An interesting find

Courtesy of Carl T. Ford

Until recently, I thought Sean Manchester's earliest written account of the Highgate Vampire was 'The haunting of Hell House' and his contribution to Peter Underwood's The vampire's bedside companion (both 1975).

That is, until a serendipitous eBay search for 'Highgate vampire' by Redmond McWilliams turned up a startling find: Witchcraft, vol. 2, no. 8 (1973). 'THIS IS ONE OF THE MORE COLLECTIBLE ISSUES AND EXTREMELY HARD TO COME BY,' reads its description, 'AS IT FEATURES AN ARTICLE ON VAMPIRES, INCLUDING THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE AND THE OCCULT BY SEAN MANCHESTER INCLUDING A BEARDED SEAN MANCHESTER'. The issue's on sale for £75.

Witchcraft (1971–1974) was New Witchcraft's antecedent—the latter published 'The haunting of Hell House'; David Farrant's 'Invoking the vampire' appeared in the same issue. As Tom Brinkmann notes in his not-safe-for-work-or-children article, magazines like Witchcraft were basically 'adult slicks', that 'picked up the satanic/devilish theme' popular at the time.

The content of Manchester and Farrant's articles were later subsumed by their respective self-published material, The Highgate vampire (1985; 1991) and Beyond the Highgate vampire (1991; 1992; 1997), respectively. Both expose the subsequent revisions to their accounts, effectively illustrating the importance of collating contemporaneous material on this case is.

But this find—and I can tell ya, it's a doozy—is now the earliest-known account of the Highgate case by Manchester. I've sourced a copy of the article: it's called 'The world of the vampire' and appears on pages 52–55. The alleged 22-year-old vampire victim, 'Lusia'—as she's addressed and captioned in Manchester's post-1973 accounts—is revealed to be Jacqui Frances, 'a pretty 22-year-old blonde'.¹ Readers will immediately recognise 'Jacqui' as Jacqueline Cooper, who's mentioned several times in Don Ecker's report (pdf).

Ecker's report backs Farrant's allegation 'that Manchester had a romantic interest in her and she was named in Manchester’s divorcing his then wife', Marie Manchester, by including their divorce certificate, which refers to 'Jacqueline Frances (Cited as Jacqueline Francis) Manchester (Formerly Cooper)'. Was Manchester making cryptic references to this relationship when he dubbed her 'Model and girlfriend who had a very sultry look — and green eyes'? After all, you wouldn't know it was Jacqui, unless you're familiar with her other pictures.

This makes Manchester's dispassionate reference to 'A photographic model, and, much later, actresses, portrayed Lusia in representations of her in depictions of the mysterious events which came to be known collectively as the case of the Highgate Vampire', somewhat laughable—and, perhaps, very telling.

After all, Jacqui's appearance in Manchester's 1975 and 1985 accounts wasn't prefaced with her 'role': she's captioned 'Lusia' over and over again. Indeed, one of the 'Lusia' photos—in which her 'sultry' eyes are offset by an Iron Cross adorning her décolletage—has been recycled from the 1973 article. What's distinctive about the article, however, is there's little legroom for the retrofitted 'model' claim in Manchester's online account.

Not only is the aforementioned picture captioned with her actual name, but the text describes Jacqui as someone who'd 'come face to face with the Highgate Vampire.'² However, her subsequent tale shares more in common with the dark-figure-scared-by-oncoming-headlights motif found in several anonymous accounts related by Manchester and Farrant, rather than her 'somnambulating' along Swains Lane, feelings of suffocation at night and pinpricks in her neck, latterly described.³

Thanks to this find, we now have six primary Manchester narratives to wade through:

1. 'The world of the vampire', Witchcraft, vol. 2, no. 8, 1973, pp. 52–5.
2. 'The haunting of Hell House', New Witchcraft, vol. 1, no. 4, 1975, pp. 51–5.
3. 'The Highgate vampire', in P Underwood (ed.), The vampire’s bedside companion: the amazing world of vampires in fact and fiction, Leslie Frewin, London, 1975, pp. 81–121.
4. The vampire exhumed, an unpublished typescript, 1980.⁴
5. The Highgate vampire: the infernal world of the undead unearthed at London’s famous Highgate Cemetery and environs, British Occult Society, London, 1985.
6. The Highgate vampire: the infernal world of the undead unearthed at London’s Highgate Cemetery and environs, rev. edn, Gothic Press, London, 1991.

Many 'alterations' are sure to turn up on closer examination. Famed horror writer, Ramsey Campbell, found many between the 1985 and 1991 editions, alone. I've noticed quite a few, myself.

What concerns me, though, is that if this article was found by fluke, who know what other narratives Manchester has floating about. As if there wasn't enough material to sift through.

