Episode 502: The Highgate Vampire

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna, I'm Ash.

And this is morbid.

We're on hinge today, we're on a different level today, not even spice level. No, like intergalactic.

Intergalactic, there you go, that's what I was looking for. I know, yeah, we're eating lots of food.

We're being lots of crazy. It's Thursday, but we got Fridays. Hey, look at that. have you guys had from Fridays?

It's like the crispy rice, and they put a little avocado on the top and then a tiny little jalapeno. It's really good, it is stupid good it is, it's real good.

I love sticky rice. Put a little soy sauce on there. a little soy sauce. I prefer coconut aminos, but soy sauce will do. Excuse me.

Yeah, look at this health and wellness journey. I know it's Braggs even.

So just look at that Bragg, just give me soy sauce on everything. Here you go, thank you, you're welcome.

I just gave her the soy sauce, I did it, it was imaginary. I also have some ginger sitting next to me, I have some ginger on either side of me.

Look at the bottom, tusk. Wow, we got tattoos yesterday, so I don't know why that made us loopy, but it did, it did. Shout out to Matt and Ryan at the Block Mall.

Matt and Ryan, the Block Mall shop of Drear and Wonder. And you know what, it's okay that we're being so kooky.

Yeah, it's fine, because we're going to talk about vampires today, vampires or lack thereof, or lack thereof, which is even better. But two kooky, crazy people.

Ooh, I looked them up just to see what they look like, I didn't want to know. I know nothing about this story, I know nothing, but I know what they look like, and it made me even more excited to listen to this story.

Yeah, they out in the streets cosplaying, yeah, so on to, Oh, let me just tell you we're talking about the I'm like, go into it.

And we're going to be talking about the Highgate Vampire story story. it's a good one, you know, that story story.

So it starts on November 1st, 1968, when several London news outlets were reporting on an incident of pretty substantial vandalism at the Tottenham Park cemetery. And it included, among other things, graves being dug up, being digged up, being digged on up, that's like, not good.

That's really, you know, a lot of people would say, that's bad, like, who does that? Yeah, why? Like, you want to vandalize things?

That's not cool, I'm not sure about that, but but don't vandalize people's graves, what the fuck like, just let them rest. They also had pried open coffins, and there was just like destroyed crosses everywhere.

What the fuck, it was wild. And the cemetery's superintendent, Reverend Lionel Phillips, he told reporters, that he had never seen anything like it. He said It isn't just ordinary vandalism. Everything has been carefully done and arranged.

According to some evil rite, there's more to this than meets the eye. And then the credits roll and the beginning of the movie happens. No, this is for realsies. So, according to Reverend Phillips, when he arrived at the cemetery that morning, he was shocked to find the grounds quote strewn with dead flowers, inverted crosses and broken urns, which had literally been robbed from the graves.

Oh, cool. And he told reporters everything had been arranged in a pattern that pointed to three recently buried grave sites, all of which had been dug out coffins and all now. Phillips himself had initially been alerted to the vandalism by the caretaker of the cemetery. William Dakin, I believe, is how you say it, and William Dakin told the press There's definitely something strange going on here. The graveyard is supposed to be haunted, but this has been done by humans and it looks like black magic or something.

I've never seen anything quite like it, although coffins and graves have been disturbed here before. I always love when people go straight to this must be real black magic and like, real satanic shit. Yeah, because it's like, you know that lots of people know how to make something look like that. So that your thought process immediately goes to that, and it makes you not look at the actual thing that's happening.

Precisely. And it's like, it's weird to me that more people, especially like around this, you know, you know, decades earlier than now, right? Their immediate thought was to go to the very obvious, instead of being like Red herring. Perhaps, yeah.

Well, we'll kind of talk about why they went there and like the current social climate at that time, and kind of why their heads were going to black magic and Satan worship. Interesting, yeah. But the next day, Dakin, he was less tentative about his theories about who was responsible for the vandalism before he was like, could be black magic.

Maybe I don't know, but things have happened before. Also, every time I say that, I just think, Black magic, yep.

It's true, it's a good song. But he told the Guardian Journal This isn't just ordinary vandalism. Everything has been done carefully. For some evil, right? I believe some kind of black magic ceremony has been performed here.

It was Halloween last night, bum, bum, bum.

You didn't expect that, did you? I didn't, but I welcome it with open arms. Again, it's called dramatic effect. Look it up, it was lovely.

So the official story from the police was that the vandals were most likely just youth celebrating Halloween. That's kind of what I thought most people would. But the incident did raise some concerns about whether there were devil worshippers lying among the ordinary Londoners. Well, here's the thing.

If it was just like a bunch of shit in there, like people, you know, they turned over some crosses and stuff and like, threw some. Even that would be. I'd be like, Wow, that's some like, fucked up youth shit. Like we didn't do that, like the grave robbing, that's the thing.

I'd be like, and I'd even be a little like, Oh, that's a lot for kids, like, why are they going in a cemetery? But they've done that before. Kids do stupid shit, of course.

But like you're saying, when you're opening up coffins, that's when things do take, and I didn't take that into consideration, right? That does take it into a different place entirely. Like, we're not just setting up some flowers in a weird way in a cemetery and turning some crosses over.

You're like, Really, I don't know where you're going, but you're not going anywhere. Good when you're opening people's coffins up. Not on a good path. No, like two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and you chose the wrong ass one, yeah.

And you just like, dug straight into the earth's crust. Yeah, don't go there. Yeah, I can understand why they were a little more like, What the fuck's happening here?

I get it, that's the thing, and here's the other thing. Given the evidence, it kind of seems like an irrational jump to make. Going from like, rambunctious asshole youths to full blown devil worshipers, for sure.

But at the time, modern day British people really weren't that far removed from, like, witchy, satanic hysteria, and just like, panic in general. Yeah, yeah, because in the late 19th and early 20th century, similar concerns were actually raised publicly about this influential cult society called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Damn, that sounds awesome, but I bet it's not at all. No, it actually is. Oh cool, sounds pretty awesome to me.

They literally had no association whatsoever with devil worshiping or any kind of malevolent deity at all. They just practiced like mystical traditions and magic as a spiritual practice. Yeah, and everyone was really freaking out about it because they were like, the devil. So satanic panic is happening.

Yeah, exactly now. The other thing was that the press and the public weren't familiar with the order's beliefs, so they just immediately labeled them dangerous people. That's awesome, but they were basically just kind of like witches and warlocks. If you ask my ass, you should do that.

When you don't understand something immediately, label it as dangerous. I think that's a great way to go about your life. There's a certain group of, and if you can't tell. That was like the biggest heaping helping of sarcasm, just in case anybody took that for a serious thing. But some people might have, because there is a group of people in particular that really love to do that, exactly.

You know, so you want to make sure exactly now. While most of the Golden Dawn members spent a ton of their time trying to combat the image of an evil secret society that had been placed upon them. One early member, you might know him, one Alistair Crowley, never heard of that guy.

Yes, you have, yes, you have, you have. He, like other people, were like, Okay, let's try to, like, show the public and these people in society that we're actually not what they think we are. Yeah.

Alistair was like, let's lean right the fuck into it, hell yeah. And he embraced the whole thing and embraced the notoriety by quote implying that he was genuinely involved with devil worship. He's just like, Sure. And then there were other parts of his personal life, like his being bisexual, his drug use and his social opinions. That made him even more threatening. To a very buttoned up British society.

