Minds of the Vampires 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 Vampire Murders 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 murder 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.