When a "Vampire" is Not a Vampire

"I love vampires, and know a handful both in mortal life and spirits."

The Vampyre Society claimed to be "a private and exclusive Society of real vampires and their disciples. They sought others like them and those few who desire to "become like us," adding: "vampirism is not a cult of death but one of life and overcoming death. To live forever and to never die." Elsewhere it declares: "We are not psychic vampires, sanguinary vampires (blood-drinkers), 'lifestyle vampires,' or those who use the persona of the vampire as a spiritual tradition, or as a mask or path to personal power. We are vampires." And: "Although immortal, vampires are still human and have a respect for life. They are not murderers or the criminally insane who prey upon the living. No one loves life and shuns death more than vampires." They frequently quote from works of fiction, fantasy and, unsurprisingly, the Satanist Aleister Crowley, but these people are not any of the things they claim to be. They are not immortal. They are not vampires. They are, in essence, vampiroids.

Vampiroids are not vampires. Some actually believe themselves to be vampires. They are not. How could they be when the definition of a vampire, upon examination, is revealed to be a dead body that issues forth from its tomb in the night to quaff the warm blood of the living, whereby it is nourished and preserved? Vampiroids, therefore, cannot be re-animated corpses with an awful supernatural existence beyond the grave. People who either believe themselves to be vampires, or want to become vampires and affect what they construe to be vampiristic lifestyles, even when this is taken to extremes, are invariably vampiroids. But it is not even as simple as that because there are various categories of vampiroid, ranging from harmless poseurs to dangerous psychopaths. The former may be benign, but the latter are capable of murder. Thus the vampiroid is not a supernatural being, but a human who embraces what he or she assumes to be a lifestyle commensurate with vampirism as largely depicted in fictional films and literature. Whereas the true vampire partakes of the dark natures and possesses the terrible qualities of both apparition and demon, assuming the form of a dead body to suck the blood of the living. Vampiroids identify with the imagery of the vampire and become totally seduced by its mythology, having almost no regard for what is fact and what is fantasy. The more extreme examples of vampiroidism, known as ultra-vampiroids, have no problem with the fact that in reality vampires are biocidal and destroy all life-forms. Hence, within the supra-individual level of the psyche, they respond utterly to the vampire archetype.

Despite the very high percentage of relatively harmless poseurs in most vampiroid clubs, there can nevertheless occasionally be found a small number of extreme types. These can vary in levels of psychotic behaviour from proto-vampiroids, eg the UK’s David Austen, a self-confessed Satanist and sexual deviant of many years, to ultra-vampiroids like America’s Rod Ferrell, who committed two gruesome murders and was on death row. Both have belonged to vampiroid clubs.

By no means are all vampiroids enmeshed in diabolism and murder. In fact, the majority are definitely not. However, the clubs produce literature that feeds certain beliefs and obsessions. These undoubtedly compromise the dynamics of any benign vampiroid philosophy, such as it can be deduced from those within these groups. The crude and splenetic expression of their views points to an irrational pathological prejudice rather than a coherent philosophy. Some of this prejudice is similar to malefic occultism with an anti-Christian bias. Personality problems obviously play a part in the opinions expressed by many, but vampiroidism per se is no freak display of Gothic Romanticism at its most decadent. It is, in fact, anti-Gothic and anti-Romantic. At its cutting edge its raw materials are concepts usually allied to destructive beliefs and an acute ethnocentric identification with the archetype in forms that are mostly allegorical.

Anti-social behaviour is nonetheless evinced in acts of blood-letting and mutilation, blood-drinking and, occasionally, profanity towards sacred things, especially Christian images. Tribalism and morbidity play an enormous role, despite the fact that most vampiroids are frequently found to be introverted loners. It is the epiphenomenon of the vampiroid cult and spans a quite wide spectrum, but the fundamental ingredients of blood, death, fear and evil remain constant. However, even mimetic-vampiroids frequently evince narcissistic personality disorders as well as schizotypal disorders. These relatively harmless representatives of the subculture display imitative “vampire” behaviour indicative of theatrical posturing, eg Carole Bohanan, ex-president of the now defunct UK Vampyre Society (see image at the top of the page) that was based in Croydon. Ultra-vampiroids, thankfully very much fewer in number than their mimetic counterparts at the other end of the spectrum, often belong to extremist sects who espouse diabolism and vary in their degree of fanaticism. Rod Ferrell convinced several teenagers to drink his blood and join a vampiroid group in Florida, USA. “On the night of 26th November 1996, after hours of devil worshipping and drinking each other’s blood, five members of the cult ~ including Heather [Wendorf] and Ferrell ~ drove to her parents’ house in Eustis, Florida. … Ferrell bludgeoned her parents to death. … Detectives raided her bedroom and found drawings of demons, a video of Interview with the Vampire and handwritten letters revealing how she loved to drink blood before sex. In one she told a friend that Ferrell was her saviour.” (The Sun, 5th March 1998).

