Posted on 29 April 2005

'Vampire' rapist gets 10 years

LEEDS: A DRUG-crazed rapist, who talked about vampires and the devil to his terrified victim after holding her prisoner, has been jailed for 10 years. Matthew Wilson also threatened to stab two men in the heart and to drink their blood when they went to the aid of the 28-year-old woman.

She was a prostitute who had agreed to go with Wilson to the deserted back garden of a house in Beeston, Leeds, but once there he suddenly turned violent, subjecting her to a frightening attack, Richard Mansell, prosecuting, said. Wilson fled after the two men approached, but his bizarre behaviour on drink and amphetamines was seen again days later, when he was arrested for a public order offence. While in the police station he was captured on camera talking of the devil being on his back, and of being able to escape by walking through the wall of his cell. That behaviour subsequently led to him being connected to the earlier rape.

Wilson, 25, then of Buckton Mount, Beeston, was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court of two charges of raping the woman, false imprisonment and affray on July 5 last year. Jailing him yesterday, Judge James Stewart QC said Wilson had threatened to kill the woman if she screamed. He raped her, forced her to perform a sex act and would not let her leave. "You spoke of vampires, asked her to do sums and spell the devil backwards. The victim regarded this as torture." During the terrifying and bizarre attack, Wilson also recited names of witnesses from a previous trial, when he had been cleared of raping prostitutes. It was only when two men, Vaseem Ahmed and off-duty community officer Abubakar Saddique, pulled up in a car nearby and the woman called for help, that Wilson left the garden, threatening to stab them with a knife in the heart and to drink their blood. They gave chase but he got away. Judge Stewart awarded each £200 from public funds for their actions.

Wilson was arrested days later when his erratic behaviour was filmed, and he was linked to the rape. Wilson denied the charges at trial, but had since admitted his guilt in a letter to the judge. Simon Waley, for Wilson, said his record included offences of affray and dishonesty, but he had never before been convicted of a sex crime. His behaviour changed after he began injecting amphetamines. A medical report concluded that his paranoid behaviour was due to the combination of hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol.

Judge Stewart said the psychiatrist also assessed Wilson as someone who targeted prostitutes and was at risk of re-offending. He ordered him to register as a sex offender for life. Det Sgt Stuart Smith said after the case: "This was a vicious and sustained attack against a vulnerable woman. She was subjected to a despicable and traumatic crime."

Posted on 16 April, 2005

BatFest food drive makes a difference

BATAVIA: The organizers of last year's BatFest wanted to make a difference. So they decided to kick off with the festival with a "Vampire Blood Drive." A food drive for the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry also was part of the festival. Now festival organizers are being honored for their efforts. USA Weekend magazine has given a Make A Difference Day award to the Batavia MainStreet organization, the major sponsor of BatFest.

Batavia MainStreet was the only winner from central Kane County. A list of winners will be published in Sunday's USA Weekend magazine in the Kane County Chronicle, a local sponsor of Make A Difference Day.

BatFest is held every October. Coincidentally, last year's BatFest took place on Make A Difference Day. Created by USA Weekend magazine, the national event takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. In choosing the winners, Make A Difference Day editor Pamela Brown said the magazine looked for creativity and impact. "We do look if there is an interesting spin on a traditional volunteer effort. We get 5,000 entries. Unfortunately, we can't write about every one," Brown said. Brown said more than 3 million people nationally participated in thousands of service projects during last year's 14th annual Make A Difference Day. "It is very exciting," Batavia MainStreet Executive Director Britta McKenna said in reacting to the award. "Applying for Make A Difference Day was an afterthought. BatFest was the first thing I planned after taking over as executive director last September." In her application, McKenna said, "The long-term impact of this project is that it may create a new recipe for what a community festival can look like in the future...not only benefiting families at the festival, but those less fortunate and in need."

McKenna said she did not know how much food was collected. "It was more of an awareness thing. We hope to build on it for this year," McKenna said.

This year's BatFest will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 29 in downtown Batavia. Other sponsors include the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, Batavia Park District and Batavia Mothers' Club. Batavia MainStreet's next project is a clean up of the downtown on May 7. The group invites residents, community groups and businesses to participate in the clean up. Volunteers can sign up for two times: A morning team begins at 8 a.m. and concludes at noon, and the afternoon team begins at 1 p.m. and finishes by 5 p.m. Participants should bring their own work gloves along with rakes, brooms and shovels, and call the MainStreet office at (630) 761-3528 so appropriate work and food will be available.

