willing to contribute any further media interviews about the Highgate Vampire case he investigated from 1969 to 1982. His <span style="color: black;">final interview</span> was transmitted at 8.00pm Pacific Time / 11.00pm Eastern Time on <em><a href="http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/documentaries_conspiracyshow.html"><span style="color: black;">The Conspiracy Show</span></a></em> (Vision TV, Canada) on 1 April 20011. Also included in the programme were paranormal commentators <a href="http://www.theconspiracyshow.com/tcs/The_Conspiracy_Show/Guests.html"><span style="color: black;">Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Joe Nickell and Neil Arnold</span></a>.</span></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-88021207518157721332011-02-06T01:00:00.001-08:002011-02-07T22:30:42.577-08:00False Witness<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yU-bCxOF_lqXS_mCvoAABLclNbIwguVoas0SsZKvIbLf_YMWaRjW8wpG8MG4Hr4WANKRLghhcWwnG1GRW59Z47sdA8QpZrnXsZRy5I4ETBHkBnuoR5H4Gf6OL8VhKcnP4LdJeCRqoeg/s1600/DFstakeHC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yU-bCxOF_lqXS_mCvoAABLclNbIwguVoas0SsZKvIbLf_YMWaRjW8wpG8MG4Hr4WANKRLghhcWwnG1GRW59Z47sdA8QpZrnXsZRy5I4ETBHkBnuoR5H4Gf6OL8VhKcnP4LdJeCRqoeg/s400/DFstakeHC.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></span><em><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Farrant vampire hunting in August 1970.</span></strong></em><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><em><strong>.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant recently gave an interview to Pat Bussard for a publication called <em>The Loafer</em>, 14 September 2010, where he offered the following about his alleged experience at Highgate Cemetery more than forty years ago: <em>"I saw this entity myself one night in late December, 1969, as I was passing the top gate of Highgate Cemetery. I wrote about this to the local paper, and several other people wrote in with their own experiences, but then rumour went around that it was really a blood-sucking vampire, and serious vandalism and desecration increased in the cemetery, apparently from would-be Van Helsings."</em></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, there was no increase in vandalism following the media's preoccupation with the vampire theory which, incidentally, had been around since the mid-1960s. Due to all the attention the graveyard received from 1970 it was no longer possible for vandals and diabolists to enter and leave the graveyard with the ease they had hithertofore, and vandalism actually sharply decreased as a consequence. That notwithstanding, Mr Farrant was convicted of vandalism and desecration at Highgate Cemetery less than a handful of years after his supposed ghostly encounter for which a stiff prison sentence was meted out. At least two names and addresses (belonging to Audrey Connely and Kenny Frewin) and one further address (belonging to Nava Grunberg) with a false name and not the occupier's name (in Hampstead Lane) were used by Mr Farrant to send fraudulent letters to the editor of the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> in the wake of his own published correspondence. Ironically, Mr Farrant refers to himself as becoming "reduced to some modern-day Van Helsing-type vampire hunter" at the end of his account (on page 21) more than two decades after the event itself in a self-published exploitation pamphlet titled <em>Beyond the Highgate Vampire</em>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But to unravel David Farrant's part at the periphery of the already established goings-on at Highgate Cemetery we need to thoroughly examine his overture in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, when the editor of that newspaper, Gerald Isaaman, published Mr Farrant's unexpurgated letter on 6 February 1970: </span><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Some nights I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery.</span></strong></em><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"On three occasions I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swains Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. I saw a grey figure for a few seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. The second sighting, a week later, was also brief.</span></strong></em><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Last week the figure appeared, only a few yards inside the gates. This time it was there long enough for me to see it much more clearly, and now I can think of no other explanation than this apparition being supernatural.</span></strong></em><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."</span></strong></em></div><div class="quote" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the very first time the public heard from David Farrant in connection with any phenomena at Highgate Cemetery. Later he attempted to wriggle off the hook he had impaled himself on forty years earlier by unconvincingly claiming:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>"For a start, my letter to the Ham and High in 1970 badly misquoted myself (not deliberately I concede). I did not say that I had seen the figure (ghost) ‘on three occassions’: I was describing a figure that I said ‘had been seen on at least three occasions’. This is true – it had. But on these occasions, the witnesses were other people whom I had witnessed by this time."</em> - David Farrant (<em>Arcadia</em>, 12 December 2009)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But Mr Farrant was not being "quoted" in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> newspaper. His letter to the editor had been published in full, completely unaltered, as Gerald Isaaman will attest to this day. In any case, is it really plausible that Mr Farrant's letter would be manipulated by the editor of a highly respectable newspaper to mean something quite different to that he had actually written? Is it not likely that Mr Farrant would insist on having such a tampered version corrected in the following week's issue if this had really happened? There is no record of him having asked for any such correction. There is no record of an amendment appearing even though his contact with that newspaper remained ongoing for the next few weeks. There are records of Mr Farrant sticking with his personal "three sightings" account until October of that year when it suddenly reduced to "two sightings." All these years later it has become "one sighting." Is it only a matter of time before it is "no sighting"?</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What certainly exists from four decades ago is what David Farrant actually wrote to the editor of the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em> on 6 February 1970:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>"On three occasions I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swains Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared, only a few yards inside the gate. This time it was there long enough for me to see it much more clearly."