Recently while pondering strange objects of esoterica, I came across a historical article regarding Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian “Blood Countess”, whose grisly crimes against virgin peasant girls (the blood of which she believed could be used to preserve her own youth) secured her the title of the most prolific female serial-killer in history. Whether it be due to the fact that Bathory abducted her victims by the cover of night, or perhaps for some other less-obvious reason, somehow I began brainstorming what kinds of parallels might exist between modern Ufology and Vampires (obviously referencing the fact that at least most UFO abductions are reported at night, and often in people’s homes, much like vampires entering a maiden’s window under the cover of darkness). Initially, I only managed to muster the following points of parallel:

1) Vampires, much like aliens, are indeed known for abducting their victims

2) Vampires and aliens both tend to prefer operations during the cover of darkness

3) Alien-like creatures often associated with UFO sightings (like the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia) often bear similarities to vampires

4) Chupacabras exhibit rather vampiric traits, and are often associated with UFOs

Along these lines, I was reminded of a bizarre “vampire” creature recently reported by Scott Corrales, over at his website Inexplicata, which is normally devoted to the study of Latin American Ufology. However, Corrales shares at his blog recent encounters with a creature described as a “Man Bat” seen in the vicinity of Cimbraplay, near Saenz Guerrero, Chihuahua, said to have been linked to the deaths of  several sheep at three different ranches. According to sources, all the creatures had been slain in the same fashion: a large slash to the neck, as well as wounds on part of their tails.

Initially, this sounds very much like a Chupacabra, creatures which are also often associated with UFO sightings. However, gaping wounds found on the necks of victims are only one of many vampiric elements to the Chihuahuan “Man Bat”, also called the Santa Muerte, meaning “Holy Death.” The following was reported recently by a Latin American news source, El Heraldo de Chihuahua:

“Ivonne (not her real name) is a young mother who dropped off a friend in a sector of La Junta after spending time with her at home, near the new highway to Guerrero. The time was 9:00 at night when she was coming back along the old road that passes by the cemetery.

“It was at that time that it saw an enormous figure at the graveyard gate. It resembled a long statue and looked like a person covered in a blanket or a black cape. She felt a shiver and accelerated her truck. She thought it was la Santa Muerte and that she was probably going to die on the road between the graveyard and her home.”

Indeed, our Chihuahuan vampire not only attacks the jugular, it lurks around cemeteries wearing “a long black cape.” It’s not hard to see why this would be of interest to Latin American Ufologists like Corrales, but the parallels between this phantom humanoid and the traditional “vampire” are (yet again) greater nonetheless. And speaking of the references to long black capes, I am reminded yet again of England’s own version of Mothman (no, not the Owl Man… the OTHER English Mothman), the Highgate Vampire.

Years ago I interviewed and became first acquainted with my friend David Farrant of London’s British Psychic and Occult Society. Living in North London at the time, David famously researched the mystery of Highate Cemetery’s most infamous ghoul back in the 1970s, “The Highgate Vampire” when stories of a “caped creep” were making headlines. Interestingly, many of the same sorts of things that accompanied the Mothman reports in Point Pleasant, West Virginia a little less than a decade earlier were consistent with reports of Highgate Cemetery’s entitiy; the tall, ghastly frame, glowing red eyes, and even consistency with ley-lines running amidst the area where many of the sightings occurred. (EDITOR’S NOTE: John Bruno Hare of the Internet Sacred Text Archive notes that Alfred Watkins, first to propose the notion of ley lines, “never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today”).

Looking back “across the pond” at the Americas for a moment, Mothman, without question, was reported by witnesses during the height of a UFO flap in the area, chronicled in John Keel’s famous Mothman Prophecies. If one were to look, would there have been any similar consistency between sightings of Farrant’s Highgate Vampire and UFOs seen over London at the time? What other parallels between Earth-light activity, UFOs, or strange lights in general might have been linked to “vampire” activity in the superstitious communities of olden times? Perhaps this is a notion worthy of further exploration… but in the meantime, it might be worth mentioning that Mircea Rusu, mayor of the Romanian village of Mezoband, is already planning on organizing a UFO festival in the heart of “Dracula Country.” According to a recent article at the website All News Web, “This is by no means the first UFO seen in the area and the mayor hopes to increase tourism into the area by promoting it as a Romanian ‘Roswell’.” Writer Michael Cohen mentions that “Ghosts, witchcraft, magic and remnants of paganism are very much a part of the local scene. The entire region is generally regarded as rather spooky with its very Gothic churches and town as well as its dark mist shrouded forests. Visiting Aliens might well be a very 21st century addition to this heritage.”

Lookout, Drac… the aliens are apparently moving in!