Judge Raises Stakes in King Vampire Case
After threatening to torture, impale, beat up, and decapitate a judge in Indiana, the self proclaimed King of the Vampyre Nation, Jonathon Sharkey, has been imprisoned. Of course just because he’s self proclaimed doesn’t mean several vampires around the nation haven’t decided to follow him. The incident comes shortly after a run for president in 2004 and once again in 2008. The “vampire nation” has had mixed reactions to the incident.
“The Vampire nation isn’t a strictly uniformed group,” said Shannon Wilkes, a tattooed barista and self proclaimed spawn of the night, “We vampires merely have chosen a lifestyle that most people shy away from. You can’t categorize us into any singular group. We are in reality merely a class of individuals who are acting with complete autonomy.” Shannon went on to say that the spelling of vampire with a y (vampyre) is indicative of a good creature of the night rather than an evil one such as Dracula. She went on to say that clearly Mr. Sharkey is not a refined vampyre such as her, but in her opinion is rather a vampire “parasite.” There’s a whole new layer of enmity I was unaware of within the vampire community.
Still others are claiming this is yet another example of oppression by what vampires refer to as “white swans.” Searching through the “Vampire Nation” web site dictionary a White Swan is allegedly someone who is still involved in the goth scene, but who has a great deal of disdain for vampires. When asked what she thought of the vampire dictionary, she claimed to have never heard of it. She said to attribute slang used within a growing and constantly shifting group of individuals and present it in an easy to access form was pointless. “It’s like saying, ‘Yeah we’re in this super secret dark club that you can’t be a part of because you’re not one of us,’ then turning around and saying, ‘but please join because there aren’t many of us and we want more of a group to identify with.’” Needless to say, the sentiment was not shared with all vampires.
Still, others have reacted to Sharkey’s arrest distastefully. Allegedly, shortly after he was originally arrested and charged with harassment, one or more arsonists set fire to a portion of Sharkey’s property in Grundy County in Tennessee. At the moment the police have no suspects, though they are still investigating the arson. Deputy Lonnie Cleek declared the case one of the “strangest” he has ever encountered.
Of course the title of King Vampire is one that is circulated around the vampire scene quite commonly. There are several nightclub owners who declare themselves the prince of darkness or the sultan of sinners, but the title always demands the same level of authority. While the subject of vampires in the social scene are generally not approached with the same dire seriousness as the paranormal creatures of mythology, it is curious to speculate what a real supernatural vampire king would do had they come over her some three hundred years ago. Would they proclaim themselves a vampire king? Or would they merely create a social scene where blood drinking was acceptable even in a century where such an act is generally accepted as dangerously unhygienic and keep themselves from being the target of police and vampire hunters alike?
