In the Shadow of the Highgate Vampire

Foreword

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"Firstly, can I just say (as I have said many times before), I do not really 'believe' in anything."

- David Farrant (James Randi Forum, Thursday, 12 April 2007)

Introduction

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David Farrant wearing his anti-Christian "Bishop Bonkers" T-shirt.

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The subject of this blog is a man called David Farrant. Few will have heard anything about him unless they have a particular interest in the dark side of human existence where vampires and demons dwell, and can remember a time when his scandals hit the headlines in England. Beyond brief moments of infamy in newspapers, and latterly other people’s books, he will probably not be recollected. However, nobody is more willing to publicise his notoriety than himself. An example is the following which he posted on his own internet message board on 6 April 2007:

“Rev Christopher Neil-Smith was called into Wormwood Scrubs Prison in November 1974 after a man sharing a cell with me and one other became convinced that he had become possessed after we had conducted a séance in the cell one night. He would wake up screaming in the cell and swore that some 'evil spirit' had entered him. Naturally, as I was in there for allegedly conducting 'witchcraft ceremonies' in Highgate Cemetery, I was held to blame for his condition. He was moved out of the cell, but the next thing I heard was that the Rev Neil-Smith had been called in to 'exorcise' him in the prison chapel. A 'trustee' was present and I got the full story. The prison governor was present, the prison chaplain and a couple of other people. During this 'exorcism', Neil-Smith violently shook this man's head and repeated several times ‘Drive out the evil powers of David Farrant!’ … This took place at the end of 1974 which was after the publication of Neil-Smith's book. I'm sure it would have been included otherwise as I doubt the Rev Neil-Smith would have forgotten it!”

Immediately one is struck by the use of “allegedly” by him in reference to witchcraft at Highgate Cemetery; something he widely publicised and wrote articles about at the time; indeed, something for which he was sentenced to a not insignificant jail term. In prison he wrote further articles about his witchcraft ceremonies in the graveyard, one such article being published in a magazine. Yet in 2007 these incidents were relegated to having been “alleged” by others to have occurred. This modus operandi of creating scandals, boasting about them for a period and then later denying their intrinsic elements, would permeate his life. First he was a vampire hunter. Then he denied ever hunting vampires. Next he was a necromancer and black magician. Then he denied engaging in necromancy and black magic. And so on. All this in the face of recorded interviews at the time where he can be heard confirming doing what he later denied. There is also television footage which gives the lie to much later revisionism.

“I was born in a large Victorian house in Highgate,” Farrant reveals, but not where or when. Such detail he obviously regards superfluous. Self-styled “pagan scholar” and Farrant collaborator, Gareth Medway, is able to shed some light on perhaps why: “David Farrant will not disclose his age, going so far as to state that ‘We don’t believe in linear time,’ but he has told me that he was initiated into Wicca by a High Priestess named Helen, in Barnet, north London, in 1964.” Medway’s comment appeared in 2002 in the sixth issue of a series of malicious tracts bearing Seán Manchester's surname in their title. Seán Manchester is someone who exposed Farrant's fraudulent behaviour as far back as 1970.

In Seán Manchester's first complete account of the Highgate case, he tendered the following opinion: “I have found not a single shred of evidence to suggest that the least of these things are true.”[1] The things about which he spoke were Farrant's self-proclaimed animal sacrifices in bizarre pseudo-occult rituals which were frequently being reported in the press in the early 1970s. Seán Manchester nevertheless became less confident in that view, and accordingly expurgated it from the 1991 edition of The Highgate Vampire. The simple fact of the matter is that he did not know how far Farrant is capable of going, or has gone. Farrant had broken the law before Seán Manchester ever met him, using two British passports - the phoney one being in the name of “Allan Aden Ellson.” To own this passport meant that he had acquired Crown property through deception by falsifying information on the application form. Had it been known at the time by the authorities, he would have been arrested and charged with the offence. Farrant was causing a lot of personal inconvenience and was clearly a sick and depraved individual. But how genuinely into the occult was he?

Two people who have known him longer than anyone else, Anthony Hill and Farrant’s first wife, Mary, are convinced that his witchcraft and occult stunts were utterly bogus, and that he is a complete fraud. Most would concur with that sentiment, but who can opine exactly how far or not he is willing to go in the pursuit of publicity?

The Sun, 21 June 1974, recorded: “The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant - she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton - said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband.”

Shortly before and following Farrant's imprisonment in 1974, Seán Manchester attempted to gain his confidence in order to discover the truth about his alleged “occult” activities. The conclusions he arrived at are published in The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook, a work that covers this area comprehensively:

“My personal view is that he has become possessed by demonic influences. His behaviour, by any standard, is extremely obsessive.” Farrant's self-styled organisation, rarely consisting of more than one or two members, Seán Manchester deduced, “did not have the same appeal [as other witchcraft groups], owing to the ‘high priest’s’ total lack of occult knowledge and contradictory statements.”[2]

From the very beginning - when most of his acquaintances knew him only as “Allan” - to the final moment Seán Manchester spoke to him,[3] Farrant, in the absence of any corroborating witness, would ridicule witches, occultists and also members of any mainstream religious faith. For him witchcraft and the occult was only a means to an end. The impression Seán Manchester gained was that Farrant actually believed none of it. Farrant saw those who took the occult and certainly the paranormal seriously as being worthy of his contempt. His raison d’être was and remains an agenda where his manufactured publicity masks insecurities that probably stem from childhood. Yet, in Seán Manchester's view, Farrant dabbling in these dangerous areas opened himself to the very thing he scorns.

“I don’t believe in the existence of the Devil,”[4] he would protest in later years when interviewed. But the Devil, of course, was more than aware of Farrant’s existence.

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Farrant in a television studio audience for BBC's "Kilroy" programme.
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Barring those journalists who will always take advantage of a free meal ticket when a compulsive publicity-seeker offers one on a plate, many who provided Farrant with succour turned out to be apologists for the infamous Satanist Aleister Crowley and were themselves looking for someone to use as ammunition against the Christian exorcist Seán Manchester.

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[1] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (British Occult Society, 1985, p80).
[2] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p55 & 87).
[3] The last brief meeting, after a gap of five years, took place at London’s Highgate Wood at dusk on 24 January 1987, as recorded in From Satan To Christ by Seán Manchester (Holy Grail, 1988, p73-74).
[4] Farrant quoted when interviewed on the Michael Cole Show (UK Living, 20 December 1998).

Hymn to Pan

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John Pope has a drink with shifty Farrant soon after meeting him in 1973.
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David Robert Donovan Farrant was born on 23 January 1946 at 34 Shepherds Hill in London. He claims 1964 as the year of his wiccan initiation, but in interviews given throughout the 1970s and 1980s he told reporters he had been initiated into witchcraft by his mother at a much younger age. The age thirteen was sometimes offered which is the age he would have been in 1959, the year of his mother’s death.

Farrant tells us he attended Preparatory School in 1955 where he did not make friends:

“After only a few days, I realised that I’d entered an altogether hostile environment; within weeks, I’d come to hate everything about the place - including most of the teachers. Most of these were ‘mindless buffoons’ trying desperately (if not largely successfully) to impound worthless drivel otherwise viewed as ‘needed intellectualism’; but the headmaster was particularly bent on applying these principles, and before long we clashed ferociously. He seemed to take exception to the fact that I couldn’t get on with the other boys, as well as my persistent inability to take any serious interest in the lessons. … he eventually wrote an outraged letter to my father (I cannot recall the exact point of contention) demanding the removal of my ‘bad influence’ from his school. I’d finally manoeuvred myself from his clutches.”

No reason is provided as to why Farrant hated everything, including teachers and pupils, about this school which was in Hendon, something he omits, apart from his obvious contempt for everything and everyone he encountered. The boarding school in Sussex was Hawkhurst Court, which he also fails to identify. Here he fared no better than before, having to “study meaningless rubbish” and “mix with brain-washed children.” He readily admits: “I ran away twice from my ‘prison’ in Sussex and was expelled again from another school.” This last school, too, remains unidentified by him. It was Thornlow in Weymouth, Dorset. One is obliged to turn to a book by Seán Manchester to discover these facts where it is revealed that “his school career ended two years after entering a private school in Weymouth at the age of thirteen. Attempts to belong to a theatre club in Hornsey ended again with his expulsion.”[1] Farrant makes no mention of the Mountview Theatre Club he joined at the age of fifteen whose director, Peter Coxhead, expelled him within no time for throwing potatoes and dustbin lids at other students.

The telling piece of information in Dark Secrets on that “bleak March day in 1959” in mid-term - while he was still at boarding school - was news of his mother’s illness. Farrant reveals how his “emotions [were] lost in a sea of indifference.” What he fails to properly explain is how he had learned witchcraft from his mother and possibly been initiated by her. After reading only ten pages, starting with chapter one, the reader is already into chapter three which begins in 1963 where in “a large secluded house in Barnet” he tries to convince the reader of his initiation “in the Old Religion of Wicca” by a silver-haired lady who was in her late forties. This was Helen who owned the Barnet house. There is no doubt that Helen existed. John Pope knew her long before he knew Farrant. Whether Helen initiated Farrant after months of instruction in her home where he professes to have “become possessed of potent occult Knowledge” is quite another matter. He claims to have entered the first degree in 1964 where he “later learned that for some reason (which I have never been able to fully understand) that I’d been regarded as some new-found ‘Avatar’ of Wicca).”

He says that “several” were present, but he does not identify anyone besides Helen. Nor does he indicate who exactly regarded him as a new avatar and why they should so regard him? An avatar, after all, is deemed to be a deity in its earthly manifestation. Farrant seriously appears to be suggesting that Helen and the group who were allegedly present at his initiation viewed him as the incarnation of some sort of “god.”

No mention is made by Farrant of him taking the second degree of initiation. We go straight from the first to the third degree in 1966, as he had “advanced considerably in my knowledge and understanding of the secret mysteries of Wicca and Magic” when he “moved into unfurnished accommodation near Highgate, north London, and soon succeeded in forming my own Wiccan Circle, or Coven. I still kept in touch with Helen (indeed, still attended most of the major gatherings at Barnet), but was fast concluding that I had learnt all Helen could teach me and that further Knowledge could only be obtained through ‘experimentation’ with the ‘forbidden’ rituals.” He had only just ceased being a teenager when he decided silvery-haired Helen could teach him no more, and then proceeds to explain “one aspect of magical practice into which I wanted to delve more thoroughly (and one to which Helen had been particularly opposed) was the highly secretive method of using sex during magical ceremonies to ‘summon up’ and communicate with powerful outside entities by using, or directing, sexual energy. … I set about these rituals with fervent determination.”

If he did it was certainly not for another seven years. Nobody knew Farrant especially well in the 1960s. He was something of a loner. Seán Manchester spoke to the majority of those who did know him, including Anthony Hill, and none of them ever heard Farrant make any mention of witchcraft or the occult. In 1966 he was already with Mary Olden whom he met in Bordeaux from where they went to Spain. Here they remained until their wedding at St Joseph’s, Highgate, where Mary gave birth three months later to the first of their two sons. Jamie and Danny are never mentioned by Farrant. This is hardly surprising considering he has not seen them since they were born. Mary denied under oath in court that Farrant and his friends had any occult involvement; something her husband claimed he and his associates had been immersed in since the mid-1960s and earlier:

“Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult.”[2]

Dark Secrets is no more than a fantasy where few truthful statements can be found. Farrant’s first job as an assistant storeman for Woolworths at the age of fifteen (he was dismissed after a fortnight) and other brief occupations he held - a hospital porter, underground train guard and labourer - are completely overlooked. Needless to say, Seán Manchester receives the customary libellous attributions from Farrant who surpasses himself at the opening to a chapter titled “Hymn to Pan” by alleging that Seán Manchester “incurred a criminal conviction for making black magic threats” when, in fact, Seán Manchester has not received a single criminal conviction (or any other kind of conviction) in his life. Indeed, it was Farrant who made the black magic threats to which he alludes. His history of doing so could fill volumes. Furthermore, Seán Manchester has alreadly chronicled this matter in at least two of his published works.[3]

It is nevertheless in “Hymn to Pan” where Farrant reveals: “As luck would have it, around this time, a Society member [John Pope] discovered a large disused mansion that proved ideal … for further ceremonies.”

Farrant had previously explained why Highgate Wood was suddenly out of bounds. John Pope felt inspired to call upon and meet Farrant after reading an article by Sue Kentish in the News of the World, 23 September 1973:

“By day, 29-year-old David Farrant is a hospital porter. But at night, he takes on a far less valuable role. … But for the results of his actions, this scruffy little witch could be laughed at. But no one can laugh at a man who admits slitting the throat of a live cat before launching a blood-smeared orgy. Or a man who has helped reduce at least two young women to frightened misery. … I found him totally besotted by witchcraft and the occult and ready to do anything in pursuit of both. Time and time again, he told me he only did what was ‘necessary,’ or ‘demanded.’ Throughout, he maintained he was a genuine witch who did not worship the devil, indulge in sexual orgies or relinquish all standards of good. But his own story, corroborated by others, proves otherwise. … With a shrug of the shoulders he admitted mercilessly pursuing grievances.”

Farrant is then quoted as boasting: “My curses have never failed, as far as I know. Situations have always righted themselves after I’ve put the curse on. Others will tell you how I reduced one man to a mental breakdown and in the end he begged me to remove the curse.”

Seán Manchester challenged Farrant to curse him and do his worst as Farrant left Barnet Magistrate’s Court in November 1972 after he had been convicted and fined for indecent behaviour in the churchyard of St Mary-the-Virgin where he had recently conducted a supposed necromantic Hallowe’en ritual with a female who just happened to be related to the local newspaper reporter who covered the story from the churchyard to the court room. The prosecution justifiably accused Farrant of informing the press and police of what he was doing as a sordid attempt to obtain publicity. Farrant did not accept Seán Manchester's challenge at first, but later changed his mind and issued threats in the national press to the effect that he intended to “raise a demon” to destroy Manchester by “killing a cat,” adding that “blood must be spilled but the animal would be anaesthetised.”[4] It did not happen. Farrant failed to deliver the curse and refused to confront Manchester in person. Seán Manchester nevertheless tried to persuade him to be exorcised, the first of many such attempts, at Easter 1973. But he was having none of it. Seán Manchester felt even back then that exorcism was the only answer in Farrant's case and issued many further invitations reaching into the next century.

The arrest of David Farrant and Victoria Jervis in November 1972.
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Farrant refers to his churchyard antics in his autobiographical account:

“I decided to conduct a ritual in the churchyard at Hallowe’en, the purpose being to see if I could ‘communicate’ with the spectre … I chose an assistant called Victoria Jervis [who] was not personally involved in ‘ghost hunting’ … her lack of experience didn’t really matter. By coincidence, her cousin was a reporter on the Barnet Press.”

Also by coincidence, she was Farrant’s girlfriend - something he did not feel worth mentioning.

“Midnight was soon marked by the chiming of the church clock, but before the chimes had died away, black-clad figures came charging out of the darkness.” These turned out to be policemen who promptly arrested the couple. “Miss Jervis was visibly shaken by the incident,” Farrant explains. It might have been just another night’s work in pursuit of self-publicity for him, but it was obviously something Victoria Jervis did not bargain for when she allowed herself to be duped into participating in this scandal. Despite her “lack of experience,” naked photographs of her supposedly engaged in occult ceremonies would later appear in New Witchcraft magazine[5] - courtesy of Farrant - by which time she had long since ditched him after recovering from a nervous breakdown. They never met again after the 1972 case.

The next major publicity stunt involved John Pope who was attracted to a derelict house where there had been talk of satanic ceremonies in previous years. It was also now confirmed to be the most significant place of demonic contagion in the Highgate case. Nobody, save those at opposite ends of the struggle between light and darkness, would enter this neo-gothic mansion which locals clamoured to have razed to the ground. It had a sinister history of dark and disturbing forces; so much so that it was eventually abandoned when it was mysteriously gutted by fire in 1971. Strange and terrible things happened in this place which was believed by many to be possessed.

Just how Pope came to hear about the house is uncertain. The local press had already featured stories about the house:

“Neighbours talk of strange goings-on at night and mysterious flickering lights in upper windows. … Investigating the reports, Journal reporter Roger Simpson and photographer Ted Stormer came across unmistakable signs in a top floor room of a witchcraft ceremony. … Residents refuse to walk past the house, which looms behind overgrown trees.”[6]

Seán Manchester, too, found those symbols when he investigated. They represented a brand of diabolism originating with Crowlianity. Just as Highgate Cemetery had attracted every type of depraved dabbler in the black arts, so, too, had this new location. Even Farrant and Pope visited the old house after reading about it in the press. Evocations to sinister forces took place in the week following publication in a local newspaper. The ceremony also caused a fire. Police arrested both participants on December 13th and they were each charged with arson, but later acquitted. In that week of sheer lunacy where demons were evoked, they attempted to follow in the footsteps of earlier diabolists who had brought something from Highgate Cemetery to the basement of the house; something predatory and demonic. Farrant’s account three decades later stretches the time scale considerably and embellishes the ceremony. Fortunately, Pope was interviewed closer to the time. What Pope reveals in his recorded interview [available on a CD titled The Black Witch Project] bears no comparison to the description offered by Farrant. “David brought along these newspaper reporters with him,” Pope explained. We also learn that “David cast a circle in a manner [that Pope was] not familiar with.”

What we discover, newspaper journalists notwithstanding, is Farrant and Pope making some sort of attempt to raise a demon using a black magic ritual. Pope, albeit already demonically oppressed, was well versed in the dark arts and occult ceremonial. Farrant might have been participating for publicity, but Pope was in deadly earnest.

Farrant (centre) with Deborah Davis and Pope at the demon-raising ritual.
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Farrant’s version of events states:

“The ritual was attempted three times; twice without success and the third time with unexpected consequences. To assist, I enlisted the help of a young magician called John Pope and a girl called Debbie - an American singer on vacation who was greatly interested in magic. … Nudity was essential as Pan was a Nature Deity and clothes hampered natural inherent forces within the body; forces that were needed unimpaired to build up psychic energy within the Circle. It was only then, shielded by protective force, that it was safe to intone the evocation, or Hymn to Pan, whereby the Deity could be summoned to appearance. If successful, He would appear in a blaze of greenish light in the form of a golden-haired wraith whose eyes radiated tremendous power and knowledge, at the same time betraying the bestial side of His nature. … On no account must any mortal meet his gaze or look upon His face. … Some of these words were so dangerous to utter that they even had to be written in code form, but under magical Law they had to be answered once spoken.”

Farrant insisted: “Nudity was essential.” Yet Pope confirms that throughout these rituals Farrant failed to disrobe. Pope was not so coy and stood completely naked throughout the ceremony.

Farrant insists Deborah Davis - a Californian blues singer who was high on cocaine - did not participate in the third ritual because she was “so petrified by the past attempt that she refused to enter the house again.” The place had an evil atmosphere which emanated from the basement - somewhere neither Pope nor Farrant ventured.

Not unlike the Hallowe’en incident at a Barnet churchyard in the previous year, “loud footsteps echoed throughout the house; as if a hoard of demons had run amok and were searching for the two intruders who had dared to defile their sanctuary. The next moment the door was flung open and half a dozen policemen surrounded the Circle. Two of them rushed to the fire and proceeded to stamp it out while another who introduced himself as Inspector John Townsend uttered the greeting ‘Good Evening, Mr Farrant’!”

How many times could Farrant keep getting away with this ploy? It would not be long before the police tired of being used to guarantee him press coverage and a raid on his cluttered flat which housed a black magic altar beneath a vampire image was only weeks away. Farrant - who had no idea what he was doing in terms of ritual magic at the derelict house - nonetheless invited a demon to take possession of him on his last attempt at the ceremony. Seán Manchester reveals in his book The Highgate Vampire that the place was contaminated with a predatory supernatural presence in its cellar and Pope understood how to raise demons. So was this the point when Farrant became possessed? Or was it earlier in 1971? The problem with the earlier incident is that we only have Farrant’s word and the word of his collaborating girlfriend; whereas the December rituals were in the presence of John Pope, Deborah Davis and newspaper reporters.

Farrant skirts around the alleged “invoking” ceremony of September 1971 at Highgate Cemetery in the account about his life which he self-published in 2001. In fact, he makes no mention of it. Closer to the time it was of prime importance; so much so, he reflected on those events from his prison cell in 1975 and wrote a rambling article which he then mailed to Brian Netscher, the editor of New Witchcraft.

It is not difficult to understand why Farrant today might find this article hugely embarrassing. At the time, he felt he had nothing to lose, having been recently sentenced to almost five years’ imprisonment. Like the derelict house ritual in mid-December 1973, this ceremony occurred at an eerie and sinister location where the Highgate phenomenon was also active. Moreover, the ritual Farrant claims to have performed is supposed to have invoked the predatory demonic entity, ie vampire, which existence in 1971 he did not question. This is what he revealed in his article:

“This ceremony performed in Highgate Cemetery finally proved beyond doubt - at least as far as most psychic investigators are concerned - that the majority of sightings and stories relating to the phenomena were true. Unfortunately, however, such proof will rarely be acceptable to the hardened sceptic; but we had at least succeeded in establishing to our satisfaction not only that the Highgate Vampire did exist, but the very nature of the phenomenon and those factors which had primarily caused its existence. Of course, while it could not be irrefutably stated that this demonic entity was the direct result of Satanic activity, it can reasonably be said that such activity was certainly the cause activating some age-old supernatural enigma.”[7]

His New Witchcraft article was accompanied by seven photographs, including Farrant in Highgate Cemetery, Farrant with a naked female before the image of a horned “deity” in his bed-sitting room and more naked females. Two photographs of Victoria Jervis appear which were used without her knowledge or consent. Similar pictures in a national newspaper - accompaning one of Farrant’s concocted witchcraft stories - badly shocked her. One of the photographs in New Witchcraft were of Farrant and Martine de Sacy naked together, apparently kissing in bed. Why this was included is difficult to comprehend, but it is the first and last time an image ever appeared of Farrant without any clothes.

Farrant’s article is so at odds with what he has subsequently stated publicly on the matter of the Highgate Vampire and his pseudo-occult activities at the graveyard in question that it deserves closer inspection. In his article he says that “Bram Stoker was influenced by the Highgate Vampire when he wrote ‘Dracula’ … written with typical Victorian authority.”[8] In the series of pamphlets that began appearing in 1991 he disclaims all belief in vampires in general and the Highgate Vampire in particular. His patronising style adopts some very familiar terms which crop up whenever he writes anything about the subject he knows so little about. For example: “For the sake of the uninitiated” and “I still remain bound by the Oaths of my Grade as High Priest not to disclose certain incantations, the names and sigils used for conjuration and banishment, and the secret form of Ritual” etc. There is a reason for non-disclosure. Farrant is clueless about the occult. There is also a reason why he makes no mention today about his New Witchcraft article.

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[1] Reference to Thornlow and Hawkhurst Court in The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (British Occult Society, 1985, p78). Repeated without naming schools in The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p109).
[2] The Sun, 21 June 1974.
[3] From Satan To Christ by Seán Manchester (Holy Grail, 1985) & The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997).
[4] Sunday Mirror, 8 April 1973.
[5] Full page photograph of a naked Victoria Jervis in New Witchcraft magazine (issue 4, 1975, p35).
[6] Hornsey Journal, 7 December 1973.
[7] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p38).
[8] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p34).

Invoking the Vampire

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While serving a four years eight months prison sentence, Farrant wrote an article for New Witchcraft magazine (issue 4), in which he states:

“In magic, blood is symbolic of the ‘life force’ or ‘spiritual energy’ which permeates the body and in this context is used in many advanced magical ceremonies. It would not be sacrilegious to compare this to the use of wine as symbolic of blood in the Catholic Communion. Accordingly, at approximately 11.45pm, I drew blood.”

His lengthy description of summoning a “satanic force” is nothing short of an open admission to his engagement in unabashed diabolism:

“We then lay in the Pentagram and began love-making, all the time visualizing the Satanic Force so that it could - temporarily - take possession of our bodies.”

Farrant skirts around the alleged “invoking” ceremony of September 1971 at Highgate Cemetery in the account about his life which he self-published in 2001. In fact, he makes no mention of it. Closer to the time it was of prime importance; so much so, he reflected on those purportedly recent events from his prison cell in 1975 and wrote a rambling article which he then mailed to Brian Netscher, the editor of New Witchcraft. Here is a facsimile of one of the pages from his article plus a published photograph in the magazine showing him and Martine de Sacy naked:

Farrant is clueless about such things and retreats into his customary mumbo jumbo in order to offer a bogus veneer. He refers to his coven of twelve which he mysteriously calls the “Secret Order of the X.” Seán Manchester investigated Farrant’s so-called “Order of the Black Moon” in the period following Farrant's release from prison. At that time Manchester made every attempt to gain Farrant's confidence. His "Order" does was shown not to exist and such photographs proffered to newspapers and occult magazines comprise of nothing more than willing dupes such as Victoria Jervis, Martine de Sacy, John Pope and whomever else he could enlist to pose before his black magic altar. His girlfriend of the moment would invariably feature as his “high priestess” which naturally always obliged her to disrobe while Farrant retained the dignity of his satin dressing-gown which doubled as his occult regalia. These young women knew less about witchcraft and the occult than did Farrant and he knew next to nothing. It made no difference because some of them quite liked the publicity. He also persuaded these females that such exposure would result in a modelling career. It never did, of course, and they soon departed elsewhere. Only Pope, considered to be deranged by some of those who have met him, takes the occult seriously. Pope, of course, is a self-proclaimed Satanist and practitioner of the black arts. He once claimed to be head of the United Temples of Satan. Pope also has a criminal conviction for sexual assault on a minor (a young boy named Blackwell). Farrant threatened the witnesses in Pope's sex case with black magic. In 1997 he appointed Pope as head of the "junior department" of the so-called "Highgate Vampire Society" created by Farrant in the same year which, like his occult society, barely had a membership beyond those two. These are factors that should be taken on board when considering his “Invoking the Vampire” article in New Witchcraft from which an excerpt follows.

“… those who had conducted these Rites were amongst the highest Adepts, for no amateur would be capable of performing the advanced Rite of conjuration … But most important here - and as I stated at that time - the fact that the Cemetery was being thus used by professional Satanists could have had a direct bearing on the frequently witnessed spectre. … It is therefore quite feasible that the Cemetery phenomenon was an evil entity that had been summoned as the direct result of a satanic ritual, or that the Satanists had succeeded in awakening the latter day vampire which had laid dormant for so long. At this stage it became apparent that our investigations could proceed no further on an academic level. I realised that the Forces we were dealing with were malignantly supernatural and so could only be treated by ‘magical’ means. Accordingly I consulted my associates in our Order and we agreed to conduct a magical ceremony whereby we could make psychic contact with the vampire. It is with a view to explaining the animosity and general misunderstanding that later followed this ceremony that I have decided to give some account of it now. Notwithstanding this, I still remain bound by the Oaths of my Grade as High Priest not to disclose certain incantations, the names and sigils used for conjuration and banishment, and the secret form of Ritual. (These are safe-guarded to protect them from misuse or ‘experimentation’ in the hands of the uninitiated).”[1]

Farrant does not explain why exactly it “became apparent” his “investigations could proceed no further on an academic level” or what his “Order” represented and why particularly a “magical ceremony” was required to make contact with the vampire. Perhaps he does not feel the need or inclination to explain such mundane things to the “uninitiated” reader of his article. The initiated of his “Order” remain anonymous. What is important is that Farrant had plenty of time to reflect on how he was going to present his beliefs, behaviour and view of the vampire phenomenon at Highgate Cemetery. He had been in custody since the beginning of 1974. These were the revelations everyone with an interest in him and his Old Bailey trials had been waiting to read. What follows, then, is his considered appraisal in his own hand:

“In September 1971, together with twelve members of the ‘Secret Order of the X’ [which Seán Manchester later learned he called the ‘Order of the Black Moon’], we met in Highgate Cemetery to conduct one of the most dangerous magical ceremonies in existence. … Such a task was by no means easy, for in magic darker forces are most potent when evoked to an earthly plane … For the sake of the uninitiated, and to allay any confusion which may arise over this point, a few words should be said here to explain the difference between White Magic and Black Magic … it should be understood that magic itself is neither ‘black’ nor ‘white’ - it is neutral. Further, magic is only a physical element through which ‘outside’ Forces may be evoked, not itself ‘active’ but only a channel through which such Forces may be brought into operation.