Now, he had actually broke away from the Golden Dawn around 1900, and he traveled the world for a few years, which is pretty cool. And after that, he actually formed his own esoteric society called Thelema. Ah, now. His celebrity. And the occult beliefs of Thelema were so influential in a ton of social circles throughout the first half of the 20th century. So much so that l.

Ron Hubbard, future founder of Scientology Oh, fuck, and then a whole ass rocket engineer named Jack Parsons. They established a branch of Thelema in L.A. during the late 40s and early 50s, and people seemed to be really inspired by the practices. So actually, a lot of new religious movements that emerged in the 60s were actually influenced directly by Thelema.

Damn. And of course, most Christians and Catholics looked at those unfamiliar spiritual practices as dangerous and evil. That's why, to me, and this is just my opinion, like, gathering like that into one society of something or other. Yeah, I don't feel like it ever ends up as a great, as a great thing in the end.

I don't know, I share that belief. I still think we're supposed to. No, I think that's why I just like, practice my own shit, yeah.

I'm like, just, you know, have your little solo witch if you want, but I think when it gets too big, that's when things go awry. Yeah, you know, now. Those are all just like examples of reasons why the British society was a little freaked out by all these things going on now.

Was a little like quick on the draw here. Exactly to be like, this is definitely Satan, this is definitely an ancient Black magic rite, yes.

Ritual that has been happening in this graveyard. Like, I, you know, they're conditioned at this point, exactly, and they were like, you know, they're probably sacrificing things to some malevolent deity. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called malevolent deity.

That is pretty great band name, I call it Hello Cleveland. We are malevolent deity. You can make awesome shirts, I'm not musically inclined, so you can have it.

Like, you listener, you not to say that you're not musically inclined, you listening, listener, you can have it.

Take it, it's yours. But listen, even though the Golden Dawn, Alistair, Crowley and Thelma were all active about like five decades earlier. Like, I was just saying, all of their influences would feed the fears of satanism and witchcraft in 1970s. London So that's how we got here.

Fun. And then those fears were also fed by the release of Rosemary's Baby. The movie was released in June of 1968, and it was based on Ira Levin's novel from the year before. And in case I'm not the only person that's never seen it.

I've never seen it, have you? I have. I feel like I'm going to get attacked in the comments, you should see it, but I don't look at them.

I'll have you read it. I know I was like, you won't know, I won't know, but in case I'm not the only person who's never seen it. Rosemary's Baby basically tells the story of a young woman named Rosemary Woodhouse.

Which is a beautiful name. Who becomes the target of a group of Satan-worshipping witches that want to snatch her baby, uh-oh. So, in the context of satanic panic and mass hysteria, the influence of Rosemary's baby can't really be understated. Like you.

Gotta mention it, of course, and then, of course. The movie reignited Hollywood's interest in horror films and at the same time, presented the public with an idea of witchcraft that was modern, insidious and well-connected. So they were like witches walk among us.

Because I saw it, isn't Mia Farrow in that movie. Yeah, I saw it, Mia Farrow experienced it.

Her hair is great in that movie, she's got a really cool, like pixie cut. See, I know that because Tyra wanted to give that pixie cut to everybody, and she always was like, Rosemary's baby. Well, and she wanted to give that pixie cut to that one girl who wouldn't cut it a half inch more to be that way and got kicked off?

And I was like, you wouldn't look great with that haircut if it was real. I know, honestly, there was probably many other reasons why she wanted to get the fuck out of there. You don't say, but that's for another day.

That's for another day. But in all reality, William Dakin and Reverend Phillips had no idea what a Black Magic ceremony entailed, or what kind of mess or destruction it would leave behind. They were just like devil worshippers. Buzzwords Yes, exactly.

But still, they were both almost entirely convinced that the vandalism at Tottenham Park Cemetery was the work of Satan-worshipping witches who were conducting some sort of Black mass. And then witches came into the picture and said, So what they said, I don't give a fuck now. Their opinion on the matter wasn't the result of any kind of experience that they'd ever had.

No, they were just relying on the countless examples of modern day witches. Yeah, from Golden Dawn to Aleister Crowley, and then the new religious movements. And Rosemary's Baby. That they really thought this was a real threat to society. I think again, I think that's a great way to go about. Life is to have no actual evidence, nothing to go off of, no previous experience with something.

And then just listen to something somebody might have said once and look at a Hollywood movie, Hollywood, and say, Yeah, I got it. I know a lot about this now, I think that's an awesome way to go about things.

Me too, yeah, you know, heavy dose of sarcasm. Enter Sarcasm here.

But while the hysteria and the occult groups and evil rites in London were rooted more in rumor and social anxiety than reality. It is worth noting that there were groups, like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that existed to pursue an interest in the occult. Now, unlike the Golden Dawn, these groups didn't have any kind of formality or structure, it was more just groups of young people who were kind of pursuing a shared interest in the devil. No, I'm just kidding, I like it.

You're like, I love that, I love that, No, it's just like you can like those, that's where I feel like. It's like, really hard to have any kind of gathering of people that have a shared interest in that way, because even the ones that you're like, that's nice.

Like, you're just gathering together, you have this interest in, like magic as a spiritual practice, and like, you know, you probably love nature and all that shit. And you found a bunch of people that also feel that way, and you feel like connected and like you're belonging to that.

And like, if that's something you need, then that's nice to have, but even that will get turned. That's the thing you just can't have. A group of people that just want to do some stuff because it always turns dark.

It always turns dark, even if they have like good intentions. And then sometimes I feel like a lot of times it seems like there's like one or two people within that group that just loses themselves a little bit. Yeah, people are tough, we're a tough species.

Yeah, we're like the worst species. We really shouldn't gather that much. It's not. It's really not a great idea. Just stay home and doordash. I think we should all just kind of free float.

Yeah, with Doordash, you know. Just be like those little little pieces of dust in the air, when you see a sunbeam go down and you see all the dust floating in the air. We should all just be like that. I always wonder if it's actually dust, or if it's like something else, like, what?

Magic. I like that better than dust, for sure, it's better for my allergies. My old stepdad would say that, like, we're somebody else's ants.

Damn, so like, what if we're somebody else's dust, cool, wild? That's pretty awesome.

Food for thought Nothing matters, then, nothing matters anyway. Have you ever seen, like, the thing of like, like pictures of, like, the whole ass universe? Oh yeah, I have.

And it's like, you are here, crying in the shower, and I'm like, Yeah, I am okay. And they're like, it doesn't actually matter, I'm like, it does. One day in the morgue, when it was a particularly slow day and nothing was happening, we were just sitting in the office for hours on end.

Somebody who was training me and I'm not going to, like, blow him up, but it was, he was great. Oh okay, but we were. I just don't know if he wants to be named on podcast. Yeah, yeah, fair, fair, fair. He had found like some video that showed like in scale, all the different planets and like the galaxies and all that, and like where we are.

And we just sat there and kept replaying it and being like, why are we even in this office? Like, what are we even doing? Like, what's happening? By the end of it, we were having such like an existential crisis, like we both left, like feeling some type of way.

Because you're like, what matters? I was like, and we're in the morgue? So there's like, death around us, which added an element of, like, what's going on? Like, we're just surrounded by death. But look at how tiny we are and how nothing mattered. It was like, so weird, yeah, that's wild.

