Not the Vampire Theory (Part 1)

(Click on image to view video)

Eleven minutes into a rambling avoidance of actually discussing the vampire theory, which never seems to get examined, Paul Adams mentions in passing that the late Peter Underwood knew both Montague Summers and Seán Manchester. He falsely describes Montague Summers as a "self-styled priest" and incorrectly titles Seán Manchester as "Mister" throughout. In fact, Montague Summers was a bona fide priest and, in the last years of his life, a bishop. Likewise, the correct formality for the Right Reverend Seán Manchester is "Bishop" and not "Mister." But when was Adams ever interested in paying attention to facts that might upset his collaborator David Farrant?

Adams also intimates that without Underwood's The Vampire's Bedside Companion the public would have been none the wiser about the case as it unfolded. This flies in the face of the fact that Seán Manchester was already planning to publish his full and expurgated account as soon as the case was satisfactorily resolved. His contribution to Peter Underwood's aforementioned anthology, by far the largest section of the book, was merely a precursor to his own The Highgate Vampire which, curiously, is a work that Paul Adams does not mention or refer to in this first part of the Symposium's alleged discussion of the vampire theory. Yet the account, first published by the British Occult Society and currently available in hardback from Gothic Press, was instrumental in acquainting the wider public with the investigation from start to finish. Peter Underwood's book contained a summary of the case up until and including the exorcism attempt in the summer of 1970.

  

The vampire theory, as far as Highgate is concerned, becomes forgotten as the video progresses, but not before Paul Adams concedes that, more than anyone else, Peter Underwood believed Seán Manchester knew what really happened. A mean-spirited attempt is then made by Adams to excuse Underwood's open support for Seán Manchester's account, but it can be seen for what it is, and does him no favours. The video concludes just as Adams turns to Farrant with mention of the convent girl identified in both Peter Underwood's and Seán Manchester's book who bore bite marks on her neck. Those attending the Symposium were shown on the screen behind the panel a photograph of the girl with the marks on her neck. This is occluded in the video version because no consent was given by Seán Manchester for its use. Its use and abuse, therefore, falls foul of copyright law. No doubt the second part of the Not the Vampire Theory session will commence with Farrant making false and unsupported allegations about a person and incidents of which he knows absolutely nothing.

As already stated, Paul Adams refers to Montague Summers as "self-styled." Here are some facts:

Montague Summers grew up in a wealthy family living in Clifton, near Bristol. Religion always played a large part in his life. He was raised as an evangelical Anglican, but his love of ceremonial and sacraments drew him to Anglo-Catholicism. After graduating in Theology at Oxford he took the first steps towards holy orders at Lichfield Theological College and entered his apprenticeship as a curate in the diocese of Bitton near Bristol. A year or so later he converted to Roman Catholicism. He had been made a deacon within the Church of England, and was diaconated again within the Roman Catholic Church, but it was not until he embraced the Old Catholic Church that he was ordained into the sacred priesthood. He celebrated Mass publicly when travelling abroad, but at home in England he only performed this sacrament in private. This was probably due to the fact that he was ordained into the priesthood outside the regular procedures of the Church. Old Catholic holy orders, albeit valid, are irregular in the eyes of Rome and Canterbury (the latter, of course, being the Church of England, is not accepted as being remotely valid by Rome). Montague Summers, in whose memory Seán Manchester would dedicate the revised and enlarged edition of The Highgate Vampire, entered the Old Catholic priesthood (having been diaconated in 1908 in the Church of England, and later joining the diaconate in the Roman Catholic Church, which he entered a year later). Bishop Summers was consecrated for the Order of Corporate Reunion on 21 June 1927 by Dominic Albert Godwin. He was later consecrated sub conditione on 21 March 1946 by Roger Stephen Matthews and appointed Nuncio for Great Britain. Like Bishop Seán Manchester, he wrote books about demonology whilst placing great emphasis on exorcism. Summers' biographer is the Carmelite Father Brocard Sewell.

