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You are hereThe Highgate Vampire - How It All Began - by David Farrant
The Highgate Vampire - How It All Began - by David Farrant
LONDON 1969, AND WIDE REPORTS WERE COMING INTO the British Psychic and Occult Society concerning a tall black apparition that had been seen lurking among the tombs of London's Highgate Cemetery. Most of these reports were from people who claimed to have been confronted by this apparition which invariably took the form of a tall dark figure and petrified people both in, or passing, the cemetery. Where possible, most of these reports were followed up but unfortunately (as is frequently the case in psychic investigations) many turned out to be vague repetition of local gossip or the result of unqualified rumour.|
Eventually a man was traced, however, who claimed to have had a first-hand encounter with this phenomenon, although he requested that his name be withheld to avoid his account from being subjected to ridicule. According to this person (referred to here as 'Thornton'), he had been 'hypnotized' by 'something' in the cemetery after he had gone there late one afternoon to look around.
As the light began to fail he decided to leave, but somehow, he became hopelessly lost. Not being a superstitious person or even believing in the existence of ghosts, he walked calmly around looking for the gate when he suddenly became aware of the presence of something behind him. Swinging around, less than six feet away, he saw a tall dark spectre hovering just above the ground. He found himself transfixed to the spot completely unable to move; drained of energy by some powerful 'hypnotic force' that in a matter of seconds rendered him unconscious to any sense of time or his surroundings. So great was the intensity of this force, that he remained like this for several minutes (or what seemed like several minutes) before the spectre abruptly vanished and he slowly regained his normal faculties.
Recalling the incident afterwards, Thornton said that it was almost as if some force of terribly evil proportions had actually sought him out with the intention of doing serious harm.
This account was intriguing. Thornton was a sincere and logical person and not the type liable to fantasy or exaggeration. (His profession as an accountant by itself suggested that his interests lay in things of a logical nature.) That he had seen 'something', there seemed little doubt, but what was especially interesting was that he had described the entity as 'seeking him out' and actually trying to cause physical harm; an uncommon occurrence with reports of ghostly confrontations when ghosts themselves are rarely reported as exercising any physical control over their human counterparts. It was a fair conclusion that the phenomenon was definitely malevolent by nature.
Several more people were interviewed in the following weeks, but again, most of these accounts turned out to be second-hand reports or exaggeration of what by now had become an already established rumour.
An exception to this, however, was one old lady who claimed she had been frightened by a 'tall dark man' who floated at her from within the cemetery gates. She had been walking her dog late one night but as she approached the gates of the cemetery, it started to howl and tried to retreat. She looked up and saw a figure with 'glaring eyes' staring at her. In a matter of seconds, it promptly vanished.
This account was also entered on the Society's files, but it seemed the next step to obtaining more precise information was to visit Highgate Cemetery in daylight to check the sites of the phenomenon's reputed appearances and perhaps discover some clues that could have otherwise accounted for its presence.
This visit was made by the author who had taken a personal interest in the case, although it turned out to be disappointing as nothing significant was found that offered any explanation - by way of a hoax or otherwise - for the two sightings.
I arrived at the cemetery in the morning and spent several hours there. It was the first time I had been there for over two years and the increase in vandalism was immediately apparent. Vaults had been broken open and coffins quite literally smashed apart. One vault near the top gate (although not visible from outside it) 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. Although this vault had been padlocked and chained, the door was made up of an iron grill and the vandalised coffin was available for all to see. Furthermore, it appeared that virtually no attempt had been made to repair any of the damage.
A strange thing that was discovered was a freshly dead fox lying in the middle of a main pathway. This was puzzling because there were no outward signs betraying the cause of death, and besides, a wounded animal would usually have crawled away and hidden itself if it sensed impending death.
All this, however, came no nearer to solving the mystery of the black apparition. Indeed, apart from rumour and other unsubstantiated local stories, the only real 'evidence' were the testimonies of just two people, and it seemed the only way to credit their accounts (or discredit them as the case may be) and thereby justify a full investigation, was to spend a night in the cemetery to see if the phenomenon - or whatever it was - could be witnessed. The place where Thornton had been confronted inside the cemetery seemed an appropriate place as it was secluded and there was no risk of being seen by anybody happening by the top gate - the place where the old lady had seen the entity. The date chosen was December 21st - the eve of the winter Solstice and a traditional time (due to the maximum hours of darkness) when potent psychic forces have easy access to the 'earthly plane'. That the entity may be dangerous from a psychic point of view, was a fact not overlooked. But I was confident that previous experiences with potentially malevolent psychic forces would enable me to deal with any such possibility.
Around 11 PM on the proposed night, I set off for the cemetery. It was a bitterly cold night and the surrounding area was deserted. Walking down the narrow lane that ran alongside the cemetery, there was a sudden awareness of some 'alien presence'. This was difficult to define, except in so far as there was a distinct impression of no longer being alone.
Reaching the top gate and preparing to scale this, I decided to wait a couple of minutes with the intention of perhaps noticing some material object through the gate (such as a shadow cast by a tomb-stone or from a tree moving in the wind), that could have otherwise accounted for the old lady's phantom.
Peering through the rusty bars of the gate scrutinizing the pervading darkness, objects near the gate itself lining the pathway, were fairly easy to discern. But after 20 yards or so the path disappeared into impenetrable blackness. Staring into this, perhaps due to some trick of the light, there was a distinct impression of 'something moving'. What appeared one minute to be a definite black shape or shadow, would suddenly alter its form or change in density. The wind moving through the undergrowth was probably the cause of this, but it was equally feasible that this could have been the cause of the 'black apparition' seen by the old woman.
To the right of the path, some large animal was scurrying through the undergrowth. Then suddenly, something caught my eye and looking up, just inside not 5 yards from the gate and clearly visible, was a tall dark shape.
Instinctively, my conscious mind rejected this figure as being supernatural. It was more consoling to assume that it was somebody wandering through the cemetery; notwithstanding that the figure appeared to be over seven feet tall. Any immediate doubts were soon dispelled when I saw two reddish eyes meeting my gaze from a 'black mass' at the top of the shape, which I took to be its 'head'. But these eyes were not human, rather reflected some 'alive presence'; they were dull and penetrating like some hungry wolf, although the rest of 'it' had no discernable features, apart from a vague 'human' shape.
The whole situation seemed unreal - like some unwanted dream - but with determined effort, I tore my gaze away realising that the entity was malevolent and that I had come under psychic attack. Without warning, the figure then suddenly vanished, and it appeared that for the moment, at least, the entity had retreated . . .
Part 2
An Investigation
THE NEXT MEETING OF THE BRITISH PSYCHIC AND OCCULT SOCIETY was mainly occupied by arranging an investigation into the Highgate Cemetery affair now that it could be reasonably assumed that at least some of the reports might be authentic.
It was decided that a continuous nightly vigil would take place at the cemetery, two Society members at a time being stationed in turn at the two places where the apparition had been seen to appear. Cameras and tape recorders would be set up, but as yet, no 'psychic means' - such as conducting a seance, for example - would be employed to bring about the entity's materialization. This was because, it was concluded that in the initial stages of the investigation, the gathering of evidence and observation, were of greater importance than any attempt to make direct psychic contact - especially because of the entity's apparently malignant disposition. Instead, the cemetery's history would be checked out; in particular, sightings of any other unusual phenomena in the area that might be in some way connected. Anyone who laid claim to witnessing the entity would be interviewed and statements kept of their accounts. To obtain details of other sightings, it was agreed that a short and 'non-alarmist' letter be sent to a local paper inviting people to tell of any genuine experiences so that any subscribers could be interviewed first hand.
When the investigation proper began in January 1970, I undertook the task of checking the cemetery's history. Some interesting things came to light ... First, it became apparent that stories of an apparition at Highgate Cemetery had by no means begun with the current sightings. Indeed, similar tales dated back to the Victorian era and, interestingly enough, many of them had 'vampiristic' connotations.
Perhaps the reason for this was that Stoker himself had possibly been influenced by the existence of 'something' in Highgate Cemetery. When he wrote his unique book Dracula, he makes direct reference to Highgate Cemetery (or at least, an area in the close proximity of Highgate Cemetery) as being the last resting place of one of Count Dracula's disciples.
Although Stoker may have also been influenced by the eerie case of Elizabeth Siddal who died in 1855 and who was buried in Highgate Cemetery. In 1862, her body was exhumed by a distraught relative anxious to retrieve some poems said to have been buried with her. A witness present, Charles Augustus Howell, described the 'awesome sight' of the undecayed body with 'luxuriant red-gold hair' that 'practically filled the coffin' - the implication being that Elizabeth was 'Undead', or in a state of catalepsy.
One of the common tales of that time also told of a 'tall man dressed in black' who used to disappear mysteriously through the cemetery wall. It was especially interesting to note the similarity between the Victorian sightings and the present day manifestations - especially as there was approximately 100 years difference between the two. If nothing else, this provided proof that the cemetery had been reputedly haunted for some time.
But perhaps most interesting was the 'vampire-like element' that had crept into these stories. Although it was difficult to pin-point the reasons or origins from whence the vampire legend came, it had nevertheless become an integral part of the cemetery's supernatural traditions. The Victorians, with their deep-rooted fears of the unknown and self-righteous attitudes towards religion, morals and death, may have contributed towards establishing - or perhaps re-establishing - a legend that was already in existence.
