Il Vampiro di Highgate

 

Kevin Jackson Dies

The English writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician, Kevin Jackson, born 3 January 1955, died last week on 10 May 2021. He was the author of Bite: Diary of a Vampire Housewife (2009), Bite: Pavane for a Vampire Queen (2011), and Bite: A Vampire Handbook (2010).

He was educated at the Emanuel School, Battersea, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He had been a freelance writer since the early 1990s and then became a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes, including the BBC Fourth Programme's Saturday Review.

Jackson often collaborated on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with whom he co-produced a Channel 4 documentary on Humphrey Jennings, The Man Who Listened to Britain (2000); with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, on comic strips about the history of Western occultism for Fortean Times, on two comics inspired by John Ruskin (published by the Ruskin Foundation) and on a book-length version of Dante's Inferno (Knockabout Books, 2102); with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (lyrics for various songs, and the rock opera Bite, first staged in West London, October 2011); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad (short surreal plays for BBC's Third Programme – eartoons). Jackson also conducted a long biographical interview with Blegvad, published by Atlas Press in September 2011 as The Bleaching Stream. Jackson appeared, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital. Worple Press published his book of interviews with Sinclair, The Verbals in 2002.

He was among the founder members of the London Institute of Pataphysics, and holds the Ordre de la Grande Gidouille from the College de Pataphysique in Paris. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Companion of the Guild of St George. From 2009–2011 he was Visiting Professor in English at University College, London.

Spectre of Haunted Highgate

The Ecker Offence

 

"I've just packaged it up for you Don, and will post tomorrow. I might as well put Pact with the Devil in with it as well, but the other thing will come a little later. Boy! will you have some fun. For now, David [Farrant]."

"David ... I can HARDLY WAIT!" panted Don Ecker.

David Farrant commented further (on his blog) for the benefit of those who read it:

"I heard from my friend American Radio Broadcaster, Don Ecker, to say he received the two books I sent him last week, and he has read them.  I better not repeat what he said here, but let’s just say I don’t think he has a very high opinion of ‘nutters’ who go around wearing teas pot cosies!"

The infantile reference to "tea pot cosies" is a coded allusion to a Catholic priest or bishop's biretta.

Anthony Hogg had the same insulting comment posted by Don Ecker on his Facebook page. Antipodean Hogg responded:

"G'day Don. Good to hear from you! Yeah, he's a troublesome, dodgy sort. Leaves a nice trail of buffoonery behind him. This is the latest example."

Recovering stolen intellectual property, according to Hogg, was now to be regarded as "buffoonery."

On his own self-congratulatory blog, Don Ecker made any number of personal attacks on Bishop Manchester with the mandatory stolen images to accompany each malicious swipe. On an entry titled "Is the Bishop a Nutter?" Don Ecker's true colours reveal themselves, as he barely contains himself:

"Now, let me tell you a little bit about the guy that shoveled all that shit out there……. Sean Manchester" Don Ecker begins, and it is not long before we are being treated to more of his remarkable eloquence: "Well, I almost popped a blood vessel. ... This was after Manchester, under an assumed computer user identity, accused me of being an 'American War-Monger' because of my Viet Nam service. As I said later, I was soooooo happy I was here (So. Calf.) and not there (England-UK) because I just wouldn’t trust myself if I happened to 'bump' into good ol’ Sean. ... So remember Sean, it is never a good idea to go out of your way to piss someone off who buys ink by the gallon and spend their spare time in front of a radio microphone. It will come back to bite you …. you Holy Joe … you."

In fact, Bishop Manchester has never had any contact whatsoever with Don Ecker. It was a female PA who referred to Ecker as a "war monger." This came about following Ecker turning really nasty after he approached her to arrange a radio interview with the bishop. Don Ecker had been desperately trying to interview Bishop Manchester for years until he finally gave up and settled for David Farrant who managed to lead the American up the garden path with very little difficulty. The threat from Don Ecker of what he would do if he bumped into the bishop is very typical of this vulgar American.

David Farrant started posting his familiar abuse on the blog comments at the invitation of Don Ecker. Then some balancing commentary appeared courtesy of a supporter of the bishop until the man who claims the American Constitution's first amendment allows him to say what he likes, using stolen images in the process, decided that "free speech" was to be curtailed if an opinion other than his own was being heard. The comments' section abruptly ended with this statement:

"Hear Ye This! Further comments on this topic are CLOSED! If you all wish to continue, do so on Mr. Farrants blog, Net Curtain Lurkers, The Pussy Meows, or where ever. I no longer am accepting further comments here. Don Ecker, Administrator."

