Suspense Magazine July 2013

Vampire Hunting Kits came in all shapes
and sizes. As small as a toolbox or as
huge as an entire wagon.
Credit: www.paranormalbites.com
passed down for generations, and indeed some in Germany, Great Britain,
and America made a fortune on such supernatural endeavors.
One thing was certain: If you were going to become, or be, a vampire
hunter, you needed a “hunting kit.” Some referred to this as their “conjure
kit” for those rare occasions a vampire could not be found. If this were the
case, most would speculate that a ghostly force was at work, and suggested
to those few who would pay, that an exorcism would be needed at any
available crypt.
Point of fact: As far as the Catholic Faith is concerned, places of the
dead, homes, and inanimate objects CANNOT be possessed by an evil
force. This would require a living soul to battle over, and the dead are long
gone from that “earthly” equation.
The kit itself could be as small as an average toolbox, or as huge as a
wagon. It was said to contain all the earthly weapons needed to fight the
undead. That, in itself, was never an easy task. Crosses, garlic, wooden
stakes, and stakes made out of silver, lead, and gold were paramount to the
vampire hunter. So were the variations of the theme.
Unlike the vampires of the ’60s Hammer films, vampires walked the
earth in many different guises. There were the traditional Dracula types of
undead, which feasted upon the blood of the living, but there were also the
unusual Vampires that sucked away youth instead of blood. Vampires that lived off the positive emotions of those around
them. Even undead creatures that could sneak into the bedchambers of pregnant women and cause them to miscarry.
Vampires could be both human and animal, and for a fee, of course, the cursed villagers could be enlightened as to what
“classification” of Nosferatu they were facing.
There were a few hunters who did this as a humanitarian act. They, in their own ways, had been victims of a sickness or
unknown factor which caused deaths in their own families. As a means of helping with the pains of their own losses, they
took up the mantle of becoming vampire hunters to help others. These people deserve respect. In their own crude way, they
helped pave the way for science. Through acts of faith, observations, and dedication, they asked the right questions and
created circumstances that saved lives.
It is from these individuals that such noted writers as Bram Stoker and Ann Rice created their heroes.
Once, in England, around the time Bram Stoker was researching his novel, and when Jack the Ripper ruled the areas
around Whitechapel, there was a case of vampirism. A well-respected
cemetery had an odd problem. They couldn’t keep a deceased banker
within the confines of his tomb. Three times, it appeared that someone
had broken into the vault and taken the poor man’s body. After official
investigations, it was discovered that the vault was never broken into but
broken OUT OF! The man had been buried alive at least twice.
This was an occasional occupational risk of the time. Premature
burial has since been reduced with the betterment of medical science. It
still affects us to this day, however. Ever wonder WHY a body isn’t buried
until several days AFTER death That’s why. Superstition soon becomes
accepted dogma.
In any case, once the banker was returned to his grave for the
third time, a vampire hunter performed a rather odd addition to the London's Highgate Cemetery - the scene of
gentleman’s entombment: He added crushed garlic and a few rosaries to the
the Victorian Vampire.
cement used to seal the vampire up. Needless to say, London lost interest
Credit: Panyd at en.wikipedia
in its “Victorian Vampire.” Some claim that the event inspired Stoker. This
author, however, holds to the realism that it was Jack the Ripper who had given birth to Count Dracula.
Like gypsies, the vampire hunter kept a keen eye out for a village that either had suffered from a foreign war, or had a
series of unexplainable deaths. Then, like a knight from the old stories, would ride in with his bag of tricks to save the day.
64  Suspense Magazine July 2013 / Vol. 049