Whatever the case, it is reasonable to suppose that the Highgate phenomenon could have been connected with stories of vampirism.
Something obviously gave substance to the original sightings, though whether this 'something' was occult in origin or had a rational explanation that had been dismissed by some superstitious mind, was only debatable. One thing seemed certain, however: whatever formed the foundation of the original sightings, predated the Victorian era. To begin with, Stoker's reference to the immediate area in connection with 'vampires' almost certainly suggests that he was familiar with the local tales by then already in existence. But there was another fact to substantiate this. It dated back to the 15th century when Highgate was used as a mass burial ground for victims of the Great Plague. Highgate was probably chosen for this purpose as it was then an accessible outlying village within convenient range of London; far enough away to reduce the risk of further contamination. These unfortunate victims were brought out in cartloads from the Old City and deposited in an area which is now known as 'Church Yard Bottom', in Highgate's Queen's Wood.
All this, of course, was no more than historical fact. But what was interesting here was the possibility that the Plague deaths could have been the cause of many stories of vampirism. Basically, these burials were carried out quickly and in bulk and in all probability some people were buried whilst still alive - or in a cataleptic state.
Yet to return to the present day, the investigation also uncovered another fact of great significance, which alone possibly provided the key the current spate of hauntings. Exploration, and subsequent photographs taken in the cemetery, confirmed beyond doubt that Satanic masses had been taking place there. Furthermore, it became apparent that these masses had been conducted with great professional style (some in a maze of catacombs that ran beneath the cemetery) and were not the work of misguided amateurs.
One particular tomb hidden deep within the heart of the cemetery (in fact, a small mausoleum with a marble floor but which contained no coffins), had been converted into a small Temple, and, judging from the inverted pentagram and magical symbols inscribed on the floor and walls, was in regular usage. But more significant still, was the fact that the particular magical signs and symbols used, could only be applicable in a Rite dedicated to one of the most malign Deities to rule amongst the Old Kings of Hell and that such a Rite could only be performed by the highest of adepts, for no amateur would be capable of calling forth this Deiform.
In fact, in accordance with Satanic belief, this entity could only be summoned to the earthly plane if it was to perform some mission, and could not 'return' until that mission had been fulfilled.
Yet most important here, (and as I stated at the time), the fact that the cemetery was being thus used by dedicated Satanists, might also have a direct bearing on the frequently witnessed spectre. For just as this Deity might be invoked to visible appearance by means of a magical ritual, so might other forms of evil entities that might remain permanently 'earth-bound'.
It was therefore quite feasible to assume that the cemetery phenomenon was an evil entity that had been summoned up as the direct result of a Satanic ritual or alternatively, that the Satanists had succeeded in 'awakening' the latter-day vampire which had laid dormant for so long.
Whatever the case, it was evident that the Force (or Forces) being dealt with was malignly supernatural and protective measures may eventually have to be taken to safeguard against psychic attack.
Such a possibility was not taken lightly, in view of the apparent performance of the entity so far and the added frequency of its appearances.
Already, just two weeks after the investigation had started, two of the nightly watchers spotted it again on two separate occasions.
The first time, it appeared behind two Society members on watch at the 'Thornton spot'. Swinging around as if compelled by some over-whelming impulse, they both saw the entity hovering behind, but just as abruptly, it disappeared. Again, two other members saw it through the top gate on their way to keep the nightly vigil. On neither occasion, however, did the entity appear for more than a couple of seconds. It was almost as if it 'knew' it was being hunted down and had no intention of allowing anybody to fire flash-guns at it.
It should be said here that - contrary to popular belief - some types of supernatural phenomena, albeit not apparently discernable in the normal sense, can be photographed and there was every indication that the Highgate spectre fitted into this category. Although such photographs are rarely taken as credible evidence for the proved existence of ghosts, they would nevertheless have eliminated any logical causation (such as the possibility of hoaxing, for example) that could otherwise have accounted for the sightings.
But photographs did reveal several more foxes that were discovered dead in the cemetery. Unlike the previous one discovered, however, many of these had deep wounds to the throat.
There was no direct evidence to link these attacks to stories now circulating about a 'vampire', of course, but it was an interesting speculation (some might say a chilling reminder) to recall that in his book Dracula, Bram Stoker refers to a 'vampiric entity' that wandered in the vicinity of Hampstead at night and was responsible for 'attacking' young children.
In the meantime, there was a significant response to my letter to the local newspaper, The Hampstead and Highgate Express (Ham and High). This had taken the form of a simple request for information about the reported ghost, and to avoid any frivolous response, I had deliberately omitted any reference to a 'vampire'.
The week after I had made this request, in fact, four people wrote in to the newspaper all moreorless confirming the phenomenon's existence. One lady wrote:
My fiancée and I spotted a most unusual form about a year ago. It just seemed to glide across the path. Although we waited a little while, it did not reappear again. I am glad someone else has spotted it; I was convinced it was not my imagination.
Miss Audrey Connely.
(Ham and High, February 13th, 1970)
Another reader confirmed the existence of a ghost at the cemetery but although not having seen it himself, concluded ...
The ghost will sometimes appear nightly for about a week, and then will not be seen again for perhaps a month. To my knowledge the ghost always takes the form of a pale figure and has been appearing for several years.
K. Frewin
(Ham and High, February 13th, 1970)
The Ham and High obviously noticed the local interest in the subject and themselves took up the story inviting other readers to write in and tell of their experiences. Although with typical newspaper sceptism, they warned that they would check the authenticity of all letters received lest anybody attempted to 'spoof them with spooks'.
Prompted by this invitation, the following weeks brought many more letters from people who claimed to have seen the apparition.
Wrote one reader:
A figure such as that seen by readers does haunt Highgate Cemetery. I caught sight of it while I was walking around the cemetery. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw something move and immediately looked around to see a 'form' moving behind some gravestones. My first reaction was that it was somebody 'mucking about' but looking back it seems strange that the thing made no sound and seemed to disappear into nowhere.
D. Winbourne
(Ham and High, February 20th, 1970)
Another reader expressed great dismay that her house was perhaps situated a little too close to the cemetery and that in view of all the stories, the cemetery entity should be seriously looked into.
Yet some readers portrayed more than a little sceptcism. One wrote:
Swain's Lane on a cloudy, windswept moonlit night, with its cemetery, overhanging branches, sparsely-peopled, ill-lit, and rather Gothic, has the same effect on some people as reading a good ghost story, and we all see ghosts after reading ghost stories ...And he concluded:
... The British Occult Society is to be congratulated on fighting a brave last ditch battle on behalf of the romantics in bringing their 'wampyr' [vampire] out of its dusty covers and presenting it once again for public display, but alas, it is too late, by at least three generations.
S. Levitt
(Ham and High, February 27th, 1970)
Although some letters contained irrelevant fact, many contained valuable information and by interviewing their subscribers, it was possible to put together a fairly concise record about the nature of the phenomenon and its appearances. Basically, it seemed it usually took the form of a tall dark figure and appeared mainly in an area around the top gate.
This corresponded more or less exactly with my encounter, and those of Thornton and the old woman.
The Ham and High, however, seemed especially interested in the 'vampire' possibility and the fact that black magic had been taking place at the cemetery. On March 6th, 1970, they ran a front page story entitled, perhaps appropriately "WHY DO THE FOXES DIE?" The implication was, was that in some manner the 'ghost' was no less than a 'vampire' which had been responsible for the death of the foxes. It was interesting hypothesis, and one which had not been overruled by the author himself. In fact, I held the view that as the phenomenon seemed definitely malevolent by nature, it was quite conceivable that it possessed sufficient power to have some affect upon 'weaker forms of intelligence's' - such as animals. Alternatively, there was the possibility that the foxes had somehow been trapped by the Satanists and used as sacrifices in black magic rituals.
In reality, the Satanic group that were using Highgate Cemetery hadn't taken kindly to the Society's investigation which had exposed their activities to the public view. The weeks that followed brought a spate of threatening letters to the Society. Essentially, these letters warned that the Society's investigation at the cemetery must be stopped or there would be 'disastrous consequences' - namely, 'death' to be effected by means of black magic.
A typical letter to the author, read:
By your interference with the work of our High Order, you have invoked the wrath of Lord Hadit. By His element and the power of the Seven-Fold Cross, you shall now be destroyed. This is decreed by His Grace, and this wish will be fulfilled through our Order. Be it thus so ...
The letter was signed in blood and adorned with satanic symbols; mainly to the effect that I had offended the Satanic god Hadit who, through the media of his worshippers, was about to reek terrible revenge.
There was no doubt that the sender - or senders - of these letters were genuine Satanists. For one thing, the secret signs which adorned the letters, would only be known to authentic practitioners of the Black Arts. Yet the letters did not cause undue concern. Previous experience by the Society with black magic groups gave us enough confidence to file these letters and forget about them.
