Pope Submits to Copyright Law

John Pope-de-Locksley aka The Master Therion finally agrees that all photographs for his "books will not be from newspapers or magazines or books — only those" John Pope or his friends have taken.

Letter to John Pope

Letter from †Seán Manchester to John Pope, 11July 2020.

Dear John,

I find it exceptionally naïve of you to listen to Anthony Hogg and now Bob Best.

What makes it particularly puzzling and disloyal of you is the closeness you felt toward David Farrant from 1973 until his death last year.

You both stood together in the dock at the Old Bailey in 1974, and there was much else besides. On the matter for which you were convicted I am observant as how you publicly claimed to have been "roughed up" by the police detectives who arrested you, but had selective amnesia when two Sunday People journalists did pretty much the same thing (taking you into their vehicle and threatening you unless you went along with what they wanted you to say) three years later. You changed your original story due to the pressure they applied, and, to his credit, your father, Fred Pope, made an official complaint to the Press Council.

I always found it curious how your loyalties and accounts fluctuated according to the way the wind happened to blow. Your father, whom I spoke to on the telephone, believed you were terrified of the Sunday newspaper reporters. He was probably right. You do seem easily persuaded by outside forces.

Now we have the spectre of Anthony Hogg in Australia and his collaborating lapdog in England, Bob Best, whom, incidentally, I believe to be unstable, convincing you to write about the case of the Highgate Vampire when, in fact, you know nothing more than anyone else who has read about it in a newspaper, book, or watched something about it on a television documentary, or listened to a radio interview about it. Notably you were unable to contribute anything yourself because you were not there, and only much later learned about the case from others. Why, then, would you be an ideal candidate to write about the case other than Hogg suggesting the notion to you and Best encouraging you?

There is something deliciously absurd about it all, but, due to your apparent incomprehension about the law of copyright, I must insist that you do not reproduce for this project any images, of myself, or any images that were taken by myself, no matter what the subject matter. I only tell you this for your own benefit.

The late David Farrant and I did not always see eye to eye, but you were as close as anyone could be to him for forty-six years, and you were largely in support of what he did. As we know, I was not. However, David Farrant, as the years passed, grew to loathe Hogg, and those of his friends, eg Redmond McWilliams, who allied themselves to this Antipodean troll Farrant considered treacherous and disloyal. Hence he severed links with some erstwhile closest to him, and that is how it remained until his death. Quite what he would have made of your alliance with Hogg I do not know; never mind the support you provide on Hogg's hate group to which you happily belong.

We are each one of us accountable for our actions, and will face the consequences of them in the fullness of time.

Ultimately, I wish you well, John, and, might I add, I also wish you a very happy sixty-seventh birthday.

Please wake up before it is too late.

Sincerely,

†Seán Manchester

Deceiver

Why  does Kevin Chesham want to be bigger than he really is? His quest has always been to inflate himself to something he is not. Only his ego outstrips the rest of him, and this shows on his face in photographs.

Why  does Kevin Chesham claim to be a pacifist? He says: "Despite my  military career, I am in essence a pacifist, and do not condone  violence." Yet those who worked in close proximity to him, people I also knew,  recognised his propensity for violence. He nearly assaulted a person  senior to him, and showed extreme aggression a lot of the time. When out  running he would shout at strangers who were smoking cigarettes. I recall him potentially vandalising vehicles by running over the bonnets and roofs of cars parked down Merton Lane as the group of athletes left Hampstead Heath on a run. He would bang on the roofs of cars who cut him  up on the road when he was out cycling, and I was told of occasions where he threatened motor vehicle drivers with violence. Also, what kind  of pacifist takes employment as a night club bouncer where, by his own  admission, he did unsavoury things about which he is now apparently ashamed?

What was  the self-proclaimed "pacifist Buddhist" and believer in "non-violence" doing owning several deadly weapons which he kept in security safes at  his home prior to emigrating to New Zealand? Representing the modern pentathlon reserve team for the Army enabled Chesham to acquire a  firearms certificate, but he owned rather more than the pistol used in  the pentathlon. He told me that he had acquired automatic weapons which he kept at his home that were not covered by a normal firearms certificate. He indicated that these were illegal weapons, and obviously  fall outside the remit for the target shooting of a modern pentathlete. Why did he need these automatic assault weapons? What was the purpose in him acquiring them?

