Friday the Thirteenth

This book outsells all others I have written by at least one hundredfold; yet I refuse to be defined by it. Half a century ago on Friday 13th March seems permanently etched onto the nation's psyche, and to some degree the sensational nature of that historic occasion will have obvious and lasting public appeal. It marked, of course, my television debut, and events later that night at Highgate Cemetery.

A more meaningful and pivotal Friday 13th for me would occur three years later in April at Easter. This was my first ascent of Parliament Hill. It was attended by a crowd of hundreds, not unlike the crowd spontaneously triggered by my television transmission on 13 March 1970. I was not expecting such a vast number to assemble all over the hill on Hampstead Heath on Good Friday 1973, but it was nevertheless a pleasing sight. Before a makeshift altar with candles on a bench at the very top, I inaugurated the founding of Ordo Sancti Graal. Tapers, incense and food were handed out. This began a pilgrimage, concentrating on London and its environs over the Easter period, and eventually spreading further afield. A lay order of twelve was instituted from those who attended and followed.

There came a second ascent of Parliament Hill in 1984 which, while attracting a good few people, plus a radio station wanting to cover the occasion live, had also come to the attention of the self-proclaimed (since the age of eleven) atheist Leader of the Greater London Council, Ken Livingstone who ordered my arrest due to an obscure piece of legislation that forbade the utterance of religious words after dusk. I was thus arrested at nine minutes before nine o'clock, taken to Hampstead Police Station under police escort, and made to feel comfortable by all concerned. When I prepared to leave without charge some time later, after a cup of tea and a pleasant chat with the Chief Superintendent, the officers all lined up to shake my hand. The date was Friday the 13th of July. It was a full moon.

A third ascent of Parliament Hill occurred on Good Friday 1993 in a heavy downfall of rain and the odd rumble of thunder. We were soaked to the skin in our white robes, but spiritually vibrant. Bemused onlookers caught sight of us, as we made the procession for the final time up the rain-soaked hill, having begun this final pilgrimage in Hertfordshire on foot. My mother had slipped into God's safekeeping months earlier. I decided to depart from London, which I did the following year.

On the forty-first anniversary of a headline on 27 February 1970 that would catapult me into the limelight for an uncomfortably long period of time, I agreed to give my final television interview at home. It was recorded using three cameras for a Canadian production company. The edited film was first broadcast on 1 April 2011. Thereafter it was repeated in many countries throughout the world.

On Friday the 13th of December 2013, a statement containing a plea for privacy was published by me on social media where it was widely viewed, and occasionally paraphrased. I reiterate it with mild adjustment because seven years later some of the time periods would not make sense for 2020.

I find today's world, particularly the cyber-world, all too frenetic and reactive. This jars with my own desire for creative contemplation instead of the tumult I see around me which being a public figure only serves to exacerbate. This reflective approach to everyday existence is at odds with being under public scrutiny, somewhere I have found myself for the past half a century. What most brought me to public attention were the television and radio programmes I regularly appeared on, and also the books and documentary films associated with topics which hold the public imagination in thrall. It is for that reason I have not submitted a book for publication since the beginning of the 21st century. Likewise, I scaled back my broadcasts in the media to a point where I no longer make them. I ceased giving interviews to the print media decades ago and only then in quality magazines. Moreover, it is quite some time since I declared I am no longer prepared to provide interviews on matters relating to Highgate et al. What there was to say has been said many times over. I found myself answering the same questions over and over again; questions which invariably are already answered in my published accounts. One of the problems, I quickly came to realise many years ago, is that interviewers, regardless of the subject, simply do not know the right questions, and the questions are every bit as important as the answers. Another problem in the new century has been one of trust. Seldom have I encountered an interviewer in recent years who keeps his or her word. Consequently, any condition I might have set for providing a contribution was frequently and almost inevitably compromised. Without trust and a sense of honour there is nothing. I cannot interact in that way and would rather stay silent than witness yet another contract broken. I am still having to regularly turn down television and radio interview requests, along with a plethora of other invitations to partake in projects that would maintain a perception of me remaining on the public stage, which, I accept, is exactly what I have been for most of my life. What made me so, however, is very much in the past. The memoir I began to write some time back will not now see the light of day. This is for the best if I wish my privacy to be respected. The concomitants of being a public figure have slowly eroded over the last couple of decades to a point where I stand on the threshold of finally achieving meaningful privacy. Hence, I have now stepped over that threshold and become a private individual. This will not affect my episcopal duties, sacerdotal ministry, art and music etc, but involvement in secular preoccupations and the expression of views on same in the public hemisphere is now at an end.    