</em></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is, of course, straight away a problem with David Farrant's first uttered sentence in the public domain:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>"Some nights I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery."</em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At that time, Mr Farrant was residing at 294 Archway Road, London. Anyone who knows the general area will be aware that to walk home to that address from any of the pubs in Highgate Village (Mr Farrant drank most nights in the Prince of Wales) could not possibly take you <em>"past the gates of Highgate Cemetery"</em> because the graveyard is in the opposite direction. So David Farrant, after drinking all night, apparently walked home by taking the longest possible route that would create a detour miles out of his way, instead of just nipping down in the opposite direction to where he was residing in nearby Archway Road just ten or fifteen minutes' away? He obviously had not thought his story through before sending it in for publication.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The next month Mr Farrant stated to <em>Today</em> interviewer Sandra Harris on British television: <em>"The last time I actually saw its face."</em> Does this not suggest there was a time previous to the one he is referring to in that interview? The description by Mr Farrant in this interview bears no resemblance to his description decades later where the corpse-like figure had transformed into an ectoplasmic mist with red eyes. No mention of <em>"red eyes"</em> was made by Mr Farrant when he was interviewed in 1970. And certainly no mist. However, in the interim Bishop Seán Manchester's bestselling book <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm"><span style="color: black;"><em>The Highgate Vampire</em></span></a> had been published where a shape-shifting mist with red eyes is described. Draw your own conclusions. Mr Farrant also revised his account of a walking corpse (which he described to Sandra Harris as being <em>"evil"</em>) to ley line activity coupled with a mist with two red eyes when pressed to explain his experiences of 1969/1970 in much later years. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">On 20 April 1996, David Farrant told a <em>Fortean Times</em> UnConvention audience that he did not believe in the existence of evil. On the <em>Michael Cole Show</em>, 20 December 1998, he stated that he did not believe in vampires or the existence of the Devil. In his many self-published pamphlets he claims that he has never believed in traditional vampires and, moreover, certainly did not engage in hunting a vampire in 1970.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The BBC's <em>24 Hours</em> interview broadcast on 15 October 1970 conradicts David Farrant's latter-day revisionism. Laurence Picethly’s interview with Mr Farrant for BBC television was sandwiched between footage of the President of the British Occult Society that had been filmed at the society’s north London headquarters and on location at Highgate Cemetery. The man representing the British Occult Society was obviously not David Farrant even though the latter would fraudulently adopt that title two years later. In fact, the British Occult Society had distanced itself from what Mr Farrant was doing as far back as March 1970. The interview David Farrant gave in late 1970 is important, however, because there are no editors for him to blame for altering what he had written in published correspondence to a newspaper. In the BBC programme he is seen speaking to the interviewer and the viewing public. The words can be heard from his own mouth and there is no escaping them. Here is the <em>24 Hours</em> television interview David Farrant gave on 15 October 1970:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Laurence Picethly: <em>“On August the seventeenth, Allan</em> [known locally as ‘Allan’ - his correct name being ‘David’] <em>Farrant decided to pay a midnight visit to the cemetery to combat the vampire once and for all. At the cemetery, Farrant was forced to enter by the back wall</em> [footage shows Farrant entering via the rear of the cemetery]<em>, as he still does today. He armed himself with a cross and stake, and crouched between the tombstones, waiting. But that night police, on the prowl for vandals, discovered him. He was charged with being in an enclosed space for an unlawful purpose, but later the Clerkenwell magistrate acquitted him. Now, in spite of attempts by the cemetery owners to bar him, Farrant and his friends</em> [no friends were discovered by the police or subsequently identified by Farrant] <em>still maintain a regular vigil around the catacombs in hope of sighting either the vampire or a meeting of Satanists.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant: <em>“We have been keeping watch in the cemetery for … [pauses] … since my court case ended, and we still found signs of their ceremonies.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Laurence Picethly: <em>“Have you ever seen this vampire?”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant: <em>“I have seen it, yes. I saw it last February, and saw it on two occasions.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Laurence Picethly: <em>“What was it like?”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant: <em>“It took the form of a tall, grey figure, and it … [pauses] … seemed to glide off the path without making any noise.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr Farrant's interview ends at this point.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant was acquitted of the charge that had led to his arrest, it being that he was found in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. Highgate Cemetery is obviously not “an enclosed area” and that is all he was charged with in August 1970.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Three things are of significance in that BBC television interview from 1970.</span><br />