“We preferred the ‘communication’ ceremony of High Magic after having taken all these things and more into consideration. According to the magical requirements of this ceremony we ‘worked’ from within a specifically constructed pentogram [sic] (a five-pointed star) and constructed an adjacent (sealed) triangle in which the ‘apparition’ could appear. To the North of the Pentagram but within the Circle that enclosed it an altar was constructed on which most of the ritual objects were placed. These included a vessel of consecrated water, appropriate talismans each member would wear, ritual knives, and the sacred scrolls which contained the necessary form of Ritual. Candles and the corresponding elements of air, fire, earth and water were placed at the respective cardinal points of the Pentagram while the secret signs of evocation and names of God-forms were inscribed at strategic points on the Circle. The triangle was also ‘reinforced’ in like manner by placing a type of burning incense around it. When all was prepared the Ceremony commenced, timed so that the vital part would take place at midnight. The first part of the ceremony was dedicated to the symbolic anointing in oil of each participant [which, as far as can be ascertained, was just himself and Martine de Sacy] and the Calls and incantations necessary to summon forth the apparition. (For the annointment [sic] everyone present with the exception of the High Priest and Priestess, disrobed and remained naked throughout the Ceremony). These ‘Calls’ were made in strict accordance with the form of ritual and served two purposes: to dispel any unwanted elements which may have hindered the appearance of the demonic entity, and to open a channel of psychic force through which the entity could later materialize. When the preliminary part of the ceremony had been completed the actual evocation ritual then began. The intrinsic details regarding this part of the ceremony, however, must remain secret; suffice it is to say here that the entity (in its now omniscient form) was to be magically induced by the ritual act of blood-letting, then brought to visible appearance through use of the sex act. The act of sexual magic was in the ceremony performed by the High Priest and Priestess as being symbolic of total Unity, a ‘oneness’ of the masculine and female principles in magic and a necessary factor when an opposing Force has to be controlled. The act of blood-letting which immediately preceded this was perhaps the most crucial moment of all, for at this stage the invoked Force could now materialize aided by the ‘life-force’ symbolically released through the spilling of blood from the Priestess’s body. In magic, blood is symbolic of the ‘life-force’ or ‘spiritual energy’ which permeates the body and in this context is used in many advanced magical ceremonies. It would not be sacrilegious to compare the use of wine as symbolic of blood in the Catholic Communion. [It would be sacrilegious, however, to compare any of what Farrant is describing as remotely indicative of the Catholic Eucharist.]

“Accordingly, at approximately 11.45pm, I drew blood from the High Priestess by lightly pricking her breast. This blood was then sprinkled into the chalice into the chalice of Holy Water as a symbolic offering to a Deity.

“I now made the most important Calls with the Priestess. These summoned the Deity to our midst in a non-malignant form to ‘take over’ our bodies. When these Calls were over the Protector of the Circle (sometimes called the High Priest) continued to repeat the Holy Names of the Deity. I disrobed the Priestess and myself and, with consecrated blood, made the secret sigils of the Deity on her mouth, breast, and all the openings of her body. We then lay in the Pentagram and began love-making, all the time visualizing the Satanic Force so that it could ¯ temporarily ¯ take possession of our bodies. Suddenly the Protector was silent. The entity was present. We felt our bodies being ‘charged with Power’ and there was now a visual Force all over us.

“The Priestess then had an orgasm which lasted six to seven minutes. I too experienced orgasm during this time which lasted over a minute. (I refer to actual ejaculation not the period approaching climax). The Ritual had worked. I had many strange visions during intercourse and so did the Priestess, but these could never be explained. But most importantly, our bodies had been magically ‘offered’ and used by a tremendous outside Force which could now be materialised to visual appearance in the triangle prepared. The Priestess now lay in the Pentagram staring fixedly toward the triangle while I arose to begin the Commands of manifestation. At this stage the Pentagram turned icy cold and felt as though some ‘warm power’ had suddenly left it. The fire in the triangle was obliterated by a misty ‘smoke’ and simultaneously the candles went out. … I suddenly looked up and at the top of the hazy form I saw two eyes meeting my gaze. … When I saw and felt the tremendous Power which emanated from the two demonic eyes, I went cold and began to lose all sense of my physical being and my faculties. I couldn’t speak, though I received a clear message from some distinct ‘voice,’ and I think fear first came after this when I realized how difficult the demon would be to control, and realised we might never leave the Circle.

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“It was rather like having a vivid dream and not being able to control it though one knows the inevitable outcome. … This ceremony performed in Highgate Cemetery finally proved beyond doubt - at least as far as most psychic investigators are concerned - that the majority of sightings and stories relating to the phenomena there were true. Unfortunately, however, such proof will rarely be acceptable to the hardened sceptic; but we had at least succeeded in establishing to our own satisfaction not only that the Highgate Vampire did exist, but the very nature of the phenomenon and those factors which had primarily caused its existence. … With the usual precision of Fleet Street I became an ‘Evil High Priest of Black Magic’ while the phenomenon was again reinstated as a blood-sucking ghoul that might have escaped from some Hammer horror film. Ironically (concerning the latter) the Press Media for once may have been closer to the truth than they originally intended.”[2]

Martine de Sacy poses for Farrant at the scene of necromancy.

How much of “Invoking the Vampire” is fantasy and how much is fact? Only two people have the answer. We have read the relevant portions of Farrant’s account. Martine de Sacy, three years after the alleged ceremony in which she is supposed to have participated, featured in a major Sunday newspaper:

“Au pair Martine de Sacy has exposed the fantasy world of David Farrant, self-styled high priest of British witchcraft, for whom she posed nude in front of a tomb. Farrant was convicted last week by a jury who heard stories of Satanic rites, vampires and death-worship with girls dancing in a cemetery. Afterwards, 23-year-old Martine said: ‘David didn’t do these ridiculous things in the cemetery for sex, I assure you. He was a failure as a lover. In fact, I think his trouble was that he was seeking compensation for this. He was always after publicity and he felt that having all these girls around helped. I’m sure the night he took me to the cemetery had less to do with occultism than his craving to be the centre of something. … I don’t think David’s occultism was serious. He was just dabbling in it for the sense of self-importance. He was immature, irresponsible. I see that now’.”[3]

In Seán Manchester's view, Farrant probably managed to attract something demonic through his constant dabbling with things he clearly had little understanding in. It governed the remainder of his life and sent him on a tragic course that bore a negative influence on almost everyone who came into contact with him. Whether it happened in Highgate Cemetery when haunted in September 1971 or the derelict house possessed of evil in December 1973 is impossible to determine. Seán Manchester believes it was probably both. The description of the vampire - described by him as a “hazy form” out of which “two demonic eyes” gazed - bears no resemblance to what he originally claimed he had seen in early 1970 when interviewed on television, and is much closer to experiences described in Seán Manchester's book, eg “a shrouded thing was materialising before our astonished gaze … an evil-smelling mist [out of which protruded] yellow eyes with blood-red centres.”[4] Evidence confirms that Farrant’s original reports to his local press were bogus, of course, which makes it all the more interesting when we learn of a very different phenomenon in his article penned five years later. Did he really see the “hazy form”? Probably not.

People who knew him remarked that Farrant was not the same person after his release from prison, and would attribute this to his being in jail; not least having to share his cell with an axe murderer for some of that time. Something had certainly happened to alter him, but Seán Manchester believes it occurred prior to his arrest and incarceration, and he was by no means the only one to consider Farrant possessed. The best known exorcist at the time was the Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith. This Anglican vicar of St Saviour’s Church, Hampstead, visited the prison in question early on to “drive out the evil of David Farrant.” But, despite the priest's best efforts, the evil remained, intensified and spread.

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[1] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p36).
[2] “Invoking the Vampire” by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p36-38).
[3] “Casanova Witch A Failure As Lover” by Peter Earle, News of the World, 30 June 1974.
[4] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p136-137).

A Convenient Bandwagon

2009-02-13T04:54:00.003-08:00

Seán Manchester at Highgate Cemetery on "Today," 13 March 1970.

David Farrant was about to meet his arch-nemesis in whose shadow he would always dissolve despite every effort to cultivate a notoriety which Seán Manchester believes is undeserved (though not everyone would agree with that appraisal) because Farrant is little more than an attention-seeker trying to compensate for deep-rooted inadequacies.

Following six months in the company of Anthony Hill in 1968, Mary Farrant returned to her husband only to depart soon afterwards to take up residence with her parents in Southampton two days after giving birth to her second son in August 1969. She eventually filed for a divorce. Hill returned to his wife at their ground floor flat in Archway Road. The bizarre twist to this episode is that Farrant, now having been made homeless following his eviction from his flat just up the road from Hill, sought refuge in Anthony Hill’s coal bunker, one of several in a communal cellar. Partial to alcohol, Farrant would later be arrested and held on remand at Brixton Prison for shenanigans not entirely unrelated to his drinking. He was found by police to be in possession of a cross and a stake in Highgate Cemetery close to midnight on 17 August 1970.

A handful of months before the arrest, Farrant wrote to his local newspaper, at the behest of Hill, falsely alleging to have seen a ghostly figure some nights as he “walked home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery.” Thus he became one of a number of people Seán Manchester interviewed. Due to his arrest and accompanying claims he was also interviewed by newspaper journalists and appeared briefly on a television programme along with various other witnesses in March 1970.

Seán Manchester immediately noticed an obvious flaw in Farrant's overture to his local newspaper. It is fairly obvious that to “walk home” from any of the pubs Farrant frequented in Highgate Village and pass by the cemetery gates in Swains Lane was a physical impossibility. A map of the area confirms his cellar lodgings in Archway Road to be located in the opposite direction. Farrant, of course, was not the least bit serious when he wrote his letter of 6 February 1970 to the Hampstead & Highgate Express. It was a hoax. The exercise was nothing more than an attention-seeking prank. To that end it succeeded. These facts would years later be confirmed by the contents of an envelope pressed into the hand of Seán Manchester by Anthony Hill. The envelope contained a cassette tape whereon the voices of Hill and Farrant could be heard conspiring to concoct a counterfeit ghost story for local newspapers. Hill now wanted closure and here, finally, was the evidence in the form secretly recorded conversations made at the time.

It would appear that Farrant had discussed faking another news story with Hill who certainly showed some interest, but only up to a point. It was decided between them that they invent a story about the escape and recapture of Farrant's macaw, Oliver, now in the care of someone else due to Farrant's bunker residence being unsuitable. This was hardly original. Goldie the eagle had escaped from London Zoo in 1965, only to be later recaptured. This became a major news story at the time. Farrant believed he had found a bandwagon on which he could catch a ride. Meanwhile, Hill, unimpressed with the Oliver story, jokingly suggested a fake suicide attempt from Archway Bridge with a no less fraudulent “rescue.” This, too, was unoriginal because a piece about the actor and comedian Peter Sellers dissuading a depressed person (about to jump off Archway Bridge) from committing suicide had also made the news headlines. While Farrant was thinking about how best to go about manufacturing one or possibly both stories, he happened to hear rumours of an alleged vampire in Highgate Cemetery on his visits to the Prince of Wales and various other pubs in the vicinity.

The escaped bird and fake suicide attempt stories were immediately ditched. Farrant, helped initially by Hill, now decided to exploit the five-year-old word-of-mouth tales that had been circulating of a vampiric spectre in Swains Lane by writing a spurious letter to the editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express in early 1970, ending with the frank admission: “I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.”

Readers of the newspaper were quickly ready to confirm plenty of sightings, but it was apparent from the audio cassette transcribed covertly in December 1969 by Hill that Farrant plotted to use his friend Nava Grunberg’s address in Hampstead Lane along with a certain Kenneth Frewin’s council flat address on North Hill to write bogus letters using pseudonyms about sightings of a ghost. These fake letters are easily spotted with hindsight, and one of Farrant's collaborators - someone who did not use a nom de plume - is instantly identifiable as Frewin.

The Highgate phenomenon was nevertheless a story about to snowball. This had the unfortunate side effect of dragging Seán Manchester into the forefront of something he had hitherto decided to keep a lid on. Hence Manchester felt it incumbent upon himself to make some sort of statement in view of all the press speculation created by Farrant and others. Thus, on 27 February 1970, following batches of readers’ letters, Seán Manchester appeared on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express to summarise the findings of the British Occult Society, an organisation which investigated paranormal and occult activity. It did not make easy reading for a lot of people; especially as some of his comments were embellished by the newspaper. Two weeks later, he featured on Thames Television’s Today programme for the same purpose.

David Farrant (photographed by Anthony Hill) at Highgate Cemetery, 1970.

Farrant also made an appearance on the same programme along with several youngsters who allegedly witnessed a vampiric spectre at Highgate Cemetery. The televised report was about an alleged vampire and not a ghost even though the term "ghostly figure" was used once by Sandra Harris who, interviewing Farrant, asked: “Did you get any feelings from it? Did you feel that it was evil?” Farrant replied: “Yes, I did feel that it was evil because the last time I actually saw its face and it looked like it had been dead for a long time.” Sandra Harris asked: “What do you mean by that?” Farrant answered: “Well, I mean it certainly wasn’t human.”[1]

This was his entire contribution to the Today report on the Highgate Vampire. Like the letter to his local newspaper, Farrant employed his true nomenclature. He was captioned “David Farrant” - his real name - and made no claim to any association with (or indeed membership of) the British Occult Society. Needless to say, David Farrant (sometimes known as “Allan Farrow”) was not a member, associate or participant in the activities of the British Occult Society, which existed purely for the purpose of studying supernatural phenomena and testing occult claims. It did not countenance nor engage in witchcraft, magical ceremonies or occult rituals.

The following year found Farrant fraudulently claiming membership. The claim was immediately refuted in the media by the British Occult Society. Before long Farrant was absurdly claiming to be both “president and founder” of the British Occult Society. Disclaimers followed press reports whenever he was so described, invariably with the editor adding the prefix “self-styled.” In 1983, weary of being exposed in the press as an interloping charlatan who had hijacked the name of an extant organisation along with the title of its current president, Farrant altered the name of his non-existent “society” to the “British Psychic and Occult Society.” Nobody was fooled.

Farrant had spoken in the media about his “thousands of followers” (Hornsey Journal, 23 November 1979), and even went so far as to proffer the notion of a number as high as twenty thousand members (Finchley Press, 22 February 1980). In the same report the following appeared:

“On Monday, Seán Manchester, president of the British Occult Society, disclaimed any connection between Mr Farrant and the society. Questioning Mr Farrant’s claim to have 20,000 ‘followers,’ … Mr Manchester believes that Mr Farrant’s activities - including the libel action [which Farrant lost] - have been publicity-seeking.”
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This was Seán Manchester's assessment in early 1970 when he first made Farrant's acquaintance while interviewing witnesses to the increasingly reported Highgate Vampire. It was the same conclusion of virtually everyone. The eminent researcher Peter Underwood commented in a book published five years after Farrant had launched himself from obscurity to infamy:

“Publicity of a dubious kind has surrounded the activities of a person or persons named Farrant and his - or their - association with Highgate Cemetery. … Mr Allan Farrant was caught climbing over the wall of Highgate Cemetery carrying a wooden cross and a sharpened piece of wood. … According to the Daily Mail Allan Farrant saw ‘an apparition’ eight feet tall in the cemetery that ‘just floated along the ground’ when he was on watch one morning waiting ‘for the vampire to rise.’ He believed that there had been a vampire in Highgate Cemetery for about ten years. … Less than a month later a Mr David Farrant was guiding Barry Simmons of the London Evening News on a night-tour of Highgate Cemetery armed with a cross and wooden stake which he carried under his arm in a paper carrier bag. In fact the whole project seems to have been a somewhat dismal and depressing effect - even the cross, created from two pieces of wood, was tied together with a shoelace.”[2]

Press photographs of David Farrant brandishing his cross and stake.

Incredibly, in a home-produced, stapled pamphlet, somewhat unimaginatively titled Beyond the Highgate Vampire, self-published a quarter of a century later, Farrant strongly denied ever engaging in vampire hunting with a cross and stake. He merely wanted to measure out a circle, he rather unconvincingly claimed, with the wooden stake and a piece of string. He protested that he had never in his life claimed to believe in the existence of vampires, much less hunt them. He protested too much.

Pictures of Farrant clutching his “vampire hunting” tools had been appearing in the British press since 1970. A nine inch tall photograph of him, holding a cross in one hand and a stake in the other, appeared on the front page of the Hornsey Journal, 28 June 1974, beneath a banner headline stating: “The Graveyard Ghoul Awaits His Fate.” The picture’s caption: “Farrant on a ‘vampire hunt’ in Highgate Cemetery.” The report begins:

“Wicked witch David Farrant, tall, pale and dressed all in black, saw his weird world crumble about him this week. Farrant, aged 28, the ghoulish, self-styled High Priest of the British Occult Society [sic], was found guilty by an Old Bailey jury of damaging a memorial to the dead at Highgate Cemetery and interfering with buried remains. … Mr Richard du Cann prosecuting, accused Farrant of ‘terrible’ crimes and at one stage described him as a ‘wicked witch.’ … One of the witnesses for the prosecution was Journal reporter Roger Simpson. Farrant had given him a photograph of a corpse in a partly-opened coffin. Because of the nature of the picture, the paper decided not to publish it, and it was handed to the police.”

This was the beginning of the end of Farrant's phoney occult career and fraudulent claims regarding the British Occult Society. His only known "member" and also his "right-hand man" in many of his black magic publicity stunts eagerly reported in the British newspapers was John Russell Pope, a deranged diabolist who merits closer scrutinty when exploring the truth about David Farrant.

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[1] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p58).
[2] The Vampire’s Bedside Companion by Peter Underwood (Leslie Frewin, 1975, p77-79).

Dark Secrets

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Pope giving the "sign of the beast" in Farrant's bed-sitting room, 1973.

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In 1973, David Farrant joined forces with John Russell Pope who to this day gives the clear impression that he is as much a black magician and diabolist in middle age as ever he was as a young man. On his London Horror Tours website, Pope is unambiguous in how he sees himself, ie “a master of the black arts, a third degree witch and Odinist.” Standing in masonic regalia, complete with apron, next to what is claimed by him to be the “Grand Master, Forsyth Lodge, American Freemasonry,” who, in actual fact, is a certain “A H Marriott,” Pope informs visitors to his website that he “is a blood relation to Jack the Ripper and Dracula.” No less disturbing, perhaps, is the inclusion in his self-professed profile that he “served his apprenticeship with the now deceased gangland boss Andraus Nickifaru from 1968 to 1988.”

This unsavoury link to London’s criminal underworld, bearing in mind Pope’s boast of having killed the rock musician Graham Bond by means of a black magic curse, brings the story full circle when the life and death of Joe Meek is examined. Duncan Campbell, a senior staff reporter for City Limits magazine, before he moved to The Guardian newspaper, took an unusual interest in Farrant during the 1980s. The journalist assisted the charlatan from time to time in gaining publicity, appearing strangely sympathetic to the disingenuous campaigns run by Farrant to curry favour with an increasingly hostile public. Campbell appeared ready to promote Farrant’s stunts, as if they were somehow worthy. But, of course, as revealed by Seán Manchester: “Campbell had an interest in the criminal underworld … [and] later published a book about criminals and the environment in which they operate.”[1]

Seán Manchester spoke to this far left-wing, liberal journalist just once, only to discover himself seriously misrepresented and indeed misquoted by Campbell. Farrant somehow managed to convince Campbell that Manchester belonged to the old guard of illiberal-minded reactionaries. Such folk were already by that time an endangered species, but it was enough to alienate Campbell against Manchester.

Joe Meek’s penchant for the occult has been revealed on the “Meeksville” website where his mysterious death is examined in great detail. This source provided the following information about David Farrant:

“There is some evidence that Joe was playing around with the 'black arts,' particularly from Margaret Blackmore, who saw a lot of Joe in his last few weeks. She claims that Joe told her that she was like Lady Harris who was, according to Joe, one of Aleister Crowley's girlfriends who painted a set of tarot cards and was alleged to be very beautiful. Although a Lady Harris indeed worked with Crowley to create their famous Thoth Tarot deck, she was in fact a lady of mature years who was also the wife of an eminent British politician. Later on, Pamela Coleman Smith and A E Waite tried to repeat the experiment and created the equally famous Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Smith, as far as can be made out, was a rather attractive and somewhat dramatic-looking woman. Joe's account sounds like an amalgam of the two; whether Joe got his facts wrong or whether Blackmore has her recollections muddled up isn't clear, but certainly someone didn't know very much about some historical facts which were very easy to check, and that may be true in general of Joe's interests in that direction. More frightening is the fact that Joe supposedly knew David Farrant. Again, the source in the book is not named; I have been in contact with someone else who knows Farrant independently of any Joe connection, and has stated that Joe met Farrant a couple of times. Having said that, I can't confirm it, as I have no way of proving whether my contact genuinely asked Farrant about it or not. Farrant was (and probably still is) a self-styled High Priest of Satan, and is still feared in some parts of North London, where he can still be seen wandering around the Archway area occasionally. He allegedly led the Highgate Cemetery desecrations in the early 70's, and most people who have encountered him say that he is at first charming, but you quickly realise he's not the kind of guy you really want to hang around too long.”

Yet before Farrant fully boarded what became a black magic bandwagon, he was yet to disembark from his vampire bandwagon. Curiously, his lieutenant John Pope would not set foot near Highgate Cemetery and, during the alleged vampire contagion, steered well clear of the infamous graveyard. His collaborations with Farrant took place in lonely woods and a derelict house notorious for its diabolical history. But Highgate Cemetery remained off limits for Pope. Not so Farrant who ventured into that Victorian graveyard to first hunt the vampire and then to summon it using black magic.

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The above photograph of Farrant with wooden stake raised above his head and wearing a rosary plus a crucifix was published in the Evening News, 29 September 1970. On 19 August 1970, along with most other newspapers, the Daily Express reported the case of “Allan Farrow”:

“Armed with a wooden stake and a crucifix Allan Farrow prowled among the tombstones of a graveyard. He was hunting the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. And 24-year-old Farrow told a court yesterday: ‘My intention was to search out the supernatural being and destroy it by plunging the stake in its heart.’ Farrow pleaded guilty at Clerkenwell, London, to entering St Michael’s Churchyard, Highgate Cemetery, for unlawful purposes. Farrow told police he had just moved to London when he heard people talking about the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. In a statement he said that he heard the vampire rises out of a grave and wanders about the cemetery on the look-out for human beings on whose blood it thrives. Police keeping watch for followers of a black magic cult arrested him. He was remanded in custody for reports. Last night Mr Seán Manchester, leader of the British Occult Society, said: ‘I am convinced that a vampire exists in Highgate Cemetery. Local residents and passers-by have reported seeing a ghost-like figure of massive proportions near the north gate’.”

In August 1970, Farrant reverted back to calling himself “Allan Farrow” in the media, a name he was known by locally, but when he first sought publicity six months earlier he had employed his real name. By the time American vampire aficionado Donald F Glut came to have True Vampires of History published in the following year, he referred to “Allan Farrow who was arrested for trespassing in a London Graveyard.”[2]

Seán Manchester received a signed note just prior to Farrant’s arrest on 17 August 1970, which, in the light of what would follow, goes some way to explain Farrant's eventual denial of ever hunting a vampire with a crucifix and wooden stake. In the following decades the would-be interloper would protest that he did not believe in blood-sucking vampires. His extraordinary note, received at the north London office of the British Occult Society and marked for Seán Manchester's attention, claimed:
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“Certain people have approached me and offered a sum of money if I declare the Highgate Ghost or Vampire (which I really have seen) to be a fake and that I have been part of a hoax. These people, whom I fear will stop at nothing, have diabolical reasons for covering up the truth and I hope that I retain my sane judgement and do not fall prey to their debase demands.”

Despite the note being signed and written in Farrant's very recognisable handwriting, when questioned about its authenticity more than a quarter of a century later by Gail-Nina Anderson before an audience at the Fortean Times UnConvention, 20 April 1996, Farrant denied ever writing the note. It is “a phoney,” he told the audience. He was, of course, lying.

The note (shown above in facsimile) is absolutely authentic, as any comparison with Farrant's correspondence demonstrates. Below is another facsimile, this time of a letter on headed prison notepaper from Farrant (now returned to calling himself “A D Farrow”) to the president of the British Occult Society, Seán Manchester. Farrant’s prison correspondence contradicts and gives the lie to later claims, not least those about his relationship with Seán Manchester and the British Occult Society.

Written three days before it was posted on 21 August 1970 from Brixton Prison where he was being held on remand for psychiatric reports, Farrant’s own statements leave no doubt where he stood in relation to what was happening. The psychiatric reports would prove inconclusive. It could not be agreed whether he was sane or not. He was nonetheless judged fit to appear in court. According to the scores of tracts and pamphlets self-published by Farrant from 1991 until the present-day, he claimed to have “founded” the British Occult Society in 1967, and by 1970 his “investigations” were supposedly three years old. This is clearly not the case when reading his prison correspondence of August 1970.

Farrant’s letter explains that his arrest was the result of not listening to Seán Manchester's public warning to him, and others engaged in similar behaviour, to not interfere with the ongoing investigation being carried out by the British Occult Society. Farrant then claims to have information about a cult meeting in Highgate Cemetery. This did not prevent him entering it with a cross and stake, however, which he overlooks mentioning. He apparently wanted “to find some further evidence of [the cult’s] existence.” He admits going against the wishes of the Society and Seán Manchester. Then he promises to forward all the facts about his lone escapade; something he apparently did not do. Farrant reveals that he has now changed his plea to the court from one of guilty to not guilty, and requests Seán Manchester's appearance as a character witness to speak on his behalf. He expresses concern over how the court might react when they realise he sought publicity in connection with Highgate Cemetery over the six months prior, and now wants Seán Manchester in court “to say you have warned people” about the very behaviour he had engaged in. He claims to appreciate that Seán Manchester is “a busy man,” but nonetheless would like Manchester to visit him, or, at least, send somebody else. He then asks for Seán Manchester's advice, concluding his letter with the following statement: “Well that’s all, please forgive me for being in this trouble and having to ask your help. I would be grateful if you could write immediately.” Seán Manchester did not write, nor did he allow himself to be exploited for Farrant's court case with the inevitable media coverage to follow, but he did visit Farrant at Brixton Prison.
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The visit left Seán Manchester in no doubt that Farrant was trying to rope him into some sort of dubious attention-seeking scheme, and wanted it to be made all the more plausible by what might be seen as Manchester's seal of approval. He was told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen. The case against Farrant on this occasion was dismissed because Highgate Cemetery, in the strict sense of the wording of the charge, is not an enclosed area, and Farrant had been accused of being found in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. Thereafter the compulisve publicity-seeker continued to seek attention and make a general nuisance of himself.

In 1991, Farrant started to publish and circulate his home-produced pamphlets. The first of these devote seventeen pages to the Highgate affair, beginning:

“March 1969, and wide reports were coming in to the British Psychic and Occult Society [sic] concerning a tall black apparition that had been seen lurking among the tombs of London’s Highgate Cemetery.”[3]

But, as we know, Farrant was still with his wife in March 1969, albeit awaiting bankruptcy and eviction, and she would later state under oath that nothing of the kind occurred. The prison letter sent in 1970 is further evidence that Farrant’s self-serving claims are utterly fraudulent. His first pamphlet contains fifty stolen lines of text from Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire, a trend Farrant would continue in his future tracts where further text and photographs stolen from Manchester's books are unlawfully reproduced. This would expand to theft from glossy magazines and internet websites from which source images of Seán Manchester would be reproduced without permission and then given false attributions alongside poisonous fabrication which occasionally strayed into areas that can only be described as truly bizarre. Farrant invented a completely non-existent history; including anecdotes that often mutated and contradicted previous claims.

Only recipients who require absolutely no evidence were at risk of being influenced by Farrant's endless stream of malice, and it is perhaps surprising to learn that these include some members of the James Randi Educational Foundation Forum, academics attached to universities, and journalists.

That notwithstanding, Peter Hounam, a respected journalist and editor of the Hornsey Journal, reported in his newspaper on 19 July 1974:

“As a lad, David Farrant was ‘a little devil’ some of the time. As a teenager, he was ‘a bit of a terror.’ But as a man he caused the most trouble - because of his wicked witchcraft activities.”

In the previous edition, Hounam wrote:

“Farrant was a fool. Fascinated by witchcraft, which he learnt from his mother, he couldn’t keep his interest to himself. He was a blatant publicist.”

This appraisal was reached after the journalist met Farrant to interview him on a couple of occasions plus Hounam's own newspaper’s coverage of Farrant’s trials at the Old Bailey.

Seán Manchester came to know Farrant in the 1970s better than any journalist and, albeit fully aware he was an arch-deceiver, learned enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is for that reason his writings on Farrant are an excellent resource.

Others who met Farrant in person were equally unconvinced. Robert Irving, reporting on the Fortean Times’ Unconvention, 20 April 1996 - where Farrant spoke to a small audience interested in the Highgate Vampire case - observed how “Ian Simmons barely recovered from the ordeal of coaxing the Highgate Vampire story from a foetally-hunched David Farrant.”

