Speaker 1: Unsolved mysteries. Truth is stranger than fiction. We are endeavoring
Speaker 1: to bring to you little known mysteries of the entire world.
Speaker 1: And in this series of unexplained true happenings, we cannot
Speaker 1: overlook the puzzling and weird practices found in Voodooism. There
Speaker 1: are strange stories of zombies, stories which kills are into
Speaker 1: the world of everyday life, leaving no room for doubt
Speaker 1: that within the cult of Buddhism in Haiti, zombies do exist.
Speaker 2: Sisters at differences.
Speaker 1: The scene is clamorous Aiti, a few miles from Porto Prance.
Speaker 1: A long, low, rambling bungalow, bathed in the liquid beams
Speaker 1: of a silver moon, faces the open sea. Behind the
Speaker 1: cape rises in serid ridges of blacks and purples, and
Speaker 1: beyond that, faintly ominous. The deep, constant rhythm of the
Speaker 1: voodoo drums seems to belong to another world. Three men
Speaker 1: sit on the lanai or veranda, facing the beach. One
Speaker 1: of them tall, slender, young in years, but with gray
Speaker 1: hair and blind face, stares out into nothing. The elderly
Speaker 1: man by his side looks at the third and raises
Speaker 1: bushy eyebrows. The third man, a stranger to AITI speaks
Speaker 1: very decent of you fellows who invite me out here.
Speaker 1: I sort of feel that well that I am putting
Speaker 1: you to a lot of extra word not a bitter servants.
Speaker 1: Take care of all the extra work. We're glad of
Speaker 1: your a company. Cluck. Yes, Strong, I'm going down there.
Speaker 1: You must, yes, but don't belong. I won't, but don't
Speaker 1: wait up for me. Good Night, good night, good night.
Speaker 1: In a moment after Strong's out of hearing, I'll be
Speaker 1: able to explain that's all right. I think I understand.
Speaker 1: Just a minute, I'll look down the pathway. Yes, he's
Speaker 1: gone all right. In spite of what he said, we
Speaker 1: can't turn in. Although you're a stranger here. I'm going
Speaker 1: to do what white men have to do in the tropics.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask for your help if I need it.
Speaker 1: You won't have to ask, quice. I didn't think so.
Speaker 1: That's why I asked you at the hotel if you'd
Speaker 1: like to come out to our place. A few moments ago.
Speaker 1: You said you thought you understood. Yes. I know, of course,
Speaker 1: as it was just a year ago to day that
Speaker 1: Strong's wife died. I was in New York at the time.
Speaker 3: And we were all very much upset.
Speaker 1: I never knew Strong, but I went to school with
Speaker 1: his wife, Helen, and it didn't because of his wife's
Speaker 1: death that I want you tonight, because of what happened
Speaker 1: after her death. After her death, Yes, do you know
Speaker 1: where Strong went? Just now? He went down to her
Speaker 1: grave that he has every night for six months. Amore, good, heavens. Why,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to explain. When Strong first came
Speaker 1: out here, he had a native servant girl, Clarissima. Her
Speaker 1: name was attractive little thing, and she fell in love
Speaker 1: with Strong. Strong never gave her a thought, but you
Speaker 1: know native women, of course. Well, Helen came out here
Speaker 1: and the night before their marriage they were sitting just
Speaker 1: about here on the verandah.
Speaker 4: Oh, Johney, it's too Graham to be here with you. Then?
Speaker 1: What do you think it is for me, darling?
Speaker 5: Have you here in my arms to know that to
Speaker 5: morrow you'll be mine?
Speaker 1: Forever?
Speaker 2: Darling?
Speaker 4: Yes, John, forever.
Speaker 5: When I think of the nights I've sat out here dreaming,
Speaker 5: watching the ships sailing for the States, and the other
Speaker 5: nights when I've watched these seen steamers come into the
Speaker 5: harbor and tried to imagine what you'd look like standing
Speaker 5: there on the deck coming out to me.
Speaker 4: Did your dream come true to you? Did you find
Speaker 4: me changed?
Speaker 1: What little change, dear, spelling, but better than a thousand dreams?
Speaker 1: M So haven't luck, darling? Time for little girls to
Speaker 1: be in bed, especially when they're going to be married
Speaker 1: in the morning.
