FIVE Brutal Real-Life Vampire Killers to Keep You Up at Night

There is perhaps nothing more everlasting than the image of the vampire chomping down on the neck of an innocent girl. But real-life vampire killers are oh so very different.

They are brutal, violent, hungry for blood, and very real. Here, we look at five brutal real-life vampire killers to keep you up at night.

Rod Ferrell: The Vampire Vesago

On 25^th November 1996, in Florida, a cult called the Vampire Clan took part in the double slaying of an innocent couple.

The group led by ring-leader 16-year-old Rod Ferrell, invaded the home of 54-year-old Naomi Ruth Queen and 49-year-old Richard Wendorf and brutally murdered them.

Ferrell had become involved in a role-playing game called Vampire: The Masquerade. He began to believe in his character and assumed the identity of a 500-year-old vampire named Vesago.

Three of his friends, Howard Scott Anderson, 16, Charity Keesee, 16, and Dana Cooper, 19, created the cult, each having their own vampiric beliefs.

Together they practiced blood-letting, drinking each other’s blood, and rituals considered to be vampiric in nature. Ferrell was sentenced to death for the murders which was later commuted to life.

Kuno Hoffman: The Nuremberg Vampire

German-born Kuno Hoffman was a death and mute occultist who believed necrophilia could make him handsome. He killed three people and drank their blood, before he was caught kissing a corpse in a graveyard.

On 6^th May 1972, 24-year-old Markus Adler and his fiancée, 18-year-old Ruth Lissy, were sitting in their car, on a romantic night out when Kuno crept out the shadows and shot them dead.

He cut their throats and drank the blood from their bodies before engaging in necrophilia. Two days later, he shot an unnamed female victim in the back of the head, sliced her arteries and drank her blood.

Kuno was caught when a morgue attendant witnessed him dancing with a corpse in a nearby graveyard. At a Nuremberg court, he was sentenced to life in prison but died a few years later.

READ ABOUT MORE VAMPIRE KILLERS HERE

Matthew Hardman: Vampire of Anglesey

17-year-old Matthew Hardman was a Welsh teenager obsessed with vampire mythology who slaughtered an elderly woman, before cutting out her heart and drinking her blood.

He had come to believe that vampires were real, and as part of their existence, they drank human blood. More importantly, he believed that by drinking human blood, he would become immortal.

On the evening of 24^th November 2011, in Llanfairpwll, 90-year-old widow Mabel Leyshon was sitting in her armchair, watching TV when Matthew entered her home and stabbed her to death.

He drank her blood and laid her body out in a ritualistic fashion. He was arrested a few weeks later and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

Marcelo Costa de Andrade: Vampire of Niterói

Marcelo was born in January 1967, in Rocinha, the largest and most populous favela in Brazil. In 1991, after a life of abuse and dead ends, he went on a nine-month killing spree when he killed at least 14 young boys.

He made sure the boys were aged 13 and under. On some occasions, after raping them, he would slice their arteries and drink blood directly from the body.

He began to believe he was possessed by an evil spirit, as the church constantly pointed out that homosexuality was a disease. Because of it, he had allowed a demonic entity to enter him, one that had a desire for children’s blood.

Marcelo was caught after his final victim and eventually declared insane. He was sentenced to life in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital.

Want more Vampire Killers? Check out Vampires: Monsters of True Crime

Daniel Ruda & Manuela Bartel

German-born Daniel Ruda was a self-confessed vampire who was looking for the missing part of his soul. To find her, he placed an advert in a magazine for his princess of darkness.

Manuela Bartel responded, willing to share the delights of Satan with him. They embraced vampire culture completely, sleeping in coffins during the day and attending Satanic parties.

On 6^th July 2011, Frank Hackert was invited to their apartment for a drink. Daniel and Manuela stabbed him to death, carved a pentagram into his chest and drank his blood from a bowl.

They left a scalpel sticking out of his chest and a bloodstained bowl beside him. After a few days on the run, the pair were caught and ultimately sentenced to between 13 and 16 years. Both are now free!

READ NEXT: FIVE Terrifying Facts About Marcelo Costa de Andrade, the Vampire of Niterói