Can't find any independent witnesses for the youthful antics of The Terrible Two? Look to book reviewer
Gerald Isaaman of
The Camden New Journal and his
29, January 2009 review of "London Lore". Turns out Gerald was the editor of
Ham & High in March of 1970 when the photo on the left was printed.
"What caught my attention was the (chapter in London Lore) about Highgate Cemetery, which recounts the story of the Highgate Vampire and is attributed to 1970 reports in the Ham & High, where I was then the editor."
"What nonsense it all was – and, indeed, still is: two of the major competing figures involved, David Farrant and Sean Manchester, have websites making enduring vampire claims."
"It all started innocently enough when the paper received a letter about ghosts, which was published with a note beneath, inviting readers to send in their ghost experiences. And in they poured. Up popped David Farrant with his tale of “Ghostly Walks in Highgate”, revealing three occasions when he saw, just outside the cemetery gates, a “ghostly dark figure in Swains Lane” with “hypnotic red eyes”"
"Among them too was a challenge to David Farrant from Sean Manchester, another vampire hunter, who claimed that “a King Vampire of the Undead” was to blame. It seems a medieval nobleman who practised black magic in Wallachia had been brought to England in a coffin which was buried in Highgate Cemetery. Manchester arrived at the office wearing a black cloak lined with scarlet silk and carrying a cane, as if he was about to transform himself into Dracula. It was a real hoot, and we played the story for laughs."
A cloak with scarlet silk? Over to you, boys.
Can't find any independent witnesses for the youthful antics of The Terrible Two? Look to book reviewer Gerald Isaaman of The Camden New Journal and his 29, January 2009 review of "London Lore". Turns out Gerald was the editor of Ham & High in March of 1970 when the photo on the left was printed.
18 comments:
The person who was editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express in those far off distant days recently recounted his meeting with Bishop Seán Manchester in February 1970: "Manchester arrived at the office wearing a black cloak lined with scarlet silk and carrying a cane." He forgot to mention the top hat and tails that were included with the opera cloak and cane. There was also an accompanying young lady, also not mentioned, who was equally formally-attired. It was late in the afternoon and Seán Manchester had no idea how long the interview would take. He and his lady friend were dressed ready to go on to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from the Hampstead offices of the Hampstead & Highgate Express. He frequently attended the opera in those days and continued to do so whilst he lived in London. The old (now ex-) editor reminisced in Jauary 2009:
"The story of the Highgate Vampire [in a recently published book about London's folklore] is attributed to 1970 reports in the Ham & High, where I was then the editor. It recalled the fantastic events of a few months that year and the following one, which culminated in a TV programme inviting people to decide for themselves what was going on. That resulted in three hundred people, allegedly armed with home-made stakes and Christian crosses, storming the cemetery that night to kill the demon vampire lurking among the decaying tombs."
BONKY PUBLICITY YARN!
"He and his lady friend were dressed ready to go on to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from the Hampstead offices of the Hampstead & Highgate Express. He frequently attended the opera in those days and continued to do so whilst he lived in London."
I've never heard so much pure and utter 'bulldust' in all my life!
He went to the editorial with the sole purpose of getting publicity for his 'vampire yarn', that's all.
David Farrant
Was the Hunchback present?
No he was not.
So how would he know anything?
The Hunchback was yet to meet the Bishop and when he did he was not an impressive sight as the picture of him on the front page of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970, amply demonstrates.
The Hunchback looks like a tramp!
The hunched one met the Bishop at Highgate Cemetery and it was recorded by the Hampstead & Highgate Express in the month following the Bishop's visit to their offices. It was not long before the Bishop was advising caution where the Hunchback's claims are concerned, and by the end of that year he had publicly dissociated himself from the hunched one on a television programme (BBC's 24 Hours, 15 October 1970) and in both the national and local press.
The Hunchback immediately sought revenge which manifested soon after the BBC transmission in the form of the Bradish incident and ensuing court case for assault which found a smug Farrant seated in the court's public gallery with a huge grin across his face, followed by a malicious vendetta against the Bishop, his family and friends which still continues to this day, almost forty years later.
