7,19 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Orenda Books
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
Elusive online journalist Scott King examines the chilling case of a young vlogger found frozen to death in the legendary local 'vampire tower', in another explosive episode of Six Stories… ***Winner of the Capital Crime Award for Best Independent Voice*** 'Matt Wesolowski brilliantly depicts a desperate and disturbed corner of north-east England in which paranoia reigns and goodness is thwarted … an exceptional storyteller' Andrew Michael Hurley 'Endlessly inventive and with literary thrills a-plenty, Matt Wesolowski is boldly carving his own uniquely dark niche in fiction' Benjamin Myers 'Beautifully written, smart, compassionate – and scary as hell. Matt Wesolowski is one of the most exciting and original voices in crime fiction' Alex North ____________________ A frozen girl A haunted town A deadly challenge Six Stories Which one is true? In the wake of the 'Beast from the East' cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old Vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as 'The Vampire Tower', where she was later found frozen to death. Three young men, part of an alleged 'cult', were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a 'prank gone wrong'. However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton's death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible. Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses – people who knew both the victim and the three killers – to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, the tragic and chilling legend of the 'Ergarth Vampire… Both a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and a bleak and distressing look at modern society's desperation for attention, Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return… ____________________ Praise for the Six Stories series 'Frighteningly wonderful … one of the best books I've read in years' Khurrum Rahman 'Disturbing, compelling and atmospheric, it will terrify and enthral you in equal measure' M W Craven 'First-class plotting' S Magazine 'A dazzling fictional mystery' Foreword Reviews 'Readers of Kathleen Barber's Are You Sleeping and fans of Ruth Ware will enjoy this slim but compelling novel' Booklist 'Insidiously terrifying, with possibly the creepiest woods since The Blair Witch Project … a genuine chiller with a whammy of an ending' C J Tudor 'Bold, clever and genuinely chilling' Deidre O'Brien, Sunday Mirror 'A genuine genre-bending debut' Carla McKay, Daily Mail 'Impeccably crafted and gripping from start to finish' Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue 'The very epitome of a must-read' Heat 'Wonderfully horrifying … the suspense crackles' James Oswald 'Original, inventive and dazzlingly clever' Fiona Cummins 'A complex and subtle mystery, unfolding like dark origami to reveal the black heart inside' Michael Marshall Smith 'Haunting, horrifying, and heartrending. Fans of Arthur Machen, whose unsettling tale The White People provides an epigraph, will want to check this one out' Publishers Weekly
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 438
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
Ähnliche
i
PRAISE FOR BEAST
‘In Beast, Matt Wesolowski brilliantly depicts a desperate and disturbed corner of north-east England in which paranoia reigns and goodness is thwarted. It’s a big ask to come up with a new vampire tale, but Wesolowski achieves it magnificently. He is an exceptional storyteller.’ Andrew Michael Hurley
‘Endlessly inventive and with literary thrills aplenty, Matt Wesolowski is boldly carving his own uniquely dark niche. I’m always excited to see what he does next’ Benjamin Myers
‘Matt Wesolowski writes some of the darkest, most inventive crime fiction available today, and Beast is his best yet. Disturbing, compelling and atmospheric, it will terrify and enthral you in equal measures. Simply superb’ M.W. Craven
‘Beautifully written, smart, compassionate – and scary as hell. Matt Wesolowski is one of the most exciting and original voices in crime fiction’ Alex North
‘Such a fantastic, creepy read! I love the sense of place – and the combination of ancient horror and modern technology is very compelling’ Elodie Harper
‘A fantastic book that ticks all of my favourite boxes; it is creepy, exciting and very well written to boot’ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
‘I get so excited when a Wesolowski comes out, and he always goes RIGHT TO THE TOP of my book pile. And this was worth putting everything aside for. He is a genius. He always takes a traditional legend or tale and tells it with a shocking or surprising modern-day slant. This time we have vampires. And boy, do they live among us’ Louise Beech
‘Beast is a flawless thriller, but once again Matt Wesolowski does not hesitate to turn the spotlight on human flaws: the need for attention, to be liked and get likes, the total disregard for other people’s feelings … Creepy, edgy and dark, Beast is another must-read’ From Belgium with Booklove ii
‘Each book Matt Wesolowski writes is imaginative, captivating, and cleverly constructed … as good if not better than the last. Once again he’s written the epitome of a page-turner’ The Book Review Café
‘Matt’s incredible talent to create a novel is awing, his ability to steer the reader in the exact directions he wishes is brilliant … The concept is absolutely haunting … a contemporary take on classic horror’ The Reading Closet
‘Gothically inspired and deliciously dark. I had all the feels, the chills, the horrors mixed with excitement and trepidation. Visually stunning and chillingly complex. Five stars are not enough’ The Book Trail
‘If you love a good thriller and haven’t read Matt’s books before then I definitely recommend them … love the style’ Independent Book Reviews
‘Full of creepy atmosphere, completely gripping and with ingenious plotting, Beast is another spectacular read from Matt Wesolowski’ Emma’s Bookish Corner
‘By blending contemporary issues with a rich pagan folklore, steeping it in darkness and presenting it in the setting of an episodic crime podcast, Matt Wesolowski has created something truly special with his Six Stories series’ Book Worm Hole
