Episode 629: The Kentucky Teenage Vampire Clan Murders Part I - The Masquerade

Summary

Detailed Summary of "Last Podcast on the Left" Episode 629: The Kentucky Teenage Vampire Clan Murders Part I - The Masquerade

Release Date: August 8, 2025

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Introduction to the Case

In Episode 629 of Last Podcast on the Left, hosts Marcus Parks, Henry Zabrowski, and Ed Larson delve into the chilling story of the Kentucky Teenage Vampire Clan Murders. This two-part series explores the bizarre and tragic events surrounding Rod Ferrell and his group of Goth teenagers who formed a vampire cult in the mid-1990s.

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Background and Setting

[06:22] Marcus Parks: The narrative unfolds in Murray, Kentucky, a town of approximately 18,000 residents located about two hours northwest of Nashville. Murray is characterized as a staunch Bible Belt community with strict social norms, including a dry county where the sale of alcohol is prohibited. The town houses Murray State University, a small public university with around 10,000 students.

[20:30] Henry Zabrowski: The town's isolation and conservative values create a fertile ground for Rod Ferrell, a 16-year-old delinquent, to exert influence over his peers.

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Rod Ferrell and the Vampire Persona

[06:22] Marcus Parks: Rod Ferrell emerges from a dysfunctional family environment. His mother, Sandra Gibson, exhibits signs of emotional immaturity and alleged sexual misconduct, both with Rod and his friends. Sandra's instability and neglect contribute significantly to Rod's troubled psyche.

[06:46] Henry Zabrowski: Despite being a typical troubled teen—smoking, skipping school—Rod manages to convince around half a dozen teenagers in Kentucky and Florida that he is a 500-year-old vampire named Vassago. This persona grants him a sinister charisma that draws other disaffected youths into his fold.

Notable Quote:

Rod Ferrell (on death row) [10:03]: "It’s either you do or you don’t. Do I care about the consequence or not?"

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Formation of the Vampire Clan

[05:35] Marcus Parks: The group relocates from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, attempting to escape initial scrutiny. Rod's ability to manipulate and lead is evident as he blurs the lines between reality and his vampiric fantasy.

[16:22] Henry Zabrowski: The influence of the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade plays a crucial role. Rod and his compatriots immerse themselves in the game's lore, blurring the lines between gameplay and grim reality.

[22:12] Hosts: The hosts acknowledge the complexities and inconsistencies in various documentaries about the case, highlighting the challenges in piecing together the true narrative.

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Psychological Manipulation and Control

[12:47] Marcus Parks: Rod's combination of intrinsic brutality and charismatic leadership makes him a formidable influencer. His ability to create a convincing fantasy world around vampirism attracts teenagers seeking belonging and identity.

[13:22] Henry Zabrowski: The cult's activities are framed against the backdrop of the Satanic Panic of the 1990s, where unfounded fears about Satanic rituals were rampant, further isolating the group and intensifying their deviant behaviors.

[19:36] Henry Zabrowski: The documentary portrays the participants as delusional rather than inherently evil, suggesting that psychological factors played a significant role in their actions.

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Family Dynamics and Abuse

[30:03] Marcus Parks: Rod's mother, Sandra, exhibits hypersexual behavior and is alleged to have been sexually abused by her father, Harold Gibson. This cycle of abuse is believed to have profoundly impacted Rod's development and his susceptibility to Rod's manipulations.

[35:06] Ed Larson: The family's dysfunctional dynamics, including Sandra's reliance on her own abusive father and lack of discipline, create an environment where Rod's violent tendencies can flourish unchecked.

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The Role of Substance Abuse

[68:06] Henry Zabrowski: Rod's heavy substance abuse, including marijuana, acid, PCP, and methamphetamine, exacerbates his psychological instability, impairing his judgment and increasing his propensity for violence.

[69:25] Marcus Parks: The combination of drug use and Rod's delusional beliefs culminates in his descent into psychopathy, setting the stage for the murders that follow.

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The Murder of Heather Windorf's Parents

[58:03] Marcus Parks: In November 1996, just months after adopting his vampire persona, Rod Ferrell brutally murders the parents of 14-year-old Heather Windorf in Eustis, Florida. Rod manipulates Heather into believing in the vampire fantasy, using psychological control to involve her in his delusions.

[100:38] Marcus Parks: Heather, a loner disillusioned with her own family dynamics, becomes enamored with Rod's charismatic façade and the sense of purpose he offers through the vampire mythology.

Notable Quote:

Heather Windorf [no timestamp]: "If I’m alive, they’re never gonna let me go."

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Cult Dynamics and Final Breakdown

[74:50] Ed Larson: The group strengthens their bond through ritualistic bloodletting and role-playing sessions, further entrenching their belief systems and escalating their commitment to the vampire cult.

[96:33] Marcus Parks: Tensions rise between Rod and Steven Murphy, another key member, leading to conflicts over adherence to the group's rules and Rod's increasing deviation into violence.

[112:21] Marcus Parks: Rod's inability to separate his fantasy from reality culminates in the heinous act of murdering Heather Windorf's parents, marking a tragic end to the group's descent into darkness.

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Conclusion and Implications

The episode paints a grim picture of how vulnerable teenagers in a repressive environment can fall prey to charismatic yet disturbed leaders. Rod Ferrell's manipulation, combined with underlying family abuse and substance abuse, creates a perfect storm that leads to unimaginable acts of violence. The hosts emphasize the dangers of blurred lines between fantasy and reality, especially in groups susceptible to psychological manipulation.

[120:18] Henry Zabrowski: "But Heather was a loner... she was enthusiastic about ancient civilizations and reincarnation, making her an easy target for Rod's manipulations."

[123:05] Marcus Parks: "It's hard to deal with a man three years older than me waxing philosophically with 100% seriousness about vampirism... But that's what cult leaders do."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Rod Ferrell on Murder [10:03]:

  "It’s either you do or you don’t. Do I care about the consequence or not?"

• Marcus Parks on Rod's Reality [04:33]:

  "Because we're all going into this."

• Heather Windorf on Rod's Influence [99:04]:

  "If I’m alive, they’re never gonna let me go."

• Hosts on the Danger of Blurred Reality [97:12]:

  "They always do this. I felt the same way about the Slenderman killer girl."

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Final Thoughts

In this inaugural part of the series, Last Podcast on the Left meticulously dissects the psychological and social factors that culminated in the tragic Kentucky Teenage Vampire Clan Murders. By combining thorough research with engaging storytelling, the hosts shed light on a disturbing chapter of true crime that underscores the perils of unchecked manipulation and the fragile nature of teenage psychology.

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Stay tuned for Part II of this series, where the hosts will delve deeper into the aftermath of the murders and the broader implications for the community and law enforcement.

Transcript

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[Henry Zabrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Lacy Mosley]

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[Marcus Parks]

We.

[Lacy Mosley]

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[Marcus Parks]

There'S no.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Place to escape to.

[Marcus Parks]

This is the last podcast on. That's when the cannibalism started.

[Henry Zabrowski]

What was that? Oh yeah, that's the whole. That's the thing. Well, that's the whole. They want it to be. I don't know why. They want it to be real, but they don't understand that if it was real, they'd all be dead.

[Marcus Parks]

They'd all be murdered. Like they'd all be dead in their beds and they would. They had their throat slit. Demons are going to beat God.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's just how it is.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, at least on earth.

[Henry Zabrowski]

What do we know about every single movie? Bad guys always win in the first act. Yeah, they always win. But guess what happens in real life? They just win. They continue to just win. Demons beat angels. So if you want demons to be real, if you want vampires to be real just so you can fight them, I don't think you're ready to. Mr. Vince McClintock, who runs the skating ring in the center of town that has two refrigerators in the back of it so he could sell illegal beer to people because it's a dry county.

[Ed Larson]

It's a great. He said that the skating rink is very sober.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yes. Oh, no, the skating.

[Ed Larson]

He made a point to mention how sober the skating rink was because he.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Knows how attractive the skating rink is to child vampires. Yes, because they all want to go spinning. Spinning fun to do. They love to watch their food.

[Ed Larson]

Roller skating is not a hammered activity.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No, you don't think so?

[Marcus Parks]

God, no. It's the mo. It's the.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You're going to fall. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You're going to bust your ass.

[Henry Zabrowski]

So what do you use? Heroin.

[Ed Larson]

Also, I think angels kill demons.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I don't think angels do kill demons.

[Ed Larson]

That's why hell exists. No, because Satan lost to St. Michael the war.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He lost. No. He walked away.

[Marcus Parks]

No, he didn't.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If God wanted to beat the devil, he would just destroy the devil. He didn't. The devil made a bargain with God and got released. He was essentially allowed to go to an eternity of damnation. That's your interpretation of it. The devil has a job.

[Marcus Parks]

He does.

[Ed Larson]

He's a warden.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's a job. It's a shitty job. He was on the same side as God. The whole thing is a work.

[Ed Larson]

Until he started playing too much music.

[Marcus Parks]

The guitar, none of it's real anyway. Welcome to last podcast on the left, Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Satan's best friend, Henry Zabrowski.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He doesn't know me. He doesn't care. And that's what I like about him. Yeah, he doesn't care. He doesn't answer prayers. You know why? He's not a fucking Labrador retriever looking to do tricks for me. Like that smelly desert wizard that's up there lying all of us while he's giving people hair lips and making new forms of AIDS every day.

[Marcus Parks]

Hold on.

[Ed Larson]

All right. I will not take this anti Labrador rhetoric anymore.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's all God is big stinking shit covered Labrador retriever.

[Ed Larson]

Then I like them now.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Are you happy? Shoot him in the head.

[Marcus Parks]

And of course we have St. Michael's right hand man, Ed Larson.

[Ed Larson]

I will tear down the. Who plays the ute?

[Henry Zabrowski]

What?

[Ed Larson]

That's probably what the devil played in heaven, right? That was the loot. The loot.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah. You said you. Which is cool for uterus.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, yeah, he plays that too.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's what I do when I'm working at the abortion clinic. I like to pop some utes.

[Ed Larson]

Haven't you seen Rosemary's Baby? He played the out of that ute.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He did, he did. With the tip of his rock hard dog like penis.

[Marcus Parks]

Today we begin one hell of a tale.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Rocking a ute.

[Marcus Parks]

It's a two parter.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Gotta rock that don't come a knockin if my ute is a knockin'.

[Marcus Parks]

Today we begin the tale of the Kentucky vampire Klan murders.

[Ed Larson]

I can't believe there's another Klan in Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And besides that word, they don't spell many of the other words correctly.

[Marcus Parks]

The Story of the so called Kentucky Teenage Vampire cult is extremely complicated in terms of both narrative and motivation. But the complication of the story is partly what makes it both utterly fascinating and entirely absurd from beginning to end. Because we are, after all, going to be talking almost exclusively about mid-90s Goth teenagers throughout this entire series.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. So be prepared. You remember the crew from South Park. Imagine if they killed the goth crew from South Park. Imagine if they killed a couple people. This is literally who we're dealing with. We're dealing with the Gothics of the town. We're dealing. Yeah, truly in a. In a world of pasty legs. These are the alabaster need pieces of shit that walk the streets of Kentucky, I guess, at night.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean Kentucky, my God. I mean these people watching some of these documentaries. I knew these people in Lubbock. Yeah, I knew these people in fucking Abilene.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I knew him in Florida very much.

[Ed Larson]

Lots of weed.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I hung out with the Gothics. Accepted my fat polish body. No questions asked.

[Marcus Parks]

That's right. Way back in 1996, a Goth teenager named Rod Farrell from Murray, Kentucky brutally murdered the parents of a 14 year old girl in Eustis, Florida. The girl was member of Rod's teenage vampire clan and Rod killed her parents without her knowledge. When the so called clan all ran away together to where else but New Orleans?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Let me guess. New Orleans didn't take for them.

[Marcus Parks]

They had to move on to Baton Rouge. Now, Rod Farrell was himself just 16 years old at the time of the murders, but he'd convinced half a dozen kids in both Kentucky and Florida that he was not just a chain smoking, emaciated, overly pretentious TW with long black hair from a typically dysfunctional southern family. Instead, Rod Ferrell had convinced his fellow goths that he was a 500-year-old real live vampire with special powers named Vassago.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes, Vassago. Yes.

[Ed Larson]

Vassago needs to finish his social studies work.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, Vassago better hurry up. They're running out of the very special sauce at Burger King.

[Marcus Parks]

My favorite Sago has been informed that the McRiby's back.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes, post haste. Get my cattage. I. I want. I can't stress enough. This whole story is what we talked about. You know, we were doing our production call. It's if the West Memphis three did it. That's what this whole thing is, is if you believe those children are capable of doing something like. But this is true. These guys are full on guilty. Well, Rod.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, one of these guys are full on guilty. The rest of them are only guilty of taking this shit way too seriously. We're going to get into it. But yes, I do believe that.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Rod and one other, the kid who was like in the house with them, that could have stopped it. Those guys definitely hold a lot of responsibility. The rest of them, though, just fucking wrong place, wrong time, wrong people.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, I call them vinos.

