Supernatural vampires are criminals. Their dark deeds range from sexual harassment to rape and murder. And they are imposters, not just of other people, as when Dracula pretends to be Count de Ville in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, but they also imposters of people, impersonating the living as they wine and dine with and on victims, whether in Transylvania or London or anywhere the undead might journey, which they also do illegally, travelling in crates of dirt without passport or stamped visa. Though they may not feel guilt, vampires are guilty, and guilty of so very many sins. Here are crimes against the law, as well as crimes against humanity.

Robbing, looting, purloining: how very often vampires participate in those felonies, their misconduct transgressing social norms and expectations. As Charles A. Kinkaid's The Vampire's Treasure (1922) explains, “Even a vampire would give up its riches, if it were given human blood to drink.” But as the title character in Stoker's Dracula proves, a vampire need not deplete its wealth to obtain blood. Stealing blood is a relatively easy task, even if it unlawful and immoral. Horrid abomination or minor infraction, the vampire is nothing if not a scofflaw.

Staged in London in 1823, The Three Vampires; or, Maids Beware of Moonshine depicted a trio of shady humans thought to be vampires. One is a “Practitioner of Medicine,” the second a “Pork Butcher,” and the third an “Undertaker,” their combined professions potentially helpful to so many malefactions. The maids guzzling their illicit homebrew are members of the same family, aptly named “Swallow-all.” A playbill described the play as a “New Operatic, Melo-Dramatic, Terrific Vampiric, Monstrous, Frankensteinish, Horrific Romantic Burletta, comprising much Moonshine, and more Mirth, written under the Lunar influence, but not by a lunatic… .” One did not necessarily need to be crazy to perceive the value of vampirism as a dynamic and compelling metaphor for criminality.