The Talamasca Files - Part Four

Hello, once more,

And Welcome to the fourth and final part of a series of threads that look into myths and legends that have played with our imagination for centuries.

Vampires are in a class by themselves. Who, in his/her teens hasn’t dreamed of having vampire qualities? The immortality, the super strength, the sensuality, seeing in the dark like a cat, having heightened hearing or having the possibility to read someone else’s mind or better yet, control it?

Vampire legends have been coloring our world with fascination, thrill, fright and sometimes, terror. From the tales of Dracula or the charms of the Blood Countess or naturally, the amazing works of Anne Rice such as Interview with the Vampire or the famous Vampire Chronicles, our imagination has enjoyed being taken to imaginary worlds that filled our time with captivating reading and exhilarating movie watching.

Vampire romance has entertained our desire for forbidden love and lust. Twilight isn’t such a success for nothing. It makes people dream.

Unfortunately, everything is not always as cool as it seems.

Disclaimer – These threads are for entertainment purposes only. The cases that will be displayed for discussion are very real yet I would ask every member that wishes to participate in the discussions to do it with respect, civility and decorum. Topics such as witchcraft, spirits, werewolves and vampires are highly speculative yet, those same topics have enriched our world with works that have piqued our curiosity and to this very day, still do, in many ways. Discussing pro or con is essential but I would ask that it would be done with respect. Thank you.

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[align=center][color=gold]The Talamasca Files – Part Four – Vampires[/align]

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The reality, through historical events however, is very different. Murder, sacrilege, rape, serial killings, dementia are a facet that should not be overlooked. The cases that I would like to bring to your attention, as with the other Talamasca Files cases, are very real, have scared the living daylights out of those who lived those events and not all of them ended with a nice Hollywood finale.


They are as follows:


[color=gold]The Arnold Paole File

The Alfort Family File

The Croglin Grange File

The Highgate File

The Lazzaretto Nuovo File


Hope you enjoy.

The Arnold Paole File

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Staking Vampires

This is a very disturbing case. It all starts in 1727 when Paole returns home after serving in the military. He had saved enough during service to buy a few acres of land and a home. Everyone in the small village of Meduegna saw him as an honest man, a hard worker and a responsible young man.

Paole met the woman of his life, Nina, the daughter of a rich farmer that lived next to his property. Soon enough, they married. Nina had noticed that there was always this certain uneasiness when the two were together and one day, Paole spilled the beans.

He was afraid of an early death. While in service, in Greece where people believed in the undead, he had been visited by one. He had found his grave, unearthed the corpse and burned it. He then gave his resignation, against the will of his superior officers, and came back to his little town. He hadn’t been feeling ill or sick since the incident so maybe it was fine after all.

Shortly after his marriage, Paole fell from a great height while working on the farm, and was brought, unconscious, back to his home. He must have sustained internal injuries with the fall, for within a few days, Paole died and was buried in the town cemetery.

About a month later, the little town of Meduegna would enter in the history books as more and more villagers would report seeing Paole at night. Some witnesses have made official reports. Just a little while after the sightings started, so did the killings. It didn’t take long for the villagers to go into panic mode. It lasted throughout the cold winter nights and words were spreading. No locks could keep you safe, Paole would somehow be able to go through walls and doors. The town was in shock. At first, villagers thought that Paole had somehow come back as a ghost but that rumour eventually changed and finally went around that he could have been a vampire.

Several weeks later, a decision was reached to exhume the body of Arnold Paole.

The group consisted of two military officers, two army surgeons, and a priest from the local church. When the group exhumed the body, they found a fresh corpse. There was no decomposition of the body whatsoever, and in fact the old skin and nails had fallen off, and new ones had grown to take their place! The final insult was the fresh blood that rested on the lips of the deceased Paole.

They finally staked the body and it gave a piercing shriek as blood jetted out. They exhumed every other villager that had died after being visited by Paole. They all had the same vampire conditions and were all staked, men, women and children. They finally cremated everyone, including Paole.

But the killings continued. The original vampire was probably still around. In 1732, a decision was reached again, to exhume each and every single body from the cemetery and what they found was unexpected. More than ten other victims were found that had those same vampire conditions, once again. They were all staked and cremated like the first time around.

The complete medical report is available in many modern vampire histories.

To this day, the Arnold Paole case is still unresolved, and very disturbing.

Read more HERE and HERE.


~Continued on next post

The Alfort Family File

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Dillsboro, N.C.

These events take place in the small mountain town of Dillsboro, North Carolina and will last from 1788 to 1789.

In the spring of 1788 a family arrived in the then small mountain community of Dillsboro N.C. Their last name was Alfort and their were rumors that they were descended from royalty. They bought land down by the river and built what was then a very nice large colonial home. Mr Alfort opened up a doctors office and pharmacy in rooms in the front of the house and people were at first really happy that a new doctor had arrived in their community.