I left there and just needed to be, like, reprogrammed. Wow, yeah, how did you just like, wake up the next day? I don't know.

I think we were both fine the next day. Good for you guys.

She struck him with her motor vehicle, she had been under the influence, and then she left him there.

If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover up to prevent one of their own from going down.

To end in a mistrial. It's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Dr. Death presents the most in-depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen. You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus. join Wondery Plus in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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But so yeah, going back to the story. And like these groups of people that gather together. In the late 60s, one of these groups that emerged from London's suburban High-Gauge neighborhood. They called themselves the British Occult Society. Find me out, I know, right? They were led by David Ferrin and Sean Manchester, two occult enthusiasts who were in their early 20s at the time.

Now, the group was said to quote, have grown out of a circle of friends who had been in the habit of visiting Highgate Cemetery late at night in the 1960s. And, according to David Ferrin's wife, all the members shared an interest in the supernatural, but mostly participated. Quote for a laugh and a joke We would wander about, frighten ourselves to death and come out again. Sounds like fun to me, and David Ferrin's the guy who looks really cool.

He does look really cool, he does like all the pictures. You're like, damn, he's a character, I know nothing about him.

Yeah, so I'm just saying, totally based off aesthetics. I was like, you look cool, he does look cool, cool.

And I think he was cool for like a minute and then a turn, like he had his moment, and then it went a little too far. Cool, good to know.

And we'll get there. But by the late 60s, Highgate Cemetery, the one where everything had gone down, it had seen better days. It had been filled to capacity, actually, decades earlier. But for some reason, they still tried to squeeze in new plots. So things were overcrowded, unsustainable, and, sadly, the grounds were really poorly maintained. And then the situation was even further exacerbated by the bombings that were sustained during World War I and World War II. And that left many of the stones and crypts just in crumbling disrepair.

Oh, so, this was all made even worse by mid-century neglect and overgrowth. Like nobody was taking care of this place, so everything was overgrowing to the point where you couldn't even walk a path. Oh, and that's so sad.

I know because it's people's final resting place. Yeah, I think cemeteries personally are beautiful, I love cemeteries and they should be maintained.

There's a whole foundation, I think it's called Save our Cemeteries. I will look it up. I think you're right. We can link them because they take donations to help revitalize forgotten about cemeteries so that people can have.

They've done a lot for New Orleans cemeteries and stuff, so we'll link it because it is an important organization. I think, yeah, and definitely super pertinent to this story. Yeah, good call because they do a lot of good work.

Hell yeah, well, so listen. By the time the British Occult society started visiting the cemetery in the late 1960s, it was in peak shambles, Richard Altec wrote. To reach one grave requires from the path through the brambles and burrs, and hip-high undergrowth and clinging vines that constantly trip up the explorer fresh from the London pavements. Damn so basically he was like, you're going to be wading through overgrown shit, clinging to brambles, probably getting cut by thorns.

It was gnarly. So when Ferrant and the group started visiting Highgate, their trips did involve some light vandalism. Which, that's the thing where I'm like, that's a bummer, don't do that now. What they did, I guess, wasn't really noticeable underneath the overgrowth and the ruin of the cemetery.

But during later visits in 1969, David Ferrant did notice obvious signs of vandalism that had not been done by the group, but by other nighttime visitors. He was like, we didn't do that, he would later tell reporters. Vaults had been broken open and coffins literally smashed apart. Oh, that's awful. One vault near the top gate was wide open and one could see the remains of a skeleton where it had been wrenched from a coffin.

Another vault on the main pathway had been thus entered and one of the coffins inside set alight. That's fucked up, like, literally, meaning somebody had lit a coffin on fire. You gotta be a special brand of fucked up, that's the thing.

Yeah, now, around this same time, that David Ferrant is like telling people that this is going on. The police in Highgate had actually started to receive reports of small groups of teenagers vandalizing local cemeteries. So the police figured that the recent disturbances at Highgate cemetery were made by those same assholes. But some people were not so sure that they were just dealing with teenagers, and some people thought everything going on in Highgate was because of something supernatural at work.

Oh, now. By December 1969. Ferrant's group had received two reports from locals claiming that they'd been walking in Highgate Cemetery when they encountered a tall, dark specter. This is a quote that temporarily hypnotized or paralyzed the bystander. Whoa, So, Ferrant, for obvious reasons, was very intrigued by this report because he's an occult enthusiast, yeah.

So he decided to see what he could see for himself, and he made plans to stay in the cemetery overnight on December 21st. Oh shit. So when he reached the gate and he was just about to climb over. He said he was stunned by what he thought to be a tall person walking through the cemetery grounds. Now, he stared through the bars, trying to get a closer look. And he said he. Quote realized the shape was over seven feet tall and saw quote two eyes meeting mine, which were not human, rather reflecting some alive presence. Ooh.

So in that moment, he was scared, shitless, and he figured he was in some kind of danger. So he was able to tear his gaze away from the specter. And he said, At that point, the figure just vanished. I love it. Iconic, yeah.

So the encounter with this specter at the cemetery gates was thrilling for him. Yeah, like he's been searching for this for a long time, of course. For years he had hoped to have his own experience with the supernatural, and now he just fucking had one.

Hell yeah. So after telling the rest of the British occult society about the interaction, he became determined to find other people with similar experiences so he could learn more. So, he drafted a letter titled Ghostly Walks in Highgate that he submitted to the Hampstead and Highgate Express on February 6, 1970. He wrote to them.

This is beautiful. Some nights, I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery. 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 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. I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.

Good for him. So Farron's letter actually got a ton of responses, and four were actually printed by the paper the next week. Damn. They mostly confirmed the existence of the Highgate ghost now. One letter writer claimed the ghost had been appearing for years on a regular basis. Quote showing itself nightly for about a week, at intervals of about a month.

And then another letter writer claimed that there had long been stories. Quote about a tall man in a hat who would walk across Swains Lane and just disappears through a wall into the cemetery. I love this, it's so much fun. So the responses to Farron's letter elicited even more responses the next week. And this issue included a note from the editors. Actually asking readers to send their own accounts of supernatural experiences, like in and around the cemetery.

It's so much fun, let's go now. In addition to the further sightings of the Tall man, letters started explaining more of the folklore surrounding the area. One letter writer wrote about a mysterious figure seen moving the headstones in the cemetery late at night.

And another letter told of a ghostly bicyclist known to chase women down Swains lane Hate that? Yeah, I don't love that, I don't like that guy.

I also just like, immediately hear the da-da-da-da-da-da, yep, immediately. But the trend continued until the end of February, when the Hamstead and Highgate Express finally ended their coverage on the phantom at Highgate Cemetery with six letters. Some people described the tall man, other people told of a woman in white who could be seen in the cemetery late at night. And they said she was crying out loud for Hugo, Where are you, Hugo?

Hugo, Hugo, right in, tell us what's going on, I know.

Come on, man, now. Among the final letters was one from David Ferrant, himself, telling his own story and expressing his quote relief that his ghostly experience had been corroborated by others. Now, in a piece for folklore, writer Bill Ellis noted quote. But the most impressive detail about the letters to the paper is the sheer amorphousness of the Highgate traditions. Apart from the ghostly cyclist, hardly two informants gave the same story. Yet all young people seemed compelled to walk by or even enter the cemetery with the idea that something is supposed to happen.

