S04 Episode 8: Death's Pale Flag (Pt.2 of 2)

his first contact, Max Beauvoir. The forty five year old Beauvoir was born in Haiti and later educated in the United States and France, where he studied chemistry, eventually settling in Massachusetts to work as a chemical engineer. The death of his father, however, led him back to his home land, where in nineteen seventy three he trained to become a

voodoo priest, also known as a houngen. The next year, Bauvois established a temple in his home, which had since become known for the elaborate foodoo ceremonies he conducted there. Pulling up to Bouvoir's home, Davis was greeted by the man himself, dressed sharply in a white linen shirt, having been expecting the young ethnobotanist, Bauvois showed Davis around his house before offering him a seat in the garden to

discuss the matter at hand. Beauvois was entreged by Davis in Kline's assumption that it was some kind of potion or poison that enabled the zombie state of which they had heard so much. You don't agree, asked Davis. Bauvois smiled to himself in response and looked off into the palm trees that surrounded his garden. If you're trying to find a poison, mister Davis, you will be a long

time looking for it. As Bouvois went on to explain, it wasn't a poison that created the zombie state, it was the magic of the bocor the voodoo sorcerer that created it. Bauvois laughed at the look of surprise on Davis's face and invited him to a ceremony he was conducting in his home that night. Perhaps then he thought Davis might get a better idea of just what exactly

he was dealing with. Later that night, after arriving at Bouvoir's home, Davis was whizzed through to a dark, tortulit courtyard crammed full of people from every corner of the earth, from simple tourists to academics, and even some French sailors who had newly arrived at the local port. All had come to the ceremony for which beau Noir had become increasingly infamous. Davis was led toward a table at the back at which Boboir was sitting, nodding to his guest

to take a seat. Davis was just about to speak when the frantic shaking of a rattle was heard from the other side of the courtyard. Moments later, a hounds dis appeared a female initiate of the temple, followed by a mambo, a voodoo and priestess, and together they began an elaborate ritual to invoke the voodoo spirits. Moments later, Bauoir himself got up to join them, holding his own rattle aloft. He proceeded to deliver a prayer, shaking the

rattle as he read. An ominous dumping of drums soon followed as more initiates joined the throng, who seemed to quickly become taken over by the rhythm. Until finally one of them appeared to become possessed by a spirit. Davis watched an astonishment as she tore across the courtyard, lifting men into the air, chewing down on glass tumblers, and at one point tearing the head off a live dove

with her bare teeth. The ceremony continued throughout the night, becoming increasingly chaotic, before finally ending with one supposedly possessed an isship taking a hot coal from an open fire and keeping it in her mouth for over three minutes. Davis left soon after, utterly perplexed by what he had seen.

Though he had little doubt that Bovoirs shows were greatly hammed up for the tourists who paid good money to see them, what he couldn't deny was that he had just seen a woman holding a burning piece of coal in her mouth for three minutes without injury. The following morning, Davis rose early, his thoughts still consumed by the events of the previous night, having spoken to Bovoir, only to be left with more questions than he had before. It was time to pay a visit to the Bocor Marcel Pierre.

Back in the early fifties, the BBC had been making a documentary about Haitian culture and had managed to convince Pierre to provide them with some voodoo poison. It was this poison that doctor Klein had tested on rhesus monkeys, finding it to have severe paralyzing properties, which he also believed to be the most likely source of the zombie myth. Traveling with Bouvoir's daughter Rachel as an interpreter, Davis made his way out of the docks at porto' prance and

headed north into the countryside. After two hours, traveling through thick green cane fields and scrub lands, they arrived at the small coastal town of Saint Mark. As a local bacorp, Marcel Pierre was well known for offering a range of different services provided the price was right, though it wasn't one he was especially open about. It was believed that

creating zombies was just one such service. Arriving at his house just after midday, Rachel explained to Pierre that Davis was a very discreet and influential man from New York who was hoping to procure his services. Having convinced Pierre that he was legitimate and that he was willing to pay any price, The bocorp eventually agreed to let the

