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.

---

^{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>

The Mystery of Luisa, Pt. 3

In "The Mystery of Luisa, Pt. 2", we saw how certain parallels can be drawn between Sean Manchester's The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Famous Highgate Cemetery and Environs (London: British Occult Society, 1985) to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

I also concluded that article thusly, "Indeed, as we shall see, the mysterious Luisa and her vampiric manifestation has further parallels to another work of fiction."

Now we're going to take a look at that other fictional work: Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out.

Originally published in 1934, it proved to be a best-seller in its day. And, most significantly for this article, it was adapted into an eponymous film by Hammer in 1968.

The following video clip is a scene from the film. It is mostly based on Chapter 27 of the book, "Within the Pentacle". The section I'd like to draw attention to, occurs at 8:15-10:00.

Here, we see Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) and his friends beseiged by demonic manifestations, while under the protection of a magic circle.

One of these manifestations takes the form of a giant spider.

What does this have to do with Manchester's account?

If we read page 145 of The Highgate Vampire, we have a peculiar manifestation of the undead "Luisa" taking place. After Manchester has summoned her through a necromantic ritual, he sees this:

It was the most enormous spider imaginable. In that light it appeared to compare to the size of a full grown cat amd was slowly edging towards the rim of charcoal powder.

After recovering his senses from this ghastly sight, he sees fit to throw a "burning torch at the monstrous black arachnid."

This doesn't quite stop the demonic spider though:

Slowly it reached the edge of my protective circle; then, quickening its pace, it scurried back and forth in the most terrifying manner around the perimeter.

He demands it to "be still" and, amazingly, it stops "in its tracks".

The opportunity is then used to stake this foul creature and, as Manchester asserts, "Something wet and glutinous oozed stickily as I pressed the stake still further."

As dawn arrives, he looks to see "Luisa" embedded with the stake, in the spot where the spider had been.

Do you see the similarities between Manchester's account and the scene from the movie you have watched?

But how can we back up this assertion? Is this a mere coincidence? Well, let's go back to Wheatley's book.

Interestingly, no spider manifests itself in the demonic assult on the magic circle. Instead, they are presented with something far more horrifying.

The following passage is taken from the Row Books/Arrow Books Ltd 1970 reprint:

A dim phosphorescent blob began to glow in the darkness; shimmering and spreading into a great hummock, its outline gradually became clearer. It was not a man form nor yet an animal, but heaved there on the floor like some monstrous living sack. It had no eyes or face but from it there radiated a terrible malefic intelligence.

Suddenly there ceased to be anything ghostlike about it. The Thing had a whitish pimply skin, leprous and unclean, like some huge silver slug. Waves of satanic power rippled through its spineless body, causing it to throb and work continually like a great mass of new-made dough. A horrible stench of decay and corruption filled the room; for as it writhed it exuded a slimy poisonous moisture which trickled in little rivulets across the polished floor. It was solid, terribly real, a living thing. They could even see long, single, golden hairs, separated from each other by ulcerous patches of skin, quivering and waving as they rose on end from its flabby body-and suddenly it began to laugh at them, a low, horrid, chuckling laugh.

So, the book can be pretty much ruled out for the giant spider manifestation. But, do we have any other proof for the movie being a possible source of "inspiration"?

If we turn to page 140 of The Highgate Vampire, we see a still from a 1968 movie, along with the following caption:

This scene from The Devil Rides Out depicts the use of a Magic Circle to withstand attack by a Satanic force, much like the protective barrier cast by the author and many others throughout history

Coincidence, or a knowing wink to the reader?

You be the judge.

The Mystery of Luisa, Pt. 2

In the previous installment, we focused on Manchester's insistence on keeping Luisa's true identity a secret.

The question is: why?

I'd say the most obvious answer is her unusual fate, as depicted in Manchester's The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Famous Highgate Cemetery and Environs (London: British Occult Society, 1985), p. 145.

After summoning her vampire-corpse through a necromantic ritual (she is previously said to have "died quite suddenly almost seven years ago from a form of leukaemia", p. 120), he is confronted by "the most enormous spider imaginable" while under the protection of a magic circle.

He commands it to be still and surprisingly, it obliges. He takes the opportunity to dispatch the undead being:

Within the same moment I seized a sharpened stake and thrust it with all my might through the centre of that hideous black shape, using the blue sulphurous light to assist my aim. This was accompanied by the most heart-rending screech I have ever heard; it will haunt me for the rest of my days.

The "enormous spider" metamorphoses back into Luisa:

It was poor Luisa — no longer the devil's undead, but God's own true dead. Even as I looked, the years of decay, which had been eluded by her vampire sleep, were returning almost instantaneously.

Which strangely echoes a similar pronoucement in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). After Arthur Holmwood has staked his beloved, vampirised fiancée, Lucy (Luisa?) Westenra, Prof. Abraham Van Helsing tells him:

Kiss her dead lips if you will, as she would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinning devil now, not any more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she is the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!

