Talk:The Weird Weekend/Comments
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Richard Freeman, born in Nuneaton, England, in 1970, is the zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ). In 1995 he took a degree in zoology at Leeds University. It was whilst he was on a summer holiday from the university that he first heard of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. Upon buying a copy of the Centre’s journal Animals & Men he was impressed enough to subscribe and begin writing for the publication. Subsequently he became the Yorkshire representative of the CFZ. After the course had ended he left Leeds and moved down to Devon to become a full time member of the CFZ. He is now the Zoological Director and co-editor of their journal. Freeman has hunted such monsters as the Monster of Martin Mere, an 8 foot, swan-eating catfish in Lancashire; the Loch Ness Monster, possibly a giant eel; the Monster of Loch Morar, again probably a giant eel; the Monster of Windermere in the Lake District, once more almost certainly a huge eel. He has not, however, hunted predatory demons.
Richard Freeman has published two books, Dragons: More Than a Myth? from CFZ Press and Explore Dragons from Heart of Albion Press. As well as writing for Animals & Men he is a regular contributor to Fortean Times, a magazine devoted to the weird and bizarre.
Richard Freeman has given talks on strange beasts at events such as the Fortean Times UnConvention in London and the CFZ’s own Weird Weekend at Exeter. He is interested in gothic and new wave music, collects books and comics, and is still a devoted fan of Doctor Who.
A colleague of Freeman’s wrote: "The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are deeply eccentric – their prizes in their annual quiz were 'Nazi dildo guns' that shoot 'right-wing sex energy'. But they switch from mad humour to expert analysis at the flick of a switch. Former zookeeper Richard Freeman – he’s the one in the black Regency frock coat with the dragon-tipped swagger cane – will switch from making jokes about Southerners falling over after a thimble-full of Babycham one moment to an authoritative discourse on putative long-necked seals." (http://www.mattsal.com/site/menu-exe.php?found=2602)
There is, however, a much darker side to Richard Freeman who is sometimes willing to spout nonsense as well as be influenced by it. The following was wriiten under the title "Satanists are so nice" in The Scotsman, 26 October 2004:
Richard Freeman, an expert in the paranormal studying Satanism at the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Exeter, says that your average Satanist is pretty harmless. He explains: “There are several different types of Satanism but the most widespread is the first Church of Satan, which was started in America by Anton LaVey, who looked remarkably like Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. He did not believe in the devil as a monster living in a pit in hell. His whole philosophy was, 'Why should people abstain in this life on the promise that they will be rewarded in the next life, when there might not be one?' His thing was enjoying life to the full. Do what you like but don't harm anyone. There are hundreds of thousands of Satanists around the world, and most of them are just out to have fun, to enjoy their lives because there might not be an afterlife. They go to church [the Church of Satan] though I dare say their gatherings are a bit more fun than the traditional Sunday morning at church - they're probably held on Saturday nights. They don't sacrifice animals, they don't abuse children, they don't rape virgins. They do have an awful lot of sex and some take a lot of drugs and drink a lot. I think fundamentalist Christians are a lot more dangerous than Satanists.”
Link: http://www.rickross.com/reference/satanism/satanism93.html
Having been influenced by malice issuing from a man convicted of crimes at Highgate Cemetery during the 1970s, Richard Freeman posted the following on March 04, 2006 at 10:06 PM:
"Shortly after a man was found dead in the graveyard with appalling wounds to his neck. The official police verdict was suicide. One cannot help wonder if it was something else. Sadly the Highgate Vampire case has been hijacked by the ‘Reverend’ Sean Manchester, a self styled Bishop of the ‘Old Catholic Church’. Manchester has writtern [sic] a book ‘The Highgate Vampire’ that must be the most appallingly self aggrandizing drivel I have ever read. In it he paints himself as a Byronic hero who battles the forces of darkness like a cross between Errol Flynn and Dr Van Helsing. He claims, among other things, to have staked the vampire (an actual animated cadaver according to him) and battled a giant demonic spider! Manchester is fiercely jealous of David F—— and never ceases to dog and criticize him at every opportunity. Perhaps this is because Arrant [sic] and his friends were the only ones brave enough to attempt to tackle the entity in reality."