MainStreet also invites downtown businesses that need outdoor improvements such as landscaping, flower planting or simple painting to register their project with the MainStreet office. Businesses should call (630) 761-3528 by May 3 to register their project. All participants who volunteer on May 7 will be treated to a cookout at 5:30 p.m. that day at the Batavia Riverwalk, followed by a free concert at 6:30 p.m. by the Aurora Youth Symphony.

Posted on 08 April, 2005

Lancashire town goes batty

LYTHAM ST ANNE'S: A normally quiet seaside town is awash with rumours of a vampire on the loose. Affluent Lytham St Anne's, near Blackpool in Lancashire, has been the centre of two vampire-like attacks in recent weeks – with the Dracula in question fluent in French. Police have launched an investigation after two women had their necks bitten by what appears to be the same man, the Sun reports.

The first victim was a 38-year-old owner of a French delicatessen, who had been chatting in French to a man in his 30s or 40s when he trapped her and sunk his teeth into her neck. And fears grew even further when another woman was attacked in a bar on the seafront, by a man who fitted the same description. A man was questioned by police but they are continuing their investigation.

Local councillor Richard Fulford-Brown told the newspaper: "Lytham has been rife with talk about vampire-style attacks. "In the pubs and clubs they were calling him Dracula or Le Fang because he speaks French to women. He must be the only Frenchman who's allergic to garlic." The man behind the bloodsucking attacks is described as well dressed and 5ft 8in tall with very dark, short hair.

Posted on 06 April, 2005

Mother claims son belonged to ‘vampire cult’

BROWNSVILLE: A Brownsville mother said her son is involved in a teenage “vampire cult” that was recently planning to kill and bathe in their victim’s blood. Brownsville Independent School District police are investigating the claims though school district officials could not substantiate the woman’s story or her son’s allegations Tuesday.

The 16-year-old boy provided a statement to school officials Thursday about an alleged drug purchase at Rivera High School and told them of his involvement with a group of local students who drink each other’s blood and were plotting to sacrifice a victim. In his statement, the Rivera High School junior said he “had to obey” the cult’s leader and that the group planned to kill a person and bathe in their blood.

BISD Police Chief Oscar Garcia said his office plans to investigate the allegations with the assistance of the Brownsville Police Department. “The information that came to us is that it (cult activities) took place off campus,” Garcia said. “We’ll definitely have a follow-up investigation to make sure everyone is safe.” The boy’s mother, who asked not to be identified Tuesday, said her son told her that he and his girlfriend would cut themselves in the teachers’ parking lot of the school and taste each other’s blood. The boy’s mother said her son claims the group has members in other local high schools.

Letters addressed to the boy and provided to The Herald by his mother, contain details of alleged acts of vampirism as well as logos and symbols from popular punk bands. “Sorry if my blood isn’t yummy,” one letter states. “I hope you don’t feel bad about cutting me. I liked it a lot. It doesn’t hurt.”

According to a 911 tape released to The Herald Tuesday, the boy was held at Rivera High School shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday with reported “suicidal tendencies.” In the tape, operators say the boy told a school district police officer that he would commit suicide if he went home. An ambulance took him to Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville.

According to his mother, the boy is receiving treatment at the San Antonio State Hospital. She said she spoke with him and his caseworker Monday and reported he was “doing better” and taking anti-depressants. The woman described her son as “a good student,” involved in school activities. His style of dress changed when he was in the ninth grade when he began to dress in all black or in the “gothic style” she said. “To me (the color) black is evil, but he claimed it wasn’t. He told me, ‘It’s just me.’” More recently, the woman says she began to see behavioral changes in the boy and his taste in music favored metal and punk. He started experimenting with drugs and stealing money from acquaintances. She has asked school officials to enforce dress codes and rules against bringing CDs to school. “We need to open the eyes of parents,” she said.

Posted on 23 March, 2005

Killer Says He Thought Mother, Aunt Were Vampires

KAILUA: There is a bizarre new explanation for one of Hawaii's most horrible murders. Micah White, of Kailua, who stabbed and burned his mother and aunt, told psychiatrists that he thought they were vampires.

Sharon and Kerrie White were stabbed, dowsed with gasoline and set on fire last April in their Kainui Road home. "The mother and the aunt were laying on the ground. Her throat was stabbed and she was bleeding and they were on fire," witness Alyssa Erickson said in April. Before dying, the victims identified Micah White. His father and police suspected drugs. His mother's call for help described Micah as "tweaking," but a court appointed psychiatrist said White denies using drugs and told her he believed vampires were out to get him.