†Seán Manchester

Darkness Brightened

Today, Friday 13th March 2020, marks the bi-centennial of the largest vampire hunt ever to take place in the British Isles. It occured at Highgate Cemetery on the evening of 13 March 1970, following reports in local and national newspapers, plus a television interview with various witnesses earlier on a programme called Today, Thames Television. I made an appeal on the Today programme at 6.00pm requesting the public not to get involved, nor put into jeopardy an investigation already in progress. Not everyone heeded my plea. On the Today programme, 13 March 1970, I warned one particular enthusiast, who had appeared on the same programme as one of several witnesses, to leave things he did not understand alone. Apparently he had received “a horrible fright” a few weeks earlier when he allegedly caught sight of something by the north gate of Highgate Cemetery and immediately wrote to his local newspaper about the experience, concluding with these words: “I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.” (Letters to the Editor, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970). In the following month he revealed to the media that he had seen something at the north gate that was “evil” and that it “looked like it had been dead for a long time.” I warned that this man’s declared intention without the proper knowledge went “against my explicit wish for his own safety.”

The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 March 1970, under its title The Ghost Goes On TV, reported: "Cameras from Thames Television visited Highgate Cemetery this week to film a programme ... [Seán] Manchester [said] 'He goes against our explicit wish for his own safety we feel he does not possess sufficient knowledge to exorcise successfully something as powerful as a vampire, and may well fall victim as a result. We issue a similar warning to anyone with likewise intentions'."

The mass vampire hunt on the night itself was not attended by the man in question who spent his time in the Prince of Wales before repairing home to an Archway Road cellar provided by a friend.

The symbolism of Friday the thirteenth had taken on a momentum of its own, and the event itself, recorded comprehensively in my book The Highgate Vampire, was in many ways pivotal; especially as this was my television debut, and the end of any possibility of a private life thereafter. I had valued my privacy a great deal prior, and still did in many ways, but circumstances overtook me, as one television and radio interview, film documentary, public appearance after another crowded in.

The darkness of March 1970 would soon be eclipsed by the light of April 1973 when I ascended a hill on Hampstead Heath in white, along with twelve others, to found Ordo Sancti Graal before a large assembly of public onlookers. Once again, it was Friday the thirteenth, which that year happened to fall on Good Friday. The occasion is covered in detail in my book The Grail Church. This began a pilgrimage which would be marked by further ascents, more hills, and ultimately Glastonbury Tor.

People could be found who still believed in the miraculous and the supernatural back then. The expression of such beliefs all these years later renders me "unhinged." It is no longer fashionable to believe in anything outside of the material universe. It is no longer acceptable to be a spiritual person if that means anything beyond contemplation and prayer. I was, of course, active as an exorcist who cast out demons. Moreover, I was also an operative vampirologist/demonologist.

As well as entering holy orders, I was also an artist, musician, composer, photographer and poet. 

When they asked me when I was very young what I wanted to be when I grew up, I responded: 

"A child."

Hence many of the things I did appealed to a child, eg magician (conjurer), actor (theatre with a London Shakespeare troupe at the age of fifteen, later in my twenties and thirties to feature in art house films), performer (saxophonist and keyboards) in various bands. I was also a photographer. I began as a portraiturist with a London studio and a small staff. I photograph the sky these days.

Pablo Picasso's ambition was to paint as would a child, but he had long since lost his child-like innocence, and painted as a worldly, albeit technically adept, artist who never achieved that ambition.

What lay ahead for me in the wake of that initial Friday the thirteenth in March 1970 would unearth an external supernatural reality, albeit darkness personified. Its bright opposite grew ever close.

"His true teacher was nature, and he devoted himself to his own pursuit of poetry, music and painting. 'I've always been a bit of a bohemian, a bit of a poet, a bit of a wandering minstrel,' he said." (Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Vampires Among Us, page 113, Pocket Books, New York, 1991)

Either the miraculous and the supernatural exists, or it does not.

