HAUNTED WIRRAL: The Halloween party gatecrashers

In this latest tale, friends Anna and Judy are guests at a spooky party.

FULL moons on Halloween are something of a rarity, but there was one shining over Upton Road, Oxton, on what was then known as "Duck Apple Night", on October 31, 1974.

A 22-year-old man named Robin was holding the party at his house while his parents were away. Although the party was supposed to start at 8pm, there were already over thirty guests at the house by seven o'clock. Amongst them were two friends, 18-year-old Anna from Claughton and 19-year-old Judy from Moreton.

They both worked at the same soul-destroying factory in Birkenhead and with today being a Thursday, had just been paid and really ready to let their hair down after all that drudgery at the factory.

Robin, the organiser of the party, had a thing for Judy and had done so since he had known her at school, but had left before things could become serious.

Upon spotting Judy and Anna, Robin ushered them to the makeshift bar in the kitchen and the girls were soon sipping Martinis and shouting over the din of the party to Robin in order to have a conversation.

Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas was blaring out of the stereo and every time one of the guests would come into the kitchen and gesture for Judy to dance with him, a jealous Robin would stand in the way and shake his head.

Some of the guests had opted to come in fancy dress and were wearing witch costumes, laughable rubber monster masks and even silly white sheets to portray themselves as ghosts and banshees.

Around midnight, four students arrived at the overcrowded party with crates of beer, and by that time, a tipsy Anna had moved out of the kitchen and was sitting on a sofa between two men who both fancied her, and Judy was standing outside the house by the gatepost with Robin, who was starting to talk about starting a serious relationship with her.

The young couple stood there in the moonlight, with the strains of Ken Boothe's Everything I Own playing softly in the background.

"I'd love to settle down with you," Robin told Judy and awkwardly threw his arms around her. "I'd love to live in a big house with you and have kids and that."

"Robin, I'm nineteen," said Judy with a slight chuckle. "I want to live a little. I’m not ready to settle down yet. Why have you gone all mushy? Let’s go back in and dance."

"Nah, I want to just stand here under this full moon and love you," said Robin, swaying slightly. He almost bear-hugged the girl.

"All this love talk is just because of the drink,’ said Judy, struggling to be free, "it'll be gone in the morning."

"Ah, there’s no love like young love," said a well-spoken voice that startled the couple.

It was a man in a long black satin-lined cape and quaint old clothes, and from his widow's peak hair pattern and pale make-up, he had come as a vampire to the Duck-Apple Night party.

"You're a bit late, mate," Robin told him with a smile, "the party started at hours ago. You've done a cracker job though - you look better than Christopher Lee."

The 'vampire' guest smirked and nodded to Judy and went into the house and he was followed by another well-dressed guest - a lady who had on a full witch's outfit; the pointed hat, long down-to-the-ankles black robe, and she jokingly brushed Judy and Robin out the way with a broom. Like the vampire, the witch had expertly applied some sort of theatrical make-up to give her skin an almost greenish hue.

"So bewitching," remarked Judy as the witch went into the house, "absolutely groovy fancy dress, that," she said and added: "I should have come in fancy dress."

"You did," said Robin, "you came as a princess."

Judy pretended to put her fingers down her throat and groaned: "Oh Robin, shut up, please!"

And here things took a very strange turn at the party.

Judy went into the house at half-past midnight, fought her way through the dancing crowds, until she reached the kitchen and an old friend named Barry grabbed her arm.

"Judy, that fellah dressed up as the vampire is giving me the creeps."

"How do you mean?" Judy asked, opening a bottle of Babycham.

Barry told her: "He kissed my girl's hand - and then he bit it."

"You're having me on," Judy replied, waiting for the punchline, but Barry seemed deadly serious.

"He drew blood," said Barry and looked through the kitchen doorway and spotted the vampire. "Look! He's at it again!"

The vampire was standing behind a young blonde lady and apparently biting into her neck.

The girl had her eyes closed and was smiling - as if she was enjoying the 'bite'.

As Barry and Judy looked on, a young man was seen to try and pull the blonde away, but the vampire grabbed him by the throat with his left hand as he continued to bite the girl and with immense strength lifted the lad up off the floor and hurled him across the room.

At this moment, there were screams in the hallway.

Two girls Anna knew came running down the stairs in hysterics - followed by the witch.

They told Anna they had been looking in the dresser mirror upstairs, trying the old Halloween custom of trying to see their future husband in the reflection, when the witch came in and uttered some spell. All sorts of horrible faces had then appeared in the mirror.

The witch then started arguing with the vampire and accused him of "going too far".

The vampire then bit the neck of another lady and two men attacked him, but the man in fancy dress threw them into a corner where they landed on the record player.

Then someone claimed the man in the vampire 'costume' had no reflection - and there was a stampede out of the house.

Only Robin and Judy remained and they saw the vampire and the witch go outside. The apparently real-life vampire bit into the witch’s neck, and she was heard to laugh. Robin closed and bolted the door.

When they looked out the window minutes later the "odd couple" had gone.

Had a real witch and a real vampire mingled with guests on the one night they'd go unnoticed, because everyone would assume they were in fancy dress?

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