The Zombie Book. Nick Redfern

the Golden Era of Zombies. Half white/half black Creole queens and kings plied their special dark swamp medicines, amulets, charms, and zombified wares from coast to coast after Ulysses S. Grant became president.

      Experts on the history of Voodoo, such as Lisa Lee Harp Waugh, Karen Beals, and the noted New Orleans artist Ricardo Pustanio, have observed that the deep dark secrets of a Voodoo-Hoodoo person at the time was always well accepted. These special Creole people were never more sought after and revered than those of the Great White Mambas whose names are still remembered and honored today.

      The old red-bricked, crumbling, white-washed tomb of Marie Laveau is the spot where many say the eternal Voodoo queen still grants wishes from beyond the grave. However, some say she will grant your wish only if you promise to come back to the tomb no later than one year and a day. If you do not show at the allotted time then you might just find that you have lost all you gained. Even worse, is the curse that the one you love most will become a real zombie when he or she dies.

      Many researchers in certain Voodoo-Hoodoo circles believe that real zombification came to America through the teachings of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Others believe it was her teacher and mentor Dr. John who first taught Marie. Still others claim that the Great Texan Voodoo Queen Black Cat Mama Couteaux was the ultimate zombifier.

      Black Cat Mama Couteaux, according to Lisa Lee, was the ultimate Voodoo-Hoodoo Queen in Marshall, Texas. The stories of her in the state are often told as far away as Abilene and Fort Worth. They say she even rode out the Great Storm of 1900 in a row boat. The woman was said to have been married to her zombie lover. The dead Mamba husband zombie is said to still be around, guarding the treasures she amassed.

      Texan Lisa Lee Harp Waugh states that the old spells that they speak of in her part of the United States seem to have originated from Black Cat Mama Couteaux. But if you listen to most of the old stories, Waugh notes, they suggest that she was actually taught by a great Voodoo-Hoodoo king from New Orleans who had a secret circle of Voodoo-Hoodoo Queens that gave him all their personal attentions as they sat at his knee begging him to teach them more. That great King would, of course, be Dr. John.

       Coffins

       See also: Burial Traditions, Cemeteries and Tombs, Cremation, Funerals, Mummies

      If there is one thing that can be said with certainty about the human race, it’s that each and every one of us is on a time limit. Not to be gloomy about it, but sooner or later—and hopefully the latter—we will all shuffle off of this mortal coil. And, when we finally do go, there are two primary options available when it comes to the type of send off we receive. One is cremation and the other is burial in a coffin. But have you ever wondered why coffins have locks on them? Is it, perhaps, due to age-old superstitions and fears that the dead might actually awaken and try to rise from the grave? After all, locking a corpse inside a coffin that is six feet or so underground makes no sense at all. Or, does it? It just might, if there is a fear that the very same corpse may try and force its way to the surface.

      Traditions of showing respect to the dead, by doing something beyond simply dumping their bodies for wild animals to feed upon, date back thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, for example, the elite, the rich, and the powerful were carefully wrapped in cloth and placed in a sarcophagus. In Europe, even when civilization was in its infancy, there was an understanding that death was something to honor. Lacking the skills of the Egyptians, the tribes of Europe—and particularly so the Celts—wrapped the average dead person in a sheet of cloth and buried them in the ground. Revered warriors, warlords and kings were placed in coffin-like creations comprised of carefully positioned rocks and stones. In the United States, the coffin industry very much—and very understandably—came to the fore at the height of the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865, in which no less than 600,000 people lost their lives during the carnage of battle.

       Have you ever wondered why coffins are firmly sealed? There is, after all, a logical explanation that does not have to do with a fear of zombies.

      As for the matter of why, exactly, today’s coffins are firmly sealed on the outside, while the idea that it is done to prevent the zombified dead from digging their way out is an engaging and thought-provoking one, that is not actually the case. In centuries past, such practices were done to prevent grave robbing—which was rife in the United Kingdom, and particularly so in the 1800s. Take, for example, the so-called London Burkers. They were a team of London-based body-snatchers that stole dozens of fresh corpses from graves throughout the nation’s capital during the nineteenth century.

      A further, and equally understandable reason for keeping the lid on a coffin is to ensure that if, in a worst-case scenario, the coffin is dropped on its way to burial, the corpse does not tumble out in front of shocked, grieving mourners. And, finally, contrary to popular belief, the coffin is not actually locked. It is simply sealed with what is termed a gasket. Securely fastening the gasket helps prevent water from entering the coffin after it has been placed in the ground. The coffin, therefore, is all about respect for the dead, rather than being based upon age-old fears that the dead might rise from the grave and devour the living. Of course, in the event that a real-life zombie pandemic does one day occur, many will surely sigh with relief that they chose to have their loved ones placed inside a sealed coffin!

       Cold War

      If, one day, the zombie virus becomes not just an issue of fiction but one of stark, terrifying fact, the possibility cannot be denied that it may fall into the hands of terrorists, ones that may wish to see it used to target specific nations and wipe them out in apocalyptic style. It might sound outrageous, but official files that have surfaced under the terms of the U.S. government’s Freedom of Information Act show that, back in the 1940s, there were significant fears on the part of officialdom that a hostile nation—or a rogue body of terrorists—might infect the American cattle herd with a deadly virus, one which could quickly spread to the human population and utterly decimate it.

      Prepared by the Committee on Biological Warfare at the request of the U.S. government’s elite Research and Development Board, the fifty-page file in question dates from March 1947 through the latter part of 1948 and makes for disturbing and grim reading.

      In a Top Secret paper from March 28, 1947, it was stated that: “A memorandum from the Secretaries of War and Navy dated February 21, 1947, Subject: International Aspects of Biological Warfare, regarding biological warfare in relation to United Nations negotiations for regulation of armaments was referred by the Board to Committee ‘X’ for consideration and recommendations.”

      Seven months later, the Research and Development Board prepared an in-depth report (also classified at Top Secret level) that outlined its worries concerning biowar. The Board stated: “Preparations for biological warfare can be hidden under a variety of guises. The agents of biological warfare are being studied in every country of the world because they are also the agents of diseases of man, domestic animals, and crop plants. The techniques used in developing biological warfare agents are essentially similar to the techniques used in routine bacteriological studies and in the production of vaccines, toxoids, and other beneficial materials.”

      In its report, the Board continued: “… the Committee feels that although it may be possible to control atomic research and insure that it be devoted to peaceful purposes, it is impracticable to control research on biological agents because of the close similarity between such research and legitimate investigations of a medical, agricultural, or veterinary nature.”

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