Minds of the Podcast Script Draft

My Do

Veronica Martinez

Taylor Nunley

Francescha Rundle

ENG 2315

22 March 2018

My Do:

Hello there ladies and gentleman, the name is My Do and welcome to the first ever pilot podcast

for the where you can quench your curiosity and expand it at the same time!

Francescha Rundle:

Enjoy your spotlight, but don’t forget to introduce us and it’s Minds of the Vampires not

Vampire Murders.

MD:

(Awkward silence and cough) As I was saying before being rudely interrupted, here today are the members and speakers of this podcast, Veronica Martinez, Taylor Nunley and of course our ever

so lovely Francescha Rundle! Please note the sarcasm for the last one.

FR:

Interrupted? Don’t lie to yourself honey. Anyways, this is the always lovely voice of Francescha and I’d like to welcome all you vampire and fanatics! This is a judgment free zone so sit back, relax and pop open your favorite brand of cranberry juice enjoy listening in to our podcast!

Veronica Martinez:

Hi ya’ll I’m Veronica and I really appreciate ya’ll chiming into our broadcast today. Hope you guys don’t get too sad when the segment ends. I’m winking if you can’t see. On the serious note,

don’t you worry about it ending cause we’ll be back for sooner than you can say “sooner”.

Taylor Nunley:

Hey there, I’m Taylor and on today's podcast we’ll be talking about real-life vampires,

“vampire” murderers and the whole nine yards about their psych. Once again and sorry for the

repetition, but thank you and welcome all to the Minds of Vampires.

MD:

Okay, so let’s get started. Real-life Vampirism is something that is a culture as well as a way of living for certain groups of people. These groups may act a certain way that embodies the nature

of these supernatural beings, claim heightened senses or powers or even act a certain way.

Vampires, either modern or fictional, are stereotyped by their knack for consuming blood.

TN:

But, this can only be said for fictional vampires as real-life vampires according to Edgar

Browning are classified into two categories. Sanguinarians who consume blood either human or

animal and psychic vampires who absorb psychic energies.

MD:

Something to keep in mind too is that although some vampires may feel the need to wear or do certain things, it doesn’t mean that the culture is a Gothic fad. It’s something they believe in fully and may even be detrimental to their health if they live differently. I believe real vampires term

those Goths, “lifestylers”. It’s like the modern-day fad diets that no one sticks to long-term.

FR:

The birth place of these vampire communities was surprise, surprise; the internet. Where all the other crazy, weird and inventive things were created. Blog posts led to social gatherings that led

to a connection between plenty of real life vampires. This in the end created a community of

vampires as well as donors for blood and energy. It’s crazy to think that if I were a vampire

looking for a blood donor I could go to a S&M club and find something lickity-split. Sounds

appalling? Well, it happens.

MD:

Then there are the organizations that came about from rated PG clubs. Think of book clubs

instead of bondage and blood fetishes.

VM:

Clubs dedicated to vampire films and literature like the Count Dracula fan club dedicated to

vampire fiction was one that gained enough recognition to become more than a small hobby.

This club received so much recognition from real-life vampires that they took this idea and delved into a research on real-life vampires in 1972. The organization was the Vampire Research

Center in Suffolk County, New York.

FR:

The research center was supervised by Stephen Kaplan who also established a vampire hotline

the same year in hopes to learn more about real-life vampires. Though most of the calls at that

time were hoaxes, there were a few that deserved attention. On some occasions, Kaplan even

makes house calls so he can meet these so called real vampires.

TN:

This turn of events really gave these vampires an opportunity to network openly and in turn

create their own communities. These vampire communities also seem to conglomerate in large

cities. New York, New Orleans and Atlanta being a few of the well-known ones. These

communities don’t act any different from those who aren’t vampires as they partake in ceremonies and celebrations and even go as far as doing charity events to help the less fortunate.

FR:

They donated to the homeless, sick children, older people, basically a ton of people in their

community. VM:

Though there is a willingness to be helpful and cohabitate from the vampire communities, there

is still a negative connotation when relating to them. They’re considered outcasts because they

don’t follow the social norms.