Trying to coax anything out of Farrant is nothing less than an ordeal. Andy Pryce of Birmingham met Farrant last century and recorded the following in a communication to Seán Manchester dated 19 February 2001:

“I have spent most of my life studying accounts of vampirism, and have indeed visited Highgate Cemetery on numerous occasions. How it has changed over the years! I am interested in research into any accounts of actual vampirism, from the writings of Dom Augustine Calmet through to modern day accounts. I have a copy of The Highgate Vampire which I found very interesting. I remember the events at the time they happened and the various newspaper reports. It was then that I first came across the name ‘David Farrant.’ I met him once in a pub near Highgate and found him to be a compulsive liar and there was something shifty about his mannerism. I have since warned many people to stay clear of him.”

Most who have actually met Farrant have similar comments, which makes it all the more baffling when some people take him at his word without doing any proper research. When tackled on this they merely shrug their shoulders and say that they did not have access to the relevant documents.

Questions nonetheless remain as to whether Farrant is just “a little devil” or the Devil Incarnate (the term means evil personified and not the Antichrist; though, in Seán Manchester's view, Farrant definitely fits the description of “an antichrist” in the sense that he is against Christ), although he prefers in Farrant's case the description Devil’s Fool rather than Devil Incarnate because Farrant always strikes people as being too pathetic to be a real threat. He is still an inveterate liar who does not believe in his own rectitude and his negative influence is quite obviously harmful.

Seán Manchester has opined on innumerable occasions that Farrant became demonically oppressed in 1971, developing two years later into possession where he betrayed a wasting of the frame, aggravated and irritable moods, a peculiar complexion and features which evince hatred, anger, insult and mockery combined with associated facial contortions and grimaces. His nervous stammer existed prior and is not directly attributable to his demoniacal state. He has a weak bladder, requiring a rubber sheet for his mattress. This, too, existed well in advance of his dabbling in the occult and has no relevance.

So what does Farrant himself claim about his early life and that infamous period when he invited a satanic force to enter him while conducting a necromantic ceremony with Martine de Sacy in the dead of night at Highgate Cemetery and undertook to raise demons with black magician John Pope in a house reputed to be possessed of evil?

He self-published in 2001 an autobiographical booklet titled Dark Secrets which can be used to draw upon for Farrant's version. Even so, the paucity of detail on pivotal events leaves us knowing less about him after reading his autobiography than before, requiring researchers to look elsewhere to discover Farrant’s comments on crucial matters. Some key figures do not get mentioned at all while Seán Manchester, inevitably, attracts the mandatory catalogue of misrepresentation, defamation and fabrication.

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[1] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p89).
[2] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p105) quotes Donald F Glut’s use of the Reuters report.
[3] Beyond the Highgate Vampire by David Farrant (British Psychic and Occult Society, 1991, p5).

Source of Falsification

2009-02-13T04:53:00.009-08:00

Farrant with holy water in one hand and a stake in the other.

David Farrant married his pregnant girlfriend, Mary Olden, in a Roman Catholic Church on Highgate Hill in August 1967. She gave birth to a son three months later. The Roman Catholic Church might appear to be a strange choice for a self-professed wiccan. However, when Mary appeared as a defence witness during Farrant's Old Bailey trials in June 1974 she affirmed that she had no knowledge of him having any interest in witchcraft or the occult. His Highgate Cemetery antics were described by Farrant's wife under oath as being nothing more than "a bit of a laugh and a joke." In the early months of 1970, when he began his attention-seeking shenanigans, Farrant was often photographed for newspapers in attitudes of prayer before Christian crosses. He posed wearing crucifixes, rosaries and holding holy water. He was still doing so in August 1970, six years after he was supposed to have been initiated according to the latest date offered by him for this dubious and almost certainly manufactured ceremony. A photograph taken in 1970 shows Farrant holding a wooden stake in one hand, a bottle of holy water in the other and wearing a cross around his neck. It can be found on page 54 of Seán Manchester's The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook. These are strange accoutrements indeed for a pagan witch. From the autumn of that year, according to Dr J Gordon Melton, Farrant turned to something more diabolical to hold the media’s interest.

Melton records: “In the summer of 1970, David Farrant, another amateur vampire hunter, entered the field. He claimed to have seen the vampire and went hunting for it with a stake and crucifix - but was arrested. He later became a convert to a form of Satanism.”[1]

Pope and Farrant summon dark forces in December 1973.

Graham Bond was an orphan, adopted from the Dr Barnardo’s home, who came to prominence in 1962 at the Marquee Club in London as a featured musician with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated. In 1963 Bond formed a trio, then a quartet, before founding in 1964 the Graham Bond Organisation. It was during the following period that he took an unusual interest in the occult and the works of Crowley. He was not alone in that respect. David Bowie and Mick Jagger each became fascinated with the diabolist’s writings, and the singer Sting apparently used to read Crowley’s books when touring. Yet Bond went much further and became a practicing Thelemite. From that moment his fate appears to have been sealed. He renamed his band the Graham Bond Initiation; its final appellation being Holy Magick (adopting Crowley’s perverse spelling of the word “magic”). In the early days, Bond was noted as being a silent, humble figure with a plastic alto saxophone; always on the outskirts of what was going on, never part of it. The thing about him was that he was not noticed. This would change. The versatile keyboard player and saxophonist, who also did some vocals, steadily developed an obsession with the occult, especially the brand of Satanism, devised by Crowley and known as Thelema, imitated by Pope and Farrant. Like his mentor, he also became seriously addicted to drugs and alcohol. According to the posthumous biography The Mighty Shadow, written by Harry Shapiro, Graham Bond sexually abused his stepdaughter. Pope would claim to be Crowley’s “spiritual successor” - employing the title “Son of the Beast” - but Graham Bond went one better. He claimed to be an illegitimate son of Aleister Crowley.

On 8 May 1974, Graham Bond fell, or perhaps jumped, in front of the wheels of a London Underground train at Finsbury Park station, and died. In the previous year, he had been called upon by another rock star, “Long” John Baldry of Muswell Hill, London, to help in an “exorcism,” as the media insisted on describing it. Baldry had been receiving threats and curses from Farrant, who confirmed this to be the case in repeated boasts published in his local newspapers at the time, eg the front page headline story of the Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973. Baldry believed that his missing cat Stupzi had been sacrificed by Farrant in a witchcraft ritual. Whilst not denying the ritual sacrifice of cats during this period, Farrant maintained that the one he killed in Highgate Wood was not Stupzi, but a stray. On one occasion, Baldry and Bond arrived at Farrant's bed-sitting room to confront the sender of voodoo threats, but only found Pope whom Farrant had been using to deliver the clay effigies with accompanying menacing poems (as confirmed by Pope in later interviews). Farrant himself was out at the time, or possibly in hiding. When the rock star met with his unfortunate death, Pope immediately claimed that he had killed Graham Bond with a black magic curse; something he reiterated in a recorded interview with Seán Manchester.

Mystery has always surrounded the untimely demise of Graham Bond and many commentators in the media have looked for simple answers, sometimes erroneously describing Bond as a “white magician.” There is nothing “white” about the magic that springs from Aleister Crowley. Seán Manchester spoke to Baldry in person, following a live television programme they both appeared on concerning the dangers of the occult, to assure him that Farrant was bogus and Pope was deranged. Baldry nevertheless grew ever more terrified of the curses he had received and quit England for Canada, never to return. Farrant issued witchcraft threats to all manner of people throughout 1973 culminating in him being investigated by Scotland Yard detectives. They discovered an altar with black candles beneath an image of the Devil in his bed-sitting room. He was arrested in early 1974 and held on remand until his trials in June, resulting in a four years and eight months prison sentence. Pope remained free to pursue his undisguised brand of evil. Bond died a month before Farrant faced his own fate in front of a judge and jury.

John Pope intended to “form a new coven that will rule the world” and “abolish the system whereby children are forced to learn Christian worship,” according to an interview he gave Reveille magazine, 21 November 1975. When this failed to happen, he became increasingly unstable, declaring direct blood descent from Jesus Christ, Dracula, Robin Hood and Jack the Ripper. Farrant would frequently refer to Pope behind his back as a “silly little imbecile.” Today Pope provides “horror tours” to paying voyeurs who want to see the haunts Jack the Ripper in London’s East End where Pope now resides, and the house of the sexual pervert and serial murderer Dennis Nielson, which is located just around the corner from the Muswell Hill attic bed-sitting room occupied by Farrant since his release from prison on parole in 1976.

John Pope during a demon raising ritual in which Farrant participated.

By no means did everyone end up dead, deranged, or demonically possessed. Anthony Hill grew out of his youthful admiration for Crowley, becoming sceptical in retrospect about his past experiences and regard for things occult. His first marriage ended in divorce, and his next wife, a non-practicing Jewess, did not receive from him a hakenkreuz silver necklace as had the first. In the new millennium he quit England to live abroad with his second wife, only occasionally returning for visits.

Everything worth recording about the real investigation of the Highgate Vampire has already been written by Seán Manchester, and I have no intention of trawling through this well documented case. Seán Manchester has recounted his thirteen year investigation many times in interviews, written books about it and made numerous television film documentaries. The interviews he has given on this case alone must run into literally hundreds. Even so, the amount of false and misleading commentary in print over the last decade or so from those totally unconnected to the case is truly astonishing and the ultimate source is invariably always Farrant.

A massive vampire hunt at Highgate Cemetery on the night of 13 March 1970, following reports in local and national newspapers, plus Seán Manchester's television appearance at 6.00pm, led to a huge crowd of concerned people gathering outside the cemetery gates. Seán Manchester had made an appeal on the Today programme requesting the public not to get involved, lest they put in jeopardy the investigation already in progress. Not everyone heeded his words. Over the following months a variety of freelance vampire hunters descended on the graveyard only to be frightened off by its eerie atmosphere and what they believed might have been the vampire. Those seeking thrills served only to endanger all concerned and frustrate the investigation. Simon Wiles and John White armed themselves with a crucifix and a sharpened stake, and set off to see if they could locate the vampire’s tomb. Like others who followed their example, Wiles and White were soon arrested by police patrolling the cemetery who found a rucksack containing an eight inch long wooden stake sharpened to a fine point. White later explained at Clerkenwell Court: “Legend has it that if one meets a vampire, one drives a stake through its heart.” He was wearing a crucifix round his neck and Wiles had one in his pocket. They were eventually discharged. Thus began an unwelcome trend.

Alan Blood on the night of Friday 13 March 1970.

.One man, fortuitously named Alan Blood, was a 25-year-old history teacher from Billericay. He descended on Highgate after seeing the Today report on television, but at least had the good sense not to enter the graveyard. Though described by the Evening News, 14 March 1970, as a “vampire expert,” Blood, in a later interview given to the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 20 March 1970, stated that he was no such thing. “I have taken an interest in the black arts since boyhood, but I’m by no means an expert on vampires,” he admitted. Following a drink in the Prince of Wales where he spoke briefly to Farrant, Blood joined the crowd outside the cemetery’s north gate. But he did not enter. Farrant remained behind in the pub with his drink.

By 8.00pm on the night of 13 March 1970 scenes of utter pandemonium were taking place as people gathered in large numbers along the steep lane running alongside Highgate Cemetery. Police leave was cancelled to control those arriving, but it was an almost impossible task. By 10.00pm an assortment of independent amateur vampire hunters had joined the onlookers. Alan Blood was among the crowd. Matthew Bunson, as recorded in his The Vampire Encyclopedia (1993), felt Blood was a significant player in this publicised case. Bunson, an American who had no contact with Blood, or indeed anyone else contemporaneous to events at Highgate, relied on another American - Jeanne Keyes Youngson of the New York Count Dracula Fan Club which is nowadays known as simply as Vampire Empire - who, in turn, relied on Farrant for her stream of misinformation.

An authentic account of Alan Blood’s part in the affair is given in Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire (pages 77-79) from which the following is revealed:

“By 10.00pm the hundreds of onlookers were to include several freelance vampire hunters, including a history teacher, Alan Blood, who had journeyed from Billericay to seek out the undead being.”

He had seen the report on television some hours earlier and immediately set off for Highgate. On his arrival in Highgate Village, he entered the Prince of Wales pub on the High Street for a drink, whereupon he recognised an unkempt individual who had been one of several alleged witnesses interviewed by Sandra Harris. By this time Seán Manchester was already inside the cemetery with his research team. Blood thereby was obliged to settle for Farrant quaffing pints of ale in the Prince of Wales. He listened to bizarre claims of “a seven foot tall vampire that hovered by the cemetery gate,” and wanted to be shown exactly where this occurred. Oddly enough, Farrant declined and continued to drink his ale. Blood left the pub to join the steadily growing crowd of several hundred people in Swains Lane. When the pub eventually closed, Farrant also joined the throng outside the cemetery’s north gate, but, like Blood, made no attempt to enter.

It was while in Swains Lane, wearing a Russian-style hat, that Blood was noticed by an Evening News photographer and a reporter. They spoke to him, and also to 27-year-old Hampstead resident Anthony Robinson who had ventured to the north gate “after hearing of the torchlight hunt.” Robinson is alleged to have told the reporter: “I walked past the place and heard a high-pitched noise, then I saw something grey moving slowly across the road. It terrified me. First time I couldn’t make it out, it looked eerie. I’ve never believed in anything like this, but now I’m sure there is something evil lurking in Highgate.” Yet it was Blood, who saw and did nothing, whose photograph was to appear on the front page of next day’s Evening News. Farrant must have been livid. Blood is described at the head of the report as “a vampire expert named Mr Blood who journeyed forty miles to investigate the legend of an ‘undead Satan-like being’ said to lurk in the area.” Alan Blood, of course, claimed nothing of the sort, and would confirm in a more soberly conducted interview that he was “by no means an expert.”

David Farrant taking his "investigating" seriously at Highgate Cemetery.
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None of which prevented American Matthew Bunson publishing some twenty-three years later:

“The focus of the media attention turned to David Farrant and Allan [sic] Blood, vampire experts who led the search. Both were convinced that a vampire was sleeping in one of the vaults and were determined to find it and kill it. While blamed for the desecration of tombs and arrested for trespass, Farrant was acquitted on the grounds that the cemetery was open to the public. As is typical of such incidents, stories based on rumour and on unconfirmed sightings soon spread, and the tabloids and newspapers ran exploitative reports. No vampire was ever publicly discovered.”[2]

Apart from the reference to press exploitation, not one single statement in Bunson’s entry for “The Highgate Vampire” is accurate. The focus of the media did not turn to David Farrant and Alan Blood. The latter, after the night of 13 March 1970, completely disappeared off the scene, having indicated that he was not expert enough to deal with it. Farrant was to become infamous for publicity-seeking by the end of the vampire panics, by which time he had repudiated the “vampire theory,” as he would come to describe it. Yet, save for his letter to a newspaper editor in February 1970, he was not a “focus” with regard to the investigation, which promptly dismissed his allegations of sightings as unsafe and his behaviour unwise. Blood never stated that he was “determined to find and kill” the vampire. Farrant, of course, did, but later revoked this ambition. Nor was Farrant arrested for “trespass.” He was, in fact, arrested for being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. And Farrant was not merely “blamed for the desecration of tombs” in Highgate Cemetery. He was actually charged, tried in a criminal court and found guilty of malicious damage to tombs. Farrant received a substantial prison sentence. Sightings of the alleged vampire were confirmed, documented, and recorded by Seán Manchester and members of his research team. Sightings were also confirmed by countless independent witnesses.

Seán Manchester would add in The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook (pages 66-67):

“Interestingly, Jeanne Youngson’s name crops up in Bunson’s acknowledgements as having assisted with this book [The Vampire Encyclopedia]. Why does that come as no surprise? Peter Hough follows in Bunson’s errant footsteps in Supernatural Britain (1995) and repeats the misinformation that David Farrant ‘teamed up’ with Alan Blood (something neither ever claimed) whilst ignoring the actual investigation. When contacted through their respective publishers, neither deigned to reply. Their publishers also refused to answer any correspondence on the matter.”

Bunson and Hough were followed by Liverpool disc jockey and freelance journalist Tom Slemen whose paperback Strange But True (1998) erroneously claimed that “Alan Blood organized a mass vampire hunt that would take place on Friday 13 March, 1970. Mr Blood was interviewed on television. … The schoolteacher’s plan was to wait until dawn, when the first rays of the rising sun would force the vampire to return to his subterranean den in the catacombs, then he would kill the Satanic creature in the time-honoured tradition; by driving a wooden stake through its heart. … In an orgy of desecration [the crowd] had exhumed the remains of a woman from a tomb, stolen lead from coffins, and defaced sepulchres with mindless graffiti.”[3]

None of which is true. Blood did not “organize a mass vampire hunt.” Blood organised nothing at all. He was just an interested onlooker. It was not the “schoolteacher’s plan to wait until dawn.” This was the supposed plan of Farrant. There was no “orgy of desecration” etc. No damage whatsoever occurred on the night of 13 March 1970. What Slemen is referring to is an entirely different incident that took place five months later, as recorded on the front page of the Hampstead and Highgate Express, 7 August 1970, where the discovery of the headless body together with signs of a satanic ceremony were made by two fifteen-year-old schoolgirls as they walked through the graveyard on a sunny August afternoon. Police viewed this desecration to be the work of diabolists and investigated it as such. Weeks later, Farrant was arrested prowling around the graveyard at night.

These misleading reports by Bunson, Hough and Slemen contaminated some other accounts, needless to say, but few would be as inaccurate as Leonard R N Ashley’s in The Complete Book of Vampires (1998). This self-styled occultist and colleague of Jeanne Youngson stated: “A typical, if overblown, time was around 1970, when David Farrant got in trouble charged with disturbing the neighbours if not the corpses and trespassing.” Referring to Seán Manchester as “the now late Seán Manchester,” Ashley falsely describes his presence in the cemetery as being “attended by as many press and television reporters as he could muster for the event.” He added: “I never met Seán Manchester.”[4]

For the record, neither did Bunson, Hough, Youngson, or Slemen. None of these people communicated with Seán Manchester in any form, not even through a medium, which, if Leonard R N Ashley is to be believed, is the only way possible. No newspaper or television reporter attended anything Seán Manchester conducted in Highgate Cemetery on that or any other night. Moreover, Manchester's reluctance to deal with the media is precisely what led to the more unscrupulous among them resorting to Farrant and his publicity stunts. Ashley sings the praises of Youngson on the same page.

The tomb of the vampire was located in August 1970, as revealed in the 24 Hours programme - a BBC television film documentary transmitted on 15 October 1970 - and later confirmed in Peter Underwood's anthology The Vampire's Bedside Companion (1975) and Exorcism! (1990), plus J Gordon Melton's The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Undead (1994), and Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire (1975, 1976, 1985, 1991). Three years and three months following the BBC documentary, the primary source was effectively exorcised with the help of Manchester's research team. Several 35mm photographs, some of which are reproduced in The Highgate Vampire book, were taken of the corporeal form in its final moments of dissolution. These images were later transmitted and discussed on various television programmes in the UK.

_______________________________________

[1] The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Undead by J Gordon Melton (Gail Research, 1994, p298).
[2] The Vampire Encyclopedia by Matthew Bunson (Thames and Hudson, 1993, p121).
[3] Strange But True by Tom Slemen (Paragon Books, 1998).
[4] The Complete Book of Vampires by Leonard R N Ashley (Souvenir Press, 1998, p80-81).

Raising the Devil's Fool

2009-02-13T04:53:00.007-08:00

Professor Bill Ellis, author of "Raising the Devil."

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In 1992, Professor Bill Ellis of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research flew over from his Pennsylvania campus to meet David Farrant in London. Ellis wanted to also meet and interview Seán Manchester, but he will make no contribution to any project that involves the fraudster Farrant. Manchester nevertheless offered to send Ellis CDs and tapes of recorded interviews from the 1970s where Farrant discusses his early claims on television and in private; claims which totally contradict his revised latter-day stance. Ellis showed no interest in receiving this material and settled instead for a copy of Seán Manchester's book The Highgate Vampire, a resource he appears to have ignored in writing his own coverage of events three decades after they happened from a distance of thousands of miles.

Chapter eight of Ellis' book Raising the Devil (2000), titled “The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt,” is almost entirely based on what the American gleaned from Farrant whom he met in July 1992, interpolated by Ellis’ own scepticism. The chapter began its life as an article with the same title which was published in 1993 by the journal of the Folklore Society based at University College London in the UK. Seán Manchester's response to the article's catalogue of misleading and inaccurate claims about the Highgate Vampire case and indeed himself was offered to University College London in the form of an academic paper. The Folkore Society was not interested in the rebuttal, some of which would later become absorbed within the pages of The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook (1997). Almost as an afterthought, the Society's journal Folklore did publish a concise statement on Seán Manchester's behalf which expressed his disappointment and disenchantment with Ellis' catalogue of error.

Bill Ellis describes himself as “a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” and someone “who has taken leadership positions and on occasion taught adult Sunday school and led services.”[1] Notwithstanding this claim, when Seán Manchester contacted the ELCA they informed him that they had no knowledge of Bill Ellis and “cannot confirm whether he is a member of the ELCA or one of the other Lutheran bodies.” The “Evangelical Lutheran” Ellis defines exorcism as “a means of temporarily inducing an alternative personality … beneficial to some persons for whom conventional psychological or psychiatric therapy fails.”[2] Whereas for Seán Manchester, at whom aspersions are cast aplenty by Ellis, exorcism is the act of expelling demons (Mark 16: 17). For Manchester, who was episcopally consecrated in the traditional wing of an autocephalous Catholic Church in 1991, it is not alternative therapy for failed psychology.

Ellis is nonetheless an associate professor of Anglo-American Studies at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He received his PhD in English from Ohio State University in 1978. In that long-lost era, Ellis says students were told not to worry about the job market; so nor did he. He wrote his dissertation on the image of the mother in country music, drawing on Northrop Frye's theory of archetypes. It would take him six years to find a tenure-track job. Meanwhile, he taught English as an adjunct. He found work preparing the annotations to editions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's letters and notebooks, which gave him some credentials as a specialist in American literature. In 1984 he moved to Pennsylvania State's small branch campus in Hazleton, where, at the age of thirty-four, Ellis finally made the transition to a regular appointment. It was not a position designed for a scholar. Most of the 1,200 students are freshmen and sophomores.

Ellis usually teaches two or three composition courses each semester. That means grading roughly one thousand pages of student writing per course. It is rare that he gets to offer an upper-division class, and rarer still that the topic is folklore, his primary field of scholarly interest. As for conducting a graduate seminar, the possibility never comes up because the campus has no graduate programmes. “Bill has never been part of the mainstream of folklore scholarship,” says Gary Alan Fine, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University; adding: “His work has always been quirky.”

Quirky or not, Ellis felt his self-proclaimed folkloric background qualified him to comment at length on the Highgate Vampire case which he describes at various times as nothing more than a "flap." His 1993 Folklore article prompted Seán Manchester's following observation:

“Reading like popular journalism of the most squalid kind, it loses no time in becoming a polemic wherein the personal prejudices and opinions held by Ellis dominate. A dry, impartial ‘academic report’ it is not. His cynicism underscores every line as he tries to debunk anything and everything to do with demonic molestation and satanic ritual abuse. … Ellis strives to correlate the vampire panics associated with the Highgate Vampire case with satanic child abuse panics in Britain and America, particularly ‘the appalling cases at Rochdale and the Orkney Islands.’ One might be forgiven for thinking that he is somewhat out on a limb. … Ellis is willing to employ a discredited publicity-seeker in his mission. … His only other resource was an array of press cuttings [selected and provided by Farrant], many of them flawed and some followed by retractions and amendments that he failed to take into account. Again, the source of much of the contentious reporting in the popular press at the time was Farrant himself. To this person Ellis gives ‘more emphasis than the others as his actions were demonstrably more central to events’.”[3]

However, Ellis did concede in correspondence to Seán Manchester, dated 22 February 1996: “Since my piece appeared in Folklore I have received several packets of material correcting my account.”

One of many misleading statements in the Folklore article is that Farrant and Manchester were once “rival members” of the British Occult Society. This false allegation was expurgated by Ellis from Raising the Devil. Likewise, Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society was also obliged to remove it when she came to publish the paperback edition of her book The Lore of the Land (2005), which merely propagates Ellis' misinformation where Highgate Cemetery and the vampire case is concerned.

When Seán Manchester first encountered Farrant in early 1970, Farrant was residing in a coal bunker. This was the setting where Manchester interviewed him following Farrant's letter published in a local newspaper on 6 February 1970. The letter (reproduced in its entirety by Ellis on page 219) is revealing. Farrant claims that he had thrice witnessed “a ghost-like figure inside the gates” at Highgate Cemetery in the preceding weeks, ending with the admission that he had “no knowledge in this field” (the field in question being psychic investigation). Yet, incredibly, on page 217, Ellis introduces Farrant, circa 1970, as a “psychic investigator.”

In June 1974, Farrant was convicted of stealing from a hospital, illegal possession of a handgun and ammunition, malicious vandalism to tombs, breaking and entry into a mausoleum, offering (by means of black magic) indignities to remains of the dead, and threatening police witnesses with voodoo dolls transfixed with pins and accompanying menacing poems. Except for the verdicts on Farrant’s tomb vandalism and his sending of voodoo dolls, Ellis describes the remainder of the aforementioned convictions as “minor offences.”[4] What outrage needs to be committed by Farrant to qualify as a serious offence? Judge Michael Argyle commented at the conclusion to Farrant’s trials: “Any interference with a corpse during black magic rituals could properly be regarded as a great scandal and a disgrace to religion, decency and morality.” Ellis relegates such interference to the “minor” category. He presents Farrant as a “psychic investigator” who “continues to receive and investigate accounts of supernatural phenomena” and then bleats on about Farrant’s rights being “infringed because he had not been able to practice Wicca in jail”[5]

Farrant’s “right” to summon a satanic force during a depraved ritual employing sex and blood with a naked girl in Highgate Cemetery, as described by the man himself in New Witchcraft, finds Ellis looking askance. Instead we read: “While the media were increasingly billing him as a black magician, Farrant was not deterred from continuing his occult investigations. By December he had agreed to help John Pope.”[6] Conveniently omitted is the fact that John Pope was at that time the head of the United Temples of Satan and in 1973 (when he formed his alliance with Farrant) was also under suspicion for occasioning ritual abuse. He was later convicted of indecent assault on a minor. We must not forget, of course, what Ellis wrote in his own book’s Acknowledgements: “Some of my close professional friends are in fact participants in the Neo-Pagan movement, and I respect both their beliefs and the actions they have taken based on them.”[7]

Ellis goes along with pretty much everything he was told by Farrant in July 1992 when they met. Consequently readers are given the impression that Farrant “returned to Highgate Cemetery in 1969” to continue his supposed investigations when he “decided to spend a night in Highgate [Cemetery], choosing December 21, 1969, the winter solstice … and he saw ‘two eyes meeting my gaze at the top of the shape … [which] were not human,’.”[8] Ellis’ source is Farrant’s latter-day revisionist pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire.

On the next page of Raising the Devil, the author reproduces Farrant’s first published letter to the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970, where we learn that Farrant saw the “ghost-like figure” inside the cemetery gates for the very first time on 24 December 1969. Ellis ignores this anomaly. Moreover, Farrant’s letter makes it clear that, far from deciding to spend the night in the graveyard, all three occurrences, including his first alleged sighting, took place on nights when he “walk[ed] home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery.” Many had seen the phenomenon, of course, and this is how Farrant himself learned about it, as confirmed by what he told the police. In an official and signed statement, Farrant told police that he heard the vampire rises out of its grave and wanders about the cemetery on the look-out for human beings on whose blood it thrives. This was reported by the Evening Standard, 18 August 1970.

Having mentioned correspondence in the Hampstead & Highgate Express for 27 February 1970, Ellis refers to the “next weekly issue [that] featured Manchester’s warnings under the wry headline ‘Does a wampyr walk in Highgate?’.”[9] The famous headline was published on 27 February 1970; the same day, not the following week.

