Vampire Crimes on the Rise… and guess who’s getting blamed

You know how crimes caused by teens are so often idiotically blamed on video games? Well thanks to the vampire craze, parents and law officials are now blaming many teenage crimes on shows like “True Blood” and books like “Twilight.”  Unfortunately, this is not a joke, but a very sad truth.

According to Don Rimer, a retired Virginia Beach police officer and an international expert on occult crime, ever since vampires took over the entertainment world law enforcement agencies nationwide are seeing an increase in ritual and occult-related crimes.

Rimer recently held a seminar about how occults can impact teenagers and over 100 people, mostly police officers from across Hampton Roads and central Virginia, attended the presentation. Sponsored by the Newport News Police Department, the seminar was designed to help educate officers about the influences that satanic, gothic, and vampire groups can have on teens.

“Occult crime happens all over the world and it’s growing,” said Rimer.

However, Holly McPherson, spokeswoman for the Newport News Police Department, said she wasn’t aware of any occult-related crimes in the city.

Rimer, who consults with various police departments, said the last major investigation he assisted with on the Peninsula was in September 2007 in which Jonathan Barron, a self-proclaimed vampire, was kidnapped by acquaintances he met through a Norfolk store that caters to Wiccans and pagans.

Barron’s captors took him to Colonial National Historic Park in York County where he was stabbed, beaten, had his hair set on fire and was injected with silver thermal compound and Barbicide disinfectant through a marinade needle. He was then hit by a car before being left for dead.

Barron managed to survive and the four people, including a man who was described as a werewolf in court, pled guilty to felonies and are currently in prison for their roles in the horrific assault.

Rimer said that there are others who experimented with the gothic lifestyle who have fared worse. Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl died in 2006 from asphyxiation while having sex with her boyfriend, Benjamin Fawley, a man she met on a gothic dating website, Rimer said. Fawley is now serving 30 years for second-degree murder.

“Fantasy role-playing like Dungeons and Dragons … and vampire gaming are alive and well,” said Rimer. “There are people who take gaming to another level, one that results in deaths and suicides. In the world of gaming, there is evil.”

Rimer added that vampire gaming, in particular, will often lure people, then send them out on a quest that involves blood or sex, sometimes with deadly consequences. He also made a point saying that parents need to be involved and take a hands-on role in their children’s activities.

He then pointed out that there is also an increase nationwide in churches that practice satanic worship, including the Church of Satan. The Church of Satan, which is recognized by the U.S. government, has said it plans to grow, he added.

According to reports, many James City police officers said they felt that the training seminar will make them more observant when it comes to routine patrolling and when dealing with teenagers.

They also added this list of “behavior signs a teenager may be involved in occultic, ritual crime.”

  • Suicide attempt
  • Frequent runaway
  • Alienation from family
  • Bizarre cruelty, especially to animals
  • Fascination with death
  • Self-mutilation
  • Secret messages/diary

Now here is where I bitch! Rimer’s views on teenagers and the occult are ridiculously biased and single-minded. He is taking these terrible crimes and automatically blaming it on vampires and the occult. He is taking every vampire lover and shoving them into one box, labeling us the same. He needs to keep in mind that we’re not all the same, most of us are perfectly functional human beings. I have been in love with vampires and horror since I was a small child, and I have never done harm to another living being! Enough with blaming the occult, try holding the parents responsible for some of this. Gaming is not dangerous, especially not D&D, reading “Twilight” or watching “True Blood” is not dangerous, being a Wiccan is definitely not dangerous, in fact it’s a very peaceful and respectful religion! As for their list of “teenage warning signs” – what the hell does ANY of that have to do with vampires and the occult? Nothing! Most of those things have to do with severe depression, something that about 20% of teenagers suffer from, which has nothing to do with the entertainment industry, but is a medical condition. Parents shouldn’t be pointing the blame at the occult, but at themselves. It is their responsibility to give their child the love and medical attention they need. But no, every time a teenage crime takes place everyone automatically blames it on video games or some other thing. Now, I am not blaming it all on the parents, I’m not an idiot, no one has complete control over a teen, but that doesn’t mean the entertainment industry and the occult are at fault either.

I could go on and on, but before I explode I’ll stop here. What are your thoughts on this?

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

11 comments

  1. Last year, the news was reporting on a “vampire crime” that happened here in my home city. As I was browsing news articles, I came across one (wish I could remember the paper!) that had the text of the story but a picture of Forks high school in Washington. Beneath the picture was some tag like, “Blame Twilight?”

    One, the crime did not happen in Forks, it happened in AZ. Two, the people involved were not teens. Three, no one involved had said anything about Twilight in any interview with police that I read.

    So why instant reference? I couldn’t figure it out. Pretty bizarre reasoning.

    I’ll look for it today and get a link posted here if I find it.

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  5. Those crimes are horrible, I´m happy the victim at least in one case survived and yes, there is troubled teens and adults among vampire fandom. However, I think this man sounds biased, some kind of religious fanatic. For example, enjoying dark settings, themes and monsters can actually be healthy process to some school-bullied teen, who can let his or hers revenge fantasies out safely and harmlessly in fiction, identifying with beautiful, aristocratic monster who has similar taste, and who treats children, youth and humans in general as filth. I have read about study which showed many Goth teens had mental health problems due BULLYING, but being GOTH had actually helped them.

  6. He’s selling a product – his seminars. So naturally he has to create the fear necessary to drive people to attend. Truth has very little to do with selling fear.

    What can we do to prevent the zombie apocalypse? That’s what I want to know from an “international expert on occult crime.”

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  9. that dude is totally mental!! i mean sure there are a lot of fans of vampires, but not all of them are teens, and not all of them are causing crime. and as for those ‘warning signs’ he needs to get over himself- ive done most of those things and i am not in an occult, i just like vampires. so he needs to open his eyes and realize that most things he thinks are ‘vampire related’ are just part of life, even without vampires it would just be simething else and still happening. its sad but unfortunately true.

  10. Maybe liking Vampires is not the cause, but it could be a symptom, though blaming sin on a craze is not new. People actually petitioned Philip II to ban romantic novels cause it gave young woman ideas. It has more to do with cruelty doesn’t it, Vampires are seen as being comfortable with death [Dracular was pictured eating a merry dinner while his prisoners were impaled around him] and to cause suffering to a creature makes one feel superior to it, and to then feel sympathy for it, defines one as almost divine in nature.
    and the Marquis de Sade wrote that the majority of people who came to watch the public executions of the french revol were woman, they are more influenced by cruel acts because they have a more sensitive constitution, apparently explains the lure towards a vampire

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