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</em><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTN30jzzUMWpqZ93xsxFElmi2BkZxPR3y27Qv8nvwFru-gBxyjV3CWO7vbQBr6dI1EaEFhr_L5M66wFPcFixcE0zU7Afh5nx73iL6fiBI_oe-qpt1ckxzXazqGah8kxavyWO_sF3ayIo/s1600/FarrantBBC1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" h5="true" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTN30jzzUMWpqZ93xsxFElmi2BkZxPR3y27Qv8nvwFru-gBxyjV3CWO7vbQBr6dI1EaEFhr_L5M66wFPcFixcE0zU7Afh5nx73iL6fiBI_oe-qpt1ckxzXazqGah8kxavyWO_sF3ayIo/s400/FarrantBBC1970.jpg" width="400" /></strong></em></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div align="center"><em><strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></span></strong></em><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><strong>David Farrant reconstructing his vampire hunt for the BBC.</strong></em></span></div><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><em><strong>.</strong></em></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first is that the reconstructed footage of what David Farrant was doing on the night of 17 August 1970 clearly reveals him to be hunting a vampire with a rosary around his neck, a large cross in one hand and a sharpened wooden stake in the other hand. There is no ambiguity about what led to his arrest in this report where he is featured reconstructing what he was doing at the time of his arrest at midnight in Highgate Cemetery. The image above is taken from the <em>24 Hours</em> programme as Mr Farrant reconstructs the actions which led to his arrest.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The second thing of significance is that when Laurence Picethly asked whether Mr Farrant had ever seen the vampire, he dis not attempt to correct the person interviewing him by saying it was something other than a vampire. Nor did Mr Farrant make clear that he did not believe in vampires, or that what he witnessed was not a vampire. Indeed, this section of <em>24 Hours</em> was titled <em>Vampires</em>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The third thing of significance is that when asked if he had seen the vampire, Mr Farrant responded: <em>“I have seen it, yes. I saw it last February, and saw it on two occasions.”</em> He can be heard saying that he had two sightings of the vampire in early 1970, but in the interview he gave Andrew Gough for <em>Arcadia</em> he states that he had only one sighting and this was in December 1969, not February 1970 as claimed by him in his BBC television appearance some four decades earlier. He makes the same claim in other latter-day interviews he gives, <em>ie</em> it was only one sighting he had back in December 1969, and that he had no other sightings.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So was it one, two, three or no sightings this false witness had back in 1969/1970 (you choose which year, as he seems confused) of the infamous Highgate Vampire? David Farrant nowadays tries to disingenuously convince everyone that he never claimed any belief in vampires and did not attempt to hunt one in Highgate Cemetery with a cross and stake. Images of him from newspaper articles at the time tell an entirely different story. A small sample appear below:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><br />
</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0yjps3W5QPAe9N-XQL7WKX0ObdW7HvaQHM-LCGCmHeidqg4jx8xcl6oubUxBegeZCWP4Wla3V6_5Da02XyOP8ag8bBspp16XroCVKm1Xbr5YLrvNMNmRgO3cQm20TJkmRYL5dGBWE8ch/s1600-h/DFstake1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0yjps3W5QPAe9N-XQL7WKX0ObdW7HvaQHM-LCGCmHeidqg4jx8xcl6oubUxBegeZCWP4Wla3V6_5Da02XyOP8ag8bBspp16XroCVKm1Xbr5YLrvNMNmRgO3cQm20TJkmRYL5dGBWE8ch/s640/DFstake1a.jpg" /></strong></em></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><br />
</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yR1kkofJup4BNqayRVJZhqn0xphiSJiH-KgCs72tMTswcu-F1OgHQULHhhTNw0lmsu_uteWuElTPSb8JFq5TN9M4VA3M59oKG0-5lLLk9dHZIb9cx1bsCZHR9TWzGooZOCAnlSAQaICC/s1600-h/DFstakeJournal28.6.74.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yR1kkofJup4BNqayRVJZhqn0xphiSJiH-KgCs72tMTswcu-F1OgHQULHhhTNw0lmsu_uteWuElTPSb8JFq5TN9M4VA3M59oKG0-5lLLk9dHZIb9cx1bsCZHR9TWzGooZOCAnlSAQaICC/s640/DFstakeJournal28.6.74.jpg" /></strong></em></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><br />
</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunW-dPf1XATpyOg17ogswvYko_-7oTrRxAC6Q3Erk9WaqtrCGBGYgjqO0Y52wqgb9BLR8dkpVRqMYK8i-YHbFAP_ImY5fHB1yu6m1XaYSNXDMLqonjHxXvnMpAndiYJfS9ZduYTKpdeJS/s1600-h/DFstake5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunW-dPf1XATpyOg17ogswvYko_-7oTrRxAC6Q3Erk9WaqtrCGBGYgjqO0Y52wqgb9BLR8dkpVRqMYK8i-YHbFAP_ImY5fHB1yu6m1XaYSNXDMLqonjHxXvnMpAndiYJfS9ZduYTKpdeJS/s400/DFstake5.jpg" /></strong></em></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><br />
</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib86NyBVjMEWt_twWhjgB2PzIDtMX8Q2c2yrEoU-4Mn7XzXRj890ZuLCAN4_Hee35YD1Z9rGO-iYScKJpRCvrz0fqcsgxOhBjLhhBhpnfXkCoA66B9zeoZzERTpoVb8BH7F4Gq9zFRnu7g/s1600-h/EveningStandard18.8.70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib86NyBVjMEWt_twWhjgB2PzIDtMX8Q2c2yrEoU-4Mn7XzXRj890ZuLCAN4_Hee35YD1Z9rGO-iYScKJpRCvrz0fqcsgxOhBjLhhBhpnfXkCoA66B9zeoZzERTpoVb8BH7F4Gq9zFRnu7g/s640/EveningStandard18.8.70.jpg" /></strong></em></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><br />
</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguVj_IXe-1os7JFY__VnsaFWhBOAyVwsegSsQYgdLbnlGg8C-oOfA8pMKtz7wYyHLm-sq-kzZVG4K2s4WTx38XVvGJbm3FdVglD60Rf0BJSxczt8m0fvHsYZ_6gBd6gOJWiHcIQOtc1dQ/s1600/TheSun19.8.70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><strong><img border="0" h5="true" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguVj_IXe-1os7JFY__VnsaFWhBOAyVwsegSsQYgdLbnlGg8C-oOfA8pMKtz7wYyHLm-sq-kzZVG4K2s4WTx38XVvGJbm3FdVglD60Rf0BJSxczt8m0fvHsYZ_6gBd6gOJWiHcIQOtc1dQ/s640/TheSun19.8.70.jpg" width="640" /></strong></em></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;"><em><strong>.</strong></em></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-72957698607038459372011-02-02T02:00:00.000-08:002011-02-03T01:52:24.333-08:00VRS Founded 2 February 1970<div align="center"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-size: 78%;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibatfijDf3NoSWx_oxeylYrOesLyW7Ol7fTbkWBCL5Q7aLNK0kfcrB5IvW-H4aCIaSqhDGzRV26CNIu8fit7PW2K4zUWLri_sRIrz4hlTZ4JQRgICANNIq0f-k4uQY5XFZRlgTPf817P4S/s1600-h/PeterUnderwood.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298212683184171810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibatfijDf3NoSWx_oxeylYrOesLyW7Ol7fTbkWBCL5Q7aLNK0kfcrB5IvW-H4aCIaSqhDGzRV26CNIu8fit7PW2K4zUWLri_sRIrz4hlTZ4JQRgICANNIq0f-k4uQY5XFZRlgTPf817P4S/s400/PeterUnderwood.gif" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 208px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 150px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ghost Club Society is the world's oldest and most prestigious society devoted to the serious and impartial investigation, study and discussion of subjects not yet fully understood or accepted by science. The current president is Peter Underwood, pictured above, who is also a Life-Member of the VRS.<br />
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1851 ~ The Ghost Club Society founded in Cambridge. Members include E W Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury and Arthur Balfour, later Prime Minister.<br />
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1862 ~ The London Ghost Club. Members include the Hon A Gordon, Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick: a Canon of Westminster and the Registrar of Cambridge University.<br />
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1882-1936 ~ First revival. Members include Sir William Crookes, Sir William Barratt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, W B Yeats and Harry Price.<br />
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1938-1947 ~ Second revival with Harry Price as Chairman. Members include Lord Amwell, Algernon Blackwood, Mrs K M (Mollie Goldney, Sir Ernest Jelf, K E Shelley QC, Sir Osbert Sitwell, Dr Paul Tabori and Peter Underwood FRSA.<br />