MD:

The fact that they don’t follow such norms makes them defy all that is considered commonplace in the society. Really makes the term “defiant culture” represent the modern day vampire culture

pretty well.

FR:

All in all, vampires aren’t seen as a positive community even though they don’t cause harm to the public and help them out in some aspects. They’re outcasts of the society no matter what they

do. This is a whole bunch of stereotyping if you ask me.

TN:

It is! There’s also the alienation that we humans do to some cultures in the current day. If they’re

not like us it’s not right. The gay community is a good example. It’s been such a long fight to make it so there is respect for everyone’s decisions on how they choose to live. Can we give the

same respect to the vampires please?

VM:

Agreed, but also if I’m being honest, I’m low-key scared of them. On another note, did ya’ll

know that there are some vampire cultures out there that forms cult-like communities? Like

there’s always a positive and a negative when it comes to decisions. The nice vampire communities being the positive example and the psycho cult ones being the negative example, of

course. MD:

And have you guys heard of the Rod Ferrell case? It was pretty popular and that man was a

psycho if you ask me. Veronica, you’re the expert, tell us more.

VM:

Rod Ferrell was a teen that started and led a vampire cult where the members were

predominantly teenagers. He is mostly known for the gruesome murders he committed on

November 25, 1998. He killed Naomi Ruth Queen and Richard Wendorf, they were the parents

of Jennifer Wendorf, a member of the cult.

TN:

Oh, I heard of this case. So evidently, Rod Ferrell believed he was a 500 year old vampire named

Vesago.

FR:

Hold on. So he saw his baby pictures and old family videos from the 80s and came to the

conclusion that he was 500 years old. Honestly the vampire thing isn’t even getting me right

now, it’s the fact that he thinks he’s 500 years old. Also, why did he feel the need to make up a

name for himself?

TN:

Honestly, I feel the same way. I feel like it’s more plausible that someone is a vampire than someone being alive for five centuries. His argument would be even weaker if he was like failing

history, and the name has me in tears.

MD:

So, if it’s cool with you guys, I kind of wanna finish talking about Rob. So according to the reports, Jennifer’s parents were targeted because she was trying to escape what she described as “hell”. There aren’t any official report of Jennifer being abused, but then again, we don’t know

anything about her living situation for sure. Also, Rob revealed in a recent interview that his

mother introduced him to vampirism.

VM:

That’s actually really strange, this seems like something most parents would ignore and say their

child is going through a phase.

MD:

Even though she introduced him to it, from the video on CNN, it does not seem like she

encouraged what he was doing and believing. Rob was also heavily into witchcraft, evil, and darkness, basically all of the negative attributes of vampirism. He was also extremely sexual and

a heavy drug user.

FR:

That is literally the opposite of what every cliché role model represents and stands for.

TN:

Pretty much, and it seems like he received the consequences the law said you would receive too.

Going to jail and all.

VM:

So did they like actually drink blood?

MD:

Yes, they viewed it as a sort of intimate exchange between one another.

TN:

That’s really bizarre, I wonder what someone has to be thinking in order to commit these type of

crimes and believe that they are a 500 year old vampire named Vesago. FR:

I wonder if he was diagnosed with a mental illness, or maybe had a traumatic life event?

VM:

Well actually…..

As many of you may know, the effects of war on veterans when they return can sometimes be

scarring, which sometimes leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Well, in recent years there have been scholars who have argued that there is a strong relation between Vampirism and Post

War Trauma-particularly after World War I.

FR:

That makes so much sense, especially since that war dehumanized the Germans, the veterans.

‘Twas the roughest part of history for Germany at that time.

MD:

No doubt about that, but since we’re talking about vampires how does war correlate to this?

VM:

Right, right! So basically, the scholar Jason Crouthamel states that during World War I, the Nazi regime were violent against the men and women who didn’t want to conform to normalcy in that time period. This conflicted with men who had fought in the war as the regime wanted to counter

inhumane conduct like homosexuality in reasoning that it will help improve the health of the

male body and psyche.

TN:

To be honest, that makes so much sense. I mean, as a soldier, you would be spending most of your time on your own away from society; that’s way too much time to think and self discover.