‘Beast doesn’t disappoint, once again finding Wesolowski on addictive, chilling and macabre form … a compelling journey down dark paths and through stormy waters with a palpable sense of creeping unease that courses through the pages’ The Tattooed Book Geek
PRAISE FOR THE SIX STORIES SERIES
‘Bold, clever and genuinely chilling with a terrific twist that provides an explosive final punch’ Sunday Mirror
‘This is the very epitome of a must-read’ Heatiii
‘Haunting, horrifying, and heartrending. Fans of Arthur Machen will want to check this one out’ Publishers Weekly
‘A genuine genre-bending debut’ Daily Mail
‘Impeccably crafted and gripping from start to finish’ Big Issue
‘Thanks to Wesolowski’s mixture of supernatural elements and first-class plotting, this is one of the most addictive of new crime novels’ Sunday Express
‘Fans of Ruth Ware will enjoy this slim but compelling novel’ Booklist
‘A dazzling fictional mystery’ Foreword Reviews
‘A genuine chiller with a whammy of an ending’ C.J. Tudor
‘Original, inventive and brilliantly clever’ Fiona Cummins
‘Wonderfully horrifying … the suspense crackles’ James Oswald
‘Wonderfully creepy … Inventive, unnerving, bold. Loved the story structure and the use of forest folklore. EXCELLENT’ Will Dean
‘This is a creepy, chilling read that is ridiculously difficult to put down. The ending is just incredible’ Luca Veste
‘Frighteningly wonderful and one of the best books I have read in years’ Khurrum Rahman
‘Wonderfully atmospheric. Matt Wesolowski is a skilled storyteller with a unique voice. Definitely one to watch’ Mari Hannah
‘Wonderfully clever and chilling … a series which just keeps on getting better and better, it surprises, thrills and enthrals in equal measure’ LoveReading
‘They’re all brilliant, very different despite following the same format and prove that Matt Wesolowski is one of the best emerging horror/crime writers’ Off-the-Shelf Books
‘This is bold and clever story-telling at its best and it fulfils that much used phrase “a must-read novel”’ Books are my Cwtches iv
‘Dark, incredibly intense, full of supressed rage and emotionally gut wrenching. It blew me out the water. I rather think Matt Wesolowski is destined for stardom’ Live & Deadly
‘An intense, dark and utterly absorbing book. The pages crackle with tension, the characters have real depth and the writing is truly stunning’ Bibliophile Book Club
‘A dark, emotional and honest book and to my mind, the best Six Stories yet’ Hair Past a Freckle
‘Another outstanding addition to this series. The writing will pull you in from the first page, and you won’t be able to stop reading until you find out the truth about what has happened’ Hooked from Page One
‘Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought-provoking … an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget’ Segnalibro
‘Matt has once again created a chilling plot that blurs psychological thriller with a touch of the paranormal; suffice to say you will never look at a wood in the way same again’ Random Things through My Letterbox
‘Completely unique, with a tight narrative, dominated by unnervingly atmospheric tension and with a magical blend of crime, thriller and a trace of horror’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews
vii
Beast
MATT WESOLOWSKI
ix
‘He believed that a vague, singular aura of desolation hovered over the place, so that even the pigeons and swallows shunned its smoky eaves. Around other towers and belfries his glass would reveal great flocks of birds, but here they never rested.’
—HP Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Darkx
Contents
DISD CHALLENGE: Day 1 | Lizzie B 217,327 views. 26 Feb 2018
Lizzie B
3,045 subscribers
So in six days, I’m going to meet a vampire.
That vampire is going to kill me.
I’m going to die in six days’ time.
Well then, I bet that took you by surprise didn’t it? I think you’ve probably guessed: today’s video is going to be something very different and I’m just so excited to do this one, it’s such a departure for me, but I’m totally up for this and you’re going to love it.
No one else is doing this. Everyone round here is too scared. Parents and teachers are all freaking out, but I’m not. I’m the first person who’s daring to do it and you’re coming with me. I’ll be with you all the way!
Oh my God, have you seen the snow? It’s like Christmas has come all over again, but it’s February! I mean, what the hell is going on, weather? Honestly, winter. I’d thought we’d put the cold behind us now and here you are, again. I’m freezing!
There we go. Heating’s on. I’ve got one of those, like, mini radiator things, which I’m frickin’ cuddling more or less. My mum reckons they’re a waste of energy but, um, have you seen it out there? They’re calling it the Beast from the East: a ‘polar vortex’. Whoa there with the drama, guys, it’s just a bit of snow! I’d make a snowman, buuuut I can’t be arsed!
Let’s get right into it, shall we? Last week’s shopping haul video is still available and thank you so much, I think that’s the biggest number of views I’ve had yet – it’s ‘effing brilliant, if you’ll excuse my French.2
You can still see all my shopping hauls and unboxing archive by clicking the links below and don’t you forget to hit ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’.
Thanks guys! Let’s go do some vampire-bothering shall we?
Admin done, let’s get dark and spooky, because today, guys, I’m going to be doing the – drum roll please – DISD Challenge. Yeah, that’s right, I’m going to be…
DEAD. IN. SIX. DAYS!
So for those of you who haven’t heard of it, this challenge is all over my hometown. No one knows exactly where it started but that’s how these things go, right?
If you’ve been locked in a box or whatever, the Dead in Six Days challenge is pretty simple. Six days, six challenges, and if you don’t pass it on, you’re going to meet a vampire who ‘vonts to drink your blood!’ Simple as a pimple, right?
Let’s do this.
OK, as you can see here, I’ve got WhatsApp up on my phone. Sorry, it’s not my actual phone; so don’t be trying to get in touch. No, I got my mum to get me this old one just for the challenge.
So what you do is … look here … you send a message to this number. Which I’m totally gonna blank out – sorry guys! And you’ll get a message back. So I’m doing it now – live, right now. You have to use the magic words, apparently, so let’s type it out:
Creature of the night,
Listen to my plight,
Your challenge is my goal,
Let us battle for my soul…
And here it is … sent!