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1954-1993 ~ Third revival with Peter Underwood as President. Members include K E Shelley QC, Dr Christabel Nicholson, Dr Paul Tabori, Donald Campbell MBE, Peter Sellers, Dennis Wheatley, Dr George Owen, Lord Dowding, Ena Twigg and Sir Julian Huxley. Honorary Life Members include Dennis Bardens, Mrs Michael Bentine, Colonel John Blashord-Snell, Miss Sarah Miles, Miss Jilly Cooper, Dr A R G Owen, Miss Dulcie Gray, Sir Patrick Moore, Mr Uri Geller, and the Right Reverend Seán Manchester OSG. Peter Underwood is Life President and Colin Wilson is vice-President of the Ghost Club Society.<br />
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At times there was membership cross-fertilisation between the British Occult Society and the Ghost Club Society. In 1988 the British Occult Society was formally dissolved under the leadership of its final president, Bishop Seán Manchester, who had been elected on 21 June 1967.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit;">.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWZU_ADBBiTR4ZkzYMSRuTVBejIVThojPLeugGAmG9kOBvt3mAc81cirVflfh9okeH6J7u1cYFFwmarnX8MtcGyTYIC3bqGiifhSLwRKU1nMGjkKPMYUJhH3okuJ9AtYoxyUSFRDZ1sE3/s1600-h/SMthamestv1970.jpg"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298212423507127922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWZU_ADBBiTR4ZkzYMSRuTVBejIVThojPLeugGAmG9kOBvt3mAc81cirVflfh9okeH6J7u1cYFFwmarnX8MtcGyTYIC3bqGiifhSLwRKU1nMGjkKPMYUJhH3okuJ9AtYoxyUSFRDZ1sE3/s400/SMthamestv1970.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 282px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 336px;" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The British Occult Society was originally formed as an umbrella organisation <em>circa</em> 1860. Much of its activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is shrouded in mystery. The BOS came out of the closet, however, in the mid-twentieth century before finally disappearing in 1988. During that period it was presided over by Bishop Seán Manchester who placed emphasis on investigating the claims of the occult and the study and research of paranormal phenomena. Out of this history sprang the Vampire Research Society, founded by the president of the British Occult Society who first appeared on British television on 13 March 1970, as seen in the above photograph from the original transmission.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On this the forty-first anniversary of its founding, the Vampire Research Society is functioning as effectively today as ever it did in years past. In 1990 it was decided by the Executive Committee that membership of the Vampire Research Society should only be available via invitation, usually upon the recommendation of an existing member who has a proven track record. It had never been a subscription club of any sort prior to this, and the majority of those "joining" at the close of the 1980s were patently unsuitable. Moreover, the "invitation only" rule was introduced due to a clear compromise to the Society's security by the media and certain others with, to quote Bishop Manchester, <em>"motives hidden in the darkness of the absurd."</em></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82c0Ftw584jYm8HjR5wReIPF-gkgwIh5rql5ubFV_IJY2DiUSyARyBpSrPLTxEH6eLJmh5-E7o3mQ4Fm_ZK8sbG2SVkXVCHChVsHAJIzeRElXjZILbUFZ3i2WhXKg96fu2mcjRqQ_j0I/s1600/BOSpresident.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82c0Ftw584jYm8HjR5wReIPF-gkgwIh5rql5ubFV_IJY2DiUSyARyBpSrPLTxEH6eLJmh5-E7o3mQ4Fm_ZK8sbG2SVkXVCHChVsHAJIzeRElXjZILbUFZ3i2WhXKg96fu2mcjRqQ_j0I/s400/BOSpresident.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Vampire Research Society actually originated in 1967 as a specialist unit within the British Occult Society (an organisation for paranormal and occult investigation). Bishop Seán Manchester was responsible for the vampire research unit becoming a self-governing body on 2 February 1970 by which time he had already initiated, as president of the British Occult Society, a full-time investigation into the Highgate Vampire case. It would last thirteen years. The first published account of the case (including the initial discovery of the suspect tomb and a spoken exorcism) was given in <em>The Vampire’s Bedside Companion</em>* (Leslie Frewin, 1975; Coronet Books, 1976). The first complete account was published in the best-selling <em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm"><span style="color: black;">The Highgate Vampire</span></a></em> (British Occult Society, 1985; Gothic Press, 1991). The current Gothic Press edition is completely revised, enlarged and updated with new illustrations. Final comment on the Highgate case in print appeared in <em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Vampire%20Hunter's%20Handbook.htm"><span style="color: black;">The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook</span></a></em> (Gothic Press, 1997) while <em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Carmel.htm"><span style="color: black;">Carmel ~ A Vampire Tale</span></a></em> (Gothic Press, 2000) draws on real experience based on the mysterious happenings in and around Highgate Cemetery. These works contain photographs and graphics from the Vampire Research Society's case files.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The purpose of the Vampire Research Society is implicit in its name. Sadly, it is found necessary today to distinguish the dictionary and folkloric definition of the word "vampire" from curious individuals who seek to emulate what they construe vampires to be, but who are clearly human beings merely pretending to be vampires. The vampire, in truth, is a supernatural entity, which traditional understanding of the accepted meaning of the word "vampire" the Society studies, researches and occasionally investigates. People who consider themselves part of a "vampire subculture" are generally referred to as vampiroids.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwfe4Nk6PSgUmzZka7Z1L5UQWPx_vpO-jFSmJ_5VsM72KtYS9nfzH88HEj5csMq0Ls1RR5D1bYQZvgifV2SS-kb73XNx0iVv9I6O7L3NtwCBb9uOsc_ckZ_RohufZs-nBBkGvcZixFaUc/s1600/SMvampirologistExorcist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwfe4Nk6PSgUmzZka7Z1L5UQWPx_vpO-jFSmJ_5VsM72KtYS9nfzH88HEj5csMq0Ls1RR5D1bYQZvgifV2SS-kb73XNx0iVv9I6O7L3NtwCBb9uOsc_ckZ_RohufZs-nBBkGvcZixFaUc/s400/SMvampirologistExorcist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many lessons have been learned by the VRS over the decades, most particularly the importance of avoiding all involvement with the media and kindred forms of publicity in advance of any given case's resolution. An example of this is the case of the Kirklees mystery where matters were taken out of the Vampire Research Society's hands by others in 1989 when reports of the ensuing investigation started to appear in local and national newspapers and even on some television and radio programmes. The Society could hardly deny that an investigation was in progress, but this certainly put it at odds with the owner of the suspect area which is on private land. Relations have healed during the intervening period and these mysterious investigations remains on the Society's casefile. But they will not be discussed beyond what was published in the previous decade unless the case is satisfactorily resolved and the file permanently closed.