Mineral Point Vampire
PART 1 • 1981 | Officer Pepper had likely anticipated a quiet night, uneventful if not somewhat boring, the kind of night he’d become accustomed to while on patrol in the small community of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. It was a weeknight and with snow falling since just before sundown and the promise of dropping temperatures there wouldn’t be too much trouble for folks to get into. It must have been a welcome surprise when an urgent call came over the radio from dispatch. There had been several reports of someone running around in Graceland Cemetery, in fact, not just someone according to a few of the callers, but someone who looked like he was dressed as a vampire. The officer must have chuckled a bit thinking about what kind of numskull dresses up like a vampire and tromps about a cemetery on a snowy night in the middle of March. But, then again, it was a slow night and his duty to investigate, who knows, it might give him a good story to tell the crew over coffee the next day. When he arrived the cemetery was dark, quiet, and blanketed with the new fallen snow. Exiting the squad car, he lit up the darkness with his flashlight and once his eyes adjusted to the night, he spotted the person of interest, dressed all in dark clothing, crouching beside a headstone. He yelled out and that’s when the creature turned toward Pepper and rose, what the officer saw is best left in the description he put in his report, - a huge person, wearing a black cape, white painted face, about 6’5 and ghoulish - Pepper yelled out again at which point the creature let out a low growl, turned and ran. Instinct must have kicked in as Pepper gave chase but when the lean figure easily cleared a 6-foot fence into an adjacent cow pasture the officer gave up pursuit.
The following day, with additional officer along out of interest, they followed the man’s tracks in the snow up to the fence but found no trace of his escape on the other side. It was as if he leapt over the fence and took flight.
PART 2 • 2004 | It would be nearly 23 years to the day before the Mineral Point Vampire would be seen again. It was early evening and a light snow was falling. Police officers were dispatched after several people reported a “creepy man” lunging and jumping at them from a small cluster of trees as they were walking toward their apartment complex. When officers arrived, they saw a man who fit the witness’s description, six to six and a half feet tall, dark clothes, pale skin, he was standing among a grouping of trees staring back at the officers. But when they began to approach, he bolted, the officers giving pursuit. The chase was over quickly after the suspect effortlessly leaped over a ten-foot concrete wall leaving the officers empty handed. When they were able to get to the other side of the wall, there was no sign of him. Just as in 1981, the officers found evidence in the form of footprints and scuff marks leading up to the wall, but no sign of his landing or fleeing on the other side.
PART 3 • 2008 | The last and by far the most intense encounter with the Mineral Point Vampire occurred late one summer night at Ludden Lake, just north of the city. A young couple had extended a day of fishing into a quiet night by the water. They were sitting on a dock when the songs of the katydids and crickets was interrupted by something scurrying along the underside of the dock, seeming to use the decking as a ladder. Assuming it must be some kind of critter they began to stomp on the deck hoping to scare it away. For a brief moment all fell quiet, until the sound of splashing at the end of the pier. Turning their flashlight toward the sound, the couple saw a figure pulling itself out of the water and up onto the dock. They watched as the figure, dressed in black and standing well over six feet tall, began to rise to its feet, he was very pale and quite thin, his dark hair pressed to his face dripping water. For a moment, the trio stared at each other across the length of the dock. The girl was the first to flee, while the young man kept the light trained on the figure, but he too ran when the creature made an aggressive lunge towards him. He was about halfway up the path to the car when he turned and saw the creature, still in pursuit was closing the gap, he threw his flashlight in the creature’s direction and quickened his pace.
When he got to the car his girlfriend was already there, doors locked, once inside himself, he began to make a hasty departure which apparently wasn’t fast enough for his girlfriend, who was watching the creature coming up the path from the passenger side window and screamed for him to hurry up!
They drove directly to the Mineral Point Police Department and made a statement, a patrol unit would drive out to Ludden Lake that night to investigate but found no one in the vicinity. The couple went back during the light of the following day to look around and see if they could find anything that might explain what they seen the night before, but all they found was their fishing gear, all of it, nothing was missing, well, oddly enough, nothing but the flashlight.