For those who see nothing, I suppose, there is nothing; or, at least, their vision holds nothing.

For young men will see visions, and old men will have dreams.

A Pivotal Moment

Friday 13th March 2020 marks the fiftieth of the largest vampire hunt ever to take place in the British Isles. It occurred at Highgate Cemetery on the evening of 13 March 1970, following reports in local and national newspapers, plus a television interview with various witnesses earlier on a programme called Today, Thames Television. Notwithstanding many amateur vampire hunters inflicting themselves on the cemetery with home-made stakes, crosses, garlic, holy water, but very little knowledge about how to deal with the suspected undead if they encountered it, I made an appeal on the Today programme at 6.00pm requesting the public not to get involved, nor put into jeopardy an investigation already in progress. Not everyone heeded my plea. Over the following weeks and months a wide variety of independent vampire hunters descended on the graveyard — only to be frightened off by its eerie atmosphere, and what they believed might have been the supernatural entity itself. Some were promptly arrested by police patrolling the area. None, however, caused any damage. I advised the public that a full-scale investigation was already taking place, and that individual efforts by those merely seeking thrills only served to endanger all.

On the Today programme, 13 March 1970, I warned one self-styled vampire hunter in particular, who had appeared on the same programme as one of several witnesses, to leave things he did not understand alone. Apparently he had received “a horrible fright” a few weeks earlier when he allegedly caught sight of the vampire by the north gate of Highgate Cemetery and immediately wrote to his local newspaper about the experience, concluding with these words: “I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature.” (Letters to the Editor, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970). In the following month the same individual revealed to the media that he had seen something at the north gate that was “evil” and that it “looked like it had been dead for a long time” (as told by him to Sandra Harris on the Today programme). I warned on the same programme that this man’s declared intention of staking the vampire alone and without the proper knowledge went “against my explicit wish for his own safety.”

The Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 March 1970, under the headline The Ghost Goes On TV, reported: "Cameras from Thames Television visited Highgate Cemetery this week to film a programme ... One of those who faced the cameras was Mr David Farrant, of Priestwood Mansions, Archway Road. ... 'It was tall and very dark grey. But it didn't appear to have any feet. It just glided along.' He intends to visit the cemetery again, armed with a wooden stake and a crucifix, with the aim of exorcising the spirit. He also believes that Highgate is 'rife with black magic.' ... [Seán] Manchester is opposed to [David] Farrant's plans. 'He goes against our explicit wish for his own safety,' he said. ‘We feel he does not possess sufficient knowledge to exorcise successfully something as powerful as a vampire, and may well fall victim as a result. We issue a similar warning to anyone with likewise intentions'."

The mass vampire hunt on the night itself was not attended by David Farrant who spent his time in the Prince of Wales pub before repairing home to Archway Road and the bunker of an acquaintance.

The hunt went ahead, as chronicled in The Highgate Vampire book, and what was thought to be the vampire source and its resting place was discovered, along with empty coffins, in the catacombs.

Six Anomalies

   

On February 6th, fifty years and one month ago, the man who departed his ailing corporeal shell eleven months and two days ago, told the Hampstead & Highgate Express that some nights he walked past  the gates of Highgate Cemetery, and had witnessed what he described as "a ghost-like figure" hovering just inside the north gate at the top of Swains Lane. He would later describe it as having "red eyes," and one month later, fifty years ago today exactly, he conceded in the same newspaper that a vampire was the most likely explanation, adding that he would do all he could to pursue it. The late winter of 1970 turned colder still as March witnessed the cemetery coated in a thick layer of snow. From this point and for the next five months, the same man reiterated his belief that a vampire haunted Highgate West Cemetery. Then he was arrested after carrying out his threat to pursue the vampire and destroy it by any means necessary. The means turned out to be a wooden stake which police found in his possession, along with a large cross, when they arrested him as the clock struck midnight. He told Clerkenwell Magistrates' Court that he intended to plunge the stake into the vampire's heart, and then run away. It was decided, following medical reports, to hold him on remand at Brixton Prison from where I received correspondence which did not contradict anything so far alleged over the previous five months. Whilst in prison, he received a visit from someone who described himself as a "company director"; a Barnet man by the name of James Bradish who persuaded him to change his plea from guilty to not guilty. Bradish then paid his bail, and whisked him off to Manor Road where the Bradish household was situated. Bradish was disliked because it was claimed that he had made advances to Mary at the marital home in Archway Road. The ex-prisoner had been evicted from that flat one year earlier, and Mary had fled to Southampton with her two children. He was the biological father of the older child, Jamie, who had entered the world on 9 November 1967. He would not see him for another four decades when Jamie decided to search out his father. This would have been around the same time that "Della" emerged to also seek him out. They each succeeded ten years ago, and became very pro-active in their support for David Farrant.