Ellis then attributes the infamous “King Vampire from Wallachia” remark to Seán Manchester and muddles this with a “castle,” despite having been informed by Manchester's 1996 academic paper, 1997 book, and private correspondence that this was a journalistic embellishment which did not originate with him. Seán Manchester had already addressed Ellis' article:

“The source this time is a press cutting where a statement was slightly misquoted, plus a travesty of what is written in The Highgate Vampire. For ‘fine house in London’s West End’ read Ashurst House which once stood at the western end of the site now occupied by Highgate Cemetery. I did not suggest that Ashurst House became, or previously had been, a castle. The castle Ellis is referring to existed many centuries earlier and had nothing to do with the contagion. ... What I actually state, and have always stated, is that Ashurst House was sold and leased to a succession of tenants of whom one was a mysterious gentleman from the Continent who arrived in the wake of the vampire epidemic that had its origins in south-east Europe. This does not have quite the same sensationalist impact as ‘King Vampire from Wallachia,’ which is the Draculesque adornment preferred both by Ellis and the journalist responsible for the front page press report.”[10]

“To be sure,” Ellis reports using old newspapers as his source, “his theory was at first not taken seriously. … Even [the Reverend Neil-Smith] called Manchester’s vampire theory ‘a novelistic embellishment’.”[11] Three years earlier Seán Manchester had published: “Then we come to the Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith, the late vicar of St Saviour’s Church, Hampstead. … In fact, Neil-Smith was originally quoted as saying: ‘I believe the whole idea of vampires is probably a novelistic embellishment.’ However, within a very short space of time the same priest claimed to have confronted and exorcised several vampires. Interviewed by Daniel Farsons, Reverend Neil-Smith accepted ‘that there is such a thing as vampirism,’ as recorded in the book Mysterious Monsters (1978). Ellis makes no mention of these quotes which far outnumber the single occasion when the priest appeared to entertain some doubt on the issue; assuming, that is, he was not misquoted by the newspaper reporter in 1970.”[12] The fact that this is the same priest who sought to exorcise people of Farrant’s evil is also not mentioned by Ellis.

The claim on page 222 that the early weeks in 1970 “were dominated by an escalating rivalry between Farrant and Manchester” is also untrue. Seán Manchester barely knew Farrant at the time and Farrant played no part in the investigation at Highgate. On the same page the following error is found: “The programme also aired a series of ghost stories from a group of young neighbourhood children, one of whom asserted, ‘I actually saw its face and it looked like it had been dead for a long time’.” This is inaccuarte. The Today programme on Thames Television, 13 March 1970, reveals Farrant, not any of the children, uttering the words “I actually saw its face and it looked like it had been dead for a long time.”

When Ellis refers to Seán Manchester it is someone “who claimed to have been present … etc.”[13] Farrant, however, is taken at his word by Ellis who invariably presents the charlatan absent of the aspersion that he was “claiming” to be somewhere, or “claiming” to be how he might describe himself. Seán Manchester suffers the misfortune of “claiming ordination”[14] while Farrant is “the head of the reorganized British Psychic and Occult Society.”[15] Ellis claims an awful lot. If he were writing for a sensation-seeking tabloid newspaper it would be regrettable, but when publishing what he laughingly terms a “scholarly book” it is untenable. He publishes what he does without any balancing comment. Ellis, who was not present, presumes that “many of the vampire-hunters in Highgate took the event as a lark.”[16] In fact, the mass vampire hunt on the night of 13 March 1970, involving hundreds of people, manifested precisely because so many people had heard about the reports and taken them extremely seriously. Ellis opines that Farrant’s version of events is somehow reliable; though he did attempt to furiously backpeddle from that footnote when called to account by Seán Manchester in private correspondence. Thus everything we learn from Ellis about Highgate, Manchester and Farrant originates either from very selective, flawed press cuttings or indeed Farrant himself. There is no input from Seán Manchester whose book The Highgate Vampire Ellis possessed.

When Farrant was arrested in August 1970 by police searching for diabolists and was made to appear at a magistrate’s court, Ellis claims he was “exonerated” when, in fact, he got off on a technicality. Charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose, his defence solicitor successfully argued that, in the strict sense of the wording, Highgate Cemetery is not an enclosed area. What Ellis does not tell his readers is that Farrant, when first charged by the police, pleaded guilty before later changing his plea to one of not guilty. It was after his release that Farrant admitted he had been in contact with Satanists which might or might not be true. It is difficult to know with Farrant, but he soon afterwards began to evince a form of theatrical Satanism himself as we find in the article he wrote for New Witchcraft and also confirmed by Dr J Gordon Melton in his coverage of the Highgate Vampire. Farrant in recorded interviews admits to worshipping Lucifer, engaging in animal sacrifices, raising demons and putting curses on people. None of this will be discovered within the pages of Bill Ellis' Raising the Devil.

Ellis speaks of Farrant’s “supporters,” but Farrant had no support. He was a lone publicity-seeker who duped gullible individuals into posing for photographs that invariably ended up in the Sunday tabloids or magazines such as New Witchcraft. This much can be deduced from the press coverage at the time. Ellis is biased towards Farrant’s whitewash without any critical regard for the facts. Consequently, when Ellis refers to Farrant’s collaboration with “an Evening News reporter … in October 1970”[17] it bears no similarity to the actual report, much less does it mention that this ludicrous outing was headlined as a “midnight date with Highgate’s Vampire.” Barrie Simmons was the journalist in question and his five column feature, complete with a half-page of photographs, was nothing more than a sensation-seeking, albeit amateur, vampire hunting enterprise.
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David Farrant "stalking the vampire" at Highgate Cemetery for the BBC.

“Clutched under his arm, in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag,” wrote Simmons, “[Farrant] held the tools of his trade. There was the cross made out of two bits of wood tied together with a shoelace and a stake to plunge through the heart of the beast.”[18] No mention of this is made by Ellis, needless to say. For him Farrant’s revisionism takes precedence. Thus we read in Ellis' book that “they surveyed the damage done: graves opened, skulls stolen, vaults defaced with strange scrawls.”[19] What was actually important to Simmons was Farrant’s amateurish stalking of the vampire. Not so in Ellis’ version. There are no stakes, no cross made out of two bits of wood and a shoelace. Indeed, no vampire hunting! In his previous paragraph, dealing with the August arrest and court appearance, Ellis reproduces Farrant’s latter-day falsehood that he never went vampire hunting with a cross and a stake. This had all “been fabricated by the police” we are required to believe. He then reproduces Farrant’s disingenuous claim that he was “using the ‘stake’ with string attached to cast a magic circle for the ritual.”[20] Despite the BBC, 15 October 1970, television transmission clearly showing Farrant in Highgate Cemetery with a sharpened stake in his hand, wearing a large cross around his neck, and stalking the Highgate Vampire (see above image), and despite having seen countless photographs of Farrant wielding a wooden stake and crucifix, Ellis avoids any mention of Barrie Simmons’ midnight stalking of the vampire with Farrant which is what the article is really about. Instead readers of Raising the Devil are given a misleading impression in which Farrant and the Evening News reporter are merely “surveying” damage in Highgate Cemetery.

It would be almost amusing, were it not so serious, to see how easily someone as uneducated as Farrant can pull the wool over an academic’s eyes, over and over again. Ellis describes the “evidence that black witches had broken into a mausoleum”[21] as being the result of Farrant’s “investigating.” Yet this same evidence was used at the Old Bailey to convict Farrant of tomb vandalism. Detail of this kind Ellis chooses to overlook. He quotes Farrant’s unsubstantiated claim: “I know who was responsible for the desecration.”[22] If Farrant knows who is responsible for the tomb vandalism for which he was found guilty, why on earth has he not identified those responsible? The answer is obvious, but readers of Ellis’ book will not find this question even raised. Only Farrant’s counterfeit version is told, not the court reports that led to guilty verdicts. Ellis is selective. He hears only what he wants to hear; only what fits his biased agenda.

“After [June 1974], the Highgate affair disappeared from public comment for some time,”[23] Ellis incorrectly claims. He seems to believe that the “Highgate affair” revolved around Farrant's shenanigans and proceeds to proffer Farrant’s perverse version of what was described in the sensational press as a “magical duel” in 1973. Ellis writes: “Shortly before the event, a tabloid press article muddied the water by claiming that both Manchester and Farrant intended to slaughter a cat in front of an assembly of naked witches.”[24] Ellis does not identify the newspaper in his text, but this is what the Sunday Mirror, 8 April 1973, reported alongside a photograph of Farrant and a nude girl: “The bizarre ceremony will involve naked witches, demon-raisings and the slaughter of a cat.” Seán Manchester is quoted as saying: “My opponent intends to raise a demon to destroy me by killing a cat - I will be relying solely on divine power.” Farrant insisted: “Blood must be spilled, but the cat will be anaesthetised.” The Sun newspaper, 23 November 1972, had earlier quoted Seán Manchester stating that Farrant’s boasts ought to be put to the test: “The quickest way to destroy the credibility of a witch trying to earn a reputation for himself is to challenge his magical ability before objective observers.”

Yet unlike the print media, who did invite versions from both sides, no balancing comment was sought from Seán Manchester by Bill Ellis. Seán Manchester told what actually happened in From Satan To Christ, a work Ellis refers to by name in the text of Raising the Devil. The same work's revelations, however, he completely chose to ignore. The notorious posters advertising the “duel” were traced at the time to Farrant who had engaged a small printing company used by him on earlier occasions. Ellis repeats Farrant’s falsehood to imply that Seán Manchester was responsible for the posters. Yet even Brian Netscher, editor of New Witchcraft, revealed in his magazine’s first issue: “As to the ‘test of powers’ challenge, it is a matter of public record that Mr Farrant not only accepted it but publicised it widely in the national press and by means of a rather crudely-made poster.”

Seán Manchester wrote in From Satan To Christ (1988):

“There was no sign of Farrant. He had been fearlessly called to account and, like so many others who use witchcraft to instil dread, could not fulfill the least of his claims when the day of reckoning arrived. … Farrant’s excuse was that he would have been lynched by the crowd of onlookers whose arrival was entirely due to the publicity he had created in the preceding weeks.”
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[1] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, pxii).
[2] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p282).
[3] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p68).
[4] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p235).
[5] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p237).
[6] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p233).
[7] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, pxii).
[8] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p218).
[9] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p221).
[10] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p103).
[11] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p222).
[12] The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1997, p72).
[13] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p223).
[14] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p238).
[15] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p237).
[16] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p223).
[17] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p224).
[18] “Midnight Date With Highgate’s Vampire” by Barrie Simmons (Evening News, 16 October 1970).
[19] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p224).
[20] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p224).
[21] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p227).
[22] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p227).
[23] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p228).
[24] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p231).

The Fake Vampire Hunter

2009-02-13T04:53:00.005-08:00

The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, has this report on its front page:

“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'."

But Farrant nowadays says:

"Just to be factual, as far as this is possible; I do not - and never have - accepted the existence of 'vampires'."

- David Farrant (9 May 2007 @ 04.59pm)

#482 James Randi Educational Foundation Forum

Two years earlier, however, in an interview given to journalist Marc Mullen in a vain attempt to raise his public profile, Farrant fraudulently claimed that the "vampire was active again," as recorded in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 2 September 2005.

"I do NOT believe [in] vampires. I cannot say it more clearly than that." - David Farrant (31 July 2007 @ 07:05am)

#934 James Randi Educational Forum
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On the 15 July 2008 at 6.14am, David Farrant published on his personal blog his most supremely hypocritical statement to date:

"Never lie, is really my motto. Just hold to the truth, and you can never really go far wrong!"
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In 1998, Dave Milner created a video with David Farrant's collaboration titled In Search of the Highgate Vampire, which largely comprises Farrant seated in his bedsitting room pontificating about the haunting at Highgate Cemetery interpolated with occasional glimpses of the graveyard itself. Images stolen from Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire appear in violation of copyright law toward the video's conclusion. Farrant ends his commentary on the video with this statement:

“As to the question of whether a vampire still exists at Highgate Cemetery, well, I can only say yes it does.”
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Farrant's "vampire hunting" was never anything more than a publicity stunt. He was quickly recognised as a compulsive publicity-seeker by most who met him. This suited journalists who found in Farrant a free meal ticket. When he appeared at Clerkenwell Court in August 1970 where he was charged with being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose the magistrate had to acquit Farrant of that charge because it was obvious to all present, not least defending solictor Mr Jeffrey Bayes, that Highgate Cemetery cannot be described as "an enclosed area." This technicality secured Farrant's release in 1970. He would not be so fortunate four years later when he was convicted of serious criminal offences relating to Highgate Cemetery. We should nevertheless remind ourselves of what the magistrate, Mr J D Purcell, said when Farrant first appeared before him whilst on remand at Brixton Prison: "You should be seen by a doctor."

David Farrant consented to providing tape-recorded interviews, photographic records, and filmed reconstructions of his alleged "vampire hunting" (which was never more than a pathetic means for him to obtain self-publicity) back in 1970. This is something he now carefully conceals and, when confronted, categorically denies.

We should also remember the interview he gave the BBC 24 Hours television team, which was transmitted on 15 October 1970. Farrant was invited to make a contribution solely because of what happened on the night of 17 August 1970 when police discovered him prowling about in Highgate Cemetery with a crudely made cross and a stake. The police had been anonymously tipped off by one of Farrant's collaborators in order to guarantee maximum publicity in the media, as later confirmed by Farrant's friend and landlord Anthony Hill. Without an arrest Farrant would barely make the back page of his local newspaper. The arrest assured national coverage and a television interview. This is exactly what he sought to achieve.

What Farrant reconstructed for BBC television's 24 Hours showed him going through the actions of "stalking a vampire," as occurred at the time of his co-ordinated arrest. This footage was in relation to why he was arrested and comprised of nothing else. This edition of 24 Hours was titled Vampires and when asked about his "vampire hunting" Farrant did not say, "I don't believe in vampires." Far from it. He went along with the notion he had given to all and sundry that he was in the graveyard to try and impale the Highgate Vampire should he ever encounter it.

On the day after the BBC transmission, Farrant appeared in a newspaper which showed photographs of him allegedly stalking a vampire with his cross and stake late at night in Highgate Cemetery. Barrie Simmons, the newspaper's journalist, joined Farrant, as recorded in the London Evening News, 16 October 1970:

"I joined a macabre hunt among the desecrated graves and tombs for the vampire of Highgate Cemetery. ... David Farrant, 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. Farrant stalked among the vaults, past the graves, in the bushes and by the walls. When we had finished he started stalking all over again."
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The Devil's Work

2009-02-13T04:53:00.003-08:00

Bill Ellis - whose many errors Seán Manchester was obliged to address.

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Bill Ellis’ “scholarly book” contains a long extract reproduced from the News of the World, 23 September 1973. In the article Martine de Sacy offers a graphic description of a supposed graveyard orgy and cat sacrifice with Farrant. It is immediately followed by this from Ellis: “Farrant, who successfully sued the News of the World for libel in 1980, explained that the truth was considerably more mundane.”[1] We are given the clear impression that Farrant sued the newspaper over this article. He did not. We then proceed to learn about the alleged abduction of a pop singer’s cat as though this was the same incident. It was not. The pop singer’s cat was at first believed to be the cat sacrificed in Highgate Wood, but Farrant insisted it was a “stray” he sacrificed and not the celebrity’s cat. But this occurred in Highgate Wood, not in Highgate Cemetery, ie “Cat’s throat slit during witchcraft ritual in woods: Roger Simpson interviews ‘High Priest’ David Farrant.”[2] The cemetery cat sacrifice incident was something else, somewhere else, ie “White magic rites in Highgate Cemetery” in the Hornsey Journal, 15 October 1971; also “Ritual sex act and cat sacrifice: Farrant’s claims in High Court” in the Hornsey Journal, 16 November 1979. It gets even worse because the article identified by Ellis is not the one Farrant sued the News of the World over. Curiously, no mention is made in Raising the Devil of the actual article in question.

The article Farrant sued over was published on 30 June 1974 (not 23 September 1973) under the headline “Casanova Witch A Failure As Lover.” The article was less about witchcraft than allegations of Farrant selling nude photographs of Martine de Sacy in his local pub and her suggesting that his constant attention-seeking was to compensate for his failed libido. Under libel law the onus is on the publisher to prove what has been printed and de Sacy could not be found anywhere. She had, in fact, disappeared to France under pressure. Farrant won the libel case on this technicality and was awarded derisory damages of just £50 with costs against him as a consequence. Ellis avoids any reference to another libel case (against the Daily Express) which Farrant lost and where costs of £20,000 were awarded against him. Yet this is a much more revealing and interesting case where Farrant’s occult claims are examined by experts.

Ellis tries to reduce the impact of Farrant’s diabolical conversion from late 1970 onward by quoting me from Seán Manchester's work: “Even Manchester says that his rival [sic] only ‘claimed responsibility for blood sacrifices.’ It seems clear that the affair was a media legend drawn from local rumour and Wheatleyesque models.”[3] What Seán Manchester actually says in his book is: “Farrant claimed responsibility for blood sacrifices, demon raisings and voodoo doll threats.”[4] Farrant did not deny at the time that he carried out these acts. He boasted about them in court and to innumerable journalists. He has been recorded stating as much in interviews. In one interview Farrant accepts that he would be perceived by most people as a Satanist. If Seán Manchester used the words “claimed responsibility” it was obviously only to show that Farrant does not disclaim responsibility. Ellis attempts to make it look as though Seán Manchester is somehow doubtful whether Farrant did these things by saying “claimed responsibility.”

John Pope today - with his arm around Yorkshirewoman Barbara Green.

“By December he had agreed to help John Pope, a Barnet labourer who had fallen afoul of the law and been roughly handled during questioning. Farrant agreed to send out two more dolls to the detectives in charge.”[5] Ellis does not identify the charge against Pope. It was ritual abuse. The very thing Ellis is seeking to debunk in Raising the Devil. So his readers do not learn that Pope was found guilty of indecent sexual assault via the black arts on a young boy. Pope subscribes to Crowley’s brand of “sex magick” as found in the Edwardian diabolist’s “magickal” workings. By his own admission, Pope is bisexual and has stated in a recorded interview that being so is an indispensable precondition for advancement within his brand of occult practice. Farrant has no problem with that opinion, and was quick to jump to Pope’s defence.

Seán Manchester's work, which was in Ellis’ possession, reveals: “Few groups will openly describe themselves as being black magic practitioners or Satan worshippers [Pope being an exception]. They will hide themselves behind something less ominous sounding like Wicca, paganism and nature worship. It all appears so harmless on the surface, but underneath the ugly traditions can be discovered. Traditions which would frighten off the sincere enquirer immediately. … One of the best known names in an ever-increasing gallery of infamy is Aleister Crowley who founded the so-called religion of Thelema. … I make mention of Crowley and his pathetic life because so many of today’s magical orders fashion themselves upon him and adopt ‘Thelema’ as a gateway to pure devil worship and classical Satanism. … The black arts, needless to say, attract a massive number of rogues and charlatans who impose upon the credulity of misguided seekers. Power over others is always the motive behind the devious jargon and rigmarole of their magic.”[6]

The diabolist Crowley, whom Farrant and Pope admire and imitate, wrote: “With the cross of Jesus trampled on the floor … Christians necks our footstool, Heaven itself our throne”[7] and stated in his posthumously released ramblings: “I swear to work my Work abhorred, Careless of all but one reward, The pleasure of the Devil our Lord.”[8] These are the sentiments of the man who announced in 1904 that he was the avatar of the New Age of Horus which would supplant Christianity, and who founded in 1920 his depraved cult of Thelema until expelled from Mussolini’s Italy in 1923 amid accusations, among other scandals, of blood drinking, drug taking and child sacrifice. This is the man Farrant and Pope sought to mimic. The latter, of course, claims to be the spiritual son and successor of Aleister Crowley. Neither have a problem with the concept of human sacrifice.

The Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973, on its front page asked: “Would [Farrant’s] ultimate experiment involve human sacrifice?” Journalist Roger Simpson revealed: “Farrant admitted slitting a ‘stray’ cat’s throat at the height of a bizarre witchcraft ritual” - adding later in his article that he had taken receipt of a doll with pins through its head and an accompanying menacing poem from Farrant. “Under the brown paper was a black box which contained a bombshell with a difference,” explained the journalist. The package had been intended for a doctor’s wife, Mrs Annette Wilson, who had been critical in the press of Farrant’s much publicised animal sacrifices, but the Hornsey Journal staff opened it in view of the “bomb scares prominent in the news.” These references will not be found in Ellis’ book.

Many who follow in Crowley’s footsteps invariably become embroiled in the kind of diabolical scenario that fails to accommodate Ellis’ overview of what he deftly dismisses as ostensive behaviour where the link to Satanism is supposedly tenuous if it exists at all. Self-proclaimed “Son of the Beast” John Pope somewhat less tenuously claimed in the Hendon Times, 2 June 1977: “There’s a lot of hypocrisy where animal sacrifices are concerned … ceremonies are far more important than eating beef or having leather shoes. … I’m fed up with all these middle-class witches prancing about and getting their names in the Sunday newspapers. They’re usually conservative and very boring. They’d be more at home at a vicar’s tea party. One look at a genuine Black Mass and they’d run a mile.”

Pope knew all about the real thing. Pop singer John Baldry received black magic threats from Farrant in 1973. Baldry’s occultist friend, rock musician Graham Bond, attempted an exorcism using magical formulae. Soon afterwards Bond fell under the wheels of a train whereupon Pope immediately sought credit for “killing” the musician by the use of a black magic curse. Baldry, half-frightened to death by these events, soon quit England and did not return.
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John Pope, David Farrant and Deborah Davis raising demons.

Ellis continues: “Farrant explained that he and other Society members [sic] were conducting a Wiccan ceremony to try and contact the spirit haunting the house.”[9] This is the derelict house where demon raisings were attempted by Pope, Farrant and a duped Californian by the name of Deborah Davis. These were the only people involved in that episode. Quite where the “Society members” fit in is difficult to comprehend. The female, a cocaine addict, had absolutely no idea what was going on. She nevertheless obliged by posing for photographs. Both Farrant and Pope, when interviewed in the 1970s, unequivocally describe the ceremony they performed three times at the house as a “demon raising.” The interviews they gave at the time to newspapers and magazines refer only to demon raisings and not attempts to “contact the spirit of the house.” The only reason they were drawn to the house was because they had heard rumours of its malevolent atmosphere and because evidence of prior satanic ceremonies had been discovered where the remnant had remained undisturbed on the top floor for some time.

Ellis concludes “The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt” chapter of Raising the Devil with the claim: “Farrant and Manchester remain active in the British occult scene.”[10] Farrant has ostensibly used a manufactured form of pseudo-occultism for publicity in the past, but nowadays says he believes in nothing. Seán Manchester remains an exorcist. Neither of them are “active” in the “British occult scene” beyond Farrant having used occult mumbo-jumbo to attract publicity and Manchester warning against the dangers of the occult.

Journalist Mike Hallowell, an ex-policeman, wrote: “The Vampire Research Society has a strong Christian ethic which warns against dabbling in aspects of the occult which bring nothing but distress and fear.” Hallowell correctly observes in this feature article: “Seán Manchester is actually the [autocephalous] Catholic Bishop of Glastonbury and writer of the aforementioned book [The Highgate Vampire] which has been reviewed positively by experts. One commented that Bishop Manchester’s work was ‘probably the most remarkable contemporary account of vampiric activity and infestation — and cure.’ … The same expert, after reviewing Bishop Manchester’s findings, added, ‘The evidence seems to be overwhelming and the author is to be congratulated on his lucid account of the case which is likely to become one of the classic works on this interesting and mystifying subject’.”[11]

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One of the most vital pieces of evidence - a note in Farrant’s handwriting that is published on page 110 of The Highgate Vampire - a copy of which was in Ellis’ possession as early as 1992 - is curiously overlooked by the author of Raising the Devil. Its authenticity and importance should not be underestimated. It offers some sort of explanation for Farrant's incredible turn around, and begins: “Certain people have approached me and offered a sum of money if I declare the Highgate Ghost or Vampire (which I really have seen) to be a hoax.” Crying “hoax” is precisely what Farrant did following his immersion in the dark occult to garner self-publicity.

Bill Ellis appears to much rather stick his head in the sand than confront fact or acknowledge evidence of the kind presented by Seán Manchester. Raising the Devil is a work so flawed, so biased, and so reliant on someone with a sinister agenda where chapter eight is concerned that, as an academic venture, it can only provoke sighs of dismay and serve to raise more questions that it answers. Ellis did request a meeting with Seán Manchester back in 1992, but the tone and dismissive manner of his overture led to the invitation being politely declined. He nevertheless ordered a copy of Seán Manchester's published work on the subject, which contents, in the event, he at best failed to adequately absorb, or at worst chose to ignore and instead relied on an impression of what he had barely skimmed through.

Anyone reading Ellis’ book to the exclusion of original source material from those individuals who were actually involved in the case will end up being muddled, misled and having all the known facts misrepresented; a practice his British colleague in the Folklore Society continued to do five years later in The Lore of the Land - a thick guide to England’s legends co-written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson.

The task befell Jacqueline Simpson to provide an entry on London’s famous Highgate Cemetery which, in the event, included more than just a passing reference to its vampire. Simpson, according to Oxford University’s Library Journal, is “an esteemed British folklore expert.” This makes her coverage of the case of even greater concern.

“When the apparition was first discussed in the local press in 1970, it was merely called a ghost,”[12] she began. It was called all manner of things when first discussed, but was already being described as a vampire locally; even from as early as 1965. What Simpson is alluding to is the plethora of readers' letters in the Hamsptead & Highgate Express where various correspondents spoke of a figure, spectre, ghost and vampire. The British Occult Society, too, often use the term “spectre” as does Seán Manchester in his published account, but this does not contradict the term “vampire.” What she blurs is the fact that vampires (predatory demonic entities) exhibit a certain spectral aspect.

Simpson continues: “The publicity was initiated by a group of adolescents calling themselves the British Occult Society.”[13] An adolescent is surely someone between childhood and adulthood. Seán Manchester was past his mid-twenties at the time of the early media curiosity and television interviews. Many of those involved or showing interest in the Highgate Vampire case within the British Occult Society were considerably older.

“David Farrant, their [the British Occult Society’s] leader, spent the night there,”[14] Simpson claims, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Farrant did not “lead” the Society. In fact, he owed no connection to the British Occult Society which was originally formed as an umbrella organisation circa 1860. Fellow members and close colleagues included Peter Underwood, Professor Devendra Prasad Varma and similar luminaries. Prior to its dissolution on 8 August 1988, it was presided over by Seán Manchester who featured in a programme on 13 March 1970 (Today, Thames Television) to represent the Society’s investigation into happenings in and around Highgate Cemetery that had been accumulating since the mid-1960s. A number of witnesses to a vampire spectre were also interviewed by Sandra Harris. These consisted largely of children and a young man who was captioned “David Farrant.” Seán Manchester was captioned “President, British Occult Society.” No confusion existed as to who “led” the British Occult Society.

Simpson then incorrectly insists: “Hardly two informants gave the same story.”[15] What was notable, apart from a couple of rather dubious entries subsequently found to be disingenuous, was the similarity in the accounts recorded by the media, not least the local press. They all spoke of a tall, floating figure with burning eyes and an evil aura. She continues to describe Manchester as “another local youth, Seán Manchester”[16] (the Oxford Dictionary defines “youth” as “adolescence” and “inexperienced” etc). Simpson attributes the quote “a 'King Vampire from Wallachia'”[17] to Seán Manchester. That precise phrase did not appear in print, but a similar sentiment was expressed. However, Seán Manchester did not say anything of the kind. He has explained at length in a book which Simpson read several years prior, and in correspondence concerning errors contained in Bill Ellis’ Folklore article, that the term “King Vampire” was a journalistic embellishment.

Referring to Highgate Cemetery, Simpson erroneously states: “both conducted rituals of exorcism.”[18] Farrant did not conduct any "exorcism." Seán Manchester once carried out an exorcism at Highgate Cemetery. It was during August 1970 with the permission of the private cemetery owners. This exorcism was reconstructed by BBC television and transmitted on 15 October 1970.

Though completely unrelated to either Highgate Cemetery or the Highgate Vampire case, Simpson includes in her entry: “Manchester challenged Farrant to a 'magical duel' on Parliament Hill.”[19] Seán Manchester did not challenge Farrant to a “magical duel,” as confirmed by statements made by him at the time and coverage of this occasion in the Hampstead & Highgate Express (articles in April and May 1973) and in From Satan To Christ (1988) where the invitation to exorcise Farrant was incidental to the event itself. Farrant cried off and failed to appear. The Parliament Hill “Ring of Prayer” had nothing to do with a “magical duel” though some of the media exploited it as such due to misinformation fed them by Farrant. Newspapers published retractions following complaints.

Curiously, Simpson refers to only one criminal conviction: “Farrant ... was jailed in 1974 for damage to memorials.”[20] Farrant, in fact, was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment in June 1974 for malicious damage, ie tomb vandalism, at Highgate Cemetery by inscribing black magic symbols on the floor of a mausoleum; offering indignities to remains of the dead, ie desecration via black magic rites where photographs were taken of a naked accomplice in a tomb where occult symbols were marked out on the floor; threatening police witnesses in a separate case where his black magic associate was subsequently found guilty of indecent sexual assault on a minor; theft of items from Barnet Hospital where Farrant worked briefly as a porter in 1970; possession of a handgun and ammunition kept at his address where discovery was made of a black magic altar beneath a mural of the Devil that had featured in the press, not least full front page coverage of the Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973. Simpson obviously felt she needed to downplay the seriousness of Farrant’s part in the Highgate Cemetery matter in view of her determination to lump him in with Seán Manchester for reasons known only to herself.