In the meantime, public interest in the Highgate Cemetery affair had attracted the interest of Independent Television. They were preparing a programme on the 'ghost' and invited the author to give an account of the investigation. Initially, this request had to be denied, as Society policy forbade the release of any information to the media about internal investigations unless, or until, these were complete. But I finally agreed to verify my own personal encounter with the phenomenon. This programme was shown on 13th March, 1970 - although it was not filmed without some mishap. When the film crew began filming outside the top gate (they were not given permission to film inside, the cemetery Superintendent, Mr. William Law, explaining that this was 'against regulations'), the camera man suddenly clutched his throat and passed out. The filming had to be postponed until a replacement took over. Sandra Harris, the interviewer, was visibly shaken; more so probably, as she had already witnessed the deplorable damage inside the cemetery. (In fact, whilst she was walking through the cemetery with the film crew and myself a little earlier, we had all witnessed a vandalised coffin that had been removed from an old vault and was lying in the middle of a pathway. Its lid had been ripped off, and the skeleton inside was clearly visible.)
During the interview, and to avoid any possible sensationalism about 'vampires', I took great care to avoid such a term when referring to the phenomenon. Of course, it was realised that local opinion tended to support a 'vampire theory', but I certainly didn't accept the existence of vampires in their strictly commercialised sense and I had no intention of being misunderstood or misquoted. Another man who was being interviewed, however, (a somewhat theatrical character dressed in undertakers' clothes who had been pestering local newspaper's looking for publicity since he had first become aware of the Society investigation), claimed that the phenomenon was really the 'King Vampire' and, after producing a crucifix and a home-made wooden stake, announced that to destroy a vampire one must ... 'first drive a stake through its heart with one blow, chop off its head with a gravedigger's shovel, then burn what remains'!
Of course, this amateurish verbiage would not have been taken seriously by genuine occultists but the situation was made worse when this person went on to claim that ... " 'David Farrant' would be returning to Highgate Cemetery that same evening' to 'perform this dangerous mission." And for further effect, he warned of what he saw as the 'dangerous consequences' facing anyone foolish enough to take on the 'King Vampire'.
Although these remarks were obviously intended to create maximum publicity, in reality, they were based on a misunderstanding of a report in the local Press the previous week when, humouring some over-zealous reporter, I had stated that if the apparition at Highgate Cemetery turned out to be anything like a 'vampire', I, for one, would be prepared to take any means necessary so that everybody could 'rest in peace'.
But to make matters worse, this person's remarks were put over the air, and later that night following the television transmission, several hundred people converged on Highgate Cemetery to witness a non-existent 'vampire hunt'.
One of these was a school teacher from Essex called Alan Blood (in fact, his real name) who had traveled to London after seeing the programme to take part in the 'vampire hunt'. He had even brought several students with him to join in this quest.
I was approached by Alan Blood who wanted permission to join in the 'hunt' but I was forced to explain that it was not possible to conduct any serious psychic investigation under the unfavourable conditions created by the television programme (people were flocking to Highgate Cemetery en-masse including groups of hooligans carrying beer cans and makeshift weapons to take on the 'vampire' and who looked as if they could have turned nasty) and that the whole charade had been instigated at my expense.
Needless to say, no Society members joined in this charade, but the 'hunt' still went ahead, its outcome being reported in the Press the following day.
The London Evening News reported the situation by saying:
Nearly 100 people joined in a vampire-hunt at Highgate Cemetery today. They included a vampire expert named Mr. Alan Blood who journeyed 40 miles to investigate this legend of an 'Undead Satan-like being' said to lurk in the area. Spectators gathered in the spooky darkness after watching a TV interview last night, Friday 13th, in which a man said he was going to exorcise an evil spirit he claimed he had seen three times.
Curious onlookers managed to scale the 10 foot wall in search of an open tomb. Several people scrambled back frightened claiming they had seen 'something crawling' in the dark.
Anthony Robinson aged 27 of Ostel Road, Hampstead came to the cemetery after hearing of the torchlight hunt.
"I walked past the place and heard a high pitched noise, then I saw something grey moving slowly across the road. It terrified me."
"First time I couldn't make it out, it looked eerie. I've never believed in anything like this, but now I'm sure there is something evil lurking in Highgate."
The vampire expert, history teacher Alan Blood, 25, traveled from Chelmsford, after he saw David Farrant, 24, speak of his plans to stake the vampire through the heart with a wooden cross.
(Evening News, March 25th, 1970.)
Yet aside from the 'sensational slant' of this article, I remained sceptical about this particular sighting. It was more likely over-wrought imagination combined with a mild form of mass hysteria, had created 'ghosts' where there were none to be seen. There was more concern about the potential effects arising from such publicity for this was bound to attract further vandalism to the cemetery, which in turn, would hamper the investigation proper and upset both the cemetery authorities and the police. Added to this, was as a result of the unsubstantiated ravings made by the person on the television and subsequent coverage of these by the Evening News, 'David Farrant' had been irrevocably branded as the main instigator of this mass vampire hunt and a man who quite literally believed in the existence of 'blood-sucking vampires'.
Meanwhile, the vigil by the Society at the cemetery continued, although there were no significant developments and the phenomenon was not sighted. It seemed the 'vampire' had not taken kindly to the mass intrusion of its privacy and had 'gone to ground' to avoid further persecution.
It was therefore decided to carry out the original idea and conduct an occult ceremony at Highgate Cemetery one night in order to summon the entity forth, and possibly, communicate with it. This ceremony was to be conducted with a High Priestess and other members of the Circle, some of whom were members of the British Psychic and Occult Society.
Unfortunately however, an unforeseen event prevented this planned ceremony from taking place, although it was agreed that another date be set for this at the first available opportunity. . .
Part 3
IN AUGUST 1970, there was another development in the Highgate investigation. That month, the body of a woman was dragged from a vault in Highgate Cemetery, staked through the heart, and left lying in the middle of a main pathway. The fact that this was discovered by two schoolgirls made the incident even more gruesome. The Hornsey Journal's reportage of this incident, perhaps also did little to allay the already public growing concern over reports of 'black magic' and vandalism at Highgate Cemetery.
Evidence of vandalism at the cemetery was, of course, no new thing. But the element of 'staking the corpse', seemingly as the aftermath of some black magic rite, pointed convincingly to the work of the Satanists and their possible connection with the phenomenon.
Soon afterwards, it was decided to conduct the postponed ritual; the object was to summon the entity, make psychic communication with it and then - if it proved to be malevolent, which seemed an obvious fact - banish it from the earthly plane by conducting an appropriate rite of exorcism. The view was held that, if indeed the author's personal theory was correct, and the Satanic group were in some way responsible for 'controlling' the entity's appearances by means of black magic, such an exorcism would also dispel much of this group's power by negating the evil they had summoned into existence.
It was almost full moon (three days preceding the full moon and those immediately after being especially favourable for conducting magical ceremonies), and it was decided to hold the seance at midnight on August 17th.
Accordingly, Highgate Cemetery was entered late one night on the appointed date, the purpose basically, to conduct this psychical seance. The place chosen was the 'Thornton spot' as this was secluded and well within the cemetery.
In requirements for this ritual, a large circle was inscribed upon the ground which was adorned by protective symbols and 'sealed' with consecrated water and salt. Some ten feet away from this, where the phenomenon would be summoned to appear, a smaller circle was cast with protective symbols (it had not been overlooked that we were dealing with a particularly lethal form of psychic energy).
When the preparations were complete, the seance commenced but after only a few minutes, torchlight's could be seen in the distance and there was the muffled sound of human voices. It was the police: still some way off but approaching the back gate of the cemetery. This presented something of a dilemma; for not only was it dangerous - from a psychic point of view - to leave the protective circle once the ceremony had commenced, but there was the very real problem of explaining such clandestine nightly activity and being believed, let alone being understood. Because of this, the psychic paraphernalia was quickly gathered up and respective members headed for different exits in the cemetery.
On a sudden impulse, I made for the back wall, which the police were approaching, thinking it was possible to reach this without being spotted and then scale this further along. After all, this was the only way out. Unfortunately, just by the wall, I was caught by a flashlight and quickly arrested. Luckily, however, the police must have assumed their captive was alone and they made no attempt to look for other people.
Perhaps ironically, any concern about being arrested was not so much for fear of having done anything wrong or illegal, but because the seance would be misunderstood and such misapprehension could attract adverse publicity to the investigation and the Society.
For this reason, the ceremonial paraphernalia I was carrying (which included candles, incense, a wooden cross adorned with protective magical symbols and a small tape-recorder) was quickly discarded in the undergrowth by the back wall hoping this would go unnoticed. Unfortunately, this was discovered and was to form the basis of a police charge of 'being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose' - although this 'purpose' was not clarified in the charge itself.
The case came before Magistrate Christopher Lea at Clerkenwell Magistrates' Court two weeks later, although it had to be adjourned as the Detective Sergeant in charge, Neville Brown, had apparently suffered a mild heart attack. In any event, the police were unable to proceed and the case was re-scheduled for September 29th.
The main evidence put forward to support the charge was that the Defendant had been caught whilst leaving Highgate Cemetery with a cross and 'wooden stake' (this 'wooden stake' was, in fact, merely a pointed piece of wood used with string to cast - or measure out - a magical Circle), his intention (according to the Prosecution) to seek out and destroy the legendary vampire that slept in a coffin in the cemetery. During this process, the Prosecution claimed, coffins would have had to be opened to find the vampire.