The Draculean connection might not be so far-fetched.

On page 113, we have Manchester staking the original Highgate Vampire in an old manor. He is accompanied by a man named "Arthur". The scene follows thusly:

I raised the mallet in my right hand and as I did I thought I could hear voices chanting on the wind. All the trees around seemed to bend and sway as the air itself filled with sustained chords from a world beyond our own. I clutched the wooden stake in my left hand.
"In God's name strike!" cried Arthur.
With a mighty blow I drove the stake through the creature's heart, then shielded my ears as a terrible roar emitted from the bowels of hell. This died away as suddenly as it had erupted and all became still.

Compare it to the scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), in which Arthur Holmwood stakes Lucy in her coffin:

"Go on,"said Arthur hoarsely."Tell me what I am to do."

"Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place to the point over the heart, and the hammer in your right. Then when we begin our prayer for the dead, I shall read him, I have here the book, and the others shall follow, strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead that we love and that the Un-Dead pass away."

Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on action his hands never trembled nor even quivered. Van Helsing opened his missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as we could.

Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could see its dint in the white flesh. Then he struck with all his might.

The thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, bloodcurdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions. The sharp white champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur never faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it. His face was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it. The sight of it gave us courage so that our voices seemed to ring through the little vault.

And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and the teeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver. Finally it lay still. The terrible task was over.

It should be noted that after the Highgate Vampire disintegrates, Manchester and Arthur burn its coffin and remains outside, intoning a prayer consigning the foul being to Hell.

Indeed, as we shall see, the mysterious Luisa and her vampiric manifestation has further parallels to another work of fiction.

The Mystery of Luisa, Pt. 1

"Luisa" is the pseudonym given to a victim of the Vampire in Sean Manchester's The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Famous Highgate Cemetery and Environs (London: British Occult Society, 1985).

Manchester warns us, early on, about the use of fake names (p. 19):

My task would have been easier and more comprehensible to the reader if it was possible to disclose everything in its entirety, but there must be limitations where confidences are involved and I have to omit using names in full where requested.

The smoking gun to the falsity of Luisa's name appears on pp. 45-46:

Among the many people who contacted me as a direct result of this public pronouncement was the sister of a beautiful twenty-two-year-old woman, whom I shall call Luisa.

The attempt to preserve her anonymity is somewhat tempered by photographic depictions of her. Thus, on page 30, she appears seemingly naked from behind, arms outstretched to the ceiling and captioned:

This remarkable picture shows Luisa somnambulating in the dark hours at her Highgate flat

On page 31, she is shown standing amidst some rubble at Highgate Cemetery:

Luisa points to the spot where her sleep-walk ended - before the large iron door which could not be opened but beyond which lay three empty coffins

She is also shown in sultry close up, cleavage exposed and wearing an Iron Cross around her neck on page. 32. The caption, somwhat amusingly, reads:

Luisa, beautiful and innocent as a child, who fell prey to the undead

On page 59, she is shown crouched and pointing at a pentagram drawn into the ground:

Luisa inside a protective circle cut into the ground outside the catacombs feared to be the resting-place of the vampire

She's shown standing with a group including Manchester and Reverend Pauley on page 64:

Reverend Pauley with Luisa and other participants at the purification of objects defiled by Satanists. The chalice and tabernacle can be seen on the table to the left of the picture

Her image is superimposed over the top of an 18th century themed masquerade Manchester can be seen participating in. It gives the illusion of her giant head floating in mid-air (p. 101):

Luisa's image haunted the masquerade - as certainly as some substantial body is perceived in the dark though it cannot be discerned

She gazes into the camera, in front of a tombstone (which she is quite possibly superimposed on top of) on page 141:

The last recorded photograph of Luisa

And lastly, her role was obviously so integral to the case, that a variant of the image on page 32, appears on the front cover. The title page even labels her "Luisa".

I think we can agree that the woman depicted in the photographs was quite clearly meant to be the mysterious Luisa in question.

Except for one problem: it's not her at all.

The VRS's "Luisa" page samples some text from Sean Manchester's Stray Ghosts, an unpublished memoir. Most tellingly, it reveals the following:

She is someone who has never been identified — a photographic model, and much later an actress, portrayed Lusia in representations of her in the case. This was due to the tragic outcome, and a need to preserve her identity in perpetuity.

The question is, why wasn't this bit of disclosure revealed in the original book? Why go to the lengths of "representing" a woman whose identity was meant to be a secret?

And most importantly, why was the model/actress repeatedly labelled "Luisa" if it wasn't actually her?

Talk about deceptive.

However, readers, it looks like Manchester has dispensed with the notion of preverving her identity in "perpetuity".

In his "Luisa" entry for Metaphysical Meanderings, he reproduces an oil painting her made of her "from memory" as well as a photograph of the real-Luisa-deal:

Lusia has never been identified by her real name and, until now, a photograph at the time of my knowing her has not been published. Sufficient decades have perhaps passed to permit one.