[Marcus Parks]

Vinos.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Vampires in name only. Rod is the only one that actually was sort of a vampire. And this is where we're going to begin. My overarching theme in this series, which is technically being a vampire is attainable. It's being a werewolf.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Not attainable.

[Ed Larson]

Also, my big problem with it was we watched the documentary. It's mostly shot during the day.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, exactly.

[Marcus Parks]

And none of them ever. They never address like any kind of daylight nighttime. Like they just always say, like, well, the legends aren't always true.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Well, that. Yeah. You don't know what happened in the manipulations of the DNA that their forefathers from space did. On the ancestral line of the vampir from Cain himself. The Cainites and the Cainites were so kind of diluted over time that now most canines can suffer the rays of the sun.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. I'd say the most offensive part of the entire doc was watching them try and cook.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We'll talk about. We're going to talk about this doc.

[Marcus Parks]

Now to give you an idea of how Rod Ferrell saw himself and how he saw his actions. And to remind you again, like, Rod Farrell is the guy who brutally murdered two people, convinced a lot of teenagers that he was a real life vampire. Just to give you an idea of how massive of a douchebag this guy really is, let's take a listen to Rod discussing the act of murder while he was sitting on death row for his crimes.

[Stephen Murphy]

Everyone in their life, except for rare exception, will come down to the point where they are faced with the opportunity to either kill or show mercy. Many of us will come to that point many times. And I mean, it's really simple. It's either you do or you don't. It's not some big complex struggle like they would show in a movie or something. It is rather simple. It's do I want to, don't I want to? Do I care of the consequence or not?

[Henry Zabrowski]

He's a bitch. What a bitch. What a bitch. This guy. I.

[Marcus Parks]

It's that whole thing of like, do I not want to do. It's the. He's performing, yo. Absolutely.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Very much so. Also, because he's a scared young man. In jail that then now is trying to keep up kayfabe because he got all these guys gunning for you. Now you can't show emotions until all this. But this documentary we watch like as you go through I with last podcast in the left, like one of the main things we talk about all the time is how it's portrayed and how crimes are portrayed on one half of the media. And then how if you look at it from a more humanistic angle, it all falls apart.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Right. Where if you hear about the Kentucky Teenage Vampires, when you read about Rod Ferrell outside of this scenario, you see this portrayal of these drug addled maniac, satanic like they have no control over their impulses and they're. And they're. They're evil and they're in there and they're. They're sullying the good name of a wonderful little town. It's, you know, a Christian town, all this kind of shit. But then you watch this documentary called Real Stories about this crew and of all of the pieces of true crime material we've watched that is highly embarrassing to the subject between the. When Robert Pickton got picked up by the undercover officer just by the guy keep saying the word fuck all the time. You know, we've got Paul Bernardo rapping. Recording of him rapping. The. This is pretty close to the most embarrassing footage that you could show, like easily. And it just shows that they're. Everyone here is not the brightest bulb in the pack.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And not everybody here is just, let's just say it, they're not vampires. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You call it embarrassing, but they seem to be proud of it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They. That's how. That's how you know it's embarrassing is that they're very proud of it.

[Marcus Parks]

And as far as them like not being the brightest bulbs in the bunch, like, you know, we're going to talk about it a little bit more. We're going to explore this. Like, I do believe that these, they are technically intelligent people. It's not that they're idiots. It's more that they're just delusional. And there's reasons behind that. Now these murders created a moral panic when they occurred in 1996 because it was said that Rod Farrell had created his visago vampire Persona after becoming obsessed with a tabletop role playing game called Vampire the Masquerade.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. Prepare to get wet, ladies. We're about to head into RPG zone. And it ain't just me warbling about BG3. This shit's getting real.

[Ed Larson]

All right, wake me when it's over.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, the Vampire the Masquerade panic was built on top of the original Satanic panic. Fear that kids were falling into Satanism and witchcraft after using Dungeons and Dragons as a sort of gateway to satanic rituals. But while Rod Ferrell and his friends certainly spent an incredible amount of time in the world of Vampire the Masquerade, I think that after hearing Rod's story, you'll agree that Rod was the type of person who was going to inevitably commit a murder no matter what his interests were, and he was likely going to involve other people when he did. So one can't blame Vampire the Masquerade for the Kentucky Vampire Clan murders any more than you can blame Isaac Asimov's foundation series for Om Shinrikyo or Star Trek for Heaven's Gate. You can't even blame Julius Caesar for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Really. These works of fiction just provided frameworks, but I think that using these texts terrifies most people, partly because we're far more used to our cult leaders using the Bible as their framework. And nobody says about that. Well, they also.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Parents in the Bible Belt, I think, have. There's two issues. One is the. They think that either children are entirely incapable of doing anything right, that they are the innocent babes that must be protected at all costs, or kids are unlike. They are so manipulatable by the powers of Satan that they are all, like, just waiting to be filled.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

With demonic energy. And they kind of think that stuff like this is. Is what's happening to them. And it's like. But it's. No, it's. It's the president. Like, it's the government that's doing it.

[Ed Larson]

It's fucked up because this is what they use to fuel all their bullshit too.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. Yeah, it really is.

[Ed Larson]

I hate doing people give goths a bad name because they're honestly a lot of fun. They're great, you know, and then these guys, they blow. Like, if the goths I knew would kick the. Out of these kids, they would have stabbed them really fast.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, Goths had knives on them.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. So did Texas goths. Like, those are some of the Texas goths that I knew were some of the toughest I ever came across.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

They're just punching barbed wire all the time.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. It's going like, you, God. You, God. I dare you to kill me, God. Strong.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Rod Ferrell had a dangerous combination of intrinsic brutality and the sort of charisma that is irresistible to lost souls. And he had it by the age of 16 as such Rod Ferrell knew how to control and influence his fellow goths in the same way that Marshall Applewhite from Heaven's Gate knew how to play to the deepest needs of lonely sci fi nerds.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It takes one or no one.

[Marcus Parks]

It does. That being said, Vampire the Masquerade did indeed provide the framework to create the fantasy world that Rod Farrell and his friends. And there is a reason why Vampire the Masquerade worked so well.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Just so you know, this is to remind you, if you play Vampire the Masquerade, you will go insane.

[Marcus Parks]

See, while Vampire the Masquerade certainly shares a lot of gameplay elements with other tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, yes, the Masquerade is far more about lore and storytelling than gameplay. So bringing that lore outside, outside of the game to build your own lore, that's a pretty easy step to take.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Being a vampire is a lifestyle dog, all right. I can't walk around like a dwarf all day, even though technically I do. I have the stature for it, but I can't see in the dark and I don't have rock sense.

[Marcus Parks]

Vampire the Masquerade also heavily depends on personal interactions and human emotions, which makes it a far easier world to fall into on a deep personal level than other tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. In other words, while you can't really walk around all day pretending you're a paladin after you leave a D and D game and retain an ounce of respect from the outside world, hey, you've.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Never been needed in the forest, you've never been needed to speak to the animals and needed to cast Entangle. You don't know when I have to cast entangle.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, while you can't do that, Blade.

[Henry Zabrowski]

War.

[Marcus Parks]

A player can absolutely retain their vampiric masquerade Persona indefinitely without having to much as change an article of clothing after they leave the gaming table. But more importantly, if your vampire Persona is believable enough, then you might find that there are other goths who will come to accept it and join in on the game. And this is especially true when you're talking about high school kids.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Plus, due to the inherent horniness of both vampires and the game itself, the people who accept you might also think that your dedication to the bit is actually quite sexy. And you get the added bonus of of getting laid on top of everything.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Else, sometimes being cringe pays off.

[Marcus Parks]

Nobody more than goth kids.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They really, I mean it. Over band kids, over theater kids, over the Ms. Thirteen kids, the football players.

[Ed Larson]

Kind of a lot.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Not really? They gotta focus on the game.

[Ed Larson]

The baseball players, they.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They a lot. Oh, yeah, sure. Goths. We're talking about our subsection. Yeah, you're not allowed. You're not in here yet. You've. You just dealt drugs to us.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, I partied, man. I was. I was hanging with the goths more than anybod.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's kind of nice.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

But no, goths are, you know, there. It's a special community. And they also are. They are inherently kind of cringe. You have to be sincere.

[Marcus Parks]

You do.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And a part of Vampire the Masquerade is sincerely playing the vampire part to the hilt.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But in the end, while plenty of people certainly take their Vampire the Masquerade games a little too seriously, 99.999% of them do so without ever hurting another living soul. For many, the game is a harmless escape from a life that doesn't have the sort of romance or magic that they'd prefer. But that escape is exactly how Rod Ferrell brought other teenagers under his influence. But I would hesitate to really even call these kids Rod's followers. And I definitely wouldn't call them cult members.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, no, no, no. Definitely not, really.

[Marcus Parks]

This story is more a tale about how a friend group got totally out of control while committing to the bit. And going by the documentaries I watched about all this, some of those people who were a part of Feral's vampire clan at one point or another, they're still committing to the vampire bit well into their 40s.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That documentary, which shows the current vampire crew of Murray, Kentucky, and they're all like, I just. Oh, my God. And they're all like, yeah, it's kind of crazy. How so? Place became vampire central. It's just like, is it? Are you sure? Vampires everywhere, Vampires from across the world now come to Murray, Kentucky in order to be at the epicenter of the culture. It's like, I. You don't have a Wendy's. Like, you know, like, you don't have the infrastructure.

[Marcus Parks]

No, they don't have. They don't have a Wendy's, but they do have a Hardee's. And that Hardee's does. Does become, as we'll talk about in episode two, that Hardee's does become the epicenter of the local vampire universe, which is surprising. And I think the only reason why they hang out at the Hardee's, they don't have a Denny's, because everyone knows is Denny's is where the goth kids hang out.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Denny's is where you're supposed to have Chain smoke and drink coffee until they make you leave.

[Marcus Parks]

Yep.

[Ed Larson]

Honestly, I'm looking at the restaurants now. It's not a lot of chain stuff other than Buffalo Wild Wings.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Which is about to open in a couple weeks, so go check it out.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. The whole. I heard the mayor's company. The mayor's coming to the grand opening of the B dubs there, and he's gonna shoot himself in the head that night.

[Ed Larson]

Amazing.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's amazing. He's gonna shoot the town.

[Ed Larson]

That's pretty. You know, I'm. Honestly, this Murray place doesn't look half bad. As far as we're looking at restaurants here. I mean, I'm not against any of this. Oh, I hate a cudoba, though.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thumbs down.

[Marcus Parks]

Orad's fellow vampire clan members were mid-90s goth kids from Poduk towns in Kentucky and Florida who wanted nothing more than to live any life other than the one they were forced to live. And there's certainly no sin in that.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah, man, look at my life. I dress. I'm a 40 year old. I dress. I'm going on 12.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But unfortunately for these goth kids, the person who facilitated that life and made it feel real, he ended up being a psychopath named Rod who led them directly into becoming accessories to a brutal double murder.

[Ed Larson]

But before there is a Wendy's, it's a 1111 Chestnut Street.

[Marcus Parks]

Sorry to interrupt.

[Ed Larson]

I just wanted to make sure. I don't want to get to give out bad information.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Thank you. We can't deal with another backstrap black snap situation.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, before we get into the story of Rod Farrell and his Kentucky Teenage vampire clan, let's acknowledge our source for this series. Today we've got the Embrace, a true vampire story by Aphrodite Jones, which, if we're being honest, is a hot mess. In fact, we had to figure out the overall narrative for this story on our own so much that I'm gonna go ahead and put a big old for entertainment purposes only stamp on this entire series. As it turns out, it's pretty difficult to get a straight story out of a bunch of highly dramatic small town.

[Ed Larson]

Goths and someone who calls themself Aphrodite Jones.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, my name's Aphrodite Jones. You might know me by my birth name, Bill Smithers. Yeah. Now, I write about vampires singularly. And I also, I deliver steamy, steamy romances about men built like trees and a man who lives in a little tiny hole. And it's called hey, come fuck me in this hole. Aphrodite Jones. Right on.

[Marcus Parks]

Aphrodite Jones. Sounds like a fucking character Amber Nelson would create.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, my puss is a dick. I'm just an old whore, y'. All.

[Marcus Parks]

The stickiness of this story is doubly illustrated by the fact that I watched two documentaries in which they interview most of the main players in this case. But in both documentaries, these people tell different stories, they use different timelines, and they give different motivations that contradict not only what they had already told the author of this book because the author did it interview a lot of these people, sometimes they contradict what they themselves said in the previous documentary.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I just wonder if they're talking to that one girl that's in the center of the new vampire cult that looks like E. She's got that, like, she's got like a goth wig on and she's got that fetal alcohol syndrome, like, looks sort of like a pug. And she's just sitting there just being like, I know that it's becoming harder and harder to be a vampire in Kentucky, which is why we shapeshift into bats. You're like, you can't take her fucking testimony seriously.