The Doctor was a busy man and all seemed well until two community members died after visiting the good doctor. Those members were loved by everyone and this did not go down too well. The local Minister reassured everyone and all seemed normal again, till fall arrived. One of the Minister’s young girls had died and punctures were found on her neck. The Minister’s wife testified that she saw a strange dark shadow over her daughter and rushing to her rescue, only found her already dead.

Soon enough, rumours went around that a vampire was on the loose. Every night, groups of men would go out and try to find the creature, without success. On one of those nights, a young boy ran to his grandfather’s home, terrified and said that there was something in his Daddy’s home, attacking his Mom and Dad. The grandfather gathered men and they all ran to his son’s home, only to find them all dead, both parents and their two other kids, three and nine years old. They ALL had punctures on their necks.

Soldiers were called in. The town was in a state of shock. Now, rumours went that a group of vampires could have been on the loose. After the soldiers arrived, things quieted down for a while. And then, a horrible scream was heard and when the men arrived to the house where the screams came from, they saw a dark shadow which exited and made its way to the doctor’s house. Two more victims were in the house where the screams had come from, a young couple, with punctures on the necks. They ran to the doctor’s house, most probably thinking that the doctor’s family would be in danger but strangely, the doctor refused to let them in.

However as soon as the sheriff arrived they dragged Mr Alfort outside and tied him to a tree. When the men entered the house they found some strange things for sure. Their were bedrooms upstairs with beds but it was clear no one slept in them. When the Sheriff and search party got downstairs they found three caskets and Mrs Alfort dressed all in black was in one of them but very much alive. She hissed and cursed at them when she was pulled from the casket.

The same night, the verdict was reached, the doctor, his wife and their sons were vampires. They were hung, put back inside their house and the house burned to the ground. Their fifteen year old son, who wasn’t there that night, was never seen or heard of again.

Even if these events really took place, no one will ever know the real truth. This case, even if it reached a guilty sentence back then for the Alforts, will always remain a troubling mystery.

Read more HERE


~Continued on next post

The Croglin Grange File

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Croglin

This amazing story comes from England and took place in the mid seventeenth century.

This legend, perhaps, could be considered one of the most famous and sought after accounts of a real vampire. In Cumberland, England, the Legend begins at an old family estate, known as Croglin Grange.

The Cranswell’s, Amelia and her two brothers, Michael and Andrew had rented the property which belonged to the Fisher family. This story begins like any other, the Cranswell family enjoyed the new community and all was well. Then one night, as Amelia can’t seem to fall asleep, she starts looking out her bedroom window.

Seeing two strange lights in the night and as she wonders what they are, she suddenly realizes that the lights are coming straight to her window. She starts being scared, runs for her bedroom door and tries to unlock it. As she does so, she hears scratches on her window and turns around to have a peak, only to see the most frightening scene; a brown face with piercing eyes, staring directly at her. She runs back towards her bed and tries to hide underneath it. She hears the window opening and something pulls her out from underneath the bed. As the creature sinks his teeth into her neck, she starts hysterically screaming. Her brothers arrive but the creature is already gone.

One brother stayed with her to comfort her while the other rushed outside. The creature was gone. Amelia sees the doctors for her wounds and as the doctor suggests she takes a small vacation away from Croglin, to calm down, the family agrees and goes to Switzerland for a while. They finally return, as Amelia has reasoned it out, this was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time and some lunatic took advantage of it.

For months, all went well, until one night, as it happened before, she saw the creature through her window and screamed. This time, the brothers were prepared as they ran outside and opened fire on the creature. As they wounded one of the creature’s legs, they followed the blood trail that it left behind, which led them to a vault at the cemetery. The next day, the brothers returned to the vault, alongside other men. What they found is scary.

The two brothers went into the vaults finding all but one of the coffins destroyed into pieces. When they opened the coffin, they described the corpse as a brown, mummified monster. Upon further examination, they found the fresh gunshot wound on it's leg. They removed the bullet from the creatures leg and then burned the corpse.

A gentleman by the name of Augustus Hare wrote a book on the events between 1896 and 1900, a book that would describe events and places. Unfortunately, the book has been the subject of deep controversy and many have called it a hoax.

But to this day, it remains a mystery.

Read more HERE.


~Continued on next post

The next two stories have made the headlines numerous times. The first one relates incidents taking place at the Highgate Cemetery, in London, England, from 1922 to this day. The second one is about a surprising archeological find that was dug out in Italy, in 2006.

Neither of those two stories are hoaxes or bedtime tales. They are very real, very troubling and no one knows the real truth one way or another. They are both deep mysteries and are both still being talked about, in different circles. Reality or not, well, that’s only up to you to judge.

