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“Much has been written about the strange happenings in and around Highgate Cemetery. Happenings that are said to have taken place in the late sixties, early seventies … We feel that the subject of vampires should be treated seriously. And that is why we were delighted about the publication of another, less sensational, more factual, account of the Highgate happenings. David Farrant is the President of the British Psychic and Occult Society. He has been investigating the phenomena in Highgate Cemetery from the very beginning. He has written and published a short but interesting book called Beyond the Highgate Vampire in which he gives us his own views and findings on the case. I was pleased to find that, unlike ‘the other book’, David Farrant's account of the happenings in and around Highgate Cemetery is not based on fantasy, but on facts. … Fortunately, David Farrant is more serious and intelligent in his approach to the Highgate happenings. David Farrant is simply giving us the facts, offering no easy explanations, and obviously expecting us to draw our own conclusions. Which, of course, is the way it should be.”
~ Review of Beyond the Highgate Vampire by Rob Brautigam (edited version) from his Amsterdam-based website in Holland.
Perhaps we should examine what Rob Brautigam (seen pictured, above, alongside Seán Manchester in Highgate Cemetery in 1991) has to say, step by step? Much has been written about the Highgate Vampire case, but it is mostly derivative of Seán Manchester’s published account which even Brautigam once described as the “truly magnificent The Highgate Vampire … a masterpiece of vamirography.” He continued: “I have been rereading the book ever since I got it. And I am impatiently looking forward to the moment when the revised edition will be on the market.” (Correspondence from Rob Brautigam, 22 August 1990).
When the Gothic Press edition was published some months later, Brautigam enthusiastically sang its praises in his home spun magazine International Vampire and indeed elsewhere. By this time he had made contact with Kevin Demant of London who also admired the same author’s work. They described themselves at this time as “fans of Seán Manchester.” Until, that is, they met up with Farrant and what they thought was someone more accessible who was also involved in the happenings at Highgate.
Brautigam’s exchanges with Seán Manchester ended abruptly on 20 December 1992 with confirmation that he had entered into a correspondence with Farrant, while also giving the impression that this contact was now over. “As to my brief correspondence with Farrant,” wrote Brautigam, “you can start breathing again, for there is no point now in continuing it any longer. … I still admire you as a most gifted writer, and nothing can ever change that. I will continue to think of it as a privilege that I have had the pleasure of meeting you and corresponding with you.” (Correspondence from Rob Brautigam, 20 December 1992).
Seán Manchester continued to write for a while longer, but gained no response and did not hear from Brautigam ever again.
The subject of vampires should be treated seriously, but does Farrant treat it seriously in his pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire? Let us take a look at what Farrant has to say about the night of his arrest (17 August 1970) in Highgate Cemetery:
"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) being to seek out and destroy the legendary vampire that had its lair in the Cemetery. During this process, the Prosecution claimed, coffins would have had to be opened to look for the vampire. Basically, of course, in principle some of this may have been correct, but, due to my reluctance to give details of the séance realising that these would never be understood because of their occult connotations, and 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 ‘stake’ but the other objects I had been carrying had mysteriously ‘disappeared’ and so had not been produced in evidence. … Ignorance and superstitious assumption ~ and almost certainly a desire to produce a scapegoat for all the desecration at Highgate Cemetery ~ had done the rest. … the police had brought the case to court in the first place and introduced throughout outrageous statements about ‘staking vampires through the heart’ attributed to myself which had no relation to the facts … I had been reduced to some modern-day Van Helsing-type vampire hunter."
The police had been keeping a vigil at Highgate Cemetery. Why was only Farrant discovered on the night of 17 August 1970? Why did the police only produce in evidence a wooden stake and Christian cross? Could it be that Farrant alone entered the graveyard with just a cross and stake? Could it also be that no occult accoutrements were discovered by the police because there were none to find? Would the police have invented the vampire hunting story and insert it into Farrant’s statement which was read out in court? This is what Farrant is now claiming. He also claims in his pamphlet that he was holding a séance in Highgate Cemetery on the night of 17 August 1970, and that he was not vampire hunting with a cross and stake. Can we believe him?
Farrant reconstructed the events of that night for a BBC interview in October 1970. What viewers saw was a reconstructed vampire hunt with Farrant wearing a Catholic rosary, holding a Christian cross and brandishing a wooden stake. It was reshown by BBC Choice in May 1999 much to Farrant’s chagrin because throughout that decade he had been proclaiming that he had not been vampire hunting. His pamphlet tells of casting a “magical [sic] Circle” and using the pointed stake for this purpose only. However, take a look at an extract from the BBC reconstruction in 1970, and, as Brautigam advises, draw your own conclusions.
The accompanying interview with Farrant went as follows:
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.”
Yet Farrant now protests that he does not believe in traditional vampires, never did, and did not hunt one in Highgate Cemetery in August 1970 with a cross and stake. Can we take him seriously? Well, not really. The evidence says something entirely different.
Brautigam states that Farrant has been “investigating the phenomena in Highgate Cemetery from the very beginning.” Is this true? Well, no. Farrant was residing in France and Spain when the phenomenon first reared its head in early 1967. Newspaper reports, court records, and various interviews on tape at the time, confirm that Farrant first learned about the rumoured vampire whilst drinking in pubs in early 1970. He claims to have seen it himself around this time, and wrote the following to a newspaper:
"Some nights I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery. On three occasions I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swains Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. I saw a grey figure for a few seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared long enough for me to see it much more clearly, and now I can think of no other explanation than this apparition being supernatural. I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."