Vampiroid leaders such as Ferrell are extremely controlling and, in the view of many, evil. Judge Jerry Locket, sentencing Ferrell to die in the electric chair, told him: “There is genuine evil in the world. There is a dark side and a light side competing in each of us and there is little doubt on which side you went.” A UK example of ultra-vampiroidism would be the vampiroid cult leader Wayne Phelps of Dorset who lured and defiled schoolgirls across Britain in satanic ceremonies. He made his members sign “death pacts” where they swore upon their own blood to sacrifice their own lives, if need be, for the cult. Phelps “slashed a rusty razor blade into his own chest [imitating Stoker’s Count Dracula] - then forced a 15-year-old sex slave to feed on his blood. As crazed followers bowed at his feet and clapped with joy the twisted devil worshipper brutally thrust his schoolgirl victim’s lips deep into the gushing wound, in the shape of an inverted crucifix.” (News of the World, 17th November 1996).

Anton LaVey: founder of the Church of Satan

To make this vampiroidic spectrum more comprehensible certain specialist terms need to be understood:

Aetiology: the study of the causes of illnesses and diseases, including vampiroidism.

Anomie: an acute sense of meaningless and loss of identity usually precipitated by personal upheavals.

Archetype: a symbol or myth whose affective power lies in the resonance it has within the supra-individual level of the psyche. Vampiroids respond to the vampire ethos.

Biocidal: tending to the destruction of all life-forms, human or non-human. The vampire is biocidal.

Diachronic: analysing phenomena, including vampiroidism, in a way which represents their chronological development and historical particularity.

Epiphenomenon: the side product of a more fundamental reality.

Ethnocentrism: placing one’s own kind at the centre of all value judgements.

Faustian: expressing the myth of Faust who was driven to make a pact with the devil in order to transcend ordinary human experience. Vampiroids are exceptionally Faustian.

Fissiparous: tending constantly to divide up into smaller groups. Most vampiroid clubs have shown this tendency which has resulted in a proliferation of mainly small groups, rather than a monolithic force.

Immanentisation: making something into an intrinsic part of historical time. Vampiroidism is largely an international phenomenon of the last dozen or so years. They feel that now is their time.

Mimetic-Vampiroidism: purely imitative vampire behaviour, usually based on fantasy exploitation films etc.

Para-Vampiroidism: a form of vampiroidism that adopts the external trappings of the cult while rejecting its ethnocentric pathology as evinced in diabolism and blood-drinking.

Philo-Vampiroidism: predisposed to become a fellow-traveller or supporter of the vampiroid subculture.

Proto-Vampiroidism: a form of paligenetic ultra-vampiroidism that lacks any subtlety whatsoever.

Ultra-Vampiroidism: a form incompatible with mimetic and para-vampiroidism that is highly dangerous.

Little can be learned by studying the propaganda of vampiroid literature because, like its diabolical counterpart, it misrepresents the facts and offers false promises. Claims made by such groups are frequently absurd, but it is on such absurdities that they rely to attract members to their cult. Some might initially feel a sense of “belonging” and “purpose” when they enter these groups, but it does not last, just as the groups themselves do not last but break-up and proliferate with the exception of a tiny handful.

Vampiroid Syndrome and Ultra-Vampiroidism are each afforded a chapter in The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook. There is also a chapter in The Highgate Vampire titled Vampires, Vampiroids and Satanists. 

Marilyn Manson

On 7th June 2000 the small Italian town of Chiavenna was rocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder in one of its quiet back lanes. The blood-soaked victim, who had been struck with rocks and smashed against a wall before being stabbed nineteen times, was later identified as Sister Maria Laura, the much-loved Mother Superior of the local convent. The brutality of the killing shocked townspeople, and attracted widespread media attention: and with no obvious motive for the murder, rumours soon started to fly. Satanic signs and slogans were found nearby and the killing was blamed on devil worshippers striking a blow against the Catholic Church. However, on 28th June 2000 three popular teenage girls were arrested. They were vampiroidic fans of the depraved “entertainer” Marilyn Manson, a member of the Church of Satan, whose lyrics are too blasphemous, hate-filled and obscene to quote here. At first the girls’ attitude was arrogant and cold. They refused to speak to the police. But when they eventually began to speak it became apparent that their appalling crime was a premeditated act. Milena, one of the girls, admitted that they had met outside the church one night and cut their hands, drinking the blood while they pledged an oath of eternal loyalty to each other. “We decided to go for a nun,” Veronica, another of the three girls, told her interrogators, “because she was the opposite of us. We believe in Satan.” The third girl is named Ambra. They beat the nun into unconsciousness with a tile and by beating her head against a stone wall. When that failed, they took out knives and stabbed her to death. But throughout her ordeal, Sister Maria Laura had prayed for her attackers, and promised them that God would forgive them even as she did herself. Armed with these confessions, the carabinieri searched the girls’ homes and found diaries testifying to their obsession with Satanism, and with the lyrics of the degenerate performer and singer Marilyn Manson who cashed-in on the tragedy when touring Italy in February 2001. Manson said: “If having your own opinion makes you evil, then I am evil. … All I say is don’t feel guilty for having emotions like lust, greed and hate - because you are going to have them.” On 9th August 2001 Ambra had the case against her dismissed on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and was sentenced to three years’ rehabilitation. The other two girls, Milena and Veronica, were found guilty of first degree murder and were each sentenced to eight years and six months. There is a move in Chiavenna to have Sister Maria Laura, who had taught in the town for more than thirty years, beatified.