Don Ecker wrote a vampire novel many years ago which he constantly plugged thereafter. It appeared a decade after the first edition of The Highgate Vampire was published to great acclaim. Indeed, Ecker purchased a copy of the bishop's non-fiction work. His own less than successful first (and last) attempt at writing a book might have caused some envy towards the author of The Highgate Vampire whose book still remains a bestseller in its category, and has been under option for a major cinema film. The trouble with Don Ecker's novel is that it reflects the man and his poor command of the English language with a tedious story that is almost impossible to read. If the amateurish presentation of language fails to put the reader off, the absence of any convincing or coherent storyline certainly will.

Envy, coupled with the fact that Don Ecker has failed at every attempt to interview Bishop Manchester to boost the ratings of his self-serving radio show, is probably the reason the man finally turned to publishing libel. It is no more than you would expect from an uncouth bully who can't get his own way.

As Hallowe'en approached, Don Ecker decided it was time to interview David Farrant again via the telephone. It was only a matter of minutes before both engaged in an unadulterated hate-fest where each sought to outdo the other in a mad scramble to introduce fabrications and lies. As Ecker struggled to lead a hesitant Farrant into fresh areas of calumny, it was not long before their joint defamation of character reached a disgusting low. More than three quarters of the interview was devoted entirely to issuing malicious falsehood about the bishop; mocking and ridiculing him while declaring him mentally deranged. This from one of them, Farrant, whom psychiatrists appointed by the courts in the UK had difficulty in agreeing whether he was sane enough to stand trial. Ecker made the startling admission that if the bishop is a Christian, then he would rather be on the Devil's side. We thought he already was! 

Out of the Shadows

"[Della] was my friend but now it seems no more (I participated in the cruel questioning of her identity and now she can't forgive me ! I wish to the gods that she could !!) Actually, I'm afraid Della and I are going to fall out even more ! There is strong evidence to suggest that Della Vallicrus doesn't actually exist per se - but is no less than old David Farrant himself, the cunning rogue!!! Therefore, dear reader, it is hardly surprising his defence (self-defence) is so good ! Della Vallicrus gave 'her' opinions about certain religious issues on a blog called The Supernatural World and - coincidence upon coincidence - they are almost identical to those of Mr Farrant !! Just who his current partner, 'Della Farrant', is I don't know as yet - but at least she doesn't call herself Della Vallicrus ! I would be quite happy to be proved wrong but, along with the perfume of incense, there is an underlying stench of Sulphur." — Geoffrey Basil Smith (Review of Farrant's Out of the Shadows, 17 November 2014)

"Anna Hinton, the girl haunted by the ghost of the talking mongoose, told me she was dating Jamie Farrant. Then she said they were not dating and had broke up." - Angie Mary Watkins (13 April 2021)

The picture of "Della" (above) was taken on 19 July 2015 outside the Highgate symposium venue. This is the only full frontal image of her without large, dark sunglasses, or a mask covering her eyes.

"Della" used a variety of nom-de-plumes when she first emerged from the shadows eleven years ago, all of them with Italian sounding surnames. She gave the impression that she hadn't met David Farrant yet, and wasn't in communication with Farrant's biological son, Jamie, who suddenly popped up out of nowhere at pretty much the same time as "Della." He hadn't had contact with his father for forty-one years. Angie Mary Watkins communicated with "Della" who was calling herself "Anna" at the time. She claimed to be a lesbian who was haunted by the ghost of a talking mongoose.

Jamie Farrant adopted the pseudonym "chatty-gef" as part of his email address and online identity. This was long before he is supposed to have met "Della." Back then, she was already talking about a "talking mongoose" and expressing a wish to meet David Farrant (on occult forums), eventually cooking up a cock and ball story of meeting him at a much later date. Ever since "Della Farrant" first manifested in the public consciousness eleven years ago she has been posting disparaging, derogatory and defamatory comments about Seán Manchester; especially on other people's websites, but also on her own blog. She and her collaborators, including Jamie Farrant, are believed to be the creators of a Facebook page called "Bishop Bonkers." Yet she has never met or communicated with Seán Manchester and would have only known what decidedly antipathetic people told her about him. We must then wonder who they might be.

The fact is that she shared quite a lot of fabrication and misinformation about a history that she is far too young to know anything about. It must have come from elsewhere. Yet what she was sharing on other people's websites was so easily recognisable, along with its source, means that it didn't take an Einstein to work out what was going on. Furthermore, it was the glaring error in her allegations that made their origin immediately identifiable. They only came from one of two people, and possible both.

The falsehoods about Welch, for example, makes it very easy to trace her mistake backwards. She even used the same foolishness, much of it libellous, at her so-called "Highgate Vampire Symposium," getting Paul Adams to be her patsy, making him the symposium's MC. It appeared as if Adams was making revelations about Welch before the audience, but all he was doing is repeating what he had been told by "Della" and, of course, Farrant who had been wound up by Tony Hutchinson three decades or more earlier. Back then, Farrant was the patsy. He had contacted the Hornsey Journal with all the fabricated nonsense he had been fed. Their senior investigative reporter, Roger Simpson, looked into it. He deduced that he was being led up the garden path by Farrant. He wouldn't forget, and the next time Farrant sent the same newspaper incriminating photographs of himself, instead of using them, or ignoring them, the editor, along with Simpson, forwarded them to Scotland Yard whose detectives paid Farrant a visit, and it was not too long after that before he was arrested, convicted and sent to prison, sentenced to four years and eight months.

