Interview with the Vampire was released in late 1994. By 1996, it had inspired weird, strange, and just plain lonely kids around the world. The story of the vampire became a very public item, and it only makes sense that crazy antics followed. Of course, it’s one thing to pretend like you and your friends are “vampires” that are part of some secret nest. It’s another thing entirely to actually act like vampires and go out and hunt for blood.
That, however, is exactly what Rodderick “Rod” Ferrell decided to do in 1996. Rod was 16 at the time, and was part of a group known as the Vampire Clan. They were reported to drink each others’ blood and recruit other wayward youths into their group. Ferrell claimed to be Vassago, a 500-year-old vampire, but of course failed to seal the deal that one fateful day when he decided to act. Rod and his accomplice, another teen by the name of Howard Anderson, actually killed a couple in their home by entering through an unlocked garage door.
Both victims were bludgeoned to death, the husband on the couch and the wife as she was exiting the shower. Ferrell notoriously carved their symbol, a letter “V”, into the chest of the man, after committing the murder. The shocking part is that the so-called “vampires” didn’t drink the blood of the victims. There was plenty of blood found at the scene, including all of the blood still in the victims’ bodies.
The daughter of the couple came home and discovered their bodies, as well as discovering that her 15-year-old sister was missing. Just three days after the bodies were discovered, however, police tracked the killers to Baton Rouge, where they were found hiding out with some of their followers and the missing teen daughter of the victims.
In 1998, Ferrell became the youngest person on death row after being sentenced for the murders. Later, however, the sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole. There haven’t been any notorious crimes associated with this gang since Ferrell’s conviction, but it’s still proof that when you get the right kind of people together, things can go very bad, very quickly.