So basically, he was saying, even though all the letters shared different stories, they all kind of created this like shared mythology. Around Highgate Cemetery, I love that and kind of established it as a place known for supernatural encounters or hauntings. Yeah, makes sense.

Get me there ASAP, let's go now. Under normal circumstances, the letters published to the Hampstead and Highgate Express might have been dismissed. As you know, like folklore, naivete, naivete, naivete.

Just like the way that UFO abduction stories and ghost encounters aren't taken very seriously. But, like I said earlier, during the late 60s and early 70s, London was undergoing major cultural shifts. And older generations were paranoid about younger generations being interested in these dark things like witchcraft and satanic shit and dark arts. So these supposed hauntings in the Highgate cemetery actually gave these older like fearful generations something to concentrate on, and it kind of seemed like they started projecting their anxieties that way.

Yeah, because they're like, look exactly, you were right, we were right all along, like Reverend Phil there.

Yeah, and William, the cemetery keeper, William William Dakin, I know.

What a cool name, right? That is, you should be a cemetery caretaker. Yes, a caretaker.

If your name is William Dakin, you just have to be. I don't make the rules, it just makes sense. I don't know why.

I like it, or do I now? Sean Manchester, if you remember. He was one of the leaders of the British Occult Society, but he split from the original British Occult Society in early 1970 and ended up founding his own faction. And he immediately seized on these stories being published in the press.

Now, unlike David Ferrant, who was essentially looking for validation, Sean Manchester came forward and told reporters that he didn't think this was a simple matter of a ghostly entity. Instead, he said that he believed something far more dangerous was at work. He claimed he was, quote, concerned by the numbers of carcasses of foxes and other large animals that were showing up. With lacerations around the throat completely drained of blood, he thinks there's a vampire at work. Ooh.

So, given the success of the previous round of these paranormal letters, the Hampstead and Highgate Express leapt at the chance for more letters of this nature. Yeah, they probably saw this was like a big draw, so they were like, let's go. They were like, party, as you say, all right?

Vampires So in late February, they published a front page article featuring Sean Manchester under the headline, Does a vampire walk in Highgate? I am obsessed with that, love it so much so. In the article, Manchester warned local residents that this was not any old, ordinary vampire or vampire.

This needs to happen more. He quote speculated that it was a king vampire from. I think it's Wallachia that had been brought to England in a coffin by his supporters at the start of the 18th century. That sounds fucking awesome. Why doesn't this happen more? I don't know.

If someone told me a king vampire had arrived after being brought over in a coffin, I mean, come on, we're calling out to work today, fellas, like, let's go make my day, yeah.

Well, he went into detail, he said. Quote Now that there is so much desecration of graves by satanism, I'm convinced that this has been happening in Highgate Cemetery. In an attempt by a body of satanists who, excuse me. To resurrect the King Vampire, we would like to exorcise the vampire by the traditional and approved manner. Drive a stake through his heart with one blow just after dawn between Friday and Saturday, chop off his head with a grave digger, shovel and burn what remains.

This is what happened centuries ago, but we'd be breaking the law today. So quick question, Sure, between Friday and Saturday.

I don't know why, so they're like, I know everybody's got to go to work during the week. And I'm sure this vampire has a sweet ass. Nine to five probs.

We should wait until the weekend when his guard is down just after dawn, when he's had a nice Brewski after work, and then we can dust his ass. Only in these certain time periods, like, I really like that.

I'm obsessed with it, I think that might be what I'm like. Okay, I was going to be a question, but then I worked it out in my own head. So there ain't no rest for the wicked.

Yeah, that's why they continue their work on the weekends. Yeah, everybody's working for the weekend, everybody's working for the vampire.

And they have to chop off his head, yeah, with a grave digger shovel, so it's not like Buffy, where they just dust, No.

It's a little different, it's close, that's so neat.

Yeah, it's neat, because it's just like poof and you're gone, and it's like you don't have to do anything else. You don't have to get rid of any body. You're just like.

I know that is true. You sweep him into a dustpan. I like it, but also Buffy's version is neat, too, because that's what I mean.

Buffy's version is neat, Oh, that's what you're saying, like, chopping his head off with a grave digger shovel is not neat at all. And then you have to light a fire, like Buffy doesn't even have to light a fire.

Yeah, no, Buffy's way is far and above the better way. By the way, go listen to the Re-watcher. it's our favorite podcast.

It's true, please do it well, you know, one of our favorite podcasts. Yeah, of course. But by the next day, Manchester's story had obviously gained some attention from people like us.

At first, the attention, people like us. At first, this is not just us. The attention was mostly from people who appreciated his creativity, but absolutely dismissed the reality of Vampires couldn't be us.

But after the public sat with the story for about a week or so, and Manchester continued to push this narrative of vampires and satanists in the press. Some people started to wonder whether there might be some truth to what he was saying. After all, there had been an alarming rise in youth rebellion in recent years that coincided with increased drug use. And an interest in the paranormal and the occult. The paranormal, the paranormal.

That was a soul. And then there was the vandalism and the evidence of quote unquote evidence of witchcraft in local cemeteries and also church yards. Which were followed by all the letters sent to the Hampstead and Highgate Express about these paranormal happenings in Highgate cemetery. So, while it may have sounded outlandish at first, after giving it some thought, these people in Highgate started to think maybe Sean Manchester was onto something. And maybe they ought to do something about the evil that invaded their motherfucking neighborhood. I love this because it's a movie, it is.

This is literally a movie like, everybody's just like, we gotta do something about this evil, I guarantee you, this king, vampire, vampyr.

I guarantee you that they probably did make a movie about this. You should look that up, because I didn't, I'm gonna look it up. So, on March 13th, Ferrant and Manchester David Ferrant and Sean Manchester both appeared together in a news segment produced by ITV about the cemetery and standing in front of the cemetery gates. Ferrant told a reporter that he had received quote threatening letters with black magic symbols on them, warning him to stay away from things he could not understand.

Ooh, now. Sean Manchester interrupted and kind of seemed to see an opportunity to undermine David Ferrant. So he challenged Ferrant's power and knowledge of the occult, telling the reporter. We feel he does not possess sufficient knowledge to exercise successfully something as powerful or evil as this vampire, and may well fall victim as a result. He's like me, on the other hand, I know what the fuck I'm doing.

Me, I'm good, you not good, he said. I'm hot and you're not top that.

So, the program followed the interview with a segment on the ghostly apparitions seen in the park and included interviews with several neighborhood children who have also claimed to see this dark figure in Highgate Cemetery So the news segment on ITV aired at 6 p..m. And within two hours, there were nearly a hundred people who assembled at the gates of Highgate Cemetery for what the press later described as a vampire hunt. Wow, this is for realsies, it happened.

I love it, I fucking love it, Logan and I. So. While many residents were residents of this local London neighborhood, Highgate, several others had actually driven pretty far to participate in this event. One of those people was Alan Blood.

Hmm, I don't know if that's his real name or not, I was just going to say, please tell me, that's his real name. I mean, he's a self-described vampire expert. So, like, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that he changed it, but I don't know his life. But he traveled. What I do know is that he traveled more than 40 miles to participate in the hunt for what he described as an undead, Satan-like being.