[Ed Larson]

These docs are the PCP version of the 7up series.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, really, the only thing that stays the same is that they're consistently douchebags of the highest order. Cuz while we certainly love our goths, it's really hard to deal with a man three years older than me waxing philosophically with 100% seriousness about vampirism, like. Like it makes him some sort of tough guy. But that's all to say that while the details and stories that Aphrodite Jones uncovered and the stories these people tell, while they're incredibly absurd and highly fascinated, some of the connective tissue here might be a little off. So we're gonna have a lot of seems like statements being made over the next couple of episodes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Now tell me, you big headed little girl, tell me. My name's Aphrodite Jones, author, investigative journals. Let me ask you, on the day of the crime, on the night of the crime, a question. What exactly was there order of events there? Yes, do go all very interesting. Let me write that down. Let me get my quill. Worst afternoon in the world. Worst book in the world. Is she alive? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well.

[Ed Larson]

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[Henry Zabrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

So without further ado, let's get into the story of Rod Ferrell and the Kentucky Vampire Clan murders. So Rod Ferrell was one of those guys that you'd say was from the very start.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

His mother, Sandra Gibson. And that's Sandra with an O. She quit school at the age of 16 because she quoted, felt persecuted and misunderstood, which is code for this is hard and I don't want to do it anymore.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm persecuted.

[Ed Larson]

Learn that word.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm Turculuded and I'm persecuted every day I cannot rest.

[Ed Larson]

Turculuded.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It means that I sat on a bee earlier today and I had one large beast in side of one of my butt cheeks.

[Ed Larson]

Could you use it in a sentence, please?

[Henry Zabrowski]

I got Turculuted on my way to my child molestation trial. I got it in there.

[Marcus Parks]

Described as eternally immature, Sandra would use baby talk to get her way. And when she was examined by mental health professionals after her son's arrest for murder, it was found that Sandra had the mental and emotional development of a 12 year old girl.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Thank you. Never grow up, that's what I say. Age, state of mind. I can't read.

[Marcus Parks]

Sandra was also hypersexual.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yep.

[Marcus Parks]

To the point where there were rumors that she and her son Rod would sometimes have sex because she was constantly flirting with him by making inappropriate comments and touching him in places that she shouldn't.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Hey, I've never flirted with my son. I just told him I was wet once. And then I did tell him his shoulders getting water.

[Marcus Parks]

Every small town has at least one of these, and they're always up. The one from my small town, for example. He's dead now. Died from, I believe, a fentanyl overdose. A Few years ago. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but yeah, it never ends well.

[Ed Larson]

It really was a small town you came from, cuz I figure most towns have like 10 of these.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

That's why I said every small town has at least one. My town, less than 400 people. So let's say one in 500.

[Ed Larson]

Not bad.

[Marcus Parks]

Ye.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Not. Not bad at all.

[Marcus Parks]

But when you put all of Sandra's behavior together, and also, by the way, Sandra, she would also regularly hit on Rod's friends, his teenage friends. And she would try to have sex with him as well.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Learning calculus. Yeah, me too. Calculus. You know what I'm saying? Come over here, turkey late. Me?

[Marcus Parks]

But when you put all Sandra's behavior together, it points squarely towards childhood sexual abuse. Abuse. And it's alleged that Sandra was badly abused by her father, Harold Gibson.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Thanks for sucking all the air out of my.

[Marcus Parks]

It's alleged. I don't know for sure.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm gonna put it on.

[Ed Larson]

His name's Harold.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And it's.

[Ed Larson]

And you know her name's Harold. I'm sorry, but I don't trust you.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, you gotta have that. At least the D. Harold is fine. It's my father's middle name.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And if. Then. If his daughter gets married to the feral. And then Harell gets. Then. And then he. That leaves. Right, because he leaves time. Pharaoh leaves, and then Sandra marries her father. He then becomes Harell Forell. Did it work? God damn it. Together. But they all. It's too many names.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That sound similar.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Well, allegedly, Harold sexually abused both Rod's mother, Sandra, and Sandra's sister so badly that the sister ran away from home at the age of 14. That sexual abuse is alleged to have fucked up Sandra so badly that she in turn fucked up her son, Rod as well. Not too long after Sandra quit school, she became pregnant with Rod at the age of 17 and she got married to the father in what was presumably a shotgun wedding. According to Sandra, Rod was born near death with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, which Sandra would later say was the reason why there was, quote.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Something'S wrong with Rod's brain.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah. But. But Sandra was also said to be a pathological.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's what the doctor said. Yeah. He said he was turkey looted, mercury looted. He had all sorts of problems, but it's the brain that got really up.

[Ed Larson]

We told her to stop doing the somersaults.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I didn't know. I did a belly flop three times. Just because everybody kept plowing. He kept Plowing me.

[Marcus Parks]

And Sandra. She was also said to be a pathological liar, so it's hard to tell.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Sex with Santa Claus. Oh, my name is Aphrodite Jones. I'd like to actually write that down in my book.

[Marcus Parks]

To make matters worse, in little Rod's life, his father divorced Sandra when Rod was just a few months old. So the only authority figures in Rod's life were his allegedly sexually abusive grandfather Harold and his utterly useless grandmother father. But while Harold claimed to have tried to instill authority into Rod's life, Sandra would constantly undermine Harold by telling Rod that he didn't have to listen to his granddaddy if he didn't want to. He ain't your daddy, you don't gotta do it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He said, yeah, he might be the granddaddy, but they don't mean just because he dance it don't mean he's your direct daddy.

[Marcus Parks]

In fact, throughout Rod's life, Sandra would act more like Rod's friend and peer instead of his mother. And this would naturally get both of them into a lot of trouble for entirely different reasons later on. Let's just say they both committed felonies.

[Ed Larson]

So if you're a 500 year old vampire, right. How do you explain away the fact that your mother's there?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, it's because the way the vampire, as far as I saw, saw this movie about it, it was starring a wonderful actor. His name is Jim Carrey. Vampire. Is it wood spitting? It's crazy what happens to vampires, man. I ain't got no explanation.

[Marcus Parks]

If I, I mean if I were to guess, I would say that I. I think what he said was that his soul was swimming around in the ether in the dream world for 500 years and then it took the vessel of this boy.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Technically Vampire the masquerade of all of this is this doesn't first come from there. But if it is vaguely based on Vampire the Masquerade, the two kind of things that are super important in it are the. As your player character is who turned you and who you turn.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

So he actually probably. If he is talking about Vassago, he's already talked and hinted about who turned him. Yeah. Which turned him at some point during the time period. And I guess his mom would probably also. Which we'll find out would maybe she would get turned along the way.

[Marcus Parks]

Okay.

[Ed Larson]

And Vampire the Masquerade essentially means. Means pretending to be a vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Pretending to be a human within a human led world. But remaining a Vampire the Masquerade is fitting in. Gotcha.

[Ed Larson]

Thank you.

[Henry Zabrowski]

By the way, sure.

[Marcus Parks]

But the thing about Rod's grandparents is that they were also kind of shitty, even outside of the alleged sexual abuse.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow.

[Marcus Parks]

They lived in just as much of a fantasy world as the fucking vampire kids. But the Gibsons fantasy world was fueled by a strict Pentecostal fundamentalism that saw Satan as a real guy who meddled in earthly affairs. Furthermore, Ron's grandfather Harold openly hated his daughter Sandra and blamed her behavioral problems on drugs, boys, and witchcraft.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Whoa, that's just fun. That's cool.

[Marcus Parks]

Sandra, meanwhile, would simultaneously return her father's hatred and depend on him for financial support. Although Sandra earned some money as a stripper and allegedly as a sex worker, on occasion, she would quit any straight job she got within a few weeks for the same reason she quit high school. It was hard and she didn't want to do it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Honestly, the one time I even. I kind of even dabbled into sex work, was out dancing. I was dancing, right? And this guy came from breakfast or something from his continental, I guess, got some kind of continental breakfast from his hotel. And he dropped a banana peel up on the stage, right? I'm swinging around, you know, got Pour Some sugar on Me, my favorite song going on. And I slipped on it, and I slipped on a banana peel. And wouldn't you know it, I fell pussy first right on that man's erect penis. And it went inside of me. And just the struggle, me trying to out of it, I caused him to ejaculate inside of me. And honestly, just as a kind of nice little gesture, he gave me 50 bucks. I got to go home early.

[Marcus Parks]

Because Sandra couldn't keep a job, she would return to her father again and again for money. And she also depended on him and his wife for child care. But when she dropped them off at her parents place when she didn't feel like taking care of little Rod, she'd also make sure to tell her father that someone in her quote unquote, quote drug group would kill Harold for her if she really wanted it. Or so Harold claimed.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And I'll be back by 10:30. All right, the emergency are the emergency numbers. Here's my meth dealer. And here is a.

[Marcus Parks]

Here's a man who's gonna kill you.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If you, if you even think about double cross me, all right?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, don't double cross me.

[Ed Larson]

I'll bring back Wendy's.

[Marcus Parks]

Now this claim about the so called drug group group, it might have been true. She might have said something like, I got friends that'll kill you if you don't do what I say, I know.

[Henry Zabrowski]

She said it, but she definitely said it. Is it real? No.

[Marcus Parks]

But it also might be another example of how everyone in Rod Ferrell's family created and lived in a fantasy world of their own making that justified their actions and beliefs. Rod, of course, did the same thing, just with vampires.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, but the vampires adds the edge to, doesn't it?

[Marcus Parks]

It does.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, but this, it. I find it interesting because they. They, again, they're all in a fantasy world. They're all like a totally on one.

[Marcus Parks]

Side or another, either Christian fantasy or, you know, satanic fantasy.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Now, do you think that also the casual, like, I'mma kill you. I'mma get somebody to kill you. It seems to run in this whole crew where, like, you know how many times I read stories about, like, and see body cam footage of, like, it's an old man and an old woman who for years, every time they fought, the old man or the woman would pull out the old shotgun and wave it around until finally the one day that it accidentally goes off and they shoot him in the head.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. It's a trashy, small town thing. People would threaten to kill each other all the time. When I was growing up, like, it was just. It was just so. It was just thrown around so much. I'm gonna kill you. I'm a kill you.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Why are they. Why are they so I know that things are hard.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Yeah. Things are real tough. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

I think it's just you just eventually, you know, if you got a good head about, you just stop hanging out around people.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You keep doing it.

[Ed Larson]

Well, yeah, they keep saying those things. Keep doing it. You just stop showing up.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. You got to move to Dallas or New York City. Oh, yeah. No one's ever told me they'll kill me in New York City.

[Marcus Parks]

I lived in Lubbock, Texas for five years going to college. I lived in New York for almost 20, and people threatened to kill me in Lubbock with far more regularity than I ever got in New York City. Oh, God, the times. The amount of times people threaten to kill me in Lubbock. Jesus Christ.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Two men try to kill us in Oklahoma City. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, man. I got rocks thrown at me in Tallahassee because I turned down the wrong street.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I thought they were. Just thought that was your food. They thought you were the guy from Never ending Story.

[Ed Larson]

Well, the rocks were cracked.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh. So they were just. They were like, that's free samples.

[Ed Larson]

It's actually nice. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I think about it now, Rod and the rest of the Gibson family were from the town of Murray, Kentucky, population 18,000. Located just about a two hours drive northwest of Nashville. It is home to the Boy Scout Museum.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, where all my petrified boys are.

[Marcus Parks]

And the town does not not allow the sale of alcohol of any sort at any establishment. In short, Murray is an absolutely terrible place to be a weirdo. It's a. They say it's part of the buckle of the Bible Belt.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

I can't believe that a town in the Bible belt is named after a Jewish man.

[Marcus Parks]

Murray.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Steinowitz. Steinowitz, Kentucky.

[Marcus Parks]

Murray was also also somewhat of a college town. It's home to a small public university called Murray State that has about 10,000 students. This will become extraordinarily important later on in this story, but overall, Murray, Kentucky is a Bible Belt town through and through. And as you'll hear in this clip from one of the documentaries about the vampire clan murders, the townsfolk were not happy about what occurred there in the mid-90s. Better wake up because the big cities come to the little town and whether it's gangs or whether it's vampires, they better open their eyes and see because they can be mom and daddy's perfect little angel.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And hell's brewing underneath. Yep, that's what vampires do. They're always moving to Murray, Kentucky, definitely. Leaving Paris, San Francisco, New York City, to come straight, straight to no breaks to Murray, Kentucky. Absolutely. I can't wait to get there. There's a Wendy's.

