He's totally based off aesthetics. I was like, you look cool. He does look cool. And I think he was cool for like a minute. And then it turned like he had his moment and then it went a little too far. Cool. And we'll get there. But by the late 60s, Hageit Cemetery, the one where everything had gone down, it had seen better days. It had been filled to capacity actually decades earlier. But for some reason, they still tried to squeeze in new plots. So things were overcrowded, unsustainable. And sadly, the grounds were really poorly maintained. And then the situation was even further exacerbated by the bombings that were sustained during World War I and World War II. And that left many of the stones and crypts just in crumbling disrepair. So this was all made even worse by mid-century neglect and overgrowth. Like nobody was taking care of this place. So everything was overgrowing to the point where you couldn't even walk up half. Oh, that's so sad. I know because it's people's final resting place. I think cemeteries personally are beautiful. I love cemeteries. And they should be maintained. There's a whole foundation. I think it's called Save Our Cemeteries. I will look it up just so we can link them because they take donations to help revitalize forgotten about cemeteries so that people can have. They've done a lot for New Orleans cemeteries and stuff. So we'll link it because it is an important organization, I think. Yeah, and definitely super pertinent to this story. Yeah. They do a lot of good work. Hell yeah. Well, so listen, by the time the British Occult Society started visiting the cemetery in the late 1960s, it was in peak shambles. Richard Altec wrote, to reach one grave requires from the path through the brambles and burrs and hip high undergrowth and clinging vines that constantly trip up the explorer fresh from the London pavements. Damn. So basically he was like, you're going to be wading through overgrown shit, clinging to brambles, probably getting cut by thorns. Like it was gnarly. So when Farron and the group started visiting highgate, their trips did involve some light vandalism, which that's the thing where I'm like, that's the bummer. Don't do that. No, what they did, I guess, wasn't really noticeable underneath the overgrowth in the ruin of the cemetery. But during later visits in 1969, David Farron did notice obvious signs of vandalism that had not been done by the group, but by other nighttime visitors. He was like, we didn't do that. He would later tell reporters, vaults had been broken open and coffins literally smashed a fire. That's awful. One vault near the top gate was wide open and one could see the remains of a skeleton where it had been wrenched from a coffin. Another vault on the main pathway had thus had been thus entered and one of the coffins inside set a light. That's fucked up. Literally meaning somebody had lit a fire, a coffin on fire. You got to be a special brand of fucked up. That's the thing. Yeah. Now, around this same time that David Farron is like telling people that this is going on, the police in highgate had actually started to receive reports of small groups of teenagers, vandalizing local cemeteries. So the police figured that the recent disturbances at highgate cemetery were made by those same assholes. But some people were not so sure that they were just dealing with teenagers. And some people thought everything going on at highgate was because of something supernatural at work. Oh, now by December 1969, Farron's group had received two reports from locals claiming that they'd been walking in highgate cemetery when they encountered a tall, dark specter. This is a quote that temporarily hypnotized or paralyzed the bystander. Whoa. So Farron, for obvious reasons, was very intrigued by this report because he's an occult enthusiast. Yeah. So he decided to see what he could see for himself. And he made plans to say in the cemetery overnight on December 21st. Oh, shit. So when he reached the gate and he was just about to climb over, he said he was stunned by what he thought to be a tall person walking through the cemetery grounds. Now he stared through the bars trying to get a closer look. And he said he quote, realized the shape was over seven feet tall and saw, quote, two eyes meeting mine, which were not human, rather reflecting some alive presence. So in that moment, he was scared shitless and he figured he was in some kind of danger. So he was able to tear his gaze away from the specter. And he said, at that point, the figure just vanished. I love it. Iconic. Yeah. So the encounter with this specter at the cemetery gates was thrilling for him. Like he's been searching for this for a long time. Of course. For years, he had hoped to have his own experience with a supernatural and now he just fucking had one. Hell yeah. So after telling the rest of the British Occult Society about the interaction, he became determined to find other people with similar experiences so he could learn more. So he drafted a letter titled ghostly walks and high gate that he submitted to the hamstead and high gate express. On February 6, 1970, he wrote to them. And this is beautiful. Some nights I walk home past the gates of high gate cemetery. On three occasions, I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swain's Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. I saw a gray 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 only a few yards inside the gates. This time, it was there 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. Good for him. So Farron's letter actually got a ton of responses and four were actually printed by the paper the next week. Damn. They mostly confirmed the existence of the high gate ghost. Now one letter writer claimed the ghost had been appearing for years on a regular basis, showing itself nightly for about a week