You know what, get it? I just I'm like, you know, like, just if it makes you happy, yeah, it can't be that bad, Cheryl said it.

My girl, I love Cheryl and Blood, told reporters. I met Mr. Fair. that's his name, Blood told reporters.

He told reporters I met Mr Farrant in a pub and we talked about his plans to stake the Vampire. But this whole thing is timed wrongly. There were too many people around, which would disturb any undead spirit. Of course, he's like, if this were up to me to organize, I would have done it a little more, a little more, you know?

I would have understood the nuances here. thank you. That's what I was looking for, the nuances. I would have fine-tuned some of these details. I just, I really like that.

These people believe this so wholeheartedly. I love it, I fucking love it, I find this endearing, it's fantastic.

At one point, like an entire school of children like descended upon this cemetery with like, steaks and dogs and fucking everything. I love it I'm in.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole and I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time. The impact on victims and what's left once the facade falls away? We've covered stories like a Shark tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills. An active lawsuit filed by Larry King. And no real product to push.

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I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like, at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls with a diagnosis. The state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. well, you were holding something back intentionally.

Yeah, well, yeah, no, it's hysteria, it's all in your head, it's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline, and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.

Now some people who were there like, this happened a lot. Yeah, yeah, this happened a few times. So some people there seemed to take Ferrant and Manchester's claim seriously. But a lot of people also just seemed to be there to witness the spectacle.

Me, I'm that person. It's us now. When they couldn't get through the gates, several would-be vampire hunters climbed a 10-foot wall surrounding Highgate Cemetery and just went in search of open graves. Looking for this king vampyr? Wow.

It's for real dog. Other people, though, refused to go very far into the cemetery, and they claimed that they had seen something moving beyond the gate. Ooh, now a man named Anthony Robinson. Boring? Sorry, Anthony.

Sorry, Anthony, you're following up, Mr. Blood. Yeah, exactly. He told reporters. I walked past this place twice and heard a high-pitched noise.

Then I saw something gray moving slowly across the road. I'm sure there's something evil lurking here at Highgate. I love that the vampire's just this gray figure, he's just like, I'm just gray.

I'm just gray, let me go about my day, look at it, I love it, that'd be adorable.

That would be so cute. He's like, just leave me alone. But by 10 o'clock, the scene resembled what one onlooker described as a football crowd, with tons of people carrying blunt objects that they were planning to use against any evil presence. And John Manchester later told a reporter It was like the end of a Frankenstein film where the monster was chased. Yeah.

People had weapons and looked as if they could turn nasty if they had seen a tall, lean person in dark clothing. See, that's where it turns for me. Because when you're just like, Oh, this person went in there by himself and was like, I'm going to stake a vampire. I was like, that's delightful. Yeah, look at that.

You do what you want to do when it becomes an angry mob of people, like at Beauty and the Beast. Like, if Gaston is leading this whole thing, I'm not into it because it goes right back to my whole thing of. Like, you're gathering with a common interest, just stay at home and get doordash, don't gather with a common interest. Because some of you are going to start getting crazy and like, this guy just said, you're going to start beating on some poor, tall drink of water that walks by.

I knew that's what you were going to say. Like, John walks by and everybody starts beating the shit out of him, like, that's it's not good, it's not good, it's not turning good.

No, it's not getting better. I'm getting a little upset. Luckily, the police were also aware of that fact. All right, cool.

And because the situation did have the potential, like we were just pointing out, to get pretty dangerous. They eventually were able to drive the crowds out of the cemetery before anybody got hurt. Do small patrols, you know? Yeah, exactly like a scoop gang, right?

Yeah, but in the days and weeks that followed, Highgate police had to contend with several smaller incidents of groups of teenagers or young adults breaking into the cemetery, stakes in hand, in search of the paranormal, it's important. But nearly all of those individuals actually hadn't even taken the claims of vampires seriously. They just like, wanted to be part of this, I guess.

Yeah, everybody wants to be part of something. But then other people were like, No, there's a motherfucking vampire in here and I'm going to be the one to get him vampyr. But the press, on the other hand, they kept presenting this story as though it were 100 fact. They actually usually cited Sean Manchester. I don't know what happened there, David Ferrant and even Alan Blood.

Oh, no, as experts on vampirism, Alan Blood now Sean Manchester told a reporter from Hampstead and Highgate Express, It is too much to be the work of vandals. There are some Black magic signs and symbols, limbs and even entire bodies missing from graves.

It all points to something very evil. Yeah, I mean, again, that's not great, bodies missing from graves and shit like, that's not cool. Yeah, that's the thing. Just go look for a vampire.

Yeah, exactly, don't worry about the people there. But what he's saying, he's like, keep looking for the vampire, because the vampire is the one taking, like his followers are the ones taking these bodies and trying to resurrect. King V. There. No way. That's not how you do it.

No, but a few months after the vampire hunt in Highgate, the story was revived, of course, in early August, when three young girls were walking through the cemetery and discovered the headless, charred remains of a woman's corpse lying on the ground outside of one of the crypts. Holy shit, a police spokesperson told the press.

Damn, so people were taking this to, like, another level, way too far. And the discovery of the remains reignited the excitement surrounding the supposedly supernatural aspects of Highgate Cemetery. And once again, the press turned to the supposed experts for a quote. Instead of being like, what group of asshole teenagers did this? Yeah, because you know, that's what it is.

Now they're leaning in a little bit. And Sean Manchester, I keep saying, Manchester, Manchester, Manchester, Sean, Manchester told the Highgate and Hempstead Express.

Like?

Referring to the King Vampire, Yeah. According to him, stealing a human skull brought the cultists one step closer to reviving the King Vampire and increasing his number of followers. And in all the excitement over the discovery, few noticed the comments from Highgate's groundskeeper, who told police he saw no signs of black magic. And he just also chalked it up to ordinary vandalism, and it's like, did he cite a source for that?

He's like the human skull, if you bring it to the king vampire, like, it brings you closer. And it's like, Did anyone go? Do you have a source for that? or did you come up with that yourself? And that therein lies the problem? That's the problem.

Because they're just taking this man for face value and they're like, Well, he says, he's an expert at this. Yeah, this is just fanfic, everybody, they're just making it up as they go along, This is fanfic.

You're entirely correct, it was a headless corpse. Well, then, you know, that's very coincidental, because you need a human skull to get closer to the. It's like they're just making it up as they go along, that's the thing. But, of course, not wanting to be outdone by Manchester's supposed expertise. David Ferrant took to Swains Lane and vowed to patrol the local cemeteries until he found those responsible.

On August 17th. His buffy patrolling, though, came to an end when he was arrested in St Michael's Churchyard and charged with trespassing. Now, at the time of his arrest, he was carrying a large crucifix and a wooden stake. And in their statements to the press, Highgate police claimed that Ferrant had told them he had quote gone to Highgate to watch for a vampire raising from its grave. And he told them, according to the police, I would have entered the catacombs in my search and upon finding the supernatural being, I would have driven my stake through its heart and then run away.

I love that for you now. Later, Ferrant said that this statement was entirely fabricated and that he had not said that. He said he'd really gone to the cemetery with the British Occult Society to conduct a seance intended to establish a psychic link with the dark specter. Wow, he said. I wasn't going to stab anyone.

