Staking the Highgate Vampire

Manchester's story is just as theatrical and filled holes. Illustration from a 1917 issue of Punch. (Photo: Yankee Skeptic)

I'm very pleased with the outcome of Erin Chapman's "5 Reasons Why a Wampyr Didn't Walk in Highgate" (Feb. 27, 2015): it was Vamped's most popular post for March and it's currently our site's second-most commented post.

What you probably didn't know, is that the article took three months to write; there were many facts to confirm in order to bring a watertight case against Manchester's erroneous claims about the Highgate Vampire's movements in the cemetery. That's why we can conclusively say: he got it all wrong.

But that article, itself, was actually a spin-off: there was much more we unearthed. So much, we had to refine the entire article's final subject because it wasn't always intended to specifically focus on Manchester's topographical errors. For more on the "making of," read Erin's blog post "Cemetery Logistics: How I Tracked the Highgate Vampire" (April 4, 2015).

Her post doesn't just present the behind-the-scenes story of writing that article; you'll also see and appreciate the amount of work that went into it—and maybe pick up a few pointers along the way.

I'm also happy to report that our other findings won't be staying on the cutting room floor: there's going to be a sequel to "5 Reasons," so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, happy digging!