FR:

Yikes! Like I can’t even imagine the frustration of trying to come back to society and being told,

“No the way you are acting is like not how you’re supposed to act.” That’s the easiest way of

playing games with the mind and goings nuts to be honest.

VM:

That’s exactly what ended up happening to these war veterans when they came back. So check

this, for some men, war meant testing their sexual desires, while others coped with their weak psych by dehumanizing themselves and being less empathetic to pain. It is no wonder that once

these men returned home they suffered mental illnesses, as their government was enforcing a

way of being which sometimes did not fit their own life and overall mental well-being.

TN:

You know this kind of reminds me of that one German , Peter Kürten. The one who

killed many women, drank their blood and the sick part, was that he did it to get sexually

aroused. That man was also a WWI veteran

MD:

SOOOO Grosss!! But yes I know who you’re talking about, and what makes matters worse is that when he was about to get executed his last words were "Tell me... after my head is chopped

off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from

the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures."

FR:

I literally have goosebumps all over my arm; that is so creepy and twisted!

VM:

You guys got ahead of me but yeah, he is a perfect example and till this day he’s known as the

“Vampire of Düsseldorf”.

FR:

Well guys, maybe we should all consider the fact that these people were mentally disturbed.

TN:

Yeah, but why? Who would think to do these awful crimes?

MD:

The whole drinking blood thing isn’t a typical person’s cup of tea.

Nosferatu:

[Bela Lugosi voice] It’s my cup of tea.

ALL:

DRACULA!!

FR:

Now back to the case, these people are anything but typical. It’s the classic case of nature versus

nurture. Some of these people are just naturally who they are, but some definitely have some

abuse in their past.

VM:

Kind of like PTSD from war, but in this case, the result of a bad upbringing?

FR:

Exactly. Take Peter Kurten for example. Born in poverty. Abused. Parents were both alcoholics

with a domestically violent father.

TN:

That’ll do it to you…

FR:

Almost done. His father would actually make his own children watch their parents have sex. Oh,

and he was charged with incest with his thirteen year old daughter.

MD:

Screw this guy.

FR:

His son Peter Kurten gradually became more and more violent. Honestly, the things he did… it

really makes that line of nature and nurture very blurry. He attempted to drown a playmate,

began getting involved with petty crimes, and… well…

VR:

Oh my gosh. Say it.

FR:

Well, he engaged in bestiality, claiming that he achieved the best orgasm by stabbing the animals

just before climaxing.

TN:

Wow.

FR:

But Peter Kurten isn’t the only “vampire” to have such a background. We see the same abuse,

mental issues, drug use and violent tendencies in Richard Chase. And even Fritz Haarmann,

having been molested by a teacher and experiencing lapses of consciousness during his time in

the military. TN:

Wasn’t Richard Chase called the “Vampire of Sacramento”? And Haarmann was the “Vampire

of Hanover.” And like Veronica said, Peter Kurten was called “The Vampire of Düsseldorf.”

Dang… Imagine having a title like that from your city.

MD:

Francescha Rundle, the Succubus of Harris County.

FR:

Hey!

MD:

It’s a fitting title though… Anyways, these cases really show just how messed up a persons mind

can become and what sort of actions can come about from it. I mean, being associated with

vampires in this aspect isn’t too swell. It’s so negative and so unlike those peaceful vampire

communities we talked about earlier.

VM:

That’s just how the minds of these murderers work though. They kill because of motives like

revenge or pleasure and their past can be what shapes them into what they are.

TN:

Like Francescha said, it’s a fine line between nature versus nurture. Their behavior can either be

something they naturally come to be or what they’re shaped out to be from their past. But we

can’t change what could’ve been, we can only try to see why.

FR:

It’s crazy how far the vampire culture has come and what kind of people are related to it.

MD:

Yeah, you see all those wonderful vampire communities that are trying their best to show that

they’re good people and then the few that do crazy stuff has to ruin it.

TN:

Makes you think about that one or two people who ruin it for everyone. Like, thanks Kurten and

Ferrel. This is why we can’t have nice things.

FR:

You’re right girl. But this is what we’re here for. To inform people that the common stereotype of vampires being horribly evil isn’t necessarily true. It’s a culture that people choose to believe in and live as. You can’t relate this budding culture to these murderers who have psychotic issues

and just so happens to have one characteristic of a vampire from films.