Speaker 5: I hate to think of driving you out of your bungalow,
Speaker 5: even for one night.
Speaker 4: I could just as easily have stayed it in one time.
Speaker 5: Oh not a bit of it, Dear. It'll take me
Speaker 5: less than five minutes to walk down to Clark's place.
Speaker 4: Good night, Dear, Good night John.
Speaker 5: John, Clarissima, What on earth are you doing here at
Speaker 5: this time of night?
Speaker 1: Why aren't you home with your father?
Speaker 6: I have been watching you.
Speaker 1: You've been watching me.
Speaker 6: You and a woman.
Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? What's come over you? What
Speaker 1: business have you watching us?
Speaker 6: I have every business.
Speaker 1: You belong to me, I belong to you. What rubbish
Speaker 1: is this? You are talking?
Speaker 6: No rubbish, John, You have belonged to me since that
Speaker 6: night that the Bocor placed his spell upon you.
Speaker 1: Have you been drinking, Clarissima? You know I do drink. John,
Speaker 1: If you marry this woman.
Speaker 6: I tell you something. In three months she will be dead.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 1: Now listen to Larissima. I'm not afraid of your bullcars,
Speaker 1: your voodoos are You're a wanger.
Speaker 6: I have told you marry that woman, and before the
Speaker 6: setting of the third moon, she will be dead.
Speaker 1: Clarissama spoke the truth. Before the third moon had set,
Speaker 1: Helen was dead. In his grief, John gave no thought
Speaker 1: of her prophecy, gave no thought to the warning that
Speaker 1: the wangor spell of the Bukr had been placed upon her. Clark,
Speaker 1: John Strong's friend, came to live with him, and one afternoon, Strong,
Speaker 1: arriving home earlier than usual, came up the veranda steps
Speaker 1: in time to hear Clark talking to one of the
Speaker 1: native servants. I tell it to you must. I have
Speaker 1: heard it too many times. It's nonsense, loner, just jungle talk,
Speaker 1: native rubbish, No must many times before a white man,
Speaker 1: he say rubbish. But me, Loma, he s zombie, not
Speaker 1: one zombie, not two? What many zombies work back there
Speaker 1: in sugar cane be But not a white woman, Loma.
Speaker 1: No one ever saw all this, thot Oor. We were
Speaker 1: just talking, didn't hear you? Come in. I know you didn't,
Speaker 1: and I am sorry, old man, but I listened. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: I listened. I know you were talking about Helen. Now
Speaker 1: what was it all? Just jungle nonsense, nothing to even
Speaker 1: think of. I'll be the best judge of that. Tell
Speaker 1: me Loma. No, oh, Master, if Master understand, Eloah, show
Speaker 1: le Loma. All comes frong. You're making a puzz over
Speaker 1: not Loma. Yes, must Did I ever beat you? No, mush,
Speaker 1: Ti'm going to Loma, beat you till you can't stand.
Speaker 1: If you don't tell Nelson John, this is no way
Speaker 1: to behave I tell her you come with me and
Speaker 1: I'll explain. Come where, Come along and I'll show you. Together.
Speaker 1: The two men leave the bungalow. Loma, his eyes filled
Speaker 1: with tears, stands at the top of the Lanai steps
Speaker 1: and watches them disappear into the underbrush down toward the sea.
Speaker 1: Clark leads the way he set Jaw the only answered
Speaker 1: the strongest question, Tuk, this pathway doesn't lead any place
Speaker 1: except to the seminary. I know that that's where we're going.
Speaker 1: What in Heaven's name is at all about? Why don't
Speaker 1: you tell me? I want to prove that the whole
Speaker 1: thing is nonsense. Before I do, I thought you are
Speaker 1: my friend. I'm friend enough to want to save your reason.
Speaker 1: Oh there's an open grave, now go ahead. I want
Speaker 1: to get that paid. Cluk cluk. What Helen's grave it's
Speaker 1: been opened? What her grave? Clock it's been opened? You'll
Speaker 1: find out in a minute. I'll stand back, will I do?
Speaker 3: Let me Clark, let.
Speaker 1: Me know.
Speaker 7: It ought to be hot yet, cluk cluk, the cas
Speaker 7: get's gone. These devils have taken her, my Helen for
Speaker 7: the damnable voodoo, No John, no zombie.
Speaker 1: At breakneck speed, the two men race back to their bungalow.