Now let’s wait a few minutes. I’ll put my phone here so we can all see and hear if it replies. It doesn’t take long, apparently.
So guys, what’s going to happen is the vampire’s going to send me a challenge; something I have to do. It’ll be a prank of some kind, that’s what everyone’s doing round here. You have to do the prank, upload it onto YouTube and pass on the vampire’s number to the next person.3
What if you don’t pass it on? Well then you get another prank. A harder one. And so on … for six days. At the end of the six days, you have to go and meet the vampire.
And it kills you.
But the thing is, it’s not going to kill me.
Why? Well, you’ll have to subscribe to find out, won’t you?
So … guess what? The vampire’s replied. It has a name too! ‘Vladlena’ – is that, like, the female form of Vlad? Who knows? If only there was some sort of information superhighway, accessible at the click of a button to find out…
Yeah, it’s female. It means ‘to rule’. Ooh, feisty.
Let’s have a read of what Vladlena has to say, shall we?
‘Hi Elizabeth’ it says – how did it know my name? That’s spooky as hell. I told you, didn’t I? It’s probably a subscriber, to be honest; most people round here are!
Yeah I’ll be doing an unboxing of fresh virgins’ blood next week, hun. Chill your little undead beans!
‘Your challenge is: “Play Lurky in the Dene”.’
Wow. OK. So Vladlena wants me to hang round Ergarth Dene in the frickin’ snow? Fine. No problem, mate. Oh look, she’s sent another message. Hang on.
‘This is your first challenge, it will also be your last, pass my number on or your days are numbered and your soul will be claimed in six days.’
Oh, it’s like that, is it, Mrs Vampire? Well don’t you worry your undead little head, because this will be one game of lurky you’ll not be expecting.
Bring. It. On.
If you want to join me in a game of lurky that no one’s ever going to forget, just hit ‘like’ and leave me a lovely comment and I’ll hand pick a few of you lovelies to help me out.4
OK, guys, so that’s it for now. Don’t forget to raise your thumbs, give me a big thumbs-up if you liked it. Hit that subscribe button – then you’ll be able to see as soon as I upload the next video. Also, hit the bell icon; that way, wherever you are, you’ll be able to see if I survived day one!
Keep leaving some love in the comments section, guys. Let me know if any of you out there have met the vampire. Is she hot? Can she handle a girl like me? What do you reckon?
Ha! Thanks guys and I’ll see you soon!
Episode 1: What Have We Done?
—We’d like to warn viewers that there are details in the following report that some may find disturbing.
—This is Matthew Manning for BBC News in Ergarth. A grieving family awoke this morning to find a terrible, taunting and sick message scrawled on their garden wall.
The Barton family are shocked and appalled to discover someone has spray-painted the words ‘Who locked Lizzie in the tower?’ on their property overnight. This simple message has reopened a still-raw wound, both for the Barton family and the small town of Ergarth on the North-East coast. As viewers will know, Elizabeth Barton was the young woman found murdered in Tankerville Tower two years ago, in 2018. Tankerville Tower a thirteenth-century ruin on the clifftop just outside the town, has been described by locals as an ‘eyesore’ and a ‘death trap’ with countless petitions put to Ergarth Council begging for its demolition.
Elizabeth, just twenty-four years old when she was callously murdered, was a popular and high-achieving young woman, with a burgeoning career in video blogging or ‘vlogging’. Elizabeth’s ‘shopping-haul’ and ‘unboxing’ videos attracted thousands of subscribers.
It was her participation in a deadly Internet challenge known as ‘Dead in Six Days’ that ultimately led her to her death. A death that prompted warnings to parents, countrywide, to be extra vigilant around their children’s Internet use. Many schools in Ergarth and the surrounding area have since banned students taking part in any such challenges.
This new graffiti has, yet again, drawn attention to Elizabeth Barton’s killers; most notably, Solomon Meer, Barton’s former schoolmate. Meer, twenty-four, was sentenced to a minimum 6of thirty-three years behind bars. His two accomplices, Martin Flynn and George Meldby, twenty-three and twenty-four and also former school-mates of Elizabeth Barton, were sentenced to a minimum of twelve years each for conspiracy to murder.
The three killers used the Dead in Six Days challenge to lure the young vlogger into the local ruin before imprisoning her inside. As temperatures plummeted during one of this country’s worst cold snaps in two hundred years, she passed out and died of hypothermia.
A deleted video was recovered from Solomon Meer’s phone showing the three men standing around Elizabeth’s body as Meer’s voice repeats ‘What have we done?’ This, combined with the perpetrators’ DNA, which was found on the council-erected barricades that surrounded Tankerville Tower, provided the crucial evidence that condemned the three.
The most disturbing aspect of the case was the decapitation of Elizabeth Barton’s lifeless body. This was said to have been performed at some point after the video was taken. The implement used was never found, and is presumed to have been thrown into the sea. None of the suspects would admit which of them committed this depraved act. The jury on the case took exactly two hours of deliberation to find all three guilty.
Solomon Meer and his accomplices did not defend or explain their actions during their trial at Newcastle Crown Court, save to describe the killing as a ‘prank gone wrong’. Since the trial, however, there are those who have suggested that the decapitation of the corpse could have been an ‘apotropaic practice’ – something performed on dead bodies in post-medieval Poland to prevent ‘vampires’ rising from the grave. This has, of course, brought Ergarth’s own vampire legend to light, a story relatively unknown in the national consciousness. Until now.
It is considered unlikely by those who were close to the case that the graffiti found on the Barton family’s wall will raise new questions about the guilt of the three convicted men. Instead it serves as a stark reminder of what the Bartons have lost.