Manuela Ruda                  Daniel Ruda

A German woman accused of taking part in the ritual killing of a friend says she became a Satanist in Britain. Manuela Ruda and her husband Daniel Ruda were tried for the murder of former workmate Frank Hackert at their flat in Witten, Germany. They say they killed him on orders from the Devil. She told a court in Bochum, Germany, that she got a taste for vampirism and the occult while in London and Scotland. German police said that any evidence pointing to other possible crimes or a satanic ring in Britain will be sent to the relevant authorities. Mr Hackert, who was 33, was hacked to death with a machete before his head was crushed with a sledgehammer. He had sixty-six knife wounds to his body. They then carved a satanic pentagram into the victim’s stomach and dumped his body in a silk-lined oak coffin which Manuela usually slept in. They also slit Mr Hackert’s veins to drink his blood. When police broke into the flat, they found the body beneath a banner saying, “Satan lives.” They also found imitation human skulls, and, of course, the coffin. Born into a working class family, Manuela dropped out of school at fourteen and later tried to kill herself with an overdose. She said she had been introduced to ultra-vampiroidism while working at a club in north London. On her return to Germany, she started to mix with people who frequented graveyards at night. “We’d have a perfectly normal chat and drink some blood,” she said.

Manuela, 23, whose head was partly shaven to reveal tattoos of an upside down crucifix and a target, told the court about drinking blood from volunteers contacted via the internet. She said: "I was in England and Scotland, met people and vampires [sic] in London. We went out at night, to cemeteries, in ruins and in the woods. We drank blood together, from willing donors. I had implanted pegs put in - the teeth which were pulled out were replaced with fangs. I also slept on graves and even allowed myself to be buried in a grave to test the feeling. I signed over my soul to Satan two-and-a-half years ago." The couple denied responsibility for killing Mr Hackert in July 2001, on the grounds that Satan had influenced their actions, although they both admitted to carrying out the gruesome act itself.

The couple showed no remorse in court and provoked outrage by rolling their eyes maniacally, making gestures, and grinning at journalists. As sentence was passed on 31st January 2002, in the court at Bochum, near Dusseldorf, the pair laughed aloud, casting mocking glances at their victim’s tearful mother. Daniel, 26, was ordered to be incarcerated for fifteen years and Manuela for thirteen years in secure mental prisons. This is the second big Satanism case in Germany in recent times. One of the couple’s idols is Hendrik Moebus, who in 1993, aged 17, strangled a classmate because he was “bothering” Moebus’ group, the Children of Satan. Experts estimate that 7,000 people, the majority adolescents, engage in satanic rituals in Germany. However, many more do so in the UK and USA.

In 2002, 17-year-old art student Mathew Hardman sent ripples of revulsion through society for the horrific murder of 90-year-old widow Mabel Leyshon in Wales, United Kingdom. Obsessed with vampires, the teenager cut out his victim’s heart and drank her blood from a saucepan, in a bizarre bid to become an undead. This disgusting act of ultra-vampiroidism shocked the quiet Welsh community in which it occurred.

Sinister cults attract people from every belief system and from all social classes. No group is immune. Most cults have arisen since the late 1960s. Since the 1980s, however, vampiroid cults have flourished and continue to do so. Many hundreds of people have been lured by their false promises of fulfilliment. The reality is emptiness, isolation, manipulation, discord, lies and hatred. Cult members undergo a profound change. Family and friends witness a change for the worse, but cult victims are programmed to feel good about the change. They are no longer able to critically evaluate to the degree that was possible prior to recruitment into their new lifestyle. Tell-tale signs may include sudden drastic personality transformations; appearing distant (as trance states are common); seeming detached; being withdrawn and secretive; appearing to be cold or emotionless to family and friends; physical deterioration and a loss of critical ability.