Saturday 31 December 2016

White Out




Phill White of "Thee [sic] Vampire Guild" might have finally succumbed to the fatal forces after a considerable absence from evincing an interest in vampires or the Highgate Vampire case.

He popped up out of nowhere (well, Brentry, a suburb of north Bristol, actually) threatening to send material to Anthony Hogg's partner in crime Erin Chapman on the condition that she publishes it on YouTube. It transpires that the material in question is a 90 minutes' audio tape made by the Vampire Research Society about the Highgate case in the previous century. Not content with threatening to infringe copyright, White also posted on Hogg's Facebook group what can only be described as extremely defamatory comments. Seán Manchester has not mentioned this man once on the internet, but he is obviously unhappy with his lot since moving from Portland to Bristol to settle down and raise a family. White tried to enter the "vampire" media exploitation that was occurring just about everywhere a quarter of a century ago when he was less of a sceptic than he is today, but he was unable to make any impact, being too far stage left; (far left on the map of England, and ultra-left politically) to ever get close to the centre stage of London. White discovered the collection of malcontents on Hogg's group and gleefully added himself. His comments have been mostly all aimed at deriding and defaming Seán Manchester, someone he has not had contact with for at least two decades. Something had happened in the interim since a quarter of a century ago to cause him to become bitter, resentful and totally sceptical of anything remotely supernatural. 

When Seán Manchester last heard from Phill White he was exceptionally sympathetic and supportive. In the interim, a complete turn around has manifested. This is what Seán Manchester recorded in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook (Gothic Press,1997):


As Crimson, Phill White's official magazine of "Thee [sic] Vampire Guild," approached a slow but inevitable death, he saw fit to promote between its covers a vampiroid band called Nightcreed whose curious recordings included the track titled "Die, Manchester, Die," sung by someone with the unlikely name of Theos Diamon Kakos. Around the same time White protested in private correspondence to Seán Manchester his Christian credentials, and declared that he saw many "similarities" between himself and the bishop-exorcist.

White eventually appeared on his local television channel dressed in black apparel and wearing red lipstick. His canines had been fitted with sharp fangs and his normally fair hair was dyed black. A large silver pentagram dangled around his neck, as he grimaced and postured throughout his interview on "True ... But Strange," 17 October 1996. He was shown prancing about in a graveyard with youngsters in kindred attire, and also at his modern terrace home in Portland where he kept a coffin and a pile of bubble-gum picture cards that he had been collecting since he was six-years-old.

Meridian television journalist, Mike Debens, observed that "his little home in Portland is even more cramped because of the think-tank [coffin] where he reclines in the dead of night."

"It's been used," boasted White, whose father was in the funeral business, a trade his son quickly took up, much to the horror of anyone who had viewed him dressed as a vampire sleeping in a "used" coffin. Though White has since relocated to Menhyr Grove, Brentry, Bristol BS10, he remains in the business of organising funerals and preparing dead bodies for the crematorium and grave.

Seán Manchester's advice is quoted briefly in issue fourteen of Crimson. It would be the final time. 

"My advice is that it is better to travel alone than in the company of fools."

The same issue had Seán Manchester described me as "one of the most despised characters" within vampire wannabe circles. This would be for the benefit of White's new friends and acquaintances of dubious status and intent; one of whom, Azz Wood, writing from a prison cell (about Seán Manchester) for Crimson, said: "Someone should rip off his head and piss down his neck and windpipe."

Thus the curtain fell on White whose vampire obsession became a millstone around his neck. He turned against all he had once believed in and admired. Today he represents the opposing forces.


McWilliams' Vents his Spleen with Poisonous Petulance




"But as for stalking and trolling women, isn't that more your forte Manchester? For example - how many years now have you been targeting David Farrant's wife with your hateful bile? I've lost count! And before all that you were harassing Patsy Sorenti, Christine Jacob (née Maloney), Catherine Fearnley, Barbara Green, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Janet Bord, Chrissie Demant, Carole Bohanan, Jaqueline Simpson, Carol Page, Dorothy Nixon, Jeanne 'the Prez' Youngson, etc. The list goes on and on. And ALL of them female. Look, you have plenty of form when it comes to stalking and trolling women you sociopath. Or did you forget the injunction that Patsy had served against you ... not to mention the much more recent legal notice to desist that was mailed to you direct from the Farrant's? That, as David himself would say I'm sure, is very much an ongoing case. ... P.S. Of course, going by your own logic, your very public appeal on TV for Elizabeth W to come forward would also be tantamount to stalking." - Redmond McWilliams (Facebook, 31 December 2016)