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The supernatural vampire of folklore as defined in dictionaries, encyclopedias and non-fiction works is the matter of the Society's research and pursuit. To the Christian, Jew, Muslim and those of some other faiths (possibly the Hindu), the vampire is defined as a predatory demonic entity or wraith. To others it might be seen as a parasitic negative force.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">* <em>The Vampire’s Bedside Companion</em> is out of print. Remaining titles are available and</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> can be ordered directly from <a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><span style="color: black;">Gothic Press</span></a>.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #ffcc99; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-85385169167324355862011-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:002011-07-07T05:19:51.149-07:00Christopher Neil-Smith<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsGiDziTnxVIrYF1_BwM8KswgWDCbPRk2jBsxy51H8PirlqXmc6s-zdCPLzZi1slze6uGrpZGdog7KHPhc8XqGwhf6CVCZcmWaOZk-jJi4kRypelEuDzhm9mM6OD4Aq8BLXgR6fzJFfw/s1600/ChristopherNeil-Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsGiDziTnxVIrYF1_BwM8KswgWDCbPRk2jBsxy51H8PirlqXmc6s-zdCPLzZi1slze6uGrpZGdog7KHPhc8XqGwhf6CVCZcmWaOZk-jJi4kRypelEuDzhm9mM6OD4Aq8BLXgR6fzJFfw/s400/ChristopherNeil-Smith.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith (1920-1995) was an Anglican</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> priest, originally from </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Hampstead, most celebrated for his practice of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">exorcism</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> and his </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">paranormal</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"> interests.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Beeson_0-0"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Beeson-0"><span style="color: black;">[1]</span></a></sup></span></span> Like Bishop Manchester, whom he knew, Reverend Neil-Smith believed that evil is an external reality and should be treated as such rather than as an abstract concept.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">A vicar</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> at St Saviour's Anglican Church at Eton Road in Hampstead, London</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">, he performed more than three thousand exorcisms in Britain since 1949. In 1972, the Bishop of London</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> authorised him to exorcise demons</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"> according to his own judgement.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kathleen_R._Sands_1-0"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Kathleen_R._Sands-1"><span style="color: black;">[2]</span></a></sup></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> Two years earlier, he had been misquoted in the <em>Hampstead & Highgate Express</em>, 27 February 1970, as saying that vampires are <em>"probably a novelistic embellishment,"</em> but, as Bishop Seán Manchester has subsequently pointed out, Reverend Neil-Smith claimed to have actually exorcised vampires, as confirmed in a book written by Daniel Farson and Angus Hall which records: </span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><em>"Yet not far from Highgate Cemetery lives a man who takes reports of vampirism seriously. The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith is a leading British exorcist and writer on exorcism. He can cite several examples of people who have come to him for help in connection with vampirism.</em> <em><strong>'The one that particularly strikes me is that of a woman who showed me the marks on her wrists which appeared at night, where blood had definitely been taken. And there was no apparent reason why this should have occurred. They were marks like those of an animal. Something like scratching.'</strong></em> <em>He denies this might have been done by the woman herself. She came to him when she felt her blood was being sucked away, and after he performed an exorcism the marks disappeared. </em></span><em>Another person who came from South America</em> <em><strong>'had a similar phenomenon, as if an animal had sucked away his blood and attacked him at night.'</strong></em> <em>Again, the Reverend Neil-Smith could find no obvious explanation. There is a third case of a man who, after his brother died, had the strange feeling that his lifeblood was being slowly sucked away from him.</em> <em><strong>'There seems to be evidence this was so,'</strong></em> <em>says Neil-Smith.</em> <em><strong>'He was a perfectly normal person before, but after the brother's death he felt his life was being sucked away from him as if the spirit of his brother was feeding on him. When the exorcism was performed he felt a release and new life, as if new blood ran in his veins.'</strong></em> <em>Neil-Smith rules out the possibility of a simple psychological explanation for this, such as a feeling of guilt by the survivor toward his brother.</em> <em><strong>'There was no disharmony between them. In fact he wasn't clear for some time that it (the vampire) was his brother.'</strong></em> <em>The clergyman describes a vampire as</em> <em><strong>'half animal, half human,'</strong></em> <em>and firmly refutes the suggestion that such things are all in the mind.</em> <strong><em>'I think that's a very naive interpretation,'</em> he says. <em>'All the evidence points to the contrary'</em></strong><em>."</em> <span style="color: black;"><sup>[<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysterious-Monsters-mysteries-Daniel-Farson/dp/049000427X"><span style="color: black;">6</span></a>]</sup></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith, contrary to Gerald Isaaman's false attribution of 27 February 1970 in a local Hampstead newspaper, concluded that there really are such a things as vampires.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqxe29txKxA7vbT7zMIgVvrzBhSrnbizCTCHoDZ05PafbfZeE613ldZSEfKZ-U8mONXXOgXPJUFewb1aUt2qSbi_yC8XKR-E2ESSMCNdHYLgRV8CGhSUiDNdr6QKxZ2-wIMLlXUL9Sx0/s1600/Devils-Fool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqxe29txKxA7vbT7zMIgVvrzBhSrnbizCTCHoDZ05PafbfZeE613ldZSEfKZ-U8mONXXOgXPJUFewb1aUt2qSbi_yC8XKR-E2ESSMCNdHYLgRV8CGhSUiDNdr6QKxZ2-wIMLlXUL9Sx0/s320/Devils-Fool.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br />
David Farrant posted the following on 6 April 2007 about Reverend Neil-Smith:<br />
<br />