It is interesting to learn that Manchester and his lady friend, whose formal attire no doubt made the most of her cleavage, were scheduled to go to the Royal Opera House after this historic interview. Could you let us know what the opera was? Or perhaps it was a ballet, I recall seeing La Fille du Mal Garde there once.
Gareth J. Medway
"I see the 'Cat’s Miaow' Blog is still going strong, not least with the appearance of an old friend of mine nicknamed 'The Eggmanne'. Not a very cordial welcome, I have to say, but nevertheless proves he hasn’t changed that much (except to get much older in body as well s misguided spirit). But he is still a sort of friend . . . at least, I think!" - David Farrant (November 18th, 2009)
http://davidfarrant.org/TheHumanTouch/?p=645
Is Farrant serious? Tony is his friend?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tony ran off with his wife. During the following months Farrant went bankrupt and was evicted from his home. Farrant repeatedly blamed Tony for his change of fortune. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. Tony had taken lots of pictures of Farrant in Highgate Cemetery and elsewhere, some of which were used in the press. Farrant was too terrified to actually call Tony as a witness during his trials, so he gave him the pseudonym "Hutchinson" to newspaper reporters and magazine editors, telling them he was searching for "Hutchinson" who could prove his innocence of the vandalism conviction which he was then appealing against.
"Hutchinson," of course, never surfaced. Nor would he. Nor did Farrant want him to lest their hoax scandal became public knowledge.
Tony secretly tape-recorded Farrant in 1970 conspiring to hoax a ghost story in newspapers, which Farrant went ahead and executed. When Farrant refused to later come clean about the hoax, as they had both arranged would happen, Tony called it quits with Farrant and regarded him as, and I quote Tony, "a thoroughly useless article" he wanted no more to do to with in the future. The only time Farrant saw Tony after that was accidental contact in the street and at Tony's newspaper stall.
Farrant has claimed somewhere on this blog that Tony was given the nickname "Eggman" by Seán Manchester. This is untrue. Tony had the nickname long before he ever knew Seán Manchester and it came about due to his penchant for stealing birds eggs when young.
Tony is a life-long twitcher.
SHEER AND UTTER INVENTION!
"Hutchinson," of course, never surfaced. Nor would he. Nor did Farrant want him to lest their hoax scandal became public knowledge."
The only 'hoax' about the Highgate pnenomenon, Sean, was whem you and your chum Tony tried to turn this into a 'vampire' - hence your visit to the Editor of the Ham and High. (Incidently, which opera was it you claomed yo were going to see?).
The real hoax came about, Sean, when you claimed to have hunted down the 'vampire' to a disused Gothic mansion in Crouch End and 'staked it though the heart' and then burnt the whole thing - (its coffin and all)using a can of petrol. The real hoax continued when YOU went on to claim that in 1982 you tracked down a 'disciple' of the staked 'vampire' - who you called 'Lusia'- and then 'staked' her after she had changed into a 'giant spider'!
That was the real hoax, Sean, in which both yourself and Tony participated!
Its all pure and utter bulldust!
People must be wondering why you so carefully avoid mentioning this now.
What I reported was a 'ghost' that had been seen by many independent people and could be traced back to Victorian times.
YOUR story, however, was just sheer and utter invention!
David Farrant
What could be "traced back to Victorian times" Farrant first read in The Highgate Vampire (British Occult Society, 1985) and copied many years later for his own pathetic pamphlet.
Farrant keeps overlooking the fact that Tony tape-recorded Farrant conspiring to manufacture a ghost story to hoodwink the press and public. The hoax was eclipsed by real events which had been under the surface for quite a few years.
If Tony supported the existence of the vampire he certainly did not say so and only agreed to photograph Farrant "vampire hunting" because that is what Farrant wanted when he decided to jump of his perceived vampire bandwagon around the time of the 13 March 1970 transmission on Thames Television.