It would be difficult for anyone to "target" Farrant's wife in view of the fact that he doesn't have one. The person McWilliams is alluding to is someone who pretends to be Farrant's wife, someone claimed by those who have had contact with her to be a lesbian by the name of Anna Hinton who has been responsible for a great deal of defamation against Seán Manchester since she suddenly appeared out of nowhere a number of years back. The so-called "legal notice" consists of five pages of threatening abuse sent by "Della" and David Farrant by recorded delivery to Seán Manchester's private address on 27 April 2015. The highly derogatory rant was signed by "Della Farrant" and David Farrant. Though the envelope was postmarked 27 April 2015, and the correspondence within was also headed with the same date, the senders dated each of their signatures as having taken place on 27 February 2015. This was probably a Freudian slip because on that day and in that month in 1970 Seán Manchester came to prominence on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express.

"Della Farrant," Anna Hinton or whoever she is, needless to say, was not yet born. That would be some years in the future. This is how the five-page threatening letter to Seán Manchester signed off:


To Redmond McWilliams' pathetic mind this unsolicited garbage, stinking of cigarette smoke, constitutes a "legal notice" to have Seán Manchester "desist" from rebutting the endless stream of abusive incitements of hatred made against him by the likes of Farrant, "Della" and their associates.


Patsy Sorenti (née Langley) published allegations of a malicious falsehood fed to her by David Farrant, and claimed to have a witness to back the claim. Seán Manchester challenged her to produce this mythological witness so that the veracity of hers and Farrant's allegation could be put to the test. She never did produce her "witness." The only other occasion Seán Manchester confronted Patsy Sorenti is when she infringed his copyright in a self-published "casebook" that she produced in tandem with Farrant. The allegation that Sorenti "served an injunction" is as bogus as all her other claims. No injunction was served, and there is no evidence to the contrary to suggest otherwise. 

Christine Jacob (née Maloney) and Seán Manchester have never had a problem with each other, but they certainly have a problem with McWilliams' friend and mentor David Farrant. What follows is correspondence sent by Isaac Ben Jacob to Seán Manchester on 15 April 2012 regarding David Farrant and the person calling herself "Della Maria Vallicrus," "Della Escarti" and "Della Farrant":

"Me and my wife have discovered with a lot of surprise the existence of several blogs where we are notably being associated with David Farrant and his wife or girlfriend (I don't know if she is his wife or his girlfriend), whereas we have absolutely no contact with him, and we absolutely do not share his ideas. I wish to underline that my wife met David Farrant once or twice during meetings, and that it was David Farrant who started to talk to her, whereas she didn't know anything about him or his past. We recently found out that the reason why David Farrant initially made contact with my wife was in order to manipulate us, and to make you believe she was Della. If you look closely at the pictures of Della [posted in blogs], you will notice that the Della shown on the photos is always hiding her face, and that she always takes a posture which does not allow anyone to determine exactly how tall she is. I have attended a meeting myself three months ago, and I have seen Della and David Farrant together at this occasion. And when I tried to take a picture of them, Della immediately threw herself at me and my wife in order to force us to delete the photo from our camera. We do not have any relation or contact with Della and David Farrant, and we don't want to be associated with these two persons in any way, shape or form, because they have a sulfurous past, they have a reputation of being Satanists, and they are acquainted with people like Jean-Paul Bourre, whom I don't want to hear about. I know you have done research about me, and consequently you know I am an earnest academic researcher who uses scientific methods. Therefore you also know that I reject and condemn all magical practices, heretical deviancies, and obviously people such as David Farrant, who have practised Satanism. I think that you and I have been manipulated in this case, and that you could help us reestablish the truth. Yours sincerely, Isaac Ben Jacob." 

Next we come to Catherine Fearnley and Barbara Green whom McWilliams identifies as "victims."

Catherine Fearnley has accepted that she was led astray in the past by David Farrant with whom she had a relationship earlier this century. She subsequently had Farrant arrested and his computers seized for matters that are irrelevant to this discussion. What is important is that she harbours no resentment toward Seán Manchester and considers both herself and him to be victims of Farrant.


