Although it's generally vampires who are considered deadly, those who hunt them down can be just as lethal, as the following modern-day stories reveal.

In Australia, Shane Chartres-Abbott, 28, was executed in his home in June 2003. He was a male prostitute, and apparently his killers were a pair of hit men. Chartres-Abbott was on trial for rape, and just as its fifth day was about to commence, he was found murdered. At the trial, he claimed he was a vampire, and among the charges was that, during the rape, he had bitten off the tongue of a female client. He also said he drank people's blood. The identity of the suspects is still unknown, but the speculation is that they were hired either by the victim or by clients who feared being exposed. In any event, that supposed vampire was stopped.

Across the world, in Blantyre, Malawi, a small nation in southeastern Africa, government officials were faced with an epidemic of rumors that vampires were attacking several different settlements, according to The New York Times. In early December 2002, some villagers beat a man to death on the suspicion that he was a vampire, others attacked three Roman Catholic priests passing through, while another contingent destroyed the tent encampment for an aid group drilling wells for drinking water. They believed it was the headquarters for the vampires.

Apparently the rumors began when President Bakili Muluzi made a bargain to trade human blood assistance for food to mitigate the severe hunger crisis. People thought the government was in collusion with vampires, sending the vampires out to collect the blood. Officials were then sent out to target villages to calm these fears and demonstrate that there are no vampires. But that did not stop villagers from taking the defensive, perhaps because they already felt so defenseless against hunger and AIDS. Some had also heard about people being attacked by vampires, so the government's reassurances were unconvincing. Apparently the aid group had sprayed something into the air that adversely affected one woman, so she had beat a drum to alert others to the danger, and they had run out and retaliated. Eventually the region settled down.

While some people kill vampires outright, others just take precautions.

In 2002, Nicolae Mihut, living in Transylvania, believed that his mother, who had just died, had become a vampire. A local priest had warned him about the signs: a cat had jumped over her coffin that day, and her cheeks and lips were quite red. Mihut knew that, to release her soul, he had to stab her with a silver knife, either in the chest or the stomach. So he plunged the dagger into her heart. He knew he had done the right thing when he heard a long sigh escape her. Then she became pale. That made everyone involved feel better, and she was buried.

More recently in Martotinu de Sus, Romania, a village of some 300 people southwest of Bucharest, a relative of Toma Petre exhumed his body from the grave, removed his heart to burn, and mixed the ashes with water. He then gave it to three people to drink. It was a routine ritual for that town for slaying suspected vampires, but then something unintended occurred.

The police got involved. They heard about it and they came to investigate. It seems that slaying vampires in that area is illegal. It was considered, according to journalist Matthew Scofield for The Philadelphia Inquirer, an incident of "re-killing."

But the dead man's relatives could not understand. They believed that, by killing this vampire and making certain he could not rise from his grave, they had saved lives the vampire was trying to take. Yet the Romanian police say that, since vampires are mythological creatures, what the Petre relatives had done was a form of corpse abuse known as disturbing the peace of the dead. That carried a three-year stint in prison.

In addition, if this case was so routine for this family, others in the area were probably doing something similar, so a wider investigation was called for. In fact, other villagers acknowledged to reporters that it was occurring quite frequently, not just there but in other villages. Apparently they believed that most families at one time or another had engendered at least one vampire, and they had learned from childhood how to defend themselves.

One can tell when someone has become a vampire, according to their ideas, by digging up the coffin and checking the body's position. It may have rolled to the side, in which case the person could not have been dead. In addition, there will be no decomposition, but bloody fluid will be present around the mouth.

Once a vampire has risen from the grave to feed on the living, he or she must be stopped. That is, the heart must be removed, burned, mixed with water and given to relatives who have fallen ill.
In this case, after Petre was buried, three of his relatives grew ill. Upon opening the grave and coffin, Petre was found on his side, with blood on his mouth. Once the heart was burned--and it allegedly sang as it was trapped and decimated--those who were ill grew better, which was proof enough that they had done the right thing.

Whether it's murder or corpse abuse, people who fear supernatural monsters may act out in whatever way seems necessary for protection. To them it's not a crime.

These accounts are extremely disturbing... Although it's a blessing that we have no need to reside in coffins and many of the alleged vampire slaying techniques are BS, it seems that people still take action at the slightest hint of a vampire. In past and present discussions about "coming out" into the open to show the world who and what we are there have been uneasiness about what people would try to do. It would be total genocide. (that is the wiping out of an entire race) People are scared at the very idea of what we are. We are vampires and it is for our own good that we remain in the shadows, so to speak.

if people knew vampires existed... they would be frightened and hide and rebel against them or join ... then where would the blood supply go. do not be so naive there are many reasons to stay in the shadows and england has become a breeding ground for claimers of mass covens as many parts of the united stated has.. uhhg forsake its unfortunate birthing.

europe still strong in it's safety. I do find venice and sicily to be the most enjoyable. No one to rattle the cages.

-Clemintina

Hunters are despicable people. They're no different than the Ku Klux Klan, or the Nazi regime, in my opinion. I've been subject to several attempts by these people, and while most were imbeciles that didn't know what they were dealing with, there were some who had enough faith and confidence in their blind ambition that the possibility of success was there. Of course, they were not successful. When it came to the noviced fools that came to me with wooden stakes, a good scare sent them running. As for those with blind faith in their "mission", it was I who fled, preferring not to use violence against them. There was one incident where I was cornered, and had to resort to a method of knocking him unconcious.

Those who simply feel they must use precautions, I cannot say I hate as much as I feel they are simply misguided and misinformed.

This actually made me giggle a little bit. hehe...

So called vampire hunters have been around since vampires have been around and they always seem to end up killing the wrong ones. It is amusing to watch them sneak into graveyards dig for hours and cut off some poor persons head beliving so much that they are doing the right thing.What is really funny is when they finally confront a real vampire they have no idea what to. They might throw a cross in your face and start chanting something out of their bibles and what really throws them off is when you can quote the scripture back at them.

I've actually done that once. When I got home, I couldn't stop laughing, to be honest.

It is fuuny to see the look on their faces

lmao Here Here! i've actually had a friend do that to me, during a school trip we were at the hotel and she threw the bible in my face, course it was (for her) the fact that I'm a "witch", well I then grabbed the book from her and read from it (which was quite confusing considering it was a random page) and said "what do you expect me to do, burst into flames?" her reply was "no but that would have been interesting.". I didn't hit her though (no matter how much i wanted to). And as for the village morons going though graveyards and mutilating the wrong dead (may their souls be at peace) I can't help be pity them. Like in the story above, I have no doubt that the relatives feel ill. but what people failed to realize is that you can actually THINK yourself sick. if they truly believe their dead was going to come back and hurt them then thats what the mind made for them, yes he really could have been undead but then again it's a 50/50 chance. and as for the poor woman how was stabbed in the heart, again there is a possibility, but there is AGAIN a "logical" explanation, the sigh was the air escaping the lung that was pierced when he stabbed the heart, and the drain of color (and I know this is gross) was most likely her liquefied organs do to decomposition leaking into the coffin after the wound was made. Now we should not assume that the dead aren't dead, but we also shouldn't cast away the tales of old and blindingly follow science. I personally believe that the two should be put together, but you can't alway get your simple pleasures now can you.

Amen!!! lol Never could have said it better. lol