Serial killer John George Haigh knew the power of the monstrous image to incite horror into people's minds, and even today he is cited as a murderer who drank a cup of blood from his victims before getting rid of their bodies. He's found on nearly every list of "modern vampires," which attests to his own insight in just how far his legend would carry. However, there's no evidence that he had such a fetish and plenty of reason to believe that he was malingering a mental illness that would get him sent to a mental institution.

When he was arrested in England in 1949 for the possible murder of a missing woman, Haigh's first question concerned his chances of getting out of the local mental institution. Quite soon he launched into a detailed confession that involved killing six people in order to drink their blood. He said that he lured them into a storage area and then hit them over the head to kill them. Then he would cut open an artery in their throat and fill a cup with blood to drink it: Imbibing fresh blood made him feel better. Then he would dissolve the corpse in large drums filled with acid. He had to do this, he claimed. He couldn't help himself

However, there's clear evidence that each crime was committed when Haigh was in debt and there's no evidence that he acted under a compulsion. In fact, 12 physicians examined him and only one thought he had an aberrant mental condition—egocentric paranoia. The others believed that he was making it all up.

It appears to have been a ploy to shock the public into accepting that he could only be mentally ill so that he might avoid the death penalty. He had posed before as a doctor, a lawyer, and an engineer when it suited his purposes. In this case, he posed as a psychotic person who drank blood.

But it didn't work. As he awaited his execution in prison, three more psychiatrists examined him and they still could find no evidence that he had a blood-drinking compulsion.

While it was unlikely that Haigh was psychotic when he killed his victims, there are some whose psychotic manifestations are indeed directed by what they know about vampires. Let's take a look.

Written by Katherine Ramsland.
Originally published online at The Crime Library.
Reproduced with the permission of the author.

Posted by Vladimir Fri, 07/06/2007 - 22:17

 

Also Untitled

Forbidden love
Ever hungering
Constantly yearning
Like an empty spot
In my soul
Your beautiful face
Haunting my sleep
Making me wish
That I could keep
You safe from harm
In my faithful arms

Louis Giuseppi
October 19, 2001

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Me

Me
not the mask but-
the one behind it.
The one always searching,
seeking,
for answers too eluding,
escaping,
seeping through the cracks-
of consiousness and into-
my being.
Me
I am not the mask but-
the person behind it.
I have feelings,
thoughts,
expressions-
words.
I am me.
Not a doll but-
Me.

Raevynn
January 28, 2002

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My Brave Knight

I waved my love goodbye today,
As off to battle he rode.
His armour shone so brightly,
And his steed so proudly strode.

He is a brave and loyal knight,
And I am his bequeathed.
To most he is a fearsome sight,
But I see far beneath.

His heart is true and full of love,
With body strong and able.
His bravery comes from above,
Like the heroes of old fable.

The wedding is set for three months hence,
I will hardly stand the waiting.
Then celebrations will commence,
To sanctify our mating.

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Hunger

hunger...
the nothing feed until the nothing is
there is nothing to become something .
holes of empty last
unknown scares
my father forgot to teach me.
proud at the vicious anger of the last
passion and such as taken too much there is nothing again...
I scream
the child howels for the father that made her hunger
the father that forgot the crimson words on parted lips
"never fade my child"
kiss good night before the morning walk
alone...
bloodshot eyes
they call it rest...I know no such

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Bored with Leather

Lust is the absence of love

A causual f**k, somewhere, outside the mind

Beauty ties me in bonds of steel-studded leather

I crave the nights forged in blood

The highest pleasures to achive

Tears fall

Cascading over dried streaks of pain

..then,

Numbness falls

...with the crack of a biting whip.

I cry out

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