His doctor wrote, "it appears the world of vampires closed in on him and that he began to see his aunt, and then his mother, assume the appearance of the vampires. And these vampires were snarling at him and the air was populated by their screams and voices." White told the doctor that his weapons were a rock and a sharpened drumstick. Although the doctor didn't say so, if White is telling the truth, the sharpened stick may represent the type of wooden stake said to be used by mythological vampire slayers.

Prosecutors may be skeptical of White's story. The fire may have destroyed the weapon and other clear physical evidence. White has little history of mental illness. He has no symptoms now. The doctor said he was "probably" severely impaired just on the day of the murder. More doctors will examine White. Judge Virginia Crandall will probably be asked to decide if White is responsible for the killings. If White used drugs, delusions due to drug use would not be a legal defense.

Posted on 10 March, 2005

Ghoulish testimony in court

FRESNO: Marcus Wesson believes he's Jesus Christ and has a fascination with vampires, his niece testified Wednesday in Fresno County Superior Court. "Just as Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, that's what vampires do," Wesson preached, according to Sofina Solorio.

Wesson referred to himself as Je Vam Marc Sus Pire, which uses part of his first name and the words Jesus and vampire, Solorio testified. Wesson had a lair of vampire brides and concubines, made up of his daughters and nieces, who gave birth to his children, Solorio testified. Wesson gave each bride a vampire name, Solorio said; her name was Tahla. The girls' mission was to "protect Marcus from the world," Solorio said, which would allow him to remain anonymous. On his behalf, the girls worked, gave him money and cut business deals for him, she testified.

For the third straight day, Solorio, 29, testified about her life with her uncle, his unusual interpretation of the Bible and his incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces. Today, Wesson's lawyers, Ralph Torres and Peter Jones, will cross-examine Solorio.

Wesson, 58, is charged with killing nine of his children inside his Fresno home on March 12, 2004. He also faces 14 counts of sexually abusing his daughters and nieces. Wesson's lawyers contend that Wesson's 25-year-old daughter, Sebhrenah, shot and killed the children, then fatally shot herself. Wesson has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In addition to the nine bodies stacked in a back bedroom of the Wesson home, police discovered several coffins. The relevance of the coffins has not yet been disclosed to jurors.

Posted on 5 March, 2005

SALINAS WOMAN CLAIMING TO BE VAMPIRE GUILTY OF MOLESTATION

SALINAS: A Salinas woman who told her 14-year-old victim that she was a vampire that could cast spells, has been convicted of misdemeanor child molestation in a Monterey County court, the Monterey County District Attorney's office announced.

A jury found 18-year-old Erin Shatraw guilty of molesting a 14-year-old girl that was a family friend for several years.

The victim testified that she was intimidated by Shatraw, who claimed to be a vampire, and testified that she believed Shatraw could cast spells during the molestation in July 2004, according to the office.

Shatraw was found not guilty of a charge of felony sexual assault, the office reports.

Shatraw will be sentenced on April 20. She faces a maximum sentence of one year in county jail, according to the district attorney's office.

Posted on 4 March, 2005

"Tranz" It: Dark nights await goth chicks at new club Palazzo

PHOENIX: Phoenix hasn't exactly been a hotbed of the gothic club scene. For one thing, it's too sunny here (honest, it is!) for any "vampire" to survive; and for another, it's too damn hot to wear black all the time -- not to mention the fact that the Valley has traditionally lacked goth-rock clubs. But now's the time to bust out those ripped fishnets, pleather pants, and ghoulish makeup. Thanks to Steven Rogers, owner of the new club Palazzo, 710 North Central, denizens of the dark can get their goth grooves on with "Tranzylvania," a weekly Friday night event that combines melancholy music, fiendish fetish fashion, and austere art.

The art murals -- most of which contain some element of the erotic -- cover the walls of the club, but are only visible under black light, which is a good thing considering Palazzo hosts weddings during the day. But event promoter Shea B. Dean thinks the "Tranzylvania" patrons might give the art a run for its money. "The [style of] dress is pretty dark," says Dean. "I dress pretty distinctly, very dark and erotic. But people can wear whatever fits their mood."

And since no one should be too dark and depressed to dance, DJ Kevin Brown will spin "dark trance" music all night, the definition of which is hotly contested by dance-music junkies, so we'll just liken it to spacy haunted-house music.