This is Matthew Manning, BBC News, Ergarth. Back to you in the studio.7
—Thanks Matthew. Earlier, we spoke to a number of Ergarth residents, to get their thoughts and feelings about the scrutiny this terrible event placed on their town.
‘That poor lass, she had her whole life ahead of her. Pretty little thing, wasn’t she? Them lads: monsters, all three of them. They weren’t happy to just let her die. Doing that to her afterward. What’s wrong with people? I tell you what it is; there’s no moral guidance anymore. All that rap music and the nonsense on the Internet. They all thought they were vampires or something, didn’t they? If that’s not the result of a damaged mind, I don’t know what is. Bring back national service. That’ll soon get it out of them. What are they teaching them at those schools?’
‘Aye, she was proper lovely, was Lizzie: dead pretty. She wasn’t ever nasty to no one, just dead … nice. I don’t know no one that had a bad word to say about her. She was smart as well. Always top of the class; A’s in everything at school. She was on the teams as well: debating, netball, football. She was just good at everything. She had thousands of followers, you know. On Instagram. Even more on YouTube. She was doing charity work wasn’t she? Giving something back? That’s why those lads picked on her, I reckon. It’s cos she had a good heart, lads like them don’t like that.’
‘It’s that blooming vampire story. Folk were saying they’d seen it all over. That’s what got that poor lass killed; just gossip on Facebook about the Ergarth Vampire. Them lads? Proper bunch of freaks. I swear down, something should have been done about them. They all thought they were vampires and that – devil-worshippers, drinking blood. Cutting off her head: I ask you. I heard that the leader one, that Solomon Meer, was caught killing pigeons and cats and using them for sacrifices to the devil. What got done about that? Nothing. Then they go and do that to some poor lass who never did no one any harm. It’s a disgrace. And where were the parents? That’s what I want to know.’
‘I just think there’s more to it than everyone says. I just think it’s not so straightforward. Do I think they did it? It got proved 8they did in a court of law, so what does my opinion matter? I just believe there’s two sides to every story is all.’
‘I don’t know if they’re innocent. Maybe it was a prank gone wrong? I don’t know. Maybe that’s what the graffiti is about?’
‘I just think there’s more to it than everyone thinks.’
—So, as you can see, this is a sad and tragic time for the people of Ergarth.
Welcome to Six Stories.
I’m Scott King.
Over the next six weeks we are going to look back at the brutal murder of Elizabeth Barton in 2018. We’re going to examine the events that led up to her death from six different perspectives, through six pairs of eyes. What I want to know in this series is what turns someone from a town like Ergarth into a killer; what brought three young men together to commit such a terrible crime? This is something that has never, in my opinion, been satisfactorily explained. Was this just a prank that got out of hand, or was there more to it?
For my newer listeners, welcome. For those of you who’ve been following Six Stories, welcome back.
Before we go on, I suppose I should take a moment to address the elephant in the room. Me.
I’ve only ever wanted to be a vessel for this podcast – a mouthpiece for six perspectives on a crime. I was never supposed to become the story. I used to try my hardest to be anonymous. I used to hide myself away behind a computer, wear a mask when conducting interviews, do everything I could to be nobody.
Yet it seemed the more I hid – crawled beneath my rock – the more the spotlight searched me out.
It’s been a while since the last season of Six Stories, a year since my own story was told; since what happened to me played out in the public eye. I wondered for a while, in the aftermath of all that, whether I should hide away, vanish. But I didn’t. I made myself more obvious; more accessible. I shed a lot of the myth that I had hidden behind. I’ve 9had my fair share of criticism for doing that. But I’m back. And I refuse to hide anymore.
So now I’m facing everything head-on. I’m placing myself in the spotlight, conducting every interview face to face. Without Six Stories I wouldn’t be where I am now. We owe it to each other to go on.
For all the messages and the support you’ve offered me after last season, I want to say thank you. There are too many people to name, but rest assured, I read every single message and every one of you made a difference to me. Those of you who are still fighting monsters, keep going.
In this series we look back at crimes: cold cases, missing people, the motivations for murder. We rake up old graves. Some of them don’t want to be unearthed, though. Sometimes I hit a rock, find an impasse. Sometimes cold cases are called that for a reason. The following is one of those.
I actually began the research for this one a while back, but I’d only delved just below the surface when I realised there was no real mystery here. This case was simple. For, as you’ll see, on the surface, the case of Elizabeth Barton appears not to be about who, or even why. It is open and shut. Maybe that’s what attracted me to it. Maybe this time I just wanted to report what had happened. I didn’t want to be drawn in. I asked myself what I could possibly say about this that hasn’t already been said? Why open a raw wound?
Then, two years after Elizabeth was killed, the graffiti on the Barton’s house appeared, as you’ve just heard at the top of the episode. Someone wants this case reopened.
Dead in Six Days. The challenge that lurks around every bend in this case. Six days … six stories. I don’t know; it felt like it fitted. But there was something else, something that’s important to me now: this is not a case that I would become part of. I needed one that isn’t personal.
I packed a suitcase and I travelled to Ergarth.
Because I’m not hiding from monsters anymore.
10Ergarth is an oddly named and oddly placed town on the North-East coast. Unlike the quaint tourist hubs of Whitby or Scarborough further south, Ergarth is not your typical seaside town. Its coastline boasts no fossil banks, wildlife watching or boat trips out to the headlands … In fact, there’s very little of anything, just a grey, rain-flecked cluster of buildings that ends abruptly in a cliff edge where the ruined Tankerville Tower stands; an austere and crumbling monolith square-edged, five storeys high, made from thick, dark-coloured basalt and limestone. Unlike other pele towers – the fortified keeps and defensive structures built on the borders between England and Scotland – Tankerville has no arrow slits in its walls nor a proud weathercock on its roof, pointing above the crenellations. It is instead, a Brutalist, black rectangle.