Barbara Green is someone who tends to fall out with everyone. The only person she has not fallen out with is "master of the black arts" John Pope who is a stalwart defender and supporter of David Farrant. For decades Seán Manchester ignored Green, but when she applied to join one of his groups a couple of months ago he permitted it, using the opportunity to ask why she was still publishing derogatory and blasphemous cartoons in which he is depicted. She could not answer, and swiftly left the group. Later she blocked Seán Manchester on Facebook so that he could not see the abuse she frequently posts about him. Her ability to get things wrong and then refuse to acknowledge corrections put before her is truly astounding. Green, who is slightly older than Farrant, is obsessed with Seán Manchester, and it is his misfortune that he has become the object of her compulsive nature. He has shown incredible restraint whilst enduring for years overwhelming hostility from her.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Seán Manchester have no problem with each other. Indeed, Guiley, who has met Seán Manchester and enjoyed his company, is a member of groups administrated by Seán Manchester who appeared in a television documentary with Guiley in 2011. They have both referred to each other in books published in the previous century, mostly Guiley referring to Seán Manchester in her book Vampires Among Us. She made it crystal clear to Seán Manchester that she wanted nothing to do with Farrant and would not be mentioning him in her book. He makes clear in his reference that there is no malice in what Guiley wrote about him, albeit there being some error.

Seán Manchester has only ever contacted Colin and Janet Bord as a couple due to errors made by them in print about him and the Highgate Vampire case. His correspondence was ignored, and that was an end to it. It transpires they were friends of David Farrant and promoted his jaundiced version of the history. Some of their error is mentioned briefly in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook (1997).

McWilliams only refers to the female of couples to make it appear they are being singled out. When Kevin and Chrissie Demant turned to the dark side and supported Farrant for their own self-serving reasons it was Seán Manchester who became the victim of their collusion and libellous intent. However, although Chrissie Demant had provided artwork prior to this treachery, Seán Manchester's relationship was with her husband, and any antipathy felt at the time would have been aimed at him. It would not be long, however, before the Demants washed their hands of Farrant and anyone associated with him. By which time the damage was done. Farrant still republishes Demant's bile.

Carole Bohanan is mentioned briefly and sympathetically in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook where the history of vampire interest societies is chronicled by its author. Beyond that reference there has been no allusion by either Carole Bohanan to Seán Manchester, or indeed him to her.


Jacqueline Simpson, other other hand, decided that she should write the entry on the Highgate Vampire case for Wikipedia, and invariably in doing so got just about everything wrong. Seán Manchester offered to help her correct her mistakes in both the Wikipedia article and subsequent entries about Highgate Cemetery in a book she co-authored. She seemed resistant to any assistance. She was greatly influenced by an American called Bill Ellis who had met David Farrant in July 1992. Simpson herself would speak as an invited guest at Farrant's somewhat farsical "Highgate Vampire Symposium" in July 2015 where she was predictably dismissive about the supernatural.


Carol Page, an American journalist, wrote the following to Seán Manchester on 20 October 1989: “It is clear that you have a great deal of knowledge and experience with the subject [of vampirology] and I will gladly devote an entire chapter in my book to your work.” They met in a London suburb for a little under two hours on 15 November 1989. This was the only time they held a conversation. It became apparent that Page was out of her depth and knew nothing about vampires or vampirology. Despite employing Seán Manchester’s work to provide, albeit in altered form, one fifth of the text for her book Blood Lust, she failed to mention him in her acknowledgements and would not supply him with a complimentary copy when her book was published. She requested the loan of some photographs, two of which were not returned, and none of which were used as her book contains no illustrative material. Page wanted inside information about the subculture, and anything vaguely sensational. She was to be disappointed. It was explained that Seán Manchester is a researcher into supernatural phenomena and that his published work The Highgate Vampire might best inform her about his modus operandi. During the meeting, conducted in an indoor café, Page wore exceptionally dark sunglasses, which made it impossible to see her eyes. Seán Manchester had no real wish to constantly look only at his own reflection and, therefore, averted his gaze from time to time. Page makes an issue of this in her book. Hence she is indescribably petty. It is incredible that her book ever came to be published. Save for the text devoted to defaming Seán Manchester, her effort dwells on a few people she met, plus a catastrophic television show beamed by satellite from Budapest to the USA on which Seán Manchester, while invited, declined to appear. His instinct proved correct.

