Bloodlust: Conversations with Real Vampires

by Carol Page

A look at real vampires offers conversations with such creatures of the night as Jack, a bisexual with a love for blood; Vlad, a rock and roll musician; and Monique, a woman who, as a child, tore at her own flesh. Reprint.

214 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The exploration of "real vampires" seems to mostly uncover sad basket cases shifting from trauma to bloodsucking to high camp like Dracula Live from Transylvania (TV Movie, 1989). The author attended the production of this sad thing and also went to England to meet with the Highgate self-serving fraudster Sean Manchester. Maybe a bit closer to the mark and more authentic was Vlad whose band The Dark Theater produced Matters Of Life And Undeath while Vlad lived a donor-seeking vampire's life.

More fan than fang was rocker Paul Barrett. The author met Barrett in Whitby, England at a "Hunt-a-vampire weekend" celebrating the location Bram Stoker chose to write some of his famous tale.

Paul and Lincoln Barrett then joined me. Paul urged me to include a chapter on rock and roll and vampires in this book, and was delighted to learn I planned to do so. He told me about the song "Dinner with Drac," by John Zachalee, which was in the American Top 20 in 1958 and was then released in London, only to be banned in England by the BBC because of the lyrics, which seems ridiculous now. He sent me a tape of the song, along with some of his other favorite oldies. A passage from the song runs, "A dinner was served for three / at Dracula's house by the sea. /The hors d'oeuvres were fine, but I choked on my wine / when I learned that the main course was me."

Obviously vampires and music as an aesthetic and lifestyle makes me think of extreme goth and that gets referenced too:

They can be found in certain Boston clubs, such as the Rathskeller or the Channel, when certain bands are playing. The music is punk, new wave, or hard core, not heavy metal. Shannon doesn't like the devil-worship subject matter of some of the heavy metal bands. Curtain Society and Sleep Chamber are two Boston-area bands that draw the vampires out to dance. Some of their fans are rumored to practice self-mutilation. In the band Requiem in White, the lead singer dresses like Dracula. Requiem in White has as many as one hundred vampires in their crowd; other bands have perhaps forty mixed in their audiences.

This refers to a 1980s Boston goth/vampire subculture as depicted in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles—specifically in novels like The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)—where vampires mingle with punk/new wave crowds. Bands like Requiem in White, Sleep Chamber, and Curtain Society are associated with the era and scene building on and including rumors of extreme behaviors among devoted fans.

Of the sad, would-be vampires I feel the most insight is gained from James Riva II, known here as "Gabriel" and in the press as the "Vampire Killer," a Massachusetts man who shot his 74-year-old grandmother, Carmen Lopez, in 1980, believing her a vampire. Riva used gold-painted bullets, stabbed her in the heart, drank her blood, and attempted to burn the house down. In 1981, Riva was convicted of second-degree murder and arson, receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Riva claimed he was instructed to commit the crime. Defense lawyers argued he was insane and had a long history of mental illness, but this was rejected. As of 2025, Riva has been denied parole multiple times, with the board citing continued paranoia, lack of remorse, and danger to society. The author met and interviewed him while he was incarcerated for the 1980 murder. In the extensive quotes from that interview is, I feel, the most accurate analysis of the motivations of these souls seeking blood sustenance:

These people call themselves vampires, but they are just sick puppies who think that they're going to get power. See, most people start this nonsense because they're unhappy with what they are, and they think that by getting into Satan worshipping, they're going to be enhanced some-how, that they're going to be popular, they're going to get powers. I mean, you have vampires in the movies, they always have total control over their lovers. They manage to do whatever they like with impunity it seems, until the end of the movie. That seems attractive to some people, and they want it.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having been introduced to tales of “real life vampires” at an early age by the seminal Vampires (1981) by Bernhardt J. Hurwood, I consumed mass amounts of true crime (mostly serial killers, the mafia, and war crimes) in my teens but I especially preferred “real life vampire” books and stories. I especially gravitated towards books like Vampires Among Us (1991) by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today (1998) by Katherine Ramsland and those that focused on actual murder cases like the exploitative The Embrace (1999) by Aphrodite Jones. These are just the ones that still occupy shelf space in my library today. So, when I happened upon this one in a thrift shop a few weeks ago, I snatched it up after a slight hesitation. I mean, I thought I was through with this type of book, the serial killer glut in my library came to a head when halfway through an encyclopedia of serial killers I became aware of a profound lethargy gripping me and just swore off true crime (especially serial killers) right there. As many of these “real-life vampire” books integrate stories of actual murder cases historic and contemporary, I also gave up on this subgenre as well. It has been almost twenty years since I’ve read any of this kind of book, I still read books about vampires mind you, but those that dealt with folklore, movies, and fictional creatures rather than deluded individuals that can drift into the annals of true crime. But y’know, I thought what the hell, let’s see if I still have the same misgivings or if this one can set my brain on fire like others did when I was young.

This book did not ignite any mental fires though I did read it in two sittings. I also did not have the severe reaction that the overdose of serial killer material in my teens brought. This book was just okay. I found the overly simplistic at points, it felt like I was reading a book meant for elementary school kids. It did have a few points of interest for me such as talking about being on set for a Halloween vampire-based special hosted by George Hamilton, a chapter on Sean Manchester, a purported real-life vampire slayer, and a section on the Highgate cemetery fiasco of the 1970s. The book followed several self-confessed “vampires” and became very redundant as they all followed a very similar pattern where they all felt they were born with the blood lust, were absolutely delusional about the “benefits” of drinking human blood (there ain’t any) and were emotionally very needy. This does contribute to the author’s conclusion at the end of the book but after about the third individual in conjunction with the overly simple prose, started to drag.

When it comes to these kinds of books, this one is par for the course, there are several “real-life vampire” stories and interviews, a true-crime chapter concerning a man who murdered his grandmother whom he thought was drinking his blood, and Highgate cemetery. Which is what I was expecting. However, there is also a chapter on a “vampire slayer weekend” the author took in England which was plain boring. Overall, it was a quick read and some of it was interesting. Would I recommend this one? Not really, unless you’re looking for this kind of book and even then, this is not the strongest book of the real-life-vampire subgenre that I’ve read.

[Bianca · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about people who believe that they are vampires. It is interesting how differently each vampire thinks, how they rationalise their blood drinking and what their life was like before they embraced their vampirism. The first half of this book is very boring and hard to keep on ready, although the second half of the book is much more interesting as the people she interviews are fascinating.

[Titus Hjelm]

This is more social porn than an attempt to really understand what the phenomenon is about. I've rarely met such infuriatingly condecending attitude by an author as here, despite the seemingly 'objective' aims.