The League of Extraordinary Investigators of 1974
In 1963, Dr. John Markway, a supernaturalist best known for his work involving the Hill House haunting, was approached by the US government to create a team of like-minded enthusiasts and researchers of the strange and horrifying who would investigate the many supernatural activities that came in the wake of the Atomic Age. Modeled after the British League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this team undertook missions for the government that involved everything from mansion hauntings to encounters with extraterrestrial life.
Markway's era came to an end in 1968 after the group successfully eliminated a cult of Satanists hiding in a diluted apartment building in New York City. Fearing that such a group would be needed again in the decades to come, the FBI officially created the half-serious team designation of "The League of Extraordinary Investigators, " or the LXI for short. After a five-year break between the 60's group's decommissioning, a 70's incarnation was formed in 1974 when the African vampire Prince Mamuwalde was again terrorizing the city of Los Angeles. With little time, the FBI quickly brought to together those believed to be best capable of handling this deadly encounter. Some being more unexpected then others;
Carl Kolchak: Once an unassuming if talented investigative reporter, Kolkalk's career took a drastic change after the investigation of a suspected serial killer in Las Vegas revealed to him not just the existence of vampires but a wider paranormal world. Spending years travelling across the United States in a quest to reveal the truth to an ignorant populace, Kolchak eventually gained the attention of the government and a spot on the League. While unhappy about his supervisor's mandate of keeping the supernatural secret from the public, this driven reporter couldn't miss an opportunity to learn more about the unknown and decided to join the group regardless.
Velma Dinkley: An ingenious young woman with Holmesian-like analytical abilities, Dinkley was originally a member of a famous group of young paranormal debunkers whose hijacks across the United States saw them solve numerous mysteries. After the group disbanded on the Halloween of 1970, Dinkley started a solo career, continuing to solve abnormal mysteries until she was contacted by the government. Initially suspicious of the idea of joining a group that was tasked with tracking down and combating real supernatural creatures, her experience with confronting Prince Mamuwalde and working with the more unusual members of the LXI quickly opened her mind to stranger explanations for the unknown.
Carrie White: Cursed with astounding telekinetic and telepathic abilities that emerged in her adolescence, White had lost control of her powers after suffering a psychotic break brought on by a childish prank that went too far during her high school prom. After somehow managing to survive a seemingly fatal stab wound by her insane fundamentalist mother, White spent months afterwards trying to find others of her kind only to discover dissimilar supernatural events and people in her home state of Maine, which has been known to a rather active hotbed for paranormal activity. Eventually though, her travels were noticed by surprised government agents in the area that had previous closed her case with the White Committee. Realizing that such a powerful psychic could be an asset for the new LXI initiative, and a perfect opportunity to safely keep a tab on her developing powers, White was pardoned for her crimes and recruited immediately.
Barnabas Collins: Without a doubt the team's most dangerous and amoral member, Collins was a vampire who was only recently freed from a century long period of suspend animation. Having spent years using his vampiric abilities to defend, and sometimes manipulate, his family's descendants, Collins had gained experience in dealing with ghosts, witches, werewolves and other such rival creatures of the night. So much so, that his place on the League was guaranteed as long as he promised to use his abilities responsibly in the group's service. Collins' grey morality would constantly clash with his associates, especially Eric Brooks who made constant veiled promises of destroying Collins once the LXI was no longer in service.
Eric Brooks: Born in London, England in the late 1920s, the man that would be known by the moniker of Blade gained his quasi-vampiric abilities in utero when his mother was attacked and killed by a vampire. This resulted in some of the creature's enzymes passing to Brooks, granting him an extended lifespan, peak human physicality, and the power to sense other supernatural creatures. Trained by an experienced vampire hunter and jazz magician, Brooks' talent with knives would give him the nickname that would stuck to him for decades. At first unwilling to join the League account of his preference to working alone and his distrust for Collins, Brooks reconsidered after finding out that the League's first mission would be slaying Prince Mamuwalde, who was not only a frequent enemy of Brooks, but an associate and admirer of Brooks' archenemy, Dracula, the creature that had killed his mentor.