   

James Bradish                                    Father and son

1. Up until September 1970, David Farrant supported the theory, first published in the Highgate & Hampstead Express, 27 February 1970, that the supernatural presence of a spectral figure in and around Highgate Cemetery was a vampire in the traditionally defined meaning of that word, ie a demonic corporeal manifestation that drained folk of their blood in the dark hours of the night. After his release from Brixton Prison in September of that year, and throughout the rest of his life, he stressed that he did not believe in vampires, and had never pursued one at Highgate Cemetery, despite being arrested on the night of August 17th by police who found him in possession of a cross and stake at the cemetery. From September until the end of the year he was living with James and Gillian Bradish. It is known that Bradish strongly disapproved of Farrant's statements to the media about vampires. His release from jail was conditional on him staying at the home of James Bradish until the court case was over and its verdict delivered. Yet Farrant remained adamant for the rest of his life that he had never believed in vampires, and had never tried to impale one with a wooden stake. However, before the end of that year, he wrote a note to me. It is published on page 110 of The Highgate Vampire. Why would he write such a note, and why would he, if he did, succumb "to their debase demands" ?

2. Five years later, he would allege that in 1971 he conducted a satanic ceremony in the company of Martine de Sacy at Highgate Cemetery. This appeared in an unedited and unabridged article he wrote from his prison cell for New Witchfcraft magazine, having been found guilty of various diabolical acts at the graveyard, plus the sending of voodoo dolls to two police witnesses along with menacing poems. Local newspaper articles in 1970, however, reveal images of him in an attitude of prayer before large Christian crosses, while wearing a rosary around his neck. He was also pictured in certain magazines holding a Bible and a traditional Catholic crucifix clasped in his hands. From 1972 he revealed himself to be a high priest of witchcraft, and gave "wicca" as his religion when sentenced at the Old Bailey. He would eschew witchcraft in 1982, and thereafter self-identify as a Luciferian. By which time he had made the acquaintance of the French Luciferian Jean-Paul Borre. They would remain life long friends. Yet upon Farrant's death, Bourre would make no mention of his old friend. 

  

3. Most striking is the apparent disloyalty shown to him by his close collaborator and friend, Redmond McWilliams, and even his own son, Jamie, in the last few years of his life. Farrant had never shown any fondness for an Australian stalker by the name of Hogg, and over time grew to despise him (even though Hogg had used material originating with Farrant to attack me). When McWilliams joined one or more of Hogg's groups on Facebook, Farrant decided he could not remain a member of any of McWilliams' groups, and promptly removed himself from them. McWilliams' collaborating with Hogg made it impossible for Farrant to continue as before, and the bad blood between them lasted until his last breath. Why did Redmond McWilliams behave in this disloyal manner? There would be others.

4. Someone else who claimed to be a friend and supporter of David Farrant is João Ferreira, but when Farrant decided he could no longer stomach being a member of McWilliams' group due to the Hogg connection, Ferreira not only remained, but continued to co-administrate with McWilliams.

   

5. Most surprising of all is David Farrant's biological son, Jamie, who not only remained a member of McWilliams' group after the schism, but, moreover, Hogg's! Indeed, he remains a member of both. Jamie showed no loyalty whatsoever to his father, and is still a Facebook friend of the loathed Hogg, commenting from time to time on a hate group where only trolls and stalkers appear to post anything.

    

6. It will soon be a year since David Farrant passed away. No Will was lodged; Probate and Letters of Administration have not been issued (because only his personal possessions remained behind, ie no property or assets). The self-styled "Della Farrant" was close to David Farrant during the last decade. Yet she recorded nothing he uttered, regretted or wanted known, as he approached his last breath in his final days. For someone who enjoyed publicity so much this would indeed be the ultimate irony.