pair into his home. As Davis explained, he was interested specifically in the potion used to make a zombie and wondered if it might be possible to see an example of it. Pierre paused for a moment, then beckoned for the pair to follow him, leading them through his house and into his makeshift temple come apothecary at the back of it. The room was small and almost completely unlit, at the center of which stood an altar covered in

lots of different artifacts. Strange things were littered about the place, including bright colored powders in jars, an abundance of feathers, and a variety of doll's heads, as well as three skulls, one being a dog and the other two human. Picking up a small bottle containing some kind of oil, he poured it onto his hands and other exposed body parts,

asking the others to do the same. Then he plucked a small white bottle from a shelf, wrapped a cloth around his mouth and nose, then showed them the light brown powder inside it. Returning to the front of the house, Pierre gave his price for the full service, as well as making the potion and then the zombie. Davis agreed to the price on one condition that he be allowed to watch Pierre putting the potion together. Though reluctant at first,

Pierre nodded back in agreement. Having arrived early at Pierre's home the next day, Davis and Rachel Beauvoir were taken to a local cemetery. However, since Davis had no formal permission to be there, two local military guards prevented the group from entering. Unsure what they were doing there in the first place, Pierre explained that the first ingredient they needed was a sample of human bone. It wouldn't be a problem, however, since he had plenty to go around

back at his home. For the rest of the day, the three traveled about the local countryside, procuring the various items needed to make the zombie potion. Having bought various multicolored talks from a local chemist and gathered some leaves from a vacant field, the three of them eventually returned to Pierre's temple. There, Davis watched carefully as Pierre measured out the ingredients, grinding them down in a pestle and mortar before topping it all off with some shavings of

human skull. A short time later, he handed the ethnobotanist a small jar of dark green powder. Returning to Max Bovoir's house later that day, the houndund confirmed what Davis already knew. The powder was completely useless. It was a scam concocted by Pierre for gullible Westerners looking for the

apparent zombie potion. Having thought a little more on doctor Klein's theory that some kind of natural, possibly plant based substance was responsible for the zombie effect, Davis wondered if it had something to do with the datura plant, a plant well known to be psychoactive that was commonly used in West Africa as a stupefying poison. Davis also knew that the effects of datura could be neutralized by the calabarbane, which might explain how the apparent zombies were first created

and then supposedly resurrected. Despite spending the next few days searching high and low for any sign of those plants, Davis found little evidence for them. Having spent almost a week by now in Haiti, Davis felt no closer to finding what he came for it was time to get in touch with the last of doctor Clent's contacts, the

psychiatrist and his former student, Lamarque dor June. Since studying undeclined, Doyjune had risen to become Haiti's leading psychiatrist and often found his Western medical training clashing with Haitian culture, and rarely more so than on the topic of zombies. Like most Haitians, as a child, doy June had been equally terrified and fascinated by the stories of the brain dead creatures stalking the land. However, he had never once believed it to be anything other than just old folk tales.

All that changed when he enrolled at McGill University. It was at McGill, under the guidance of controversial psychiatrist Professor Ewan Cameron, that many of the CIA's mk Ultra trials were conducted. Project mk Ultra was the code name given to a program of experiments undertaken by the United States highly secretive Central Intelligence Agency. Though the CIA have now admitted to the existence of the program, there is doubtless much about it that we will never know. What is known, however,

was that the project was a mind control program. Utilizing the use of psychotropic drugs, often using large quantities of LSD to conduct brainwashing experiments. These experiments were conducted largely on human test subjects, and Doyoune is thought to be one of the many researchers who participated in the program. What Doyoune observed during these experiments reminded him precisely of the accounts he had heard of zombies since he was a child. It was only then that he realized the

stories might not be completely bogars after all. Though he had little time for the supernatural. Like client, Doyjune believed it could well be possible that some kind of agent was being used to dramatically slow a victim's metabolism to make them appear dead. The victim could then even be buried for a few hours before somehow being reawakened later on. Doyune's best guess was that it had something to do

with what locals referred to as the zombie cucumber. Davis recognized this immediately as another term for the datura plant. Despite Doyune and Kline's theory, Davis was beginning to wonder if the whole zombie phenomena wasn't just a myth after all. At that Doyjune left the room, reappearing moments later with two of his current patients suggesting that they might be the best people to talk about it. One was a

