Sean Manchester - Vampire Hunter

Cuddles said:
And we are left to wonder, is Brodski actually psychic and typed this before Darat's post? Is Brodski involved in a cunning plot to convince us he is psychic by pretending he hadn't seen Darat's post? Are the spirits playing a cruel trick on him by making him think he is having precognitions when they are actually showing him visions of the past? Is this some huge consiparcy to distract us from the true threat that will only become apparent after Brodski reveals himself to be both Manchester, Farrant, a vampire and a small duck from Glasgow?
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I made the prediction first, the million dollar prize is mine!!!


;)
 
Thanks for your support everyone. We will of course adhere to the rules of the message board now and in the future and we will continue to answer any questions to the best of our ability and under our own names. We've been banging on about this for years and years and thankfully at last someone has finally sussed him. But it has taken alot of effort on our behalf to get this far.

Catherine Fearnley
 
Wow! And I slept through this whole thing.

I have enough info for a blog article and a bodice ripper novel. :D
 
To get back on track...

Ok I have decided to take specific claims by Manchester and examine them specifically. My hope is that either Mr. Ferrant, or possibly Mr. Manchester himself could answer some questions here and clarify any inconsistencies.

I'll start with Mr. Manchester's appearance on the "Is It Real? Vampires" TV program done by the National Geographic Channel. I downloaded this from iTunes for 2 bucks.

At 0:47 in the program Mr. Manchester says:

"The question is not are they real, the question is how do you deal with them?"

So we've established that Mr. Manchester thinks that vampires exist. However his definition of what a vampire is isn't given until later. Further along in the program the narrator says over pictures of Mr. Manchester:

"There is one person at least who claims that vampires are real. The Bishop of the Old Catholic Church at Glastonbury in England. The Right Reverend Sean Manchester."

Followed again by the quote from the beginning of the program I shared above. Ok, so this program is under the impression that Sean Manchester is a bishop of the Old Catholic Church at Glastonbury, England. We can examine this point later. Moving along in the program at 19:05 the Narrator states:

"Bishop Sean Manchester claims to have been called on to excorsize vampires and demons throughout the UK. He is billed as England's leading vampire slayer, a term he rejects. He is, he says, an excorsist and vampires are demons."

Followed by this quote from Manchester:

"Fundamentally the vampire is a predatory demon which is dependent on blood."

So now we've established that tenant of Manchester's belief about vampires. The narrator then sets up the next direct quote by Manchester explaining that he began his career in the 1960's and that there were reports around a cemetery of bloodless animal carcasses, eyewitness reports of red-eyed spectre, and finally an attack on two schoolgirls (they show black and white photos of a girl with two punctures on her neck) and then explain that one of the girls went on to have nightly visitations. Bringing us to this statement in the program by Manchester:

"She betrayed all the recognizeable symptoms and signs of a vampire attack. I saw for myself the puncture marks on her neck, the anemia, the initious (?) anemia...again sleepwalking..."

The narrator then notes that Bishop Manchester at the time was not yet a priest, but he tracked the vampire from the cemetery to an abandoned house nearby where he had an encounter. Manchester then says:

"When you've seen the real thing. When you've looked upon the actual vampire itself it is impossible to remove it from your psyche...from your consciousness, and you're no longer talking about belief but knowledge, experience, observation."

So we have established that according to Manchester vampires, in the form of demons dependent upon blood, exist and that he has seen the victims wounds, that they sleepwalk, and he encountered one in physical form.

After this Manchester is saying "If you believe in God you believe in the Devil, if you believe in angels you believe in demons. You can't have one without the other. Not if you believe in any of it."

Interesting false dichotomy, but not logically defensible. Any number of faiths have no need of devils against angels etc. etc. Does Manchester simply disregard any religious faith that doesn't coincide with his? Moving on...

Toward the end of this program, Manchester is shown saying the following:

"At what point does the theatricality end and unleashing things from the bowels of hell begin? It's not difficult to open a door the problem is shutting it again. The problems is to get back behind that door what you've let in."


Now from what I can make of his appearance on this TV show, we have the following premises to examine:

1) Sean Manchester is represented as a bishop of the Old Catholic Church at Glastonbury, England.

2) Sean Manchester believes vampires exist, are demons that are dependent on blood.

3) Sean Manchester has claimed to have personally encountered a vampire, and has fought it.

4) Sean Manchester apparently thinks making vampire films will bring about more demons and vampires in real life.