[Marcus Parks]

Now. After listening to that clip, it's good to keep in mind that almost everything we're going to talk about over the next couple of episodes happens in a Kentucky accent. Unless said Kentucky goth teenager decides he wants to start talking like he's from Eastern Europe instead. For example, here's one of the Murray, Kentucky vampire clan members talking about his vamp family in one of the documentaries. And again, this kid is born and raised in Murray, Kentucky.

[Stephen Murphy]

There are those of us who are of a different nature, I guess you could say, of vampires who have a family all together of our own. We have sires, childers, so on and so forth. Jaden here is my sire. He's my brother as well, by blood, by birth. This here is Anjoli. This is her family name, Anjali. She is like a sister to me. Raven over here that is fiddling with his makeup is a distant cousin basically of the family. He has been through the bond with, I believe, every member of the family. So he might as well be kindred with us.

[Marcus Parks]

He's like blood dog.

[Stephen Murphy]

We are, I Guess you could say more sexual than is it safe to say humans?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, God. It just. The cringe is so hard. It's so hard to watch you sit here like. Skull, Skull, come upstairs. Your deeddy's ready to give you your bath. Scout, come on.

[Marcus Parks]

Hey, I get it, man.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Water's still hot from your granddaddy's bath. We're all gonna wash the dog together.

[Marcus Parks]

I get it. You know, I spent years getting rid of my Texas accent. I hated talking. I hated my Texas accent.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You become a one buyer.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I mean, I did end up for a little while with a really strange accent where people are like, are you from Ireland or something? Because it was be like, you have to try really hard to get rid of these accents. They're very, very difficult to get rid of. But I did not start talking like one pile. Is it safe to say possible is human? Is it safe to say is I.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Do not do my clan. It is time for us to go to the Water Burger vampire. We go to Water Burger together as a vampire clone.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. It is 2am in the morning. That means it is time for us to go to the Walmart Super Center. For now is the time when we do our shopping.

[Ed Larson]

Well, no, I forgot to return net bowling shoes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Twenty boy daughters, 42, I will not wear.

[Marcus Parks]

But if the things that we're about to talk about, if they don't happen in a Kentucky accent or an affected Eastern European accent, it happens in a backwoods Florida accent. Because Rod Farrell, the leader of this vampire cult, he spent his childhood bouncing between Murray, Kentucky and the Florida lake town of Eustis, where the murders actually took place. Eustace, by the way, is home to the longest consecutive running event honoring George Washington, George Fest, which is held every February, which has been held every February for the last 124 years. Why are you looking at me with such disdain?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Great.

[Marcus Parks]

George Fest.

[Ed Larson]

Wow.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Better get there. I hope I can secure a hotel for next year now that you've busted that wide open.

[Ed Larson]

I looked up fun things to do in Eustace, and it said, go to the land.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Whoa. You did? Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

It makes no sense if, you know, you're a normal person.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I've heard at George Fest, you can actually walk a black person around like you own them. Is that true? For only $10. Yeah. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Cosplaying as George Washington.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Wow.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I've used this. Wow.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, the reason why Rod shared time between Kentucky and Florida is because his grandfather Harold made his living as a traveling salesman. Although we have no idea what he.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Actually Sold inspiration.

[Marcus Parks]

And staplers.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Inspiration and staplers. You know, it's all about the pictures out one lead to the other.

[Marcus Parks]

But because Rod's mother, Sandra was so incredibly irresponsible, Harold Gibson forced her and Rod to come with him when he left Kentucky for Florida or Florida for Kentucky. Because Harold believed that having Rod and Sandra close to him would quote, unquote, straighten him out. But really all it did was up Rod even more. Because he was constantly switching from one school to another. Rod never found a way to fit in. In. As we all know, kids who move around a lot tend to gravitate towards gothness, which Rod found in his early teens. During the early 90s, it sometimes like.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Leads to become the most unpopular person in school. But every once in a while a new kid will come to the school and then all of a sudden be the most popular person like of the class. And I don't know if it's just cuz it depends on if they're hot or not.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that's the only thing that matters.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Or they're good at basketball or some.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, that would help. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Which adds to the attractiveness.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Do you know anybody that moved around a lot? Wonder, like, do we know anybody that was the cool person? It also must be kind of fun to change your Persona all the time. Amber moved around a lot, but she, you know, it sounded traumatizing for her.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, she's not a goth, but does wear black all the time.

[Henry Zabrowski]

She does.

[Marcus Parks]

Now the later statements that Sandra made about her son's goth leanings are very much at odds with her father's statements. Although Harold was obviously seeing things through a fundamentalist pentecostal lens. See, while Sandra claimed that she tried discouraging her son's goth leanings, at least at first, Harold said that Sandra taught Rod how to make love potions, how to use tarot cards, and how to use candles to perform spells.

[Ed Larson]

So happy you said potions.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No, I told them how to do both. The potion was in my crack.

[Ed Larson]

See, this here love potion is called Boons Farm.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Now what this does, it puts your. It puts your potential lover in a dreamlike state where they're going.

[Marcus Parks]

Harold also claimed that Sandra had a relationship with a so called shaman priest named David. Yeah, but I think that all of Harrell's claims of witchcraft come down to the fact that Sandra would sometimes play Dungeons and Dragons with little Rod. But no matter where Rod's goth leanings came from, he got weirder and more withdrawn as he entered his teenage years as a full Outcast. And because his mother was constantly telling him, don't listen to your granddaddy. And she was never actually punishing him. He came to fully understand that there were no consequences for his actions within his own household. At first, Rod wasn't the worst kid around. He got into trouble at school for skipping. He would smoke. He get into trouble for that? He got into trouble for mocking the names of his teachers. Mrs. Stone, cipher.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's a cool name.

[Marcus Parks]

A cool name.

[Ed Larson]

But.

[Marcus Parks]

But then there was also Mr. Pig.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Now, Mr. Pig could have avoided that. Yeah, Mr. Pig could have been Mr. P in a fucking second.

[Ed Larson]

Mr. Big.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If he really, really was. I feel like guys like that, that have a name like that in High School.

[Marcus Parks]

Mr. Pit. And it's pig with two GS.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. I feel like those types of guys, they're looking for a fight. It's like a Boy Named Sue.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, for sure. I mean, that's the name that pissed off Pumbaa.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Exactly.

[Ed Larson]

You know, and so you can't. If it's pisses off Pumbaa.

[Henry Zabrowski]

A pig. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

He's like the coolest, nicest pig around.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You can't be around with this.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He's not real.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I think Pumbaa's technically realer than God. Let's continue.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, such. The assistant principal at Rod School in Kentucky Tried having weekly meetings with the young boy to straighten him out. This is when Rod was, I think, like 13, 14, 15.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Come here. It's like he just tousled his hair a little bit, you know? You think about that, buster.

[Marcus Parks]

The assistant principal discovered that Rod was cutting himself. But Rod said that he'd been doing it for satanic ritual purposes. Now, this is the early 90s, so the satanic panic was in the news constantly. So it's far more likely that Rod was using the Satanic panic to freak out an authority figure. Rather than his grandfather's explanation, which was that Rod's idiot mother had initiated him into a satanic cult.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, it's. It. It's interesting because what will come up again and again in this, this little series is the idea of they all need each other.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, like him saying by they.

[Marcus Parks]

All, you mean the Christians and the vampires.

[Henry Zabrowski]

The vampires. And so he. Him saying, like, this is a dumb city. So he gets to go to his dumb high school. And he gets to say, I'm almost satanic cult member. And because they're taking it seriously.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They then it doubles you down to. And it increases your reputation and then increases the reputation of the people that are going to strike down these satanic clans and shit like that. It's great for everybody. It's great for the social economy of the entire, entire city.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And it not just. It doesn't just help your own. Like, it. What? And really, like with this assistant principal, like, he's not just going to work every day and trying to keep teenagers from blowing each other in the bathroom. He's going to work every day to do battle with Satan himself. Yeah. It makes everything so much more important. It raises the stakes of his day. He gets a. He gets a skip in a step.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Having these kids there, the only way a school in Kentucky can be diverse.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We need at least one vampire. That's what they said. I believe. Believe. I believe he counts as black. He counts as black. That's what they say. He's wearing black.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Harold's claims against Sandra for being a cult member are further disproved by Sandra's own actions. See, Sandra believed that Rod was having a hard time in school because he was a goth. So she tried to fix the situation by throwing out everything black or dark colored in Rod's room and replacing all of it with bright floral patterns. Works every time.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Like in the Adams family when they put in the happy hut.

[Marcus Parks]

This seemingly was when Rod had one of his first truly violent outbursts. Instead of just sulking about the room, Rod became enraged and tried to stab his mother with a knife. Soon after, Rod was expelled from school for reasons entirely different. But since Sandra never graduated herself. I don't even know why they just said, like, he was expelled from school for a semester.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I just think it was all, yeah, he wasn't.

[Marcus Parks]

I think it was just like, get out of here.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, we hate you. You.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But since Sandra never graduated herself, she allowed her son Rod to remain a high school dropout starting at the age of 15.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Just remember, Rod, now that you're out of high school, you're a man.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Now, as it often goes, especially in small towns, weirdos find other weirdos. And in either late 1995 or early 1996, Rod made friends with another goth teenager in Murray, Kentucky, named Stephen McCarthy Murphy. Now, Rod said in one of the documentaries that he was already a vampire when he met Steven. Steven will tell you a different story about. Are you ready?

[Henry Zabrowski]

A vampire was a vampire. And it kind of brought the whole vampire thing to Murray, so.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, yeah, that's what Rod says. He's. He's totally bullshit. Yeah, he's bullshitting you, Bob. But they said that the Two of them became friends despite the meddlings of the other local kids who tried to get them to fight each other because they both claimed that they were vampires, said, no, we're not going to fight each other. Each other. We're going to be friends.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. We vampires hug. Vampires are known to be friendly. Absolutely. Definitely hang out in groups.

[Marcus Parks]

From what it seems like, I think it's a little more likely that Rod was already into gothy when the two of them met. But Steven Murphy was the one who introduced Rod into vampirism as a lifestyle.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Whoa. One was the hobbyist.

[Marcus Parks]

I know I'm taking sides here, bro. I'm taking sides.

[Henry Zabrowski]

But I view that Rob Rod is a more of a. He was a goth hobbyist. And then he met Steven Murphy. That was like, really in the lifestyle. Yeah. And then as soon as Rod saw that he met somebody else that was about 15% more goth than him, he realized, I actually have to be the same amount of goth as him.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. And also, remember, they're both 15, 16 year old boys.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And Steven told Rod that he was, quote, the prince of the city. Wow. The city of Being. Murray, Kentucky. And he was therefore the strongest vampire in town. He'd also taken Jaden as his vampire name, because everyone takes vampire names when they get turned.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. And I was going to take Willow, but I heard it was taken. So now I'm Jaden Smith. Vampire. That's my last name. Vampire.

[Ed Larson]

Did you get that, Aphrodite?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Vampire. Are you saying wire? You saying vampire? It is wire.

[Marcus Parks]

Actually, the kid that has the Eastern European accent, that's Stephen Murphy's little brother.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, within, I think a month or two, maybe sooner, Steven made Rod a vampire by siring him. To use the vampire parlance, siring means you make someone else a vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Make him a vampire.

[Marcus Parks]

In January of 1996, the two of them went to the local cemetery to what they called the Chosen Tree, where all the local vampires have been made by their sires. Rod made three cuts on his left arm and let Stephen drink of his blood. Then Stephen made three cuts on his left arm and Rod drank of his blood. Then the two sat in quiet meditation for hours, satisfied in their new vampiric bond. And this really happened? Yeah. These people did this sort of all the time.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And they continued to do so for years and years, even after Rod killed two people. Stephen Murphy actually still does it to this day and takes it all extraordinarily seriously.

[Ed Larson]

Just sell booze.

[Marcus Parks]

It's also important to remember that Rod was sired in January of 1996. He committed the murder of Heather Windorf's parents. Parents in November of the same year. So keep in mind that everything we're about to discuss happens over the course of about 10 months.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. The way of the bomb. You're very fast. You must take the express line when you. I become a bomb.

[Ed Larson]

Now, I know we're gonna get into it, but I'm pretty sure when he killed these people, he didn't drink their blood.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Okay.

[Marcus Parks]

Jesus Christ.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You just jumped a hole. I know, I'm sorry.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, you just jumped.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, we'll get to it.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm sorry, I just.

[Ed Larson]

I just. I got mad again. Stop poking holes in this story.

[Marcus Parks]

I guess I really do. I really. Yeah, stop looking for logic here. Remember, it's 16 year old kids talking shit.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They all have a fourth grade reading level. Nobody is. There is no Stephen Hawking in this scenario.