middle aged woman whom Doyune introduced as Femt. The other Davis recognized instantly from the polaroid he had been given back in doctor Kleine's apartment. It was none other than Clervius nar Cease. That afternoon, Davis sat quietly as Clervius tried his best to explain just what exactly had happened to him. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make

time for you. You deserve it. TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With TELEDOC, you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue,

teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. For free teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Back in April nineteen sixty two, Clavius had rarely been sick in all his life when one morning he felt suddenly weak and nauseous, and by the

afternoon he was struggling to breathe. Realizing he was in serious trouble, he arranged a lift to the nearest hospital. On arrival, by which time he was now coughing up blood. He was rushed through to a bed and immediately examined by the doctors. Despite being unable to diagnose his symptoms, Clavius was admitted straight away and treated for a pulmonary

edema and hypertension. As his condition got worse over the next few days, Clavius began to feel as if he were drifting continually in and out of a dream, until finally he found that he could no longer move at all. At some point, though he couldn't see or feel anything, he was able to hear the doctors rushing about his bed before coming to a stop. Suddenly. Then he heard a voice pronouncing him dead. Next he heard the sound of someone weeping, recognizing it as his youngest sister, who

had been sat at his bedside the whole time. Clavius had vague recollections of being lifted and placed into a box, then feeling something tugging at his face. He later discovered this to have been a nail driven into the coffin lid and all the way through his cheek. Soon after that was a peculiar sensation of floating down, followed by hearing the clattering of what he later realized with shovel

loads of dirt raining down on top of him. At some point, Clervius became aware that he was no longer underground. Pulled up into fresh air, he was beaten and bundled into a vehicle, then driven to a plantation thirty miles to the north of where he had been buried. Clervius then claimed he toiled away for years as a slave on the plantation from sunset to sunrise, surviving only on just one meal a day alongside a host of other

zombies just like himself. Though he missed his home and family desperately, he seemed incapable of making any decisions for himself. It was like he had been suspended in a permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be until ten years later that Clervius finally managed to escape after one of the captives killed the bacor who was running the plantation. With their master gone, the captives and their various lethargic states slowly dispersed and

eventually found their ways home. As his senses slowly came back to him, Clervius realized that it was most likely his brother, who he had fallen out with over a land dispute, that had been responsible for turning him into a zombie. It wasn't until he found out his brother had died that Clavius was finally able to return home. It was clear to Davis that Clervius and fem T, whose own story was equally harrowing, were not making any

of it up. Having relayed his findings to Max Bove, only to again be frustrated by the Houngund's unwillingness to divulge more information, Davis decided to pay Marcel Pierre another visit. Finding Pierre at a local bar that he owned in Saint Mark, Davis accused him of making a bogus potion for him and questioned whether he was a real boucour

at all. Angered by the slight, Pierre offered Davis another vial of the apparent potion, challenging him to apply it to himself if he really thought he was a charlatan. Davis Duie obliged, pouring the powder onto his arm, only to pull it away at the last minute without Pierre noticing. Impressed by Davis's show of courage, Pierre relented and agreed

to show him how it was really made. Shortly after midnight, just to the north of Saint Mark, with the rumble of thunder coming from somewhere within the dark, thick clouds above, Davis, Pierre, and three of his helpers made their way to a nearby cemetery as lightning flashed intermittently in the sky above. One of the helpers, Shone, brought a spade down into the earth and proceeded to shovel away at it until Finally, a small coffin was revealed, having been buried there only

a month or so before. Inside it lay the decomposed body of a small child, still wearing the bonnet and dress she had been buried in three days later. Now back in Pierre's temple, Davis watched as Jean crushed the skull of the dead infant and placed the pieces in a jar. Davis returned again later that night as Pierre prepared a grille, which was then lit on fire, pouring alcohol over his skin. Pierre then set that alight too,

and instructed the others to do the same. Johan placed the jar of skull pieces on the ground next to the grill, while Pierre pulled a sack down from a nearby table and removed from it two freshly killed lizards and a large dead toad which had been flattened and dried. Wrapped around its leg appeared to be some kind of dried sea snake, all of which was placed on top of the grill. Added to which were two types of fish,