None of Montague Summers' close friends doubted the sincerity of his religious faith. Dame Sybil Thorndike wrote of him: “I think that because of his profound belief in the tenets of orthodox Catholic Christianity he was able to be in a way almost frivolous in his approach to certain macabre heterodoxies. His humour, his ‘wicked humour’ as some people called it, was most refreshing, so different from the tiresome sentimentalism of so many convinced believers.”

A Question of Attribution

In the conclusion of the so-called occult section, Paul Adams wraps it up quickly following a brief interaction with the audience who are barely audible and invariably comprise satanic apologists.

This video is even more tedious than the first part of the session, if that can be imagined; until, that is, someone in the audience asks a question about Welch who had already been libelled by Adams.

Forty-one minutes and thirteen seconds into the video (click on the image to view) the audience were once again treated to Don McCullen's misdescribed photo of Welch on a screen behind the panel.

Forty-two minutes and forty-four seconds into the video, David Farrant states:

"It appeared in a book called The Highgate Vampire which was written by Mr ... [Farrant is suddenly overcome by a fit of seemingly uncontrollable coughing at this point in the proceedings and takes quite a while to recover, sipping from a glass] ... Seán Manchester. Yes, they knew each other."

This time Seán Manchester's name has not been bleeped out on the video. Farrant obviously had what's left of his feathers ruffled by our comment made about its censorship in the first session.

Someone unseen in the audience asked something about Don McCullen, but it is so muffled as to be totally inaudible. Indeed, the sound quality throughout is very poor, given the controlled situation. 

Then we hear a discarnate voice ask whether Welch was prosecuted. Paul Adams turns to Farrant:

"Was he prosecuted, David?"

Farrant tersely responds:

"No!"

Seán Manchester, of course, knew M J Welch, as, apparently, did Don McCullen whose back-story to the picture captioned "The Head Hunter of Highgate" was inspired by the fabricated nonsense Farrant was disseminating at the time to journalists such as Roger Simpson, plus all and sundry. 

McCullen's photograph of Welch had various captions down the years. McCullen and Seán Manchester are photographers, and the latter had already photographed Welch in the exact same pose. Welch must have shown Seán Manchester's photographic portrait to McMullen who, more or less, copied it when he posed his subject between two human skulls in precisely the same manner.

Does the picture appear in The Highgate Vampire?

Well, yes and no.

It does not appear in the 1991 Gothic Press edition, but is a minuscule part of a composite of cuttings and images in the 1985 British Occult Society edition. Welch can barely be seen; less than one inch by almost half an inch in the bottom left-hand corner of a picture which fills the entire page.

The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, published a dozen years later, acknowledges at the top of page 10 that Seán Manchester knew M J Welch; so Farrant is hardly the master of revelation he likes to pretend to be. 

Farrant had to admit, when asked by the audience, that Welch has not been prosecuted. How could he have been? Tales about Welch originated entirely with Farrant who acted out the very things he falsely attributed to this associate of Seán Manchester. As we know, David Farrant was prosecuted and found guilty of interfering with and offering indignity to corpses at London's Highgate Cemetery.

Adams' Rotten Apple

Eight minutes and twenty seconds into the video (click on the image to view), Paul Adams makes the following astonishing claim:

"What we do know in the 1960s is that Highgate Cemetery was being utilised as a source for occult supplies in the form of stolen skulls and other body parts during the period of 1962 at the latest. In that year famous war photographer Don McCullin composed this astonishing photograph [a black and white image of a bearded man between two skulls is shown on the screen] of a local character, a man he knew by the name of Welch. Now according to interviews he's given over the years, Welch was heavily into black magic, and other contemporary sources confirmed that he was also involved in a small and highly secretive body-snatching ring operating in both Highgate and Kensal Green cemeteries."