Yeah, come on. I was just holding a seance to talk. Yeah, don't make me out to be something else, he said. I just want to chat, I just wanted to talk.

But because he had been charged with trespassing, he had to appear before a judge on September 30th, and he pleaded not guilty to the charge. Now, his lawyer, Geoffrey Bayes, argued that the cemetery was, quote, not an enclosed area in the strict legal sense. So technically, his client hadn't broken any laws. And then Ferrant told the judge, I decided to go out and destroy it. I was aware of the power of the cross and went to the cemetery with a crucifix on which I had engraved a black Magic emblem. So he's really going for it.

He's taken this and run with it. But his lawyer explained that, while it may not make sense to the courtroom, technically, it's not an illegal activity to go out hunting for vampires. And he told them, it is akin to people spending fortunes looking for the Loch Ness monster or some other supposed creature. And for some reason, the judge agreed, and the charges against Ferrant were dropped. Okay.

He was like, You know what fair point. Technically, it is not illegal. Valid, No.

While Ferrant is going and appearing in court for all these trespassing charges. The other members of the British Occult Society were standing watch over the cemeteries in Highgate, like their leader had told them to. But just moments after the charges against him had been dropped, Ferrant gave a comment to reporters, telling them that he vowed to quote, continue his investigations and carry on trying to warn people that followers of this black magic cult were performing evil ceremonies at the cemetery. Dun, dun, dun. It's like a scooby-doo episode, it really is.

I swear it truly is somebody tagged me in something on TikTok that just made me think of this. We need like a theme song.

That somebody said that ghost is just like Scooby-doo music, like if you put it to certain songs, to Scooby-doo episodes. I'm like, running away, you should try that. There's a couple that there's one in particular and I can't remember. I think it's Zombie Queen.

I don't know if I know that one sing it, it's very much like sing it right now, sing it.

No, it's like the music that really, it actually worked, not the words. And I was like, I'm not offended and I support this message. I love Scooby-doo.

And it just made me think of that song playing over this whole thing and it actually works really well. Oh, now I need to listen to that song. I'm going to have to, like, play it like the part for you, because you're going to be like, Wow, yeah, please do that. That's actually very true.

One time I just paid for a Boomerang subscription only to watch Scooby-doo. I remember that that was pretty great. It was money well spent. Yeah, I like that.

Like, you just gave a huge thumbs up. Yeah, wow.

I don't know if I've heard Zombie Queen. To be fair. This song is like, very out of their normal stuff. Yeah, it's a little groovy. Wow, and that's ghost.

You know so many things. I love your hyper fixation on this band, like, genuinely I love your hyper fixation on this. Because you have fun new, like little fun facts every time.

I can always come up with something new. You're wild, but doesn't that work out really well? That does work Zombie Queen, it really does get Scooby-doo Chase.

And I really want to listen to that more now because I like that. But David Ferrant and Sean Manchester, there was no other way to go back to it. So Ferrant's arrest at St. Michael's Churchyard kicked off a new chapter in this. Basically, at this point, him and Sean Manchester had a rivalry and this whole thing kicked off a new chapter in that.

The fact that this is like, it's like a rivalry about among cults a vampire king, yeah, like this is a king-vampire rivalry, a king-vampire-enthusiast rivalry among brothers.

Just let that settle for a second. That's the thing. Like they belonged to the same group once, and then they were like, never mind, yeah, I mean, I'm for this. So, in early November, just a month after Ferrant appeared in court, British Occult Society member John I believe it's braidish was reported to the police for assaulting Sean Manchester.

Oh, shit, things took a turn. According to John, there, Sean Manchester threatened him and his family with black magic unless he rescinded the bail money that he had put up to bail. David Ferrant out of jail following his arrest for trespassing. Damn so. Appearing before a London court, Braidish told the magistrates that Manchester had called his wife. And Quote warned her that unless the bail was revoked, odd things will happen to you and your children.

Odd things, that's what he said, not even bad things, just odd things. It's going to get weird in here, but are you going to fuck around with that?

No, no, exactly. It's such a gentle threat, sort of. It's not like fucked up things are going to, like bad things are going to, It's like odd things.

Some odd things. It's not even gentle. It's like menacing. Yeah, gentle isn't the way to describe it. It's like, a, yeah, it's just like, kind of menacing it is.

Yeah, now. In court, Manchester was quoted as saying, I believe in black magic. Do you? I am an occult? Excuse me. And Dave said that he's going to yell this at people whenever he's annoyed at them.

I am an occult, I love it, somebody just disrespects you and you're like, I'm an occult. I am an occult, I'm an actual occult.

Okay, so fuck off. That's Dave's way to deal with people that he doesn't like, and I might steal it. But anyway, when Braidish learned of these threats, he went to Manchester's home and an argument ensued.

And apparently, during the argument, Sean Manchester and a friend tried to forcibly remove John from their home, at which point, Manchester was knocked to the ground and supposedly hurt his leg. Damn so. After hearing both sides of the argument, Magistrate William Hughes noted that Braidish technically was guilty of assault, but under the circumstances he dismissed the charges. He was like, this is all a little much judges out here.

Just being like, this is a lot, guys like, knock it off. I'm just going to keep dismissing these charges until you all stop. So Braidish didn't get in trouble, but Manchester was placed on probation and fined 200. I think it's pounds. With explicit instructions not to have any more contact with John Braidish, he'd be probably smart.

Now, in the weeks and months that followed, both Ferrant and Manchester did everything they could to stay in the spotlight. And keep all these stories about black magic and occultists and vampires alive in the press. While being careful to make sure that their antics didn't violate any more laws, yeah, you know, just fun silliness. But they both maintained that devil worshippers were still at work in the cemeteries. Ferrant said that the British Occult Society had been attempting to exorcise the evil spirits, and Manchester said that he was performing various rituals outside of the cemeteries. To take care of this, of course.

Now, in late October, the BBC program 24 Hours heard about the situation and actually traveled to Highgate to cover the story. Wow, now. The story relied heavily on interviews with Sean Manchester and included what they referred to as a documentary reconstruction of Manchester's attempts to exorcise the evil spirits from Highgate cemetery. I love that a lot, I want to see it personally.

Yeah, I want to watch that. I couldn't find it. But in the opening segment, the host told audiences We have a film report of a secret and satanic ritual being practiced in Britain in October 1970. 24 Hours is building up a case history of the occult. We've heard of ghost hunters, psychic researchers, covens of witches dancing naked around bonfires in the middle of winter, and even the odd black mass.

Sometimes, the fascination with the Black arts leads its inheritance to far more sinister rituals. Ooh, spooky now. Just as he had done with countless other media appearances, Manchester used this appearance on 24 hours to continue building out his vampire narrative. In one instance, he said that he had actually come into contact with a young woman he referred to as Louisa. And he said that she was a London girl supposedly possessed by demonic spirits.

Ah, spirits, excuse me. And, according to Manchester, he followed Louisa to the crypts at Highgate one evening. And that was when he discovered Quote, an extra coffin with no nameplate, and opening it to find a body which appeared neither dead or alive. So, he said, jumping into action, he grabbed his stake and Quote placed the point between the seventh and eighth rib on the left. Grabbing my arm, one of my assistants pleaded with me to desist, saying that it would be sacrilege.