Having by now met Seán Manchester and absorbed his work from cover to cover, Page wrote on 23 February 1990: “The chapter about your work is based on your book, The Highgate Vampire, and the transcript of the interview we did in November.” It was nothing of the sort, needless to say. Her letter continued: “I told [Julian Henriques of the BBC] that I did not think any look at the modern vampire ‘scene,’ if you will, was complete without a look at Seán Manchester and his work. I hope that is all right with you.” This was written by Page an entire three months after she had met Seán Manchester, and long after she had read and absorbed the contents of The Highgate Vampire. She concluded her letter with the following sentence: “Your work in this area is important and I congratulate you for taking the time to do it.”

When she came to write her book she wrongly attributed the damage to tombs at Highgate Cemetery, not to the person actually convicted of such crimes, but to Seán Manchester whom she portrayed in what can only be described as defamatory terms. Seán Manchester has not been convicted of any crime or misdemeanour. She also claimed that he has been banned from entering Highgate Cemetery. This is totally false as the Friends of Highgate Cemetery will gladly confirm. It is hardly surprising that her publishers are not interested in reprinting her book. It misinforms and offends.

The catalogue of distortions and half-truths in Carol Page's book will not be dignified with too much repetition, save that one of the milder inaccuracies, ie the false attribution that Seán Manchester considers Lady Caroline Lamb to be a vampire, is not untypical of the journalistic style employed. Her attention to what is a matter of public record took a very poor second place to the agenda which Seán Manchester describes in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook as being reliant on “squalid sensationalism, silly gossip and malicious falsehood.” He also raises the very significant point that “Page sought no comment” from him “on any of the charges she brings.”

Readers of her book were quick to voice their disapproval. A representative sample follows:

“I would treat anything this woman said with the utmost scepticism.”

~ Clare Emmett, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

“Regarding Highgate Cemetery, as I recall, the criminal damage was done by David Farant, not Manchester who I believe was on record then as attempting to counter [the true offender’s] odd behaviour.”

~ Phædra Kelly, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, UK.

“I have pretty much concluded that Ms Page doesn’t care about what she has written, she is only waiting for royalties.”

~ Dorion Cable, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

“She is snide and condescending, both to the people she interviews and to the reader. She incessantly states her own opinions, interpretations, and snotty comments at every opportunity.”

~ Chad Savage, San Francisco, California, USA.

“She’s not at all objective and it definitely colours the way she writes. She takes things I said so far out of context that even though I said certain things they have a totally different meaning than I meant. Carol took one isolated incident and exaggerated it and made me out to be bi-sexual, which I am not. … Sexual preference is a big thing to her, all through the whole book. It seems what Carol wanted to write about was sex, not ‘vampires.’ … I don’t appreciate being used as a tool to sell her book.”

~ Shannon, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Shannon, like Seán Manchester, was interviewed by Carol Page for Blood Lust. Chad Savage knew her personally, and at the time was the editor of a gothic magazine. Apart from rebutting her malicious claims, Seán Manchester has not mentioned Carol Page, much less has he contacted her.

Dorothy Nixon was someone who supported Seán Manchester and wrote favourably about him. They remained on good terms until they lost contact with the passing of time. Like Nixon, Jeanne Keyes Youngson lives in the USA. Being sympathetic to Aleister Crowley and the dark arts, Youngson was not sympathetic to Seán Manchester and chose to lend her support to David Farrant. She is mentioned in passing in Seán Manchester's coverage of vampire societies, and also some of her unkind and barbed comments are addressed in the process. Many in the sub-culture are critical of Youngson with whom Seán Manchester has had no relationship, nor has he sought to enter into one.

It was put to Seán Manchester by a member of the audience on a live television show whether he had any recent contact with Elizabeth (her full name was not disclosed). He said he had not, but that if she was watching the programme he would be delighted to restore contact. Since that time they have done precisely that, and his relationship with Elizabeth is as convivial and pleasant as it ever was. To suggest, as does McWilliams, that this is "tantamount to stalking" is patently absurd.

Redmond McWilliams is, of course, under the influence of Farrant; the same Farrant he claims sent a "legal notice" (nothing more than personal abuse) to someone his mentor refers to as "bonkers":