Dateline: Seattle, May 2016 -Trouble
In 1969, late one afternoon as darkness settled on Highgate cemetery, a witness wanted to leave but lost his way. It seemed he walked in circles looking for the entrance. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His senses heightened and he knew he was being watched.
Damn! Well, King of the damned, maybe.
He turned toward the lurking presence and there only six feet from him was a dark shadow hovering above the ground. His energy drained, his face grew pail and he was transfixed. A magical energy hypnotized him and he become unconscious for several minutes. As suddenly as it began, it was over and the witness was released from his trance.
Later the witness said that the presence was evil. It sought him out and drained him of his energy…sucking the life from him.
Not much later, another woman witnessed a ‘tall dark man’ floating at her from within the cemetery gates. Her dog howled and whimpered at the presence. Glaring eyes stared at her. She felt the presence of evil. She was paralyzed while the entity drainer her of all her energy. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared. He was dressed in Victorian formal attire.
Sounds to me like an Energy Vampire. Never heard of it? They don’t suck your blood, they steal your energy!
The British Psychic and Occult Society began to investigate as word spread like wildfire that Highgate Cemetery had a ghost. Interesting enough these same sightings ran all the way back to the Victorian Era. Most hinted at the idea of vampire presence, evil in stature. There is even speculation that Stoker was influenced by these stories because he makes an indirect reference to Highgate Cemetery. The fact that the same presence, down to the Victorian clothing, was being sighted with one hundred years between them gave the Society suspicions that the ghost might be of something more sinister. A vampire perhaps?
The tales drew in ghost-hunters David Farrant and Sean Manchester who run the British Psychic and Occult Society. David Farrant said he was one of the first to see the vampire ghost in 1969.
Manchester declared the cemetery was haunted by Dracula and suddenly the cemetery was over-run on the evening of Friday 13th in March, 1970 by a mob of vampire hunters.
It is rumored that a “vampire coffin” was transferred to Highgate Cemetery containing a nobleman
that practiced witchcraft. And what was perceived as a Satanic ritual at midnight was being performed around his grave one night by a hooded person. Soon after, the ghost of the tall vampire was seen around Highgate.
To this day, there are tales of a Vampire-like ghost that haunts the cemetery. Highgate is by far one of the most famous eternal resting places in the world. I’ve been to the UK several times, but never had the pleasure of touring the cemetery myself. Make no mistake, the next time I am in town, I have a date, after dark with the King of the damned myself.
Dracula…come find me.
-Trouble
