Vampires. Our favorite creature of the night. And the legend has been around for centuries, especially in Europe. Like most of you, my memories of vampires come from books, TV and films, such as True Blood, Lost Boys and, of course, all those Dracula movies. Scary stuff, but fun.
And just like everybody else, I grew out of it because we’re taught that vampires are not real. Just fictionalized imagination of Bram Stoker, Anne Rice and many other writers. After all, popular vampires like Dracula, Lestat, Nosferatu and Edward Cullen are made up and exist only in books and films.
But if you do enough research, you’ll realize that real men and women who have been suspected of being vampires.
Let’s take a look at three of them. And I’m not including Vlad the Impaler. He deserves his own video.
Arnold Paole, Serbia
Arnold Paole is a popular Serbian vampire legend. The story goes that he was a soldier who lived in the village of Medveđa in 1725.
According to Wikipedia, Arnold Paole had complained about being attacked “by a vampire at a location named Gossowa (perhaps Kosovo), but that he had cured himself by eating soil from the vampire's grave and smearing himself with his blood.”
Later on, Paole died from an accident, unrelated to the vampire attack. Within a month of his death, four villagers complained about being attacked by him. Those villagers also died subsequently.
Rumors and fear of vampirism began circulating around the village. And the hysteria became a concern to local authorities. With the advice of a local military leader who had seen something like this before, the villagers dug up Paole’s grave forty days after his death.
And they found his body undecomposed and “that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown.”
To prevent Arnold Paole from rising again, the villagers drove a stake through his heart and, according to Wikipedia, he reacted with shriek as if he was alive. The villagers then burned his body.
They also did the same thing to the 4 villagers who claimed to have been attacked by Arnold Paole to prevent them from rising as vampires.
Jacques St. Germain, New Orleans
Jacques St. Germain is a legendary vampire who is supposed to live in New Orleans in the early 20th century. He is also called Vampire Jack by the locals.
He’s known for throwing lavish dinner parties for New Orleans’ aristocracy.
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It is a curious observation that he never ate the food he served. But there's a rumor of a particular bizarre habit. For you see, Saint Germain preferred to drink wine mixed with human blood.
With charming good looks, St. Germain was described as a womanizer who went into the French Quarter nightly to meet young women.
One night, screams were heard coming from his mansion. A woman apparently ran away from his home. She then told bystanders that she had been attacked and bitten on the neck by St. Germain. She was taken to the local hospital.
When police searched the mansion, they found blood stains all over the place and wine bottles filled with blood. And St. Germain was missing and was never seen again, officially. The woman eventually died in the hospital.
Jacques St. Germain continues to be a well-known urban legend in New Orleans. Locals say that he’s still being spotted looking for possible victims. And there are plenty of vampire myths in New Orleans. Here's one from a previous video listing the vampires of Ursuline Convent.
P02.00 Elizabeth Bathory, Hungary
Elizabeth Báthory, also known as the Blood Countess, was a Hungarian noblewoman in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
According to the lore, young women were sent to Bathory’s castle with the blessing of their parents so that they may learn proper courtly etiquette.
It turns out that something else was going on. Hundreds of these young women began missing that triggered response by the highest authority. 650 was the highest claim in Wikipedia. An investigation was conducted leading to the arrest of Bathory and her servants for murder and torture.
Her servants were tried and executed. Bathory’s punishment was imprisonment for life in her castle.
After her death, rumors began circulating that Bathory was not just killing young women. She was bathing in their blood so that she may stay youthful and vigorous.
Wikipedia has Bathory labeled as a serial killer. But the myth of vampirism came from the rumors of bathing in blood.
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