of which Davis recognized one as a puffer fish. The bones of the child's skull were then placed over the hot coals and roasted until they turned black as the various elements cooked. John took a human tibia from the side and grated it into a cup before adding it to a large pescelin mortar along with the pieces of

all the cooked ingredients. Finally, some plants were added to the mix, a species of albitsia known as chachar in Haiti, and the other being one known locally as the itching p As Jeanne pounded at the mixture, Pierre, who never once touched it, lay back in the shade and shouted out instructions. With the mixture almost ready, he began to

sing until the process was complete. Having carefully noted down everything he'd seen, Davis was satisfied he had everything he needed to take back Decline, with the exception of one thing. If this was the potion that induced the deathlike state, what did Pierre use as the antidote to bring the victims out of it and keep them zombified? But Pierre

was confused. The only antidote he made was to stop people falling victim to the poison, such as what they had rubbed on themselves before they put the ingredients together. There was no antidote, as Pierre went on to explain, After the poison was administered and the victim had appeared to have died, the bacoorp merely entered the cemetery and called out to the victim's name. It was their power alone that resurrected the victims and turned them into zombies.

Realizing he had now got all he could from Pierre, Davis thanked him for the potion and returned to his hotel. A few days later, he was back at Harvard, clutching the violet powder, which he hoped might finally give them some answers. After detailing everything he discovered to doctor Kline, the pair set about trying to isolate what ingredients might be responsible for manifesting the zombie symptoms. The itching pea plant was known to have psychoactive seeds, which were also

used in Columbia to treat cholera and parasites. The other Alpitsia lebeck, was known to have been used as a fish poison by some tribes in West Africa, but more significantly, it could also interfere with respiration. The lizards and the sea snake, which turned out to be a worm, had no apparent psychoactive properties. The toad, however, which was identified

as a Buffo Marinus was highly venomous. Its secretions not only contained powerful heart stimulants that could have been responsible for Clavius's hypertension, but was also potentially hallucinogenic, none of which was particularly revelatory to Davis and Kline. Certainly, there was nothing there that could account for the extraordinary experience detailed by Clavius and other apparent sufferers of zombification. But

then they discovered something else. It had been almost a week since Davis sent the fish off to be analyzed, but it was well worth the weight. Though one of them was completely irrelevant, the other, which was indeed a puffer fish, was found to contain high levels of tetrodotoxin, a highly effective nerve toxin. In fact, according to the analyst who had picked it up, if you're looking for something to induce paralysis in a human, there was nothing stronger.

Though Davis hadn't thought about it at the time. There existed a vast number of accounts of puffer fish poisoning, with most coming from Japan, where the fish, known there

as fugu, is considered a high delicacy. In preparing fugu, chefs are supposed to remove most of its poison to make it non lethal, while leaving just enough to create a mild sense of euphoria when eating it, It doesn't always go to Tetrodotoxin is thought to be one hundred and sixty thousand times stronger than cocaine, while a single pinhead sized dose of it is five hundred times stronger

than cyanide. Victims of FuGO poisoning, at least those who are fortunate enough to survive it, will remain completely paralyzed for hours, unable to speak or move, despite being conscious the entire time. Furthermore, some individuals having entered such a state are known to have been certified dead, even being nailed into coffins, before suddenly seeming to miraculously revive. Davis

was ecstatic. It seemed finally they had solved the mystery of how someone might appear dead only to be later resurrected. Davis speculated that the poison could be easily rubbed onto a victim's skin, leading to feelings of nausea and difficulty in breathing within hours. Within six hours, a victim's metabolism could be so significantly lowered that their vital signs become

indistinguishable from death. There was only one problem. None of this explained how an individual, having been poisoned was then turned into an apparent zombie. Though Davis had his theories,

he would ultimately never discover the answer. Despite having countless opportunities to witness the apparent resurrection ceremony, there was always the possibility he would merely have been witnessing an expensive contric or worse, that by requesting to see it, he would then be responsible for turning someone into a zombie.

A few years after returning from his first trip to Haiti, Wade Davis detailed the full account of his experiences there in his book The Serpent and the Rainbow, which was also used as the basis Wes Craven's fictional horror film of the same name. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations,

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