If what lies before us is an undead, I replied, it would be an act of healing. Consternation grew among the group in the vault, and the consensus of opinion was that the stake remained unsoiled until at last. Proper permission had been obtained from the correct quarter. I just love this. So basically, he was like, I wanted to dust this motherfucker, yeah.

But all of my people were telling me that it's sacrilege, and the general consensus was that we should leave the stake unsoiled. A.

K.

A not stab things, you know? I think that's just like having a good team around you, yeah, that you can trust to tell you when you've gone a little too far.

I think they're like, don't stab this person. But I want to know where you get the permission, like, what's the correct quarter to ask the permission from? I mean, these are questions that probably have answers that I'm sure they'll come up with in the moment. Yeah, I'd have to ask Sean Manchester.

You would have to ask Sean Manchester, but don't you think that if you were this reporter, you'd be like, So, did you ask anybody? 100? I'd be like, my next question would be, Who do you ask?

Do you want me to come with you? Should we go do that right now? That's the thing like Diane Sawyer got on the case. Nobody's doing a good job with the follow-up questions here.

Ash is a really good interviewer. I feel like Ash would be really good at this. Oh my god, you would have the like perfect follow-up questions. Thank you so much.

That's because I'm inquisitive you are, and I like it, thank you. Whenever we have interviews, I'm like, girl, take it over, oh my god.

Thank you so much. Or, if I think to ask a follow-up question in an interview, I always go, I ashed, I love that.

So when one of the members of the group stopped Manchester here from going through with the staking, he said he did the next best thing. And he filled the coffin with holy water, garlic and salt, and left the door to the crypt open to let sunlight take care of the rest. And then he added some chicken tenderloin and he sautéed it. Get the holy water out of there and I'll eat that. But the segment on the Highgate Vampire that appeared on 24 Hours turned out to be one of the last big stories to feature Sean Manchester and David Ferrant. That took their claims seriously. This was partially because the public's attention had moved on to new stories.

It had been a while and they were like, Yeah, we still haven't seen it, so I don't know. We're like Gnats. We can't focus on something for that long. No. But more importantly, the more progress the police made towards stopping the vandalization, the less inclined Londoners were to believe in the existence of king vampires and Black masses.

Sad. And in July 1973, Highgate police did arrest a group of teenagers who invaded the cemetery. And at that point, they learned, since the original claims in 1970, these local kids had actually made a habit of going quote-unquote, adventuring in local cemeteries. Looking for supernatural phenomenon makes sense.

So this, the locals realized, was a far more plausible explanation for the disturbances than vampires and demons. I love that it took the police being like, Hey, you see this group of youths? They say that youths have been doing this for a while. And going in there because cemeteries are spooky and kids are gullible. And everybody was like, Wow, I wish someone told us that before.

We went on a vampire hunt and it's like, that's what it took everybody. It's like, at the end of Scooby-doo when they take the mask off and you're like, Oh, it was just that creepy old guy. We should have known that, you darn kids.

It was a creepy old white guy who just admonishes them for being youths. exactly now it was the youths admonishing people for not being youths, yes.

I don't know, I don't know. Or like admonishing them for believing in something supernatural, because they were like, Yeah, we haven't found it. I just love that. That was clearly the case the whole time.

Like, I could have told you, I told you that in the beginning, actually. And then it's like, we get here and all of a sudden they're like, everybody wants a little more theater. I mean, I do, too, for sure.

Like, I'm into it, I'm into it. Yeah, I think it just got too far.

But listen, that's all we got. Two characters still to hear about, what's up with them? So, despite the decline in public interest, David Ferren and Sean Manchester kept up their act in the decades that followed.

They wanted to keep this alive, good for them. Manchester stayed real flashy, and he maintained his theatrical appearance that really belonged in some kind of gothic horror story. Like you've seen it, hell yeah.

He's got what the kids I believe call drip. Oh, is that what that means? Yeah, I think drip is when your outfit's good. So I have a question this is going to sound so I might not know because I just found that out.

I'm going to become a relic when I ask this, What is Riz? I've heard that word, Do you know what's so upsetting to me? Not once have I looked it up.

Do you know what's so upsetting to me? You don't know, I don't know. That makes me happy. And I used to be the one to tell you what these things meant. But I did hear a child say the other day that somebody had Riz.

Is that like, you have stat, Oh, oh, Mikey's got what is it? If you want to riz someone you want to flirt with or charm them, so how do you have riz?

You have charm, right? Oh, it derives from the word charisma, or a special magnetic charm or appeal. Oh okay, so it's like you have riz.

You've got a little something, you know what? Sometimes I don't like these stupid things that youth say, but I like Riz. I hate it a lot. I think it's such a bad word.

I think it's I would much rather someone tell me that I have charisma, you mean spunk, best nerve and talent, you have charisma.

You have spunk, there's something magnetic about you, you know what it is. But if somebody said, you have Riz, I'd be like, Fuck you, no, I don't.

No, I don't. It kind of feels like 20s to me, like, Oh, you've got Riz kid? Yeah, like, I feel like it feels clunky.

It's not a No. I feel like it doesn't feel clunky. see, drip to me is clunky. I mean, that's like, if you, yeah, if you tell me, because I think they say you're dripping, and I'm like, that's gross.

That's upsetting. Yeah, no, that's offensive. I don't like that. I like people in my day, said, swag, swag.

I like swag. I think we just said, like, you look cool, no, you guys said it, you definitely had something you must have.

No, we didn't have things for like, we didn't have like swag or riz or anything like that. We were just like, cool, eh? I'm trying to think.

I guess you're right. Yeah, we really didn't. That was a you know what, it was. That became a thing when the internet became a thing, so when the internet was just a baby, it was not a thing.

Because it just wasn't part of it. But then I think about like, people like that are my mom's age, and she used to tell me. Like the things that they would say, like, like zingers or something like that, or like stoners.

Oh, no, that was only. I won't say what it is. it was only a group of people. No, it was only here, okay?

Gotcha, So I don't even think I said the right word, you didn't. I'm not going to say the actual word because it's very specific to our high school.

I didn't know that. Yeah, well, moving on, how did we even get here? Oh, he had Riz, I guess.

Technically because he's theatrical, he had RIZ, and I'm looking at them right now, they do indeed have RIZ.

They have Riz and Drew, both of them do well. So, yeah, Ferrant. He stuck to his nightly patrols, his rituals and exorcisms, and in time, authorities actually kind of grew weary of the antics of both men.

And that led to a very strained relationship between the police and the occult groups. Now. Even though the public interest in the supernatural, specifically regarding the Highgate vampire, had waned considerably by mid to late 1970s, Ferrant and Manchester and their respective occult groups remained very active. And actually, in late 1972, Ferrant and his girlfriend, Victoria Jarvis, were arrested in Highgate Cemetery on a charge of indecent behavior. Oh, when? The two were discovered in a private cemetery conducting a ritual to contact the spirit of a long-dead pirate, Thomas Walmsley.

I'm sorry. They were in a cemetery, in the cemetery, conducting a ritual in Highgate Cemetery.

To bring forth a long-dead pirate? Yeah, Thomas Walmsley. Let them go, let them live, let them live.

That's awesome now. Ferrant ended up telling the court. I really believed it possible that it could have appeared. If it had it would have been the means I used, it would have appeared within the circle now. Ultimately, they were given a small fine and they were told to get the fuck out of the cemetery and stay out of it.

