New Britain Herald Newspaper, September 15, 1928, Page 11

SON. Mrs. Walassic Shewn With Hor “Vampire Child,” Whese Taste for Human Bloed She Couldn't Quell. several authenticated cases of that weirdest of maladies, ‘vampirism,” in which the sufferer is obsessed with the desire to drink warm human blood. A dosen times in the past hundred years students of abnormal behavior have been able to observe actual human vampires. - But ususlly. these unfortunate bonr succumb -only by de, to their e thirst. They have invariably been people of mature age, and physicians have been able to trace their chelnpmnut through years of psycho-pathological agony, term- nating in su jor to the eraving. Berward “Welamte, 3 saven-sobrold boy 8! & saven-year-ol oy who has shocked and alarmed his neighborhood and pursled his family by exhibiting the typical traits of human vampire. Hushed and awesome rumors have through the section of the city in which the boy lives. Mothers lot their children out to play reluctantly. For the i “vampire boy" had al- ready made three ot rlamul vie- tims of his astounding mania. The only lanation that Bernard for his attacks on the boys did it because I liked to see the blood flow.” ow. Edward Welsh, six; Sidney Eppel, five, and Melvin Sachs, three, wers the chil- dren upon whom Bernard made his vam- pire assaults. The three bitten boys all told the same story of the manner in which they were attacked. It is thought that other and similar attacks upon little gizls may eventually be traced to Bernard. Young Eppel was the first victim. He still bears scars of the boy's testh above his right eye. He that one after- moon whil ing in the street near his home, Be ran up to him_ without warn| elapped a hand over his eyes, and sank his testh into his face. Screaming, he ran home and told his parents how he had been bitten. They waere inclined to pass the matter off as & childish prank, until the other two chil- dren told how they, too, had been bitten in the same way. ‘htn other youngsters in the neighborhood revealed how Ber- nard had tried to bite them on numerous occasions on faces, legs and hands, n was begun, and the unusually “complexed” boy was qu ned. The result was one of the strangest revelations of child ufihulo‘y in the annals of “fixed ideas.” ntil two un‘o, it seems, Be: was & hnlo!y 1 apparently normal child. At that time he was stricken with d#ht!wrh‘ 8ince then, according to Mrs. alassic, her son has. exhibited eccen- tricities that have grown more and more IN the records of medicine there are alarming. “Ever since he came home from the hospital he's done the strangest things. I've tried spanking -r boy, but that seems to do no good. It seems no kind of punishment makes him act right—like the other boys.” Not lozllur Bernard's illness he was given & dime with which to buy candy at & nearby store. He returned with bulging rem and retired to the kitchen. In & 'ew moments s sharp explosion startled the household. The boy had bought, not eandy, but firecrackers, which he had placed in the kitchen stove. “It's & wonder we weren't all killed,” Nhis despairing mother admitted. “He did that several times. We couldn’t stop him. - But that isn’t the worst. He soon began running out in the street and lying ‘down close to the trolley tracks. He says he does this to ses how near the cars can come to him without striking him. “One day I watched a car pass our window was horror-stricken to see m lying, a few inches from the motorman tried te stop, but it was too late. As the car rushed by, Bernard lay looking up at the wheels and -flht He sald lu.rtn a big kick out of that. But I certsinly didnt. I thought sure thess wheels would crush him. “Something Hke this he; every day. ppened nearly @ ran away from home time after time. Once he was found, after a sesrch that lasted all night, twelve miles sway. He had broken an electric machine that- makes fee, and the owner came to me with & bill for repairs. I had no money so Bernard have to be put in an institution.” ~ VAMPIRE BAT. The Much-Droaded South American Bat, Which Sucks the lood of SI . Alarming Misdeeds . Child, Who Sank His Teeth)| in Playmates’ Faces, Let Street Cars Graze Him, and Threw Explosives Into “ ¢} did it bocause [ liked to sese the bloed flow.'” The Family Welfare Society of Baltimore immediately took an in- terest in the case. They found that Bernard had hgen first treated for “strange symptoms” two years ago, Jjust after the diphtheria attack. At that time physicians recommended that the boy be put in a corrective institution, but Mrs, Walassic was ‘maternally reluctant to do this. After the three victims of the “boy vampire” complained to the suthorities and Bernard's case was brought to light, Dr. Leslie B. Hoh- Left te Right: 5::-0; Eppel, Edward Welch and Melvin Sa “The bey had bought, met candy, but large firecrackers, which he had placed in ‘the kitchen stove.” VICTIMS, eclare They Were Bitten in the Face by the “Vampire Ch mans, noted child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, made a study of all the circumstances. Here is the opinion he advances as to the cause, the prog- nosis and cure of the youngster’smalady: “Bernard Walassic belones to the class commonly known as ‘emotionally unstable.’ Unless his vicious habits are cured now he may grow up to become a criminal. Now th & chance. Our penitentiaries and hospitals are filled with types such as he represents. Their lives might have been saved if they had been taken in hand at this boy’s age. "Wh?pinn and punishments will do no good. In defectives of this kind their grievances are increased bf’ such meas- ures, and the peculiar delusions under which they suffer are thus aggravated. “Just as I would find myself lost if called upon to run things in some executive capacity to which I had not been trained, so Bernard finds himself lost in the games of normal children. He retaliates by biting and other extreme measures. ' His desire to see blood flow is actuated by & liking for seeing other people suffer. “He should be placed in an institution at once. There he can be studied by com- petent men and treated. It is his only chance of a cure. Many times children, with proper care, outgrow complexes such as his and grow to be normal adults.” Meanwhile other physicians, scientists and laymen are curiously examining the boy’s history. Human vampires are ad- mitted to exist by