The Highgate File

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Highgate Cemetery

The year 1922. London. Three different reports of vampire attacks, in the early spring.

The first one was reported by a man who claimed had been attacked by an unseen entity that grabbed him, punctured his neck and drank blood. Having fainted, he was found on Coventry Street and taken to hospital where doctors concluded that he had been pierced by some tubular object. The patient claimed that nobody had been around to do something like this.

The second one was reported by another man, admitted in the hospital a few hours after the first one, with neck wounds. This man claimed that he had been attacked by an unseen assailant and described the same way and same spot as the first victim did.

Finally, later in the evening, a third victim, same unseen attacker, same wounds, same way, same spot.

When questioned by reporters, the police admitted they had made no advancement in their investigations. They also refused to comment on suggestions that the attacker was a vampire.

But rumours were that the police had hired a vampire hunter that ended up killing the creature.

The year 1963. Highgate Cemetary. Several witnesses accounts.

It starts with two girls claiming they saw bodies or spirits or something rising from the graves. Weeks later, numerous reports of a hovering entity in between the gravestones. The local paper is contacted. Animal carcasses, drained from their blood, start being found in the cemetery.

The year 1970. A motorist reports seeing a tall spectral entity on the other side of the cemetery gate.

The year 1971. A young girl reports being attacked by a vampire in the lane alongside the cemetery. A stranger saved her life.

She said she was hurled to the ground by a "tall black figure with a deathly white face". Luckily for her, a passing motorist stopped to help her, and the vampire simply vanished into thin air when the car's headlights hit it. The good Samaritan took her to the police station, where officers noted her genuinely shocked state of mind, as well as some abrasions on her arms and legs. The police combed the area but found nothing.

Another man claims to having seen the entity and mentioned that he felt hypnotized.

The year 1974. A man, walking his dog, returns to his car to find that an unearthed corpse had been put inside of it and even though doors had been locked the whole time. And still were.

It just never stopped. Recent times have reports of the tall dark figure.

The year 2007. A woman reports seeing a 7’ tall spectrall figure in the lane, a figure with luminous eyes. Days later, a man walks his dog near the Highgate woods and encounters the entity.


True? False? Real or not? The reports are true but no one knows. To this day, it still is a total mystery.


Read more HERE.


~Continued on next post

The Lazzaretto Nuovo File

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The Lazzaretto Nuovo Vampire Skull

The partial body and skull of the woman showed her jaw forced open by a brick (above)—an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires.

This extraordinary discovery was made in 2006, on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, Italy. Matteo Borrini, a forensic archeologist from the University of Florence, had been digging mass graves for a while when he found this amazing skull.

"I was lucky. I [didn't] expect to find a vampire during my excavations," he said.

In the Middle Ages, when corpses started to decay, a fluid would often come out of their noses and mouths which was often misrepresented as being blood. Vampire stories were rampant and a way to differentiate a vampire with blood on its mouth was to insert shrouds down the corpses’ throat. As plagues were raging on, several tombs were often reopened and it was noticed that shrouds that were put down the throats to avert the fluids from coming back up, were often partially eaten.

So, as the belief was that vampires helped in spreading the plagues, it was decided that suspected vampires would not be put shrouds down their throats but stones or bricks instead. They said that by doing so, they indeed slowed the diseases from spreading.

And Matteo Borrini found one of those!

A truly amazing discovery. It is still a mystery if vampires were really there at that time or if they were just legends but the folks back then sure didn’t take a chance. Surprising indeed!


Read more HERE.



This concludes the fourth and final part of The Talamasca Files. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I had looking into them.


Thank you for reading. Till next time,


~Son.

reply to post by SonoftheSun


Awesome, thanks! I don't care at all for the modern vampires that are so popular in our culture now, but this looks like a ton of great reading. I don't have any personal vampire stories to share, sorry, well, maybe not sorry. Thanks again!

That was really good , that's Is one of the best threads I've read in a long time . I've never heard of any of them stories about vampires , I hope you can come up with some more !

reply to post by SonoftheSun


Once again, awesome thread.

These are the types of stories that originally brought me to ATS, thank you for reminding me how much I love the mysterious!!

reply to post by wtbengineer


Thank you once again !!

I don't have any personal vampire stories to share, sorry, well, maybe not sorry.

Glad you liked it !!

reply to post by bdb818888


Thanks !!

As I come across good ones, I'll post them in. Glad you enjoyed !!!

reply to post by newsoul


And once more, thank you for your kind words !

Glad you enjoyed !! A good mysterious story is always fun !!

Another excellent and enjoyable thread and I'm glad you focused on the less glamouruos,folklore tradition of the vampire.

In fact the were often known as revenants,bloated and hideously looking corpses that returned to terrorise the living.

