When Rod Ferrell was just 16, he persuaded a group of friends he was something far older and more sinister than a typical teenager.

Adopting the name Vesago, the youth, brought up in Kentucky, started posing as a vampire and swiftly assembled a cult of devoted followers who took part in frightening blood rituals and cemetery gatherings.

Whilst apparently beginning as some kind of violent fantasy, the group's actions would ultimately become all too real, culminating in two savage murders which many regard as the most disturbing teen crime case in American history.

Brought up by his mother Sondra Gibson, Ferrell was raised in a deprived, rural community in Kentucky, and was described by those who knew him as having a turbulent childhood marked by a complete fixation with dark fantasy games and books.

One specific role-playing game, entitled Vampire: The Masquerade, seemingly captivated the young Ferrell, with experts suggesting his identity within the game became confused with his identity in reality, reports the Mirror.

Ferrell told friends and classmates that he was immortal, and that he required blood to survive. Before long, he started enlisting others into a group he named the Vampire Clan, whose members met in graveyards and derelict buildings, and slashed themselves to consume each other's blood.

Ferrell branded his followers with symbols, including a V which they believed signified his vampiric abilities.

In November 1996, the fantasy would become lethal. Ferrell, joined by fellow teenager Howard Scott Anderson, went to Florida, where the parents of Ferrell's friend Heather Wendorf lived.

While Heather was away, Ferrell and Anderson managed to get into the home via an unlocked garage.

They discovered Heather's father Richard asleep on the settee.

Ferrell seized a crowbar and brutally attacked him, shattering his skull and ribs.

Shortly after, Richard's partner Naomi emerged from the shower and stumbled upon the horrific scene.

Ferrell would later allege that she hurled hot coffee at him and scratched his face during the fight. Tragically, she couldn't evade Ferrell's murderous rampage.

The couple's bodies were discovered the following day by their teenage daughter, marked with the same V shape found on the corpses of the so-called Vampire Clan.

Following the murders, Ferrell and his group fled across several states in the victims' car, heading for New Orleans. They were eventually located in Louisiana after one of the teenagers contacted a relative, who informed the police.

Ferrell was arrested at 16 and pleaded guilty two years later.

In 1998, he was handed a death sentence, becoming the youngest individual on Florida's death row. A judge characterised him as deeply troubled and stated his family had let him down.

Ferrell saw his sentence commuted from the death penalty to life imprisonment in 2000. During his most recent parole hearing in 2020, he was denied the chance of release, with the judge branding him "irreparably corrupt".