[Marcus Parks]

I will, I will actually argue against that like this. They do read like they, they read al.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Part of the Masquerade is quite reading heavy.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And these kids, they. They read Alistar Crowley, you know, they read the so called Necronomicon. Like they're actually very well read kids. They're just, they just are very. Some of them are very gullible and very prone to fantasy.

[Ed Larson]

I noticed an Elron Hubard book on their shelf.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, very much so.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Got you.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Rod's new vampiric image was quite at odds with his true life as a typical teenager from a dysfunctional family who smoked Mars and ate Mc McDonald's. But that, of course, was the whole point.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, he's not a vampire.

[Marcus Parks]

No, he's Rod. And soon enough, Steven was initiating Rod into the world of vampirism by sharing his experiences of, quote, dealing with ghosts and witches throughout his past lives.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Never take the first offer. Always barter with a ghost. Never take sticker price for a casket or candelabra.

[Marcus Parks]

Now what am I bartering these ghosts for?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Things. Money stuff. Business part of the deal.

[Marcus Parks]

But Rod immediately picked up on the game that Steven was playing here. Rod immediately tried to one up Steven and take control. He began building his own personal lore by claiming that he'd been sent to Earth as a vampire to challenge God himself.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's not on earth. I am here to tell God. God, you better work God. Put some sissy in that wall. It's time for vampires to come to town.

[Marcus Parks]

Rod then said that a great vampiric prophecy would be revealed in the year 2000. But before that would come to pass, Rod needed Steven's help to recruit a vampiric family in Kentucky. Even though Steven had already been doing the vampire thing before Rod even showed up. I mean, it's bullshit, bro.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You to want your own vampiric family. But like, like I do that. Like I'm the.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, you do that. But the vampire. But you know, vampire prophecy says. Actually I'm the one that has to be doing that. That's what I saw in my dreams. And my vampiric prophecy dreams. Being a 500 year old vampire, my.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Vampiric prophecy dreams also told me I need to form a vampire cult here in Murray, Kentucky. Why? So what's. Who's lying to who?

[Marcus Parks]

It's real weird that your vampiric dreams are saying that, but I think what happened is that you. My vampiric powers are so powerful that they seep into your mind. And now you are having my vampiric dre about me and my vampiric family. Which you now have to help me with.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. Wow.

[Marcus Parks]

I know how they think. Now, as I said, Stephen and Rod took the vampire lifestyle very seriously. They would talk about the so called rival vampire gangs in the area. But when they said vampire gangs, what they really meant were the other goth kids in the surrounding towns who didn't take things as seriously as they took them.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, one of them was even talking about Evangelion or whatever that is.

[Ed Larson]

Only chance at friends.

[Henry Zabrowski]

War must be made. Two clans of vampires can exist. Not in the center of vampirism. Murray, Kentucky.

[Marcus Parks]

Stephen and Rod called the other goth kids who worked at Walmart and McDonald's. The ones who wore cat eye lenses and prosthetic fangs. A bunch of dorks. Bunch of fucking posers.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Posers, each one.

[Marcus Parks]

Those kids weren't real vampires because real vampires didn't even have fangs.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No, dude, they can't afford them.

[Marcus Parks]

No, dude, Rod and Steve, they didn't have fangs. And they were real vampires. So therefore real vampires don't have fangs. And anyone who tried using fangs. Fucking poser. Fuck you did.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Who cares?

[Marcus Parks]

All right.

[Henry Zabrowski]

My teeth are specifically short. Yes. It's actually super difficult for me to bite shit. Right. All right? And that's what makes me a real vampire. Because these privileged ass with their long ass teeth ain't born like I am.

[Ed Larson]

Amen.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, as far as what made someone a real vampire, the delineating line was the regular consumption of human blood. It is however, important to note that Stephen was not a violent kid. Or at least he wasn't any more violent than the average small Town Kentuckian. See, while Stephen did, did and still does drink blood, he had very strict rules around not hurting or killing other people for it. Because in his vampire world, human life is sacred. Let's hear from Stephen himself, expanding on how his vampiric family consumes blood. In one of the documentaries.

[Stephen Murphy]

You cut enough to where you have at least, you know, a small stream of blood coming out just for enough to ingest, like a few ounces or so, then they will take from you. After that is completed, they will cut themselves and you will take from them, which is the crossover, the embracement. My blood tastes real metallic. It tastes like sticking a spoon in your mouth. Of course, then one of the people that I embraced actually said my blood tasted like dirt one time. I was like, wow. You know, it's just. It's all on, you know, how your life is, you know, stress level, whether or not your adrenaline's rushing through your body that'll make your blood taste differently. Just, you know, normal everyday stuff, you know, will cause your blood to have a different, you know, taste and different texture and color.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He has the same cadence as a man who owns a brewery.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, technically, he is a brewery.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And also, I don't think it's going to surprise anyone to find. Find out that Stephen Murphy wears an assortment of tool T shirts throughout his appearances on the documentary.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Man, he's got a show. That mayor gang is strong. We interviewed a vampire. Yeah, we've interviewed other. And they do this, right. So part of what they do is when they consume blood, it's droplets at a time.

[Ed Larson]

They are not, he says, ounces.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He doesn't know what things are.

[Ed Larson]

He doesn't know measurements. As a cook, I'm pretty sure he.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Doesn'T know if it was ounces of blood. Yeah, that's a lot of blood. He is there sucking on razor cut marks on each other's arms.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, they just cut. They cut the top of their arm and the other ones suck it out. And that's basically it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And this is honestly close to standard goth behavior. I've seen a lot of cuttings, like.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, cuttings a whole different thing altogether.

[Henry Zabrowski]

But in terms of goth behavior, I. Girl. I always remember the first goth girl I fell in love with in middle school. She carved Kurt into her arm, right.

[Marcus Parks]

Like that style Kurt Cobain, I'd imagine.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And it was stuff like that where it was a little bit more because they were edgy.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yeah. No, I knew a kid. What was his name? Bert.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. What an evil man. He Must have been the legendary un. The long arm of Bert.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I think Bert was his friend. I think it was Danny who carved. No, he. He didn't carve. He burned the word evil into his forearm with. With a long lighter. Yeah, I had to change it to.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Stable when I started applying for work.

[Marcus Parks]

And it got infected. Oh, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Remember when our roommate, who was also managing all of our money for Murderfist at the time, got deceit and malice tattooed on his arms?

[Henry Zabrowski]

We're all like, cool.

[Ed Larson]

You're in charge of the money. I don't. You can't have deceit and malice tattooed to your arms.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. Then he left in the middle of the night with everything that we had in the last of my baloney, which.

[Ed Larson]

Was, I believe, enough for a cart. His cigarettes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Very much so.

[Marcus Parks]

That is on the two of you.

[Ed Larson]

Yes, yes, we learned.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We know.

[Ed Larson]

We learned.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No deceit, no malice.

[Marcus Parks]

No. While Steven Murphy is definitely cringy, he's also, or at least he seems totally harmless from what I can tell. He and the others in Murray, Kentucky, used vampirism as a way to make themselves feel powerful in a place that absolutely hates them going. From what he told other people in the midnight 90s, it seems like Stephen knew, at least back then, that he wasn't really a vampire vampire. But, you know, it did give him something to lean on. But after Rod Farrell murdered two people, I think vampirism was what enabled Stephen to survive in Murray, Kentucky. So I think he had no choice but to go all in, and all the rest of the goth kids followed.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You know, it's a lifestyle choice that you make, and it also is what takes you out of. Of the. This you're in. Yeah, I totally understand to want to be a vampire. I get it. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I totally get what they're going for. I get where they're coming from, especially in Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

But Steven's mother, she does not agree with Steven's lifestyle choice, nor does she agree with the choice of Steven's little brother, who is the kid you heard earlier speaking in the Eastern European accent.

[Henry Zabrowski]

W.

[Marcus Parks]

Here's what their mother had to say about vampire vampirism in the documentary Vampires, I call it. Vampires are mythical beings, okay? A figment of somebody's imagination written up in a book that's been made into a cult by kids who think trips on acid, like the 70s isn't good enough for them. They have to do bizarre things. Okay, she kind of. She. It fell apart there at the end.

[Henry Zabrowski]

But I love the idea that she's like, can't they just do acid like you just did acid? You listened to some pro. You tossed on Rush like that's all we needed. We were innocent. We were babes.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, what's unclear is how much Rod Farrell believed in vampire vampirism when Steven sired him in January of 1996. See, later, in the lead up to his double murder trial, Rod Farrell was diagnosed as having schizotypal personality disorder, complete with hallucinations.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They say this all the time. It's just because he said all of this stuff about being a vampire because he didn't want to appear. Like he was giving up on the whole kayfabe of it. And they're all just like. They always do this. I felt the same way about the. The. The. The Slender man killer girl. Oh, sure. I felt like she's just aping the sy that her mother was exhibiting and she's learning to sort of, like, fake it.

[Marcus Parks]

He's. But he. I would say that Rod. Rod Ferrell's grip on reality is loose.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

To say the very least.

[Henry Zabrowski]

But what point is it just being dumb? Too stupid?

[Marcus Parks]

Rod Feral also had a pretty heavy substance abuse problem. This is the murderer himself, a few years after his conviction, talking about his drug use during that year.

[Stephen Murphy]

I was out of control. I mean, most enjoyable, but out of control nonetheless. And at that point in time, no one could really control me. I was very big on the drug scene. Marijuana, acid, occasional pcp, crank once in a while and whenever I could get my hands on it.

[Marcus Parks]

Heroin.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. It didn't help the thinking process. I don't think it made him a great problem solver. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

So while I think Rod's friend Steven Murphy knew deep down that this was all just pretend, no matter how hard he's dug in on his vampirism in the years since, Rod Frell himself seemed to have a far looser grip on reality during the year he supposedly became a vampire.

[Ed Larson]

Don't give weed a bad name like that.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We don't do it. We don't do it. I think it might be the. The crank. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

I've smoked weed every day since I was 16. I've never sucked blood.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Not once. Hey, try it, man. Have you ever smok. You ever suck blood on weed?

[Ed Larson]

I mean, if I did, it would have to be because that's how I wake up.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And I think it would. I think it was probably the meth combined with the acid that. That tends to give you some weird.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Ideas and being stupid, all big old.

[Marcus Parks]

And being an absolute psychopath. Because Rod Ferell is without a doubt a psychopath.

[Henry Zabrowski]

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[Ed Larson]

What doesn't belong in my epic summer plans?

[Henry Zabrowski]

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[Ed Larson]

Oh my gosh, it burns me all the time.

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[Ed Larson]

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[Ed Larson]

What should be holding me back?

[Henry Zabrowski]

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[Ed Larson]

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[Marcus Parks]

Now, before long, Steven and Rod were performing so called rituals at the local cemetery where Rod had been sired. And while one might think they were doing weird rituals of their own making, it's probable they were performing so Called ceremonies inspired by the tabletop rpg Vampire the Masquerade.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes, yes. Burn the books. Burn those evil books.

[Marcus Parks]

As far as how these kids got into Vampire the Masquerade. Masquerade. It all comes down to small town dynamics. Seeing small cities like this, especially in the south, young weirdo college kids and older weirdo high school kids, they tend to interact and mingle because there's honestly just not that many of you. And goth kids, despite their goofiness, do tend to be a little more mature than their peers. Like, when I was in high school, I hung out with college kids. You know, it's just the way it goes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I think they're just better at talking. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

So Stephen Murphy was friends with some local college kids who attended Murray State. Specifically, these kids were in the drama department.

[Ed Larson]

No way.

[Henry Zabrowski]

What?

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, the drama department.

[Marcus Parks]

The drama department, yes, I'm. I'm studying drama.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Where?

[Marcus Parks]

Murray State University.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm at Murray State currently. My major. Major is bucket and my minor is shovel.

[Marcus Parks]

Again, I cannot talk shit because I got a creative writing degree from Texas Technical University.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Hey, Texas Tech allowed you to be creative. But the. The key here is the name of the troupe.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, specifically, these kids were in the drama department and they'd formed a club called the Victorian Age Masquerade Performing Society, which, it took all of us a very long time to figure out that for short, that is Vamps. Yeah, Victorian Age Masquerade Performing Society.

[Ed Larson]

Cool, then.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's fun for college kids. Yeah, I mean, basically, Vamps was an improv group. They were all part of the drama department and they found that a great tool for developing their improv skills was extended play sessions of Vampire the Masquerade.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, I mean, I get it. Murder Fist was black market puppet players like you. All these stupid ass names that we thought was cool as.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, we were theater kids. We didn't know the difference. And do you think that. All right, social hierarchy here. Where does the vampire improv group fit in at Murray State? Yeah, where? Like, between who? Between, like the diabetics? Like, do you think it's.

[Ed Larson]

It's everybody?

