Showing posts with label #KentuckyVampires #KentuckyVampireCult #KentuckyVampireClan #MurrayKentucky #RodFerrell #TrueCrime #WendorfMurders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #KentuckyVampires #KentuckyVampireCult #KentuckyVampireClan #MurrayKentucky #RodFerrell #TrueCrime #WendorfMurders. Show all posts

Rod Ferrell And The Kentucky Vampire Cult | Part two

                                                             
As with part one, please be aware that this post may contain distressing details.

According to Rod's confession, he went over to Dana Cooper's apartment because he wanted to see his fiancee Shea (Charity Keesee) who was also a member of his vampire family. They'd been in a relationship for 11 months and she was pregnant.

Rod claims that he told Dana and his fiancee Shea that he was going on a road trip to Florida and he wanted to take Shea with him. Shea agreed to go and Dana said that she wanted to go especially so she could keep an eye on Shea. They packed some things together and picked up Howard Scott Anderson who agreed to come along too.

At this point, Rod says there was no premeditation. There was no plans of what was going to happen. He and his fellow members just wanted to escape and get out of Murray for a while. They drove to Florida and the plan was to visit some of Rod's friends and pick up Janine and her friend Heather.

[Heather wanted to run away from home which she'd previously described to friends as hell. She told friends that she was a former demon who had talked with spirits during blood drinking rituals]

At some point along the trip, Rod had taken some drugs. It's unknown if the others took anything.

When they finally got to Eustis in Florida they went to Heather's house first and she got in the car whilst Rod and Howard got out. Heather, Dana and Shea decided to drive to Heather's boyfriend's house whilst Rod and Howard walked to Heather's house. They decided for whatever reason to not wait for Janine.

It sounds like a bizarre timeline of events for the girls to drive off to Heather's boyfriend's house and leave Rod and Howard there. Rod later claimed that he and Howard were going to Heather's house because she'd told them that her parents left the doors unlocked and the plan was to steal the keys to her parents car.

[Heather later claimed to have no idea of what was about to happen and said she had no part in what happened. Her sister later revealed that Heather had previously asked her if she'd ever thought about killing her parents. Her sister said no, to which Heather replied that Rod Ferrell would be the best person to ask if she ever wanted their parents murdered]

When Rod and Howard got to Heather's house, they walked around and looked in the windows to see where the parents were located. They then went into the garage and found a crowbar. Rod later said that at that moment all he was thinking about was getting some weapons, food and cash.

Rod walked into the house, holding the crowbar in his hand. Howard was slowly following behind him. He noticed that Mr Wendorf (Heather's father) was asleep on the sofa so he took a little while to rummage through the house and grab a drink.

Rod then described going over to Mr Wendorf and hitting him with a crowbar until he stopped breathing. He said that Mr Wendorf took 20 minutes to die. He then picked his body up and looked for his wallet. At some point during this, a single V was burned into Mr Wendorf's chest (this was Rod's sign. He would mark his members with a V followed by a full stop).

Howard Scott Anderson was described by Rod as like a lost puppy who was just following him around and seemed to be in shock at the murder scene. He said that Howard didn't take part in the killings but he did go through the house looking for things to steal.

They were suddenly surprised by Mrs Wendorf coming out of the kitchen. She had just been in the shower and she had a cup of coffee in her hand. She asked Rod what he wanted and threw the coffee at him. She lunged towards him and scratched him. Rod began hitting her continuously with the crowbar. He later said that he had no plans to kill her but when she threw the coffee at him, that made him angry.

Once both of Heather's parents were dead they carried on looking through the house for money and the car keys. Rod later said that they didn't find much money in the house because Heather had already stolen it beforehand but they did find the car keys.

Rod thought about waiting for Heather's sister Jennifer to come home but he decided against it and seemed to like the idea of her coming home and finding the bodies of her parents. 

Howard wanted to stay at the house and put the bodies of the Wendorf's in the swimming pool but Rod said no. 

They both left the house with a few dollars, a set of pearls and a knife. They got into the car and drove over to Janine's house to see if the girls would turn up. They managed to meet up with the girls and at this point Heather realised Rod had killed her parents once she had seen the car. Rod said that she freaked out for a while but then insisted on keeping her father's knife as a souvenir. 

After Florida they drove to New Orleans where Rod told investigators that they had been pulled over and let go. They had been pulled over a total of five times during their road trip and never got caught till they checked into the motel. 

