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Dark Histories

Farrant, Manchester & The Highgate Vampire

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.82.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1970s, the shadowy depths of Highgate Cemetery, London became the centre of what would go on to become an enduring urban legend. As two men, both with their own views on what the cemetery was hiding, dug deep into their investigations of the grounds, reports spread of a dark, otherworldly figure stalking its overgrown graves. Sometimes tall, sometimes with glowing red eyes, and other times with a dark, top hat, the press reports of the unknown figure stoked a public fear of a secret occult world that lay just out of sight, crawling beneath the surface of an otherwise decent society. SOURCES Saker, hugh (1958) Baby Sacrifice Probe By CID. The Daily Mirror, Fri 19 Dec 1958, p3. London, UK. Lucas, Norman (1958) Baby Sacrificed: Probe Starts. Daily News, Fri 19 Dec 1958, p5. London, UK. Farrant, Della (2015) Haunted highgate. The History Press, London, UK. Adams, Paul (2014) Written in Blood: A Cultural History of the British Vampire. The History Press, London, UK. Ellis, Bill (1993) The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt: The Anglo-American Connection in Satanic Cult Lore. Folklore, Vol 104, 1993. The Folklore Society, Worthing, UK. The People (1895) The Highgate “Ghost”. The People, Sun 29 Sep 1895, p3. London, UK. Manchester, Sean (1975) The Highgate vampire: the infernal world of the undead unearthed at London's famous Highgate Cemetery and environs. London, UK. Farrant, David (1997) Beyond the Highgate Vampire: A True Case of Supernatural Occurrences and Vampirism That Centred Around London's Highgate Cemetery. London, UK. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail (1970) Vampire Hunt In London. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, Sat 14 March 1970, p1. Hartlepool, UK. ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0

In the 1970s, the shadowy depths of Highgate Cemetery, London became the center of what would go on to become an enduring urban legend.

0:09.0

As two men, both with their own views on what the cemetery was hiding, dug deep into their investigations

0:15.4

of the grounds. Reports spread of a dark otherworldly figure stalking its overgrown graves.

0:22.0

Sometimes tall, sometimes with glowing red eyes,

0:26.0

and other times with a dark top hat,

0:28.0

the press reports of the unknown figure

0:31.0

stoked a public fear of a secret occult world that laid just out of sight, crawling beneath

0:36.3

the surface of an otherwise decent society. This is Dark Histories where the facts are worse than

0:42.3

fiction.

0:45.0

Hello and welcome to Dark Histories season 8 episode 21. I'm your host Ben, as always, it's good to be back. I have had

0:57.8

the dreaded hovid over the last few weeks, well the last week.

1:03.0

So my voice is a little bit broken up,

1:06.0

but I think it's going to be okay.

1:09.0

Hopefully it's bearable for you

1:11.0

and not too much of a problem. But yeah we crack on eh? To be honest, I'm just quite

1:16.3

glad to get out the way because last year I had it, I came down with COVID on Christmas Eve, so it completely destroyed like Christmas and New Year.

1:25.4

It was just a complete dead rubber.

1:27.7

So yeah, to be honest this year, I'm just kind of glad to have got it out the way, so know that Christmas

1:32.1

will be fine. So yeah. Anyway,

1:35.2

should we move on because we don't like talking about COVID? Yes, this week

1:39.2

episode I did actually manage to finish the majority of the script before I was ill so hopefully

1:46.7

it's legible and makes sense.

...

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