Logically, of course, in principle some of this may have been correct, but, due to my reluctance to give details of the seance realising that these would never be understood because of their occult connotations, and my refusal to name members involved in the investigation, the facts had been grossly distorted.
It was not true, for example, that I had been arrested with just a cross and a 'stake' but the other items I had been carrying had 'mysteriously disappeared' and had not been produced in evidence. Neither was it true that there had been any intention to 'open coffins', but the established link between 'vampires' and coffins had been sufficient to give grounds to this allegation. Ignorance and superstitious assumption - and almost certainly a desire to produce a scapegoat for all the vandalism and desecration at Highgate Cemetery - had done the rest.
If I had any doubts about the latter these were quickly dispelled when Neville Brown proceed to read out a statement which amounted to a verbal admission by myself to the charge. The crux of this admission was as follows ...
At midnight I went with the Cross and the stake to St. Michael's churchyard" [which backs on to Highgate Cemetery] "to look for the vampire. Had the police not arrived when they did my intention was to make my way to the catacombs to search for it. I would have entered the catacombs and inspected the coffins in my search, and upon finding the supernatural being, I would have driven my stake through its heart and then run away.
How this statement had ended up in this form and in a vernacular totally foreign to that of the author's, perhaps indicates how the whole thing was proceeding. But this notwithstanding, the case was dismissed, the Magistrate (this time Mr. DJ Purcell) accepting a Defence denial of this 'admission' and a further submission that I had already been featured on the television in connection with the investigation; and that, in any event, it was just as akin to 'hunt for vampires' as it was for some people to spend vast sums of money trying to locate the Loch Ness Monster.
The Magistrate added that there had been no intention to 'damage coffins' and that the cemetery was not an enclosed area in the strict legal sense.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the police were none too pleased at this decision or the publicity the case had attracted; although any publicity had only been forthcoming because they had brought the case to court in the first place and introduced outrageous statements throughout about 'staking vampires' attributed to myself which had no relation to the real facts of the investigation. It is little wonder that such outrageous statements were seized upon by the Popular Press, but the fact that many of these statements found their way into print but were not retracted afterwards when proved to be false by very virtue of my acquittal, (and even today, many of these earlier newspaper accounts lie erroneously on record), merely confirmed that serious psychic investigation could not be entrusted to the understanding of the police, or the Press.
In fact, some newspapers had a 'hey day' with all this sensationalism and some let their imaginations loose beyond the bounds of credibility. The Daily Express said, for example, that the Society had 'over 100 members looking for vampires all over Europe'! Belief in vampires may well have been prevalent all over Europe in the Middle Ages, as originally stated, but this historical fact was certainly not the immediate concern of the British Psychic and Occult Society!
With a little more sobriety, although not without a hint of sarcasm, the Baltimore Sun observed that apparently it was 'no longer a crime to hunt vampires in England'.
But the publicity brought by the court case made it impossible, at this stage, for the investigation to continue. Attracted by reports of 'vampires', scores of people visited Highgate Cemetery and desecration and vandalism of graves and tombs increased to an alarming degree. People flocked to the cemetery in droves and police were frequently called to evict groups of hooligans or self-professed 'vampire hunters'. Indeed, the situation had become so grave, that on Hallowe'en night, 1970, police literally had to throw a cordon of police cars around Highgate Cemetery to prevent people from entering on the night of the undead.
One small group of aspiring occultists, however, seemed to have evaded the ongoing police presence and claimed to performed a 'secret exorcism' at a tomb in the cemetery that had been desecrated by Satanists; although the only 'evidence' to support this was a photograph that had been sent to the Hornsey Journal showing a man dressed in an evening suit brandishing a crucifix and wearing a 'garlic necklace' posing outside some unrecognisable tomb in the cemetery.
Contacting the Society for comment, the Hornsey Journal were informed that we recognised the person concerned as a well known prankster and, if in line with his past record, the whole thing was just a well timed publicity stunt.
Unfortunately, a sad side to all this activity at the cemetery, at least, as far as some elements in the police and the media were concerned, was that the Society itself was held directly responsible for influencing its occurrence. This was an especial irony, when I had already stated publicly on several occasions that this sort of activity was to be deplored and had nothing to do with genuine psychic investigation. Indeed, in a article I was to write for a local paper scarcely a year later, I stated that the growing menace of Satanism in general - especially at Highgate Cemetery - was a 'very real menace indeed'. (This article appeared in the Islington Gazette on September 29th, 1972, and in it I also pointed out that it was the young, with their tendency to think they were invulnerable, who were most at risk to the dangers of Satanism. Attracted by some 'dare-devil' instinct to the challenge of Satanism, some would became entrapped in a web of corruption and degradation from which there was usually no escape).
But before the publication of this article, BBC Television decided to mount their own investigation and sent a team of cameramen and reporters to see if they could locate the 'vampire'. Although they were unsuccessful, what they did find was a mass of desecrated coffins, many of which had been deprived of their lead. Invited on the programme, I explained that although most of the desecration was the work of vandals, the activities of the Satanic group was a very real problem, as was the existence of the 'vampire-like' entity that had been witnessed there. This programme was televised on October 15th, 1970 and went some way in vindicating my claims that black magic was being practised at Highgate Cemetery.
But regarding the threats from the Satanic group, they had apparently given up. The threatening letters suddenly ceased and it was likely that - as they saw it - the damage done by the Society in exposing their activities to the public view had already been done and so there was no point in continuing their vendetta.
Meanwhile, there was a major development at Highgate Cemetery. Reports were coming into the Society that a young girl had been 'attacked' by the 'vampire' in Swains Lane which runs alongside the cemetery. Eventually, the girl's identity was discovered and I arranged a meeting with her. Although reluctant to discuss the matter at first, I assured her anonymity and she gave the following account:
She was returning home in the early hours walking down Swain's Lane. As she passed the cemetery, a little way further on, she was suddenly 'thrown to the ground' with tremendous force by a 'tall black figure' with a 'deathly white face'. At that moment, a car stopped to help her and the figure 'vanished' in the glare of the headlights. She was taken to Highgate Police Station in a state of severe shock suffering abrasions to her knees and elbows. The police immediately made a thorough search of the area but could find no trace of her attacker. More mysterious still was the fact that where the figure had vanished, the cemetery was lined by 15 foot high walls.
On hearing this, I felt a tinge of apprehension. Until now, the 'vampire's' appearances had been mainly confined to frightening people. It seemed now, however, that the 'creature' was becoming 'bolder' and presented a real threat to innocent people. If it had attacked somebody once, it could do so again. Only next time, with more disastrous consequences.
It was decided to conduct a full scale ceremony in Highgate Cemetery whereby the phenomenon would be summoned and then banished back to its preordained place of existence.
This time, however, the Ceremony would involve the use of High Magic as a means of communicating with the demonic entity. It was not dared to use less than an advanced form of ritual. At least, if the ritual was not successful, it would be possible to control the entity, whereas Low magical techniques - albeit less complex - could not have afforded adequate protection ...
Part 4
The Reckoning
ON JUNE 21ST, 1971, several members of a secret Occult Order gathered in Highgate Cemetery to perform one of the most dangerous magical rituals in existence. The motivation for performing this ritual was to counteract the activities of a Satanic Coven who had violated magical Law by evoking a malevolent evil force to execute their own desires; the basic object being to establish psychic 'contact' with the existing phenomenon (or 'vampire') and thereby negate the diabolical power that had been brought into existence.
Of course, such a task was by no means easy for, in magic, darker forces are most potent when summoned to the earthly plane and may only be revoked by a White magical ritual. Thus in context - and in accordance with magical law - an extreme force of evil may only be counteracted and neutralised by an equivalent force of Good. Any other method - if attempted - would have little effect and, in all probability, would only serve to aggravate an 'opposing evil force'.
For the sake of the uninitiated, and to allay any confusion arising from this point, a few words should be said here to explain the difference between white magic and black magic, and black magic and Satanism.
Firstly, it should be understood that magic itself is neither 'black' nor 'white' - it is neutral. Furthermore, magic is only a psychic element through which 'outside' forces may be evoked, not itself active but only a channel through which such forces may be brought into operation.
Of course, these supernatural forces which can be summoned as a result of magical techniques are both good and evil (or 'white' and 'black'), but even the definition of these forces is a man-made conception.
Yet this is not to say that magic alone is harmless, for although it may only act as a catalyst in producing an end result, the very nature of its source makes it lethal in the hands of those who don't understand it - rather like a trainee chemist who does not know which chemicals, if mixed together, will cause an explosion.
Therefore, it may be seen that magic is only governed and subsequently labeled by the intentions of those using it. It follows, that a 'black' magician may also be a 'white' one, and vice versa.
With Satanism, however, it is a slightly different matter. For here, unlike a magician who can harness various types of forces at will and without obligation, a Satanist is dedicated to the continual service and worship of evil powers. And as he cannot retain the neutrality of the magician, (the very doctrines of Satanic belief make this impossible) he becomes bound, or possessed, by the dark forces he has pledged to serve. Thus, unlike black magic, Satanism is a form of religious belief, and because of the doctrines and requirements laid down in its beliefs, it is far more potent and dangerous.