The group had no money and Shea really wanted to call her mother to see if she would help them out. Rod wanted everyone to leave but Shea got her way and contacted her mother who told them to go to a motel and have the clerk call her so she could pay for the room. 

They went to the motel where the police were waiting for them. Shea's mother had set them up. 

Once they were all arrested, the police noted that each of the teenagers had self harm marks on their bodies. 

Ron confessed to the killings that took place on the 26th of November 1996 and claimed that the others didn't have anything to do with it. He said that Howard Scott Anderson was just an accessory and that the most he did was move the bodies a little. 

During the trial, investigators managed to track down Rod's biological father who appeared in the court room for one day. He wouldn't even look at Rod and referred to him as ''that child''. Apparently Rod was devastated and broke down in tears at this. This was the only time that anyone had seen him show any emotion. 

Rod said to investigators during his confession: ''I'm sorry, this is just a big fucking joke. My life seems like a dream. My childhood was taken away at 5. I don't know whether I'm asleep or dreaming anymore, so whatever. For all I know I could wake up in 5 minutes.''

Roderick Justin Ferrell was sentenced to the death penalty at only 18 years old. He was the youngest inmate on Florida's death row till November 2000 when his sentence was changed to life imprisonment. He tried to appeal to have his sentence reduced again in 2013 but the court dismissed it. 

Howard Scott Anderson was sentenced to life imprisonment which was later reduced to 40 years. He also made an appeal in 2013 but the court dismissed it. 

Heather Wendorf was released with no charges. This was controversial at the time and some people still believe to this day that she had more involvement in the planning of her parents deaths. Her sister Jennifer no longer speaks to her. Heather changed her name to Xoey Hawk. 

Charity (Shea) Keesee was convicted of two counts of third degree murder and robbery. She was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison. She was released in March 2006 and is now married with two children. She volunteers helping people who have come out of prison to integrate back into the community. 

Dana Cooper was convicted of the same charges as Charity (Shea) Keesee, she was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison. Dana was released in 2011. 


In 1997, a year after the murders. Rod's mother who was 34 years old at the time, was arrested for sending sexually explicit messages to a 14 year old boy. One of her messages to the boy said ''I longed...to become a vampire. A part of the family, immortal and truly yours forever.''

Rod's mother still visits him in prison every week.


This case inspired books and films including the horror movie Vampire Clan 


Further reading & sources: 




Thank you for reading, see you in the next post x









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Rod Ferrell And The Kentucky Vampire Cult | Part One

(Photo cred: TopsiImages) 

I like to write about true crime cases that are not as well known or they took place during the 80s and 90s and some people may not remember or know about them. I remember reading a little bit about Rod Ferrell and the so-called vampire cults of Kentucky in the 1990's. I forgot all about Rod Ferrell until last week when I stumbled on an old documentary about his case on YouTube. 

I decided that I would cover the case on here. I have to warn you (as with other cases I've written about), there may be some details included in my post that may be distressing. I know with this case I will be mentioning things like animal cruelty and self harm which are upsetting. 

Let's begin...

Murray in Kentucky is often referred to as one of the friendliest small towns in America. Home to The Murray State University and The National Scouting Museum and part of the bible belt which runs across America's southern states. This part of the bible belt is known as ''The Buckle''. 

The residents of Murray often attend church and refrain from drinking alcohol. The town sounds like it's never seen any trouble but in the 1990's there was a disturbing trend known as ''Vampire Cults'' that seemed to be popping up around the town. People of the town started to notice some of the young people would be dressing in black, wearing white face paint and rumours around the town began to grow that these Goths were into satanic rituals, drinking blood, taking drugs etc.

In a small town like this, older or straight laced people would often panic if they saw someone all dressed in black and automatically assumed that the person must be a devil worshipper and up to evil deeds. I remember myself living in a small town and being a Goth with rumours around high school that I drank blood and worshipped the devil. I thought it was funny at the time and I actually enjoyed people being freaked out by my appearance but I wasn't a blood drinker or a devil worshipper. People's attitudes back then were a bit over the top when it came to Goths, for example, the West Memphis Three case, where the boys were wrongly convicted of murder (with one of the boys given a death sentence) all because the police and certain members of their town suspected them because of the way they dressed and the music they listened too. People who researched the case and knew they were innocent, campaigned for their release and they were finally let out of prison. 