The image attributed to Don McCullin emulates a photograph Seán Manchester took of M J Welch some time prior to McCullin. Our concern, however, is the appalling libel committed by Paul Adams' public allegation, which is known to be completely false. Seán Manchester found Welch an introverted and unusual person, but he was most certainly not "a source for occult supplies" and most definitely not "heavily into black magic." He would have treated such a thing and anyone involved in it with contempt. He became aware of David Farrant when the latter fed a false story about Welch, a name learned from another party, to a Hornsey Journal newspaper reporter by the name of Roger Simpson. This is where the "occult supplies" and "black magic" fabrications have their origin. The journalist realised he had been led up the garden path by Farrant and no story was ever published. Indeed, it is from this point, partly due to the manufactured nonsense fed to them, that the Hornsey Journal started to gather incriminating evidence against David Farrant.

It should be added that Paul Adams is a close friend and supporter of David Farrant who is seated to Adams' left on the stage in the video. This is the context of the defamation. Farrant, of course, was found guilty of graveyard vandalism, tomb desecration and black magic at Highgate Cemetery in 1974 and, together with other offences, was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment.

M J Welch is a name that crops up in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook (Gothic Press, 1997) as someone involved at the outset in an informal group researching strange phenomena in the early 1960s. Welch himself was a sceptic who held no beliefs and dismissed all practices, whether black magic or religious, in equal measure. In other words, he was an atheist who had no time for supernaturalism. He was, however, a student of taxidermy who also studied anatomy and osteology. His collection of preserved animals and bones of all sorts was considerable. His knowledge helped determine whether something was human, animal or other when certain discoveries were made. 

Being such a sceptic, and therefore unlikely to be impressionable, was also a useful control to have present when examining alleged haunted areas. Seán Manchester was introduced to him by a mutual friend who was an an enthusiastic researcher with an open mind and part of the same group.

Fifteen and a half minutes into the video, Paul Adams mentions the British Occult Society and falsely attributes its formation to David Farrant. In fact, the British Occult Society were among the first to expose Farrant as a publicity-seeking nuisance from 1970 onward. When Farrant fraudulently usurped the British Occult Society's name in the media the B.O.S. were equally quick to have retractions published. Adams alleges that this "involvement" of Farrant's led to him investigating the remains of a black magic ritualism at Highgate Cemetery. A picture is then screened of a Highgate mausoleum containing strange symbols. This was one of a number of photographs successfully used by the Crown in the summer of 1974 to find David Farrant guilty of tomb desecration and black magic. Farrant is then heard describing the picture as "proof of Satanists using Highgate Cemetery." 

Yet it was Farrant who was jailed after the charge was proved to the satisfaction of a jury that he was responsible for this very satanic outrage. A series of further images from the inside of the mausoleum are shown in the video which carefully omits a photograph taken at the same time by Farrant of a completely naked Martine de Sacy in a ceremonial pose before satanic symbols.

 

McWilliams' Wimpy Wampyr Intro

Farrant apologist and flunkie Redmond McWilliams attempts to talk about the Highgate Vampire, the British Occult Society and Readers' Letters in the Hampstead & Highgate Express in early 1970. We say "attempts" because the sound quality is so abysmal and McWilliams' reading skills - he is reading from a prepared script so that the audience receive propaganda as though they are attending a cult's indoctrination session - leaves an awful lot to be desired. A worse and more boring speaker would be difficult to imagine. That said, David Farrant would certainly give him a run for his money.

Seán Manchester's name is curiously bleeped out on the soundtrack, but those attending will have heard it clearly enough. That same audience were misinformed about the British Occult Society, an organisation which opposed Farrant's activities from the moment he entered the public arena and distanced itself from him immediately, and the truth about the article "Does A Wampyr Walk In Highgate?" which title Redmond McWilliams predictably mispronounced ("wampyr" sounds phonetically the same as "vam-pyre"). Furthermore, reference is made by McWilliams to letters written to the Hampstead & Highgate Express by readers, but, of course, he fails to mention that Farrant wrote quite a number of them, using the names and addresses of acquaintances and friends.

David Farrant's own letter to the same newspaper is projected onto the screen behind the speakers in doctored form. The very revealing last paragraph of his letter has been expurgated from the text.

A blundering, amateurish start to the so-called Highgate Vampire Symposium where even the sound of Seán Manchester's name sends such shivers down their spines that they felt obliged to censor it.

To view the video, click on the image of Redmond McWilliams at the top of the page.