Talk to anyone in Ergarth and they’ll tell you they want it torn down. Even in the summer, it looks no better; a benighted blight that everyone can see from their window and wishes they couldn’t.
And now, two years after Elizabeth Barton’s death, the tower stands as an unpleasant reminder of what happened here in 2018.
Despite its grim outlook, the town has a charm that does bring in a few tourists. There’s a caravan park up on the cliffs, a couple of miles from Tankerville Tower. It’s small but neat. The town itself has a couple of bed and breakfasts and guest houses, which would probably be considered ‘retro’. The town itself isn’t terrible; there’s even a small parade of amusement arcades before a short pier where the cliff drops to sea level. It’s hardly Brighton Palace, but it’s well kept and affable; the flash of the lights, the jangly music and the smell of fried doughnuts during the summer. There’s also an array of coastal walks along the cliffs, where kittiwakes nest and seals can occasionally be spotted, bobbing up out of the water with their blunt, oily-looking heads. On an unpleasant winter’s day, though, with few visitors, the steel shutters closed over the amusements and wind warnings keeping people off the pier, Ergarth is slightly forlorn.
Perhaps, then, the one feature that makes Ergarth stand out from the other small towns that huddle along England’s northern coasts is the great, black ruin that is Tankerville Tower.
Occasionally there’ll be a ripple of interest in the place: a scheme, a crowdfunder, a local entrepreneur who has big ideas for Tankerville Tower. But then it’ll all fall through. People say that’s because it’s cursed.11
The people of Ergarth don’t refer to the tower by its real name. They call it ‘The Vampire Tower’.
We’ll get to that in due course.
It’s autumn, and the sky is blue and clear. It’s cold, though, and our breath steams. We’re inland, my first interviewee and me, on the edge of Ergarth Dene – a wooded public park that dates back to the Victorian era, and sits close to the remains of the Fellman’s pasty factory, which burned down a number of years ago. Originally created for genteel perambulation; the park sits in a small valley and has a multitude of trees, paths and ornamental pools. Almost directly opposite, on the other side of the town, Tankerville Tower looms. It’s easy to believe you have been sucked into a time warp down here and that around the corner you’ll see women wearing crinolines and men carrying canes. The air is thick with the earthy scent of the season: damp leaves and a faint tang of stagnant water. The trees that rise up all around us are turning, preparing for the coming frost. It’s a stark contrast to the site of the tower or the centre of Ergarth itself. The wind bites through your clothes along a desolate high street where betting shops have lit up like luminescent fungi. In nearly every doorway there are people huddled together to keep warm.
The cold is more intense here than I’ve ever felt before, and despite my gloves, the tips of my fingers and toes are like blocks of ice. I imagine how it was for Ergarth two years ago, during the cold snap of 2018. The roads were blocked both in and out, the cold permeating through walls and roofs that were totally unprepared for this onslaught.
—We were proper busy during that cold snap. What did they call it – the Beast from the East? It was proper harsh; there wasn’t enough grit to go round, ice all over the roads; people falling over, old people freezing. Half the roads round here were closed; no one could drive into or out of the town. It was like we were suddenly in Siberia.12
Pipes froze, leaving some wrapped in bedclothes on their sofas at night, praying that headlights would round the corners of the coiling roads, black with ice, bringing supplies. But the old and infirm of Ergarth were more isolated than ever. My interviewee wants to tell me that people pulled together, helped each other out, checked on neighbours, but that wasn’t the case. Ergarth is not affluent; there was little money and little hope. This bred a deadly apathy.
—It was a dog-walker what found her. Isn’t it always? She didn’t find her though, that’s not strictly true. We was proper busy and I was on the night shift; I’d just arrived at work, and there was already lads getting ready to go out. They said someone was stuck in the tower. I remember thinking, what on earth someone was doing there in this? It’s bad enough in the peak of summer. I knew that this wasn’t going to end well. Not at all.
Tankerville Tower dates back to the thirteenth century. A five-storey structure that stands on the edge of the cliff and stares over the green rage of the North Sea. Nothing else, just the wind and the cliffs and the ghostly cries of the kittiwakes. Unless you’re walking a dog, or specifically visiting the place, there’s absolutely no reason to go there. It’s windy there all year round: swirling, freezing Siberian winds and sea fret most of the year. The inside provides little shelter either; the tower is crumbling into the sea.
The tower’s origins are somewhat murky; some say it was the beginning of a castle or the leftovers of an attempt at a pele tower, should the ‘Border Reivers’ move their raids further south. Some say it was a purpose-built prison. With its windowless walls and cell-like interior, this seems the most plausible idea. What we know for sure is that the tower was purchased and given its name by the earls of Tankerville in the early 1700s. They had grand plans to turn it into a residence with an adjoining mansion house, but these never came to fruition. The tower remained unmodernised and was eventually forgotten.
During the twentieth century, the Tankervilles sold the tower to the local authority but not a single use could be found for the place.
The inside of Tankerville Tower is worse than its outside – black, 13sea-scarred stone; a winding staircase that’s crumbling and treacherous, impossible to climb, leading to a bare, windowless room at the very top. Birds roost in the places where the topmost rocks have crumbled, and in the 1990s a colony of bats was discovered roosting in that cell at the very top, prompting a small ripple of interest in the place. The Bat Conservation Trust, along with Ergarth Council, worked together to board up the lower doors and windows and to add a perimeter fence – thus preventing entrance or exit from the tower.