I would like to see any source material either of Manchester's books or fhios interviews or appearances that could clarify any of this further to make sure we are absolutely examining what he says and believes, if that is available. If any members happen to have this ready, please post here (but within the confines of Rule 4.)

Moving along, I decided to posit this TV appearance against any material on the internet that may support or contradict Manchesters statements on the TV show.

This horribly designed website, despite being painful to look at due to bad graphics and text color choices, seems to be Manchester's church. At the bottom of this page, a picture of Manchester is captioned by the following:

Bishop & Primate: The Right Reverend Seán Manchester, O.S.G.
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So he's apparently the monkey bishop that works at the Office of the Solicitor General.

No seriously, what significance is "Primate"? Is that another way of saying "founder?" Does anyone know what O.S.G. stands for? a google search didn't give me anything to go on with this.

I did not find on that website any reference to Manchester being the Bishop at Glastonbury of the Old Catholic Church. Nor can I find any source material to confrim or refute this. (I can google up opinions till the cows come home, but that means nothing without some referenced source material.)

I would also like to know what is out there describing the events at Highgate, and if Mr. Ferrant can shed some light on that, I would appreciate it. However one testimonial against another is not much evidence, so I would also like to see some referenced evidence in there.

Specifically:

What exactly does Manchester mean by a "demon that is dependent on blood" and are there any details on how he fought these available? What sources other than Manchester can we find to corroborate or refute what he says?

Thoughts?



ETA:

I did not find on that website any reference to Manchester being the Bishop at Glastonbury of the Old Catholic Church. Nor can I find any source material to confrim or refute this. (I can google up opinions till the cows come home, but that means nothing without some referenced source material.)
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The above quote by me is in error. I simply did not understand the oddly worded sections of his webpage.

Here states the following:

The historical continuity of the apostolic succession here imparted cannot be questioned. It can be traced in an unbroken line to the nephew of Pope Urban VIII, Cardinal Antonio Barberini the Younger, prior to which it unfolds backwards to the Holy Apostles and Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (following the widely known and much published Roman Catholic line).
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Later on that page:

When Bishop Seán Manchester was consecrated by Old Catholic Archbishop Illtyd Thomas, assisted by Bishop Michael Weston and Bishop Henry Vermeulen on 4 October 1991 at a Church in Hertfordshire, he inherited multifarious lines of apostolic succession for which the above table is but one single strand in the Old Catholic table alone. He also inherited the Chaldean Catholic line, the Armenian Catholic line, the Russian Orthodox line, the Syrian Orthodox line, the Assyrian line, the Greek-Melkite line, the Syro-Gallican line, the Anglican and Non-Juring lines, etc.



Upon his episcopal consecration Bishop Seán Manchester received congratulations from many church leaders, notably the late Cardinal Basil Hume’s ecumenical advisor for the Roman Catholic Church, Father Michael Seed of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, many Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Old Catholic Archbishops, including Archbishop Nils Bertil Alexander Persson of Sweden who stressed the importance of being “able to refer to many different valid successions” when “working ecumenically.” Dr Persson was Primate Emeritus of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and Missionary General to the Philippine Independent Catholic Church (which is in full communion with Canterbury and Utrecht) until his retirement. He was also the Primate VIII of the Order of Corporate Reunion (see below).
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I am now googling for Illtyd Thomas to verify Manchester is indeed ordained by the OCT.

And the only Illtyd Thomas I found in any Old Catholic Church appears onthis page of The Old Catholic Church of B.C.

I assume that's British Columbia, Canada? The site is bilingual english and french. They list these places of worship:

Locations and Worship times

St. Raphael's Old Catholic Church
715 East 51st Avenue; Vancouver, BC
Phone (604) 325-9193 FAX (604) 327-1066
email: oldcatholicbc@hotmail.com

Holy Mass - Sunday 11 am
Every Wednesday 8:30 am
Confession - 30 minutes before Mass
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament - 4th Sunday of the month after Mass

Our Lady of Nativity Old Catholic Church
8642 Harvie Road; Port Kells, Surrey, BC
Phone (604) 882-8566
Holy Mass - Sunday 11 am
Weekday 8:30 am
confession 30 minutes before Mass

Holy Trinity Anglican Church
17371 NE 24th Street
Redmond, WA 98052
Phone (425) 641-3059
Sunday Services:
8:30 AM - Holy Communion
10:00 AM - Holy Communion (1st, 3rd & 5th Sundays)
10:00 AM - Morning Prayer (2nd & 4th Sundays)

Missions
St. Barbara's Old Catholic Mission, Bellevue, Washington, USA
St. Paul's Old Catholic Mission, Bowen Island, BC
Mission Vieille Catholique de la Sainte Croix; Montreal,P.Q.
Mission Vieille Catholique de Bon Pasteur; Quebec, P.Q
- please call St. Raphael's Old Catholic Church at (604) 325-9193 for location & times -
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Sop it appears that Manchester is claiming someone in the OCT in British Columbia ordained him?
 