To read some facts relating to McWilliams' prepared drone of a monologue, click on the image below of Seán Manchester, captioned "President, British Occult Society," from a Thames Television programme broadcast on 13 March 1970, where he spoke about the Highgate Vampire case.

Mercer Magazine Article

Andy Mercer's article (found on page 37 of KTPF magazine) about the Highgate Vampire Symposium, which he was also invited to speak at, confirms what has been said all along about the occasion, ie that it was an excuse to dismiss the Highgate Vampire case and denigrate such as Seán Manchester who successfully engaged in its investigation and closure. The speakers were little more than a collection of apologists for Farrant with an axe to grind. One audience member even protested at the word Satanism being given a "negative" connotation, which tells you all you need to know about this biased batch of latter-day occult dabblers and dilettantes attending the so-called Highgate Vampire Symposium on 19 July 2015. Even Mercer complained about a member of the bar staff who served him at the pub where the Symposium was held as the rudest he had ever met.

Read Andy Mercer's article at this link: http://issuu.com/thektpflondon/docs/ktpfissue5/1?e=15629364/14569802

Cometh the Hour - But not the Man

There is a fourteenth century saying that "opportunity makes the thief," and David Farrant saw his opportunity in the early 1970s and stole other people's identities, titles and the name of an extant organisation (the British Occult Society), but he was found out and punished with a significant term of imprisonment. However, subsequent generations who know little if anything about Farrant's infamous history of opportunistic publicity-seeking and theft might be forgiven for knowing no better when confronted with an endless stream of pernicious propaganda from Farrant and his flunkies.

Today is the day of what he believes to be his coup de grâce. It might have proven to be his undoing if anyone could have bought tickets to put questions openly to him. But he was never going to allow that to happen. Not only are all the speakers his hand-picked acquaintances, but every one of them support his derision and discrimination against the traditionalist Christian exorcist Seán Manchester.

"Della here! Unfortunately Ken Rees, our scheduled speaker for this session (Why Highgate? Liminal Space, Leys & Environmental Influences), is now unable to attend the Symposium for personal reasons. We apologise to Symposium attendees for any disappointment caused." (12 July 2015)

However, Ken Rees spoke at a Theosophical Society meeting not too long prior on the topic "Creating Personal Mystery." Maybe he felt he would be surrounded by too many people creating their own personal mystery at the Symposium? 

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, as of today Neil Arnold is no longer able to attend the event." (15 July 2015)

Another skittle falls. And then someone 

who had been looking forward to attending The Highgate Vampire Symposium 2015 was summarily banned. David Farrant's message of July 18th (the day before the Symposium) to Trystan Lewis Swale (who promptly published it on the internet) follows:

Though signed by David Farrant, the message is obviously written by the person known as "Della Farrant." Trystan Lewis Swale responded:

"Thanks for the email you’ve put your name to, it’s good to hear from you despite the circumstances. I see you’ve requested the correspondence be ‘private and confidential’, though I think it appropriate to fill the role of pantomime villain."

D-Day (or F-Day) Approaches

Nerves fray with hours to go to the highly exploitative and transparently bogus Highgate Vampire Symposium being held above the Gatehouse pub, Highgate, London, with a £12.00 per ticket fee.

Seán Manchester has received threatening mail from Farrant and company, two speakers have pulled out and a legitimate ticket purchaser who might pose awkward questions has been banned as the countdown begins to the most flagrant bandwagoneering exercise in shameless self-publicity ever attempted by David Farrant since hoaxing his phoney ghost forty-five years ago.

Parasites have always been a phenomenon where the Highgate Vampire case is concerned, but those who don't believe in demonology or vampirology holding a Symposium to exploit Seán Manchester's work and then devoting only 15% of the time to a debate about the vampire itself while only inviting Seán Manchester's detractors to contribute to the event is laughable, or, at least, it would be if it wasn't so pitifully predictable.

What we have is a bunch of self-proclaimed and self-styled "experts" discussing something they don't believe in and know absolutely nothing about. That will be £12.00 per ticket per person please. 

Utterly pathetic!