Until the late nineteenth century, investigations of the activies of mortal blood drinkers were usually surrounded with a great deal of superstition, making it difficult to tell exactly what reallly happened. In other words, rediculous accusations were made about the status of the blood drinkers' souls, and not enough factual evidence was compiled about the crimes they committed.
The following case is a good example. It is a little short, due to the lack of accurate information available, but it illustrates how easily facts can become distorted or even invented in courts of the past.

Gilles de Rais

Born in 1404, Gilles de Rais grew up to become a great soldier of the French Army; it has been written that he and Joan of Arc shared the battlefield against the English. In addition to his military fame, Gilles was quite wealthy, and of the upper class. Finally, he was considered a bloodthirsty killer.
Gilles was arrested and brought to trial on the accusation that he was responsible for the rising number of missing boys from the area. According to the his peers and his own admission, Gilles was involved in researching and practicing magic and alchemy, which was not unusual, as several wealthy individuals of that era delved into the arcane arts. It is not certain, however, whether those acts made him a suspicious individual in the eyes of his peers or if hard evidence existed to support his arrest. It is possible that Gilles' peers simply feared the occult.
As was common in those days, Gilles was tortured during the trial in hopes of obtaining a confession. His torturers were not disappointed. Gilles admitted to torturing the young boys, drinking their blood, and murdering them. That hysterical confession and the amount of self-incriminating information it supposedly contained, with the sensational associations between Gilles' alleged crimes and his occult interests, make it difficult to tell what really happened. Just how much of Gilles confession was coaxed out of him, as was done in the witch trials?
The occult practices of de Rais have been referred to as Satanic. If he did practice evil magic, it is even more likely that he could ahve performed the acts he admitted, making deRais a "monster" the likes of which hasn't been seen often history. Gilles was found guilty and executed in 1440. His remains were burned.

Back to Mortal Blood Drinkers of the Past
Back to Main Page