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BBC TV Octber 15th 1970

FOR FOWLSOUND,

I don't know if this is of any help, but here is the transcript of the 1970 BBC TV show about the Highgate vampire that featured Manchester and myself. Its a bit long, but there's nothing I can do about that! Lets just hope I've copied it Okay. Here goes . . .

24 HOURS - THE UNCENSORED TRANSCRIPT

First broadcast by the BBC on 15 October 1970, a rather selectively edited version of Laurence Picenthly's interviews with Farrant, a man called Manchester and William Law was made available on a number of Vampire Research Society audio cassettes throughout the 'nineties. What follows is a full transcript of what the participants had to say for themselves ....

LAURENCE PICETHLY (VOICEOVER) Highgate Cemetery, officially opened in 1839, was once described as the most beautiful cemetery in London. There are two cemeteries now. the one where Karl Marx is buried has become a Communist shrine. But the other, the older private cemetery across the road is now a forest of graves.
In the last few years, vandals, stalking around the undergrown tombs have done over £9000 worth of damage. Statues have been swept from their pedestals, and coffins disrupted and desecrated. (c/u of a clearly vandalised Cory-Wright vault/ cuts to a cemetery official inspecting the latest damage).
To the general foreman of the gravediggers, WILLIAM LAW, who has worked here for 23 years, this has worsened an already harrowing job.
WILLIAM LAW This plate glass up here used to cover all these blocks here. That one there, they smashed the glass, smashed in there, vandals got through there, crawled through, broke open a coffin, emptied the corpse on the floor and took the metal container he was in.
LAURENCE PICETHLY (Voice over as he strolls along with Law) In the vaults of the old catacombs, where Victorian families built their private sepulchres and the bodies of the long lamented were embalmed and set in coffins on the shelves (C/U of Cory-Wright vault again) other kinds of vandalism have occurred.
WILLIAM LAW Down this part here, there was two tombs broken into. One on the left hand side here, the doors were broken open and a coffin was half pulled over, and a big iron stake stuck through into the coffin.
LAURENCE PICETHLY The stake impaled the mummified heart. Other outrages were to follow, even more bizarre, even more violent. Last August three schoolgirls came upon the decapitated corpse of a woman scattered across this path here, outside the tomb where it had lay for nearly a hundred years. A week later the body was removed from the tomb twice in a single day. This desecration was utterly different to anything that had happened before at Highgate Cemetery. This time there was no lead missing from the coffin and there were pentacles and other Satanist symbols chalked here on the walls.
These indications of a black ritualism at work aroused the curiousity of Sean Manchester, twenty-six year old president of the British Occult Society (SM and LP at gates; cuts to interior of 553 Holloway Road) an organisation which practices the art of white magic to combat evil. (Manchester bows theatrically to altar, lights some powder in a bowl, it flares up, etc.)