Now the tower is a stark monolith, standing almost as a symbol of the town over which it looms.
The fence around it still stands. More or less.
—It’s a bloody disgrace how they’ve just let it go like that. So much history, and what a sorry state it’s in. Just sat on the edge of the cliff covered in birds’ and bats’ doings.
The voice you’ve been listening to is that of Rob Karl. He’s a local volunteer fireman and was one of the first on the scene when Elizabeth Barton’s body was found in Tankerville Tower.
—No wonder no one wants to do owt with it. It’s a death trap, that place. The council just let it rot. It’ll be good riddance when it does fall down; the sea can have it. You get all sorts of people hanging about in there. They say there’s bats in the roof, don’t they? That’s the reason they can’t do nowt with the place. You can’t disturb the bats.
—You said you get people in the tower. Why?
—Aye, druggies mainly; smack-heads and the crazies. We often used to get calls from folk saying that kids were going in and out of the Vampire Tower and that they’re worried for them – scared that one of them’s going to hurt themselves, fall into the sea. And you only need to get close to it to see they’ve been in there: graffiti, them tags all over the walls.
You’d get calls saying people had heard stuff, too. Screaming and that coming from inside. It used to be easy to get in there; the boards across the doors were all rotted away with the damp and the rain and the sea. We used to have to go there regular.14
Don’t get me wrong, now. I’m not saying that any of those other sightings were real. It was all rubbish, all of it.
—Sightings? Of what?
—Let’s just not talk nonsense, eh? Let’s talk reality. I think sometimes people round here get carried away.
Rob becomes cagey and defensive at the mere hint of anything other-worldly associated with Tankerville Tower. You see, there’s a story that surrounds the ‘Vampire Tower’ and its strange nickname. While the ruin is now synonymous with the grisly murder of a young woman, before Elizabeth Barton, there was another female associated with it. I know Rob doesn’t want to tell me the story but he knows as well as I do that it’s going to have to come out.
—Folk think we’re all stupid round here because of that silly old tale. It’s like the folk from Hartlepool getting called ‘monkey-hangers’ cos of some daft old story. You know it, don’t you? Back in some war or other, olden times, them up there hanged a monkey cos they thought it was a French soldier.
But our bloody vampire story, it’s a hell of a lot worse. It’s all a load of rubbish, though, just like the monkey.
—Can you tell it to me?
—I’ll tell it once. I’ll tell you the official version.
—Fair enough.
—So it goes like this; see back in the Victorian times, 1860s, I believe, there was a problem in Ergarth. There was a freak cold snap like the one in 2018. It was serious. Folk up here were dying. They were finding bodies frozen in their beds, washed up on the coast, see; all mangled, white, drained of blood. It was the weather; it cut the whole town off. No one could get in or out, and people were ill, starving, throwing themselves into the sea. Horrible times. Back then of course, they knew nowt about polar vortexes and diseases, so they blamed a vampire instead.
—It seems like an odd conclusion to come to, even in that era.
—Aye but there was a reason. You see, back then, some soldiers had this prisoner from the Crimean war – a hostage. They say the British and French captured her at the Battle of the Alma when 15the Russian scarpered. They said she was found in a prince’s carriage with a load of money. They brought her here cos no one would ever find her.
—Who was she?
—They reckon she was a Russian sorceress or some rubbish like that. Brought down from the Tundra in Siberia; her witchcraft to be used as a weapon. At least that’s what the soldiers thought. They brought her back to England as a hostage, kept her prisoner in Tankerville Tower, hoping for a ransom, but no one ever paid up. It’s said they didn’t want her back. So she was a Trojan Horse type of thing, you see? Then the cold snap came; the place was all snow and freezing temperatures. They say it was the sorceress what done it, like. So they killed her.
Thing is, after that, people round here believed she came back from the dead. As a vampire, like.
Rob’s story matches up with some old ideas about vampires. The British and French troops that sailed to fight in the Crimean War landed at the Bulgarian port of Varna, the very same Varna from which Bram Stoker’s Dracula launches his ship, the Demeter. North of Varna are Wallachia, Moldavia and of course, Transylvania. You don’t need me to tell you what that particular region is famous for.
Another piece of lore that’s significant here comes from the north of Russia, where vampires were often believed to be powerful sorcerers. If they were killed, it was thought they could return as the undead, and were able to command the winds and tides, the birds and beasts. These creatures could only be finally killed by staking them through the heart, by burning or by decapitation.
Could it be that these folk stories, which were so entrenched in those far-off lands, were brought back to Ergarth by the troops, along with their prisoner?
—That was when the vampire rumours began?
—Aye. They say the ship they sailed her back on ran aground on the coast near here; when the locals boarded it, they found the crew dead or dying – but she was alive. They said she’d survived on rats; drank the blood of the crew. Bram Stoker wrote a similar 16story – and set it down the road at Whitby, fifty or so years later. Seems a bit of a coincidence, doesn’t it?
—What happened to her?
—Well, the story goes that two Coldstream Guards that came with her went missing the night they locked her in the tower. That’s when the snow came; they say she brought it all the way from Siberia.
They found the guards’ bodies all mangled at the bottom of the cliff; as if they’d been thrown out of the tower. After that, folk got too scared to go anywhere near the place. They said that she terrorised Ergarth night after night – killing cattle, people; throwing the bodies off the top of the tower. The Russians didn’t come to get her back, and the Ergarth folk were so terrified, eventually, they decided they had to get rid of her.
—How did they do it?