[Henry Zabrowski]

You think it's the kids? Yeah, yeah, sure. So it's diabetics, kids in wheelchair. Cares Vamps. What's below vamps at Murray State? Besides the pedophile club, I believe?

[Ed Larson]

Probably the Road Kill boys.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And something called the Somalier Club.

[Ed Larson]

Everyone.

[Marcus Parks]

No one. No one liked them.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Murray State. The Murray State Somalia Club. Just two guys with a bottle of merlot. Like, we've got to get out of this town. Have you thought about becoming a vampire.

[Ed Larson]

I heard that the chess club in Murray State just plays checkers.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Gotcha. Gotcha. You.

[Marcus Parks]

Know, in a nutshell, Vampire the Masquerade takes place in a sort of goth punk world where vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures are real. Boo the cor. Boo. The core game elements are story and character interaction. Because while many other games are about having the skill to kill monsters, Vampire the Masquerade allows you to roleplay as a monster. Each game involves several vampires from either the same or different clans who all have their own personality traits as well as their own abilities and disadvantages. Called disciples and bananas. Yeah, but this is where all the drama and action are created. Basically. Players get to have overly dramatic fights with their friends that are both verbal and sometimes physical. And the game gives everyone a safe space to be an over the top weirdo. Which honestly sounds incredibly fun and incredibly freeing.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Unlike D and D, which I do love, Vampire the Masquerade is way more about political machinations and character development. So it's everybody playing off of each other. D and D. Oftentimes, the game itself is really just about trying to sell me. Look at me. Because we're. I have been eyebrows deep for this. D and D makes you essentially like, you're right. It's. Sometimes it devolves in just killing things, doing like a heist or doing stuff or. Vampire the Masquerade, again, it can make a whole lifestyle. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And it can go anywhere. Like, with D and D, there's a. There is a goal. We are going into this.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We're going xyz.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. We're going into a cave. We have a campaign where we're going to go into a cave, we're going to kill a monster, and a bunch of weird shit's going to happen on the way. But Vampire, the map Masquerade, it just sort of goes indefinitely and the story can go wherever you want it to go.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's kind of cool. It's pretty cool.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, no, it's.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I've been reading all the manuals.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, it's up. No one ever pretends to be Frankenstein, dude.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Why? It ain't no Frankenstein. Where's my Frankenstein's game? Yeah, no fire. That would be. Honestly, I love the idea. Everybody's a different kind of Frankenstein.

[Ed Larson]

Something would definitely turn into a fuck party.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, that's the other thing about Vampire the Masquerade that makes it really popular with goth kids is that it's very fluid. It allows you to explore. Your sexuality allows. Like, if you're feeling kind of weird about like, you know, like I, you know, boys kind of give me a boner sometimes. Vampire. The Masquerade allows you to kind of explore that feeling without feeling so crazy about it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And Dungeons and Dragons. Dragons. The only fluid is Mountain Dew.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Sometimes there is butt sweat because it gets warm in my. My dining room.

[Marcus Parks]

Nowhere Dungeons and Dragons has a dungeon master that runs the game. The game master in Vampire the Masquerade is called the Storyteller.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's different.

[Marcus Parks]

Tells you so much about the game itself. The Storyteller is responsible for controlling what else but the story and the world in which the player players exist.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm the vampire's boss.

[Marcus Parks]

But instead of being just an arbiter of gameplay mechanics and rules, the Storyteller is more like an improv coach. They exist to help the players have a good time living within their characters while keeping the story contained within the established lore, which is both extensive and extremely important to the game. Lore is number one now, is it?

[Ed Larson]

Improv coach? Do they inappropriately touch the ladies?

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's key. You can't officially call yourself an improv teacher unless you've played the game. All right, let's do the. Let's call everybody sit on papa's knee.

[Marcus Parks]

It depends. Are the girls paying for the improv coaching?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Because if they are, then absolutely that's what they're paying for. The improv coaching is the free part.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, players and storytellers obsess over the details of their own mythologies as they role play in Vampire the Masquerade. But that mythology has to exist within the lore. In fact, huge amounts of the Masquerade rule books are dedicated solely to the lore rather than the gameplay. Oh yeah, but once the players get planned.

[Henry Zabrowski]

So much reading.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, but once the players get playing, shit can get real serious real fast.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You betcha.

[Marcus Parks]

While many players simply talk and describe the action, like say, a DND game, the really hardcore vampire, the Masquerade players actually act out everything that happens in real time.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Time Acting the the most dangerous game of all because one must be careful who you pretend to be because one becomes what you pretend to be.

[Marcus Parks]

What they act out, however, usually excludes real violence and presumably full penetrative sex. Although I'm sure there have been many Masquerade games over the years that have given the latter a go with varying success.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, I've never heard anybody getting dome from a half orc. It doesn't work like that. D and D never ever leads to sex. Most time doesn't. Definitely doesn't lead to sex.

[Ed Larson]

No blown by an orc. It'll just get chewed off.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Flesh is back on the menu.

[Marcus Parks]

Meats. Back on the menu. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

We all know vampires suck.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yep.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They bite, suck and suck Wire.

[Ed Larson]

Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Whoa. Yeah. Vampires really put the suck in Kentucky.

[Marcus Parks]

You could also kind of do that with, like, tech sucks.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah. Fun.

[Marcus Parks]

Can't really do it with Florida, though.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Florida ass horrida. Write it down. These are shirts.

[Marcus Parks]

And when Rod Ferrell arrived at his first Vampire the Masquerade game, hosted by the Victorian Age Masquerade Performing Society in the storyteller's basem.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Welcome. There's pretzels.

[Marcus Parks]

He found the college improv actors to be, in a word, ridiculous. They were. They wore sunglasses day and night. They always wore their costumes and their makeup no matter what. And worst of all, they didn't even drink each other's blood. In other words, Rod Farrell didn't understand that these were just college kids being weird and having fun playing a game from sundown to sun up.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Do they understand that the blood's the worst part?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

All the rest of the stuff is what's fun about being a vampire.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Yeah. The blood is always the worst part about being a vampire. It's always like the pain in the ass. Like, that's the. That is the moral of almost every vampire story is that getting blood's a problem.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's always going to be.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And you need human blood. And if you're a vampire and you drink other vampire blood, then really nothing. Nothing's happening.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I. Yeah, you throw it up some, depending on the lore.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, that's what they. That's what this. This world of vampires. What they would say is that, yes, vampire blood tastes like copper or it tastes very. But human blood is sweet blood. They love human blood, the diabetics. Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. Yes. A lot of God just sucking the big fat guy's belly. It's delicious. It's like ice cream.

[Marcus Parks]

At times, as many as 17 people would participate in a Vampire the Masquerade game in Murray, Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's awesome.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And they were all led by a storyteller named James Yoi. Yoi never allowed drugs or alcohol to be used during game sessions. And he also banned weapons or harmful physical contact, which Rod Ferrell also thought was super fucking lame.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's Vampire Masquerade RPG game. We don't need to kill each other.

[Marcus Parks]

Nor do we need to drink alcohol.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Listen, that is only distracting and tiring. I have people president all the time.

[Ed Larson]

And it's pronounced Yoi.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I can't Yancy him like the other.

[Ed Larson]

I know, I can't help it.

[Marcus Parks]

But even though the vampire scene at Murray State wasn't as hardcore as Rod wanted, he still began joining in on game sessions and he still greatly enjoyed himself.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, I bet he did like it.

[Marcus Parks]

The game would usually start in James Yoi's basement where Yoi would hand out props like prosthetic fangs, claw finger ornaments or red dye to paint blood or scars. And once properly adorned, the players would go outside and explore town using intricate maps that Yoi would draw, improving the whole way. But going from what a cop said during one of these documentaries, the highly fundamentalist Christians in Murray Can, Kentucky, they actually believed that these kids were in a satanic vampire cult. They marveled this cop, he was flabbergasted that some of these members of the cult, they slowly faded away over the years. I guess they just went underground.

[Henry Zabrowski]

The vampires went underground in order to commiserate with their masters in Europe.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And he said, but there's still this one group, the one led by that Stephen Murphy boy, they're still here. We can still see them. I don't understand why all the rest of them, why they went under ground while we still to see these others.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They must be preparing for a gray device.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, what these fundamentalists didn't understand was that the so called vampire cult members didn't go underground. They were college kids playing a role playing game who fucking graduated and moved away. But Steven and his friends were townies and so they just didn't leave.

[Henry Zabrowski]

So tell me now. So they got a degree in being a vampire? Wait a second, Joe, please.

[Marcus Parks]

Dr. Vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Okay, so you're being a vampire now? My question, Mr. Whampire.

[Marcus Parks]

Dr. Vampire, please. I do not go to four years of vampire school to be called Mr. Whampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I didn't mean to insult you, Dr. Wampire, but now I just want you to know, sir. You're not gonna come back to suck me and the rest of the police force?

[Marcus Parks]

No, I have moved on to another small town in Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

All right, good.

[Marcus Parks]

I have moved up north to the Upper peninsula.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I gotta say, honestly, it's just, just. Well, it's nice to catch up, you know, you never see anybody live town anymore.

[Ed Larson]

Yes, I got the job at IBM.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Done very well. Now you're selling these vampire degrees. It's. It's leading a job. So I talked to my son about that.

[Marcus Parks]

I unfortunately did not get a job at IBM. I am stuck in the eternal cycle of drama student, drama teacher.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Let me just tell my son I got one word for you, right? You want to. To make money. Vampirism. Big money.

[Marcus Parks]

But during the Masquerade games back in 1996, the players would usually end up at the local cemetery. That's where the game really got going.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Man, this is awesome.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Cuz then they found that once they got to an isolated spot away from the prying eyes of locals, they could become less inhibited. The game really got flowing once they got to the cemetery.

[Henry Zabrowski]

All right, once we're outside, we're allowed to yell again. My mom just counted. My mom's got to go to work in the morning, so we get off yelling in my vampire cover dojo at home.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Rod Ferrell wanted his character in Vampire the Masquerade to be, as author Aphrodite Jones put it, oh, hedonos.

[Henry Zabrowski]

A party animal essentialist.

[Marcus Parks]

Rod wanted to be a rebel whose only aim was to destroy the widely accepted ideals of American society.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I just came.

[Marcus Parks]

Stephen Murphy also got more into his character once they started playing the game Game. But Aphrodite Jones neglected to mention which clan Rod and Steven chose, which is incredibly important in Vampire the Masquerade.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, it's almost like she didn't care or like it didn't matter, but it does.

[Marcus Parks]

It does. Choosing a clan in Vampire the Masquerade is like choosing your class in D and D. You know, in D and D, you got paladin, druid, mage, thief, many others, gigolo, warlock. Well, there are 13 main clans in Vampire the Masquerade. Apparently, there are also other smaller subclans.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It depends on what you want, what extension you're playing, or what excited, what you want to include in your game.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, but each of those 13 clans has their own unique traits and their own unique lore. Now, going by the most recent Vampire the Masquerade rule book, our head researcher Joel surmised that Steven Murphy was probably a member of Clan Bruja. This is all speculation here at the last podcast on the left Team. Okay, Clan Bruja. They're the counterculture punk rock types. They initiate political uprising. Uprisings. Rod Feral, however, was likely a member of Clan Toreador. According to the rulebook, vampires in Clan Toreador are cursed by their own sensuality, which makes them divas, obsessed by aesthetic perfection. To a toreador, beauty is power, and love can make them do just about anything. They can even make the dead feel something raw, something real. Or so the rule book states.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Hey, you. Come on upstairs. Daddy's ready for a second bath. Come on, Daddy.

[Marcus Parks]

Mom, I'm being raw and Real down here.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I know your granddaddy's gotta go to jail in the morning, so he's doing the first thing.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, is he? Oh, so his sentence is coming up, huh?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Very quickly now. The state is very eager to have him. That.

[Marcus Parks]

Okay, everyone has to go. I have to say goodbye to my grandfather.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We have to pause the game.

[Marcus Parks]

He's going to jail for molesting his niece.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah, Forgot he did that.

[Ed Larson]

Niece is down in France.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Very good. Thank you. Thank you. That's my bit.

[Marcus Parks]

And so after joining Clan Toriador, Rod chose his oneir name. The name that he hoped would send chills down the spines of his enemies. A name that he believed oozed sensuality and power. From that day forth, Rod Feral became Visago.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Man. Now he's a real, real vampire.

[Ed Larson]

I do stand behind changing your name from Rod.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Roderick is a hastily named child.

[Ed Larson]

I was so happy that it wasn't Rodney.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, it's Roderick.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Roderick Ferrell. Yeah. But that's how one version of the story goes when it comes to choosing Vassago as his vampire name. According to Robert Rod, he chose Vago long before he met Steven. Like, Steven didn't, like, turn him a vampire or nothing. Like, when he met Steven, like, he was already Vago. And, like, Steven's talking, I've been a vampire. Yeah. Here in one of the documentaries is Steven explaining the process of him choosing Vago.