Of  all the people I have known, I would say Kevin Chesham is the most  dodgy. Anthony Hogg and Trystan Lewis Swale, both of whom are Marxists, however, consider him their ally. They conveniently ignore that Chesham is a Fascist because they find him useful to use to attack Seán Manchester, and they are obsessed with doing that above all else. What is sad is  that John Pope has made Hogg his Facebook friend and joined Hogg's hate group that contantly makes ad hominem attacks and smears against Seán Manchester, even occasionally contributing to it. It was Hogg, of course, who suggested to Pope that he write the "true story of the Highgate  Vampire," and Pope foolishly allowed himself to be used in that way. John Pope takes all the risk of being prosecuted for theft of intellectual property and possibly defamation, while Hogg and Swale sit back and smile.

John Pope knows none of these people outside of the internet, and knows only what he is told by them. Why he would choose to believe what they tell him is the question. However, he never was a good judge of character; something he admits himself.

Son of the Beast

From Therion to Mahdī

When I met John Pope by sheer accident in November 1973, he proclaimed himself to be the Master Therion (To Mega Therion). Since that time he has proclaimed himself to be many things, the latest being a Mohammedan. Lo and behold, Trystan Lewis Swale now also claims to be a Mohammedan, as does "Robert Best" (though many believe Swale and "Best" are one and the same person). We can only wonder in suspenseful anticipation what John Russell Pope-de-Locksley will manifest as next. He surely deserves somebody more erudite and bona fide than the depressing spectre of "Robert Best" to be his spokesperson. "Best" fulfills no rôle other than that of toxic troll and stalker.

 

Master Therion Genesis

Overview of John Pope

John Russell Pope aka Master Therion 

(born 11 July 1953)

†Seán Manchester's experience and overview of John Russell Pope

I first met John Russell Pope (later to become "John Russell Pope-de-Locksley") by sheer accident in the dying weeks of 1973. He was standing on a doorstep in Archway Road, Highgate, almost opposite The Woodman pub, introducing himself to the world as "The Master Therion" ("To Mega Therion"), "Imperial Toad", "Son of the Beast", "Spiritual Successor to Aleister Crowley", Britain's premier Satanist, and a host of other flamboyant titles, all associated with satanic mumbo-jumbo.

He was seeking the support of Prince Charles and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time in a bid to become rightful King of England, and eventually "Ruler of the World" (as revealed by him to Reveille magazine, 21 November 1975). In a taped interview he even claimed to have their support.

Pope had a very matter-of-fact way of acquainting all and sundry with these remarkable revelations, which he did to me late in the twilight of that strange day in 1973. Looking at his watch, he suddenly announced that he had to be home by a certain time because his tea would be on the table, and his auntie might be cross. Thus off he trotted to a bus stop where he would taken from Highgate to Barnet, and the council estate in Mays Lane where he lived with Fred Pope, his father, and, of course, auntie, at 71 The Ridge, Dollis Valley Estate  Needless to say, he has long since left that address.

Born on 11 July 1953, John Pope struck me as an amusing little fellow who seemed deadly serious, but was clearly suffering from a type of psychosis. Behind the ever-present spectacles there was a glint in his small eyes that would intrigue anyone with an interest in psychology. His claims about himself would also fascinate anyone with an interest in the wackier aspects of the occult. I say this because he would have several leading occult figures treat him as though he was an "acended master" (in the Crowleyite system of Magick) in the years to come, which tells one an awful lot about the sort of people to be found in that depressing atmosphere of totally unhinged individuals who were every bit as detached from reality as Pope who claimed to be a Freemason (his father, Fred, was a Freemason and John inherited all his father's paraphernalia). Crowley, of course, was a high-ranking Freemason, as were most others on the Left-hand Path. Indeed, witchcraft uses the first three degrees of Masonry in its own fashion, mixed with other things such as Theosophy, Hinduism etc.