The LXI of the 70s wasn't as harmonious as originally hoped. With little time to form it, the government was unable to recruit more reliable options like Sabrina Spellman, Jessica Fletcher, or top B.P.R.D agent, Hellboy. Instead, the group assembled were mostly newcomers, semi-redeemed criminals, or renegades who didn't get along throughout most of the partnership. Dinkley and Kolkalk were reported to have had an amicably relationship, but White was known to be distant and removed from her teammates, while Brooks and Collins were openly hostile to one another. Still, the group managed to hold together for five years, with the various cases chronicled in this account being only their most notable accomplishments;
- As already noted, their first case took them to the city of Los Angeles, where a resurrected Prince Mamuwalde had started creating a new covenant of vampire minions to help him rule the city as his new kingdom. The adding of voodoo witch doctors in Mamuwalde's service only intensified matters for the worse. So much so that Brooks contacted the Haitian sorcerer Jericho Drumm, a long-time friend and ally of Brooks, to assist the team in not only stopping a mysterious ritual that the ancient prince was trying to complete in his lair, but also in slaying the undead lord once and for all.
- Only a few months after defeating Mamuwalde, the League investigated the disappearances of several youths in rural Texas, some of which having been members of mystery gangs inspired by Dinkley's. The discovery of a family of entirely human cannibal serial killers, one of which would later be categorized as one of first examples of the "Slasher Killer," made this a particularly gruesome case. Dinkley's experience in dealing with deranged individuals with a pathological need for wearing costumes was especially helpfully in not only tracking the Sawyer clan down, but also in later using this and other cases to create the Slasher Killer psych profile which unfortunately would need to be used constantly in the 80's.
- Getting a surprisingly reliable tip by agents of the Nemo supercrime family in 1975, the League was sent off to the town of Stepford, Connecticut, a seemingly idyllic community inhabited by astonishingly statuesque and content wives. This illusion was shattered though when White's telepathic powers revealed that the wives were in fact mindless machines, a claim that Collins was able to support by having attempted to feed on one of the wives only to bite into complex circuitry for his troubles. Kolchak's and Dinkley's combined efforts led the group to connect the leader of the town's men club, Dale Coba, a former Disney animatronics engineer who was the mentor of the now deceased Doctor Goldfoot. With this information in hand, the League stormed Coba's mansion facility, destroying his small army of robot duplicates that tried to defend their creator, a feat which was made relatively simple with White, Collins, and Brooks abilities overwhelming the machines. Things went awry though when a cornered Coba was about to surrender to the group only for Collins to suddenly exsanguinate the man in front of his teammates. When later asked for his reasons for the crime, Collins was recorded saying that Coba had acted in an untoward manner to the fairer sex and needed to be harshly punished. Brooks was recorded as having angrily reiterated his promise to one day kill Collins after hearing his excuse. Dinkley and White were said to have been unamused and disturbed by Collins' attitude in contrast. Kolkalk tried to have Collins' removed from the LXI program after the incident but to no avail due to the vampire's perceived usefulness.
- Throughout the group's existence numerous vampires claiming to be the one true Dracula made appearances in the US and the UK, much to the chagrin of Brooks who repeatedly had his hopes for revenge dashed. Even an adventure in the creature's former haunt in Transylvania and the defeat and capture of the villain's most powerful lieutenants, Elizabeth Bathory and Count Yorga, (Note - Carmilla Karstein managed to escape detection by fleeing to Canada, where she surprisingly enough would go on to join a modern Canadian LXG decades later) didn't the bring League any closer to their quarry.
- Due to what only be theorized as a consequence of either mysterious astronomical events or the Earth itself fighting against environmental exploitation, several areas throughout the United States countryside suffered from violent attacks by suddenly hyper-aggressive animals. Eerily similar to the vicious bird attacks that occurred in Bodega Bay, California in 1963, the League was forced to deal with these animal-related crises constantly. An early case of this phenomenon in 1974 saw the League battle legions of abnormally intelligent ants that had laid siege to a remote desert town in Arizona. White's use of her telepathic abilities to subvert the ant's hivemind would be such an effective tactic in this case that it would used again during a later one. In 1976, waves of bloodthirsty worms almost consumed the fishing town of Fly Creek, Georgia but were thwarted by Brooks' vampire hunting tactics being surprisingly useful in dealing with the blood seeking creatures. Barely even a month after that incident a monstrously large grizzly bear, possibly from prehistoric times from Dinkley's later estimations, almost killed the supernaturally strong Collins, only to be defeated by White telekinetically restraining the monster, allowing Kolchalk and Brooks in turn the opportunity to set the beast on fire. Another trip to Arizona in 1977 resulted in a tragic stalemate with highly venomous tarantulas that had managed to incase an entire town in a gigantic cocoon. With the League having no way of safely entering the area and rescuing possible survivors the government was forced to use missiles to destroy the infestation and the town entirely. Several other cases like these plagued the LXI until the very end, from gluttonous piranhas, killer bees, man-eating bats, and even sharks.