Jacqueline Simpson, born in 1930 and a resident of Worthing, Sussex, was president of the Folklore Society from 1993 to 1996 and is currently its honorary secretary. She published exceptionally misleading and grossly inaccurate statements in The Lore of the Land, having placed reliance on her American colleague Bill Ellis whose flawed material in Raising the Devil is even more misleading. Some of the press cuttings referred to in his book are wrongly attributed and what he has to say is unbelievably biased. Ellis wrote the following response when Seán Manchester brought to his attention irrefutable evidence - in the form of copies of original reports - of his many errors: “... we agree that the contemporary press handling was often inaccurate, and that most subsequent discussions were even more distorted. ... Mr Farrant, since he brought the matter into the papers and was repeatedly arrested for his activities in and around Highgate, clearly was 'central to events' in this sense. Credible, I don't say: I give his explanations for what they're worth and expect that most readers would also recognize that a judge and jury found them unconvincing.”[21]

Jacqueline Simpson’s terse response and offer to remedy some of her mistakes to Seán Manchester's concern over her damaging misrepresentation being repeated in a pending second edition of The Lore of the Land appeared on the internet:

“Wording changed to 'young people' and 'young man'. Name of organisation dropped, Farrant referred to simply as a 'member' of 'a group of young people interested in the paranormal.' Words 'which the paper called' inserted. No reference now to who did the challenging. Instead, neutral phrasing in allusion to press reports: 'rumours spread that a magical duel ...' The other points are rejected, and no changes will be made there.”

This is how some “scholars” apparently operate. The paperback edition contained an incorrect date for a crucial newspaper article about the mysterious death of foxes even though that had been cleared up well in advance with Seán Manchester. All reference to Seán Manchester's episcopal standing, albeit not entirely accurate in the first edition, was completely expurgated with the earlier references uncorrected. Factual accuracy suffers when a version like the one Ellis put into circulation is then adopted by other scholars who, despite evidence thrust at them, stick to their agenda.

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[1] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p232).
[2] “Cat’s Throat Slit During Witchcraft Ritual In Woods” (Hornsey Journal, 31 August 1973).
[3] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p233).
[4] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p111).
[5] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p233).
[6] From Satan To Christ by Seán Manchester (Holy Grail, 1988, p13-14).
[7] Collected Works of Aleister Crowley (1906).
[8] Satanic Extracts (Black Lodge Publishing, 1991).
[9] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p234).
[10] Raising the Devil by Bill Ellis (University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p237).
[11] Shields Gazette (7 December 2000).
[12] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p472).
[13] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p472).
[14] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p472).
[15] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[16] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[17] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[18] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[19] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[20] The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin Books, 2005, p473).
[21] Correspondence to Seán Manchester from Bill Ellis, 22 February 1996.

The Phoney Witch

2009-02-13T04:53:00.001-08:00

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"What do witches really do?" was the question posed by Robert Kilroy-Silk on BBC television’s Kilroy programme transmitted on 21 June 2001. There in the studio audience sat the hunched figure of David Farrant. He had been invited as a self-styled “high priest of British witchcraft” along with Kevin Carlyon who was coincidentally claiming an identical description. Neither are seriously recognised by other witches and pagans outside their own virtually non-existent covens. Briefly interviewed, Farrant placed importance on being properly initiated into wicca. Carlyon felt that initiation by others was unnecessary and all that is required is self-initiation.

Questions nonetheless arise over Farrant’s own “initiation” and whether or not he is a witch even by his own definition because headlines in national newspapers some three decades earlier described him as a “phoney witch.” Michael Fielder, for example, writing in in The Sun, 4 July 1974, titled his article about David Farrant: “Phoney Witch Sent Out Dolls of Death.”

Today Farrant claims the year 1964 for his initiation into witchcraft, but when asked about this matter in interviews given over the previous three decades he told newspaper reporters that he had been initiated by his spiritualist mother when a minor. The age of thirteen was sometimes given. This age wavered in the telling to different journalists, but any “initiation into witchcraft” was obliged to remain prior to 1959 (when he would have been thirteen) because this is the year his mother died. Farrant later changed this story and nowadays claims he was initiated by a someone called “Helen,” but fails to confirm the identity of “Helen.” Such conjecture becomes academic for those who are familiar with his story. His “wicca” is nothing more than an attention-seeking device.

In an interview with Seán Manchester, following his release from jail, Farrant was asked whether he still considered himself to be a Satanist. He answered: “I wouldn’t describe myself one way or the other.” In the same recorded interview he confirmed that he had been consorting with occultists and black magicians from as early as August 1970. He boasted of witchcraft spells that would harm those who oppose him, and argued in favour of ritual animal sacrifice. Seán Manchester deduced during his time investigating Farant that, while the charlatan is open to manipulation, his theatricals have little to do with witchcraft and everything to do with gratuitous self-aggrandisement. Farrant certainly wanted to be viewed as a black magician by the general public and did everything he could to foster this image in the media while at the same time protesting his “white witch” credentials when there was a hue and cry. That he was a phoney soon became apparent to everyone who watched these antics.

Self-styled "King of the Witches" Alex Sanders.

In October 1972, Alex Sanders attended a Hallowe’en ritual at Highgate Cemetery’s north gate that had received prior publicity (mostly in newspapers) manufactured by Farrant. He appeared alone on the inside of the north gate where misreable attempts were made to light a fire which kept spluttering out, accompanied by Farrant'ss incomprehensible muttered stammerings. Sanders, wearing a hooded duffle jacket, looked suitably bemused. The “King of the Witches” shuffled about among the small crowd of onlookers in Swains Lane, invariably outnumbered by reporters and photographers, while Farrant peered through the iron railings in the hope of being arrested to make newspaper headlines. It became embarrassing for everyone, as the phoney witch stood hunched in his grease-stained mackintosh with nothing much to do or say. A few flash photographs were taken before the curious handful of people, and significantly more journalists who came to witness the promised ritual, departed disappointed. Arch-showman Alex Sanders was singularly unimpressed by Farrant’s puerile antics in the name of witchcraft. It was the only time they were in each other’s close physical proximity.

The Sun article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006500393,00.html

Farrant's “witch orgy” scandal three and a half decades later in The Sun, 31 October 2006, only served to confirm the worst fears of a later generation who were only just beginning to become aware of the old fraudster. Few took the newspaper interview and article seriously; even fewer witches and pagans who regarded the piece as a sick joke and the joker the sickest of all.

The Sun newspaper's Virginia Wheeler interviewed Farrant and reported:
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"A sex-mad witch and a 200-strong coven plan to celebrate Hallowe'en tonight - by deflowering a teenage virgin. Creepy David Farrant boasted yesterday how he will oversee the orgy to initiate the girl into his cult. The 19-year-old trainee accountant will have full sex with a 30-year-old High Priest chosen by Farrant. As the teen writhes naked with the stranger on the floor, the rest of the priest’s coven drop their robes to watch the display in the nude. The 200 onlookers then take part in a mass-orgy at a property in Barnet, North London. Farrant, 56 [sic], is High Priest of the British Psychic and Occult Society. He claims to have bedded 2,000 women in similar Wicca religious ceremonies. He said last night: 'Initiating a virgin on Halloween is very important for Wiccans in serious covens. After the girl has had full sex people are then free to have sex with one another. But it’s not an excuse for a mass orgy - sex is regarded as an essential life force. It’s all done in a private meeting place in Barnet with magical signs on the walls. This sort of thing has to be done behind closed doors because it is not understood by the modern day public.' Farrant, from Muswell Hill, was jailed for nearly five years in the 1970s for damaging graves and sending voodoo dolls to police officers. His society now boasts 374 members [sic] and more than 200 are expected at tonight’s bash. Farrant, who also describes himself as a Vampire Hunter [sic], said in past years up to three women were initiated at the same time. He added: 'These girls are mainly students or people who have left school and are disillusioned with life. They are all over 18 and we don’t initiate them if we believe they are just coming along for the sex'.”[1]
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Farrant (born on 23 January 1946, so he could not possibly have been fifty-six years old in October 2006 when the interview was published) claimed eleven years earlier in an interview given to his associate Robert Brautigam: "I am in fact no longer a Wiccan as such - although it is true that not so long ago, I underwent initiations into the Wiccan belief. ... But now I tend to work alone."[2]

Moreover, Farrant's "374 members" are peculiarly unwilling (and unable, as they do not exist) to join the plethora of internet forums and message boards he creates in the name of the "British Psychic and Occult Society" and the "Highgate Vampire Society." Both of these imaginary "societies" claim "374 members" (a number of some obvious significance to him), yet neither reveal anyone beyond Farrant and the usual handful of culprits who vary between obvious trouble-makers spoiling for a fight and those clearly mentally disturbed.
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In order to achieve the publicity he still so desperately craves, Farrant is obliged to resort to the sort of extravagant claims witnessed in The Sun newspaper which bear no resemblance to the truth. He did exactly the same thing back in the early 1970s. Subsequent to his interview in The Sun, his girlfriend Catherine Fearnley remarked on that newspaper's online comments section that she telephoned and spoke to Farrant three times on the night in question and that she was aware he could "hardly walk down the stairs" due to a "damaged foot." She did Farrant's dirty work for him on the internet from 2004 to 2007 before realising the gravity of the situation. She has since regretted her actions and apologised to Seán Manchester for causing him and his family harm. She described Farrant as evil, and has now converted to Christianity.
.

Someone using the pseudonym "Illgrace" on the Pagan Network commented:

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"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about Master Farrant. This dude will crawl on his knees and drag his tongue along the tarmac of the M6 for 100 miles for 4 inches of print. He's a publicity junkie of the first water. Anybody that has had the misfortune to have read his 'essays' on pagan forums (any that will let him on) if he can't 'shock you (oh, puleese) he will bang on and on and on and on about whatever fantasy trip he's on at the time."

Kevin Demant, David Farrant and Gareth Medway in the new century.

The cancer of malice had eaten away and consumed Farrant by the time these pathetic latter-day events unfolded. How did it happen? Why did it happen? All along a situation of contradiction existed where the dark side finally succeeded in taking full possession of an erstwhile non-entity. The person Seán Manchester became acquainted with in 1970, despite Farrant's fraudulent intent, did not deny the existence of supernatural evil when interviewed by the media. Even after his phoney “conversion” to witchcraft and occultism, Farrant still upheld a belief in the existence of the Devil back then.

The following report appeared in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 21 June 1974:

"Conducting his own defence, [Farrant] told the jury from the witness box on Friday: 'From time to time witchcraft, black magic, Satanism and necromancy have been mentioned in this case. I must start by trying to explain to you exactly what I am - a follower of the religion known as wicca and commonly known in the press as witchcraft. It is a religion which we believe dates back thousands of years. It is not a religion which denies the existence of God or the Devil'."

Compare this to what Farrant said on UK Living’s Michael Cole Show, 20 December 1998, when he told the audience: "I do not believe in the existence of the Devil."

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[1] “Witch Orgy To Take Virginity” by Virginia Wheeler, The Sun, 31 October 2006.
[2] Farrant quoted in Robert Brautigam's International Vampire #18, August 1995.

Black Magic Threats

2009-02-13T04:52:00.006-08:00

Farrant holding a ritual dagger and a voodoo doll in 1972.

"Wife was 'terrified' by Black Magic threat on the phone."

The Daily Mirror, 5 November 1970, published an inaccurate and unbalanced report of the outcome of a court case for assault brought by Seán Manchester against John Bradish, a friend of David Farrant but not an acquaintance of Seán Manchester's. A complaint was immediately lodged with the Press Council against the Daily Mirror by Seán Manchester. The Press Council upheld Seán Manchester's complaint and the Daily Mirror was obliged to publish a statement offering balancing commentary which they did at the foot of page two of their newspaper on 26 November 1970. Criminal compensation was awarded to Seán Manchester in the following year by the Criminal Compensation Board; the assault case having been proven resulted in compensation for injuries sustained. It is regrettable that the deception upon John Bradish and his wife Gillian Bradish by David Farrant was not realised by this couple until after the court case. Gillian Bradish was put on the spot by the prosecution when asked how she knew who made the telephone calls. She went along with what she had been previously told by Farrant. However, in the following year she accepted she had been wrong and realised it was Farrant who made the threatening black magic telephone calls.

Until the trial, Seán Manchester had not spoken with or met Gillian Bradish. How could she possibly have recognised his voice when she made no contact with Seán Manchester until the day of the court case? Seán Manchester was later informed by Anthony Hill (in whose cellar Farrant resided from August 1969 until August 1970) that John and Gillian Bradish’s telephone number was ex-directory. Hill was acquainted with this couple and had spoken to them on various occasions in pubs. Seán Manchester most definitely had not. The information about the telephone being ex-directory was revealed in a conversation along with much else about the Bradish situation. Hill was a potential witness for the prosecution in the Bradish case, but opted not to get involved in the wake of his involvement with Mary Farrant two years earlier resulting in him being declared a hostile witness if summoned. He had provided Farrant with his coal bunker in a communal cellar beneath his ground floor flat when Farrant was evicted from his own flat and declared bankrupt in August 1969. Farrant remained ensconced in this coal bunker until his arrest on the night of 17 August 1970 after which he was held on remand at Brixton Prison. When allowed out on bail, Farrant took up residence at the Bradish household as their lodger. It was during this period that the black magic telephone threats were made by David Farrant to Gillian Bradish. Farrant initially persuaded Gillian Bradish that the caller was Seán Manchester; someone she knew nothing about other than what she had read in newspapers. In doing so, Farrant took his revenge on John Bradish for allegedly making advances toward Mary Farrant in the previous year at their Highgate flat where John Bradish sometimes visited. Seán Manchester knew none of these people at that time and only eventually became aware of Farrant through local reports in early 1970 and the Bradishes through the court case in November of that year.

When Farrant’s publicity stunts and arrest at Highgate Cemetery in 1970 met with Seán Manchester's public disapproval on a television programme and in the local press, Farrant began a personal vendetta which has continued to this day. Newspaper reports of Farrant making black magic threats by sending voodoo dolls to various other people started to appear not long after the black magic telephone threats made to Gillian Bradish. Farrant unwisely boasted about his telephone threats to the Bradish household. These boasts were heard by Anthony Hill and other patrons of the Prince of Wales pub in Highgate Village. Farrant's black magic threats quickly built a momentum, culminating in a stiff prison sentence for threatening witnesses with voodoo “death dolls” impaled with pins.

David Farrant continued to make black magic threats falsely attributed to Seán Manchester, as the latter revealed in 1988:

"I met Jean-Paul Bourre briefly at the end of 1979, as recounted in my earlier work on this subject, when he came to London to do research on a book to be published in France the following spring. ... Inside the book a photograph appeared of a written 'curse' bearing my initials. It had apparently been directed at Nathalie Sarazin who was living with Bourre in Paris at the time. When a copy of the book with this picture reached my desk, I immediately recognised it to be the handiwork of Farrant who was trying to discredit me while at the same time provide Bourre with something new to write about. Bourre obliged and attributed the 'curse' to myself. Needless to say, few would be silly enough to imagine that the author of such devilry would actually sign it with his own initials, but Farrant had underestimated the public's intelligence many times before. Moreover, had not he inscribed his own initials on voodoo dolls and written curses sent to all and sundry before his prison sentence as revealed in press photographs and court reports? The least contact with such devious people runs the risk of all sorts of untrue scandals and smears against one's name - even when poorly counterfeited by obvious buffoons. The sombre spectre of David Farrant can still be seen shuffling through London's Muswell Hill as the Eighties draw to a close. He occupies a bedsitiing room opposite Highgate Wood where he once shamelessly flaunted his witchcraft. Now stooped and haggard-looking, he dwindles in his own peculiar oblivion - driven by an obsession ..." [1]

Some years later, Seán Manchester spoke on the telephone to Nathalie Sarazin who by then was no longer with Jean-Paul Bourre. She was in no doubt that the curse directed at her was manufactured and sent to her by Farrant; probably with Bourre's knowledge and approval.

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[1] From Satan To Christ by Seán Manchester (Holy Grail, 1985, pp 23-24).

Wicca Workers Party

2009-02-13T04:52:00.005-08:00

Farrant in his familiar trench coat with a couple of heavies on a local jaunt.

A Sunday People article in 1977, written by someone in collusion with David Farrant, claimed that the existence of a Neo-Nazi cell in north London during that period was "phoney." Ironically, within a short space of time after that article's publication a fire-bombing campaign on north London synagogues was carried out by the very organisation claimed by the Sunday People's Frank Thorne to be "phoney."

Seán Manchester's position is quite clear. He has no interest in party politics and has at no time in his life been a member of any political party. False allegations to the effect that he has been a National Front member, and canvassed for them, stem exclusively from David Farrant; the same David Farrant who attempted to stand as a WWP candidate in the 1978 British General Election; the same David Farrant who recommended that potential voters should switch to the National Front when he stood down; the same David Farrant who has sought and received support from Nazi-minded individuals with far right associations to attack Seán Manchester. In the '70s and '80s Seán Manchester was the North London Regional Co-ordinator for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and an active member of Pax Christi. His peace campaigning was supported by such eminent figures as Lord Fenner Brockway, often resulting in media coverage. When Manchester led the "Fast for Peace" one Christmas he was joined by the elderly Lord Brockway and other peace campaigners. On that occasion thugs believed to be Neo-Nazis attacked those fasting. This was reported by local newspapers at the time. So the suggestion by Farrant that Seán Manchester is, or ever has been, a Neo-Nazi is not only risible but ludicrous in the extreme. Furthermore, this allegation is not even hinted at, much less suggested, in the Sunday People article itself.

John Pope in his Neo-Nazi attire during the 1970s.

John Russell Pope, a collaborating supporter of David Farrant since 1973, has a long history of Neo-Nazi involvement. He has forwarded articles to the National Front in relatively recent times. He resides at the London home of his late uncle, Bill Binding, who was in the news in 2001 when he attempted to join the Conservative Party:

"Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith says he will be looking at whether action is needed over reports that a former deputy leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Britain has joined the Tory party. Bill Binding, 76, from Clapton, east London, who stood for the far-right British National Party (BNP) in the 1997 election, told the Guardian he had left the Klan four years ago after deciding different races were genetically alike."

Binding's nephew John Pope runs Jack the Ripper tours in east London. On his website Pope describes himself as “a master of the black arts, a third degree witch and Odinist … a natural shaman and master of Yoga and other preternatural mysteries and systems.” He also claims to be a descendant of Robin Hood, as well as being of “blood line to Jack the Ripper and Dracula”. For decades he and his associate David Farrant have been openly hostile toward Seán Manchester. Pope, who nowadays styles himself "Pope-de Locksley," is dubbed on his website as “The Scariest Man in London.”

Frank Thorne's sensationalist piece (known as a "spoiler" in the business) in the Sunday People, 9 October 1977 was based exclusively on that newspaper reporter's collaboration with David Farrant who, then as now, remains violently antipathetic toward Seán Manchester. Farrant had not long been released from prison when his collusion with Thorne took place. The Sunday People article came about when Seán Manchester refused to collude with Frank Thorne on an investigative piece he had begun to have published as a commission with the Times Group Newspapers who at that time published the Borehamwood Post, Finchley Times and Hendon Times etc. This resulted in Thorne harassing the bishop's parents on the doorstep of their Islington home. Seán Manchester asked the journalist to desist on the grounds that his parents were not involved, nor responsible for any story he might be looking to find in order to spoil, and that one of them, the Manchester's father, was suffering with a heart condition. Thorne ignored such pleas and Seán Manchester was obliged to meet the journalist, albeit briefly, at the offices of the Sunday People on 5 October 1977 in order to prevent any further harassment of his parents. Such is the blackmail exerted by tabloid journalists.

This meeting confirmed Seán Manchester's worst fears when it became apparent that Thorne, who suffered from a serious alcohol problem which eventually cost him his job, was in contact with David Farrant who was clearly willing to go along with anything the newspaper wanted that might cause Seán Manchester damage. Frank Thorne had decided the direction his piece on the Manchester's already extant work was heading after hearing from Farrant, and four days later published his "spoiler," as it is known in the print media, against the Times Group's exclusive series already in progress under the Seán Manchester's byline.

In this "spoiler" - titled "We Unmask Phoney Nazis" - Thorne attributed quotes to three people. They all denied making them and all issued complaints. Complaints against Frank Thorne and the Sunday People were filed with Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd by Seán Manchester, Mike Clarke and John Russell Pope. A complaint was also lodged with the Press Council by Seán Manchester against Frank Thorne and the Sunday People.

A statement was witnessed and signed by John Pope in pursuit of his complaint against the Sunday People. A copy was also included among the documents lodged with the Press Council by Seán Manchester in his case against Frank Thorne. Pope's testimony was added to illustrate that someone who was completely unsupportive of Manchester would nevertheless not allow himself to be bullied by Thorne. It is understood that the following statement transcribed from his original taped recollection was made at the insistence of Pope's father, Fred Pope, who resented his son's treatment by the newspaper:

"On the evening of 6 October 1977, two men called at my home at [address deleted], Barnet, Hertfordshire, and without identifying themselves demanded to see me. My father thought they were police detectives by their manner. When invited to come inside, they refused and insisted that I accompany them to a nearby car. That is when they first revealed themselves to be working for the Sunday People. One, calling himself Frank Thorne, tried to make me say that a photograph of a man in a Nazi uniform was Seán Manchester. They showed me a copy of the Borehamwood Post and tried to make me say that the article called 'The New Nazis' was false. But they would not let me read any of the article and did not refer specifically to the 'League of Imperial Fascists.' They told me that I would be guaranteed future mention in their newspaper if I co-operated, but I was not prepared to let them use me in this way. The following evening I telephoned the Sunday People and asked to speak to the News Editor. I complained to him about his reporters' methods, especially Frank Thorne, and reminded him that I belonged to a survivalist group that had political connections, further about which I did not wish to elaborate. I did not seem to get any satisfactory replies, so I spoke to him again on the telephone on Saturday morning, 8 October 1977, by which time I had been told by Seán Manchester what Frank Thorne had alleged I said on Thursday evening, which I knew to be false. I did not identify any person in the photographs shown to me."

A statement (ref; CFW/SP/P6282/6/3/78) issued by Mike Clarke, editor of the Borehamwood Post, was noted by the Press Council. This greatly respected newspaper editor denied all the remarks attributed to him by Frank Thorne in the Sunday People article of 9 October 1977. He underlined the fact that he had most definitely not said the words, nor anything similar, to the effect of "I'm afraid I'm left with egg on my face. I shall be taking legal advice."

The complaint lodged by Seán Manchester with the Press Council follows:

"The Sunday People newspaper concocted an inaccurate article about me which they did not correct when presented with Mr John Pope's statement and other evidence which showed none of Frank Thorne's allegations against me to be true. Photographs belonging to me were used in an article without my permission. I was, however, promptly paid a sum of money for their use, which, unwisely, I accepted as compensation for what amounted to copyright theft. From the start I had made clear to Frank Thorne that I had no wish to 'collaborate' on the Nazi story as (a) it was my work, and (b) the Sunday People's 'treatment' of my work, as proposed by Frank Thorne to me, was one I found to be unacceptable. Frank Thorne then threatened to use my material with or without my permission. None of the quotes attributed to me are true. I did not state to Frank Thorne that the 'Nazi recruiting picture of John Pope' was 'faked.' I did identify the person in the picture [of the 'Commander']. This was ignored by Frank Thorne."

A compelling piece of evidence presented to the Press Council was Frank Thorne's complete reliance on collusion with David Farrant. Nobody other than Farrant was able to "identify" the Nazi Commander in the stolen photograph. For legal reasons Thorne fraudulently added John Pope's name to the identification, but Pope absolutely denied making any such identification as his signed statement of 9 December 1977 attests. Furthermore, Pope, off the record, claimed that he had been "roughed up" by Thorne and the accompanying journalist when they took him away from his home for interrogation in their car.

Incredibly, Farrant, who, remember, was and still is extremely antipathetic toward Seán Manchester, agreed to make a statement (probably seeing its enormous publicity potential) which he duly signed on 2 January 1978. The statement was lodged with the Press Council by the bishop. David Farrant's statement follows:

"I received a 'phone call from Trevor Aspenal of the Sunday People who enquired about my relationship with Seán Manchester and the British Occult Society. I told him there was no change and that we were still strongly opposed to each other. I then spoke to Frank Thorne of the same newspaper who asked me if I could identify Seán Manchester in a picture. I told him that I would be able to. He then arranged for me to attend the Sunday People's offices where I was shown a photograph of someone in a Nazi uniform. He then showed me a number of other photographs of men and women in Nazi uniforms. I identified one of the men as John Pope. I agreed with Frank Thorne that the original picture shown to me could have been Seán Manchester."

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Unfortunately, the payment as a form of compensation by the Sunday People to Seán Manchester for the use of his pictures without permission technically placed the complainant in a contractual relationship with the newspaper, thus contravening paragraph 4 of the Press Council's guidelines. The Press Council, therefore, was unable to process the complaint, but nonetheless acknowledged in writing that Seán Manchester, Mike Clarke and John Russell Pope had disavowed the quotes attributed to them by Frank Thorne in the Sunday People article. Six months after publication of the offending article, it was time for the journalist to reward Farrant with some promised publicity for his co-operation.

Frank Thorne accompanied Farrant on a train journey to Grimsby where he was photographed with "fiancée" Nancy O'Hoski outside a church for a half-page feature about their proposed wedding. Published in the Sunday People, 16 April 1978, Thorne's article opens with the following words:

"Self-styled witch king David Farrant - the man jailed for desecrating a tomb and threatening detectives with voodoo - has a new shock in store. What's more, Britain's best-known Prince of Darkness is dreaming of a traditional white wedding."

The article quoted Farrant as saying; "I want to put my ghoulish past behind me now. Either I give up witchcraft or Nancy."

Soon after the story was printed, David Farrant gave up Nancy O'Hoski, a speech therapist (Farrant suffers from a nervous stammer). They did not get married. There was never any intention on Farrant's part of them getting wed. Then came a very curious turn of events. Within days of the publicity generated by his abandoned wedding plans in the Sunday People, Farrant prepared to stand as a candidate in the forthcoming British General Election. He launched what was described as the "Wicca Workers Party" to the cry of "Wiccans Awake!" Journalist and editor Peter Hounam wrote a front page story for the Hornsey Journal, 30 June 1978, that thundered:

"A new peril for candidates fighting the marginal Hornsey constituency emerged this week with news that some of their supporters who indulge in witchcraft may switch their votes to the 'Wicca Workers Party' in the General Election. David Farrant, who lives in Muswell Hill Road, is fighting under the slogan 'Wiccans Awake'."
.

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Farrant became more confident and published a letter in the Hornsey Journal, 21 July 1978, which stated:

"It is not my intention to use your letter columns to promulgate the views of the Wicca Workers Party or to become involved in futile argument with any of your readers, but having seen the opinions expressed in the letter columns of the Journal, I feel that I should set the record straight. In fact, the WWP is a serious political party and has growing support from people all over the country; including other political groups with whom we are now amalgamated."
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John Pope continued with his Neo-Nazi associations, and more recently published a piece in the journal of the south-western branch of the National Front, an organisation with overtly Neo-Nazi views. He has belonged to survivalist groups and has always managed to maintain contact with some of the most extreme movements to have existed on the far right. David Farrant has a history of association with people with Neo-Nazi ideology. He connects, for example, to names such as Philippe Welte and Jean-Paul Bourre, two Frenchman who greatly admired Hitler at the time Farrant was in collaboration with them in the 1980s. Farrant's self-published pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire includes a photograph of Jean-Paul Bourre whom he describes in the caption beneath as "a leading Satanist attempting to invoke the Devil." What Farrant fails to mention is his close friendship and collaboration over many years with Bourre. There are others with whom David Farrant has been associated who have far right connections. Kenneth Frewin, for example, a National Front supporter, acted as Farrant's "minder" during the '70s and '80s and allowed his council flat address to be used for hoaxed letters written by Farrant to newspapers. Frewin also collaborated in some of Farrant's publicity stunts, on one occasion adopting the pseudonym "Kenny French." The journalist Frank Thorne is nowadays unemployed and resides in Sydney, Australia.
.

Farrant’s Wicca Worker’s Party poster with comparison made

with a section of a League of Imperial Fascists’ poster (below).

The Quisling Brautigam

2009-02-13T04:52:00.003-08:00

Rob Brautigam when he was a fan of Seán Manchester - framed images

of whom can be viewed above Brautigam's right shoulder (left of picture).

