Kentucky Teenage Vampires

Kentucky Teenage Vampires investigates a particular group of youth living in USA back in the nineties who all believe they are vampires.

Some of them are peaceful and others turn into killers. Those who are peaceful live a self proclaimed vampiric life, where blood is life, euphoria and the path to eternity.

Living in shadow-pacts, these teenagers seek to instill a higher purpose upon themselves through vampirism.

They belonged to groups of vampires who roamed the nights, drank blood and re-enacted vampire “scenes”.

Together they’ve formed a strong bond, upholding an illusion that they are more than mere humans and have become one with the dark.

And then there are some who take it further than just the night.

Born March 28, 1980, Rod Ferrel led an isolated life. He was the teenage outcast and a stranger to everyone but his closest vampire friends. During his vampiric upbringing, Jaden Steven Murphy – the vampire leader of the group, would teach him the arts of “true”-vampirism. This led an already disturbed Rod Ferrel down the path of believing he was an actual vampire.

His path would end in murder and becoming a vampire cult killer. The victims were his ex-girlfriend’s parents, both brutally murdered with a crowbar.

The documentary seeks to explore the impact of his actions on the friends he left behind and the community of Murray, Kentucky. The film also shows death row interviews with Rod Ferrell who explains his actions.

Where are they now?

Although Roderrick Justin “Rod” Ferrell was convicted to die in the electrical chair back in 1996, his sentence was overturned to serving a life sentence without parole.

Ferrel turned 39 years old in March 2019, having then served 23 years in prison. His remaining life will be led behind bars.

Sondra Gibson, Ferrell’s mother, was charged with criminal solicitation to commit rape in the third degree and criminal solicitation to commit sodomy in 1997 (a year after the production of this documentary).

Gibson wrote sexually shocking letters to underaged boys fantasising about drinking their blood and becoming a vampire.

Jaden Steven Murphy lives an otherwise normal life, his thoughts on the killings are however written down in the book “the Embrace” from 1999.

Vampires don’t kill, and are expected to show the highest admiration for life. We have to live by the laws that surround us. We’re not superbeings who can twist things the way we want them. The Wendorf Murders were not vampiric, because Rod didn’t bleed the bodies. There was no bloodletting. He did not take from them.

Jaden Murphy (The Embrace)