The Highgate Vampire

“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, the president of the Vampire Research Society knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire which is probably the most remarkable contemporary account of vampiric activity and infestation ~ and cure. Can such things as vampires really exist? The evidence seems to be overwhelming and the author [of The Highgate Vampire book] is to be congratulated on his knowledgeable and lucid account of the case which is likely to become one of the classic works on this interesting and mystifying subject.”

~ Peter Underwood, President of the Ghost Club Society, Life-Member of the Vampire Research Society, highly respected paranormal investigator and author of over fifty books about the supernatural.

In 1990, Peter Underwood retold the events of the Highgate Vampire case (up to the first discovery of the suspect tomb in Highgate Cemetery) in his book Exorcism! He commented in chapter six: “The Hon Ralph Shirley told me in the 1940s that he had studied the subject in some depth, sifted through the evidence and concluded that vampirism was by no means as dead as many people supposed; more likely, he thought, the facts were concealed. … My old friend Montague Summers has, to his own satisfaction, at least, traced back ‘the dark tradition of the vampire’ until it is ‘lost amid the ages of a dateless antiquity’.”

In his anthology, The Vampire's Bedside Companion (1975) which contains a chapter with photographic evidence from the Vampire Research Society, written and contributed by Bishop Seán Manchester, Peter Underwood wrote: “Alleged sightings of a vampire-like creature ~ a grey spectre ~ lurking among the graves and tombstones have resulted in many vampire hunts. … In 1968, I heard first-hand evidence of such a sighting and my informant maintained that he and his companion had secreted themselves in one of the vaults and watched a dark figure flit among the catacombs and disappear into a huge vault from which the vampire … did not reappear. Subsequent search revealed no trace inside the vault but I was told that a trail of drops of blood stopped at an area of massive coffins which could have hidden a dozen vampires.” And probably did! In the previous year, two schoolgirls had reported seeing the spectre rise from its tomb. One of these would eventually be interviewed by Bishop Seán Manchester. The case of the Highgate Vampire was about to open.

Bishop Manchester, then as now, held fast to traditional Christianity, having also studied the paranormal and the occult. During the 1970s and 1980s he sometimes operated covertly within occult circles to gain first-hand intelligence. This much became apparent in 1988 with the publication of From Satan To Christ and in 1997 it was again confirmed in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook.

The reason why Bishop Seán Manchester initially wrote his bestselling book (The Highgate Vampire) was due to so many people contacting him to ask what really happened. Letters ran into hundreds, and this accumulated following the commission from Peter Underwood and his publisher, Leslie Frewin Books, to give an account of events up to and including the failed exorcism of August 1970. Bishop Manchester thought this might stem the flow, but the case itself was not yet solved, and reports of unsavoury incidents continued to filter into the columns of local newspapers. Hence the complete and unexpurgated account first published in 1985. A more intimate account was given in a special edition published by Gothic Press in 1991 where the rear fly on the dust jacket states:

“[The author] recognises the immense public interest in the Highgate Vampire case which is why he has written the present volume as a final comment on what, in his own words, is ‘hopefully the last frenzied flutterings of a force so dight with fearful fascination that even legend could not contain it’.”

It was never Bishop Manchester's intention to try and convince anyone of the existence of the supernatural; yet still he receives correspondence asking him to do precisely that. Nor was it his wish to stimulate undue interest in these matters; though he accepts this has been an unintended consequence. By writing a comprehensive recounting of those events surrounding the mystery, he merely sought to provide a record of his unearthly experience for those who wanted to read about it.

In the wake of his book, and personal appearances where he discussed its contents, some individuals were not slow to engage in shameless exploitation of his work. The majority of enthusiastic readers of Bishop Seán Manchester's work, however, have shown immense empathy and encouragement.