Quote:
Child vampire hunters sparked comic crackdown
When Pc Alex Deeprose was called to Glasgow's sprawling Southern Necropolis on the evening of 23 September 1954, he expected to be dealing with a simple case of vandalism.
But the bizarre sight that awaited him was to make headlines around the world and cause a moral panic that led to the introduction of strict new censorship laws in the UK.
Hundreds of children aged from four to 14, some of them armed with knives and sharpened sticks, were patrolling inside the historic graveyard.
They were, they told the bemused constable, hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys....
(Full story at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8574484.stm)
This is a fascinating story of how a. a local vampire myth can begin, and b. its unintended consequences -- in this case an act of parliament banning
the sale of magazines and comics portraying "incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature" to minors.
The Gorbals Vampire will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 2300 GMT on Tuesday 30 March, and will be available on BBC iPlayer.
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