Tony was very aware of Farrant's hoax in which he briefly colluded until Farrant broke his word and failed to tell the public it was all a prank.
"Farrant keeps overlooking the fact that Tony tape-recorded Farrant conspiring to manufacture a ghost story to hoodwink the press and public. The hoax was eclipsed by real events which had been under the surface for quite a few years."
No. YOU keep overlooking the fact. "Demomologist" that YOU were with "Tony" on numerous occasions taking photographs in and around Highgate Cemetery.
You also took photographs of myself in your flat "Demonologist", wearing a black cloak and holding a raised 'stake' (one of the maany 'vampire props' owned by yourself.
You said you wanted this photograph to 'illustrate a book' you were writing, but you ended up sending it to the Evening News who published it in September 1970.
You really do have extraordinay lapses of memory', "Demonologist"!
David Farrant
Farrant's memory is not only selective, it suffers time lapses.
The photographs of him prancing about with a cross and stake were taken by Tony and nobody else. The same Tony he conspired to hoax a ghost story with in early 1970.
Strange how Farrant never denies this hoax.
Seán Manchester was researching the book Farrant refers to in 1978. That is eight years later! The book on black magic actually exposes Farrant who only gets a brief mention in it. The images that appear are the ones in question. They do not show Farrant "vampire hunting." They show Farrant dressed as a theatrical Satanist in front of a mural of the Devil with an altar lit by black candles.
AND THERE CAME A GIANT SPIDER . . .!
"Strange how Farrant never denies this hoax."
There was only one hoax, Sean, and that was the bonky claim about staking a vampire and incinerating it, and the other claim to have staked a vampire after it had changed into a 'giant spider'!
David Farrant
And still Farrant does not deny that his letters to the Hampstead & Highgate Express from February 1970 onward were part of a hoax.
How can he? It's all on tape!
"And still Farrant does not deny that his letters to the Hampstead & Highgate Express from February 1970 onward were part of a hoax."
It was yourself who bombarded local newspapers with fake letters, Sean, all written under aliases as you are attempting to use now, "Demonologist".
A 'dead giveaway' with you Sean, is that you accuse other people of your own faults will 'camaflarge' them.
I am the person with all the genuine tapes, Sean! And you know it!
David Farrant
Having found it necessary to yet again reiterate that I am not Seán Manchester, let us look at the facts concerning Farrant's latest preposterous allegation.
The addresses accompanying the hoax letters published in the Hampstead & Highgate Express belong to Farrant's close friends Kenny and Nava.
Why would Seán Manchester hoax letters which contradict the phenomenon he stated was at large at Highgate Cemetery?
One Farrant hoax collaborator lived at the time at the council block known as Mountbatten House, North Road. The other, then as now, lives in Hampstead Lane. These two people collaborated in Farrant's ghost story hoax and used their addresses more than once under different names. Farrant wrote the letters for them with their collusion.
How do I know this?
Farrant can be heard doing it on secretly recorded conversations made by Tony.
Whoops!
Nice try, Humpy, but no stake with a piece of mythological white cord attached to it.
If, as Farrant now claims for the first time in forty years, Seán Manchester "bombarded local newspapers with fake letters," he will have no difficulty in identifying those letters. After all, Farrant has kept copies of every newspaper relating to Seán Manchester and the Highgate case (as those who have been inside his bedsitting room confirm). Press cutting are apparently carefully kept under plastic covers to preserve them and filed away in an old wooden box. So Farrant shouldn't have too much trouble telling us all which letters are fake.
I will certainly have no trouble in identifying the fake letters Farrant himself sent to the local newspapers under assumed names from Nava's address in Hampstead Lane and Kenny's address on a council estate (as it was back then) in North Road. Nava and Kenny were two of Farrant closest and only friends all those years ago. Nava still is despite her problems with alcohol and cannabis.