Now, Ferrant and Manchester again made headlines in early 1973 when the two announced their plan for an occult duel to the death. What at Parliament Hill in London? In preparation, they literally plastered London's urban area with posters announcing the duel, claiming the ceremony would involve naked witches. Demon raising demons.

And the slaughter of a cat? Oh, I hate that, which I really don't like. Yeah, no, but it does sound like an interesting version of Musk versus Zuckerberg.

Oh yeah, like like previously, yep, absolutely minus the cat slaughter.

Minus the cat slaughter, why do we have to bring cat slaughter into it? Well, that's the thing. Because actually, the announcement caused a shit ton of outrage among the public. Mostly because they had said that they would slaughter a cat because of the cat. Like, if you just like, if you want to just duel, like in your own occult way.

Yeah, just like we would all be like, that sounds fun. yeah, like naked witches, Demon raising, go ahead. Yeah, like, go right ahead. Slaughter a cat.

Don't kill an animal, Stop exactly, come on now. So people were mad that they said that they were going to slaughter a cat. But also because of a myriad of other claims made by both sides.

Manchester told the Sunday Mirror My opponent intends to raise a demon to destroy me by killing a cat. I will be relying solely on divine power. So he's like, This guy's an animal cruelty guy. I got the power. So who was it that said, he wasn't going to?

ManCHESTER So Manchester said, I'm not going to kill a cat. Yeah, so I'm voting for him, all right. I'm going to have to be on his side for that one, exactly.

Yeah, I'm going to get the jerseys right, exactly. And even though he had actually put up nearly a thousand posters announcing the duel, Manchester told The Mirror. I advise people not to attend. They may easily be horrified. I mean, don't tell me, don't attend, because you will easily be horrified because I am going to be putting my shoes on.

Precisely, I think he knew that. Yeah, of course he did. That's an amazing way to get people there now. In response, Ferrant told reporters blood must be spilled, but the cat will be anesthetized.

But to which? I say, seek help. Yeah, I don't care if the cat is anesthetized, I don't care about any of that. Exactly. No, thank you.

It's unclear whether the duel ever actually happened, but if it did, it didn't result in the death of either one. If it happened, they were both winners. They lived, but the arrest and disruptions only continued in the years that followed. In early 1974, David Ferrant and several members of the British Occult Society were arrested for lighting a fire in a derelict building in London.

Oh, and in their report, the police said that they received a call about the fire from a neighbor, and when they searched the home, they discovered. Ferrant and the others engaged in, Quote, a witchcraft ceremony involving two men prancing naked around a fire. You know, that's not illegal, you get it?

That's not illegal at all. Yeah, you can do what you want. I mean, going into a building is illegal, yeah. But Ferrant and the others were charged with arson and appeared in a court a short time later.

And Ferrant told the judge he had lit the fire because it was cold. Cause and effect He's not trying to burn down the building. No, so, technically, is it arson?

He was just trying to warm up. But Ferrant was arrested again a few months later, this time for breaking into the crypts in Kensal Rise cemetery, where several coffins were disturbed and bodies exposed. And that's where I mean, he lost it. Yeah, he's lost it, he lost the plot.

And like the whole cat thing, like, I'm like, you're going down a dark path. Lost the plot now. At his trial, his estranged wife, Mary Ferrant, told the court that she had been shown photos of the broken crypts and bodies. Just after Ferrant returned home from the cemetery. She told the court I cannot remember the sex or age of the corpse.

All I can remember is that it was black inside. I was shaken and horrified. Yeah, same, so that's what I mean. Where, like, it started off like it was like fun, like silliness.

Okay, like, into the occult, but he, like, really took it to another place. Yeah, way too far now. Unlike the previous arrests for petty crimes, Ferrant's arrest for the desecration of human remains was far more serious than he seemed to understand. He went on trial in early June and was charged with body snatching and witness intimidation.

Damn, after he sent several voodoo dolls to witnesses in an attempt to prevent them from testifying against him. Holy shit now. Under oath. He claimed that he and his followers had nothing to do with demons or vampires, but were simply misunderstood adherents of an often maligned spiritual belief system. All right.

But it's like, Yeah, you're doing bad stuff, though. You can definitely be among that group of people that is misunderstood. But if you're breaking into crypts and like disturbing human remains, nobody's ever going to get that. No, no one's ever going to be on your side on that one.

You shouldn't get that either now. He was actually ultimately acquitted of a very serious charge of body snatching. When the actual grave robber came forward and admitted that he and several of his friends had broken into the crypt and vandalized the graves. Quote unquote for a laugh Oh my God, punch that guy in the chin, please now. While Ferrant may have dodged the most serious charges, he was still found guilty of vandalizing memorials in the cemetery and witness tampering. And he was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

Damn a sentence that, according to Bill Ellis quote, even the normally hostile Honorary Journal characterized as unnecessarily harsh Wow, or, excuse me, Hornsey Journal. Now. Ferrant ended up appealing that sentence and he was evaluated by a psychiatrist who did deem him sane. Quote. But in need of guidance because there was a possibility of his beliefs taking him into a condition of a mental disorder.

I wondered that he was really teetering a line there, he's teetering on that line now. Despite the psychological evaluation, Ferrant's appeal was actually denied, and he ended up serving two years of his sentence before he got out on parole. Wow.

Now, once out of jail, he pretty much kind of disappeared from the public view, which is probably a good thing. Just faded out, he chilled out a little bit. And he really only ever came up in discussions that were remembering the Highgate vampire and the Occult panic of the 70s. And he died in April 2019 at the age of 73..

Oh wow, he's young, Yeah, I know now. His arrest served as kind of a wake-up call for Sean Manchester, who further toned down his antics and rhetoric following David Ferrant's trial. And in the years that followed, Manchester's public persona became increasingly oriented around vampires, and so did his branch of the British occult society that he had started. He continued to appear in the news, articles and TV whenever a so-called vampire expert was needed.

But by the early 1990s, he had mostly abandoned his kind of occult persona. And he claimed to have been ordained as a bishop of the old Catholic Church. I saw pictures of him and I was like, what's happening here? But I bet you didn't see that coming. I didn't see that coming, like from a cultist to the Catholic church.

Yeah, I didn't see it. What a path, yeah. But they continued to trade barbs with each other and insults in the press until David Ferrant passed away in 2019. Wow, that was like a blood feud.

A blood feud that was until the end, truly, they got real pissed at each other. But what an interesting story, that is a fascinating tale.

Like multiple, multiple times, huge groups of people ran to Highgate Cemetery in search of a vampire, a king vampire. I love that that happened, I do as well, and I'm glad that, like, mostly, nobody was hurt. That's when I'm glad that, you know, no one was murdered.

There wasn't any like, you know, I'm glad that there was, but I'm really bummed for all those graves that got disturbed. Yeah, it's like, that sucks, I know.

I feel like they need to do something. Or like, obviously they wouldn't have done it back then, but they needed to do something like more like technical. To get into the cemetery. You know what I mean, I know, like a passcode or something.

Yeah, but damn, what a fucking story, right? What a tale.

Very interesting. what an aesthetic, an aesthetic, an aesthetic, aesthetic.

So yeah, thanks for listening. yeah, we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird.

But not so weird that you disturb people's graves because what the fuck is wrong with you if you're out there doing that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Eat a moon pie.

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