The communication ritual was performed after taking all these things - and more - into consideration. According to the magical requirements of the ritual, a Circle was constructed on the ground in which were placed various ceremonial items. These included vessels of consecrated water, charcoal and salt, and protective talismans which each member must wear. Different coloured candles were placed at strategic points around the circumference to correspond with the elements of air, fire, earth and water. whilst a small fire burned steadily in the middle. To the North of the Circle a small 'sealed' triangle was cast (also containing a small fire) where the entity would be summoned to appear, and hopefully, be able to 'communicate' with a psychic medium who would be inside the protective Circle.
When all was prepared, the ritual commenced and was timed so that the vital part would coincide with midnight.
The first part of the ritual was dedicated to the relevant incantations and 'Calls' necessary to summon forth the entity. These magical 'Calls' were made in strict accordance with the form of ritual and served two purposes: to dispel any unwanted elementals which might have hindered the appearance of the entity, and to open a channel of psychic energy through which the entity could later materialise.
When the preliminary part of the ritual had been completed, the actual evocation to summon the entity then began.
The intrinsic details regarding this part of the ritual, however, may not be disclosed as this would violate magical secrecy; suffice it is to say that the entity would be magically induced to appear in the triangle where it would have a direct 'psychic line' to communicate with the medium.
As midnight approached, the medium began to make the Commands for manifestation and almost immediately the Circle turned icy cold as though some warm power had suddenly left it, and the candles went out. Simultaneously, the fire in the triangle was obliterated by a misty smoke and some sinister force seemed to be amidst everyone present. For the next minute or so, nothing happened. There was no wind and it seemed unnaturally silent and the fire in the Circle cast an eerie red glow over everything. Suddenly, the area was full of a dense mist, more intense around the triangle, and in this, scarcely discernible through the haze, was a quivering 'black shape' that seemed to be trying to materialise. The medium spoke aloud, attempting to aid 'its' materialisation and all at once, two eyes could be seen at the top of the moving black form. They were the same eyes that I had witnessed inside the gate, dull red and almost diabolically evil; only this time, they had increased in strength to such a degree that it was like being confronted by some 'living presence'.
A girl present screamed and fainted, but such was the hypnotic power of the entity, that nobody was really conscious of her. There seemed to be a tremendous power emanating from the distinct eyes that was magnified even more by the flickering firelight and it was at this stage that I realised that the entity might be too powerful to control and we would be entrapped in the Circle. The whole thing was like a vivid dream; that you had a complete awareness of what was happening, only with little means of controlling it.
Strangely, (and this was an impression that other members later recalled) there was no sense of imminent 'evil intent' from the entity, it being more an impression that it was trying to 'absorb' you.
Seeing the dangers of prolonging the ritual, without hesitation - although not without some effort - the medium and myself performed a rite of banishment during which the entity promptly vanished.
Yet, notwithstanding the manifestation and urgent dismissal of the entity, the ritual had not been a complete success. For although the entity's materialisation had proved a success and it had been possible to dismiss it, circumstances had not allowed time for a full exorcism and, to this extent, it still remained earthbound.
But the ceremony had established beyond doubt - at least as far as most serious psychic investigators were concerned - that the majority of sightings, and witnessed encounters relating to the Highgate phenomenon, were not entirely without foundation.
Unfortunately, however, it was realised that such proof would hardly be acceptable to the hardened sceptic, but we had at least succeeded in establishing that not only did some genuine psychic presence exist at Highgate Cemetery, but had also uncovered valuable information about the nature of the phenomenon and possible aspects that might have primarily caused its existence.
Of course, while it could not be irrefutably stated that this 'demonic' entity was the direct result of Satanic activity, it could be reasonably said that Satanic practices had perhaps been the cause of activating some age-old supernatural phenomenon.
Given that the investigation at Highgate Cemetery still remained incomplete - an opinion, shared by most Society members - not long afterwards it was decided to again return to the cemetery with a view to perhaps obtaining some photographic evidence by means of performing another ceremony.
This though, was never to be. The police, keeping surveillance as a result of continuing vandalism, arrested two members just inside the gates.
On this occasion, however, they were released as no offence had been committed but the Press picked up the story the next day (presumably as a result of police information) and more attacks were leveled against the Society's name.
With the usual precision of Fleet Street, the Society investigation was irrevocably limited to a continuation of clandestine midnight manoeuvres that took place amongst dank decaying tombs inhabited by a 'blood-sucking vampire', whilst the author, in turn, was reduced to some modern-day Van Helsing type vampire hunter.
Ironically, perhaps, concerning the Highgate phenomenon itself, the Press may have for once come closer to the truth than they originally intended.
Copyright David Farrant
[Much of this material has been abridged from the 4th edition of the author's book, "Beyond the Highgate Vampire]
I do not intend to waste my time here by arguing your trivialities, 'Anonymous'.
The quote I previously gave here is correct; I copied it verbatim from my 1991 book "Beyond the Highgate Vampire".. Its really not my fault if you cannot read properly! I also told the journalist that if reports about 'vampires' turned out to be true (and I never said they were) then we could "all rest in Peace".
As for this: (Your own quote, and strictly your own opinion in the second part)
""I have never said I believe in blood-sucking vampires. Earthbound psychic entities, perhaps: but that is a completely different matter."
Let's examine the facts, shall we? For example, how do you explain the episode with journalist Barry Simmons where you entered Highgate Cemetery with him and a photographer at night to demonstrate your "vampire stalking" prowess? "
I really am unable to see your point. Yes, I went to Highgate Cemetery one night back in October 1970 after they had seen a television programme on myself. [BBC1 "24 Hours" hosted by Richard Dimbledee]. They wanted to explore Highgate Cemetery and photograph me following the BBC programme. Well, so what? You are the only person who seems to have taken exception to their subsequent article, 'Anonymous' – nobody else has.
In fact, Basil Copper said in his 1973 book on the Highgate 'vampire' case . . . "It made a fine stirring article"! So again, just what is your point?
Now, please don't lets get distracted by this.
I am still waiting for an answer to my question: just what was the name of the RSPCA Inspector you claim stated that no forensic examination of the slaughtered animals was possible because they had absolutely 'no blood left'?
Back to you again, 'Anonymous'.
David Farrant, President, BPOS
"Now as I was the person who first found the dear male fox in the middle of a main pathway inside Highgate Cemetery and reported it as part of the official BPOS investigation (also to the Ham and High newspaper, I believe), I should be in a better position than most to describe the incident, as opposed to wild speculation from people who wern't even there."
A number of people found dead foxes at Highgate Cemetery, Swains Lane and in Waterlow Park. Only one of them was you. What you are claiming now (forty years later) cannot be substanstiated with anything on public record. Neither is there any record to support the existence of your "British Psychic and Occult Society." It was not mentioned in 1970 and the public did not hear you refer to it until 1983.
What should be a matter of public record is your claim to have found a fox as you now describe. The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, merely refers to you discovering a dead fox while adding: "Several other foxes have also been found dead in the cemetery." You then continue to say: "The odd thing is there was no outward sign of how they died. Much remains unexplained, but what I have recently learnt all points to the vampire theory as being the most likely answer."
"The animal DID have blood around the back of its neck - and qute o lot of it," you now claim. So why was this not stated by you when interviewed? You told the Ham & High that there was "no outward sign of how they died." This does not tally with what you are saying now. You also claim you were "the person who first found a fox" in Highgate Cemetery. How can you say that when you told the Ham & High at the time that "several other foxes have also been found dead in the cemetery." A number of people found foxes in and around the graveyard. How do you know you were the first? The most important issue surrounding the dead foxes, of course, has been avoided because it, too, does not tally with what you are claiming today. Namely, you said at the time that the discovery of the foxes complimented the vampire theory which you supported and, furthermore, intended to act upon; which you did in the following August.
"'Let's examine the facts, shall we? For example, how do you explain the episode with journalist Barry Simmons where you entered Highgate Cemetery with him and a photographer at night to demonstrate your 'vampire stalking' prowess?'
I really am unable to see your point. Yes, I went to Highgate Cemetery one night back in October 1970 after they had seen a television programme on myself. [BBC1 24 Hours hosted by Richard Dimbledee]. They wanted to explore Highgate Cemetery and photograph me following the BBC programme. Well, so what? You are the only person who seems to have taken exception to their subsequent article – nobody else has."
None of which is accurate or true. Most recently, amateur vampirologist Anthony Hogg, who is based in Australia, has taken exception to your absolute refusal to address both the contents of Barrie Simmons' article in the Evening News or your brief interview during "Vampires" on the 24 Hours programme. You have been asked countless times by a variety of people on forums, boards and blogs about this and not once have you been able to address it. On Andrew Gough's Arcadia, where Anthony Hogg raised it, you told him you would not answer any questions from him or anyone like him.
You say you are unable to see my point. Here is my point. You were arrested on the night of 17 August 1970 in Highgate Cemetery by police who had obviously been alerted. They discovered in your possession a wooden stake and a cross. You told them you were seeking the vampire thought to be active in the graveyard and that it was your intention to plunge the stake through its heart, which you believed was the only way to destroy it. This much is on public record. See newspaper report at the the link below.