"Sincere and well-meant thanks to David Farrant, who was willing to discuss and share his information about the case (unlike some). Thank you very much, David." - Rob Brautigam (Internet website, 14 April 2009)

In June 1990, Rob Brautigam of Amsterdam, Holland, wrote to Seán Manchester at the International Society For The Advancement Of Irrefutable Vampirological And Lycanthropic Research (aka Vampire Research Society) to apply for membership in that organisation. He subscribed to a strong belief in the existence of real, ie supernatural, vampires and, moreover, their control. He had not yet embarked upon any newsletter or magazine production of his own; though that would soon alter. His correspondence was directed to the exorcist c/o the ISAIVLR (VRS) Highgate address in London, England. (This address became redundant at the turn of the century and initial contact is only now possible via the Society’s website and forum).

Rob Brautigam wrote: “It has been with the greatest interest and admiration that I have occasionally read about your activities over the years. … It goes without saying that I would very much like to join your Society. So could you please tell me if it is possible for me to be a member of the ISAIVLR?”

Over the following year and a half, Seán Manchester arranged three meetings with Brautigam. By the second and penultimate rendezvous it was transparent that the Dutchman was not suitable membership material. In the interim Brautigam had launched a home-produced magazine titled International Vampire. Brautigam went out of his way to compliment Seán Manchester on his “truly magnificent The Highgate Vampire” which the Dutchman described as “a masterpiece of vamirography.” Brautigam 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 to Seán Manchester, 22 August 1990).

When the updated and revised edition was published some months later, Brautigam enthusiastically sang its praises in International Vampire and elsewhere. By this time Rob Brautigam had made contact with Kev Demant who also admired the same author’s work. They described themselves as “fans of Seán Manchester.” Demant would later apply for ISAIVLR/VRS membership. His application was also rejected. By his own admission, Kev Demant had nothing to contribute to vampirological research, having hitherto read fiction on the subject. Despite being refused membership, Brautigam and Demant nevertheless maintained a regular and amicable correspondence with Seán Manchester until the end of 1992. Some of this was to solicit contributions for Brautigam’s magazine, but the direction being taken by the Dutchman witnessed a certain reluctance on Seán Manchester’s part to provide further material for International Vampire. Thus, by the end of 1992, the relationship had begun to sour. At the beginning of that same year, Brautigam revealed interest in David Farrant, a dishevelled character living in a London bed-sitting room who was sentenced to almost five years’ imprisonment in 1974 for desecration and vandalism linked to pseudo-occult rituals at Highgate Cemetery and sending black magic threats through the post. The Dutchman would refer to his “growing David Farrant File of Shame” and attributed the adjective “simpleton” to Farrant.

The book Brautigam referred to as "a masterpiece."

The Dutchman’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 to Seán Manchester, 20 December 1992).

Seán Manchester wrote further, but gained no response and was never to hear from the Dutchman again. The puzzle was solved some time later when it became clear that Rob Brautigam had entered into an alliance with an emissary of the very dark forces to which the Dutchman had alluded in April 1991.

Brautigam started to describe himself as a major vampirologist; indeed “the only vampire expert in the Netherlands,” which to many came as something of a surprise to those who were genuinely expert. This sudden claim, something of a revelation to Seán Manchester at the time, appeared in the Dutch Sunday tabloid Zondagsnieuws in 1992. Reggie Naus, a Dutch correspondent in contact with Seán Manchester, wrote:

“About a year ago he appeared on a Dutch talk show alongside Chorondzon Vanian, a vampiroid in a black tuxedo, wearing sunglasses inside a studio, with long sharp fangs in his mouth. After Vanian told the audience he would live forever, Rob Brautigam told them a vampire would go out at night and ‘drink fresh blood from young virgins.’ I find it rather curious that a ‘vampire expert’ would believe a vampire can only drink the blood of virgins” (Correspondence to Seán Manchester, 21 March 1996).

Naus would reveal a disturbing development: “Brautigam's website seems to have become a meeting place for vampiroids, with contact advertisements of people claiming to be 450 years old and similar nonsense” (Correspondence to Seán Manchester, 15 May 1999).

David Farrant who was jailed in June 1974 for “black magic” crimes.

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David Farrant's fraudulent claim that he was somehow part of a serious investigation into the supernatural goings on at Highgate Cemetery are exposed to the light of day when anyone who actually knew him at the time is heard. Farrant's first wife, Mary, was certainly around and she gave testimony as a defence witness under oath at her husband's trials at the Old Bailey in June 1974. This is what was recorded in a national newspaper by a court reporter: “The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant — she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton — said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband. They have not lived together for three years” (The Sun, 21 June 1974).

The concensus view four decades ago was that Farrant amounted to nothing more than a lone publicity-seeker in search of a convenient bandwagon to jump on. This opinion was reached due to the plethora of first-hand evidence from his contemporaries who knew his claims to be bogus. His publicity stunts nevertheless landed him in jail with a prison sentence of four years and eight months. “Farrant was a fool. Fascinated by witchcraft … he couldn’t keep his interests to himself. He was a blatant publicist. He told this newspaper of his activities, sent photographs and articles describing his bizarre activities” (Peter Hounam, Editor, Hornsey Journal, 16 July 1974). Another newspaper reporting on a court appearance where Farrant had apparently orchestrated his own arrest (this time in a churchyard, where witchcraft had supplanted vampires as his vehicle for publicity) recorded: “Mr P J Bucknell, prosecuting, said Mr Farrant had painted circles on the ground, lit with candles, and had told reporters and possibly the police of what he was doing. ‘This appears to be a sordid attempt to obtain publicity,’ he said” (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 24 November 1972). Soon after his brief stint as a lone “vampire hunter,” Farrant hung up his cross and stake and replaced them with pentagrams, voodoo dolls and ritual daggers. This led to more arrests and a stiff prison sentence. Far from showing any remorse for his behaviour, Farrant has exploited his criminal past to the full in a life devoted to phoney witchcraft and malicious pamphleteering.
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Brautigam, however, states on his Dutch website that Farrant has been “investigating the phenomena in Highgate Cemetery from the very beginning.” But this is impossible, even if it is plausible, which it patently is not. When the vampiric spectre was first being sighted at Highgate Cemetery, Farrant would have been a mere teenager. He was living on the Continent when the phenomenon reared its head to two convent schoolgirls which brought it to the attention of Seán Manchester. Indeed, France was where he met his Irish wife, Mary. Newspaper reports, court records, and various interviews on tape at the time, confirm that Farrant only learned about the rumoured vampire when he drank in local pubs in early 1970. He somewhat unconvincingly claims to have seen it himself around this time, and wrote the following to a local newspaper:
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"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."
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- David Farrant, "Letters to the Editor," Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970.
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Farrant wrote to Seán Manchester prior to his arrest in August 1970 and also during his remand at Brixton Prison. What he wrote is completely at odds with his later claims and certainly supports the recorded facts according to Seán Manchester, ie that Farrant was nothing more than a lone, would-be vampire hunter who acted solely to achieve self-publicity in the media; someone who had absolutely no connection whatsoever to the investigation already in progess into the supernatural happenings at Highgate Cemetery.

The Quisling Demant

2009-02-13T04:52:00.001-08:00

Kev Demant during a pub outing with Farrant in the new century.

"If we have to nominate one single expert in this world who seems to know absolutely everything about the Highgate case, I will definitely put my money on Kev Demant." - Rob Brautigam (Internet, 14 April 2009)

The gangly spectre of Kev Demant, “an avowed Seán Manchester supporter,”[1] posted fan mail for three years before turning unpleasant. Much of his correspondence referred to his drab high-rise council block existence in East London’s Whitechapel area, his infrequent excursion to this or that morbid place, failure to catch transmissions of Seán Manchester on television and radio, and the inane ramblings one might expect from a self-proclaimed obsessive. Demant and his wife, Christine, met Seán Manchester just twice - each time at a public event where they chatted very briefly before the occasion itself demanded Manchester's full attention. The couple also caught the back of Seán Manchester's head at a third venue during an ecumenical gathering in Westminster Cathedral, but without tickets they could not sit close enough to make contact. Seán Manchester had no reason to question the Demants’ motives beyond their very obvious enthusiasm shown toward his books. In common with Jennie Gray, the managing editor of Udolpho, and others - including their pal Rob Brautigam - The Highgate Vampire was to become the Demants’ favourite book of all time:

“I am constantly reading books on horror and the supernatural and can quite honestly say that no book has ever had quite the same effect on me.”[2]

When the revised and updated edition was published in the summer of 1991, Demant immediately wrote:

“The definitive edition of The Highgate Vampire now holds pride of place in the Demants 1,200 plus ‘library.’ I hope you will excuse my lapsing into unashamed fandom for a moment to tell you I love the book - an intriguing, beautifully produced masterpiece of the supernatural. Nobody is producing anything like it in the present day - from the cover onward it looks and is unique … I hope I’ve not been too gushy, it is just that I truly admire and respect you and your work.”[3]

Kev Demant at the time he was a fan of Seán Manchester.

When the Demants met the managing editor of Udolpho, Jennie Gray, in July 1991 at the first get together of Gray’s Gothic Society, the occasion was recorded and transmitted by BBC Radio Four’s Kaleidoscope on the last day of the month. Demant’s voice was picked up, out of those present, to be heard protesting:

“Actually, we’re not really in with this lot; we’re more into Seán Manchester.”

The following week, he described Gray’s society as belonging to an “older age group, very middle class etc. We looked, felt, indeed were totally alien in such surroundings.”[4]

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The Demants nevertheless formed an association with Gray and Brautigam, who were already in contact with each other. Seán Manchester recognised the potential in Christine’s talent for line drawing, and offered to showcase some of her illustrations in a couple of his published works. One of these was his first novel for which Manchester provided photographs to direct and influence the outcome of her drawings; most of which proved to be almost facsimiles of the originals. Her line drawings also feature in the most recent edition of The Highgate Vampire. Most people agree that these two books portray the very best of her work.
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The Demants would sometimes sign their correspondence “Kev and Chrissie (friends and fans)” - and their praise was not reserved for merely one topic. Demant proclaimed From Satan To Christ to be “a valuable exposé of present-day Satanism and the charlatans who lure the innocent onto the Left-hand Path.”[5]

This last statement is worth remembering in view of what came to transpire in the period ahead where a total about turn occurred, and these two works became targets for their vilification.

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Not wanting to lose a unique opportunity for her specialist magazine, Gray commissioned Demant to conduct an interview with Seán Manchester who was gradually persuaded and hesitatingly consented. Manchester's schedule, however, prevented a face to face interview, which obliged Demant to ask questions on Gray’s behalf via correspondence and Seán Manchester answering them through the same medium.

“This is certainly a strange way of conducting an interview,” he wrote. “Jennie sets the questions, you do all the hard work and I get my name to the results! … I hope I can do you justice.”[6] A week later, having received Seán Manchester's answers, Demant replied: “You have not balked at the more ‘difficult’ questions.”[7]

When he saw Gray’s expurgated eventual outcome in print, Demant was quite obviously less enthusiastic:

“To be honest, I don’t know what to feel about the article, a somewhat sanitised version of the material submitted. Many of your responses have been truncated while my own contribution has been edited, certain sentences have been rewritten (badly in my opinion and without my consent) and ultimately censored. … I wonder what all these aesthetes, decadents, intellectuals and yuppies who constitute the readership are going to make of it all!”[8]
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It did not take long to discover want they made of it all. Within a month all six hundred copies sold out. Gray ordered an unprecedented extra hundred copies. Her magazine had reached its peak. On December 14th, Demant wrote: “Somehow I think it is your prestigious interview which had much to do with the favourable response.”

Rob Brautigam at the time he was a fan of Seán Manchester.
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Kevin Demant had also peaked. Having made innumerable scathing criticisms (some in print - often his correspondence containing the addendum “you can quote me on that”), he launched an astonishing attack out of the blue, and lauded David Farrant whose illicit pamphlet Beyond the Highgate Vampire he suddenly approved and advertised, albeit confessing that he had turned into one of the “quislings” who were “beating a path … to [Farrant’s] door.”[9]

In the same article, Demant now described and promoted himself as “Britain’s premier vampirologist.” This last claim was the most bizarre because it had been apparent throughout his correspondence with Seán Manchester that neither of the Demants knew anything much about vampirology.

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Demant had provided an account of his only “practical” experience to Seán Manchester:

“I visited St Mary’s churchyard, Harrow-on-the-Hill, last Thursday for the first time in over a decade. The cemetery is still magnificently gloomy and atmospheric, indeed it hasn’t changed at all. When I was a kid my friends and I used to think it was haunted - it certainly looks as though it ought to be. There was a lot of vandalism and spray-painting on the tombstones - and I can’t recall whether it was satanic or not. My friend and I decided to have a look around there after dark, but were unfortunately dissuaded from doing so by the arrival of a bunch of rather ugly looking bikers. So ended my ghost-hunting days. Not exactly Montague Summers, I’m afraid.”

In the same letter, Demant also mentioned Farrant’s Beyond the Highgate Vampire:

“The pamphlet hardly seems to have made a ripple, not surprising really … Having quoted [without consent] those two extraordinary sequences from your book in their entirety I thought he might have given you a few new customers.”[10]

But for the efforts of Demant, Gray and Brautigam in the years to follow, the home-produced pamphlet would have sunk without trace.

Rob Brautigam's first meeting with Seán Manchester in 1991.
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Rob Brautigam had also now started to blow his own trumpet without any real justification, describing himself as “the only vampire expert in the Netherlands.” This preposterous claim, something of a revelation to Seán Manchester at the time, appeared in the Dutch Sunday tabloid Zondagsnieuws in 1992. Reggie Naus, a Dutch correspondent whom Seán Manchester knew, wrote:

Naus would reveal a disturbing development: “Brautigam’s website seems to have become a meeting place for vampiroids, with contact advertisements of people claiming to be 450 years old and similar nonsense.”[12]

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A visit on the internet to Brautigam’s website at the turn of the century revealed links to other sites that were overtly satanic, promoting Aleister Crowley and such like. Farrant’s squalid pamphlets were now on offer courtesy of Brautigam’s advertising.

Demant and his two associates in “fandom” probably became treacherous and disloyal because they desperately wanted the quick fix of immediate gratification - not unlike the gutter press - whereas Seán Manchester has always been an extremely private person, a lesson learned early in life when he awoke and found himself plastered across newspapers. He would always be willing to answer technical queries in response to correspondents; otherwise general fan mail was dealt with by one of Manchester's secretaries. Demant and Brautigam managed to pass through the net. Farrant, meanwhile, courted attention and colluded with absolutely anybody willing to play his game. Perhaps frustrated by Seán Manchester's aloofness and need for privacy, Demant and Brautigam slowly turned to Farrant for their fix.

A friend of Seán Manchester - French actress Sylvaine Charlet.
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Just a few of months earlier, Demant had declared: “I’m just somebody who admires you and your work which I think is important and never less than interesting.”[13] He assured Seán Manchester in private correspondence: “To my mind the best work has been done by Montague Summers and yourself - two Englishmen!”[14]
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Demant's correspondence ended abruptly in December 1993. He and Brautigam were now gaining succour for their Highgate Cemetery obsession from Farrant. In the meantime, some observers were becoming aware of anomalies in Jennie Gray’s treatment of Seán Manchester and his published work in her magazine. Writing under the pseudonym of Lyndall Mack (Peter Mack was her father), Gray described Manchester in 1994 as an “arrogant Sherlock Holmes of the spirit world … [who] recounts [Farrant’s] ludicrous incompetence with fierce disdain,” adding, “all the rest are fumbling amateurs, mere sightseers, gawping at what they cannot possibly understand.”[15]

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The text contained misrepresentation of the facts and potential defamation. Gray’s replies in private were nothing less than polite, but she ignored the falsehoods drawn to her attention: “I think you have entirely missed the point. … The Highgate Vampire as a book [is] an A1 classic which will be read for hundreds of years to come. I think if you had taken better note of the general content of Udolpho you would not have fallen into the error which you have of interpreting the article as a vitriolic attack.”[16]

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Three years later, Gray wrote an article that tells of her childhood in the late 1950s in Highgate, London, before she was relocated in the early 1960s by her parents: “A great deal of the charm of Highgate Cemetery was precisely that it was forbidden territory. I understand entirely why the vampire hunters kept going back there a decade later. … I am only sorry that my family left Highgate too early - and that, as a consequence, I missed the party.”[17]

Missing the party seems to be the bone of contention, source of sour grapes and latent resentment turned malignant evinced by Gray, Brautigam and the Demants. Seán Manchester felt they should be grateful they missed the “party”: "That truly nightmare scenario is something they cannot possibly begin to comprehend."

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Demant, prior to his radical shift in loyalty, published that Manchester had a “reluctance to suffer fools gladly,” adding, “that he is genuine in his beliefs is, I think, beyond question.”[18]

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As the flame of the old century flickered, and first-hand memories of the case dimmed, the hunger to re-invent those times attracted fools like moths to a candle that had almost spluttered its last. Supposed “fans” who later transformed into mean-spirited malcontents have been relatively small in number. The experience of Seán Manchester nevertheless serves to underline the necessity for a moral agenda. The Demants were not involved in the occult, certainly not at the time of their correspondence with Manchester. They were anarchic members of Class War with an almighty chip on their shoulder against anyone they deemed to be grand. Gray and Brautigam were fascinated by decadence and subversive behaviour. They failed to recognise their spite - so immersed were they in it - all of which conspired to some small extent to make Seán Manchester even further remote and inaccessible.
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The more they consorted and colluded with Farrant, the more their material became sick and twisted. Christine Demant turned to producing semi-pornographic and profane illustrations designed to be as unpleasant and defamatory as possible. The only persons interested in her efforts were similarly dysfunctional individuals with an axe to grind. One of her drawings, produced in 1995, depicts Seán Manchester grotesquely bloated in episcopal attire. In the top right-hand corner is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus revealing a two-fingered gesture. Blasphemy would become her stock-in-trade; her husband resorted to parodying all that Manchester represents, and, in a transparent piece of sour grapes in the second issue of a smutty newsletter he was now editing for Farrant, referred to Sylvaine Charlet as having been included in Seán Manchester's Highgate account “for the opportunity of regaling us with photographs of himself in the company of a beautiful French superstar” when, in fact, there are no pictures of Sylvaine in the Gothic Press edition.
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People slowly become the sum of their choices, and are influenced by what they allow themselves to absorb. Many Seán Manchester encountered along life’s journey were not aware, or, at least, refused to acknowledge, that they had chosen the Left-hand Path. The illusion is that theirs is a more exciting and rewarding journey because imaginary evil sometimes is romantic and varied. But evil in reality is gloomy and monotonous, barren and boring.

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Sylvaine has remained a valued colleague and friend of Seán Manchester with whom exists an affinity which transcends time. Back in the 1970s they played lead rôles opposite each other - as a couple who were madly in love - for a French film dramatisation which attracted a cult following with art-house audiences[19]. Sylvaine Charlet and Seán Manchester have always remained close friends as well as colleagues; each to the other providing inspiration and encouragement in an increasingly uglier world.

_______________________________________
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[1] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 8 October 1991).
[2] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 20 May 1990).
[3] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 13 August 1991).
[4] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 5 August 1991).
[5] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 17 February 1991).
[6] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 20 February 1992).
[7] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 27 February 1992).
[8] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 7 September 1992).
[9] “Suspended in Dusk" by Kevin & Christine Demant (Udolpho, Summer 1997, p32).
[10] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 23 March 1992).
[11] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Reggie Naus, 21 March 1996).
[12] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Reggie Naus, 15 May 1999).
[13] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 19 August 1993).
[14] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Kevin Demant, 14 August 1992).
[15] “The Highgate Vampire Revisited” by Lyndall Mack (Udolpho, September 1994, p30).
[16] Correspondence to Seán Manchester (Jennie Gray, 9 November 1994).
[17] “Growing up by the Boneyard” by Jennie Gray (Udolpho, Summer 1997, p6).
[18] The Ghost Story Society Newsletter (issue 7, 1990).
[19] Beren directed by Guy Godefroy (Lancelot Productions, France).
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The Effeminate Mohammedan

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Rehan Qayoom - self-styled poet and supporter of David Farrant.

"Anyone who uses their middle finger to point instead of their index one works for the Devil. This is with regards to a certain individual and documentary evidence shown on film on the Discovery Channel of him doing it (using their middle finger to point). This is always a trait in evildoers. Those schooled in the mysteries of Kabbalah will confirm my assumption." - Rehan Qayoom (Farrant's Blog, 21 April 2009 @ 6.08pm)

Rehan Qayoom is a 29-year-old Mohammedan living in south London, England, who supports David Farrant in making unsubstantiated and vociferous attacks on Seán Manchester. The "certain individual" Qayoom is referring to on Farrant's blog is Seán Manchester who was featured in True Horror: Vampires on the Discovery Channel, performing a spoken exorcism at the mouth of a tomb. The original footage was shown on BBC television on 15 October 1970. It was incorporated into a section about the same case on the Discovery Channel in 2004. The documentary was withdrawn for legal reasons by the makers (October Films) after its first transmission. Subsequent airings and a DVD of the programme were edited due to the phrase "self-proclaimed" and "obscure religious cult" employed by the narrator (who did not meet or speak to Seán Manchester). The makers unreservedly withdrew the phrase and personally apologised to Seán Manchester for allowing this description to be aired. It was agreed by all concerned the phrase is misleading and untrue. The DVD distributed by Discovery Europe expurgated the offending references, plus other inaccuracies, following consultations with their lawyers. All of which is necessary to know when viewing copies of the original television transmission now on YouTube, but not relevant to Qayoom's defamation on Farrant's personal blog.

He is claiming because Seán Manchester is holding up the thumb, index and middle finger of his hand he must "work for the Devil" and be an "evil-doer." Qayoom attempts to misrepresent the meaning of this sign because three digits held up this way symbolises the Holy Trinity, which is precisely why Seán Manchester was holding his hand in that manner during the exorcism clip shown on television.

Jesus Christ is often depicted holding his hand with the thumb, index and middle finger extended (see above). Priests, during the celebration of the Eucharist, will also hold their hands in this way. It is a Christian symbol for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. According to Qayoom it is evidence of those who "work for the Devil." Turning things on their head should come easy to Qayoom. He is an enthusiastic supporter of David Farrant who was convicted of threatening people with black magic and performing sacrilege in a graveyard; the same David Farrant who attempted to raise the Devil with John Pope using a ritual devised by Aleister Crowley; the same David Farrant who claims to have summoned the Devil in the dead of night at Highgate Cemetery in 1971 with a naked female whose blood he spilled (according to an article he wrote in New Witchcraft magazine). So when Seán Manchester gives the sign of the Holy Trinity during a filmed exorcism it makes sense why Farrant supporter Qayoom would want to reverse its true meaning and claim it to be evidence of an "evil-doer."

Seán Manchester giving the sign of the Trinity during a filmed exorcism.

Qayoom is a Mohammedan and a self-styled poet. What he says and does, however, is not in accord with the teachings of Mohammedanism. He declares himself to be a fan of both Michael Jackson and David Farrant. He resides in a bedsitting room in south London which rivals Farrant's for lack of space. Like Farrant, who is more than twice Qayoom's age, he is unemployed and spends much of his time scribbling on bits of paper under the delusion that he is somehow blessed with genius. Hence, like his mentor, he expects the State to keep him while he publishes attacks on a Christian in holy orders. When it comes to evil-doers and those who work for the Devil, Qayoom might be better served looking a little closer to home.

David Farrant was interviewed on the Today programme (BBC Radio 4; not to be confused with Today on Thames Television which Farrant had appeared on three years earlier) in 1973 about his Hallowe'en sacrifice of a cat, which he did not deny. There was an interview on the radio with a doctor's wife, Mrs Annette Wilson, who opposed Farrant's publicly stated intention of sacrificing a cat in an occult ceremony. Moreover, the Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973, which also interviewed Farrant, stated on their front page beneath its headline "I Sent Voodoo Dolls - 'High Priest' Farrant," that "Farrant, as the Journal reported, admitted slitting a 'stray' cat's throat at the height of a bizarre ritual before his coven of eight hooded men and a naked High Priestess in Highgate Woods recently."

The same newspaper also confirmed that Farrant "sensationally admitted to sending the dolls, with pins through their heads and accompanying poems, in a desperate 'leave me alone to continue my work' bid. Inspector John Tressider of the RSPCA received his package direct and Mrs Wilson's 'gift' was sent to Journal reporter Roger Simpson for forwarding."

On the front page feature of the Hornsey Journal, 28 September 1973, it was reported: "Questioned about the enormous outcry against his work involving ritual slaughter, Farrant stressed that he would not halt sacrificing animals."When Farrant was interviewed in the News of the World, 23 September 1973, by Sue Kentish, readers of that newspaper learned: "He spoke matter of factly about a ceremony watched by twelve naked, chanting individuals during which he severed a cat's head with a dagger. All the participants then smeared themselves with blood before indulging in sex. 'I did not enjoy having to kill the cat, but for one particular part of the ritual it was necessary,' said Farrant. 'The sacrifice of a living creature represents the ultimate act in invoking a deity. I do not see animal sacrifice as drastic as people have made it out to be. Thousands of cats are used for medical research. The very livestock we eat have their throats cut. And, at least, I anaesthetised the cat before I had to kill it'. With a shrug of the shoulders he admitted mercislessly pursuing grievances."

When Farrant was interviewed in the Hornsey Journal, 31 August 1973, by Roger Simpson, readers discovered: "A cat was sacrificed to a horned god in a macabre night ritual at Highgate Woods during the weekend involving eight hooded coven members and a naked High Priestess who left at the scene a blood-stained carving knife, blood-splattered stockings and offal. ... A North London coven later claimed responsibility and the coven's High Priest, David Farrant, told the Journal in an interview at his Archway Road flat: 'Hundreds of years ago a naked virgin would have been sacrificed, but obviously we couldn't do this now so we had to have an animal for the important ritual.' The victim was a stray cat and Farrant stressed that the animal was anaesthetised for the 45 minutes ritual which culminated in the slitting of the cat's throat. The ritual slaughter was a part of the festival of the Black Moon - an important date in the witchcraft calendar."

A court report in the Hornsey Journal, 16 November 1979, under the headine, "Ritual sex act and cat sacrifice," revealed: "Self-styled 'high priest' David Farrant told a High Court jury this week of the night he performed a ritual sex act in an attempt to summon up a vampire in Highgate Cemetery. He also admitted that he had taken part in the 'sacrifice' of a stray cat in Highgate Wood."
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Qayoom with Farrant when they both recently visited Highgate Cemetery.
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Perhaps Rehan Qayoom (see top image) views his friend Farrant through rose-tinted spectacles? It might be that this perverse purveyor of decadence knows exactly what he is doing, which would explain why the falsehood was employed by him on Farrant's blog. What does Qayoom see in a man old enough to be his grandfather? Perhaps he sees himself as he will be in another three and a half decades?

Nocturnal Fantasy Radio

2009-02-13T04:51:00.001-08:00

"Zombiman" Steve Genier (Southern Ontario Paranormal Society).

Self-proclaimed "agnostic" Steve Genier of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, describes himself as the founder of the Southern Ontario Paranormal Society and producer of Nocturnal Frequency Radio. He used to post on the internet from 1998 as "zombiman69" and also "zombi69." As well as being self-styled "leader" of SOPS, which he founded in October 2005, he is also a big fan of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. For reasons not yet entirely apparent, Genier has become an apologist for David Farrant whom he interviewed on 4 April 2009 for his blogtalk radio. The interview turned out to be little other than a platform for Farrant to spread his customary venom where the entire exercise quickly became open season for defaming Seán Manchester. This reveals more about Genier than it does about Farrant whose false and unsubstantiated allegations most of us have heard one hundred times before.

Much nonsense is claimed about the Highgate Vampire case on the internet by those who copy and paste manufactured twaddle from elsewhere. Genier's interview with Farrant is a prime example of someone who poorly researches their guests and, even when presented with evidence from the public archives prior to inteviewing Farrant, chose to ignore the facts and stick with an agenda of propagating falsehood against the author and exorcist Seán Manchester, a man who is in holy orders.

Genier joined in Farrant's abuse and repeated it over and again. It was Genier who insisted on identifying by name who it was they were both attacking. His agenda soon became transparent as he likened the author of The Highgate Vampire to something out of the Middle Ages. Genier is quite obviously not fond of Christians and complimented Farrant for being a wiccan. But Farrant is not a wiccan and never has been a wiccan. Even wiccans give Farrant the cold shoulder and want nothing to do with him. Who can blame them? Farrant believes in nothing, as he confirmed on the James Randi Forum, 12 April 2007. Nothing, that is, besides his own self-serving, compulsive publicity-seeking and evil vendettas.

David Farrant, of course, is charlatan who clearly does not believe in his own rectitude. No intelligent person takes him remotely seriously. He is a bandwagoneer and a fraudster whose manufactured lies will not stand up to close scrutiny and examination. He is also an ex-convict who was sentenced to five years imprisonment for making black magic threats, vandalism and desecration at Highgate Cemetery. I doubt anyone could meet a more disingenuous and deceitful person; so utterly void of sincerity; so totally consumed by his hatred for Seán Manchester. Why Genier would take any notice of this non-entity who will do just about anything to seek attention is puzzling at first glance. Perhaps closer examination of Genier might help explain it?