A lot of the ''Cults'' in Murray were harmless, just groups of bored teenagers who liked playing vampire role plays, dressing in black, hanging out and listening to music. Some went a bit too far with drugs, alcohol and cutting their arms with razor blades so that members of their ''family'' could drink their blood. They called the drinking of the blood ''Embracing''. 

As I mentioned before, Murray was known for being a nice, quiet town with some interesting characters but nothing that really stood out until Rod Ferrell and his ''Vampire Clan'' drew unwanted attention to the town for all the wrong reasons. 

To say that Rod Ferrell had a difficult upbringing is an understatement. There was no proper father figure in his life and his mother seemed to go from one unsavoury character to another. His mother was obsessed with vampires and introduced the young Rod to her dark interests. She was involved with a group who were self proclaimed vampires but she claimed that she never got as far as drinking blood. 

Rod was born on the 28th of March, 1980 in Murray, Kentucky and later said to investigators that one of his earliest childhood memories was being raped when he was five years old during a satanic ritual. He said that his Grandfather was a member of a cult called The Black Mask. Rod said that they had chosen him as the Guardian Of The Black Mask and that the guardian had to become one with everyone in the cult so they molested him and then sacrificed a human in front of him. 

Rod met a boy called Jaden at high school when they were both 15 years old, they both had similar interests in music, style of dress and everything vampire related. Rod would wear a long black trench coat to school and Jaden would wear a long black cloak. Jaden was already the leader of a small group of Goths that he called his family. This group of teenagers would often play Vampire - The Masquerade (a tabletop role playing game) and drink each others blood.  

Rod and Jaden both left school at 16 and they both were unemployed with no career prospects or plans for the future. 

In January 1996, Jaden decided it was time for Rod to crossover (become a vampire by the act of drinking each others blood) and took him to a cemetery where they stood underneath a tree which was where all the previous initiations took place and Jaden considered it sacred. He said all of the chosen ones had been made by their sires. Jaden made a small cut to his arm and instructed Rod to do the same. They then drank each others blood and afterwards they meditated for a few hours before they left. Rod was now a vampire and fully fledged member of Jaden's family. Rod would later say that he saw Jaden as a father figure.


The rules of Jaden's family were that everyone must put the family before anything else and remain completely loyal. Rod said that he hated his life and fantasised about death, he felt like he belonged when he was with the group and he opened up to Jaden about a lot of things. 

As time went on, Jaden said that he began to worry about Rod and that he seemed to be going down a darker path. He would challenge Jaden in role plays and acted like he was the leader of the family. One day Rod and Jaden were taking a walk and Rod had found a kitten wandering about on the street. Rod picked up the kitten and killed it. Jaden said that he was shocked by this and he was already concerned with Rod's obsessive behaviour and drug taking that he began to distance himself from him. The pair ended up having a fight shortly after this and Jaden banished Rod from the family.

On the 30th of May 1996, Rod's mother claims that she came home to find him with an inverted cross carved into his chest. She also found him on another occassion drinking his girlfriend's blood. 

Rod later told the police that he was tired of being a ''Blood Doll'' and wanted to lead his own family. He managed to recruit some members which included Howard Scott Anderson (who would often be described as Rod's right hand man).

Rod began to believe that he was a 500 year old vampire called Vassago and felt that he was a fortune teller who had special powers. His bedroom was full of occult material which included The Satanic Bible, inverted crosses, hooks and broken glass. 

A few months after Rod had been banished from Jaden's family, Rod, Howard Scott Anderson and some other members broke into an animal shelter where they tortured animals and killed two puppies. The police said that they were using the blood from the puppies for some sort of satanic ritual to initiate new members. 

The police suspected Rod Ferrell and Howard Scott Anderson right away and they were being questioned over the incident. The police believed that the vampire clan that Rod and Howard had been connected to had at least 30 members, all of whom had to drink Rod's blood as part of the initiation (crossover) from human to vampire. 

Just six weeks after the animal shelter break-in, Rod decided that he was fed up of the police always getting on his back and suspecting him of being up to no good. He wanted to leave Murray and the members of his Vampire family felt the same way. Rod's family members included, Howard Scott Anderson (16, the same age as Rod), Dana Cooper (19) and Charity Keesee (16).

Rod wanted to go on a road trip and stop off at Florida to see some friends, including Janine, who was his ex girlfriend and according to Rod, her friend Heather wanted to come too so he told them beforehand over the phone to pack some stuff and be ready. 


Continued in part two...










Keep up to date with my latest posts on: @CaledonianTweet & Bloglovin  

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