As for tapes. if he doubts the existence of secretly recorded conversations made by Tony forty years ago which reveal the pair of them colluding to hoax a ghost story in the press, he won't mind giving his consent for their publication, will he? As he must know, to publish recordings made without the subject's knowledge is an offence in the UK unless that person has granted permission. If Farrant gives clear consent in an email or in his recognisable handwriting these tapes (there is more than one) can be made available to everybody.
"Farrant shouldn't have too much trouble telling us all which letters are fake."
That's easy Sean. To begin you are writing under a false identity here . . . "Demonologist", to be precise. You have used dozens of fake aliases over the years Sean, just as you are doing now.
To add to that, you used a mass of fake aliases to the Finchley Advertiser to get yourself fake support when you were standing as a local Counciller = but failed miserably. You got the lowest counts of the Independent votes!
As for more fake tapes, Sean, concocted by yourself and your 'bosum buddy' 'Eggmanne', I have genuine tapes of yourself confessing of how you used to go down into the crtpts of Kensal Green Cemetery in 1968 (with 'Eggmanne") and photograph skeletons dowm there. All crystal clear tapes whereby you confess to doing this. I have already published one of these on this subject, but there are several more!
If that is not enough, there is the tape (already published) of yourself speaking about yourself and the late Spike Milligen and how you used bones taken from London cemeteries.
I did not require permission to do this Sean: it was done in the public interest which is why that book was sent to all the major University Libraries - including the British Library.
Oh dear Sean (sorry keep forgetting its "Demonologist" now isn't it) you really are up to your tea pot cosy in it!
David Farrant
So Farrant clearly can't identify which letters he claims are "fake" because so far he has not identified a single piece of evidence.
By identify I mean the newspaper, date of publication, and where the letter appears and by whom it is written.
If Farrant is claiming that tapes of him and Tony colluding in a ghost story hoax for the press have been "concocted" he won't have any problem providing permission for their release to the public so that this can be determined by people more expert than himself.
I have looked into this and it is an offence to release secretly recorded conversations of someone without their knowledge unless a very serious crime is exposed or prevented by sharing such information with the police and media. Even then there is a risk as such evidence has been deemed inadmissable by the courts. That would doubly be the case with Farrant's cobbled together and heavily doctored tapes which are virtually inaudible. He has sent these to various people. Apart from those with an agenda identical to Farrant's, none have been impressed.
I can't understand why Farrant doesn't meet Tony all these years later. Tony might like to remind interested parties of what actually did take place forty years ago. He knows where other people are who witnessed Farrant's collusion in a hoax in early 1970.
"So Farrant clearly can't identify which letters he claims are "fake" because so far he has not identified a single piece of evidence"
I don't have to 'prove' anything, Sean. It is YOU who are making the allegation. I have all the evidence I need by what you clearly stated on tape (often witnessed). And to make it even funnier, perhaps, it is YOUR evidence!
Now that really is poetic justice!
David Farrant
You to have laugh at how Farrant mirrors all the charges against him and onto others as if that will solve his dilemma.
The person secretly recorded at the beginning of 1970 discussing the sending of fraudulent letters to local newspapers is Farrant. Tony can also be heard colluding with the hoax and it is Tony, of course, who secretly recorded these conversations. Tony and others will also stand witness to the fact that Farrant attempted to hoax his own manufactured ghost story by sending completely bogus correspondence to the press along with his own invented claims about a seven foot ghost which he said he saw three times in the weeks preceding his initial letter to the Hampstead & Highgate Express. All of this was manufactured by Farrant, as witnessed by Tony's wife Zibby, Nava, Kenny, Robert, Clare and a few others who I will not identify even by their first name as they were not involved in the hoax themselves. Nava, Kenny and Clare definitely were involved in the hoax at its inception. They were complicit in it from the beginning, as Farrant himself is well aware.
I have now asked Farrant a number of times to identify which correspondence in the press he is falsely claiming Seán Manchester faked. He has failed to do so because Seán Manchester faked nothing. This is Farrant's usual tactic of mirroring what he is being accused of by others onto the person he hates most and has spent a lifetime acting maliciously towards.
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