Next you were invited to reconstruct what you were doing on the night of your arrest for the 24 Hours programme. This was the sole reason you had been invited onto a section of that episode which had been titled "Vampires." This was transmitted by BBC television on 15 October 1970. You reconstructed your stalking among the tombstones with a cross in one hand and a wooden stake in the other. The interviewer only asked you about "this vampire," a description that you did not challenge. At no point did you say "I don't believe in blood-sucking vampires."
The television report began with you entering Highgate Cemetery, removing the cross and stake from your belt, then demontsrating the vampire stalking method you had employed on the night of your arrest. The only reason you were on the programme was to reconstruct what you were doing on the night you entered Highgate Cemetery to hunt a vampire.
Laurence Picethly: "On August the seventeenth, [David] 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 [footage shows you entering via the rear of the cemetery], 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 and his friends [none of whom were discovered by the police, or subsequently identified by you], Farrant still maintains a regular vigil around the catacombs in hope of sighting either the vampire or a meeting of Satanists."
The reconstruction continues with you demonstrating your vampire stalking technique with a cross in one hand and a sharp wooden stake in the other, and concludes with this brief interview between you and Laurence Picethly:
David Farrant: "We have been keeping watch in the cemetery for … [pauses] … since my court case ended, and we still found signs of their ceremonies."
Laurence Picethly: "Have you ever seen this vampire?"
David Farrant: "I have seen it, yes. I saw it last February, and saw it on two occasions."
Laurence Picethly: "What was it like?"
David Farrant: "It took the form of a tall, grey figure, and it … [pauses] … seemed to glide off the path without making any noise."
The interview with you ended at this point. It is reproduced above in its entirety. The film then returned to Seán Manchester and the British Occult Society.
The president of the British Occult Society (an organisation in no way associated with you even though you would later fraudulently adopt its nomeclature) had already warned you to desist from your unwelcome and asinine behaviour. This Seán Manchester did on Thames Television's Today programme, 13 March 1970, and on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 March 1970, where it was reported:
"Seán Manchester, president of the British Occult Society ... is opposed to Mr Farrant's plans. 'He goes against our explicit wish for his own safety'."
In the same headline report it is stated that you "intend to visit the cemetery again, armed with a wooden stake and a crucifix, with the aim of exorcising the spirit."
Then there is the episode with Barry Simmons where you entered Highgate Cemetery with the journalist and a photographer to demonstrate your "vampire stalking" technique. This was reported by Barrie Simmons, accompanied by a selection of photographs showing you stalking a vampire with a cross and sharpened stake in the London Evening News, 16 October 1970. The feature article was headlined "My midnight date with Highgate's vampire."
Your familiar technique for avoiding the real debate is being employed here as it has been repeatedly employed elsewhere. You pick on a tiny detail and keep repeating that you will not respond to anything until you have your question answered even though your query came AFTER the questions you don't want to address were raised. Often there is no answer because the detail you request is so insignificant, which is the case where the RSPCA is concerned. Indeed, newspapers only referred to an "RSPCA spokesman" and did not give a name. You might be confusing these reports with the RSPCA's Inspector John Tresidder to whom you sent "voodoo dolls in the post with accompanying menacing poems" as admitted by you in an interview to the Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973, headlined "I sent voodoo dolls - 'High Priest' Farrant."
I prefer to stick to relevant issues, 'Anonymous'. I have answered your two points very clearly and given you written references to what I actually stated.
I did NOT use the word 'vampire' to the BBC. They may have used it but that was only because they were repeating (or asking about)a 'vampire' after they had been told that by anther person.
I did not make that statement about 'staking a vampire', that was attributed to myself illegally by the police. I denided making this statement in open Court and was subsequently acquitted of that 'vampire hunting' charge.
Now, lets stay with your own crucial statement that you made earlier to support the existence of a 'vampire' at Highgate Cemetery. You stated (Quote):
"The foxes were examined by the RSPCA who could not find enough blood for forensic examination. The local newspaper at first believed there was no visible means of how the foxes died. Later it was admitted that small lacerations punctured the throat of each animal. A similar outbreak of mysterious deaths afflicted pet owners in neighbouring areas where cats, dogs and rabbits featured among the victims. There was even a pet goat exsanguinated. Once again, small lacerations around the throat area were discovered".
This statement is erroneous. It was submitted to a local 'journalist' to support his 'vampire' theory. The newspaper published it in good faith, without realising who the person really was. The journalist's name (that is the official journalist from the Finchley Press) was Graham Newson. Newson only reported these 'facts' as a result of the erroneous information supplied to him by this other person (to support the existence of a 'vampire' in the area).
You are now merely repeating erroneous information inadvertently published in a local newspaper. In doing so, you have now admitted here that you do not, in fact, know the name of this PSPCA Inspector. That really comes as little surprise - but it is why I asked you.
I have answered your question about the dead male fox which I discovered and then reported. THAT is a fact. You have given us no facts about all the dead animals you state were the result of a 'vampiore' attack.
So can we have some facts please about all these dead animals you claim were bitten by a 'vampire'?
David Farrant, President, British Psychic and Occult Society.
"I prefer to stick to relevant issues. I have answered your two points very clearly and given you written references to what I actually stated."
You have not. You have totally avoided the issue which is that you were promoting yourself as a lone "vampire hunter" throughout 1970, as confirmed in every interview you gave, whether on television or to newspapers. You armed yourself with a cross and a stake (even a Catholic rosary sometimes) and took journalists and photographers along with you for the publicity it would generate in the media. At the time and for two decades afterwards you never once complained that you had been misreported, misquoted or set-up by the police.
"I did NOT use the word 'vampire' to the BBC. They may have used it but that was only because they were repeating (or asking about)a 'vampire' after they had been told that by anther person."
You did not need to actually say the word "vampire" when interviewed by the BBC because they said it for you. The programme was called "Vampires" and the only reason you were invited to be interviewed was because you had been caught vampire hunting in Highgate Cemetery by police. In the Hampstead & Highgate Express seven months earlier you did say the word "vampire" and indeed supported the vampire theory. Whatever anyone else on the BBC programme might have discussed, you alone demonstrated to viewers how you went about hunting a vampire with a cross in one hand and a stake in the other. The interviewer asked you about your pursuit of a vampire. You answered as if you were talking about vampires. There is no room for equivocation.
"I did not make that statement about 'staking a vampire', that was attributed to myself illegally by the police. I denided making this statement in open Court and was subsequently acquitted of that 'vampire hunting' charge."
You were not charged with "vampire hunting." This is yet another smokescreen. You were charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose, and you were acquitted solely because Highgate Cemetery is not an enclosed area. The statement you made and signed is a matter of public record. You did not say it was false at the time. Now you are claiming the police made it all up. You appeared at Clerkenwell Court in August 1970 where you were charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. The magistrate was obviously obliged to acquit you of that charge because it was clear to all present, not least defending solictor Mr Jeffrey Bayes, that Highgate Cemetery cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as "an enclosed area." This technicality secured your release in September 1970. However, we should also remind ourselves of what the magistrate, Mr J D Purcell, said when you first appeared before him whilst on remand at Brixton prison: "You should be seen by a doctor."
"It was submitted to a local 'journalist' to support his 'vampire' theory. The newspaper published it in good faith, without realising who the person really was. The journalist's name (that is the official journalist from the Finchley Press) was Graham Newson. Newson only reported these 'facts' as a result of the erroneous information supplied to him by this other person (to support the existence of a 'vampire' in the area)."
The British Occult Society and also the Vampire Research Society carried out their own investigation and were absolutely satisfied that a number of people had found exsanguinated foxes in the area. You picked up on this and added your own claim without the slightest evidence to support it. Likewise, there is no evidence to substantiate what you are alleging about Graham Newson. You just feel safe to fabricate such a claim forty years after the fact.
"You are now merely repeating erroneous information inadvertently published in a local newspaper. In doing so, you have now admitted here that you do not, in fact, know the name of this PSPCA Inspector."
Local newspapers referred to an RSPCA spokesman when quoting the matter of there being insufficient blood for their forensic examination. You were quick enough at the time to lay these dead animals at the door of the Highgate Vampire. You told the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, that this all points to the vampire theory being the most likely answer.
And you have still not explained what you were doing with Barrie Simmons. The London Evening News published Simmons' article on 16 October 1970:
"I joined a macabre hunt among the desecrated graves and tombs for the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. ... David Farrant, 24, was all set, kitted out with all the gear required by any self-respecting vampire hunter. Clutched under his arm, in a Sainsbury's carrier bag, he held the tools of his trade. There was a cross made out of two bits of wood tied together with a shoelace and a stake to plunge through the heart of the beast. Vampire hunting is a great art. There is no point in just standing around waiting for the monster to appear. It must be stalked. So we stalked. Cross in one hand to ward off the evil spirits, stake in the other, held at the ready. Farrant stalked among the vaults, past the graves, in the bushes and by the walls. When we had finished he started stalking all over again."
If not an amateurish vampire hunt for the sake of your own self-publicity, what else were you doing in the dead of night with journalist Barrie Simmons and an Evening News photographer in Highgate Cemetery?
I have already answered your query about the London Evening News article, 'anonymous', and I do not intend to answer the same questions over and over again. If anybody want to, however, they can easily go back a little way here and read my original reply.
