The Mineral Point Vampire

Mineral Point is an old Cornish mining settlement set amidst the driftless region of southwest Wisconsin. The place is loaded with history and early 19th century lore. On the evening of March 14, 1981 police responded to reports of a strange man lurking in Graceland cemetery. At the cemetery, officer John Pepper approached a tall, pale darkly clad figure “a huge person,wearing a black cape with a white painted face…… about 6’ 5” and ugly”. When Pepper asked the figure what it was doing, it turned and ran. The officer followed. The chase ended when the pale man leapt over a 4 foot fence at the edge of the cemetery into an adjacent cow pasture where Angus bulls were grazing in the field. Pepper wisely avoided the chase. The city was abuzz with vampire fever. Over the next two days, which include April 1, the police were inundated with sightings of lurking vampire like figures. It didn’t help that some inspired locals showed up at local bars dressed like vampires. 23 years later, on March, 2004, police responded to reports of a dark clad, pale individual sitting in a tree outside an apartment complex heckling tennants. When the police arrived the individual fled. An officer followed but quickly lost sight of the fast moving individual. There were tracks in the snow. The police followed the footprints to a concrete wall - where they ended. In 2008, the third and most frightening episode occured. “On July 11, 2008 at about 10:00 PM Mineral Point residents Brandon Heinz (22 years old) and his girlfriend Jamie Marker (19 years old) were fishing off the jetty on the far west shore of Ludden Lake when the couple heard noises coming from under the jetty. The noises were described as sounding “like something was using the boards of the jetty like a ladder, climbing along underneath us. Heinz began stomping the boards believing it was some kind of animal and hoping to scare it away. He aimed his flashlight between the cracks of the boards when he and Marker heard water splashing down towards the other side of the jetty. Heinz shone his flashlight towards the sound to see “a figure with dark hair and a very pale face pulling itself up onto the jetty”. Heinz and Marker stood in shock as the figure began to rise to it’s feet. Marker turned and ran up the path towards Heinz’s vehicle as Heinz kept his flashlight aimed on the figure.It was wearing some kind of Dracula looking cape and a suit, sort of,” Heinz stated. Marker claimed the same. Heinz threw his flashlight towards the figure and ran up the path after Marker, who was already in the vehicle with the doors locked. As Heinz started the vehicle and began leaving, Marker saw out the passenger window that the figure was coming up the path at a run and she screamed for Heinz to hurry. The couple drove to the Mineral Point police department and made a statement directly after. A patrol unit in the area of Ludden Lake investigated the area where Heinz and Marker had been but found no one. Heinz and Marker returned the next day to retrive their belongings with everything accounted for, except for Heinz’s flashlight. “Whoever it is,” Heinz says, “they can keep it.””