[Stephen Murphy]

At time I was a practitioner of witchcraft. I'd also practice demonology. I'd taken Vassago as my patron demon at that time, he being one of the nine crown princes of Hell and having legions under him. In demonology, taking a patron demon, you basically literally the same way Catholics would take a patron saint.

[Henry Zabrowski]

What a. Damien Echols is so lucky he's around Damien Eccles. Like, just comparing the two is just like. Makes Damien Eccles look like Bono, you.

[Marcus Parks]

Know, like, wow, this guy. Because he's. It's always like, as they get. As we get older, those of us who, you know, get rid of our accent as a younger. As younger boys, like, the accent comes back a little bit. It is funny. Like, yeah, you know, I studying. I study in demonology. I was, you know, just Vago, he's nine. He's one of the nine crown princes of Hell.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Honestly, to get that kind of recommendation is kind of difficult. It's actually pretty, pretty hard to get him on phone.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, I don't know if you've ever read the Lesser Key of Solomon, but he is within that pantheon of demons along with Asmodel.

[Henry Zabrowski]

And if you want to hear one of them keys, it sounds like this as one of the lesser keys, one of the major keys.

[Marcus Parks]

As far as where Stephen Murphy got his vampire name. Remember, Stephen Murphy's vampire name is Jaden.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I read mine in a comic book.

[Marcus Parks]

It was Star Trek the Next Generation.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah, it was.

[Marcus Parks]

It was the episode where Data loses his memory on a pre industrial planet and the woman that helps Data is named Jaden. And Stephen Murphy, I suppose, just liked how it sounded. Cause he's still a fucking nerd just like the rest of us.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, you know, it's a tng thing. So, yeah, that's what I did. Mountain Vampire still. But I love Star Trek.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, many vampires do love Star Trek.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I bet.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, before long, Rod and Stevens were role playing all the time. And Rod especially could not seem to turn it off once he got started. But Steven was a stickler for the rules, and the first cracks in their relationship showed when Rod refused to follow said rules. I must remind you all again that this does end in a double murder. Okay. I think that part of the reason why Rod and Steven started by bickering is because they also had a strong sexual attraction to each other. Because both boys seems like at least a little bit fluid.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If you're full on vampire, you're a tiny bit fluid.

[Marcus Parks]

Definitely. During one game session, for example, Steven kissed Rod and sucked on his lips until they bled. It's pretty likely that the two of them were fooling around outside the game, as is their right, nay, their responsibility as goth teen boys. So there's a lot of big feelings surrounding all of this.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, very much so.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, despite the fact that Rod wasn't playing by the rules, both the game storyteller and Steven Murphy began to believe that Rod was taking the game entirely too seriously. This conversation that Steven and the storyteller had. This is why I think Steven didn't always believe that he was a vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No.

[Marcus Parks]

See, every person who played vampire was weird, but James Yoi and Stephen Murphy were worried because Rod truly was beginning to believe he was a vampire and they were making fun of him behind his back for it. Yeah. Rod even began telling students on the Murray State campus that he really was a 500-year-old immortal being named Vassago.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I don't think you understand the perilous social position vamps is in. Okay. Because, like, honestly, we're in between the Ross Perot fan club. Yeah. And the people with no feet collective. All right? And we need to kind of think about. About this As a. We don't need to ruin this.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Okay. For us.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. We can't have a high school student going around campus telling them that he's a 500 year old vampire named Vago.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. Cuz Jenny's not gonna come to the next meeting if I've got a high schooler who thinks he's a real vampire. You're ruining everything.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, things got even more tense between Steven and Rod when they got into a fight over. Over a girl. And it was rumored that Rod was again breaking the rules by dropping acid during game sessions.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You don't know. Let him drop the acid. I mean, feeling at that point just like he's doing it.

[Ed Larson]

We're sitting there for five hours.

[Marcus Parks]

It's more like 12.

[Ed Larson]

Gotta do acid.

[Marcus Parks]

But the biggest rift came when Stephen dropped the veil of the fantasy. Just a little. See Stephen, when he started playing Vampire the Masquerade, he changed his character. And he told Rod that he'd only been sired two years before they met. Which went totally against what Stephen had told Rod when they first got together. And Rod became furious that Stephen had been made, quote, without the approval of the elders. And Rod was genuinely pissed that Stephen had pretended to be a full vampire. But the final straw came when Stephen admitted to Rod that he was actually, shudder to think, a Christian.

[Henry Zabrowski]

What?

[Marcus Parks]

Which made Rod realize that Steven was.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No vampire at all. Fuck that. What the fuck? You went to church in Murray, Kentucky? Yeah. They have one church for every 300 people.

[Marcus Parks]

Murray, Kentucky does.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

According to the documentary in the 90s.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Why? The town that I grew up in. Yeah. Is less than 400 people. I think we had five churches.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If you didn't go to church, it's so much harder to not have gone to church.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Extremely difficult to have missed church because.

[Ed Larson]

You look like a psychopath.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You're forced to do church.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. But just as the showdown between Stephen and Rod was about to reach a breaking point, Rod's grandfather Harold was called back down to Florida on business. So as was the custom by that point, Rod and Sandra went with him. So in the spring of 1996, Rod arrived in the lake town of Eustace, Florida, armed with his Vago the vampire Persona, where he met and captivated the teenager girl whose parents he would one day murder. Soon after his arrival, Rod met a 14 year old named Heather Windorf. But instead of just saying, hi, I'm Rod.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Hi Rod.

[Marcus Parks]

He told her that he was a vampire named Vassago who had just woken up after being in a slumber for five centuries.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. That's amazing. That's crazy. You don't even have bed head or nothing. That's amazing. You just. Just woke up?

[Marcus Parks]

Yep.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You don't even have no coffee or nothing.

[Marcus Parks]

I do not need coffee. For I'm an immortal being.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. That's amazing. My name's Heather. My name's Heather. And my doctor said that they had to separate my legs when I was a child. I was born with mermaid syndrome. My mom used to drink white out while she was pregnant with me.

[Ed Larson]

Eustace.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. No. But this claim was made despite the fact that Heather was introduced to Rod by her best friend, Janice Leclair. Janice Leclair had known Rod since they were both in the second grade. So the whole I've been asleep for five centuries thing was kind of hard to explain away.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He told me he was a vampire.

[Marcus Parks]

I've known him since the second grade. I don't think he's a vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wow. That's 500 years ago.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. I didn't know you was 500 years old too.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's it.

[Marcus Parks]

That's interesting. But Rod found some way to explain that away.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I'm a vampire?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. He said that although he was cursed with immortality, he was eager to finally rejoin society. The first step that this immortal being was taking was to hang out at a Florida lake town dressed like a late 20th century Gothic teenager. Is there anything more vampiric has anything.

[Henry Zabrowski]

More absolutely intoxicating than a vampire posing as an 18 year old in Eustace?

[Marcus Parks]

Please. 16 year old.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yum. Ultimate vampire move. I've been all over Casablanca. I've been to Tehran. I've been to Tokyo. I've been to Mongolia. But here's where I found my love. I have crossed oceans of time to get to Eustace, Florida.

[Ed Larson]

So surprised that Rod knows where Tehran is.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Short on CNN where I was trying to jerk off as flipping back and forth between the scrambled porn.

[Marcus Parks]

Now please remind me once more. Have I missed George Fest yet or must I wait until next February comes?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Unfortunately, yeah. It's coming back next February. You're gonna have to get in. You're going get it in now. You want to get in right now. If you want to do in the wooden teeth contest.

[Ed Larson]

You know how hard it is to be a vampire with wooden teeth?

[Henry Zabrowski]

It's called analog.

[Ed Larson]

If you. Oh my God. If you're a vampire with wooden teeth, if you bite somebody in the chest, are you putting a stake through their heart?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Interesting. Write it down. Save it for our game.

[Marcus Parks]

Narad Regaled Heather with tales of his life amongst the 15th century nobility. That's the life that he had lived before he had taken his slumber.

[Henry Zabrowski]

We ate a lot of cheese, there's a lot of mirrors everywhere, big hats, lots of wigs.

[Marcus Parks]

But even though he'd spent five centuries astrally projecting to phantom cities across the world, he chosen to reemerge in physical form as a 16 year old American boy because it was the perfect opportunity to be what he called the ultimate rebel. Heather, meanwhile, she was hesitant to believe Rod in the beginning, but it really didn't take her that long to fully commit. That meant that she was either incredibly gullible or incredibly bored. But I'm more inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that she was incredibly bored for personal reasons.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I got stuck in a water slide when I was nine and five men collided with my forehead.

[Marcus Parks]

Speaking as someone who was 14 living in a town of less than 400 in the mid-90s, it really was mind numbingly boring and frustrating because he got just enough of a taste of the outside world from books, movies and TV to know that cooler and more interesting was happening everywhere else but where you were at that very moment. But because it was pre Internet, you only got glimpses of the outside world, so you didn't have a full picture of what the world was really like or how things actually worked. But if you had a strong enough imagination, you could fill in the gaps yourself. And if you're like, I don't know, 14 years old, if the wrong person comes around, they can really do a number on you. So yeah, I can't really blame Heather for hoping that maybe vampires were real and maybe she was special enough to be chosen by one. And I certainly can't blame her for what happened to her parents a few months later.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I will say, honestly, you know, if a vampire was going to be real, he'd be from out of town. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, it's not like I believe like Bobby Weathers from down the street. I didn't believe Bobby Weathers was a vampire. He was from out of town. How was I supposed to know?

[Henry Zabrowski]

I don't know, be turned out Mr. Henderson, he was a mummy.

[Marcus Parks]

Now that is true. That is true. That is true. He was a. He was a mummies. Now Heather was unfortunately fully primed to believe Rod's before he even arrived. Heather wasn't a full goth when she met Rod, but she was interested in ancient civilizations. She'd learned about reincarnation and she'd read every Anne Rice novel. That had ever been written up to that point. So when Rod began telling her, this 14 year old girl, that the two of them had been matched together for hundreds of years in past lives, and that he regularly astrally traveled to ancient civilizations as a magical ancient vampire, it fit into Heather's understanding of what she wanted the world to be. Seyrod told Heather that he was an all powerful ancient being with power similar to a God. And as a God, he'd been called to help save the United States from greed, corruption and the ugly Americans who threatened to destroy this planet. Rod was therefore assembling a team of young Americans just like Heather to join this important mission. And if she did what Rod said, Vassago, he would one day sire her. Just like he'd sired so many other teenagers all over the country.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Now, before. Before we begin our conquest of this very United States of America, what I need you to do is help me with my spelling test. What is this word? Apostrophe.

[Marcus Parks]

Do you know how to apply for a ged?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Have you heard of a fafsa? School loan?

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Heather said that she thought Rod was an egomaniac when she first met him, but she was also immediately attracted to him.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He was sensitive. He had an appealing voice.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Marcus Parks]

She liked his message about America being totally fucking bullshit. Because this was also a really appealing idea to a sensitive small town teen in the mid-90s.

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's what Heather faced.

[Marcus Parks]

I do love you, Heather. It makes me laugh. It does make me laugh a lot. Physically though, Heather thought that Rod was kind of gross.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, I don't like you at all. You smell bad. You look bad.

[Marcus Parks]

He was skinny and pale with long ratty black hair tied into a pink ponytail. And he was not a handsome boy.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No.

[Marcus Parks]

But he admitted what Heather called a mystical eroticism. And he knew how to talk just like Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No one's ever talked to me before. That's the thing, honestly. If you lay a line like this on a small town girl, like this idea that you're rolling into town and he's talking all because this is straight from Vampire Empire is the masquerade. Yeah, this is all straight from the handbook. He's not making stuff up. He's like just stealing what he read from the book after the fact. He's applying it like the idea of like we were joined together thousands of years. Like he's not making that up off the dome. He read it.

[Ed Larson]

That's part.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No, he read it first and then he's reading it to her and she's just like, wow. Yeah, she don't know anything.

[Ed Larson]

Also, I'm pretty sure a vampire can be a God.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

He's also in Eustace, Florence.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, there is all of that. I mean, they are reading all the same, you know, like. And he is taking certain things from, you know, like Necronomicon and HP Lovecraft and Crowley and all. All sorts of. And he's putting it all together to make his own little story. Like, that's the thing. I'm not even getting close to all. All of the. That he told her.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I mean, my God, it's just no point in telling it because it's fake. It's fake and it's dumb.

