Jure Grando, the Vampire of 1656.

One of the first documented case of a vampire, whose existence flows away from fiction, is that of the Croatian peasant Jure Grando. During 16 years after his death, in 1656, this hellion would terrorize his birth-town of Kringa. 

The villagers would witness the revenant in alley corners and ambulating across night streaked brickstone. He would knock on the doors of houses, whose occupants would later on die within days of some strange disorder. Grando would appear, at least once a month, and sexually assault his widow.

It was only when his coffin was disinter and, although he had been dead for so long, his perfectly preserved body savagely beheaded, that the terror finally stopped. 

An account of the exorcism and subsequent banishment states that Jure’s face sported a devilish, grin while Father Giorgio, the leader of a band of hunters, shouted: “Look, strigon, there is Jesus Christ who saved us from Hell and died for us. And you, strigon, you cannot have peace!

Excerpt: The Wraith of The Obelisk- L.J. Gomez.