The Society opperates out of this small incense smelling living room in North London. Among other accourements (muffled) ... practice, Manchester keeps an alchemy set of chemicals in bottles and several magical circles inscribed with the many titles of the powers of good (C/U of pentagram on wall; cut to Highgate Cemetery)
SEAN MANCHESTER Our first report indicated that there may be a vampire in Highgate Cemetery. A spectre was seen at that gate there, appearing to come from here, which leads to the catacombs.
LAURENCE PICETHLY Was seen by whom ?
SEAN MANCHESTER Passers by, residents, people whom we interviewed. It was even seen by our members.
LAURENCE PICETHLY What does this creature do ?
SEAN MANCHESTER As far as we know, it has only physically attacked one male person who had passed by the gate. But there are others who amply attest to having been visited by it in their beds at night. One young lady sports two puncture marks on her neck, just here, close to the jugular vein. She woke in the morning to discover two red marks on her neck after experiencing, not a nightmare, but an evil experience, not something she could describe herself where she thought she was being visited by something exceedingly wicked.
(Cut to Archway Road)
LAURENCE PICETHLY On August 17th, the former associate of Sean Manchester, Mr. Allan Farrant, who used to own this Tobacconist Shop in Highgate, decided to pay a midnight visit to the cemetery to combat the vampire once and for all. At the cemetery, Farrant was forced to enter by the back wall (C/U of DF leaping into the cemetery), as he still does today. He armed himself with a cross and a stake and crouched between the tombstones, waiting. But that night, police on the prowl for vandals discovered him. He was charged with being in an enclosed space for an unlawful purpose but later the Clerkenwell Magistrate acquitted him. Now, in spite of all attempts by the cemetery owners to bar him Farrant and his friends still maintain a regular vigil (of the ?) catacombs in the hope of sighting either the vampire or the Satanists.
DAVID FARRANT We have been watching the cemetery since my court case ended and we still find (muffled)
LAURENCE PICETHLY Have you seen this vampire ?
DAVID FARRANT I have seen it, yes. I saw it last February, and I saw it on two occasions.
LAURENCE PICETHLY What was it like ?
DAVID FARRANT It took the form of a tall, grey figure, about eight feet tall, and it seemed to glide off the path without making any noise.
LAURENCE PICETHLY But Sean Manchester regards Farrant as "an amateur" and has taken it upon himself to exorcise the evil personally from the tombs. For protection, he adorns himself with laurel and garlic leaves and a Christian cross.
(C/U of Manchester brandishing his cross at the camera)
SEAN MANCHESTER Satan, get thee behind me and be gone from this place forever!
(cut to Manchester talking to Picethly again)
SEAN MANCHESTER This place where we are now is really a battlefield between the powers of good and the forces of darkness. This is where it has all been happening. The vampire dwells very close to here. We believe that the Satanists, through their black magic, have attempted to resurrect an undead body.
LAURENCE PICETHLY Undead? What do you mean by the Undead ?
SEAN MANCHESTER By undead we mean not of the living and certainly not one of Gods true dead but one of the Devil's undead. Some hideous afterlife and twilight zone between life and death.
LAURENCE PICENTHY Well, you've talked about exorcising evil. How do you destroy a vampire? How do you destroy these spirits?
SEAN MANCHESTER The only certain remedy against vampirism, the only certain way of destroying an undead, is by driving a wooden stake - like the one I have here - straight through the heart with one blow ...
LAURENCE PICETHLY What, like this ?
SEAN MANCHESTER .... and decapitation.
WILLIAM LAW I think they're nutcases actually. That's my opinion. These sort of people who come and do this sort of thing, I mean, well, you can't really put into words what they're really trying to get at. I think the best thing to do when you catch one of these people, to stop this nonsense, is to get one and put them in one of these tombs and lock them up and leave them here all night, and see if in fact they can find a vampire.
LAURENCE PICETHLY The owners of Highgate Cemetery regard Mr. Manchester, his society and freelance vampire hunters like Farrant as a "thoroughgoing nuisance".

The rituals, the publicity, the court case have attracted to Highgate all kinds of undesirables who disrupt the tranquillity of the tomb. In all their years, no gravedigger here has ever seen a winged creature, a ghost or a black magic circle. But so long as bodies are violated and pentacles chalked on walls, the cauldron of the occult will continue to bubble. Mr. Manchester and his associates count among the last surviving relics of an age when every flutter in the dark was reported to be a 'vampire'."

Good, it worked! Have fun, and please ask me any questions about it after if you want.

David (Farrant)
 
Thanks David!

There is one inconsistency I see that is interesting. In your transcript Manchester said:

SEAN MANCHESTER As far as we know, it has only physically attacked one male person who had passed by the gate. But there are others who amply attest to having been visited by it in their beds at night. One young lady sports two puncture marks on her neck, just here, close to the jugular vein. She woke in the morning to discover two red marks on her neck after experiencing, not a nightmare, but an evil experience, not something she could describe herself where she thought she was being visited by something exceedingly wicked.
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Which isn't what was portrayed on the TV show I mentioned.

From my insanely long post:

So now we've established that tenant of Manchester's belief about vampires. The narrator then sets up the next direct quote by Manchester explaining that he began his career in the 1960's and that there were reports around a cemetery of bloodless animal carcasses, eyewitness reports of red-eyed spectre, and finally an attack on two schoolgirls (they show black and white photos of a girl with two punctures on her neck) and then explain that one of the girls went on to have nightly visitations. Bringing us to this statement in the program by Manchester:

"She betrayed all the recognizeable symptoms and signs of a vampire attack. I saw for myself the puncture marks on her neck, the anemia, the initious (?) anemia...again sleepwalking..."