<em>“Rev Christopher Neil-Smith was called into Wormwood Scrubs Prison in November 1974 after a man sharing a cell with me and one other became convinced that he had become possessed after we had conducted a séance in the cell one night. He would wake up screaming in the cell and swore that some 'evil spirit' had entered him. Naturally, as I was in there for allegedly conducting 'witchcraft ceremonies' in Highgate Cemetery, I was held to blame for his condition. He was moved out of the cell, but the next thing I heard was that the Rev Neil-Smith had been called in to 'exorcise' him in the prison chapel. A 'trustee' was present and I got the full story. The prison governor was present, the prison chaplain and a couple of other people. During this 'exorcism', Neil-Smith violently shook this man's head and repeated several times ‘Drive out the evil powers of David Farrant!’ … This took place at the end of 1974 which was after the publication of Neil-Smith's book. I'm sure it would have been included otherwise as I doubt the Rev Neil-Smith would have forgotten it!”</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christopher Neil-Smith wrote <i>Praying for daylight: God through modern eyes</i> <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Christopher_Neil-Smith_2-0"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Christopher_Neil-Smith-2"><span style="color: black;">[3]</span></a></sup> as well as <i>The Exorcist and the Possessed</i> in which he detailed his experiences and beliefs about exorcism.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Marc_Cramer_3-0"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Marc_Cramer-3"><span style="color: black;">[4]</span></a></sup> In the latter, he claimed that evil should be treated as an actual force rather than an abstract idea.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Lewis_Spence_4-0"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Lewis_Spence-4"><span style="color: black;">[5]</span></a></sup></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Appearing on radio and television programmes, Reverend Neil-Smith became well known in the public debates about exorcism, demons and vampires in the mid-1970s following the popular response to Peter Blatty's <i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/The_Exorcist" title="The Exorcist"><span style="color: black;">The Exorcist</span></a></i>, and, of course, the vampire sightings, attacks and panics centred at nearby Highgate Cemetery, recorded throughout the media earlier in that decade, which had surfaced in print in Peter Underwood's anthology <em>The Vampire's Bedside Companion</em> (Leslie Frewin, 1975) to which Bishop Manchester made a significant contribution by writing a chapter comprising one fifth of the book in anticipation of his own bestselling <em><a href="http://www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Bookshop.htm"><span style="color: black;">The Highgate Vampire</span></a></em> (British Occult Society, 1985; Gothic Press, 1991). </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christopher Neil-Smith died at the age of seventy-five. He was married, and had two sons.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Beeson_0-1"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_note-Beeson-0"><span style="color: black;">[1]</span></a></sup></span></span><br />
<sup><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></sup></div><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><u>References</u>:</span></span></h2><div class="reflist references-small"><div class="references"><ol><li id="cite_note-Beeson-0"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">^ </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Beeson_0-0"><sup><i><b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">a</span></b></i></sup></a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Beeson_0-1"><sup><i><b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">b</span></b></i></sup></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="citation book">Beeson, Trevor (2006). <a class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=awPGiqoCrSgC&pg=PA129&dq=%22Christopher+Neil-Smith%22&ei=nITPS6i6CKXkyQSO8-TMAg&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Reverend%20Christopher%20Neil-Smith%22&f=false" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">"The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith"</span></a>. <i>Priests And Prelates: The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries</i>. Continuum International Publishing Group. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number"><span style="color: black;">ISBN</span></a><span style="color: black;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Special:BookSources/0826481000" title="Special:BookSources/0826481000"><span style="color: black;">0826481000</span></a><span class="printonly"><span style="color: black;">. </span><a class="external free" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=awPGiqoCrSgC&pg=PA129&dq=%22Christopher+Neil-Smith%22&ei=nITPS6i6CKXkyQSO8-TMAg&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Reverend%20Christopher%20Neil-Smith%22&f=false" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">http://books.google.com/books?id=awPGiqoCrSgC&pg=PA129&dq=%22Christopher+Neil-Smith%22&ei=nITPS6i6CKXkyQSO8-TMAg&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Reverend%20Christopher%20Neil-Smith%22&f=false</span></a></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved April 20, 2010</span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.btitle=The+Reverend+Christopher+Neil-Smith&rft.atitle=Priests+And+Prelates%3A+The+Daily+Telegraph+Clerical+Obituaries&rft.aulast=Beeson&rft.aufirst=Trevor&rft.au=Beeson%2C%26%2332%3BTrevor&rft.date=2006&rft.pub=Continuum+International+Publishing+Group&rft.isbn=0826481000&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DawPGiqoCrSgC%26pg%3DPA129%26dq%3D%2522Christopher%2BNeil-Smith%2522%26ei%3DnITPS6i6CKXkyQSO8-TMAg%26cd%3D1%23v%3Donepage%26q%3D%2522The%2520Reverend%2520Christopher%2520Neil-Smith%2522%26f%3Dfalse&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Christopher_Neil-Smith"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Kathleen_R._Sands-1"><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Kathleen_R._Sands_1-0"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">^</span></a></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="citation book">Sands, Kathleen R. <a class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EENUIgdglNEC&pg=PA206&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=8#v=onepage&q=Christopher%20Neil-Smith&f=false" rel="nofollow"><i><span style="color: black;">Demon possession in Elizabethan England</span></i></a><span style="color: black;">. </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Praeger_Publishers" title="Praeger Publishers"><span style="color: black;">Praeger Publishers</span></a><span class="printonly"><span style="color: black;">. </span><a class="external free" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EENUIgdglNEC&pg=PA206&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=8#v=onepage&q=Christopher%20Neil-Smith&f=false" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">http://books.google.com/books?id=EENUIgdglNEC&pg=PA206&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=8#v=onepage&q=Christopher%20Neil-Smith&f=false</span></a></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2010-04-03</span>. "At around the same time, Father Christopher Neil-Smith, an Anglican priest, received a standing license from the Bishop of London authorizing him to exorcise freely according to his own judgment."