[Ed Larson]

Just wish they could have gotten involved with Halloween horror nights.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, they would have done anything constructive. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, Heather was a loner who couldn't really connect with anyone, save her friend Janice. And she felt that her parents only cared about her older sister, Jennifer, who was of course, your all American cheerleader type. So after hanging out with Rod in the local cemetery and listening to him pontificate about monsters, devils, vampirism, astral projection and will, witchcraft, Heather started dressing more goth. She donned a black trench coat and combat boots, pretty much made a new goth uniform. She then dyed her hair black. But Rod, perhaps thinking back to how things had gotten out of hand with Stephen, he made sure to keep her below his status. Allegedly. He told her, quote, you know, dressing.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Like a warm buyer doesn't make you want.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, had to obviously neg her at every point.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Just bite her.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You care about her biter, bro.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, well, but that's the thing. You gotta string them along. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Once you bite her, then she's strung along forever.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that. But then she won't do what you say.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Exactly.

[Marcus Parks]

Then she can go off on her own and make her own one beers.

[Ed Larson]

Seems like his sire is a crier.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Whoa. Cute.

[Marcus Parks]

But even though Rod was obviously just negging her, Heather became smitten with all of his talk of shared past lives. And she truly came to believe that Rod had the power of mind control. The books in the documentaries go back and forth about whether or not they had a sexual relationship. They might have, they might not have. It's hard to tell.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, I mean, again, it's just all. She was 14.

[Marcus Parks]

So eventually, the girl who introduced Heather to Rod, Janine Leclair, began to believe that Rod was a vampire as well. Because Rod really did have an incredible line of bullshit for a 16 year old. Boy. In one ruse, Rod would tell Heather that he knew French because he had, as I said, been alive in 15th century France, so why would he not know French? And as such, he would ask Heather to astrally project back to that time and place. Then he'd quiz her on pronunciation of Parisian street names and facts about French history. Now, this little shit didn't actually know how to speak French, and his knowledge of French history was probably cursory at best, but he definitely had enough knowledge to make Heather feel stupid when she couldn't recite fake French as well as he could.

[Henry Zabrowski]

All right, don't you know. Now read it. It's from the tennis courts of the French Revolution. Now read me the tenants that they wrote there is.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, wrong.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Wrong again.

[Marcus Parks]

I can't remember.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Idiot. Wrong again. It perfect. You're learning. My God, you were there.

[Marcus Parks]

Rod was also incredibly adept at the sort of self depreciating duck and dive that any good cult leader needs. When Heather and Janine would suddenly see how absurd this whole thing was, they'd start making fun of him. But when they did that, he would join in and make fun of himself as well, which only made him more endearing. You see, cult leaders do this all the time. What's his name from? Nexium? Oh, he was. He was a. He was a master at this thing. Like, this is all pretty crazy, right? This all sounds pretty weird, but guess what? It works. It's anytime someone says that jet run.

[Henry Zabrowski]

If LRH saw him do that, he'd smack the spit out of his mouth.

[Marcus Parks]

But in between the laughs, Rod would get serious. And eventually he began involving both Heather and Janine in bloodletting and blood drinking rituals. Rod would slice his arm with a razor blade and entice them to drink from him, to, quote, sanctify their souls, all while they listened to that brand new 1996 Goth kid hit record, Antichrist Superstar.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, man, in Florida, you just got that when you showed up to freshman year.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I legitimately don't think our audience that's younger than us can even understand, like as a goth or as a wanting to be that when that whole vibe rolled in.

[Marcus Parks]

Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar, his second. His second record we already knew after Sweet Dreams and, you know. And what was the first record called?

[Ed Larson]

Smells Like Children.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Smells Like Children.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. There was something about that album that kind of gave us all, like permission to be goth in a way. It opened it all up for us.

[Ed Larson]

And we all listened to it. We used to listen to it in the Locker room.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, of course. The football kids loved, like, they'd get like beautiful people. Makes you want to fucking destroy something. Something.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, Technically he was, you know, he's a bad man, but he's a very bad man.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, absolutely.

[Marcus Parks]

But yeah, he definitely made music that makes you really want, like, it really helps in football.

[Henry Zabrowski]

It does.

[Marcus Parks]

Harad's mother, Sandra, however, did catch the teens ritually drinking each other's blood on one occasion.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Y' all drinking your blood?

[Marcus Parks]

She accused them of performing devil worship. She destroyed their so called altar. And she screamed at Janine to leave the house where she'd call the police. Rod explained away an embarrassing interruption from his mother by telling the girls that Sandra was just jealous because Rod refused to sire her because his mom was like, super lame.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Crazy lame.

[Ed Larson]

It's like the only time she's done something good.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah. I remember you asked me, you were just under my childhood home and you just asked me about, like, what, you know, is it just like it was when you were in high school? And I was like, well, I don't know if all my stuff survived the several times my mom destroyed every single poster during the room. Ripped it all from the walls and everything. And so it's kind of funny that it's always like that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it was like that singing Boog scene in Boogie Nights. Stop it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Literally that. And then he gave me the line, he's like, that's why it's important to invest in picture frames.

[Ed Larson]

That's right. Because you can't just tear down a boat.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Really good.

[Marcus Parks]

It's really good. Narad was taken back to Murray, Kentucky. Sometimes time, and I think late summer 1996, the timelines here very, very loose, but he promised that even from Murray, Kentucky, he would still astrally project from time to time to visit both Heather and Janine back in Florida. The two girls, meanwhile, stayed in vampire mode so hard that they would drink each other's blood even when Warad wasn't there. And they would lie to their parents by saying that their friends frequent wounds. Oh, this. It's just a cat scratch.

[Ed Larson]

There's no cat.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Where's the cat?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But when Rod didn't astrally project into their dreams as promised, he told them over the phone, of course.

[Henry Zabrowski]

The ultimate astral projection. Speakerphone. Yes. I got a calling card from a kiosk.

[Marcus Parks]

He told them that the only reason why he hadn't astrally projected was because his other children needed to be attended to. Children in other parts of the world. They need me More. Or he would tell them that he could not astrally project because he was helping his vampire brethren do battle against the rival vampire clans of Kentucky.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah. I should have known that. I read about that in the vampire newspaper. Yeah, it's all over. I wish that vampire on fire Vampire wars would stop I wish we'd all get together by each other now When.

[Ed Larson]

I astral project to you Please accept the charges.

[Marcus Parks]

Have you heard of this new thing? I've been seeing all these commercials for this thing. 1-800-Collect.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Have you heard about it? Even vampires need it.

[Marcus Parks]

Even vampires. When you're in a pinch, you're going to use 1-800-collection.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You never did that. As a little boy, I had extended friends, like friends that became long distance friends, where we did have, like, weird fantasy games. Like, we did do, like, we pretended to sort of be members of, like. I remember we had the Monster Club. We used to pretend like it was real and it was like a thing that we did as kids. And I guess normally you'd think you just grow out of it. I'm talking about, like, this is like middle school.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yeah. No, you absolutely grow out of it. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

I was never good at playing pretend.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, it always bothered me for some reason.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Seriously. Russian philosopher of a boy. Just, like, I don't play your pretend games. I do real games, like football. Things that have sets of standards.

[Ed Larson]

Hey, you ever played Punch the Face?

[Henry Zabrowski]

That's a real game.

[Marcus Parks]

I only play games with consequences. Serious, physical consequences.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You ever played a game called joining the military after 9 11.

[Marcus Parks]

Heather, of course, still believed in Rod. And he would promise in phone conversations that he was going to one day take Heather through other dimensions or take her around the world.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Soon as I save enough money.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. To the aforementioned Tehran or Casablanca. Other vampire capitals, Cleveland. In response, Heather would tell him that if he was planning on taking. Taking her. You're gonna have to kill my parents, because if I'm alive, they're never gonna let me go. Now, I do not believe that Heather was being serious when she told Rob that he was gonna have to kill her parents if he wanted her to go with him. Traveling across the world.

[Henry Zabrowski]

No, they don't say. With their kids. Their children.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, these kids, I mean, they even. They talk about it in the documentary. They talked about killing people all the time. They blow. They would just blow off steam. They'd say, oh, yeah, we got to kill that person. Let's do it next Tuesday. I don't feel like doing it right now. Let's do it next month. They're playing vampire.

[Henry Zabrowski]

They're not real vampires.

[Ed Larson]

Essentially, if you want to play vampires, you have to like pretend to kill people.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, yes. You have to pretend to kill or.

[Henry Zabrowski]

At the very least want to kill people.

[Marcus Parks]

To kill people. You have to talk about wanting to kill people. But when Heather mentioned that Rod would need to kill her parents in order to take her away, Rod allegedly said.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Quote, don't worry about your parents. I'll take care of them when the time comes.

[Marcus Parks]

And indeed, Rod Feral would take care of Richard and Ruth Windorf just a few months later when he beat them to death in their own home with a crowbar. And it's with everything that led up to that point that we'll return next week with part two of our series on the Kentucky Vampire clan murders. Is that safe to say the vampire. Not human. Not. Not human.

[Ed Larson]

Can I, I have a vampire question? Just like vampire lore question, it's got nothing to do with the story at all. I'm just curious. Can vampire, can vampires go to space?

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, of course. No, actually there's a book I read which was awesome, that's all about how as a sci fi book about retro engineering of vampire vampiric like gene in order to help these astronauts go through deep space.

[Ed Larson]

See, but the thing is my question, why it doesn't hold water for me.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah. Vampires aren't. Yeah. They don't seem real to you?

[Ed Larson]

It looks, if space looks like it's dark but the sun's always out.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

If the sun's always out, then how can a vampire go to space?

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, one of the capsule.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Inside of it, you can't see it, there's no windows.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And if you're also looking at vampires from a sort of saying more scientific, scientific perspective, then one could say that vampires or wimpads are more sensitive to sunlight because the radiation that the sun gives off is much more harmful to vampires than to actual humans. So. But when you're in space, the sun's rays, the sun's radiation is just as harmful to a regular human as a vampire. Because the sun's rays, you're not protected by the ozone layer. So actually out in space, humans and vampires equal ground.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yes. Cuz it's the same amount of protection cuz the, the humans inside have to be protected by the sun rays. So that's why they surround with all the tinfoil inside of all that weird aluminum foil in there. Right. That's what keeps the sun out and that's what keeps vampires safe.

[Marcus Parks]

So yeah, Vampires can go into space just as much as humans can.

[Ed Larson]

I really appreciate you guys.

[Marcus Parks]

I appreciate your curiosity.

[Henry Zabrowski]

My mom never told me she was wet. Yeah, unless she just got out of the pool. Go to patreon.com last podcast ass in the left and give us money to talk about these dumb things. Then go to at LP on the left for all of our. Your social needs. Go for your social needs.

[Ed Larson]

We're doing this one more week, right?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, one more week.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Then we got more stories for you. Got more. A lot of stuff coming up, don't we, Edward?

[Ed Larson]

There's all kinds of coming up.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Last podcast on the left.com buy tickets for our live shows. We have many of them.

[Ed Larson]

That's right, man. We're gonna be in North Carolina this whole weekend. If you're listening of this today, we are in Charlotte tonight. And then tomorrow we're going to be in Durham and then the tour does not stop there. Saturday, September 20th, St. Paul, Minnesota. October 11th, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. October 25th, Oakland, California. November 29th, Cleveland, Ohio. And December 12th and 13th we're going to be in Portland, Oregon.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Yeah, baby. Very excited to see you.

[Ed Larson]

That's right. Also, I got another show I want you all to come out to if you're in LA on August 21st. Please come to Dead Men Tell Some Tales, a dark dive into Disney history. And we're going to have a lot of fun talking about all the people whoever died at the Disney parks. That's going to be at the Elian Theater. You can get tickets@eddy tunes.com Very good.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, very good.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Well, this website open about this is a. A body language analysis expert who is talking to the sign the. The astronauts when they came back from the Apollo 11 moon landing. And he's saying they seem very nervous.

[Ed Larson]

Ah, yeah, yeah, well, they're coming back to Earth.

[Henry Zabrowski]

Well, yeah, it's a whole thing.

[Ed Larson]

They're also.

[Marcus Parks]

They're like pilots and scientists. They don't really like talking to the media. They're not used to it.

[Henry Zabrowski]

I don't think you understand that this body language expert is fucking talking about Americus and it's. You're ignorant.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm so fucking tired.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You're ignorant.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm so fucking tired. I'm going to go sleep like the one. I'm going to sleep like a vampire for the whole weekend.

[Henry Zabrowski]

You creatures of the night. What beautiful music they make.

[Lacy Mosley]

What's poppin, listeners? I'm Lacey Mosley, host of the podcast Scam Goddess. The show that's an ode to fraud and all those who practice it. Each week I talk with very special guests about the scammiest scammers of all time. Wanna know about we got em? What about a career con man? We've got them too. Guys that will wine and dine you and then steal all your coins. Oh, you know they are represented because representation matters. I'm joined by guests like Nicole Byer, Ira Madison iii, Conan o' Brien and more. Join the congregation and listen to Scam Goddess wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marcus Parks]

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie, and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter, from plumbing to electrical roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well. Hire high quality [e-mail].