You’d expect survivors of a werewolf encounter to describe an assailant covered in fur, with big teeth and long claws. Appearance aside, their stories would emphasise the creature’s supernatural strength, resistance to pain and uncontrollable, animalistic behaviour. In the case of a man who attacked people on the streets in the Czech Republic, he clearly didn’t look the part but …
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In 2006 in the town of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, a 23-year-old man named Jeremy Steinke convinced a 12-year-old girl, whom he was “dating”, to kill her entire family. The reason for the murderous rampage is believed to be because the girl’s family didn’t approve of the relationship between Steinke and their daughter. By law, the relationship made Steinke a …
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Although there’ve been many men dubbed by the media “vampire rapist”, John Crutchley comes by his moniker quite literally. Crutchley was convicted of the 1985 abduction of a hitchhiker, of whom he held captive and siphoned her blood with a hypodermic needle and a rubber tube. He used the device like a straw; sucking the blood from women in vampiric …
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(The Youtube video above is in Russian, but auto-translated English subtitles are available in the settings.) Unfortunately, Russia’s seen its share of brutal serial killers. For example, in the 1980’s, Russia suffered terror at the hands of Andrei Chikatilo. Known as the “Butcher of Rostov”, Chikatilo was convicted of 53 murders and sentenced to death. Shortly after, Russian serial killer …
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Skeptics routinely dismiss people claiming to be werewolves as merely suffering from an acute mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Lycanthropy, the term of choice from the skeptic playbook, has only just within the last hundred years been viewed as a mental disorder. Several hundred years ago, though, it was a sure death sentence for anyone suspected of being a werewolf. …
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If you believe vampires retain some (or perhaps most) of their humanity then it’s not a far stretch to argue these creatures would crave love in their life. Although real-life vampires seldom come out of the coffin like their fictional counterparts in the popular TV series “True Blood,” they can still mingle with other creatures of the night ( and …
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Peter Kurten was born in 1883 in Mulheim am Rhein in Germany and became known as the Vampire of Dusseldorf due to the series of murders and sexual assaults he committed in 1929 in the city of Dusseldorf. Kurten was from an abusive family and was the eldest of at least 10 children, though some sources say 13. His alcoholic …
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Lately, I’ve received quite a few requests from readers wanting to know if I knew how they could become a vampire. Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to ask since I’ve never actively attempted to become one of these creatures and I tend to discourage cryptanthropy as a casual endeavor. However, in my studies at Miskatonic University I became friends …
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What part of our mortal soul longs for life after death or perhaps better asked; life after undeath? Could it be a brutal finality to life echoed in the works of Hesse and Kafka? What compels some to embrace the horrors of our worst imaginations with the longing for what could be release, salvation, purpose, or something entirely different – our rebirths? Do …
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Manuel Blanco Romasanta is said to be the first serial killer in Spain documented as having admitted to thirteen counts of murder. What makes Romasanta a topic of discussion around cryptid circles is not what he did but how he did it. Romasanta maintained he was not responsible for the murders because he was under a malevolent curse that turned him into a …
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Monstrum Athenaeum Tearing open the cryptid world of werewolves, vampires & zombies.