at intervals of about a month. And then another letter writer claimed that there had long been stories, quote, about a tall man in a hat who would walk across Swain's Lane and just disappears through a wall into the cemetery. I love this. It's so much fun. So the responses to Farron's letter elicited even more responses the next week, and this issue included a note from the editors actually asking readers to send their own accounts of supernatural experiences like in and around the cemetery. It's so much fun. Let's go. Now in addition to the further sightings of the tall man, letters started explaining more of the folklore surrounding the area. One letter writer wrote about a mysterious figure seen moving the headstones in the cemetery late at night. And another letter told of a ghostly bicyclist known to chase women down Swain's Lane. Hate that. Yeah, I don't love that. I don't like that guy. I also just like immediately hear that didn't today, didn't it? Yeah, but didn't it? But the trend continued until the end of February when the hamstead and highgate express finally ended their coverage on the Phantom at Hogwarts Cemetery with six letters. Some people described the tall man. Other people told of a woman in white who could be seen in the cemetery late at night. And they said she was crying out loud for Hugo. Where are you, Hugo? Hugo. Hugo. Right in. Come on, man. Now among the final letters was one from David Farrent himself telling his own story and expressing his quote relief that his ghostly experience had been corroborated by others. Now in a piece for folklore, writer Bill Ellis noted quote, the most impressive detail about the letters to the paper is the sheer amorphousness of the highgate traditions. Apart from the ghostly cyclist, hardly two informants gave the same story. Yet all young people seemed compelled to walk by or even enter the cemetery with the idea that something is supposed to happen. So basically he was saying even though all the letters shared different stories, they all kind of created this like shared mythology around highgate cemetery. I love that. And kind of established it as a place known for supernatural encounters or hauntings. Yeah, so like get me there ASAP. Let's go. Now under normal circumstances, the letters published to the hamstead and highgate express might have been dismissed as you know, like folklore and avete. No, but never to. Yeah. But just like the way that UFO abduction stories and ghost encounters aren't taken very seriously. But like I said earlier, during the late 60s and early 70s, London was undergoing major cultural shifts and older generations were paranoid about younger generations being interested in these dark things like witchcraft and satanic shit and dark arts. So these supposed hauntings and the highgate cemetery actually gave these older like fearful generations something to concentrate on. And it kind of seemed like they started projecting their anxieties that way. Yeah, because they're like, look, exactly. We were right all along like Reverend Phil there and yeah, the cemetery keeper William Dacon. I know what a cool name. That is that's a you should be a cemetery caretaker. Yes. A caretaker. If your name is William Dacon, you just have to be. I don't mean to make sense or do I like it? Now Sean Manchester, if you remember, he was one of the leaders of the British occult society, but he split from the original British occult society in early 1970 and ended up finding his own faction and he immediately seized on these stories being published in the press. Now unlike David Farron, who was essentially looking for validation, Sean Manchester came forward and told reporters that he didn't think this was a simple matter of a ghostly entity. Instead, he said that he believed something far more dangerous was at work. He claimed he was quote, concerned by the numbers of carcasses of foxes and other large animals that were showing up with lacerations around the throat, completely drained of blood. Ooh, he thinks there's a vampire at work. So given the success of the previous round of these paranormal letters, the hamstead and highgate express leapt at the chance for more letters of this nature. Yeah, they probably saw this was like a big draw. So they were like, let's go. They were like, Vampir as you say. All right. Vampiels. So in late February, they published a front page article featuring Sean Manchester under the headline, Does a Vampir walk in highgate? I am obsessed with that. Love it so much. So in the article, Manchester warned local residents that this was not any old ordinary vampire or vampire. He happened more. He quote, speculated that it was a king vampire from, I think it's Wallachia that had been brought to England in a coffin by his supporters at the start of the 18th century. That sounds fucking awesome. Why doesn't this happen more? I don't know. If someone told me a king vampire had arrived after being brought over in a coffin, I'd I mean, come on. We're calling out to work today, fellas. Make our day. Yeah. Well, he went into detail. He said, quote, now that there is so much desecration of graves by Satanism, I'm convinced that this has been happening in highgate cemetery in an attempt by a body of Satanists who, excuse me, to resurrect the king Vampir. We would like to exercise the vampire by the traditional and approved manner. Drive a stake through his heart with one blow just after dawn between Friday and Saturday. Pop off his head with a grave digger shovel and burn what remains. This is what happened centuries ago, but we'd be breaking the law today. So quick question. Sure. Between Friday and Saturday. I don't know why. So they're like, I know everybody's got to go to work during the week. And I'm sure this vampire has a sweet ass nine to five. So we should wait until the weekend when his guard is down just