Far worse, Genier stooped to defaming Seán Manchester throughout the interview which concentrated on discussing the author of The Highgate Vampire and not Farrant whose criminal convictions in connection with Highgate Cemetery were given a very wide berth by Genier. Nothing Farrant said about Seán Manchester during Genier's interview is accurate or true. Yet Genier accepted the word of the compulsive liar and convicted felon and, moreover, repeated Farrant's malicious propaganda. Genier sought no evidence for the falsehood he publicised on Nocturnal Frequency Radio because no evidence for any of Farrant's poisonous lies exist.

For example, Seán Manchester made no "vampire film" in the 1960s as claimed by Farrant whom, incidentally, he met in 1970, not 1967 as alleged by Farrant during the interview. Their meeting, in fact, was recorded by the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, on its front page. Farrant even told the then editor of the newspaper for that front page story that he had recently met Manchester for the first time. The retired editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express remembers the meeting in his office where Farrant made this statement.

He also falsely alleged that Seán Manchester stated on television on 13 March 1970 that Farrant was intended hunting the vampire at Highgate Cemetery on that very same night. Seán Manchester said no such thing. It was Farrant's published intention to take it upon himself to pursue the vampire and Manchester warned against this plan. Farrant had suggested he would do so in the same edition of the aforementioned newspaper and, indeed, he did hunt the vampire on the night of 17 August 1970, which was a thwarted attempt that led to him being arrested by police in Highgate Cemetery and appearing before Clerkenwell Court. When interviewed by the BBC about his arrest in the following October, Farrant reconstructed his "vampire hunt" - complete with cross and stake - for the cameras. Recordings of both these programmes are available to those who want to hear the facts for themselves. The Highgate Vampire CD contains these interviews from 1970. It can be obtained from Gothic Press.

So utterly boring and lacking in charisma is Farrant that he was obliged to read passages from Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire to keep things vaguely interesting. These pathetic, stammered attempts were risible! Farrant, of course, read nothing from his own self-published pamphlets because there is nothing in them worth repeating!

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Most revealing about Genier's interview with Farrant is that much of it was spent discussing Seán Manchester who, needless to say, was not present to defend himself. The Canadian "paranormal researcher," as he likes others to see him, was particularly eager to identify the bishop by name and no less keen to libel him whilst fawning over Farrant who could barely string a comprehensible sentence together.

Incredibly, Genier asked absolutely no questions about Farrant's criminal convictions relating to Highgate Cemetery. Nor anything about Farrant's other crimes. One is bound to wonder why? After all, having been found guilty of indecency in a churchyard in November 1972, Farrant, in June 1974, was found guilty of malicious vandalism and tomb desecration at Highgate Cemetery, as well as being found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by sending black magic threats to police witnesses. These threats comprised voodoo dolls impaled with pins. There were other crimes relating to theft and firearms. Farrant received a prison sentence of four years and eight months at London's Old Bailey's central criminal court.

Steve Genier, however, was more interested in hearing Farrant spread libel about Seán Manchester.

It is quite obvious that Genier has fallen for Farrant's propaganda hook, line and sinker. He declared what an "honour" it was to be able to speak to the convicted felon and proceeded to attack Seán Manchester, calling him a "bogus bishop" and repeating Farrant's completely unsubstantiated allegations. That Seán Manchester is a properly consecrated member of the episcopate is not questioned by priests and bishops; so why by Steve Genier? Moreover, Seán Manchester's ecclesial standing has been tested before his peers and a panel headed by the Anglican Bishop Richard Holloway who found in favour of Bishop Manchester when the matter was adjudicated following an unfortunate slight by an amateur radio station who immediately afterwards apologised.

There is very little likelihood of Steve Genier ever doing the same, but, at least, those involved in the paranormal now have his number. How can such a man be trusted?

On 1 June 2009, Steve Genier invited David Farrant back onto his blogtalk radio for yet another interview. Lo and behold, Mr Farrant repeated verbatim down the telephone what he had mumbled in his previous interview. Yet again Mr Farrant read at length from Bishop Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire; and the passages were exactly the same ones he had stammered and stumbled over back in April. Perhaps he should give up trying to read other people's works and stick to reading from his own self-published pamphlets? At least, the words in his efforts are kindergarten; and so is the spelling and grammar! This was once again an admission that he has nothing interesting of his own to share and is entirely dependent on Bishop Manchester to attract an audience. Yet further interviews with David Farrant followed on Nocturnal Frequency Radio, all with the same format and agenda.
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More interviews were to follow which merely duplicated everything that had gone before. It is almost hilarious to witness Mr Genier being in awe of someone like Mr Farrant who cannot string a sentence together in comprehensible English most of the time, and when he does he only ends up contradicting himself over and over again. On 1 May 2011, yet another interview with David Farrant took place where listeners (it's hard to believe there are any) were subjected to more of the same. This time the two anti-Christians were briefly joined by Richard Syrett who had interviewed the bishop for his television programme The Conspiracy Show back in February 2011. It aired exactly one month before the pre-recorded interview with Steve Genier was transmitted. Mr Syrett, a Greek Orthodox Christian, obviously felt uncomfortable and soon made his excuses to quit the interview in mid-flow. He wrote to Bishop Manchester:
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"I was asked onto this internet radio show to promote my TV show and relate my experience of travelling to the UK and meeting you. I was not told Farrant was going to be on with me, or at the very least, it was not my understanding he would be on with me. I was cordial with him and yes I told him I regretted not being able to meet him whilst over there. But I gave you my word he would not be interviewed for my show and I meant it. For me the Highgate case is closed and I have no intention of ever interviewing Farrant. It was an awkward situation being thrown on air with him. I tried to handle it as best I could.".
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The interview with Mr Farrant about Bishop Manchester and the Highgate Vampire case took all of thirty-three minutes of exceptionally tedious banter between the host and his assistant (about nothing remotely supernatural) to begin.
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One hour and thirty-nine minutes into the interview, David Farrant claimed to Steve Genier that Bishop Seán Manchester is banned from entering Highgate Cemetery while also claiming that he himself is not banned. Yet Mr Farrant also admitted that he had to hide within a group of other people so as not to be discovered when he took a booked tour at the cemetery in 2006. Mr Farrant obviously feels that he is banned, whether he is or not, otherwise why act so deviously and hide away from the tour guide and FoHC officials?.
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"I am certainly not banned as Mr [sic] Manchester has been," said David Farrant while speaking to Steve Genier, one hour and thirty-nine minutes into the interview on Nocturnal Frequency Radio.
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For the record, Bishop Manchester is not banned from Highgate Cemetery, and never has been. He was a personal friend of the previous chairwoman of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery and FoHC still send him their publications. He has visted the cemetery many times over the last four decades and is always received warmly by those in charge.
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Mr Farrant, with Mr Genier's encouragement, had earlier claimed he had been in touch with the Dutch Old Catholic Church, the American Old Catholic Church [sic] (there are any number of autocephalous Old Catholic Churches in the USA) and the Vatican, all of whom he alleged knew nothing of Bishop Manchester. The Dutch Old Catholic Church ceased to be Catholic some time back, and is now Protestant. It is also in favour of women priests and allows same sex unions for which it performs "marriages." Bishop Manchester would be horrified to be associated wih them, and regards them as heretical in the extreme. The Old Catholic Churches in America have befriended Bishop Manchester, as evinced on his Facebook pages, but, again, they are for the most part far too liberal for the bishop whose jurisdiction only extends within the confines of the British Isles.
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Whoever is approached at the Vatican, or England's Westminster Cathedral, with all the facts regarding Bishop Manchester's lines of apostolic succession and episcopal consecration on 4 October 1991 will confirm that he is a valid, albeit irregular, bishop ("irregular" only because he does not come under papal universal jurisidiction, nor would want to). It is a valid line (or lines) of apostolic succession which determines whether someone is a bishop or not, and Bishop Illtyd Thomas, Bishop Michael Weston and Bishop James Henry Vermeulen episcopally consecrated Reverend Seán Manchester at which point he inherited many lines of apostolic succession and became a bishop. On 1 July 1993, Bishop Seán Manchester was enthroned amid Glastonbury Abbey's ruins as Bishop of Glastonbury. On 20 February 2002, he became Presiding Bishop for the Traditional Old Catholic Church in Great Britain..

Many have observed that if you extract Bishop Seán Manchester from any interview Farrant gives, the ex-convict is left with nothing to say; if you extract Bishop Seán Manchester from anything Farrant has self-published, he is left with nothing to write about; and if you extract Bishop Seán Manchester from Farrant's life, this interloping charlatan ensconced in a Muswell Hill bedsit becomes a poorly educated non-entity without any skills who would go unnoticed by the rest of the world. It is only by exploiting the name of his arch-nemesis and riding on his coat-tails that David Farrant can attract any attention to himself.

Tony's Table Talk

2009-02-13T04:50:00.007-08:00

A toast is proposed at an informal dinner party with old comrades.

Tony Hill attended an informal dinner party in the summer of 2009 hosted by Seán Manchester and his wife at their spacious retreat on the south coast of England. Some of the other guests happened to be members of the Vampire Research Society who were fascinated to hear what Hill had to say about David Farrant whom Tony Hill allowed to live in the cellar beneath his Archway Road flat from August 1969 to August 1970. Hill referred to Farrant as "Farrow" throughout his after-dinner talk. This was the pseudonym adopted by Farrant when he was arrested by police searching for black magic devotees at Highgate Cemetery in August 1970. A certain John Bradish stood bail for Farrant and allowed him to stay at his Barnet home. What Bradish did not bargain for was Farrant's vindictive nature. Bradish had apparently made a pass at Farrant's wife a couple or so years earlier and, as Hill recounted, revenge was in the air.
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Tony Hill reveals everything about events as far back as 1969.

The select group of dinner guests enjoyed a five course meal from a varied menu which also catered for those who are vegetarian. Tony Hill is one of the latter, but his speech to those assembled as coffee was served contained rather more red meat than vegetable fayre. He stood to deliver his talk, occasionally glancing at his prepared notes, to recollect times gone-by when he worked part-time at Seán Manchester's photographic studio darkroom until he absconded with a barmaid called Mary to the west country. When he returned to London without Mary six months later, the photographic studio was closed due to its lease having expired. Hill lost touch with his former employer for a while, as that man was now engaged in the mysterious investigation of the case of the Highgate Vampire. Hill surprisingly offered his vacant coal bunker under Archway Road to the cuckolded husband of the barmaid with whom he had enjoyed an interlude. This man had become homeless due to eviction and bankruptcy. The barmaid had returned to her parents in Southampton. The cuckold, of course, was none other than David Farrant.

It was in the winter of 1969/70 that Farrant suggested to Hill they attempt to hoax a ghost story to see what the public reaction might be. Hill went along with Farrant's idea, but had lost interest by the end of the year. In the pubs he frequented, Farrant heard tales of a vampire reputed to haunt Highgate Cemetery and wanted to see how easily it would be to convince local residents that there was also a ghost in the vicinity. Hill photographed Farrant wearing "ghost" make-up at night in the graveyard. He was also privy to Farrant using the addresses of acquaintances such as Nava Grunberg and Kenneth Frewin to submit fraudulent letters to local newspapers. It was always Farrant's intention, Hill revealed, to eventually expose the "ghost story" as a hoax to show how gullible the public are when it comes to things paranormal, but events overtook this plan as the terrifying reality of an emerging supernaturalism eclipsed Farrant's asinine antics. Meanwhile, Farrant was quickly becoming addicted to the attention he was starting to receive in the press. By the end of the year, he was evincing all the symptoms of a compulsive publicity-seeker. These symptoms would stay with him for the next forty years.
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Tony Hill stands to give his talk to the assembled dinner guests.

Tony Hill stood as he gave a long talk about events which occurred forty years ago. He recounted the assault occasioned by John Bradish on Seán Manchester at the entrance of the British Occult Society's headquarters in Holloway Road and how most people, including Mr and Mrs Bradish, soon became aware that Farrant was entirely responsible for the black magic telephone calls to Gillian Bradish which triggered the attack. Hill and others overheard Farrant in the Prince of Wales pub boasting of making the calls on the evening of the day Bradish was convicted of assault in court, and Seán Manchester was unjustifiably bound over to keep the peace due to accusations levelled against him in the dock by defence witness Gillian Bradish. Such incidents made Hill realise that Farrant was someone to avoid like the plague. By now Farrant was residing at the home of Mr and Mrs Bradish in Barnet, having previously been arrested at Highgate Cemetery on 17 August 1970 and subsequently held on remand at Brixton Prison until Bradish stood bail for him.

David Farrant never returned to his coal bunker dwelling under the ground floor flat of Tony Hill, and Hill had little more to do with Farrant following the well-publicised graveyard arrest. Up until August 1970, Hill had photographed Farrant in the catacombs, vaults and among the graves at Highgate Cemetery. In these pictures Farrant is either holding a rosary, or a cross and stake. Following his infamous trials at the Old Bailey in June 1974, Farrant claimed that one man alone could prove his innocence because he took the incriminating photographs of him and knew they were posed where damage already existed prior to Farrant's interloping. The same man also knew that Farrant was only pretending to do what he claimed for the sake of publicity. Farrant gave this person the pseudonym "Hutchinson" and falsely described him as a "journalist" to the media and the courts. "Hutchinson," of course, was Hill whose photographs of Farrant in the terrace catacombs were discovered by police at Farrant's home and contributed to his conviction for malicious vandalism.

Farrant could not afford to allow Hill to come forward if he wanted to retain any semblance of credibility because, more than anyone else, Hill knows that Farrant is a fake. He still possesses secretly recorded tapes of their forty-year-old conversations to prove it. On these tapes, Farrant can be heard conspiring to hoax a ghost story using acquaintances' addresses to send fraudulent letters to local newspapers, and by dressing up as a "ghost" and wearing make-up for photographs. Statements made in the press and magazines such as Time Out and City Limits by Farrant that he wanted "Hutchinson" aka Hill to come forward to "prove" his innocence are, therefore, disingenuous from start to finish. No less phoney is Farrant's published claim that he did not know where the man he sought resided. He knew exactly where Tony Hill lived. At the time, it just a short bus ride from where Farrant lived. The last thing Farrant wanted was for anyone to discover the whereabouts of Hill who would have not hesitated in blowing the whistle on the charlatan. Hence the pseudonym "Hutchinson" employed by Farrant when describing Hill.

Three months later, David Farrant met Seán Manchester at Highgate Cemetery, as recorded on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970. It was not long before Seán Manchester was advising caution where Farrant's claims were concerned, and by the end of that year he had publicly dissociated himself from Farrant on a television programme (BBC's 24 Hours, 15 October 1970) and in both the national and local press. Farrant immediately sought revenge which manifested in the Bradish incident and ensuing case which found a smug Farrant seated in the court's public gallery with a massive grin on his face, followed by a malicious vendetta against Seán Manchester which continues to this day.

Farrant decided to comment on the above blog entry with the following (after an anonymous blogger enquired as to who those visible in the above images might be):

"I assume they were Sarah's sisters and brothers as she's got quite a few apparently. [Seán Manchester] is an only child and the only friends he have [sic] are 'brother (ex-beatnick [sic]) Keith and his old side-kick in publicity-seeking, Tony." - David Farrant (24 July 2009 @ 2:39 pm)

Farrant never fails to get everything wrong when he makes public pronouncements about anything to do with Seán Manchester. Nobody shown in the above images are related to Seán Manchester or Sarah Manchester. Farrant knows none of these people with the exception of Tony Hill who, ironically, was Farrant's "side-kick in publicity-seeking" from 1969 until 1970. Hill is quite open about this fact. As for being Seán Manchester's "side-kick," Hill, who had little contact with Seán Manchester after the 1960s, nowadays resides in another country and only ever comes into contact with his old employer at reunion dinners such as the one described. These (mostly informal) dinners are held regularly, but with different groups of people who usually know one another. It is curious how Farrant failed to recognise the VRS member who ripped a roll of film out of the back of his camera at the Festival of Mind, Body and Spirit held at Alexander Palace, London, in 1981 when Farrant was secretly trying to photograph Seán Manchester who was standing in another part of the exhibition. Farrant's second wife, Colette Sully, attacked the member of the Vampire Research Society from behind as Farrant struggled to retrieve his camera. But to no avail. This loyal friend of Seán Manchester (seen standing next to Tony Hill in the photograph at the top of the page) succeeded in preventing Farrant from gaining material to further his puerile campaign of disinformation and black propaganda.

Tony Hill's after-dinner talk did not concentrate solely on Farrant. Far from it. Hill also reminisced about the period when he knew and worked for Seán Manchester in the 1960s, plus various characters from subsequent decades who some of those present would recognise. Farrant was merely one of those characters. Not an unimportant one from Hill's perspective because of Hill's romance with Mary Farrant in the late 1960s. Many other people were referred to in Hill's speech, and Farrant's name was not mentioned by anyone else who spoke at the table. The others, like Seán Manchester, find Farrant completely irrelevant. They were nonetheless interested to learn what Tony Hill had to say about the man he cuckolded and then conspired to hoax a ghost story with forty years ago; a man, moreover, who ever since has tried to make a career out of riding on the coat-tails of Seán Manchester.

Moloney Baloney

2009-02-13T04:50:00.005-08:00

Christine Moloney between Farrant and Gareth Medway.

Some comments found on David Farrant's Facebook album under his childish cartoons attacking Seán Manchester include an artist by the name of Christine Moloney whose reprehensible behaviour after hearing from Seán Manchester in connection with her graphic illustration and design work acts as a warning of just how far Farrant's associates are willing to go to distort the truth with fabricated baloney. This is someone who looks sweet and innocent on the outside, but, like so many of Farrant's acquaintances, is very different on the inside. Most people will be aware that Seán Manchester has an interest in the arts and uses oil on canvas to paint portraits when not taking photographs (he began his working life as a professional photographer). To this end he contacted Christine Moloney to discuss the subject they share in common. He does this with innumerable artists (and musicians, as he also plays various instruments) to gain greater insight and sometimes also to help them. To his astonishment, as was brought to his notice by others, instead of receiving a reply from Miss Moloney, she posted the following comments on David Farrant's Facebook album under crude cartoons ridiculing and defaming Seán Manchester:

Christine Moloney I've just had a friend request from 'you know who'...
February 2 at 1:34pm ·

David Farrant I'd seriously ignore it Christine or next thing you know, he'll be stalking you all over the Internet. The person has a slight 'mental problem'!
Hope everything's OK. David
February 2 at 1:52pm ·

Christine Moloney It was his message that killed me. ''You may know me from some of my published works''. Er, nope. ;)
February 2 at 2:28pm ·

Christine Moloney I've just declined his request, thanks for the advice guys. I don't tend to accept those with made up names or Google images either, hopefully that way i won't end up unwittingly friending him (in whatever incarnation) or others who feel the need to stay 'anonymous'. x
February 2 at 4:14pm

Seán Manchester had used his own name, and his private message only touched on art and his books about the supernatural. He heard nothing from Christine Moloney, but, upon being alerted about the treatment received at her hands to further Farrant's lies and vindictive behaviour, he took the trouble to write to her. A copy of the email forwarded to Christine Moloney was filed by him in the archive:

----- Original Message -----
From: +Seán Manchester
To: Christine Moloney
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 10:30 AM
Subject: Unnecessary FB Comments

Dear Christine,

You are being dishonest and duplicitous. As a fellow artist who viewed your work, I contacted you to share some of my own art (oil on canvas). After three days I cancelled the invitation to become your friend. You did not "decline" my request. Your obvious paranoia, evinced in making your Facebook account private after hearing from me, and the rather unnecessary comments made by you on Mr Farrant's Facebook, led me to block you. That is the truth of the matter, as well you know.

Quite why my saying that "you may know me from some of my published works" was worthy of regurgitation underneath cartoons of an offensive nature on Mr Farrant's Facebook where I am frequently parodied and attacked is beyond me. Had you visited my own FB pages while you still could you would have found no mention whatsoever of Mr Farrant. That my works include topics which may have drawn you to Mr Farrant in the first place, eg Highgate Cemetery, made it a reasonable question to pose; especially as most people with an interest in the supernatural seem familiar with my books.

You are the first artistic person to have reacted in such a negative manner, which I find sad. As you grow older you will hopefully come to realise that life is too short to harbour such enmity against a perfect stranger on the say-so of others. You have received nothing negative from me, and I only write now in view of your tender years and obvious lack of experience.

I have no intention of communicating again with you, and only did so before because I had viewed your website. Any request I make for you to cease discussing me on Mr Farrant's antipathetic pages where I am attacked and pilloried will doubtless fall on deaf ears. I make it nonetheless, and ask that you search your own heart for the truth in all this darkness.

Yours sincerely,

+Seán Manchester

Christine Moloney dicussed Seán Manchester, who has done her no wrong, on 15 February 2011, over a week after receiving the email, when she gave her approval to an image clearly intended to offend and offer gross insult to Seán Manchester in Farrant's Facebook photograph album.

Della Vallicrus

2009-02-13T04:50:00.003-08:00

"Why do the nutjobs always congregate around me? 'sighs' ..."

- Della Vallicrus

Who is Della Maria Vallicrus? Someone of that name ventured through the snow on 21 December 2010 to spend her time with David Farrant at his abode in London's Muswell Hill Road from where he distributes his voluminous anti-Bishop Seán Manchester vitriol. Sixty-five-year-old Mr Farrant described her as "a very attractive lady aged about 30 with intent brown eyes, and dark hair that flowed down her back," adding, "I knew she’d been touch with certain people." Whoever these people are with whom she had been in touch, it certainly wasn't Bishop Manchester or any of his colleagues because she instantly recoils at the very idea of meeting him and becomes extremely defensive. The suggestion was mooted by a senior FoBSM member last year via private message on a forum she had begun posting comments on around Hallowe'en. This is the only place, apart from mention of her on David Farrant's and Anthony Hogg's blogs, and on Facebook, that someone with that name can be found. Her claims of impartiality and being a Roman Catholic attracted our attention because within a matter of days after visiting Mr Farrant she was attacking Bishop Seán Manchester on a public forum, and accepting Mr Farrant's word above everyone else's; including that of policemen, juries, magistrates, judges and, of course, anyone remotely sympathetic to the bishop. Prior to around Hallowe'en 2010, when she began commenting on a forum, nobody had heard of Della Maria Vallicrus.

Della Maria Vallicrus - or is it?

Della Vallicrus likes to remind people of her supposed "Roman Catholic" credentials. She proclaims on a public forum that Bishop Seán Manchester cannot be a "real" Catholic if he is not of the Roman fold. Quite where this leaves Anglo-Catholics, Old Catholics, Eastern Catholics and many other non-"Roman" Catholics is not expained, but she appears on the surface to paint a picture of herself as being traditionally Roman Catholic when she is anything but a traditionalist. Heresy is never far from her lips, as will be revealed, and, despite giving her religion as "Roman Catholic" on Facebook, does not (at the time of writing) have a single Roman Catholic Facebook friend. In fact, none of her friends are Christian of any of denomination. David Farrant and his Facebook friends make up most of her witch's coven of friends, and her declared interests, along with more general topics, embrace "Kabbalah, Judaism, Mediumship, Psychology, Ghosts and the Paranormal."

Who is the "Catholic" giving Farrant her support?

So who is this person who, according to David Farrant, "listened sympathetically when she realised things were not quite as they had been portrayed by some others claiming to have had an interest in that case." That "case" being Mr Farrant's personal obsession out of which he has succeeded in carving a forty-year notoriety based on nothing more than his ruthless exploitation of Bishop Manchester's investigation, and subsequent book when the case file was closed, about the supernatural occurrences at Highgate Cemetery. Ten days after them meeting in person, Miss Vallicrus visited again on December 31st. Her interest on this occasion was in Mr Farrant's pseudo-occultism. "This time she brought round some very intriguing letters and photographs relating to the Black Magical activities that took place in and around Highgate and other nearby parts of north London spanning over a ten year period from the late 1960s onwards." He not surprisingly overlooks mentioning that he was charged and convicted at the Old Bailey for black magic activities in and around Highgate Cemetery. Mr Farrant continues, "One particular thing that concerned her was her set of photographs relating to HC taken in 1971. We spent some time discussing the meaning of various glyphs and symbols, and their significance – as well as the identities of other people that she felt were definately connected with the use of Highgate Cemetery at the time. One of these people apparently was also making ‘nocturnal visits’ to Kensal Green cemetery in North London, with his friend who was by profession a taxidermist."

By a curious coincidence, 1971 is the year when David Farrant claims (in an article published by New Witchcraft magazine) to have summoned a satanic entity with a naked female assistant from whom he withdrew blood for the purpose of the occult ritual. This supposedly took place at Highgate Cemetery in September 1971. Della Vallicrus asked for Mr Farrant's word that he "would not release any material." Yet he could apparently make mention of the same material on his blog!

How can a thirty-year-old London-based female born ten years after the events themselves be privy to confidential material which pertains to people and events in the Highgate Cemetery outrages? Does she, in fact, possess anything of interest or worth? Or is she merely wanting to catch a ride on the coat-tails of an infamous character at the periphery of events to make herself appear more interesting? The trouble is that Miss Vallicrus largely hides her identity, cannot be taken at face value, and only manifested on the Supernatural World forum and on Facebook relatively recently. She does not appear anywhere else by the name of Della Vallicrus, or, to give her full nomenclature, Della Maria Vallicrus.

When Miss Vallicrus visited Mr Farrant on a third occasion at the end of January 2011 and stayed the night, he could barely contain himself and was blogging about it before she had got out of the door: "She told me little about herself, but I learned that she was from Kensington but recently moved to Knightsbridge, where she now had her own apartment and a good job as an Interior Designer. She was not attached to anyone now, she told me, but like myself, she had encountered the turmoil in one or two past relationships." Once again Highgate was discussed: "Absorbed in old Press reports we again spoke about the Highgate ‘vampire’ case, and I showed her other articles about other people who claimed that they had been involved. She read many meticulously, and some private letters I showed her about the case which highly amused her."

People who "claimed" to be involved? Mr Farrant must have been talking about himself because he claims to have been involved when, in fact, all he did was interlope and bandwagoneer for the purpose of his own self-publicity. Whoever sent him private correspondence must be delighted he shared it with a stranger just to impress her. Miss Vallicrus decided to accept Mr Farrant's offer to stay the night, which he could not restrain himself from publishing on the internet for all to read: "She was in bed and although all covered the sheet revealed that she had bare shoulders." Della Vallicrus' public reaction to FoBSM and comments by others elsewhere was as follows: "Why David's personal life and my personal life are so fascinating I have no idea, dismantle the hysteria and you are left with 'Person X goes to Person Y's house on a regular basis, and they have conversations which are none of the author's business and do not even involve him." Three occasions is not "a regular basis." Published conversations which involve the Highgate case and people known to Bishop Manchester are naturally of interest. We would stop short of describing them as "fascinating," however, as nothing ever is where David Farrant is concerned. As for her complaint about her and her friend's "personal life" being discussed, perhaps she should address that question to Mr Farrant because he is the one who first informed everyone on the internet about their "personal" goings-on. If she and Mr Farrant want these things to remain private they should avoid publishing all the details on blogs and forums for public consumption. This is fundamentally unintelligent by any standard.

"Della" claims this is an image of her.

Three weeks earlier on the Supernatural World forum, Della Vallicrus attempted to offer an explanation as to how she is suddenly in possession of material about matters which occurred well before she was born: "This is largely to answer the allegations by VRS that I am ‘playing a dangerous game’ – it would be very naïve to assume that with all the people involved in the Highgate situation that there are not children, relatives, friends and partners extant who have knowledge of various aspects of the events that were going on at the time. I am not willing to talk publicly about who I am related to or know in connection with the original events, and why I have a personal interest in the case. If anyone reading this was in my peculiar position, I assure you, you would feel the same." But would they run to the man convicted of serious crimes of a quasi-satanic nature at Highgate Cemetery to share that material with him, and then allow him to publish the fact on the internet? We really don't think so. Della Vallicrus quite obviously is playing a dangerous game; something she acknowledged in her next statement: "The dark side of occult magic underpins any serious discussion about many aspects of what happened back then. By default there are certain matters that it would be dangerous to discuss openly pertaining to this, not least because the people who were most centrally involved may not all still be around, but their successors are still very much active in the ‘field.’ I am referring here specifically to ‘Satanic’ activity focused in the Highgate area and in other areas of the south east of England subsequent to their decision to stop using Highgate Cemetery."

Compare this photograph of pop-singer

Shakira with the previous one of "Della."