—The story goes that they tried a few ways. First, they sent a soldier in with a rifle. His body was found on the beach a few days later. Then they sent a hunting party up to the tower with dogs and all sorts. They never came back. They were all found frozen to death, dogs and men, all drained of blood. No one would come to Ergarth anymore after that. And with the weather the way it was, no one could get out either. Diseases were rampant, there was no food, there was no hope. So the people of Ergarth decided to sort it out once and for all. These three farm lads went up there, in desperation really. They supposedly battled with that vampire for three whole days and nights.
At last they managed to lock her in the tower; barricaded the doors and waited for her to die of cold. And when she did, they cut off her head so she couldn’t come back.
The next day, the snow thawed and Ergarth was saved.
There is a long silence, disturbed only by Rob’s ragged breathing. I don’t want to mention what’s obvious here.
—Did she have a name? Who was she?
—The story goes that her name was Vladlena, but she was known as ‘The Beast from the East’. I’ll warn you now, you don’t want to talk to folk round here these days about the Ergarth 17Vampire. Not after what happened to that lass. It doesn’t go down too well.
So there you have it. That’s how the Vampire Tower got its name. There’s certainly no evidence that could even remotely confirm the vampire story. It’s almost like the bats that have made residence there have done so to maintain the myth.
I’ve visited the tower myself. It is certainly a foreboding and rather unpleasant place, even if you don’t know the rather farfetched legend about it. The clifftop on which it stands is exposed to the elements; there’s an almost constant spray of sea fret, and the wind is even stronger and colder than on the high street, where it screams around the boarded-up shops with a sharpened blade.
The fencing around Tankerville Tower has been reinforced since Elizabeth Barton was murdered. Ergarth Council have assured me they now impose a penalty on anyone who trespasses onto the site. But, according to Rob, before her death it was a beacon for drug addicts and the homeless, and held a fascination for the young and the wayward of Ergarth.
It’s no wonder, as it seems there’s little else to do here. The nearest cinema is an hour’s bus ride away, and I see no places where people, let alone the young, can congregate, save for a few pubs and a low wall outside Ergarth Frozen Meats on the high street. I’ve been warned by the staff in my hotel not to wander around Ergarth at night. At first I dismissed their concerns, but as the day darkens, there’s a distinctly ominous edge to the place. Shutters are pulled over Ergarth Bus Station at sunset and the public benches around the dried-up fountain in Ergarth Market Square have been removed to deter rough sleepers. Rob tells me that plans for a skate park close by were successfully appealed by the Ergarth Residents’ Association, and the idea was abandoned. Gangs of youths congregate under the concrete stairs that lead up into the shopping centre or wander aimlessly through Ergarth’s streets. There are so many homeless, aimless and addicted people here, it’s staggering. No wonder towns like Ergarth feel forgotten. The smell from the abattoir wafts in one afternoon, thick and pungent, like some terrible fog. Some residents pull scarves over their mouths but most go about their business as if it’s nothing.18
There is no money here; certainly not enough to demolish Tankerville Tower. But it’s the lack of hope that has more impact on me.
But when I stood in the shadow of the tower one afternoon, I had the distinct feeling I was being observed. It was unnerving. The wind is savage on those lonely cliffs, and as the day began to die; the cold once again began to burrow into the ends of my fingers.
I turned away, heading back towards town, when something caught my eye; some movement in my peripheral vision. I turned and looked at the tower, that sense of unease increasing. I saw a black shape. A gull or some other sea bird, most probably, roosting in the tower. But the size of it – its wingspan a blot against the sinking sun – for some reason unnerved me. I understood at that moment why the people of Ergarth want rid of this terrible place.
And as I started to make my way back into town, I was approached by a man asking me for change; I wondered if he’d been watching me from the ruin. I almost wanted to tell him to get as far away from the place as he could. The whole thing felt like it was getting to me, gnawing at me like the cold.
I want to know what Rob Karl saw people actually doing in Tankerville Tower. As those of you who are new to the case of Elizabeth Barton will come to find out; this plays rather an important role in what happened.
—Oh aye, all sorts were going up there and getting up to mischief. It’s out of the way, see. When people saw kids in there they would usually call the police, not us. We were only summoned when there was a potentially dangerous situation. Like if they were lighting fires or trying to climb to the top.
—And were those situations common? You said before that it was mainly the homeless and drug addicts who went to the tower.
—That’s right. Look, it sounds harsh but … well … that lot can look after themselves, can’t they? I mean it’s no skin off anyone’s nose if … The kids though, you can’t ignore that. But as soon as we arrived, they’d scarper. We only ever caught kids in there once. I’m going back a few years now, mind. Group of ne’er-do-wells had got in and were causing trouble, lighting fires, messing on, the usual.19
—What happened?
—We heard this shouting, and we shone a light up onto the side of the tower. This one lad, he’d tried climbing up the stairs to that top room and caught his trousers on something; he had those shiny tracksuit bottoms on, see? They’d ripped and he was hanging on to the stones, shouting at us to eff off, with his arse hanging out! Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh about it, not when you know what happened to that poor lass, but this was a long time ago.
—What drew people to Tankerville Tower, do you think, of all places?
—What do you mean?
—I’ve been up there to have a look, and I just can’t imagine why anyone would want to be there, even if there was nowhere else to go.
—Grim, isn’t it? My advice would be to stay well away, especially on your own.
—Were these intruders just vandals and drug dealers, or was there a more … nefarious reason for them going in there?
—I know what you’re getting at, I think. Was any of them into dark stuff – witchcraft and that? Like that Meer lad.
—Right. I’ll just ask you straight. You’ve been inside that tower on several occasions, correct?
—Correct.