Speaker 1: Loma from the veranda seat them coming up the pathway,
Speaker 1: and runs to meet them. In silence. Clark points to
Speaker 1: the brush and Loma and the lead breaks into the
Speaker 1: thick tropic growth. Dusk finds them struggling up the steep
Speaker 1: slopes of the cape with that energy born of frenzied
Speaker 1: fear and nameless horror. Loma holds up his hand. In
Speaker 1: the strained silence, the men listened to the sharp crack
Speaker 1: of cane knives on stalks of cain, the crackling of
Speaker 1: falling cane leaves. Loma motions strong to come forward. He
Speaker 1: forces aside the sugar cane and stares horror stricken into
Speaker 1: the clearing hellim pell him Helm, horrible clock, ghastly story.
Speaker 1: You understand now why John acts as he does, and
Speaker 1: why I wanted you hear the knight lean. She was
Speaker 1: buried alive. Oh, she wasn't buried alive. She wasn't dead. Yes,
Speaker 1: she was dead. She was a zombie, a dead person
Speaker 1: raised from the grave, the body with mind or soul.
Speaker 1: It's impossible, That's what I said alone. No, Helen was dead,
Speaker 1: killed by the curse brought on her by Clarisma's jealous hatred,
Speaker 1: and raised from the grave to be a zombie by
Speaker 1: the same voodooism that killed Yes, Clarisma, what happened to her?
Speaker 1: The natives killed and Helen? You you buried her in
Speaker 1: area had a salt salt, Yes, salt. The zombies eat
Speaker 1: anything containing salt. They returned to their graves in peace,
Speaker 1: and you fed her salt. Yes, she she crumpled up
Speaker 1: at our feet, dead, really dead. Out of deference to
Speaker 1: people who are still alive, character names in these unsolved
Speaker 1: mysteries have been changed inasmuch as any solution must of
Speaker 1: necessity be supposition. Liberties of time, place, and character exist
Speaker 1: in the solution that will be presented after you have
Speaker 1: heard from your sponsor. Sims, Ladies and gentlemen, the solution
Speaker 1: for which you've been waiting. Have you really a reasonable
Speaker 1: explanation of how such a thing could have happened? I'll
Speaker 1: answer that by asking you a question. Do you think
Speaker 1: that any explanation of such a ghastly affair could be
Speaker 1: classified as reasonable?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 1: I suppose not. What has happened, and so I say,
Speaker 1: how could it happen the first place? Don't imagine this
Speaker 1: is an isolated case. So serious is the matter of
Speaker 1: zombies in the island of Haiti that the government has
Speaker 1: been compelled to pass the following law. Article two forty
Speaker 1: nine of the Court Canal of the Republic of Hades
Speaker 1: also shall be qualified as attempted murder. The employment which
Speaker 1: may be made against any person are substances which, without
Speaker 1: causing actual death, produces a lethargic coma more or less prolonged.
Speaker 1: If after the administration of such substances the person has
Speaker 1: been buried, the acts shall be considered murdered, no matter
Speaker 1: what the result that follows. Then the government thinks that
Speaker 1: these zombies.
Speaker 3: Of people who have been poisoned and who have been
Speaker 3: certified as dead and buried while in the state of
Speaker 3: suspended animation. I mean that they have been given a
Speaker 3: poison that kills the brain but leaves their motor faculties unimpaired.
Speaker 1: Between you and me, I don't think that the government
Speaker 1: really believes that. But after all, how would you try
Speaker 1: to fame a law against taking corpses out of their
Speaker 1: grades and making them work in the cane field?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: I see the difficulty there, but just the same I
Speaker 1: don't see how even Buddhism can make a corpse walk.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of inanimate objects being moved by
Speaker 1: the power of mind? A head? And isn't as possible
Speaker 1: as the same worker in black magic or Buddhism that
Speaker 1: killed the person by power of mine could take that
Speaker 1: inanimate object to the corpse and make it move. Do
Speaker 1: you believe that? Yes? And I'll give you the final proof,
Speaker 1: at least my way of thinking. What is that? The
Speaker 1: fact that the natives themselves killed Clarissima, the Native girl
Speaker 1: because they knew that were the assistance of the witch doctors.
Speaker 1: She killed and made a zombie all of Helena.
Speaker 6: To the a