vampire – Museum of the Weird

Posted on June 18, 2015 by MOTW Admin

Dropping From The Sky In Alaska

When Charles Fort wrote his Book of the Damned, he talked about a number of strange events where things rained out of the sky. There were black rains, red rains, rains of fish, rains of frogs! Apparently that sort of thing still happens. This time it’s bizarre eel-like fish called lampreys in Alaska. (This is not like the rain of spiders that we reported recently.)

There were simple explanations in Fort’s time about all the bizarre goings on, which is what prompted him to write his book in the first place. Here, the official explanation is that seagulls are digging these up and dropping them around. Hopefully we can look forward to photos and video of these bomber birds in action. In the mean time we will also wonder if the lampreys are simply collecting in the Super-Sargasso Sea, the dimension of lost things that Fort proposed.

There must be a lot of keys there…and socks.

Posted on November 6, 2012 by MOTW Admin

VAMPIRE BURIAL UNCOVERED IN BRITAIN

Hard to rise from the dead when there's a few stakes in your heart!

A new report details a finding from the 1950s that send chills down my spine.

A skeleton was discovered in Southwell, Notts in the UK with a number of stakes through various parts of it’s body. Apparently, administered post-mordem, they were to keep this criminal/deviant from rising from the grave as an undead to feast on the life force of the living!

The Telegraph writes:

The discovery of a skeleton found with metal spikes through its shoulders, heart and ankles, dating from 550-700AD and buried in the ancient minster town of Southwell, Notts, is detailed in a new report.

It is believed to be a ‘deviant burial’, where people considered the ‘dangerous dead’, such as vampires, were interred to prevent them rising from their graves to plague the living.

In reality, victims of this treatment were social outcasts who scared others because of their unusual behaviour. Only a handful of such burials have been unearthed in the UK.

The discovery is detailed in a new report by Matthew Beresford, of Southwell Archaeology.

The skeleton was found by archaeologist Charles Daniels during the original investigation of the site in Church Street in the town 1959, which revealed Roman remains.

Mr Beresford said when Mr Daniels found the skeleton one of the first things he did was to check for fangs in a light-hearted way.

“In the 1950s the Hammer Horror films were popular and so people had seen Christopher Lee’s Dracula so it would have been quite relevant,” said Mr Beresford.

In his report, Mr Beresford says: “The classic portrayal of the dangerous dead (more commonly known today as a vampire) is an undead corpse arising from the grave and all the accounts from this period reflect this.

“Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period the punishment of being buried in water-logged ground, face down, decapitated, staked or otherwise was reserved for thieves, murderers or traitors or later for those deviants who did not conform to societies rules: adulterers, disrupters of the peace, the unpious or oath breaker.

“Which of these the Southwell deviant was we will never know.”

ANCIENT VAMPIRES UNEARTHED IN BULGARIA

Could the legends and tales of old be true?

All the recent news stories of “zombie attacks” recently have gotten people wondering if the creatures from our darkest nightmares and classic horror movies are becoming a reality. Well, the signs don’t look so good when you throw in finding a couple of people that were buried 800 years ago with stakes in their hearts! Sounds like one classic horror movie monster I think we’re all familiar with, the vampire!

Bela Lugosi as Dracula, the original vampire!

Discovery News writes:

Two medieval “vampire” skeletons emerged near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol, local archaeologists announced.

Dating back 800 years to the Middle Ages, the skeletons were unearthed with iron rods pierced through their chests — evidence of an exorcism against a vampire. The ritual was aimed at preventing potentially dangerous people, such as enemies, murderers or individuals who died suddenly from a strange illness, from turning into vampires after death.

“The practice was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century,” Bozhidar Dimitrov, chief of the National History Museum in Sofia, told reporters.

The newly discovered skeletons are the latest in a series of finds across Europe. According to Dimitrov, over 100 skeletons, buried in the same manner, had been unearthed in Bulgaria only.

WOMAN ATTACKED BY “500 YEAR OLD VAMPIRE”

Texas police have arrested a teen after he broke into a woman’s apartment and attacked her, making hissing sounds and claiming to be a 500-year-old vampire.

Lyle Monroe Bensley, 19, of Galveston, allegedly entered the woman’s bedroom early Saturday morning and bit into her neck as she lay on the bed.

Wearing just a pair of boxer shorts and covered in tattoos, Bensley then reportedly dragged the woman out of her unit where she managed to run away and get into a nearby vehicle.

She later called the police who said Bensley climbed two fences to get away from them, yelling that he “didn’t want to have to feed on humans”.

Bensley told the police that he “needed to feed,” and then said that he has been “alive for 500 years.”

He was taken to Galveston County Jail where he told guards to restrain him for their own safety, police said.

He has been charged with burglary with intent to commit assault with a $40,000 Bond.

Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/10059141/vampire-bites-woman

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Guest Blogger

SIBERIAN LIVESTOCK DRAINED OF BLOOD BY VAMPIRE?

Between this current and past reports, there has got to be a vampire-like creature we’re missing out there somewhere.

The Moscow News writes:

A blood-sucking creature is preying upon goats near Novosibirsk. As rational explanations run thin on the ground, the specter of the so-called chupacabra raises its demon head.

Horrified farmers and smallholders are confronted by the drained corpses of their livestock in the morning, bloodless and bearing puncture marks to the neck but otherwise largely in tact.

But local cops are reluctant to record apparent vampire attacks, as they await official recertification, leaving the locals up in arms.