Fairley’s application at The Asylum, a members-only Philadelphia nightclub that resembled a padded cell, also checked out. He had filled out a form for a temporary membership and paid the fee. Reporters for the Philadelphia Daily News arrived during an “all-Goth” night a few days after the murders. They noticed the “reed-thin” people, dressed mostly in black, and the death-fetish atmosphere. People who worked there remembered Fairley and said he’d been there before. He liked a particular band, The Electric Hellfire Club, and he was into the games. A bouncer recalled his “baby face” and “blank stare,” while a manager said that they had denied Fairley a permanent membership.
The club, located on Delaware Avenue, catered to people who dressed in Goth-style clothing and wore silver jewelry and dramatic make-up—usually pale faces with black hair. They might show up in leather, rubber, lace, or tight-fitting corsets. There were quite a few clubs like this around the country, mostly in large cities. Like most of them, The Asylum offered venues for hosting vampire live-action role-playing games (LARPs), such as Vampire: The Masquerade. I have personally watched these in action.
In 1991, Mark Rein-Hagen at White Wolf had created this game, and it had inspired a short-lived television series. Vampire emphasized storytelling and relied on complicated hand signals. Its narratives were influenced by various vampire mythologies, with vampires descended from Cain, the “bad” son of Adam and Eve, who was cursed for murdering his brother. The “kindred,” or vampires in human disguise, had formed a society called the Camarilla, and each territory had its hierarchy, with plenty of dramatic intrigue.
Vampire Club
With Vampire, LARPs became popular around the world, as people created supernatural personas for themselves and joined “clans” that catered to their personality types (artistic, rebellious, impish, gang-banger, or political). Players could immerse into their characters, dress up, and travel the game circuit, which could mean going to several different cities over the course of several days. Then White Wolf introduced other occult-themed versions that included sorcerers, changelings, wraiths, werewolves, and other creepy creatures.
Vampires have been in fashion among certain types of people for over a century, most notably since the 1960s. The daily TV soap opera Dark Shadows might have influenced this trend, and during the 1970s, Anne Rice and Stephen King published bestselling vampire novels (of which Fairley was a fan). Vampire fans who took the whole thing seriously found some small coterie of like-minded individuals with whom to exchange blood. They kept their secrets and indulged their fetishes. But LARPs changed this scene during the 1990s. People met in clubs, in one another’s homes, and in Internet chat rooms to share their love of all things vampire. The subculture grew exponentially, bringing people together into an international community. Often they used nicknames such as Vlad or Wraith or Carmilla.
Mingling among them were a few mentally disturbed people who were attracted to the vampire’s edgy, predatory mystique. It was easy for them to blend in, and several vampire-related murders came to light. In 1980, James Riva had killed his grandmother in the delusional belief that he would become a vampire. In 1989, John Crutchley abducted a woman to drink her blood, nearly killing her, and was suspected in six murders. Roderick Ferrell played vampire games in Kentucky, involving a group of kids in extreme animal cruelty that foreshadowed worse things to come. At times, such people were psychotic, as was the case with Richard Trenton Chase in Sacramento. Driven by delusions that his blood was turning to powder, he became a vampiric serial killer. Some offenders became predatory simply from over-identification with this myth.
The game-playing community became testy with media suggestions that role-playing had caused these acts. In legitimate games, no physical contact was permitted. I personally interviewed people involved with the marketing and development of the games, and I agree that they don’t cause players to become violent. However, someone who was already mentally unstable, as Fairley was, could absorb the games’ images and themes to draw out their latent violence. (Fairley even said in one statement that when faced with a fight, he either refused to fight or snapped and started choking someone.)
“Vampire:
The Masquerade” game
Vampire: The Masquerade explicitly recognized characters that sought to destroy everything and anything in sight. Role-players do understand that vampires, by definition, assault people on a regular basis to survive. Most can walk away, knowing it’s just a game, but some like to play because this game allows them to express their rage, self-hatred, and other violent emotions. Fairley had admitted as much. For him, role-playing was less cathartic than empowering.
Fairley also claimed he had experienced remorse, perhaps from his quick jailhouse conversion. During the afternoon of September 20, Castor learned that Fairley was trying to reach him from prison. He called Peffall and told him to listen on another line and take notes. Then he accepted the call. Fairley admitted to the murders, and Castor repeatedly warned him that what he was saying could send him to prison for the rest of his life. Fairley said he understood.
“I know what I’ve done,” he said. “I want to own up to what I did.” However, even with this outright admission, he would still receive only life in prison. The deal had been done. Still, this phone call could help if they needed it.
Around this time, Fairley also wrote long notes to his friends, asking them to forgive him and assuring them that no one had ever been in danger from him. He said that he hadn’t realized there was so much anger in him.
Fairley’s parents had declined to continue with Marc Steinberg, but had not yet found an attorney to defend him. Thus, making this call to Castor while unrepresented would become an issue. Just two days later, the court contacted a respected defense attorney, Thomas C. Egan III, and asked if he would take the case. Formerly a prosecutor with the DA’s office, he had a reputation for having a sharp, capable mind and being quick on his feet. Although told this could be a difficult case, he was not daunted. “The profile of the case makes no difference to me,” he said. “It doesn’t change my approach.”