And of course, there'll be plenty of spirits in the house, of the alcoholic variety. Wicked ones can wet their whistles with $5 well drinks of premium vodka, rum, tequila and gin, and $3 draft beers (drink booze, not blood!).

"Tranzylvania" debuted two weeks ago, and Dean says the turnout was "pretty good," especially considering the only promotion they'd received was by word of mouth. "It was packed early on in the night," he says.

Doors open at 10 p.m., with revelry lasting until 4 a.m., or until the last bat flies the cave. Cover is $7. Call 602-229-1150. -- Niki D'Andrea

Posted on 28 February, 2005

FCC Absolves "Angel," "Ryan"

WASHINGTON DC: Simulated vampire sex is not bad for the kiddies--and that means Angel won't have to atone for its sins, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

FCC regulators resoundingly rejected a complaint lodged by the Parents Television Council that argued that a love scene in the WB's now spiked Buffy spinoff violated federal indecency rules by showing a vampire biting her partner's neck.

The conservative media watchdog was shocked--shocked!--that the WB's Washington, D.C., affiliate, WBDC-TV, aired the bloodsucker romp in the 9 p.m. time slot on Nov. 19, 2003 and called on the regulatory agency to slap big fines on the station.

The subject of the PTC ire was a flashback in an episode titled "Destiny" in which our titular undead hero with a soul (David Boreanaz) got hot and heavy with a female character. Angel's hips were seen "moving back and forth," even though both characters had their clothes on.

The group was also all atwitter over another scene in which a woman morphed into a vampire and sank her teeth into the neck of her female companion.

But, in a decision handed down Friday, federal regulators declared that the vampire frolicking was not sufficiently graphic or explicit to render the program "patently offensive" by today's community standards.

An FCC rep did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on Monday. However, the PTC felt the vampire ruling really sucked.

"In some ways the ruling is not surprising because the FCC only finds anything indecent only if it's way over the top," spokeswoman Laura Mahaney said. "The problem with the FCC is that they aren't going to find graphic sex indecent [unless] it's near pornographic."

Asked if it might seem strange to target a show like Angel that' not on the air anymore, Mahaney said, "Those complaints have been sitting [with the FCC] for two years."

In recent weeks, the FCC has denied nearly 40 indecency complaints by the activist group. The PTC had targeted more than two dozen programs airing between 2001 and 2004, including Emmy-winning shows like Friends, The Simpsons, Will & Grace and Arrested Development, for scenes involving graphic sexual and execretory references, including the use of slang to describe a penis. But the agency ruled that the content of such programs--while offensive to some--was not explicit or sustained enough to be considered "patently offensive."

In December, MediaWeek obtained an in-house FCC report that estimated that the Parents Television Council was responsible for 99.8 percent of all indecency complaints that were investigated by the agency. Such statistics prompted critics to accuse outgoing FCC boss Michael Powell of allowing a special-interest group to drive the agency's agenda, allegations that he denied.

Mahaney says the PTC takes its allegations seriously and always provides a tape detailing the supposedly offensive programming.

The PTC-fueled indecency fight is making inroads in Congress. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill on a vote of 389 to 38 to raise the maximum indecency fines for broadcasters from $32,500 to as high as $500,000 per incident.

Critics and free-speech advocates fear such legislation could put a chill on programming and lead broadcast TV programmers to shy away from airing anything that might be perceived as offensive--especially when the FCC's indecency rules are imprecise and oftentimes arbitrary.

Just last week, several PBS affiliates decided to broadcast an edited version of the documentary A Company of Soldiers, bleeping out some foul language by troops that, said critics of the decision, white-washes the realities of war.

And in November, 66 ABC affiliates covering about one-third of the nation's TV viewers, refused to air an unedited Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day, fearing the graphic violence and language would open them up for FCC fines.

The FCC issued a widely expected decision Monday saying that while the film contains "numerous expletives and other potentially offensive language," it does not violate indecency standards "in light of the overall context in which this material is presented."

The five-member commission ruled unanimously. In a statement, Powell said, "This film is a critically acclaimed artwork that tells a gritty story--one of bloody battles and supreme heroism...The horror of war and the enormous personal sacrifice it draws on cannot be painted in airy pastels."

ABC, which had asked its affiliates to air the movie and pointed out that the film ran unedited twice before without incident, did not comment on the FCC ruling. By Josh Grossberg

Posted on 28 February, 2005

Jodi's killer 'loves taste of blood'

DALKEITH: CONVICTED murderer Luke Mitchell has reportedly boasted of drinking blood and worshipping the devil.

