Ah, the stuff of legend, vampires. Do vampires really exist? Sure they do, didn't you ever hear of the vampire bat? The vampire bat lives in Mexico, Central America and South America. It doesn't really suck blood but make a small hole in the skin so it can lap up the blood. In its saliva is an anticoagulant so the blood will keep flowing while it eats. When it makes the hole it releases an anesthetic so the animal usually doesn't feel anything. Did you know than less than 1/2 of 1 % of bats carry Rabies. Bats are not rodents and may be more closely related to primates. Bats are not blind, and have great eyesight, but can't see colors. ( Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Picture Source: USDA

There are also vampire appliances. You may have some of these in your home. They are the appliances that are always sucking current even when not on. Check around, I am sure you will find some.

Hollywood is usually the first place we think of when someone say vampire. Hollywood has defined what a vampire is supposed to be. The word vampire has its roots in the Mediterranean languages. The earliest reference to the word arises in the Slavonic Magyar from vam, meaning blood, and pir for monster. Hollywood pictures a vampire as the undead roaming the streets at night looking for victims to suck the blood from. During the day they rest in their coffins, which contain dirt from their homeland, in some hidden area. Garlic, silver bullets, crosses, holy water, wooden stakes, sunlight and mirrors are the enemies of vampires. A pure white stallion is used to find the graves of those who will turn. The vampire turns into a bat, wolf or a smoke like vapor. It can never enter a home uninvited.

Some people actually believe that vampires exist, I am not talking bats or appliances here. Some people want to be known as vampires. Take the case of Vampire Verne the wrestler that likes to munch on his opponents. The two most famous vampires in history were Nosferatu from the silent films and, of course, Count Dracula.

James Riva believed he was a vampire. In April of 1980 he shot his grandmother with bullets he had painted gold. Then he drank her blood from the wound and told authorities that this was to give her eternal life. He said he did this in self defense because he believed she was drinking his blood while he slept. Riva was into vampires since he was thirteen years old. He killed animals to drink their blood.

Rod Ferrell was the leader of a teenage vampire cult. He killed two people with a crow bar so he could steal their Ford Explorer so his group could drive to try and meet famed vampire writer Anne Rice. When the judge sentenced him he stated that there was truly evil in this world.

Rhode Island Vampire? In 1888 the Brown family experienced several tragic deaths. The mother, Mary Brown, died of tuberculosis. Mary Olive Brown, a daughter died from the same thing. Mercy Brown then got tuberculosis and died in 1892, she was 19 years old. It was too cold to bury her since the ground was frozen, so she was put in a crypt until she could be buried in the spring.

People began to report seeing her wondering the town. After she was dead for about two months, her brother Edwin became ill and was dying. George Brown, her father, was convinced Mercy was returning at night as a vampire and was feeding on Edwin. New Englanders at the time, believed that if a family member had recently died and then another began to waste away it was because of vampirism. The only cure would be to dig up the body and if there was no decay then the heart must be burned. After the heart is burned then the ashes were to be mixed into a potion and given to the victim.

George Brown with Dr. Harold Metcalf dug Mercy up along with here sister and mother in 1892. The mother and sister were now bones but Mercy was perfectly preserved. The doctor burned the heart and mixed the ashes into a potion and gave them to Edwin. Edwin died two months later. No one else in the Brown family died of tuberculosis.

A couple in Germany killed their friend by stabbing him 66 times in a Satanic ritual, vampirism was involved. Daniel Ruda and his wife Manuela confessed to the killing. Their apartment was full of human skulls. Manuela acquired a taste for human blood at 'bite parties' where people would volunteer to have their blood sucked. Manuela slept in a coffin in her apartment. Police found the body of the friend in the apartment with a pentagram carved into his chest and a scalpel sticking out from his stomach. The couple met when Daniel advertised in a magazine by saying "Pitch black vampire seeks princess of darkness who hates everything and everyone."

Supposedly there is a second category of vampire that is called a Physic Vampire. It feeds off the live force of a person and not their blood.

When we think of Count Dracula, a lot of us older people think of Bella Lagosi, the actor who played him so convincingly, but I wonder how many people out there know that he also played Jesus in a stage play.

So if you want to avoid these monsters remember the garlic. About the safest place you can be is a good Italian restaurant.