Extract from STRAY GHOSTS (Unpublished Memoir) © Seán Manchester, 2003:
Thy soul shall find itself alone ―
Alone of all the earth ― unknown
The cause ― but none are near to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness ― for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee …
~ Edgar Allan Poe
Prior to leaving the film industry behind to take holy orders, someone emerged whom I remember with affection and fondness. Aimee Stephenson read The Highgate Vampire, and wanted to make a film dramatisation based on my book. Initially she invited my participation in a film documentary about the occult, but working together revealed a strong bond and vision from an artistic and instinctive perspective. Her boyfriend, Tim Jackson, worked in television and was the technical input. The three of us formed a production company for the purpose of making the definitive film. We became co-directors of Highgate Vampire Productions, and set about casting, choosing locations, deciding the practical extent to which the story could be told, and producing a pre-production treatment.
www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/HVP.htmIt was unbearably hot on that spring day when I made the first documentary with Aimee ― she was always cool, collected and beautiful ― but there was snow on the ground when we went into pre-production for the Highgate Vampire film. I was the only character cast who, albeit temporarily, was playing himself. I was happy to do this at the pre-production stage, but it was not my intention to continue doing so. Aimee felt that mine might be a challenging rôle for an actor. However, the French somehow managed it in their television film version of my book where they employed an English actor, plus much dramatic licence, for Sur les Traces du Vampire, which was first transmitted in France on 11 March 1994 by Sygma. I narrated this adaptation, briefly appearing on screen from time to time. The still just audible English narrative was inevitably over-dubbed into French.
Following the first week’s intensive filming, Aimee organised a lavish dinner party at her London home in my honour. It was a truly wonderful surprise, and one I shall not forget. When I later entered the priesthood, she took some exceptional photographs at my ordination. She could always find a dramatic angle from which to "catch the moment" on film. This was probably because Aimee had started out as a model and actress before turning to directing and producing films. The more I worked with her, I would discover kindness — that she was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.
Aimee spent time in America to benefit from the techniques used by the Roger Corman Studios to prepare her for work on our project. Tim always accompanied her on these trips. My work was done, having written the book and advised on the screenplay. It was now for Aimee and Tim to do their work. Sadly, this was cut short.
They travelled together to Peru for yet another project, and were seated on a bus when a box of smuggled fireworks exploded under the seat directly in front of Aimee. She suffered third-degree burns to her arms, legs, face and trunk, needed urgent hospital treatment, but was forced to wait more than a day for specialist treatment because paramedics claimed they could only take Peruvians with private medical insurance to hospital. A local doctor drove the couple one hundred miles on a desert track in Arequipa the following morning. Aimee was flown back to England a week later due to her deteriorating condition. She died following a skin graft in a specialist burns unit at Salisbury District Hospital.
At the inquest, Tim, who also suffered burns, along with seventeen other passengers, recalled how he saw flames “leaping up” under a seat. It was thought that the first explosion might have ignited more fireworks and gunpowder hidden in the luggage hold. Tim recounted: “I remember people screaming and trying to beat the flames out.” David Masters, the Wiltshire coroner, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. He said: “Aimee did not die as a result of an accident. If this had happened in Britain there would have been a prosecution for manslaughter. It was a most dangerous and illegal act to transport these sort of manufactured fireworks in this way.”
Aimee was forty-five at the time of her death ― yet appeared considerably younger in appearance and at heart.
Actual scenes captured on panchromatic film by my comrade with a 35mm camera at the time, alas, would not see the light of day in a definitive depiction of the same events for a film dramatisation by the production company whose directorate included the talented Aimee Stephenson. My episcopal duties, plus Aimee’s tragic death, have subsequently dampened any desire to resurrect this ambitious project, despite overtures being made by others.
Eventually I came to the decision not to ever again be interviewed about the Highgate case. The nightmare wherein the door between us and another world was almost ripped off its hinges is now a distant memory that, for me at least, must be laid to rest. Next to the hunger to confront such a thing, there is no stronger hunger than to forget.
www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Aimee.htmThe reason for initially writing the book was due to so many people contacting me to ask what really happened. Letters ran into hundreds, and this accumulated following the commission from Peter Underwood and his publisher, Leslie Frewin Books, to give an account of events up to and including the failed exorcism of August 1970. I thought this might stem the flow, but the case itself was not yet solved, and reports of unsavoury incidents continued to filter into the columns of local newspapers. Hence the complete and unexpurgated account first published in 1985. A more intimate account was given in a special edition published by Gothic Press in 1991.
www.gothicpress.freeserve.co.uk/Highgate%20Vampire%20Book.htm
