Vampire charlatans acted like the living dead to get what they wanted. Image by David Henry Friston.
Historically, the belief in vampires has existed in many countries; most prevalent in the Slavic regions. People feared the creatures because they believed vampires could create droughts, crop failures, diseases, nightmares and poltergeist activity. According to legend, vampires could shapeshift into different animals; including cats, wolves and snakes. There were also European cases of vampire chicanery created to benefit the charlatans. These scammers profited from their fellow citizens’ fears.
Vampire Fraud in Baja Serbia
According to Rosemary Ellen Guiley in her book, The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and Other Monsters, an unnamed man wore a shroud with bells sewn into it, a white cap and socks; daily visiting a recently widowed woman who lived with her in-laws, usually around midnight, in what is now Hungary. Other household members were so frightened that they ran from the house. When his visit was over, he left the house, screamed and rang the bells to imitate the sounds that people believed vampires made. After several months, suspicious young men captured the so-called vampire and revealed him as the family’s neighbor.
The couple confessed that they were having an affair, had poisoned her husband and decided to have the neighbor disguise himself as a vampire, so people would think that he was her dead husband. This scared the others out of the house so they would have a place to meet and continue their relationship. The result? A death sentence for both.
Fake Vampires in Decani, Kosovo
Guiley also tells us that after World War I, Slavic Muslim Gypsies feigned vampiricism and travelled from town to town. They damaged crops and scared people, usually by throwing stones from rooftops during the night. The terrified people fled from their homes. The “vampires” eluded the police–until they stopped at Decani.
The village monastery’s abbot climbed on top of the roofs and saw the men throwing stones while the women and children stole crops from the fields and property from inside homes. He or someone called the police which ended the “vampire’s” thefts.
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Vampire Charlatan in Zagradje, Montenegro
Professor T. J. Vulkanovic wrote that his uncle was a charlatan vampire during the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars. His uncle covered himself with a sheet and travelled around local villages for liaisons with young women. The uncle told the girls he was a vampire, so he could have his way with them. Finally, one night, armed peasants in Zagradje chased him with their dogs and almost killed him. He then stopped his illegal jaunts. Vulkanovic’s account is in Jan L. Perkowski’s book, Vampire of the Slavs, in the chapter appropriately titled “The Vampire.”
Vampires Through the Ages
Over the years, unethical people have used ‘vampires’ as a way to avoid trouble or take advantage of the unwary.
- Women have created vampire hoaxes to hide prohibited love affairs when they became pregnant, claiming that the babies’ fathers were vampires. People believed that vampires were sexually voracious and returned to have trysts with spouses or others, and were too scared to ask any questions.
- Some charlatans pretended that they were vampires when food was scarce, and wore shrouds. They raided granaries and mills to get the provisions they wanted.
- There were also young people who gathered together, wore cloaks and vandalized towns, as “vampires,” most likely for fun.
Whether they were trying to steal crops or get friendly with local girls, fake vampires in many different forms captured the attention of those around them. Unfortunately, as you can see, the vamp’s tales typically had unhappy endings.
Fascinating, Jill. But however outrageous the stories, I can’t help thinking, weren’t people resourceful, the way they used the prevailing culture to achieve their objectives? Of course, murdering your husband to be with your lover is not very nice… but as far as the gipsies are concerned, it’s easy for us to judge them from our safe and secure positions. If you’re hungry and poor, with few resources, then I think that would be a strong motivation to act up and pillage. As for those naughty men pretending they are something they are not to get their way with women – well, some things never change!
Janet,
People were resourceful they way they used their culture’s beliefs to get what that wanted. They still are.
When I read about the jingle bells vampire, I had to chuckle because I got an image of a man, dressed as a clown, wearing a fool’s cap and frolicking toward his lover’s home. Of course, the fear he instilled wasn’t funny.
The prejudice against Gypsies is appalling. My mother and other people of her generation remember seeing their caravans. When I was a child, I was afraid of them because I heard they kidnapped children. There was a recent controversial case about this in Greece. Police found a young girl in a Gypsy camp. DNA confirmed that she’s a Bulgarian migrant workers daughter who gave the child to them because she couldn’t afford to keep her.
Things surely don’t change when it comes to charlatan vampires getting what they want fro women. There’s a recent case of a man, Shane Chartres-Abbott, a “vampire gigolo” raping a woman and biting off part of her tongue in Melbourne, Australia. The male prostitute told one of his clients that he was a 200-year-old vampire who drank blood to survive. The woman’s ex-boyfriend, Mark Perry, is on trial for his part in the killing of the “vampire.”
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/woman-raped-by-vampire-gigolo-gives-evidence-20131115-2xlkz.html
Fascinating! I knew about the connection between vampires and sexuality, but this is the first time I’ve read about people using vampire superstition to commit fraud. The use of superstitions to fool people in order to steal food when they are starving, which happens often at the end of a war, makes sense.
Darla,
I didn’t know about the charlatan vampires until I read Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s book cited in the post.
I agree that pretending to be a vampire to get food when people are starving is understandable. I wonder if the charlatans really believed vampires existed and, if so, were they scared they might meet the real creature.
In those days and places when the charlatans instilled fear, people actually believed that vampires existed. Some people still believe vampires exist. In November, 2012, a municipal council in rural Serbia issued a public health warning claiming that a legendary vampire, Sava Savanovic, was roaming the countryside. Villagers were advised to put garlic on their doors and windows to prevent him from entering their homes. Mayor Miodrag Vujetic told the Romanian Times the villagers were frightened.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/9713248/Serbian-village-council-issues-vampire-alert.html