—And the last time you went in there was the fourth of March 2018, right? The day Elizabeth Barton’s body was found.
—Also correct.
—Have you ever, in all your years, seen anything in that tower to suggest occult activity? Strange symbols painted on the walls? Evidence of sacrificial altars, that sort of thing?
—I’ve never seen nowt in that tower that I couldn’t explain. Until I saw Elizabeth Barton. But that was cos I couldn’t fathom why someone would do that to such a lovely young thing. To me, that place is the Vampire Tower in name only. There are some round here that’d like to see that place demolished and I’m one of them. I’ll tell you that for nowt.
The case against Solomon Meer suggested that he was obsessed with the occult and the idea that there was a vampire in Ergarth. It has not 20gone unnoticed that the removal and subsequent placement of Elizabeth’s head coincides with medieval European practices concerning the killing of vampires. There are many in Ergarth who say that Solomon Meer was an unpredictable and ghoulish presence around the town, as well as being a petty vandal and a thief. George Meldby and Martin Flynn fare no better. Searches on Solomon Meer’s computer show that he was a member of several vampire discussion forums. All of this Meer admitted in court, but he would not be drawn on whether Elizabeth Barton’s death had something to do with his belief in vampires.
With a case as complex as this one, a case that has been debated and dissected throughout the media, it is hard to know where to start. So let’s start here, in Ergarth, and work backwards. We’ll hear again from Rob Karl about the discovery of the body, and I want to do this in parallel with more recent developments, namely the graffiti on the Bartons’ garden wall:
‘Who locked Lizzie in the tower?’
Mr and Mrs Barton live in an affluent new-build estate just outside Ergarth, where graffiti of any kind is rare. There is, perhaps, more to the thoughtless question in white paint. It appears crassly rhetorical, but is it? I feel like this question has a specific purpose, but what?
Solomon Meer, Martin Flynn and George Meldby are all serving time for what, by their own admission, they did to Elizabeth Barton in March 2018. Is the message on the Bartons’ wall really questioning their guilt?
—It must have been minus ten out there on the cliff, with the wind, and the snow still coming down. I’ve never felt cold like it in this country. My son went over to Sweden one New Year and said it was so cold that your tears froze on your cheeks. This wasn’t far off. When we got the call about someone being trapped in the Vampire Tower, we were over there like a shot.
—What time of day was this?
—Morning, around nine, ten-ish? We park the van as close as we can to the tower. There’s this woman stood there, all bundled up in her scarf and hat; her dog going crazy on the end of the lead. She says that there’s something in the tower. A body.21
—How did this woman know? Had she gone inside the tower?
—It was the dog. This great excitable beagle – great daft thing it was. So she’s taking it – what was its name? Henry. That was it. So she’s taken Henry for a walk along the cliff; not so much snow there, see? Not so icy. She lets him off the lead and he’s gone bounding off into the tower and come back with something in his mouth.
—Oh…
—Nah, it wasn’t nothing horrible, not fingers or nowt like that. Henry comes back with a scarf.
—And this woman, she called you because of that?
—Oh no; apparently Henry’s not finished there; he’s off again, back and forth into the tower until he’s stood with a hat, a scarf and some gloves in front of his owner, wagging his tail for a treat like he’s Jack the biscuit!
—I’m assuming these were Elizabeth Barton’s things?
—That’s right. We wondered why it was so easy for this dog to get them all off the body. We hadn’t seen it yet.
—That must have been difficult – not knowing what you were about to face in there.
—Aye. We thought something else had happened to her – there’s plenty of maniacs and weirdos around here who would do … something … to a pretty young lass like that. But we had no idea what we were about to see in there…
There were a few nasty coincidences too.
—Really?
—Yeah. Not nice ones either. First one is that the woman who’s walking her dog has been listening to a podcast. Not yours, but one about the Crimean War.
—Really?
—Yes. And the episode she was listening to was about the Battle of the Alma. Same battle they captured the Beast from the East in.
—With respect, it’s just a coincidence – quite a big one, I’ll grant you. A coincidence all the same.
—The woman who found her was listening to this podcast about the Battle of the Alma when Henry began bringing her the clothes. It’s not right is it? It’s horrible.22
There’s another unpleasant coincidence at play too: the cold snap in the UK that began on the 24th of February 2018 actually came from Russia as well. An arctic air mass that, combined with Storm Emma, covered most of Europe, bringing sub-zero temperatures and winds direct from Siberia. The UK Met Office issued red weather warnings.
Elizabeth Barton’s death was one of eighteen attributed to this new ‘Beast from the East’.
The autopsy on Elizabeth Barton’s body was unable to ascertain exactly who or what removed Elizabeth’s head, save that it was done post-mortem. It is likely, according to the coroner, that at some point in the night the young woman lost consciousness in the extreme cold.
As it was back in 1854, when the Ergarth Vampire legend began, this weather was utilised by Solomon Meer, Martin Flynn and George Meldby. We’ll get to them presently. Let’s stay with Rob, Elizabeth and the tower.
—So you had to break in to Tankerville Tower to find her?
—Yes, more or less. By then the police had arrived too and we were instructed to go inside. The security around the place was pretty shoddy – not like it is now. Then it was just a flimsy, chicken-wire fence with some half-hearted barbed wire on top. Someone had lopped through it long ago, so it just opened, like a door. It took us all of a few minutes to find the opening. We pulled back the fence and went in first. We had our helmets on and all our protective gear, thank God, cos the cold out there … The boards over the door to the tower had rotted away long before, so the council had just recently put new grates over the doorway … again. But the grate was all dented and battered, half hanging off with this gap at the bottom where the dog must have got in.