- The hunt for Petey Wheatstraw, an infamous comedian, martial artist, and Satanist, in 1977 led to the League once again crossing paths with former ally, Jericho Drumm, who, after being inspired by the effectiveness of the LXI during its first case, decided to form his own League with the protection of the African American community from supernatural and other exploitative forces in mind. Having brought together a famous New York City detective, a formerly notorious cocaine dealer seeking redemption, a femme fatale who bought down a prostitution ring, and a martial artist master, Drumm's League's was instrumental in tracking Wheatstraw to a Los Angeles club and stopping him from fulfilling another attempt at siring the Anti-Christ, an increasing common obsession for satanists around the world. After clashing with Wheatstraw, several cultists, and even a manifestation of the Devil itself, the two groups parted, but not before Brooks was reportedly approached by Drumm with the choice of leaving the LXI and joining his group. While there is no record of the exchange, this dossier theorizes that Brooks decided to remain on the team based on some level of loyalty to his current affiliation. Also, we can only assume that his vendetta against Collins likely played a hand in the decision as well.
- Along with Wheatstraw, there were many other cases involving the steadily rising number of satanic cultists throughout the 70s. From human sacrificing motorists in Texas to an actual portal to hell in a Brooklyn brownstone, the League had several violent encounters with followers of the dark religion across the country. There were even frequent rumors about the birth of the Anti-Christ himself, but were never able to find any truth in these rumors after Wheatstraw's own failed attempt.
- 1978 saw the rise of another reanimation endemic like the one that broke out a decade ago in 1968. Once again primarily contained in the state of Philadelphia, the plague had spread much farther this time infecting hundreds. SWAT teams conducted strategic raids throughout the state for weeks with no end to the endemic in sight, and fears of it spreading into other states became increasingly likely. When the League was called in to assist in the situation White's telepathic abilities were crucial in simultaneously eradicating the zombies. Amplifying her powers with the use of Dr. Gene Tuskin's synchronizer device, White was able too momentarily touch the simple minds of every zombie in the state and urge them to walk into the nearest bonfires setup by law enforcement.
- Several widely publicized familicide murders occurring in the same Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, New York prompted the LXI in 1979 to spend a week within its walls for proof of any supernatural presence there. When one particularly violent and powerful spirit managed to possess White and use her abilities to control the minds of Brooks and Collins, it was left to Kolkalk and Dinkley to unravel the mystery of the haunting before their supernaturally empowered teammates could rampage across the town of Amityville. After researching the history of the house, and getting much needed backup in the form of a renowned agent of the sister paranormal organization, the B.P.R.D, the pair was able too exorcise the specter of infamous 17th century satanist John Ketchum from White's body and banish him from the house altogether.
The LXI finally came to an end late in the year of 1979. The barely averted mishap during the Amityville Case made several of the LXI's superiors nervous of the possibility of the group going rogue again with little to stop them next time. White's increasingly more powerful psychic abilities and their susceptibility to spirits, was also a contributing factor in the decision. And so, the League was disbanded, its members sworn to an oath of secretly over the details of their missions, especially in regards to a still top secret case that possibly took in the winter of 1978 involving their return to the city of Los Angeles to eliminate alien doppelgangers that had infiltrated the city.
In the aftermath of the League's dissolution, Kolkalk would back go to back to investigative journalism dealing with the supernatural until retiring to a life of publishing thinly-veiled accounts of the LXI cases as mystery and horror fiction. Dinkley on the other hand would stay on as a government consultant until quitting when her requests to form a new League of Extraordinary Investigators was ignored in 1981. White returned to Maine having sworn to the government not to use her powers unless in self-defense. Unfortunately, the constant paranormal occurrences in the state eventually forced her to take an active hand in protecting the area, which this dossier can only assume she does to this very day away from the government's notice. Collins was rumored to have returned to his family home in Collinsport, Maine, but disappeared from notice soon after. As of this account he is still missing. Brooks finally took Jericho Drumm's offer to join his League but would only be with them for a year before they themselves disbanded. Returning to his sole career, Brooks continued his quest to find Dracula.
While the League of Extraordinary Investigators had interpersonal difficulties that its 60's predecessor did not, its success cannot be discounted. Whether it was vampires, zombies, rampaging animals, gynoids, aliens, satanists, or serial killers, the team had faced these challenges with distinction that would be remembered and honored by its varied spiritual successors.