MD:

These films sometimes get super imaginative as well.

VM:

Talking about all this vampire stuff has worked up my appetite.

TN:

Time to wrap it up then. Cue the disclaimer guy from Allegra impersonation.

FR:

If you are or a loved one has been personally attacked or affected by Vampirism, ascrazinica

may be able to help. The women and other figures involved in the current podcast are not

responsible for any side effects that might involve seizures, hives, rash, consumption,

consumption of blood, having your blood consumed, being a 500 year old vampire, bestiality,

irregular periods, or death. MD:

This podcast was brought to you by the curious minds, disturbed natures, and daddy issues of the cast members. It has been a great segment and there are plenty more to come, certainly without

the presence of Francescha. So thank you for stopping by and we hope you can join us if a

vampire doesn’t get you first. Until next time, don’t just suck at life.

Works Cited

Crouthamel, Jason. "Male Sexuality and Psychological Trauma: Soldiers and Sexual Disorder in

World War I and Weimar Germany." Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 17, no. 1,

2008, pp. 60-84,175, GenderWatch.

In this scholar journal, Jason Crouthamel, discuss the belief of sexual disorders among men after

World War I. The fear of the “New Man” because of war led the Nazi regime to use violence for upholding the ideals of a man. MeLevy, Estelle. "Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Child with a

Stealing Compulsion." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 1934, pp. 1-23.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1934.tb06272.x.

Edgar Browning, John. (2015). The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note

towards comparative ethnography. Palgrave Communications. 1. 15006.

10.1057/palcomms.2015.6.

Edgar Browning did extensive research on the psychological aspect of what it means to be a real vampire. He interviews what he considers to be “real vampires”. Edgar Browning defines “real vampires” as people who consume energy, animal blood, human blood or any combination of the three, and they do so out of need. Edgar Browning conducts research in both the southwest, and

Northeast region of the and compares the responses of both groups of participants.

Fouché, Paul, Hanlie Nel, and Pravani Naidoo. "The Dracula killer: A psychobiographical

illustration of the Schahriar syndrome model for serial murder." Journal of Psychology in

Africa 25.5 (2015): 419-428. Fouché focuses on one of the vampire murderers we talk about: Richard Chase. The scholars break his actions down, trying to understand why he believed that he was this supernatural being.

They go mostly into his psychology, looking at his childhood, murders, and the forensics of the scenes. A key descriptor of Chase is his omnipotence, something that can be seen in murderers and vampires, where they do acts of control and power, which leads to the death of a weaker being.

Gilligan, Matt. “The Butcher of Hanover: Fritz Haarmann.” Did You Know?, . Accessed

21February 2018.

Haarmann is a mentally unstable murderer and pedophile that killed his victims by biting them on the jugular until they die. This case may not be done because of him believing he was a vampire, but his actions have caused others to call him one and portray him as one. This website tells of his crimes and inability to conform

Levy, Estelle. "Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Child with a Stealing Compulsion." American

Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 1934, pp. 1-23. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1934.tb06272.x.

In this journal Estelle Levy studies the life and criminal record of Peter Kürten. The journal discusses Kürten’s childhood, and how he had hatred towards his father, and his mother was apathetic of him as he caused her much trouble. He started visiting a physiologist at a very young age to help with his inability to say the truth. In the journal , Levy includes medical accounts of

Kürten and dives into his psych to understand his serial kills.

The associated press ,”National News Briefs; Vampire Cult Leader Pleads Guilty to Killing 2”,

New York Times, 6, Feb 1998.

This article explores the case of Rob Ferrell, who was a vampire cult leader. Rob Ferrell is responsible for the murder of Richard Windorf and Naoma Ruth Queen in Eustis, Florida on

November 26, 1996. This case is especially peculiar due to its ties to cult activity, satanic ritual and vampirism.

Hi everyone,

This looks great so far. What I think I’d like to see at the end is some type of conclusion that ties the beginning of the podcast (the vampire communities) and then end. Right now they feel like two separate podcasts. I think taking time at the end to bring everything together will unite the podcast more. Otherwise this looks great.