And as you said,often when believing a person who'd recently been buried was responsible they dig them up and open the coffin to find the body bloated with the gases of decay but not knowing of such things they saw a well fed body.

The gases pushing out a bloody film out the mouth looked like it had been feeding on blood.

Skin pulling tight seemed to give it a younger look plus when it tautens at the scalp and fingers it appeared the hair and nails had grown signalling a body that had still some form of life.

As they handled the body more gases being released passed the vocal chords sounded like groans.

To peasants that knew nothing of anatomy or the process of decay weeks after death but were steeped in superstition and folklore these were classic signs of an animated corpse.

When you consider their only education was what the priest told them every Sunday.Christ came back from the dead,at the final judgement all the dead will rise,it's not so hard to understand how the freely believed in the undead.

Again,you're right cutting off the head and placing heavy stones in the mouth and on the hands was one way to hold them in their grave,sometimes the head was placed between the legs.

A popular practice in Middle Ages England was to bury the body of a murderer or suicide kneeling in the cerntre of a crossroads and hammer a large stake through the body pinning it to the ground.The very top of stake was left poking an inch or two above the ground presumeably for all to see if the body moved so would the stake.

In fact,it's interesting to note that in the early to mid 19th century they made staking of a corpse a criminal offence showing how prevelant the custom was still well into the 1800's.

S&F

reply to post by fastbob72


Thank you for adding such relevant information ! As you mention, the ignorance of how bodies decayed led to many stories that fed on the superstitions. I also find it interesting that many of the vampire stories from back then are still feeding the Hollywood machine,

Most vampire movies use the old practices, the use of garlic and holy water, the staking of the heart, cutting heads, burning the bodies...There are even old reports of bats being suspected of being vampires. I avoided those in the thread but it did exist. The link to the Highgate Cemetary entity story has an example.

You contributed a very interesting and accurate reply !!!

I just spent the last couple of hours reading all four of your posts.

Excellent title. Well done. Gives one the willies.

All of this info was unknown to me, and I consider myself a great researcher. I will have to reassess my self-imposed title.

Excellent thread. Stars & a flag.

Fascinating read.
I'm a bit gutted that they're all finished now though.
Any idea what you have in store for us next time?

reply to post by SeenAlot

I just spent the last couple of hours reading all four of your posts.

I was afraid you'd then say something like "I want those two hours back..."

Thing is, when I write them, time goes fast but I never realized how long it would take for other members to get through them. They are lengthy posts but it had to be this way. I could have just put a summary for each file and added the link for further reading but I wanted to put a bit of my personal spin into it.

Glad it gave you the willies !!!

Thank you for the kind reply !!

reply to post by SilentE


Thank you ! Glad you enjoyed it !!

As for what's coming next, there's a few ideas. For one, I will add new files in the existing threads as I find good ones, which I've already started doing with the Witchcraft ( The Witches of Whitewater File )and Spirits ( The Brown Lady File ) Threads.

As for new threads, I am thinking of a Buffy style "The Watcher's Files" which could touch on other paranormal subjects such as demons, monster tales, shape shifters and native american folklore.

I am also looking into - perhaps - putting up a new Talamasca thread once a month, which would focus on holidays and the myths surrounding them. Valentine and Halloween are a given but there's a holiday every month and fascinating stories to go along...We'll see...

Thank you for your kind reply !!!

Star & flagged. Thank you for putting these threads together. Fascinating!

List of Good Things I found:

Gary Oldman/Sirius Black
Talamasca - Anne Rice & the Hall of Records for all things "un" natural.
Topics I had never heard of after reading every single tidbit I could get my hands on


List of Bad Things

Now I got more reading to do.


S&F'd the entire series. I look forward to butting heads with you on another topic later.

Originally posted by SonoftheSun
reply to post by SilentE

 

Thank you ! Glad you enjoyed it !!

As for what's coming next, there's a few ideas. For one, I will add new files in the existing threads as I find good ones, which I've already started doing with the Witchcraft ( The Witches of Whitewater File )and Spirits ( The Brown Lady File ) Threads.

As for new threads, I am thinking of a Buffy style "The Watcher's Files" which could touch on other paranormal subjects such as demons, monster tales, shape shifters and native american folklore.

I am also looking into - perhaps - putting up a new Talamasca thread once a month, which would focus on holidays and the myths surrounding them. Valentine and Halloween are a given but there's a holiday every month and fascinating stories to go along...We'll see...

Thank you for your kind reply !!!

You're welcome

I just checked out The Brown Lady File, interesting stuff and a great picture to go with it.

Monster tales and shape shifters sounds good and I like your idea of a Talamasca thread once a month.

Hope you don't mind but i've added you as a friend so I can keep up with the threads.