In 1938 Breichen fled Germany due to a vampire hunt conducted by the Gestapo and settled in London, eventually securing naturalization as a British subject and adopting the English surname Barlow.

In 1975, Barlow arrives in Jerusalem's Lot in a box shipped overseas by his human familiar, an English businessman named Richard Straker.

Straker kidnaps a local boy, Ralphie Glick, and makes a human sacrifice of the child in an appeasement ritual.

At the end of the book, Barlow is destroyed by Ben Mears and Mark Petrie in the basement of Eva Miller's boarding house, whose residents have, like almost everyone else in the town, become vampires.

Ben Mears and Mark Petrie flee the town, the only surviving members of the group which set out to stop Barlow and Straker.

After recovering somewhat from the ordeal, they return a year later and set a brush fire near the Marsten House with the intent to burn down the town.

In The Dark Tower series, it is revealed that Barlow is a Type One vampire, capable of hibernating for centuries and is highly intelligent and cunning.

[2][3] In The Dark Tower, it is mentioned in the beginning that "Type One" vampires (such as Barlow) are horribly disfigured, mutant-like creatures whose teeth grow out so wildly that they cannot close their mouths.

This version of Barlow has a variety of supernatural powers, such as telekinesis; he opens a locked cell door with a wave of his hand, moves his own coffin along with the (unnaturally freezing cold) crate that it is inside, and causes the Petries' entire house to shake before entering.

He is a sophisticated, well-dressed older gentleman and, at first glance, his only difference from the rest of the community is his mildly anachronistic appearance (his dress and behavior seem to come from an earlier time).

In Salem's Lot (1979), Straker was the main antagonist and a more prominent villain than Barlow, unlike the novel, and was alive until the climax of the miniseries.

Though seemingly human, this version of Straker turns out to be something more with incredible strength, and it is implied he possesses some kind of supernatural power; he manages to summon a fast wind as he abducts Ralphie Glick in the woods and easily manages to lift Dr. Bill Norton off the ground by himself with little effort, as he impales him on a wall filled with animal horns.

He was, however, still mortal and was shot and killed by Ben Mears on the stairs of the Marsten house, though he took several bullets to the abdomen and continued to move until finally succumbing to his wounds.