The Science of Vampirism
Famous Vampire Victims
By Hugo Pecos & Robert Lomax
Return to Vampiric Mythology
Vampires are indiscriminate hunters, and those facing them can expect no quarter, no matter their standing in life.
Giuliano de' Medici & Simonetta Vespucci
Florence's Noblest Couple
1453-1476
See Historical Tales: Guiliano & Simonetta
Lucrezia Borgia
Daughter of Pope Alexander VI
1480-1519
The femme fatale of the murderous, incestuous Borgia clan met her match when brother Cesare, recently transformed into a vampire, cornered her inside the Vatican.
Ivan the Terrible
Russian Tsar
1530-1584
After transformation, Ivan used his family as a personal smorgasbord, drinking the blood of his son and daughter-in-law before being slain by palace guards.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
English Romantic Poet
1792-1822
While vacationing in Italy with wife Mary and friend and fellow poet Lord Byron, Shelley decided to pay a call to the vampiric residents of a Lake Trasimeno castle. The hosts, unimpressed with his reputation, drank his blood and then threw his body over the castle ramparts into the lake. Shelley's drained and battered corpse eventually washed ashore and was later cremated on location.
Nat Turner
American Slave Revolt Leader
1800-1831
Turner turned his bloodlust into a full-scale insurrection by leading other transformed slaves on a hunting spree across the Virginia countryside. The vampiric rebels traveled from home to home, feeding on white residents while turning their slaves. All told, Turner's pack—which ultimately grew to over 70 slaves and free blacks—killed 65 men, women and children before a local militia put an end to them. Turner himself was captured two months later and subsequently stripped and hanged out in the sun before being flayed, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered. Tragically, up to 200 innocent blacks were murdered by militias and mobs in the frenzied aftermath, and civil rights for both slaves and free blacks were stripped by state legislatures.
Edgar Allan Poe
American Author & Poet
1809-1849
The Master of the Fictional Macabre met up with the real thing when he stumbled into a couple of vampires while on a bender along the Baltimore waterfront. Found drained and delirious, he was then taken to the Washington Medical College, where he slipped into a vampiric coma and soon died. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation," so he most likely died as a result of the coma—although some conflicting reports state that he was euthanized to keep him from transforming.
Grigori Rasputin
Russian Mystic & Advisor to the Romanovs
1869-1916
Russian aristocrats, fearful of Rasputin's undue influence over the Tsar and his wife, lured him to a vampire hideout in Saint Petersburg. After transformation, the "Mad Monk" was shot several times (once in the forehead), bludgeoned with a dumbbell, tied up and then thrown into the icy Neva River. Amazingly, he still turned up at the palace the following night, whereupon he was beheaded by the Tsar's guards. Taking no chances, his body was then dismembered and burned.
Warren G. Harding
29th President of the United States
1865-1923
See Famous Cases: Who Killed Warren Harding?
Rudolph Valentino
Italian-American Movie Star
1895-1926
While in New York City to promote his new movie, the Italian sex symbol was lured into a speakeasy, then set upon by a hunting pack. Wounded but alive, he managed to get back to his hotel, where he fell into a vampiric coma and was eventually euthanized. Although the studio attempted to prevent panic by claiming his death was caused by a bleeding ulcer, the news of his untimely passing resulted in mass hysteria among his female fans, including suicides and a prolonged riot on the day of his funeral.
Andy Warhol
American Artist
1928-1987
See Famous Cases: Terror in the Factory
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