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^{1. S Manchester, 'The world of the vampire', Witchcraft, vol. 2, no. 8, 1973, p. 53.↩} 

^{2. ibid. See also, caption accompanying picture on same page: 'Jacqui Frances came face to face with the Highgate Vampire.'↩}

<sup>3. S Manchester, 'The Highgate vampire', in P Underwood (ed.), The vampire’s bedside companion: the amazing world of vampires in fact and fiction, Leslie Frewin, London, 1975, p. 107.↩ 

4. MV Riccardo, Vampires unearthed: the complete multi-media vampire and Dracula bibliography, The unexplained, the mysterious, and the supernatural: series of topical bibliographic guides to anomalies, vol. 2, Garland reference library of social science, vol. 177, Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1983, p. 96.↩</sup>

Business as Usual

After I revealed the source of Bishop Manchester's plagiarised sermon (and confronted him about it), his blog post "mysteriously" disappeared.

It's certainly not the first time the Bishop's resorted to covering his tracks, rather than admit responsibility for his dubious actions. The great irony is that the recent deleted post concerned "truth" and "humility". And, of course, was pinched from somewhere else without due attribution. Classic.

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Meanwhile, his self-professed adversary, David Farrant, wound up publishing my comment (see previous post) concerning the lack of info available on his latest book. Of course, he couldn't resist accompanying it with a baseless warning. Anyway, here's his say on the matter:


The good thing about his reply is that it confirms several things that I stated in "Pact with Self-Promotion".

1. He generally makes vague allusions rather than naming names. At least, online, anyway ("...a conspiracy between two people...").
2. He can't resist self-promotion, even after decrying it ("...I will release a 2nd edition...").
3. He continues finding ways to generate revenue from the feud, as attested by this intended 2nd edition.
4. Claims he doesn't want to talk about the book on his blog, yet advertises the intended publication of a further edition.
   

After all that, he still failed to cough up further info and instead supplied more allusions. But I wasn't gonna let him off the hook that easily:

G’day Dave,

Try not to jump the gun, mate! I merely asked about the content of the book. I’m not blaming ya for there being no info on Amazon. I’m just saying there doesn’t seem to be much info on it anywhere, except vague allusions. For instance, who are the “two people” attempting to pervert the course of justice?

Why not name names if you’re evidence can back it up?

As to not wanting to discuss “Pact” on your blog, well, as I recently covered on mine, you’ve discussed it quite a bit as it is.

But this so-called "new evidence" and its inclusion in a second edition has got me thinking. And I decided to share my thoughts with Dave on his blog:


In the middle of writing this very blog entry, I noticed that Dave's gone out of his way to dedicate a blog entry to meself. And once again, he goes out of his way to avoid providing details about its content:

As regards to “Pact with the Devil”, I have no need to discuss the book. It has been officially listed with an ISBN; it is on Amazon and Nielsen records, and will very soon be lodged at the 6 major University Libraries i.e. Oxford, Cambridge, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, including, of course, the British Library.

Here's a fun fact: did you know it means (academically-speaking) sweet bugger-all to have one's work submitted to these places? Sure, it looks all fancy having your work lodged at 'em. Unless, of course, one's familiar with the concept of legal deposit, which is "a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library."

Hell, I could write a book about being the reincarnation of a 19th century sea captain and submit it to those prestigious institutions, if I wanted to. And what would I get out of it? An assured copyright.

Oh, and the book has an ISBN. Wow, really? That essentially means that the book's got a "a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code". Big whoop. Self-publishing company, Lulu, can provide you with the same thing.

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Last, but not least, this blog entry is my 200th post! That's pretty significant once you see why this blog started in the first place. I overlooked it at the time, but May 8th also marked the second anniversary of this blog's founding. Go me!

So, I'd like to take the time to thank my readers (and I know you're out there! My Feedjit tells me so) for their support. Even if it's just reading through or submitting vitriolic comments, it means my efforts aren't in vain. Cheers!

The Hypocricies of Bishop Manchester

1. Copyright Violation and Plagiarism

We know how keen the Bishop is to protect his alleged copyright. Take note of the multiple copyright references here. But, as has been established, he has no problem violating the copyright of other writers. Not to mention inserting himself into Church history.

The latest example is his "Ghosts and Demons" post which samples heavily from from Wikipedia's ghost and demon pages. Oh, and Bread from Heaven Unlimited's "Are Ghosts Good or Bad?", which, in turn, pilfers large chunks of its answer from Catholic Exchange's "Do You Believe in Ghosts?".

The Bishop gives no acknowledgment to these sources. Which also leads us to the next topic...

2. Necromancy

It's clear that the Bishop is against necromancy/mediumistic practices, going by his plagiarised "Ghosts and Demons" post (also regurgitated here).

So, it's certainly strange that he thought it was perfectly ok to make use of necromantic rituals in "exorcising" Luisa.

3. His Arch-nemesis

The same guy behind the Path of Reconciliation blog, who also advises that David Farrant (who he openly calls "My Adversary"), should be ignored...can't seem to bring himself to stop writing about him. He even depicts Farrant (in his woeful Photoshop style) as an "Adversary" and "Dæmon" elsewhere.