</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Demon+possession+in+Elizabethan+England&rft.aulast=Sands&rft.aufirst=Kathleen+R&rft.au=Sands%2C%26%2332%3BKathleen+R&rft.pub=%5B%5BPraeger+Publishers%5D%5D&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DEENUIgdglNEC%26pg%3DPA206%26dq%3DChristopher%2BNeil-Smith%26cd%3D8%23v%3Donepage%26q%3DChristopher%2520Neil-Smith%26f%3Dfalse&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Christopher_Neil-Smith"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Christopher_Neil-Smith-2"><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Christopher_Neil-Smith_2-0"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">^</span></a></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="citation book">Neil-Smith, Christopher. <a class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=sh3zGAAACAAJ&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=2" rel="nofollow"><i><span style="color: black;">Praying for daylight: God through modern eyes</span></i></a><span style="color: black;">. P. Smith<span class="printonly">. <a class="external free" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=sh3zGAAACAAJ&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=2" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">http://books.google.com/books?id=sh3zGAAACAAJ&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith&cd=2</span></a></span></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2010-04-03</span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Praying+for+daylight%3A+God+through+modern+eyes&rft.aulast=Neil-Smith&rft.aufirst=Christopher&rft.au=Neil-Smith%2C%26%2332%3BChristopher&rft.pub=P.+Smith&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3Dsh3zGAAACAAJ%26dq%3DChristopher%2BNeil-Smith%26cd%3D2&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Christopher_Neil-Smith"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Marc_Cramer-3"><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Marc_Cramer_3-0"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">^</span></a></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="citation book">Cramer, Marc. <a class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=fdB-AAAAMAAJ&q=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&lr=&cd=10" rel="nofollow"><i><span style="color: black;">The devil within</span></i></a><span style="color: black;">. </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/W._H._Allen_Ltd" title="W. H. Allen Ltd"><span style="color: black;">W.H. Allen</span></a><span class="printonly"><span style="color: black;">. </span><a class="external free" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=fdB-AAAAMAAJ&q=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&lr=&cd=10" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">http://books.google.com/books?id=fdB-AAAAMAAJ&q=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&dq=Christopher+Neil-Smith+exorcism&lr=&cd=10</span></a></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2010-04-03</span>. "with the noted exorcist, the Rev. Christopher Neil-Smith, author of an anecdotal book entitled <i>The Exorcist and the Possessed</i>."</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+devil+within&rft.aulast=Cramer&rft.aufirst=Marc&rft.au=Cramer%2C%26%2332%3BMarc&rft.pub=%5B%5BW.+H.+Allen+Ltd%7CW.H.+Allen%5D%5D&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DfdB-AAAAMAAJ%26q%3DChristopher%2BNeil-Smith%2Bexorcism%26dq%3DChristopher%2BNeil-Smith%2Bexorcism%26lr%3D%26cd%3D10&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Christopher_Neil-Smith"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Lewis_Spence-4"><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6504702933883599684&postID=8538516916732435586#cite_ref-Lewis_Spence_4-0"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">^</span></a></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="citation book">Spence, Lewis. <a class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=U1qqguX24fAC&pg=PA316&lpg=PA316&dq=Mike+Taylor+exorcism&source=bl&ots=v4LKpItSfc&sig=CtWtopziI-IgLlIZi8_0QwBbkiI&hl=en&ei=u962S5LYNKLKMp2V5OEL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=&f=false" rel="nofollow"><i><span style="color: black;">Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology</span></i></a>. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Kessinger_Publishing" title="Kessinger Publishing"><span style="color: black;">Kessinger Publishing</span></a><span class="printonly">. <a class="external free" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=U1qqguX24fAC&pg=PA316&lpg=PA316&dq=Mike+Taylor+exorcism&source=bl&ots=v4LKpItSfc&sig=CtWtopziI-IgLlIZi8_0QwBbkiI&hl=en&ei=u962S5LYNKLKMp2V5OEL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=&f=false" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: black;">http://books.google.com/books?id=U1qqguX24fAC&pg=PA316&lpg=PA316&dq=Mike+Taylor+exorcism&source=bl&ots=v4LKpItSfc&sig=CtWtopziI-IgLlIZi8_0QwBbkiI&hl=en&ei=u962S5LYNKLKMp2V5OEL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=&f=false</span></a></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 2010-04-03</span>.</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="citation book"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysterious-Monsters-mysteries-Daniel-Farson/dp/049000427X"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Mysterious Monsters</em> (Aldus Books, 1978) by Daniel Farson and Angus Hall</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span></span></span></li>
