Most Shocking Misrepresentation

"The Most Shocking Paranormal Hoaxes In History"?

"Some might argue that everything that passes for 'paranormal' is a hoax. " - Cheryl Eddy (26 Dec 2014)

Someone by the name of Anna Olvera wrote the briefest of articles on a website called The Ghost Diaries under its "shocking hoaxes" category, and had the temerity to include a nocturnal image of Highgate Cemetery taken by Seán Manchester almost half a century ago and used in his book The Highgate Vampire (BOS, 1985; Gothic Press, 1991). Albeit no more than a paragraph in length, Olvera's article managed to get everything wrong, adding insult to injury by claiming the following: 

"One of the nearby residents claimed to be a 'vampire slayer' and supposedly had defeated the creature. He said the creature told him he was a man from Romania who used to practice magic and was immortal, but he was nonetheless able to slay him. Sometime later that man confessed to having lied about the situation and that it was all a hoax to gain publicity."

Needless to say,  Seán Manchester has never used the term "vampire slayer" to describe himself; did exorcise the demonic entity known as the Highgate Vampire (which is a matter of public record); has never claimed the "creature" spoke to him, much less told him that "he was a man from Romania who used to practice magic and was immortal"; and has never "confessed to having lied about the situation and that it was all a hoax to gain publicity." So why did The Ghost Diaries publish this woman's rubbish? Perhaps we'll never know, but despite Seán Manchester receiving an apology from the site owner and his stolen photograph being removed with the explanation that Anna Olvera's article had probably not been properly vetted, the replacement article remains full of error and guilty of claiming the case is a hoax. The only "hoax" we can detect is this article and its predecessor.

Here is the replacement article, unedited and in its entirety:

"England seems to be a mecca for paranormal hoaxes, and here’s yet another. Back in the 1970’s [sic]when cemeteries were a major target of vandalism, a group of misfits decided to break into Highgate cemetery in London. It was a cold December night right before Christmas when one of them decided to sleep the night away. The following day, he went to newspaper outlets claiming he had seen a grayish tall dark figure of a man who was stalking him around the cemetery and even put him in a trance.

"This is how the controversy started and millions of people were drawn by the phenomenon. Soon thereafter, witnesses claimed to have seen the same figure roam near the gates of the cemetery at night, along with a woman with super white skin and long gray hair. Some people still believe there’s a vampire roaming Highgate, so if you’re ever in England, don’t forget to visit the spot and let us know if you get stalked by a vampirish creature."

1. England is not a mecca for paranormal hoaxes. On what evidence is such an absurd claim made?

2. Cemeteries in England were no more a target for vandalism in the 1970s than they were in previous and subsequent decades. Following the mass vampire hunt of March 1970, acts of vandalism at Highgate Cemetery reduced significantly. Other graveyards suffered far worse attacks.

3. Who were the alleged "group of misfits" who broke into Highgate Cemetery? This might be a reference to the public vampire hunt involving hundreds of people on the night of 13 March 1970, but they were not a group of misfits. They comprised curiosity-seekers, paranormal students, vampirologists, concerned members of the general public, a team of vampire hunters, exorcists and, of course, the print media. Plus a very large police presence. Nobody was arrested on that night.

4. The cold December night "witness" to seeing a figure is quite obviously David Farrant who wrote to his local newspaper in February 1970 about his claim of seeing a "ghost" on Christmas Eve 1969. However, Farrant did not participate in the event of 13 March 1970; so he was not "one of them."

5. The controversy started not due to Farrant's letter to the editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, but because of what had happened throughout the previous decade, culminating in a number of horrific incidents around the turn of the 1970s. These included mysterious animal deaths and a man being discovered covered in blood in Highgate Cemetery who later died of throat wounds.

6. Though many people had been witnessing a terrifying spectral entity in the vicinity of the cemetery's north gate in Swain's Lane for many years (long before 1970), nobody is reported as having seen "a woman with super white skin and long gray hair." This is unadulterated fabrication.

7. No serious students of the occult, paranormal, vampirology or unexplained phenomena believe there is a vampire "roaming Highgate" today. From time to time, people who are transparently publicity-seekers - and the local press - exploit the history for their own purposes. Yet no experts seriously any longer believe that the malign supernatural holds sway in or around Highgate Cemetery.

This new article insults the readers' intelligence and offensively brands the case as a "hoax," but at least it does not refer to Seán Manchester, or repeat the libellous allegations of the original article.

To view The Ghost Diaries' continuing misrepresentation of the facts, click on any of the images.