The Bishop's 2007 blog/book, Aftermath of the Highgate Vampire largely concerned Farrant, too.

4. Humility

The Bishop's Holy Grail Church's page on "Divine Healing" praises humility:

“Where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side (Romans 7: 21).” Our frailty, whether bishop or priest, makes us one with those whom we serve, and we are saved from any suggestion of smugness or self-satisfaction. We view those who work with us as friends, in the same way that Christ calls His disciples servants no longer but friends. The ministry of exorcism especially requires those chosen to be marked by piety, prudence, knowledge and holy humility.

Which is all well and good, if it wasn't for the fact that he owns "three vehicles" and "three residences in the British Isles". This level of accumulated wealth is even more bizarre in light of the proceeds of his book going to the Apostolic Church of the Holy Grail...which he happens to preside over.

5. Libel, Defamation and Harassment

The Bishop makes a big song and dance about libelous comments and defamatory remarks about himself (as can be seen here and here). Of course, this doesn't stop him from engaging and encouraging the same thing.

Contradiction Man Gets Censored by...Contradiction Man!

I've been sharing the adventures of Contradiction Man (episode 1; episode 2) on Facebook, including the Highgate Vampire Society group.

However, David saw fit to delete links to it. Here's how it's gone down:

Of course, the laughs don't stop there. You see, in censoring my links, all he's done is (that's right) contradict himself. Again!

You see, David presents himself as a big advocate for "freedom of speech" concerning discussions on the Highgate Vampire Case. On top of that, here's what he has to say about the topic on the Highgate Vampire Society page:

It is a matter of public record and should thus be open to continued input and debate, and not one that should not be allowed to become clouded or influenced by any who have no knowledge of events (which they certainly do not ‘own’) as these actually occurred or happened. There are many such persons around (including sensationalistic authors and members of the Press) but their stories should really be shared in total, and not be allowed to become ‘dictorial’ in the sense that these necessarily represent the public view of things. [emphasis added -ed.]

Contradiction Man Strikes Again!

Click here for the previous thrilling installment.

On Discussing the Highgate Vampire

David Farrant, Arcadia forum, 01 Feb 2010 2:11 pm:

As to your quip . . . “Without the Highgate vampire case they wouldn’t be talking here at all”, etc, I rather think that relates more to yourself Anthony! You seem unable to talk about little else; notwithstanding its 40-year old history! It is YOURSELF who keeps incessantly referring to this case Anthony – almost like you’ve got some sort of obsession with it!

I am really not interested in that particular case anymore, Anthony, It is DEAD (excuse the pun!) there are far more many genuine cases of psychic phenomena to be investigated apart from that one!

David Farrant, "Mundane Things Like That", The Human Touch, Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 2:47 am:

Had a call earlier from a certain TV company again. Doing another interview on the Highgate case very soon. Will give more details a little later, although you’ll probably see it anyway.

"The Highgate Vampire Society" page and David Farrant, Arcadia forum, 06 Mar 2010 2:36 pm:

After all, the case of the so-called Highgate phenomenon is not really a private issue or one that can be affected by personal views or interpretations. It is a matter of public record and should thus be open to continued input and debate, and not be allowed to become clouded or influenced by those who have no knowledge of events as these actually occurred.

The Amazing Adventures of Contradiction Man

Concerning Vampires

David Farrant, Arcadia forum, 25 Jan 2010 9:30 am:

I may have said, that the entity I saw at Highgate Cemetery back in 1969 had -or reflected - 'red eyes', Rain, but I neverr stated that this was a 'vampire', that is the difference!

Not sure what it was actually; but sure it wasn't a 'vampire'!

David Farrant, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970:

Much remains unexplained, but what I have recently learnt all points to the vampire theory being the most likely answer. Should this be so, I for one am prepared to pursue it, taking whatever means might be necessary so that we can all rest.'

David Farrant, Hampstead and Highgate Express, 2 September 2005:

The sighting of a tall, black figure in April on Swains Lane makes me think the vampire is active again.

Concerning Red Eyes

Although the Arcadia post indicates he's unsure as to whether he's referred to the "vampire" (as he is sometimes want to call it) having red eyes, he clearly has, in different levels of intensity:

"The Mysteries of the Highgate Vampire", Great Unsolved Mysteries:

This figure according to Farrant had two red glowing circles where a human‘s eyes would be. Farrant did not conclusively state that what he had seen was a vampire and changed his terminology during different interviews. He would sometimes state that it was a ghost, specter or other unexplainable phenomenon. He did at times speak of it as possibly being amongst the vampires that were wandering the earth.

David Farrant, "Interview with the Real Vampire Hunter":

I'm not sure exactly what it was, except that the surrounding area turned icy cold and I saw a tall dark figure with 'hypnotic red eyes' that seemed to exude an impression of intense evil.

Stay tuned for more thrilling adventures!

In the meantime, you can read a blog entry by Dennis, which shows that Dave can't even keep track of how many times he saw the "vampire".