Regarding my court case for 'vampire hunting' in 1970,you still seem to be equally confused about the real facts. I am aware (and as I have said many times before) that you cannot be charged with 'vampire hunting', as it is not in itself an offence.
However, the charge against me for this offence in 1970 was for being in an enclosed area for an un lawful purpose. The crux of the charge lay in the words 'for an unlawful purpose'. The police maintained this unlawful purpose was to open coffins and search through them until I found the 'king vampire'. According to the police, I would have then … 'driven my wooden stake through its heart, and run away'. We should remember, perhaps, that I did not give such a statement to the police. They based it on their own interpretation of the 'vampire story' circulating at Highgate Cemetery, which was in fact put around by another person.
I did not just have a cross and a stake with me when I was arrested, but for reasons best known to themselves, the police chose only to produce these two items as evidence in court. The judge remarked that he was quite satisfied that I would be unable to 'open coffins' with a wooden stake, and he also believed my denials that I had made such an admission to the police. I was therefore acquitted. The 'enclosed area' was not really an issue in question; only save insofar that the judge remarked at the end of the case, after his decision, that … "in any event, Highgate Cemetery was not an enclosed area in the strict legal sense.
So please try an get your facts straight, 'anonymous'.
Also, it was not myself who spread all the nonsense about a vampire at Highgate cemetery, in fact, a certain other person went on television twice (the ITV and the BBC) and on each occasion described the way in which people should destroy a real vampire. Pulling a wooden stake from the back of his tight pinstriped trousers, he displayed it to the cameras, and declared that the only sure way to destroy a vampire was to … 'stake it through the heart with one blow, cut off its head at dawn with a gravedigger's shovel, and but what remains.' He mad this statement twice on the respective television programmes, and as a result all sorts of hooligans and vandals were attracted to Highgate Cemetery, putting stakes through the bodies there. This was an entirely irresponsible way to act, and I certainly never made one hint in that direction regarding the existence of 'real vampires'.
I do not wish to prolong this nonsense about the exsanguinated animals, claimed to have been bitten by a vampire in the Finchley area in 1979. This was indeed reported in the Finchley press by the reporter whom I named (Graham Newson), but my discovery of he dead fox, which I reported occurred some nine years earlier.
So who is really copying who? 'anonymous'?
David Farrant, President, British Psychic and Occult Society.
"The police maintained this unlawful purpose was to open coffins and search through them until I found the 'king vampire'."
The police never once used the term "king vampire." I shall quote Det Sgt Neville Brown directly from the court report reiterated in the Evening Standard, 18 August 1970:
"Farrant told the police that he had been in London four days after moving up from Weymouth, and that he had been in the Highgate area. It was while in Highgate that he heard people talking about the vampire of Highgate cemetery."
At this point the newspaper explains: "In a statement, Farrant said that he heard that the vampire rises out of a grave and wanders about the cemetery on the look-out for human beings on whose blood it thrives."
Det Sgt Neville Brown continues:
"His intention, he said, was to find it and destroy it."
There is no mention anywhere of a "king vampire." Only your explanation of what you were doing in Highgate Cemetery on the night of 17 August 1970, namely vampire hunting. The process described by you to the police to achieve this would obviously prove unlawful. But that was only your intention. You were not discovered hovering over an open coffin with a raised stake. You were merely discovered in the graveyard on your own with vampire hunting items.
Anyone wanting to read the Evening Standard report in full may do so at this link:
"We should remember, perhaps, that I did not give such a statement to the police," you now say without any evidence to support this claim. There is nothing on record from 1970 where you publicly challenged the statement you made to the police. You were very vocal on most things, but not this. Why should we believe you decades later that the police invented the statement they attributed to you? Why would the police do such a thing? What about your other anomalies?
One example of you revising the past is the alleged number of times you claim you witnessed the Highgate entity/ghost/vampire (whatever you want to call it). In the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970, you claimed to have seen it THREE times:
"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 gates. ... I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."
When interviewed for BBC Telvision's 24 Hours programme, 15 October 1970, you claimed to have seen it just TWICE:
"I have seen it, yes. I saw it last February, and saw it on two occasions."
When interviewed in June 2009 by Steve Genier on his Nocturnal Frequency blogtalk radio, and a few months later by Andrew Gough for his Arcadia website, you claimed to have only see the Highgate phenomenon ONCE.
How does a sighting of something so significant reduce from three occasions to two occasions to just one occasion?
Likewise, alleging the police contrived a statement in which you were vampire hunting with a cross and stake falls into a similar category of rewriting history. The only problem you have with that piece of revisionism is the fact that the police confiscated from you a sharp wooden stake and cross which became material evidence.
"All sorts of hooligans and vandals were attracted to Highgate Cemetery, putting stakes through the bodies there," you claim happened after television programmes in 1970. One of these transmissions showed you brandishing a stake, which you pulled out of your trousers, and a cross while demonstrating to television viewers what you were doing on the night of your arrest, namely vampire hunting. Your clear intention was to plunge this stake through the heart of an undead corpse. That notwithstanding, only one outrage occurred where a corpse was mutilated in this way, and that was attributed by the police and press to the work of Satanists who had been frequenting the graveyard for years for the purpose of bizarre rituals involving bodies.
Since Highgate Cemetery became the focus of so much media attention in 1970, incidents of vandalism and desecration actually fell significantly. And, of course, in this context we should not forget that in June 1974 you were convicted of vandalism and desecration at Highgate Cemetery and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
For somebody who wasn't even present at my case for 'vampire hunting' in 1970, 'Anonymous', you seem to have an unhealthy interest in my central involvements. For example, that case came to Court no less than three times before I was finally acquitted of that charge, and you are only relying on one newspaper report which, in turn, was relying on evidence given by one Police officer when the case first opened. Very shoddy research if you don't mind me saying so. The word "King Vampire" WAS used in Court; indeed, the police made it in association with reports they must have gleaned from local newspapers.
This is the second time you have got your facts totally 'back to front, 'Anonymous'. The first was when you wrongly assumed I'd only been acquitted on a technicality ('being in an enclosed area'etc).
The main ingredient of that charge which the police were trying to prove was the 'for an unlawful purpose' part. This was my intention (at least according to the Police) to break open coffins until I found the 'King Vampire' and then stake it through the heart (Oh, and then 'run away'!).
I never said any of this. This fabricated statement was attributed and dependent on the evidence of one police officer only. Indeed, the Magistrate actually said when concluding his decision in the third Trial that it would have been impossible for myself to have opened a coffin with the sharpened piece of wood. He added that had he thought differently, the outcome would have been very different.
When you say that the case was dismissed only on a technicality, you are inventing a fact that simply just didn't happen. People are entitled to ask why you would want to try and do that, 'Anonymous'? I think the real reason is obvious to most people.
I refused to name the other people who had been with me simply because they also had done nothing wrong. Had I given my address, the Police would have gone to my flat and found their names in the records of the BPOS.
Because of my refusal to do this, I was kept in custody overnight.as a matter of procedure. The police stated this fact in Court (that I had refused to give my address), which is what led some newspapers to state "Farrant of no fixed address" when reporting the Police evidence.
YOU are the person who is so desperately trying to 're-write history'. As I said, most people reading this will know the real reason why!
David Farrant, President, British Psychic and Occult Society
"This fabricated statement was attributed and dependent on the evidence of one police officer only. Indeed, the Magistrate actually said when concluding his decision in the third Trial that it would have been impossible for myself to have opened a coffin with the sharpened piece of wood. He added that had he thought differently, the outcome would have been very different."
Would anyone seriously imagine the wooden stake (submitted in evidence together with a cross) was for the purpose of opening a coffin? If your intention, as submitted by the police in a statement signed by you, was to plunge the stake you carried into the heart of the vampire it was clearly not an impliment for prising open coffins. Nobody is so stupid as to think a piece of wood such as that found in your possession could force the bolted lid off a casket. That would require an iron crowbar.
"That case came to Court no less than three times before I was finally acquitted of that charge, and you are only relying on one newspaper report which, in turn, was relying on evidence given by one Police officer when the case first opened. Very shoddy research if you don't mind me saying so."
The reason for the case coming to court more than the customary twice is because the magistrate ordered psychiatric reports to be carried out on you. These reports proved inconclusive; the two psychiatrists failing to agree on your sanity, ie whether you were fit or not to appear before the court. I have already referred to more than one newspaper court report. Every newspaper in the country covered the case, which is exactly what you wanted. They are duty-bound to report court cases very accurately. The policeman you are referring to is Det Sgt Neville Brown who was the officer in charge of your case. We are being asked by you to believe he fabricated your statement in order to make you appear like a vampire hunter. Why would a policeman want to do such a thing? You had already established in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, that you were prepared to do whatever was necessary to deal with the vampire which you accepted was the most likely culprit for the dead animals and spectral sightings.
"When you say that the case was dismissed only on a technicality, you are inventing a fact that simply just didn't happen. People are entitled to ask why you would want to try and do that? I think the real reason is obvious to most people."