</ol></div></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504702933883599684.post-3867523481291387912010-12-31T01:00:00.000-08:002011-08-07T02:55:14.559-07:00Mug Shot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgjRfK3MSCkNMmQbkXuHf27V5TmdNZ5It9tOkWc1KCZsQ06ALRZcZ3I3uIR94Ynwh4O-Njk0BQ_X4C4jua10HfCs-4XqnYBAab5eFJgunBfziF8S8L76ToHaFLivtQj5ok2JkCGJrf7oA/s1600/FarrantBonkersMug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgjRfK3MSCkNMmQbkXuHf27V5TmdNZ5It9tOkWc1KCZsQ06ALRZcZ3I3uIR94Ynwh4O-Njk0BQ_X4C4jua10HfCs-4XqnYBAab5eFJgunBfziF8S8L76ToHaFLivtQj5ok2JkCGJrf7oA/s640/FarrantBonkersMug.jpg" t$="true" width="576" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>David Farrant — the man with the chameleon eyes — </strong></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>a mug shot of a malcontented merchandiser of malice.</strong></span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">David Farrant was a fool from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he has given himself to the father of lies (John 8: 44).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">These are the facts as we know them, having researched them thoroughly down the years using original material and sources. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Tony Hill (identified as "Hutchinson" in the media by David Farrant in the previous century) first knew him in 1968 when Mr Farrant’s wife, Mary, was working as a part-time barmaid in <em>The Woodman</em>, Archway Road, just up the road from where Mr Hill lived in Archway Road. Following Tony Hill’s six month sojourn with Mrs Farrant, her cuckolded husband made himself destitute by declaring himself bankrupt within a few months of squandering an inheritance received barely a year prior, and was summarily booted out of his apartment (also in Archway Road). Mr Hill offered his coal bunker in the communal cellar under his ground floor flat to Mr Farrant who jumped at the chance and remained Tony Hill’s “tenant” for the period from August 1969 to August 1970. It was during this time that Mr Hill readily admits to colluding with Mr Farrant in an attempt to fake a ghost story in the local newspapers for which purpose he took many photographs of David Farrant prancing about in Highgate Cemetery <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">—</span></span> sometimes even pretending to be the ghost himself by lingering in the graveyard at night with a whitened face and wearing a top hat borrowed from Mr Hill.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjDqXATliXT-mySAyYzithye_spb_z_w2Ga0q-vR3AkF7tdASUA3a8-EuMcWsWQNHYPajLU6MpfTKUPAexKTVWV8pz17-Prjvduj55oU6oHnnS6N9sHaGTj-DWqdeCMhIqW4cFN2S9OQ/s1600/DFclown1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjDqXATliXT-mySAyYzithye_spb_z_w2Ga0q-vR3AkF7tdASUA3a8-EuMcWsWQNHYPajLU6MpfTKUPAexKTVWV8pz17-Prjvduj55oU6oHnnS6N9sHaGTj-DWqdeCMhIqW4cFN2S9OQ/s320/DFclown1970.jpg" t$="true" width="267" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Mr Farrant had heard about the legendary vampire at Highgate Cemetery in pubs he frequented and thought it a convenient bandwagon to hop on, as his fake ghost was making little impact beyond its confusion with genuine sightings of something malevolent and predatory in the graveyard. He had already written to his local newspaper, pretending to have seen his non-existent ghost no less than three times! Mr Hill, therefore, took further pictures of him brandishing stakes and goodness knows what else. Some of these photographs were published in newspapers; others provided to the press by Farrant were passed on to the police by concerned newspaper editors. The rest, as they say, is history.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoK05dauCWj1iEQwKqEEspHNxZlsSCiOGtdeTK094RrROnn9uEwOxpJ7JGLUC9iFI2q_GwRVl680Ky-q4eSmvC4PVvEXb8nLP7jn3J1uHREzGvpnK6qatfEyPts3AMXgkqPqPmGZ8B0k/s1600/DFstake5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoK05dauCWj1iEQwKqEEspHNxZlsSCiOGtdeTK094RrROnn9uEwOxpJ7JGLUC9iFI2q_GwRVl680Ky-q4eSmvC4PVvEXb8nLP7jn3J1uHREzGvpnK6qatfEyPts3AMXgkqPqPmGZ8B0k/s320/DFstake5.jpg" t$="true" width="278" /></a></div><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">When David Farrant tired of exploiting the vampire situation he joined the growing witchcraft craze and occult explosion. He became known as a “wicked witch” locally because of the nasty pranks and evil stunts he played on people. This behaviour escalated into him making black magic threats on innocent people and performing seemingly diabolical stunts in graveyards with naked females; antics which quickly landed him in jail with a stiff prison sentence. By which time, Tony Hill was giving David Farrant a very wide berth indeed.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AjtyQVLL0KqFwoYb6l6hDv138WO6_qDGeOIEAyuMo8WwrbadTythqBz-VXGmQwO_LW8Q4HVcvxDrZKFmyt667VP-Mz_-nyiMbQLNCoJD1KMr7jWE0mAQWTxEa03DG-0DnyKkWU6U22E/s1600/BlackMagicKingGuilty1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AjtyQVLL0KqFwoYb6l6hDv138WO6_qDGeOIEAyuMo8WwrbadTythqBz-VXGmQwO_LW8Q4HVcvxDrZKFmyt667VP-Mz_-nyiMbQLNCoJD1KMr7jWE0mAQWTxEa03DG-0DnyKkWU6U22E/s320/BlackMagicKingGuilty1.jpg" t$="true" width="232" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">David Farrant was always his own worst enemy. His problem was that he made countless threats to all and sundry, none of which he could ever back up with anything more than hot air. Journalists understandably tired of him. Everyone tired of him. He had already by this time become the pathetic, paranoid figure he is today <span style="font-size: x-small;">—</span> a worn-out shell filled with simmering malice towards those he despises and secretly envies; a talentless non-entity immersed in his own foolishness; a man eaten away with hatred who spends his entire existence ensconced in a Muswell Hill bed-sitting room from where he produces streams of bile in self-published pamphlets which he laughingly describes as "books."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpIT50wezFjRkvlnnez8VcKV8hMb9uBUEPrQrgIyeLuUveil58e-uJPs8DKxM5_kFjTOa9n4tZv_jmWuqP-omuLB4jmZSX6VcwntpmV9k6Neg38W3674wVaM-pNvyLgeD_ao-iP417zk/s1600/FarrantDevilAltar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpIT50wezFjRkvlnnez8VcKV8hMb9uBUEPrQrgIyeLuUveil58e-uJPs8DKxM5_kFjTOa9n4tZv_jmWuqP-omuLB4jmZSX6VcwntpmV9k6Neg38W3674wVaM-pNvyLgeD_ao-iP417zk/s320/FarrantDevilAltar.jpg" t$="true" width="211" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Born in 1946, this tragic old man still shuffles back and forth to the sorting office in London’s Muswell Hill to collect his mail from the post office box address he has been hiding behind for years, oblivious to the fact that Royal Mail will reveal the address behind a box upon request from anyone who wants it. Meanwhile, David Robert Donovan Farrant publishes on the internet his victims’ names and private addresses alongside hateful incitements designed to cause maximum damage and upset. He especially targets Bishop Seán Manchester, an author and exorcist in holy orders, who exposed David Farrant as an interloping charlatan as far back as 1970. He also investigated Mr Farrant’s black magic activities around the time of the latter’s imprisonment and declared him to be an incorrigible publicity-seeker. Bishop Manchester sees David Farrant as a would-be interloper who lost his way as a youth and never regained it, a man who early on made a pact with dark forces and invited them to take possession of him. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">It is plainly evident that the dark forces obliged.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLCaM2Wot1FGAXoCxnli12IqJcaUu4cljaDJjPMTNqTy-Ihx6tgtCRkiETDnH7GkghyfSVXmYDxGK1mpvx7JKay29_FGmUC2I6UGiHt9D9JKQYk9RKr3h6BZvuhZAO28duX6eseVnzNmA/s1600/FarrantEvil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLCaM2Wot1FGAXoCxnli12IqJcaUu4cljaDJjPMTNqTy-Ihx6tgtCRkiETDnH7GkghyfSVXmYDxGK1mpvx7JKay29_FGmUC2I6UGiHt9D9JKQYk9RKr3h6BZvuhZAO28duX6eseVnzNmA/s1600/FarrantEvil.jpg" t$="true" /></a></div>FoBSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05065851321220401540noreply@blogger.com