True Monsters in my Novel

“The evil that men do lives after them…” William Shakespeare


If you must know, yes that is me in the picture. It is a wrestling match I had as my alter ego, WAR. I liked the picture because I do look totally evil with the red eyes and sinister grin.

In this blog, I am going to deal with the human monsters in my novel "Legend of the Mystic Knights."

Let’s recap: My novel follows the training of a young page, in a world taken over by evil monsters. This page is being taught by monks or priests in topics such as Latin and history.


The monks and priests also teach the pages about how to destroy the different forms of evil creatures that roam at will around the known world. This is where I reference many “human monsters” in my novel. I took real life criminals from the past and with some creative license, adjusted their story to fit into the alternate reality of my novel. The true crimes that these people did, are not referenced in the novel, I took them and modified that they were some form of a creature, or bewitched into committing their crimes. In a scene of “Legend of the mystic Knights” a monk is teaching students about vampires, so the following list of people are referred to as vampires in my novel. Below is the account of their actual crimes in our reality.

Jure Grando- lived in around 1650’s (?), and is actually the first person described as a vampire in historical records. The records of this time are sketchy, but it appears that he was documented as having died, and 16 years later reappeared in the community. He supposedly would appear at a doorstep of a house, and then someone in that house would die under mysterious circumstances. They dug up his grave, found a perfectly preserved corpse. They beheaded him, at which time the corpse screamed. After the vampire exorcism was over, the unexplained deaths stopped in the village.

Peter Kürten- was actually known as the Vampire of Düsseldorf. He would attack women with hammers and also committed numerous rapes. He eventually ended up murdering up to 9 people and 7 attempted murders. He was finally caught, tried and executed in 1931 by guillotine.

Gilles de Rais – The original and infamous “blue Beard.” He was actually fought along with Joan of Arc. This man seemed to have a dual life, one where he served proudly in the French army, after retiring he spent his family fortune on elaborate theatrical spectacles, which he had designed. The other side of his life, he dabbled in the occult and was a murderer of children (possibly hundreds). He was condemned to death and was hung in 1440.

Elizabeth Báthory- Also known as the female Dracula, or Countess Dracula. She may be the most prolific female serial killer in the history of the world. She would torture, and then kill young virgin girls and shower or bath in their blood. She believed their blood would keep her young. Being from a wealthy family, she avoided being executed and instead was imprisoned in a sealed room, where she died 4 years later. The official count of her victims was at 80, although some state it could be hundreds.

Anna Rice- I am referring to Anne Rice, the author of numerous vampire books, including her most famous “Interview with a Vampire”. Although not a criminal in any sense of the word, I made her a vampire in my novel. I like to include some authors in my books, it is an homage I pay to the writers I like, including her.

So now you have an understanding on how I alter some famous or infamous people’s past into my novel. As always, I thank you for reading my blog, and if you want to, leave a comment.

NEXT TIME: Since I just dealt with infamous villains in my novel, next time some heroes. Come see how I change some famous good people in my novel.