Link: http://www.foolishpeople.com/foolishpeople/2006/03/urban_monsters.html
The slur on the Right Reverend Seán Manchester, Bishop of Glastonbury who is recognised by most mainstream denominations, is perhaps difficult to comprehend from someone with a degree from Leeds University who takes an interest in strange things, but less so when Freeman’s penchant for the satanic and his anti-Christian bias is understood. To counter the libel that Bishop Manchester is “self-styled” see http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/BSC.htm where a leading Anglican Bishop, the Right Reverend Richard Holloway, supports his validity at a Broadcasting Standards Commission hearing he chaired where complaints made by Bishop Manchester were upheld. Richard Freeman's abusive post must be seen in the light of two basic facts. Freeman was born in the same year the Highgate Vampire case first entered the public domain where television programmes, press articles and freelance vampire hunts brought it out of the shadows. Freeman is an apologist for occultists, eg the article in The Scotsman, 26 October 2004, where he is quoted saying "I think fundamentalist Christians are a lot more dangerous than Satanists."
Does Freeman regard Bishop Manchester as a "fundamentalist Christian"? Possibly. He would be wrong, however, to do so. Bishop Manchester is an orthodox and traditional Catholic who has specialised in the ministry of exorcism for most of his life. The interview Freeman gave The Scotsman would certainly explain why he is an apologist for David Farrant who can apparently do no wrong in his eyes. Farrant, of course, did not “tackle the entity in reality,” as alleged by Freeman, but was convicted in the UK of crimes which include threatening people with black magic, plus desecration and malicious vandalism at Highgate Cemetery which resulted in Farrant being sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment. Farrant also has a criminal conviction two years earlier for indecency in a Barnet churchyard where he claimed to have performed necromancy with a girl in order to communicate with the dead. The press, as always, were at hand to report this dubious act of witchcraft. Indeed, the girl, also convicted of indecency, was a cousin of the principal journalist who covered the stunt. Freeman's suggestion that "Farrant and his friends were the only ones brave enough to attempt to tackle the entity in reality" is a complete inversion of what will be found in the public annals and what has been established to be the true history.
Perhaps Richard Freeman should take a look at what Farrant claimed he was up to on Hallowe'en 2006? See The Sun, 31 October 2006 at the link:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006500393,00.html
Barbara Green (three months older than Farrant who was born in 1946) and Catherine Fearnley (born in 1973) are close friends and enthusiastic supporters of David Farrant, who (accompanied by Green and Fearnley whom he first met in June 2004) conducted an alleged "occult ceremony" over a tomb on private land at Kirklees Park Estate, Yorkshire, in April 2005. No permission to carry out this "ritual" on privately owned land was sought and certainly none was given. A photograph of the publicity stunt appeared in a local Yorkshire newspaper (Brighouse Echo) courtesy of the aforementioned trio who in reality are the sum total of Farrant's self-styled coven.
David Farrant, who has Richard Freeman’s blessing, is a pathetic creature who has been courting publicity in the press by means of pseudo-occultism and phoney witchcraft for the past thirty-seven years. To achieve this he is obliged to resort to extravagant claims which bear no resemblance to the truth. When will it dawn on such people that Farrant is inventing his nonsense purely for publicity in the press and, of course, his own self-aggrandisement? Even his fellow wiccans and witches want nothing to do with him. Every wiccan board found where Farrant’s recent Hallowe'en story is mentioned is justifiably highly critical of him and his motives. See the following examples which are representative of many more that could be cited:
Link: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/jasonpitzl/116248998108551071/#200132
Link: http://www.pagan-network.org/smf1_1/index.php?topic=21497.0
The tacit support given to the fabricated and frequently malicious claims of the convicted felon David Farrant by Richard Freeman and the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Exeter has cast something of a dark shadow on both.
Vampire Research Society 12:20, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
