Alexander graduated from the University of Chicago with Library Sciences degree, then worked at the university’s Regenstein Library from 1970 - 2000, many of those years spent attending to the Special Collections Research Center. A recluse by nature, he loved curating and restoring rare books, manuscripts, etc at work and collecting (hoarding) and reading local newspapers, magazines, and the like at home.
As talk about moving towards a digital format for general library access started to become reality, Alexander retired at the age of 52. He felt ill equipped to assist with this digital future, indeed was depressed by it. He’d invested heavily in the tech industry on the suggestion of university colleagues, but, disillusioned with the promises of new digital technologies, he cashed them out. Lucky for him, he did so at the height of the dot-com bubble, securing a nest egg sizeable enough to see him through his retirement. Despite his resignation he would still visit the library so often many of his co-workers never realized he’d retired.
He began to pursue his interest in local unsolved mysteries. With access to extensive print collections both at the library and at home, he researched cases of missing persons, unsolved murders, and other local enigmas from decades past. Each case got its own notebook, filled with all the reported facts he could find and his own personal notes. After several years he solved his first case - he deduced an infant missing from a Chicago hospital in 1978 had been taken and raised by an on-site electrician and was now a local tv weatherman. He approached the man with his findings. After laying out all the evidence, the man arranged a DNA test and proved Alexander correct.
Subsequent years brought more victories. He mostly solved little-known crimes decades after those involved were dead, but had some that could still be prosecuted. Alexander grew bolder in his research - conducting phone interviews, visiting the locations of mysteries in person, filing Freedom of Information requests. He even learned how to use the internet he’d so despised, though he was sure to print out all the information he found there for reference. He developed an amicable relationship with the Chicago PD’s poorly staffed cold case unit, he communicates by phone and mails them copies of his research and findings.
Over the past few years Alexander began to see patterns in unrelated mid-century (1940s - 1960s) missing persons and murder cases based around Lake Calumet. His research eventually led him to a defunct electrical substation, in the shadow of a landfill and half-swallowed by marsh. His curiosity got the better of him, and the old man pushed his way inside, believing the crimes and their perpetrator to be nothing but history.
In fact the perpetrator was still very current. The vampire, a Nosferatu, had used the station as its main haven for decades after it had been embraced in 1940, and was the killer behind Alexander’s cases. It had since moved on, but still used the station a retreat from time to time. That night was one of those times. As an intruder Alexander intrigued the vampire. A feeble septuagenarian armed with a flashlight, memo pad, and polaroid camera, stumbling into its lair. As it wasn’t hungry, it let him live, observing him as he made notes and took pictures. Followed him back to his house, a maze of old filing cabinets filled with professionally archived periodicals dating back more than a century. Read his notebook meticulously detailing how he’d deduced the seemingly unrelated cases were the work of the same criminal, who had performed the murders somewhere in a narrow stretch of south Lake Calumet.
The Nosferatu knew then and there that Alexander was a kindred spirit. He was also too dangerous to allow to live. So rather than destroy him, it embraced him while he slept, and brought him back to its lair for induction to the Clan.
Alexander’s transformation has magnified his apparent age, and he emanates a palpable aura of menace to mortals. These changes combined with his natural tendency for reclusivity mean he avoids being near mortals whenever possible. Unwilling to face a struggling victim he feeds the same way his sire embraced him, on sleeping victims. Motels and nursing homes mostly. He still visits the library after-hours, his familiarity and new-found abilities allowing him to enter and leave largely undetected. He still studies history and unravels mysteries, he’s just got a new set of data to familiarize himself with. Is intrigued by the Week of Nightmares and has begun to gather information on it.