The teenager, who is serving a 20-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Jodi Jones, allegedly wrote about being a vampire in letters to a young penpal from his prison cell.

In the letters, he is said to claim to have tried kinky sex and said that sex is all that he ever thinks about.

He is also said to have shown no remorse for Jodi’s murder and shrugged off his sentence, which his lawyers are appealing against.

A family friend also claimed today that Mitchell was so confident that he would be acquitted that he had planned a career in the Army.

Mitchell was convicted of the horrific murder of 14-year-old Jodi in woods near her Dalkeith home at the end of a 42-day trial in Edinburgh High Court last month.

He has reportedly run into trouble with fellow inmates at Polmont Young Offenders Institution in Stirlingshire, where he is serving his sentence.

In the letters, Mitchell allegedly boasted that he enjoys "the taste of blood, mine, my pals, etc. I can smell it and it drives me crazy. I love the taste of blood".

Family friend Dougie McLean today claimed Mitchell was so convinced he would be cleared by the jury that he had organised a party to celebrate coming home. He is also said to have visited an army recruitment office sometime after Jodi’s murder.

Posted on 18 February, 2005

'Vampire' girlfriend halts trial on killing

TORONTO: THE trial of three teenagers in Canada accused of killing a 12-year-old boy gave a glimpse into the lurid world of vampire websites and auto-vampirism.

But the so-called Johnathan Murder Trial collapsed this week because the star witness, a 16-year-old girlfriend of one of the accused, had put messages on the VampireFreaks.com website. Among her “likes” she listed sex, drugs, girls and guys, blood, pain, knives, cemeteries and darkness.

Johnathan’s body was found with 71 stab wounds to his head and neck at his Toronto home in November 2003. His stepfather was outside, dazed and covered in blood, wearing only his underpants.

Police arrested the boy’s 17-year-old brother, known as X, and two friends, Y, 15, and Z, 16. They had a fascination with vampires that is common among youth cults such as “Goths” and fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on television.

Y’s girlfriend had recorded a telephone conversation with him at the time of the killing. On the tape, he pleaded with her to come over and witness the murder because “blood is on tap here”.

In evidence, he said that he had impressed two girlfriends by boasting that he had robbed joggers by biting their necks so they bled to death. One told him that was “pretty cool”.

He even drank blood with his girlfriends. “One of us would cut ourselves and we’d drink the blood and have sex,” he said. “I heard that it was called ‘auto-vampirism’.”

The judge ordered a mistrial when it was reported that the girlfriend had been involved with the website, casting doubt on her role in the case. From James Bone in New York

Posted on 6 February, 2005

The long shadow of Dracula

MAROTINUL DE SUS: Last week, six men were jailed for ripping out the heart of a corpse they believed was 'undead'. As Monica Petrescu in Bucharest writes, to many Romanians, vampires are not legend but terrifying reality.

It was just before midnight as Gheorghe Marinescu and five of his relatives crept into the graveyard in the small Romanian village of Marotinul de Sus. They knew which plot they were looking for – a simple earth grave with a wooden cross bearing the name Petre Toma – and quickly, but quietly, set about digging.

When they had dragged the body out, they waited. Then, at the stroke of 12, Marinescu began the ritual that they had been planning for weeks, one that had passed from generation to generation in their family. They drove a pitchfork through Petre Toma's chest, opened it, drew out his heart and then put stakes through the rest of his body. They sprinkled garlic over the mutilated corpse and then, carefully, laid it back in its grave.

They left the cemetery with the heart impaled on the end of the pitchfork and went to a crossroads where Marinescu's wife, son and daughter-in-law were waiting. There the group burnt it, dissolved the ashes and then drank the solution.

The scene last July would fit readily into any number of films about vampires and the Dracula legend but Gheorghe Marinescu is real. Last week he and his five relatives – Mitrica Mircea, Popa Stelica, Constantin Florea, Ionescu Ion and Pascu Oprea – were sentenced to six months in jail for the unlawful exhumation of the body of Toma, 76, a former teacher and a man they believed had risen from the dead to drink their blood while they slept.

News of what the Marinescu family did made headlines in Romania, but in a country where a large minority of the population admit to openly believing in the "undead", football bosses employ witches to cast spells on foreign teams and a couple recently named their newborn son Dracula after premonitions of impending danger to him, many were unsurprised by what they read.

Mihai Fifor, an ethnologist at the Centre for Studies in Traditional Cultures and Societies in Craiova, said, "This particular ritual is quite unique but there have been many cases of people claiming that they are being hunted by the dead and vampires. There are a number of other rituals that exist for this type of situation where people believe they need to kill vampires."

