On this day in 1912, novelist and short story writer, Bram Stoker died at No. 26 St. George’s Square in Pimlico, London at the age of 64. Born Abraham Stoker on 8 November 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. Best known today for his novel Dracula (1897). Stoker spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of fictional diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship’s logs, and newspaper clippings, which added a level of detailed realism to his story; a skill he developed as a newspaper writer. Stoker married Florence Balcombe (1878-1912 his death), a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde.
The Final Footprint – Stoker was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his cremated remains were placed in a urn at Golders Green. To pay respects to him, visitors must be escorted to the room where the urn is kept. The cremated remains of his son, Irving Noel Stoker, were placed in the same urn following his death in 1961.
Other notable Final Footprints at Golders Green include; Kingsley Amis, Marc Bolan, Sigmund Freud, Johnny Kidd, Keith Moon, Anna Pavlova, and Peter Sellers. In addition, among those who were cremated here, but whose cremated remains are elsewhere; Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Vivien Leigh, Peter O’Toole, Ralph Vaughan Williams, H. G. Wells, and Amy Winehouse.
Stoker did not invent the vampire, but his novel’s influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical, film and television interpretations since its publication. Dracula was not an immediate bestseller, although reviewers were unstinting in their praise. It only reached its broad iconic legendary classic status later when the movie versions appeared. The first film adaptation was Nosferatu (1922), directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and starred Max Schreck as Count Orlock. The first authorized film version was Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. My favorite version is Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), starring Gary Oldman as Count Dracula and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, and featuring Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, and Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra. In 2009, Dracula: The Un-Dead, a sequel novel was released, written by Dacre Stoker, his great-grandnephew, and Ian Holt.
#RIP #OTD in 1991 singer/songwriter (“Itchycoo Park”, “Lazy Sunday”, “All or Nothing”, “Tin Soldier”, “30 Days in the Hole”) and frontman guitarist of Small Faces and Humble Pie, Steve Marriott died in a fire at his home in Arkesden, Essex at the age of 44. Cremation
#RIP #OTD in 1991 film and television director (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz, The Shootist), producer, Don Siegel died from cancer in Nipomo, California, aged 78. Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery, Cayucos, California
#RIP #OTD in 1992 actor, comedian, singer, writer, remembered for his television programme The Benny Hill Show, Benny Hill died at his home, Teddington, Greater London, in his armchair in front of the TV from a heart attack, aged 68. Hollybrook Cemetery, Bassett, Southampton
And on this day in 1999, the Columbine High School massacre shooting occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. The perpetrators, twelfth grade (senior) students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. Ten students were killed in the library, where the pair subsequently committed suicide. At the time, it was the deadliest shooting at a high school in United States history. The crime has inspired several copycats, and “Columbine” has become a byword for a school shooting.
The two perpetrators injured 21 additional people with gunshots and also exchanged gunfire with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape the school. In addition to the shootings, the attack involved several homemade bombs. The largest of these were placed in the cafeteria; car bombs were also placed in the parking lot and at another location that was intended to divert first responders.
The motive remains unclear, but the pair planned the crime for about a year and wished for the massacre to rival the Oklahoma City bombing and cause the most deaths in United States history.
The incident resulted in the introduction of the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment tactic, which is used in situations where an active shooter is trying to kill people rather than take hostages. Columbine also resulted in an increased emphasis on school security with zero tolerance policies. Debates were sparked over gun control laws and gun culture, high school cliques, subcultures, and bullying. Also discussed were the moral panic over goths, social outcasts, the use of pharmaceutical antidepressants by teenagers, teenage Internet use and violence in video games.
The Final Footprint
In 2000, youth advocate Melissa Helmbrecht organized a remembrance event in Denver featuring two surviving students, called “A Call to Hope.” The library where most of the massacre took place was removed and replaced with an atrium. In 2001, a new library, the HOPE memorial library, was built next to the west entrance.
On February 26, 2004, thousands of pieces of evidence from the massacre were put on display at the Jeffco fairgrounds in Golden.
A permanent memorial “to honor and remember the victims of the April 20, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School” was dedicated on September 21, 2007, in Clement Park.
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