science, and many people contend that Bernard is one of these pathetic examples of twisted men- tality. Exponents of this theory to account for the boy’s actions point to the case, a few years ago, of an aged crone on the island of Haiti who was convicted of se- cretly imbibing blood from her nine-year- old niece, causing the child to decline as if stricken.with some wasting disease. They point again to the Countess Ba- thori, a rich and beaut:ful Hungarian woman, who owned a castle in the Car- pathian Mountains. At her trial, which took place three hundred years ago, she was convicted of abducting young and attractive peasant boys and girls, chain- ing them to posts in a dungeon of her castle and visiting them nightly to drink their blood through opened veins. There are other cases of genuine human vampires on record, and it is pos- sible that this is the hapless mania from which little Bernard is suffering. His mother has her own theory as to the cause of his condition. She recalls that about four months before he was ore Boys Who His Mother’s “He began ru! in the street born she was attacked by a mad dog, who at- tempted to bite her. “I was fearfully frightened, and fainted. n, 8 few weeks later, a fam- ily living next door were hurt in an_automobile accident. They were brought home cut and bleeding. 1 couldn’t for- get that sight, and I be- lieve my son may have been affected by these ‘ things before his birth.” Dr. Hohmans, how- ever, scoffs at this ex- planation. “Medical science has proved that prenatal conditions have nothing to do with a child’s habits,” he maintains. Meanwhile the res- idents of Bernard’s neighborhood are won- dering what he will do next, if he isn't, put away where he can do no further harm. 1t is said in the vicinity of Bernard’s home that he may have attacked many more children than the three who caused him to be examined by physicians. Per- haps a dozen or even a score, say his play- mates, who now carefully avoid the lad with the biting mania. The doctors who took charge of the case declare that when Bernard appeared in the clinic for his first examination he refused to answer questions and showed his contempt for the proceedings by storming through the room, kicking things about and throwing whatever he could lay hands upon. It was with dif- ficulty that they persuaded him to sub- mit to the tests. Nearly every student of child psychol- ogy who has had to do with Bernard be- lieves that here is no ordinary case of a “bad boy.” While they concur in the belief that, with shrewd care, he has a chance to become a worth-while and nor- mal citizen, they consider his predicament very grave at the present time. Not often do the shivery apparitions of detective thrillers materialize into flesh and blood. “Dracula,” that creepy play from the book by Bram Stoker, deait with a Transylvanian nobleman who sated his cravings by drawing the blood of young maidens. It is possible that, un- less this Baltimore boy is given care that Oopyright, 1928, International Feature Service, Ine. Grest Britsin Rights Reserved. P s u’s“Vamire Comp]_"g~ will check his extraordi- nary tendency, he may de- velop into a man not much different from the Mad Count, Yet to the casual ob- server ht seems to be a more than ordinarily mild- mannered and well-behaved oungster. His features ave the healthy innocence that you would expect to find in the face of a care- fully sheltered and rather shy boy. He seldom shows any of the wild fury with which he is credited except when he is in one of his “tantrums,” such as on the occasion of his visit to the doctors. His mother declares that one of her biggest prob- lems is to keep him from running away. Several times she has hidden Bernard’s clothes to make him stay in, only to find that he is unconcerned about lack of covering, and will attempt to run out into the street without a stitch on. After he has been placed in some institution which cares for cases like his, it will be interest- ing to watch the development of the poor little “vampire bcy.” Perhaps as he grows older the mania which now en- slaves him will be slowly conquered and after a few years he may emerge with normal tendencies. Psycho-pathologists admit, however, that he must be watched closely for a long time. Though his “biting obsession” will quite possibly disappear, there remains the chance of a recurrence. Of the notorious human vampires who have faced legal prosecution in the past there is, as far ds can be ascertained, not a single case of a total cure. But on the other hand no case of a person of Ber- nard’s tender years has been known. He be young enough to overcome this malady which is past the comprehension of normally eomplexed individuals. All Mrs. Walassic can do now is to turn her son over to science and await the verdict of the years. Hope lies in the remarkable advances of mental research during the present decade. Strange facts have been unearthed about the thyroid, pituitary and other hitheto unexplored glands of the body, and if Bernard is sufféring from a disease hinging upon improper functioning of these mysterious organs the whole course of his life may be changed by application of what science ? £ VAMPIRE SYMBOL. to Balsac's Famous Nevel, “The Which Deals With the Drinking of Human B already knows about them. theraphy cases as stub- ] 's seem to have been al- most miraculously improved. Finally, shrewd students have 'W an even more optimistic explanation o the boy’s case. They point out that quite possibly his malady may be an e ly | simple result of having been told net to do the things which have puzzled and alarmed his family and friends. It may be that his eculiar psychological r on pts | im to stubbornly persist in a course which he has found, by accident, to be annoying to his elders. Dr. Hohmans is of the opinion that Bernard’s predicament is not as mild and simply disposed of as this, however. He believes that the trouble is much more deep-seated, and that the boy derives pleasure from sinking his tee! into human flesh. In any case, medicine and modern methods give him a chance of cure far beyond what he would have had even twenty-five years ago. Thus no one need fear that Ameriea will witness a counterpart of the fearful character in Balzac's “Le Succubus”— most shocking of fictional human vame pires—for the Baltimore boy will be under the watchful eye of Twentieth Cenfury science.