The narrator then notes that Bishop Manchester at the time was not yet a priest, but he tracked the vampire from the cemetery to an abandoned house nearby where he had an encounter. Manchester then says:

"When you've seen the real thing. When you've looked upon the actual vampire itself it is impossible to remove it from your psyche...from your consciousness, and you're no longer talking about belief but knowledge, experience, observation."
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The TV show gives the impression he knew the girls and fought on behalf of one, in fact he describes her symptoms as though he examines her. The TV show also doesn't mention the male person that was attacked.

Is there other accounts that may reconcile this that I could be pointed to?
 
Puh... there is a lot more facts to check now that Myth has left (been booted out) :wackyhuh:
 
I would like also to thank everyone for their efforts to solve this conundrum but if Bishop Manchester aka Mythbuster is banned he can no longer reply (though that is a blessing indeed as it gets you nowhere) If Mythbuster ISNT SM,(though I myself do not believe he isnt) but if he wasnt then Manchester is, we assume, sitting alone in his bungalow entirely unaware of the discussion? If this was the case, surely he should be informed of the great crisis in his kingdom of which he is the epicentre?

I hope this is not breaking any rules as I am not at all sure where it went dickipoggy with me before.If so I am sorry Darat, and you must excuse em being a bit gormless, hope hope thats okay with you

greenwych
 
Take care not to confuse enforcement of forum rules and mod requests with support of your position regarding Manchester.
 
Vampire 'victim'

For Fowlsound,

There is another point that might interest you, but I can't 'prove' it on here. But I can tell you for what its worth. One of the two schoolgirls who claimed to have seen 'bodies rising from their graves' in Highgate Cemetery in 1967 was a Polish girl named Elizabeth V. Manchester names her fully in his book but I don't think that's any reason for me to do so.

Now, Manchester claimed in his book that she had been 'bitten' by the Highgate 'vampire' but that he saved her by usung garlic and the usual hocus pocus. But interestingly, perhaps, Manchester published a photograph of this girl in his book showing two 'vampire bite marks' on her neck. He also produced this same photograph on television.

In 1979, a colleague of mine telephoned Elizabeth at her place of work. She said she didn't know Manchester's (then) current address as she hadn't seen hin for 5 years or so.

Asked about the published photogaph in a book by Peter Underwood published in 1975, she said she was not aware that this photograph of herself (with the 'bite marks') had been published.

Asked further about she burst out laughing and denied she had been bitten by a 'vampire'. "Sean made those marks on my neck for a joke", she concluded.

The person who spoke to Elizabeth could verify this conversation but as well as this, that telephone conversation was witnessed.

For now,

David
 
Skeptic Guy said:
And here I was tracking down the picture of Mr. Manchester in full Nazi attire.

Oh well...
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by all means, I'd love to see it. For posterity, it was a claim, and claims should be supported.

And we can all point and laugh.
 
DavidFarrant said:
For Fowlsound,

There is another point that might interest you, but I can't 'prove' it on here. But I can tell you for what its worth. One of the two schoolgirls who claimed to have seen 'bodies rising from their graves' in Highgate Cemetery in 1967 was a Polish girl named Elizabeth V. Manchester names her fully in his book but I don't think that's any reason for me to do so.

Now, Manchester claimed in his book that she had been 'bitten' by the Highgate 'vampire' but that he saved her by usung garlic and the usual hocus pocus. But interestingly, perhaps, Manchester published a photograph of this girl in his book showing two 'vampire bite marks' on her neck. He also produced this same photograph on television.

In 1979, a colleague of mine telephoned Elizabeth at her place of work. She said she didn't know Manchester's (then) current address as she hadn't seen hin for 5 years or so.

Asked about the published photogaph in a book by Peter Underwood published in 1975, she said she was not aware that this photograph of herself (with the 'bite marks') had been published.

Asked further about she burst out laughing and denied she had been bitten by a 'vampire'. "Sean made those marks on my neck for a joke", she concluded.

The person who spoke to Elizabeth could verify this conversation but as well as this, that telephone conversation was witnessed.

For now,

David
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That's an interesting and not all surprising anecdote. Forgive me, but without secondary sources I have to stick to sourceable anbecdotes. I definitely appreciate the story tho.


One other question I have is:

It was said in his books Manchester has pictures of corpses, how were these made? Did Manchester dig up a corpse and stake it? Or is there accounts that someone posed for them?

I'm interested to know if Manchester ever actually dug up anyone's grave in the name of his vampire hunting. I can't seem to find much on google about that specificality.
 
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