Over the years, I photographed and interviewed John Pope using a 35mm camera reel-to-reel tape-recorder. These recorded interviews are now archived, and an accurate reflection of what he represented at the time, namely that he had no involvement whatsoever in the Highgate Vampire case, was fascinated to learn about it, but that Highgate Cemetery was a place he would go nowhere near. His knowledge and understanding of the case did not improve with time. Nor was this helped by him becoming acquainted with David Farrant who contradicted himself over and again on whether a vampire even existed at Highgate Cemetery. They became friends, which led to them participating in rituals that had been devised by Aleister Crowley to summon demons. These invariably led to Pope being naked. His friend was less enthusiastic in that department, and chose to keep his clothes on.

One particular ceremony in an abandoned house in December 1973 found them being suddenly joined by the local constabulary, and promptly led away in handcuffs. Some months later they each appeared on a charge of arson charge at the Old Bailey for which they were eventually acquitted.

David Farrant went on to face a plethora of other charges, including threatening people with black magic, satanic outrages at Highgate Cemetery involving a naked girl with her legs' akimbo in a mausoleum, desecration where satanic symbols had marked the floor of a vault, and cemetery vandalism, all of which led to convictions and an almost five years' prison sentence. Pope was found guilty of sexual assault on a minor (a boy by the name of Blackwell), which became subsumed in the mêlée surrounding the longest witchcraft trial of modern times at which centre his friend gleefully hugged the spotlight. Pope announced that he was bi-sexual, a decision influenced by Aleister Crowley. This same influence led to him practicing "sex magick" and blood sacrifices. The local pet shop became an unwitting supplier of small creatures for this purpose; though, ideally, Pope would have preferred human sacrifice. Farrant told the press the same thing, and announced in newspapers that he had sacrificed a cat (but only for effect). His demented friend, however, really meant it.

These things are conveniently overlooked, if not entirely forgotten, when it comes to John Pope reminiscing about a "book"  telling "the true story of the Highgate Vampire" penned at the behest of a notorious troll and stalker in a foreign land, currently assisted by another ne'er-do-well closer to home who is acquainted with the first character, none of whom were born even remotely close to when the Highgate Vampire case was extant. "Robert Best" is a curiously inappropriate pseudonym for this disturbed individual (better known as Trystan Lewis Swale) who stalks women thought to have an historical connection with me, preys on young girls online for his own amusement and pleasure, and fakes "crop circles" in his spare time to then expose others for doing the same. "Worst" would be more in keeping. I am sure his wife would agree. This perverse stalker who runs numerous fake identities and accounts is currently employed as a teacher in a Church of England primary school. Swale like to dress up in satanic costume, and is rather taken by the Hell Fire Club stories. It makes perfect sense why he is so attracted to John Pope, and, before him, David Farrant when he was alive.

I should emphasise, as the person most central to the case of the Highgate Vampire, that neither Farrant or Pope were involved in the investigation of it. What little information they did acquire about the case they gleaned from my book, The Highgate Vampire, my writings in other books, various glossy magazines, plus, of course, scores of television appearances, radio talks and interviews. Moreover, I have given talks and lectures about the case at the invitation of universities, colleges and private clubs. Furthermore, it should also be borne in mind that I am someone on the Right-hand Path in spiritual, mystical and religious terms. Pope quite clearly is on the Left-hand Path. Did not Pope describe himself on his own website earlier this century as "master of the black arts"?

John Russell Pope has subsequnetly "converted" to his own unique and some might say peculiar brand of Islam, declaring himself - to the chagrin of Muslims world wide - to be their eschatological redeemer known as the Mahdī. This is between him and them. None of this involves me. By a curious coincidence, Swale and his alter ego "Best" have also apparently "converted" to Islam in recent times.

The delusion that John Russell Pope-de-Locksley aka the Master Therion knows anything whatsoever about what went on at Highgate Cemetery will doubtless rumble on whilst ever he draws breath. His associate in the dark arts has ceased to draw breath, having died on 8 April 2019, but, at least, he stood at the periphery when some latter-day incidents unfolded in the area. John Pope, on the other hand, was not long out of short trousers and unaware of anything that was happening in and around Highgate Cemetery; save for that gossip created by newspaper reportage and such like.