Have you asked most people? It was stated at the time that you were acquitted solely because Highgate Cemetery is not an enclosed area and you had been charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. You did not deny at the time that your purpose was to hunt and destroy a vampire. You did not deny it when interviewed by newspapers. You did not deny it when reconstructing for the BBC what you were doing on the night of your arrest. It is perfectly reasonable for the police to assume this was your intention; especially as you were found in possession of a cross and sharpened wooden stake at midnight in the graveyard. What you have failed to mention, of course, is that you originally pleaded guilty to the charge brought against you and only later changed your plea to one of not guilty. A friend persuaded you to do this and when you did he paid your bail. You eventually became his lodger.
"I refused to name the other people who had been with me simply because they also had done nothing wrong. Had I given my address, the Police would have gone to my flat and found their names in the records of the BPOS."
There were no "other people" involved apart from the person you probably arranged to telephone the police to have you arrested. You knew this arrest was absolutely essential to assure the coverage you subsequently achieved in the media. You didn't give your address because you were living in someone's coal bunker and didn't want to be exposed as a figure of fun in the press. You were living in this bunker from August 1969 to August 1970. After you changed your plea from guilty to not guilty you were given bail and released from Brixton Prison. You lived with a friend in Barnet as a condition of your bail. You also secured brief employment as a porter at Barnet General Hospital, which was another condition of your bail. You did not have a "flat" for police to raid. At the time of your arrest you occupied a friend's coal bunker (one of several in a communal coal cellar in Archway Road). A number of people visited you in the year you lived in that cellar. They were all aware that your arrest and vampire hunting claims were nothing more than a publicity stunt. Two of the correspondents to the Hampstead & Highgate Express readers' letters column you have identified in the above article were personal friends of yours, namely Audrey Connely and Kenny Frewin. Their published letters, needless to say, are completely bogus and were written under your instruction. There were no "records of the BPOS" because there was no "BPOS." You were a lone self-publicist who tried to involve friends and acquaintances in your stunts and schemes.
You have predicably skirted around the anomalies I raised previously, namely that you claimed to have sighted the entity three times in a letter to the Ham & High in February 1970, which became two sightings in an interview you gave on BBC TV's 24 Hours in October 1970 and also in your self-published pamphlet "Beyond the Highgate Vampire" (1991), which then became only one sighting when interviewed in 2009 by Steve Genier and again by Andrew Gough in the same year. How do you explain the sighting of something so crucial reducing from three to two to one? If you sighted anything you would surely have a very clear recollection of how many times you actually saw it.
Another anomaly which might have occurred to the casual reader is the fact that retrospectively you have claimed to have been a "high priest of witchcraft" during the time of your arrest in Highgate Cemetery on the night of 17 August 1970. Yet you were found in possesion of a Christian cross! When you demonstrated what you were doing on the night of your arrest for the BBC, you wore a Roman Catholic rosary around your neck and brandished an enormous Christian cross. Photographs in various newspapers even show you wearing a Catholic crucifix and a rosary around your neck. (See example from the Evening News, 29 September 1970, at the link below). Why would a self-proclaimed pagan, a "high priest of witchcraft" no less, rely on Christian symbols such as a rosary, crucifix and a cross to protect himself?
"We are being asked by you to believe he fabricated your statement in order to make you appear like a vampire hunter. Why would a policeman want to do such a thing? You had already established in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, that you were prepared to do whatever was necessary to deal with the vampire which you accepted was the most likely culprit for the dead animals and spectral sightings."
I have already explained that, 'Anonymous', as I explained in my concise book "Beyond the Highgate Vampire", I was just humouring some over-zealous reporter who was asking me about reports his newspaper had had about the entity being an actual 'blood-sucking vampire'. This person had actually visited the editor of that newspaper (Gerald Issaman) dressed in a long black, red-lined cape, at the newspaper's offices, and given him some ridiculous story about the 'vampire' really being a Hungarian nobleman who had been brought from Rumania by his followers in Victorian times in his coffin which they secluded in Ashworth House – the demolished mansion that once stood upon the site of Highgate Cemetery. Interviewed only last year in the Camden Journal (when reviewing another book about London ghosts), Gerald Issaman confirmed this and said the Ham and High had only ran this story 'for laughs'.
The same person I an referring to (and please very carefully here, 'Anonymous') appeared on television very soon afterwards (March 13th 1970) and repeated his assertion that the witnessed entity seen in and around Highgate Cemetery was really a 'vampire'; and he went on to tell viewers (rather encourage them) how a person should destroy a vampire. He said that the only certain way to destroy a vampire was to 'stake it through its heart just before dawn, cut off its head with a gravediggers shovel, and burn what remains'. He also told the television cameras that 'David Farrant (myself) would be returning to Highgate Cemetery that same night to do just that'. As this man's statements were televised, hundreds of people returned to Highgate Cemetery that same evening expecting to witness a non-existent vampire hunt. Most were evicted by police with dogs.
Not long after this, this irresponsible statement caused many cranks and mentally sick people to go into Highgate Cemetery to enter Highgate Cemetery by night and drive metal stakes through corpses laid to rest there. Vandalism also increased to an alarming degree – mostly due to this person's irresponsible statements.
The police were obviously aware of all this serious activity, and my arrest in HC on August 17th 1970 was set against this background.
When I was arrested at HC that night, the four other people went back to two cars parked outside the main gate (away from the direction that the police were approaching). I attempted to exit further along the back wall as I knew people who lived in South Grove and their garden literally backed onto Highgate Cemetery. But I got arrested with psychic implements that I was carrying, including a wooden stake engraved with Cabalistic symbols attached to a piece of white cord.
The police never produced these other implements in Court, and just a small cross and the stake, with the white cord conveniently removed. He purpose of the sharpened piece of wood was to cast a magical Circle on the ground: but the police maintained I intended to use it to 'stake the King Vampire'.
I did NOT make the police statement attributed to myself. This was written out by Neville Brown which he read from in Court. I was acquitted.
The simple truth is that the police tried to make me a scapegoat for all the serious vandalism at Highgate Cemetery (including all the staked corpses') which they had been alerted to as a result of this other individual's statements in the newspapers and on the television. Their attempt failed and I was found not guilty.
I am not going to deal with all your other irrelevant assumptions, 'Anonymous'. Hard facts I will deal with. Childish statements (or rather your bias interpretation of my personal circumstances) I will not.
David Farrant, President, BPOS


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The exact origins of the Aiki Jo remain somewhat of a mystery. Some have found traces of Morihei Ueshiba's jo movements in the "juken" or rifle with bayonet he practiced as a young soldier. Others point to the influence in the Aiki Jo of the "yari" or spear that he studied with intensity during the Ayabe period. It might also be noted that the Founder was exposed to many classical systems due to his wide network of associations in martial arts circles…
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Bhubaneswar, Aug 4 : With heavy rains for the past three days claiming two lives and raising fear of flood in some rivers, Odisha government today alerted 12 districts for any eventuality as more rain is likely to pound some areas due to a low pressure. Collectors of 12 districts were asked to remain watchful and gear up to meet any eventuality in the event of possible flood, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra told reporters after the situation was reviewed at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.
He said the districts where alert was sounded are Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Cuttack, Boudh, Nayagarh and Keonjhar. The chief minister stressed the need to evacuate people from low lying areas in time and make arrangements for free cooked food and relief, Mohapatra said, adding vulnerable points in river embankments would be kept under the vigil and steps taken for availability of drinking water and medicines.
As heavy rains pounded many parts of the state over the last three days, several areas were inundated and submerged, the SRC said, adding normal life was thrown out of gear in Sambalpur which received over 336.8 mm rainfall during a very short span yesterday. Over 4,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in Sambalpur to safe places and as many as 22 free kitchen centres opened for them, Mohapatra said.
While one person was killed in wall collapse in Boudh district yesterday, another washed away in gushing water in Sambalpur district, he said, adding the death toll in rains and floods this monsoon stood at 16. Over 8.43 lakh cusec of water was flowing in the river Mahanadi at Munduli, the SRC said, adding the flow could rise upto a maximum of 10 lakh cusec with 11 sluice gates opened at Hirakud Dam.
"While there is no need for worry, some areas like Athagarh and Banki in Cuttack district and parts of Nayagarh and Boudh may be flooded with backwaters," he said. Four districts of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Keonjhar and Sundargarh are expected to get more rains by tomorrow due to a low pressure. As a result, fear of floods may arise in rivers like Budhabalang and Subarnerekha, he said.
Road communication in Kalahandi district has been hit with flood water of river Hati submerging a bridge at Junagarh since last evening. Incessant rains also wreaked havoc in urban centres including the state capital of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack where many low-lying areas were submerged paralysing normal life and vehicular traffic.
The MET office said isolated extremely heavy to very heavy rainfall would occur at one or two places over north Odisha during the next 24 hours. Similarly, heavy rainfall would also occur at one or two places over south Odisha during the period, Director of local MET centre, Sarat Sahu said. Apart from Sambalpur, Balasore and adjoining areas also received reports of heavy downpour and recorded 226.4 mm rainfall yesterday, he said.
Train services were affected in Koraput-Rayagada section of East Coast Railway since yesterday due to incessant heavy rains leaving many passengers stranded for hours. Because of heavy downpour boulders and clay mounds came crashing on the railway tracks between Rauli and Tikiri railway stations blocking railway traffic, Station Superintendent, Tikiri Hembram said.