Vampires

Are vampires for real or are they only fictional characters? One may have seen documentaries about individuals who drink blood which they widely believe to make them keep young forever. Following the same line of reasoning, they believe that this practice helps them live through centuries and even increase their strength as time goes by. It appears to have this pull because of the promise of immortality.

Beliefs about Vampires
Majority of myths about vampires came during medieval period where historians during the 12th century recorded revenants. This folklore was quite similar to those coming from Europe during the 18th century. During this time vampire sightings became common in Eastern Europe where lay people started hunting for vampires and staking them. Later on, the same gave rise to the legend of the vampire in England and Germany which consequently became popular with additional embellishments. With the vampire's growing notoriety, panic all over Europe spread quickly like fire in a forest.

Alleged vampire attacks that were recorded occurred between 1725 -1734 in East Prussia and Habsburg Monarchy. The first one involved the corpse of Peter Plogojowitz who was known to have died and returned to ask food from his son who refused. The following day, the son was found dead and it was believed that Plogojowitz returned to attack some neighbors with loss of blood causing their deaths. The second attach involved the Serbian Arnold Paole. Paole was thought to have been attacked by vampires and after his death, there were more deaths in his community which led people to believe that he has caused this by in turn, preying on his neighbors.

Vampire Murders
A number of vampire murders have made it to the news which was so named because of the way the murderers took to drinking the blood of their victims. Serial killers such as Richard Treton Chase and Peter Kurten were tagged as vampires in newspapers where their stories covered their criminal acts. There are also reports of murder cases that have remained unsolved to this day such as in Stockholm, Sweden. A few may have heard of the Hungarian countess by the name of Elizabeth Báthory who murdered several individuals and gave rise to stories of her bathing in the blood of her victims. An eyewitness claimed that she along with accomplices have murdered and tortured about 600 young women although she was only convicted on 80 of them. The name Blood Countess has been attributed to her due to these acts