~ David Farrant’s published letter to the editor, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970.
Farrant wrote to Seán Manchester prior to his arrest in August 1970 and also during his remand in Brixton Prison. What he wrote is completely at odds with his later claims and certainly supports the recorded facts at the time, ie that he was a lone vampire hunter with no connection to the British Occult Society investigation into phenomena at Highgate Cemetery.
In June 2003, on a message board managed by Gareth Davies, Farrant apparently welcomed his prison correspondence being published. The actual words were that he "would be delighted that such documentation enters the public domain." Under discussion was his 1970 prison correspondence to Seán Manchester. Perhaps he had forgotten just how damaging these documents would be in the light of what is claimed in Beyond the Highgate Vampire because he was taken at his word and the documents were put in the public domain (on the MSN group board for BOS archive material) at the beginning of 2004. Someone complained on his behalf, describing the release of these documents as a “copyright violation.” Hence, due to a malicious complaint to MSN, the managers of that board were forced to remove, under threat of closure, Farrant’s correspondence to Seán Manchester and, incredibly, two photographs that are the sole copyright of Seán Manchester and had appeared with his consent.
The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, carried a full report on its front page. “The mysterious death of foxes in Highgate Cemetery was this week linked with the theory that a ghost seen in the area might be a vampire. Mr David Farrant, 24, who reported seeing a ghost last month, returned to the spot last weekend and discovered a dead fox. ‘Several other foxes have also been found dead in the cemetery,’ he said at his home in Priestwood Mansions, Archway Road, Highgate. ‘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. Should this be so, I for one am prepared to pursue it, taking whatever means might be necessary so that we can all rest.’
“The vampire theory was suggested last week by Mr Seán Manchester, 25-year-old president of the British Occult Society. … Mr Farrant and Mr Manchester met in the cemetery at the weekend. They are pictured [above], Mr Farrant pointing out the spot where he saw a spectre and Mr Manchester with prayer book in hand. Mr Manchester, when told about the dead foxes, said: ‘These incidents are just more inexplicable events that seem to compliment my theory about a vampire’.”
The above photograph was first published on page 16 of Seán Manchester’s The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook (Gothic Press, 1997), and shows Farrant holding “a stake to plunge through the heart” of the vampire and “a cross made from two bits of wood tied together with a shoelace.” The picture was taken prior to his collaboration with journalist Barrie Simmons in October 1970. Simmons joined Farrant for a “midnight date with Highgate’s Vampire.” The journalist featured his meeting in an article accompanied by a selection of photographs (showing Farrant stalking a vampire) in the London Evening News,
“I joined a macabre hunt among the desecrated graves and tombs for the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. … David, 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. David stalked among the vaults, past the graves, in the bushes and by the walls. When he had finished he started stalking all over again.”
These antics led to five columns of publicity, including a half-page feature of photographs, but little else. Farrant was something of a novice when it came to vampire hunting, but Simmons’ article attests to the fact that, albeit amateurishly, Farrant engaged in such behaviour. Today he claims that he did not, as confirmed in his pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire and elsewhere.
In the Hendon Times, 25 September 2003, for example, Farrant protests: “I get so fed up with the whole thing being misrepresented and I wanted to set the record straight. I don't accept the existence of vampires. There has been so much interest in the Highgate case, when I was arrested in Highgate Cemetery for vampire hunting. In fact, it was a completely different matter.” Was it a different matter? If he cannot be trusted on something as fundamental as this, how can he be trusted at all?
However, Rob Brautigam regards Farrant’s account as being “more factual” and more “serious” than the account given by the person who led the investigation into the Highgate Vampire case from beginning to end and whose own account, moreover, won the support of accredited authors, scholars and respected researchers such as Dr Devendra P Varma and Peter Underwood. Not too many people, of course, agree with Brautigam’s verdict, and a sample of opposing reviews found on Amazon now follow:
“He is saying, some quarter of a century and more after the event itself, that, on the night of his arrest in Highgate Cemetery in August 1970, he was not vampire hunting with a cross and stake at all, but was merely in the business of measuring out a circle. Quite why this latter-day piece of revisionism is proffered when he reconstructed the events of that night for a BBC interview in October 1970 is difficult to understand. That interview, complete with its reconstructed vampire hunt, was reshown by BBC Choice in May 1999. The filmed evidence fails to corroborate what is now being alleged in Beyond the Highgate Vampire, and the reader must ask whether there is any point in continuing with the charade. Paucity of content makes the exercise somewhat academic because only a few minutes are required to read this home-produced publication from cover to cover. So why bother?”
“Having read Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire (Gothic Press, 1991), which I found to be the best written and most informative book on the subject I have ever set eyes on, I did not know what to expect from Beyond the Highgate Vampire. Barely a dozen pages deal with the matter of the Highgate Vampire in this very small, stapled booklet. The remainder consists of mostly the author's peripatetic meanderings and treatise on his own peculiar brand of witchcraft. Anyone looking for an insight into the Highgate Vampire case will be in for a monumental disappointment. It is only worth reading as an oddball perspective for those with monomaniacal interest.”
“How can this flimsy leaflet begin to be described as a ‘book’ when it comprises a couple of dozen or so poorly printed pages with two staples holding it together? Then there is the matter of copyright theft. Some text and pictures are clearly stolen without any credit given to the copyright owners (not that consent would be granted). The source of some of the stolen material is Seán Manchester's excellent The Highgate Vampire, which is still in print as a quality hardcover edition, and no doubt selling well.”
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