Romania has been associated with vampires in the minds of many Westerners ever since Bram Stoker wrote his classic horror story, Dracula, in 1897. But in Romania the belief in vampires and the threat of the undead stretches as far back as the 15th century leader of Wallachia – modern-day Transylvania and other parts of Romania – Count Vlad Tepes Dracula, who was the inspiration for Stoker's novel. Stoker merged the Middle Ages belief in vampires, which had become entrenched in Romania and many other parts of central and eastern Europe at the time, with the historically documented bloodthirstiness of Tepes's rule. In doing so, he created the story of Count Dracula who rose from the dead to haunt the deep, dark forests and castles of Transylvania, preying on young victims and drinking their blood.

Today, the country's tourist industry still makes millions from his legend. His castle in Bran in Transylvania – Dracula Castle – draws tens of thousands of enthralled holidaymakers every year. There is even a Dracula theme park under construction.

But while Dracula and vampires are just a fascinating legend to most people outside the country, to many Romanians, mostly in rural areas, they are a terrifying reality. After his arrest, Marinescu said: "If we hadn't done anything, my wife, my son and my daughter-in-law would have died. That is when I decided to `unbury' him. I've seen these kinds of things before.

"When we took him out of the grave, he had blood around his mouth. We took his heart and he sighed when we stabbed him. We burned it, dissolved the ash into water and the people who had fallen sick drank it. They got better immediately. It was like someone took away all their pain and sickness.

"We performed a ritual that is hundreds of years old. We had no idea we were committing a crime. On the contrary, we believed that we were doing a good thing because the spirit of Petre was haunting us all and was very close to killing some of us. He came back from the dead and was after us."

Marinescu explained to police when he was arrested that Toma, who he said had been a respected and well-liked teacher in the village for years, had been buried on Christmas Day in 2003. But soon afterwards he had begun to appear to members of Marinescu's family in dreams as a vampire. Although he did not see the man himself, he saw his family become sick and they told him that Toma was not just a dream but a vampire whose spirit had come back from the dead.

He, like the rest of his family, had been told how to recognise vampires and how to deal with them by his parents who had been taught that knowledge from their own parents and they from theirs. He said he had had to act quickly to save his family.

Paula Diaconu, who has lived in Marotinul de Sus for decades, praised the ritual carried out by Marinescu and his relatives. "It was all a good thing to take his heart out because people were in danger. Villagers in Romania know about rituals for driving away the evil spirits of the dead," he said.

Another man from the village, Dumitru Moineasa, once drank a solution containing the ashes of his uncle's heart. "An uncle of mine died in 1992 and a few days after we buried him I started to feel very sick," he said. "The doctor had no idea what was wrong with me. One day, an aunt brought me a glass of water. I drank it all. I got well almost immediately. I only found out later that it was my dead uncle's ashes."

His friend, Domnica Brancusi, said that hearts had been taken out of dead men's chests many times before. "There have been dozens of dead men who turned into vampires and were haunting us," he said. "But usually the family of the dead man who was haunting people made a pact with those people and agreed not to say anything about the rituals. Until this case, no fuss was ever made about it."

Local police laid charges against the six men after Toma's daughter, Floarea Cotoran, who has since left Marotinul de Sus, complained about what happened to her father's body. They admitted that they were aware of similar rituals having been performed in the region. A policeman in nearby Celaru, which has jurisdiction over Marotinul de Sus, and who asked not to be named, said: "We've known about it for years. There's never been anything we could do about it as no one ever complained."

Marotinul de Sus, in the south-west, is far from the only village in Romania to take the threat of vampires seriously. In many rural communities like it across the country, belief in vampires is pervasive and superstition often governs people's lives. "Fear and great challenges in life are sometimes met by people with rituals and superstitions, a set of rules built over generations which has been verified over time," said Sabina Ispas, an ethnologist at the Institute for Ethnology and Folklore in Bucharest. "Rural Romania has conserved excellently this system of rituals and beliefs."

Deep superstition and belief in the paranormal and pagan permeates all levels of society in urban Romania as well. Maria Tedescu, a 21-year-old law student in Bucharest, said: "We all have our little superstitions, like taking three steps back if a black cat crosses your path to stop something bad happening. But vampires are different. It's not something to be taken lightly. I know it may sound silly and I can't totally explain it, but I think they exist. I always wear a crucifix… just in case." Monica Petrescu

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