after dawn, when he's had a nice brewski after work and then we can dust his ass only in these certain time periods. Like, I really like that. I'm obsessed with it. I think that might be what I'm like, okay, I was going to be a question, but then I worked it out in my own head. So there ain't no rest for the wicked. Yeah. That's why they continue their work on the weekends. Yeah. Everybody's working for the weekend. Everybody is working for the vampire. And they have to chop off his head. Yeah, with a grave digger shovel. So it's not like Buffy where they just dust. No, it's a little different. It's close. It's close. Yeah, it's neat because it's just like poof and you're gone. And it's like, you don't have to do anything else. You don't have to get rid of anybody or just like, I know that is true. You sweep him into a dust pan. I like it. But also Buffy's version is neat too because that's what I mean. Buffy's version is neat. Oh, that's what they just do. It's like chopping his head off with a grave digger shovel is not neat at all. And then you have to light a fire. Like Buffy doesn't even have to light a fire. Yeah. The fire is far and above the better way. By the way, go listen to the rewatcher. It's our favorite podcast. It's true. Please do it. It will. You know, one of our favorite podcast. But by the next day, Manchester's story had obviously gained some attention from people like us at first. The attention. At first, this is not just us. The attention was mostly from people who appreciated his creativity, but absolutely dismiss the reality of vampires. Couldn't be us. But after the public sat with the story for about a week or so and Manchester continued to push this narrative of vampires and Satanists in the press, some people started to wonder whether there might be some truth to what he was saying. After all, there had been an alarming rise in youth rebellion in recent years that coincided with increased drug use and an interest in the paranormal and the occult. She paranormal. The paranormal. That was a that was a soul. And then there was the vandalism and the evidence of the quote unquote evidence of witchcraft and local cemeteries and also churchyards, which were followed by all the letters sent to the hamstead and highgate express about these paranormal happenings in highgate cemetery. So while it may have sounded outlandish at first, after giving it some thought, these people and highgate started to think maybe Sean Manchester was on to something and maybe they ought to do something about the evil that invaded their mother fucking neighborhood. I love this because it's a movie. It is. This is literally a movie. Like everybody's just like, we got to do something about this evil. I guarantee you this king vampire, then PR. I guarantee you that they probably did make a movie about this. You should look that up because I didn't look it up. So on March 13th, Farrent and Manchester, David Farrent and Sean Manchester both appeared together in a news segment produced by ITV about the cemetery and standing in front of the cemetery gates. Farrent told a reporter that he had received quote, threatening letters with black magic symbols on them, warning him to stay away from things he could not understand. Oh, now Sean Manchester interrupted and kind of seemed to see an opportunity to undermine David Farrent. So he challenged Farrent's power and knowledge of the occult telling the reporter, we feel he does not possess sufficient knowledge to exercise successfully. Everything is powerful or evil as this vampire and may well fall victim as a result. He's like me on the other hand. I know what the fuck I'm doing. Me, I'm good. You, not good. He said, I'm hot and you're not top that. So the program followed the interview with a segment on the ghostly operations seen in the park and included interviews with several neighborhood children who have also claimed to see this dark figure in highgate cemetery. So the news segment on ITV aired at 6 p.m. and within two hours, there were nearly a hundred people who assembled at the gates of highgate cemetery for what the press later described as a vampire hunt. Wow. This is for real Z's. It happened. I love it. I fucking love it. So while many residents were residents of this local London neighborhood highgate, several others had actually driven pretty far to participate in this event. One of those people was Alan Blood. Hmm. I don't know if that's his real name or not. I was just going to say, please tell me that's his real name. I mean, he's a self-described vampire expert, so I'd be willing to put money on the fact that he changed it, but I don't know his life. But he traveled what I do know is that he traveled more than 40 miles to participate in the hunt for what he described as an undead Satan-like being. You know what, get it. I just, I'm like, you know, like just if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. Cheryl said my girl. I love Cheryl. And Blood told reporters, I met Mr. Farrant. That's his name. I'm like, Blood told reporters. He told reporters, I met Mr. Farrant and a pub. And we talked about his plans to stake the vampire. But this whole thing is timed wrongly. There were too many people around which would disturb any undead spirit. Of course. He's like, if this were up to me to organize, I would have done it a little more, a little more, you know. I would have understood the nuances here. Thank you. That's what I was looking for, the nuances. I would have fine-tuned some of these details. I just, I really like that these people believe this so wholeheartedly. I love it. I really, I find this in daring. It's fantastic. At one point, like an entire school of children, like descended upon this. Nice. Cemetery with like stakes and dogs and fucking everything. I love it.

I'm in. Have you been hiding your smile

this summer?