It is that fabricated story about Welch that Paul Adams trotted out at the 2015 symposium which nailed the source. "Della" would mention black magicians operating at Kensal Green Cemetery, exactly what Hutchinson had told Farrant, who naturally repeated it. None of which was true. "Della" in those early days eleven years ago came out with much that was little more than wind ups.

She claimed to live in SW1, living on lobster, champagne and absinthe, when, in fact, she was in worse straits than Farrant in North London. Along with adopted names like Vallicrus and stolen images of a famous Latin pop star, which she eventually admitted was not her, and only done to hide her identity, everything began to unravel for "Della" who had been royally taken for a ride.

Why would she insist on being unrecognisable while obviously seeking self-publicity? Who was she hiding her identity from? It would seem only one person. Why? Because he would recognise the astonishing resemblance between "Della" and her mother. She didn't hide her identity from people like Gareth Medway, Redmond McWilliams and Kevin Chesham, all of whom quickly cooled towards her, as the penny began to slowly drop. Nobody, apart from David Farrant and Seán Manchester, knew what her mother looked like. None of the new crop of Farrantites had met her. Seán Manchester met her, of course, and it was he who straight away suspected a connection between "Della" and Farrant's second wife, Colette Sully, who was of Italian / French extraction. Hence "Vallicrus" used by "Della."

Only two people took charge of Farrant's death in April 2019. They were "Della" and Jamie Farrant. 

It all comes back to these two people, who remain in contact, as they slowly return to the shadows.

In her "Mistress of Death Interview" of 20 October 2014, "Della Farrant" [sic] was asked by Victoria Irwin:

"How do you gather personal stories and historical facts regarding the history of Highgate Cemetery and the surrounding area?"

She answered:

"My website, and that of my husband David Farrant, have generated many leads from witnesses, including people who have moved away from Highgate but never forgotten what happened to them there. As I mentioned, there is often a degree of apprehension among Highgaters who fear ridicule for discussing their own paranormal experiences. I have honoured requests to respect confidentiality, and this has resulted in some remarkable stories – usually from people who have never met, and yet have had encounters which are eerily similar. Many of these have occurred in the same clusters of streets around Highgate and have never made it into the press or into local gossip. And local gossip itself is of course incredibly important!"

In the same section, "Della" somewhat ironically, as would become apparent, offered this gem:

"... as The Smiths sang in Meet Me At The Cemetery Gates ‘The words you use should be your own : don’t plagiarise or take on loan.’ If one was to just rehash old ghost stories without investigating them personally one would be insulting one’s readers’ intelligence, as well as their book budget."

In Haunted Highgate, page 84, "Della" refers to the Hillcrest Estate on North Hill, Highgate, where "the recession of the early 1970s and 1980s contributed to low morale etc." In the next paragraph she moves onto an ex-resident of Hillcrest:

"Some seventeen years later, it was a cold, unfurnished top-floor flat in Wavell House which Deborah Meredith found herself relocated to by Haringey Council on, of all days, Hallowe'en, 1996. While the first six months or so of her tenancy at Hillcrest were uncomfortable and slightly unerving, the subsequent two and a half years were the stuff of nightmares."

Two pages in Chapter Five are then devoted to an alleged account provided by the ex-tenant of Hillcrest, having already been exploited on two pages in Chapter One, which is fair enough if all are agreed on everything published. Sadly, as with so much of what "Della" claims, that is not the case.

Who is Deborah Meredith? Her name is Deborah Cross née Meredith. After she became a widow, she used the name "Jessica Oliver" on Facebook. It transpires that she wrote an unpublished manuscript, The Spectre of Haunted Highgate, which she very unwisely shared with "Della" after having been in contact with her. So far, so good. However, like others who were duped, she regretted what followed, which might explain why she employs the pseudonym "Jessica Oliver" on social networks.

Oblivion Effaces Him

Two years ago today, David Robert Donovan Farrant (Born 23 January 1946) slipped away into the darkening shadows of the late evening. Though I have been prepared to discuss his life, or aspects of it, and answer any questions folk might have about the misreported past, nobody seems remotely interested. Neither his friends, nor indeed his enemies, want to keep his memory alive in any shape, size or form. So be it. The gates to that place where once he dwelt, and still dwells in some people's minds, are now, as far as I am concerned, irrevocably closed. I shall continue to pray for his soul. †  

                                                                                                                                         — †Seán Manchester

Quantum Queries

"The Highgate Vampire - A Tale of Two Hunters" by Ben and Pete (no surnames available) on the Quantum Mechanics podcast interpolated by †Seán Manchester, setting their fiction straight with facts.