True Life Tuesday: The Highgate Vampire

On October 31, 1968 a group of young people visited Highgate Cemetery in London. The group vandalized the cemetery. The identities and motives of the group were never determined but most felt that they were interested in the occult and black magic. On February 6, 1970 a local man, David Farrant, wrote a letter to the Hampstead and Highgate Express stating that when he was passing the cemetery on December 24, 1969 he saw a gray figure he believed to be supernatural. He asked if others had seen something similar. By February 13th many people reported the they had seen many ghosts in the cemetery and adjoining Swain's Lake. The ghosts were described as a tall man in a hat, a cyclist, a woman in white, bells ringing and voices. 

One media report said that Farrant's was a vampire and the media ran with the story. On Friday March 13, 1970 an exorcism at the cemetery was broadcast on ITV. Mobs of "hunters" swarmed the walls and gates of the cemetery. On August 1, 1970 the charred and headless remains of a woman were found need a catacomb in the cemetery. The media reported that this was the work of local Satanists. In July 1974 Farrant was jailed for 4 years and 8 months for damaging memorials interfering with human remains. He blamed these on Satanists and said that he was innocent. He spent the rest of his life profiting off the story until he died in April 2019.