Della Vallicrus continues: "There really was no one else I could talk to about this. Certainly not Sean Manchester who is entirely on the periphery of the matters I wanted validating and does not feature heavily. This may give some indication as to the gravity of matters I am referring to." Indeed, it does. She can apparently only talk about matters involving black magic outrages at Highgate Cemetery and elsewhere with a man who sought sensationalist publicity which led to him being branded as a black magician by the law courts and the mass media; a man, moreover, who was imprisoned for black magic crimes which included tomb desecration and vandalism. Among the not insubstantial evidence against Mr Farrant were included photographs he had taken of his naked girlfriend posing in front of satanic markings on the floor of a Highgate mausoleum. Then there were the black magic effigies sent to police witnesses in another man's case (a self-proclaimed Satanist who was later convicted of sexual assault on a minor); something Mr Farrant does not even try to deny. Most people would surely regard David Farrant as the one person you would not want to share sensitive material of the sort alluded to by Della Vallicrus? But share it she did with the ex-convict.

In mid-January, Della Vallicrus posted on the Supernatural World forum that she is "someone who has no choice but to believe in reincarnation." This is by no means the first time she has confessed to beliefs which, by her own admission, are heretical to not only Roman Catholics but all Christians. Her own Roman Catholic catechism clearly states "When the single course of our earthly life is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives…There is no 'reincarnation' after death" (CCC #1013). In his Letter to the Hebrews, St Paul said: “Human beings die once, and after this [comes] the judgement" (9: 27). We cannot escape the “judgement day.” We have only one life in our journey on earth, but God gives us every chance to go back to Him while we are alive.

On the same forum two days later she brazenly posted: "OSG and VRS being interchangeable and all that although apparently not officially, as we all know. If their own invented dogma allows for the possibility of corporeal vampires, then frankly it is not worth the proverbial paper." There is no connection at all between Ordo Sancti Graal and the Vampire Research Society apart from Bishop Manchester. People of any religion or none comprise the VRS. Those within the OSG are members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and would want to adhere to traditional orthodoxy which excludes any heretical beliefs. None of their doctrine is "invented" and all of it stems from the Bible and teachings of the Early Church Fathers. Many Catholics show their support for Ordo Sancti Graal, irrespective of denomination, becaues the Order holds fast to what is true.

Again, on the Supernatural World forum she went on the attack: "I am not interested in being given lectures about my faith by people entirely unqualified to do so, who are also intricately involved with someone who made up their own religion because they chose to pick and choose the parts of Roman Catholicism which did not suit their lifestyle or supposed beliefs." It must, of course, be asked how someone who believes in reincarnation (an essentially Bhuddist and Hindu philosophy) is qualified to lecture anyone whatsoever about Christianity? Della Vallicrus quite obviously "picks and chooses" what bits of various religions and philosophies suit her chosen lifestyle to appease her heretical belief in spiritualism and various other aspects of the occult. The practice of any of these things is forbidden in scripture and by all mainstream Christian churches. But it gets worse, as the facts, or possibly David Farrant's fevered imagination, reveal. Miss Vallicrus supposedly invited Mr Farrant to her Knightsbridge flat in February 2011 about which occasion his blog recounts:

"Her own bedroom was dominated by a large Edwardian brass bed, and another marble fireplace, this one complete with two busts, one of a Greek god adorned with grapes, and another gilt mirror over the mantle."

It would seem Della Vallicrus' home is devoid of anything remotely Christian, much less Catholic. Mr Farrant continues:

"This time she brought things round again to asking me about the potential of some magical ceremonies. I reminded her that I was no longer involved; but still she still wanted to question me. ... She had a personal reason for asking as she had come across others and she wanted to compare what I had practiced, and what she had since found out about, and her own formed views on High Magic."

Perhaps not the sort of conversation one might expect from someone so quick to berate others for not belonging to the Roman Catholic Church? Things did not improve that night, it would seem, as one thing led to another. Mr Farrant could not wait to inform all and sundry via his blog:

"We moved to the sofa, and Della suggested that as we were being ‘wicked smokers’ and talking about ‘wicked things’ we may as well drink something more exciting, it being the weekend after all. She fetched one of the decanters from the marble half table which abutted one of the walls, along with a couple of old fashioned shaped glasses and some sugar cubes, and asked me if I would like some absinthe. The lit sugar cubes she placed on the slotted spoon seemed to flame violet as she prepared the drinks in a way that was quite fascinating to watch, and before long our conversation had got even more animated than usual. It was not something I would usually feel comfortable doing, but in this strange sense of isolation and intimacy, the combination of absinthe and agreeable company seemed to make everything around me easier and even more fluid."

Absinthe is a dangerously addictive psycho-active drug derived from an alcoholic beverage (75% alcohol) with a distinctive bitter taste caused by wormwood. It is mixed with distilled spirit, such as brandy, and other herbs and spices. In the nineteenth century, the yellowish-green drink became popular in Europe, particularly France, and in American cities. Its hallucinogenic properties made it chic among poets, writers, and artists, prompting one scholar to label it "the cocaine of the nineteenth century." In the early-twentieth century, absinthe was widely banned because of fears that it severely impaired the physical and mental health of its users, as well as the morality and social fabric of nations. Absinthe is clearly something an upstanding Roman Catholic [sic] like Miss Vallicrus has no problem indulging in! She also lists on Facebook drug-inspired groups such as Pink Floyd and The Doors among her favourite musicians and composers.

Not "Della Vallicrus" - but she

offers it as herself on profiles.

On the matter of events at Highgate Cemetery a decade before she was born, she has this to say on the Supernatural World forum: "I have my own reasons for deciding what really happened. I really have no choice but to believe them as I know them to be fact." What possible reasons does Della Vallicrus have for believing something told her by a man the courts branded a compulsive liar? How can she possibly know "them" to be "fact" when she was not present or even alive at the time? She is clearly under the influence of David Farrant. Anyone can see that, and it is further testament which lends weight to Bishop Manchester's belief that Farrant is possessed of a contaminating malevolence with a demonic source.

The man she describes as a "poster boy."

On his sixty-fifth birthday (23 January 2011), David Farrant posted the following hypocritical falsehood: "Genuine Roman Catholics are one thing (and personally I am not opposed to that religion - or any genuine religions for that matter), but when people tend to adopt the term 'Catholic' to add to self-made Churches that attempt to copy authentic Catholic doctrines ... I can find absolutely no patience for that self-imposed deviation from genuine Catholic beliefs." Mr Farrant was quite obviously attempting to butter-up Della Vallicrus who protests she is Roman Catholic whilst believing in reincarnation, mediumship, spiritualism, magic and the occult; beliefs most Roman Catholics would insist have placed her outside of their Church and in a state of technical excommunication. Furthermore, Della Vallicrus has reached ill-considered judgements not in her gift to make. Why does she refer to Bishop Manchester and his faith in such an inaccurate and hostile way? Bishop Manchester took holy orders at the end of a long journey which began with him as a young Anglican choir boy and church youth leader. Then he became a Roman Catholic convert which progressed to his embrace of traditional Old Catholicism at which time he became a deacon, priest and finally a bishop. His spiritual odyssey and need to become autocephalous is detailed in his book The Grail Church. His Facebook account has well over 4,000 friends, many of whom are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Old Catholic bishops and priests. They do not have the exceptionally misinformed and biased opinion of him evinced by Della Vallicrus who subscribes to views and philosophies totally at odds with the Roman Catholic catechism she so often waves in the face of others. Perhaps we should remind ourselves of some of the statements made by Della Vallicrus about her own beliefs on the Supernatural World forum:

"I know that some of my own beliefs are technically in opposition to my Catholic faith. For example, my belief that some 'spirits of the dead' are actually people trapped between worlds, in need of help, and are not demonic representations of the living here to fool us and lead us away from God's truth. But my personal experiences of this since childhood, as a natural medium, just do not allow me to reject the concept on principle. ... I also believe in the validity of ceremonial High magic. ... When I say 'validity', I mean that I do believe that it does work, when performed properly. ... I believe it is possible to interact with angels and demons through structured processes, but I cannot extend this to nature deities."

On the following day, 27 December 2010, she posted this on the same forum:

"I also believe in a range of beings which exist incorporeally, including spirits of the dead which replicate the behaviour of demons as we perceive it. These can be people who have not passed over and have degenerated into negative and menacing spirits because of unresolved issues in life. My belief in spirits, in this instance the consciousnesses of the departed interacting with the earthly plane, is not based on scripture. It is based on a lifetime of personal experience. It may be at odds with my religion, but I believe in both, and I cannot renounce either. I know there are incompatibilities. ... Mediumship can be a very dangerous art, yes. I have never thought of it as necromancy."

All this from a theologically naive female barely turned thirty who likes to give the impression she inhabits the moral high ground as a holier than thou Roman Catholic, qualified to attack a bishop twice her age, while swooning as might some wayward schoolgirl infatuated with a lecherous old toad devoted to self-aggrandisement, phoney witchcraft, theatrical Satanism, multifarious hate campaigns and criminal acts to satisfy his pathetic craving for public attention. Is Della Vallicrus so blinded by her own desire to board a sinister bandwagon that she cannot comprehend the reality of the situation? Or is she really no better than Mr Farrant? There is something rather distasteful, as well as disgraceful, about this young woman; assuming, that is, she exists in the first place. And that is a very big "if." It has been suggested by several people that Della Vallicrus, as described on the internet, does not exist, and that she is a manufactered profile to massage Mr Farrant's incredible ego. What attractive thirty-year-old, it must be asked, would genuinely take an interest in a venomous old man compelled to stoke a personal vendetta he harbours against someone he hasn't clapped eyes on for a quarter of a century? She had not met Mr Farrant until a month ago, and only became active in these issues around last Hallowe'en. Prior to then she did not seem to exist. Her Facebook account is new with only twelve friends. These comprise mostly David Farrant's cronies such as Luci Loo (aka BlackOrchid), Tony Sheridan, Caro Lord, Neil Arnold, Redmond McWilliams, and even Mr Farrant's son Jamie Coster. David Farrant, of course, is listed. So is Anthony Hogg who shares a surprising number of Facebook friends with Mr Farrant, and, in turn, is also a Facebook friend of Catherine Fearnley and Barbara Green. It need hardly be stated that none of the aforementioned owe any connection, least of all on Facebook, to Bishop Seán Manchester, and with just one exception, Neil Arnold, all have a regrettable history of posting abuse and/or launching into unprovoked attacks on Bishop Manchester and anyone thought to be the bishop's friend, colleague or associate.

Would an attractive Knightsbridge interior designer really be fawning over a decrepit malcontent old enough to be her grandfather? Would she really want take such a person to an expensive Hampstead restaurant and then spend the night at his dismal bedsit until late the next morning? Would she want him to plaster these titbits on his blog and would she then add her own spice to a forum discussing it? The whole thing sounds about as phoney as we know Mr Farrant to be. "Why do the nutjobs always congregate around me," she ponders when the only "nutjobs" she is in touch with are Mr Farrant and his sorry clique.

Something doesn't add up. Some years ago a manufactured "female" appeared on the internet called Veronica Lake. It was announced on the Fortean Times forum that Veronica Lake and David Farrant were getting engaged and would soon be married. Veronica Lake turned out to be David Farrant collaborator Rob Milne who Mr Farrant recently described on the Supernatural World forum as "a University teacher and lecturer and the book comprises of a long interview with myself about the Highgate ‘vampire’ case which occurred at Highgate Cemetery." Mr Milne, originally of Aberdeen, Scotland, is a particularly objectionable character with an alcohol-fuelled penchant for making threats. The "book" is nothing more than a stapled pamphlet self-published by David Farrant under his "BPOS" imprint. His friend Rob Milne is identified as the pamphlet's "co-author." Depite Mr Farrant's protestation that he is not and never has been a vampire hunter, the pamphlet, released by David Farrant in 2003, is titled Return of the Vampire Hunter: An Exclusive Interview with with Reclusive Vampire Hunter David Farrant. Many people later commented that compulsive publicity-seeker David Farrant is about as far removed from "reclusive" as it is possible to achieve, but, then, glaring contradictions are the norm where he is concerned.

David Farrant always knew that Veronica Lake (on various internet forums) was Rob Milne. Together they concocted a fraudulent "engagement" story which appeared, courtesy of Rob Milne, where Veronica Lake and Mr Farrant were supposed to be getting married. This is not the first time that David Farrant manufactured an "engagement" story for the media. See "White Wedding For The Black Magic King"* in the Islington Gazette, 28 April 1978, and "Witch 'King' To Wed - In Church!" in the Sunday People, 16 April 1978. These were nothing more than publicity stunts. Rob Milne, using a variety of pseudonyms, eg "Comte de Milano" etc, has made several threats of physical violence against Bishop Manchester. He also sent threatening emails to the bishop some years back from a university computer. It was naturally reported, and Mr Milne was severely reprimanded by the university in question. Rob Milne also challenged Bishop Manchester to a duel in July 2004 with Mr Farrant as his "second." Ironically, the recent "Kev" character, who David Farrant joined for Christmas Day lunch in Finchley last year, offered to be the bishop's "second" should the duel take place. In the event, Rob Milne failed to materialise. Kevin is witness to that fact. Like David Farrant, Rob Milne is only capable of providing much "hot air."

"Della Maria Vallicrus" aka "Della Escarti" aka "Della Farrant" posted on Facebook at 10:25am, 5 October 2011, that ...

"Della Farrant wishes Manchester would play with his trainset instead of his hacker friends. Get a life old boy. He failed, by the way."

For someone claiming to be the young girlfriend (and, since Hallowe'en 2011, wife) of a man born in January 1946, calling anyone of a similar vintage "old boy" somewhat takes the biscuit, but, then, hypocrisy and lies are never too distant from the twisted mouths of the person now calling herself "Della Farrant" and David Farrant who each delight in a diet of daily defamation and misrepresentation of their chosen victim. Curiously, "Della Farrant" flits from being "Roman Catholic" to someone clearly obsessed with magical rituals, shamanism, witchcraft and the occult at the drop of a pointed hat. As if Bishop Manchester or any of his friends and associates would waste a single moment of their time trying to hack into what these pathetic people have to say! Yet it is quite telling that most of the offenders — certainly "Della Farrant" and David Farrant — switched their accounts to "private" on Facebook soon after they were "outed" as pursuing a hate campaign.
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Escarti Fly Trap

2009-02-13T04:50:00.001-08:00

The above infringed picture (copyright of National Geographic) of Bishop Seán Manchester was spammed across Facebook by someone posing as "Della Maria Vallicrus" with the words in white capitals added by "Vallicrus" who tagged various Facebook friends of David Farrant with this infantile harassment of Bishop Seán Manchester. Some of those tagged helped the troll spread David Farrant's hate campaign by temporarily adopting it as their icon. They include a sock puppet using the name "Tony Sheridan," Crystal Becker, Ricky Sorenti, Marcos Drake, Patsy Langley, Brendan Kilmartin, Kayleigh Usher, Steve Genier, Alex Rondini, Don Ecker and Redmond McWilliams (who posts as "Cú Chulainn" on the pro-Farrant Supernatural World forum run by Brendan Kilmartin). Photographs of the Colombian pop singer Shakira in her younger days are offered as Farrant's colluding partner "Della Maria Vallicrus."

Redmond McWilliams (above), commented beneath the infringed image of Bishop Seán Manchester: "Guilty as charged Bishop! lol." McWilliams visits Farrant at his Muswell Hill bedsit. Farrant has also visited McWilliams at his home in Morden, Surrey. McWilliams boasts of being part of Farrant's evil cabal who delight in disseminating malicious propaganda on behalf of their mentor. To that end he creates groups designed specifically to misrepresent and defame Bishop Seán Manchester whom he especially detests because of the Christian doctrine and values Bishop Manchester unashamedly espouses. Redmond McWilliams is actively homosexual and resents the bishop upholding scriptural prohibitions on sodomy. This might explain why certain individuals go out of their way to abuse, bully, harass and stalk Bishop Manchester who has always emphasised that he rejects the sin but not the sinner. He regards homosexuality as a sin, as does the Bible in which he trusts. Though Redmond McWilliams (posting as "Cú Chulainn") claimed on Brendan Kilmartin's Supernatural World forum to be Roman Catholic, he revised this to "agnostic" on Facebook.

Rob Milne aka Veronica Lake.

Rob Milne is an Aberdonian Farrant collaborator who some years ago manufactured a "female" on the internet unimaginatively called "Veronica Lake." It was announced on the Fortean Times forum by him that "Veronica Lake" and David Farrant were getting engaged and would soon be married. "Veronica Lake" was later revealed to be Rob Milne (who subsequently confirmed this to be the case) whom Farrant recently described on the Supernatural World forum as "a University teacher and lecturer and the book comprises of a long interview with myself about the Highgate ‘vampire’ case which occurred at Highgate Cemetery." Milne, originally of Aberdeen, Scotland, is a particularly objectionable character with an alcohol-fuelled penchant for making threats against Bishop Manchester. The "book" is nothing more than a stapled pamphlet self-published by Farrant under his "BPOS" imprint whose address is the Muswell Hill bed-sitting room that has been his cramped home since his parole release from prison in 1976. His friend Rob Milne is identified as the pamphlet's "co-author." Depite Farrant's protestation that he is not and never has been a vampire hunter, the pamphlet, released by him in 2003, is titled Return of the Vampire Hunter: An Exclusive Interview with with Reclusive Vampire Hunter David Farrant. Many commented that compulsive publicity-seeker David Farrant is the furthest removed from "reclusive" as can possibly be achieved.

"Della Maria Vallicrus," after being rumbled as an interloper, transformed into "Della Farrant" on Facebook with the same degree of paranoia as the man who shares an identical surname and number of letters in a forename which also coincidentally bears the same initial. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that they are one and the same person, but obviously this is not the case because one of them can spell and knows some basic grammar while the other one (David Farrant) seems unable to apply even the fundamentals of English to anything he writes; at least, not without a host of spelling errors accompanied by nonsensical grammar where syntax and much else relating to the English language is completely absent. Given that Farrant either ran away or was expelled from those schools he was sent to privately by his father before entering a life of charlatanry and miscreancy while on state benefits from the age of fifteen until now, it should come as no revelation to discover these inadequacies. Then came "Della Farrant" to the rescue.

Shakira — falsely claimed by "Della Farrant" as her image.

A young image of the Colombian pop singer Shakira.

David Farrant and a certain "Della Escarti" announced their marriage at Hallowe'en, which they published in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 3 November 2011. Unsurprisingly, there was no accompanying wedding photograph of the couple to be seen anywhere. Perhaps they could tack Shakira's head onto Rob Milne and submit that!

Farrant's Cabalistic Friends

2009-02-13T04:49:00.002-08:00

A Warped Sense of Time

2009-02-13T04:49:00.001-08:00

David Farrant points to the spot where he allegedly saw a vampire in this photograph of his first meeting with Seán Manchester which appeared on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970.

David Farrant claims that he first met Seán Manchester in “late 1967.” Seán Manchester assures that he first met Farrant in "early 1970." Farrant conveniently slips all manner of unsubstantiated allegations into this three years discrepancy. For example, Farrant has latterly claimed he was entertained with a screening of an 8mm horror movie made by and starring Seán Manchester, and that the papier mache vampire he claims appears in the movie is what also appears in photographs of the corporeal shell of the exorcised vampire in Seán Manchester's published account The Highgate Vampire (Gothic Press, 1991) and in television programmes featuring images from that book. Seán Manchester strenuously denies this and invites anyone who saw such a movie as described by Farrant to come forward and be identified. He states that no such movie was made; that Farrant was not someone he would have considered entertaining in his home; and that, even when they did eventually become acquainted in 1970, he only visited Farrant at Tony Hill's coal bunker in Archway Road and later at Farrant's bedsitting room in Muswell Hill Road.

This is what Farrant alleged in 2009: “I first met [Seán Manchester] in late 1967 in a pub called The Woodman in Highgate. I had brought Mary back from Spain to London in March 1967 after she had discovered that she was pregnant. We got married in a Roman Catholic Church in September 1967 and it was around this time that we used to frequent The Woodman pub just across the road from where we were living in Highgate. Mary had become friendly with a young mother nicknamed ‘Zibby’ who was married to a man named Tony [Hill] and sometimes the four of us would go into The Woodman and spend a few hours there. Now, at this time, a small trio jazz band used to play in the Saloon bar from a make-shift wooden platform at the back. There was somebody on drums, an electric guitarist and another individual [Seán Manchester] who played the saxophone.”

There is no mention of them meeting so far. In Farrant’s self-published “autobiography,” however, which first made its appearance in 2009, Farrant claims: “I learned that he had an avid interest in ‘ghosts’ and the supernatural, although he was later to say that his ‘speciality’ was vampires. He suggested that we must all meet up again when he wasn’t playing, and have a chat about the subject.”

This claim is contradicted by Mary Farrant who denies her husband's interest in the supernatural at this time or indeed him knowing Seán Manchester in person even if he heard Tony Hill mention him. She might eventually have become aware of Seán Manchester from whatever Tony Hill told her when they spent six months living together. She met him only once when Hill and Mary called on Seán Manchester when they first "eloped." They wanted him to put them up for the night, but Seán Manchester would not become involved. He was also acquainted with Elizabeth Hill and did not want to feel compromised.

Farrant could have learned of Seán Manchester’s paranormal interests from Hill with whom Farrant was only superficially acquainted at the time due to Hill’s increasing interest in Farrant's wife who worked as a barmaid in the evenings at The Woodman; though Hill would have known nothing about any case his old employer was involved in. Seán Manchester was neither acquainted with Farrant or Farrant’s wife, Mary, but knew Tony Hill from the time Hill worked part-time in Seán Manchester’s darkroom in the 1960s when the latter ran a photographic studio. Hill was also employed in the mornings as a milkman in North West London.

Tony Hill and Mary Farrant became an item and “eloped” for six months. Seán Manchester did not personally know David Farrant, but was vaguely aware of having seen Mary work as a barmaid and met her just once when Hill ran off with her for six months. When Hill returned to his wife and Mary returned briefly to her husband it was not long before Farrant was declared bankrupt and became evicted from his flat. By which time Mary Farrant had left her husband with their two children and returned to her parents in Southampton. The next time Farrant saw her was at the Old Bailey in June 1974 when she was called as a defence witness on his behalf. Mary confirmed under oath that her husband had no interest in ghosts, witchcraft or the occult, and that Farrant's visits to Highgate Cemetery were for "a bit of a laugh and a joke and to look round." Court reports published in newspapers at the time can be found at the foot of this page.
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Seán Manchester’s version of events is recorded in his introduction to The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook (Gothic Press, 1997): “It was whilst blowing a long jazz solo on the tenor saxophone in The Woodman, Highgate, where [Farrant’s] wife worked some evenings as a barmaid, that Farrant first caught sight of me in 1968. I would remain oblivious of him, however, until the beginning of the next decade. Who knows what went through his mind as he listened to my improvised harmonic structures, accompanied by a perspiring rhythm section, in that dimly lit venue for modern jazz aficionados? It was not his kind of music, but he mentioned it when I interviewed him in 1970.”

On pages 62-63 of the same book, Seán Manchester reveals: “His alleged sightings of the vampire were to coincide with the time when he was ensconced in [Tony Hill’s] coal cellar. His wife was gone and so were the people who had helped him squander his money. His interest was not the occult at this time, but pub-crawling and the collecting of exotic birds; mostly cockatoos, parrots and macaws. This earned him the nickname ‘Birdman.’ Ironically, Hill had the nickname ‘Eggman.’ Relishing the attention he was now receiving, following his alleged sightings of a vampire, he took foolish risks and ended up being arrested in August 1970 for being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose. His ‘vampire hunting’ days were over.”
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The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, (pictured at the top of the page), records the meeting of David Farrant and Seán Manchester on its front page, under the banner headline “Why Do The Foxes Die?” The newspaper recounts: “David Farrant … returned to the spot last weekend and disovered 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 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, president of the British Occult Society. … Mr Farrant and Mr Manchester met in the cemetery at the weekend.”

The British Occult Society (1860-1988) was an investigation bureau which existed solely for the purpose of examining occult claims and alleged paranormal activity. It gave birth to the Vampire Research Society, which still survives, on 2 February 1970. Farrant carried out his threat to "pursue [the vampire], taking whatever means might be necessary" and was arrested on the night of 17 August 1970. The Daily Express, 19 August 1970, reveals Farrant’s explanation: "My intention was to search out the supernatural being and destroy it by plunging the stake [found in his possession when arrested in Highgate Cemetery by police] in its heart." The report continues: "David Farrant pleaded guilty at Clerkenwell, London, to entering St Michael's churchyard, Highgate Cemetery, for an unlawful purpose. Farrant told police he had just moved to London when he heard people talking about the vampire in Highgate Cemetery. In a statement he said that he heard the vampire rises out of a grave and wanders about the cemetery on the look-out for human beings on whose blood it thrives. Police keeping watch for followers of a black magic cult arrested him. He was remanded in custody for reports. Last night, Mr Seán Manchester, leader of the British Occult Society, said: 'I am convinced that a vampire exists in Highgate Cemetery. Local residents and passers-by have reported seeing a ghostlike figure of massive proportions near the north gate'."
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View Farrant's latter-day self-revelations in a French television interview he gave in 2008 here: <>.
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The video begins with a French diabolist who befriended Farrant in 1980. Together they concocted all manner of skullduggery for media consumption and their own self-aggrandisement. The shambling shell of Farrant shuffles onto the screen some minutes into the video as he nervously speaks from outside the gates of Highgate Cemetery. Next is a scene at his Muswell Hill bedsitting room where viewers are shown photograph albums containing naked females he had duped into his malefic publicity stunts involving phoney witchcraft and pseudo-occultism. One of these wretched creatures is Martine de Sacy whose nude image in a mausoleum containing satanic symbols became vital evidence for the successful prosecution of Farrant at London's Old Bailey. This pathetic man appears oblivious to the implication of what he is displaying on screen and is clearly without any remorse. An arch-deceiver who always attempts to turns everything into something it is not, David Robert Donovan Farrant might make an interesting case study for the psychiatrist in search of a project concerning narcissistic personality disorders, or a priest specialising in the examination of demonic possession brought about by compulsive dabbling in pseudo-occultism for publicity, but is otherwise exceptionally tedious and boring.

Seán Manchester’s belief in predatory demonic entities known as vampires is Farrant's excuse for branding him “Bishop Bonkers.” Farrant even wears a T-shirt in public carrying the infantile slur emblazoned across it, and employs the term on his and other people's blogs. Extremely hypocritical as this is, it masks something significantly more malevolent about Farrant which, coupled with a history of deceit and degeneracy, leads Seán Manchester and some others to reach the conclusion that Farrant is demonically possessed.

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The Evening News, 29 September 1970, referred to the would-be "vampire hunter" as “Allan Farrant” in the above caption because he had given police the false name of “Allan Farrow” when arrested in Highgate Cemetery on the night of 17 August 1970. He was known locally as “Allan” among his acquaintances for reasons only understood by himself, but it was not his real name. Some newspapers reported him as being “Allan Farrow” while others adopted hybrids like the one above. Some, of course, managed to unearth his correct name, ie “David Farrant.” One or two bizarrely chose to publish his second name by referring to him as "Robert Farrant."
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Farrant published on his personal blog, 2 July 2009: "I first met [Seán Manchester] in late 1967 in a pub called the Woodman in Highgate." On the same blog one week later, 9 July 2009, Farrant claimed: "You asked how I first actually spoke to [Seán Manchester] ... I believe it was in early 1969." Such revisionism and the layering of one falsehood on top of another falsehood reminds me of Farrant's self-proclaimed sightings of the vampire phenomenon at Highgate Cemetery. His earliest published statement was in the form of a letter he wrote to the editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express which appeared on 6 February 1970. In that published letter, Farrant claims to have witnessed "a grey figure" no less than three times:

"The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. ... The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared, only a few yards inside the gates. ... I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature."

If we roll forward some thirty years and read Farrant's self-published pamphlets, forum messages and blog comments, we discover he claims to have had only two sightings. Now roll forward almost four decades from that first letter to a local newspaper and listen to an interview Farrant gave on blogtalk radio in 2009. Lo and behold, Farrant now apparently claims to have had only one sighting of what became known as the Highgate Vampire. That, at least, is what he told Steve Genier when interviewed in 2009. The reality is rather more prosaic. Farrant probably had no sightings and merely boarded what he perceived to be a convenient publicity bandwagon.

Let us return to Farrant's blog of 9 July 2009 because in it he continues when he allegedly met Seán Manchester in "early 1969" (having suddenly revised his "late 1967" claim from a week earlier):

"He [Seán Manchester] said that the ‘ghost’ I had been reported as witnessing at Highgate Cemetery might indeed be one such ‘real’ vampire!"

Yet David Farrant first "reported" his ghostly apparition in February 1970, not late 1969. And he did so to the Hampstead & Highgate Express. This was his overture in the press before which he had not reported anything to anyone. The casual observer is obliged to agree with Seán Manchester. They first met in March 1970.