The Mtstery Chronicles

by Joe Nickell

  The Laveau-Glapion tomb is a focal point for commercial voodoo tours. Some visitors leave small gifts at the site—coins, Mardi Gras beads, candles, and the like—in the tradition of voodoo offerings. Many follow a custom of making a wish at the tomb. The necessary ritual for this has been variously described. The earliest version I have found (Tallant 1946, 127) says that people would “knock three times on the slab and ask a favor,” noting: “There are always penciled crosses on the slab. The sexton washes the crosses away, but they always reappear.” A more recent source advises combining the ritual with an offering placed in the attached cup: “Draw the X, place your hand over it, rub your foot three times against the bottom, throw some silver coins into the cup, and make your wish” (Haskins 1990, 59-61). Yet another source says that petitioners are to “leave offerings of food, money and flowers, then ask for Marie’s help after turning around three times and marking a cross with red brick on the stone” (Guiley 2000, 216).

  FIGGURE 18-2. Tablet placed on the tomb by the Catholic Archdiocese follows tradition in identifying the site of Marie Laveau’s burial.

  FIGURE 18-3. Sets of three Xs and other markings—together with offerings of flowers, beads, money, and other items—decorate the reputed tomb of the celebrated Voodoo Queen. (Photographs by Joe Nickell.)

  When I visited the tomb, it was littered with markings, including single Xs; an occasional cross, heart, pentagram, or other figure; and a few inscriptions or other graffiti, sometimes accompanied by initials (FIGURE 18-3). One comment read: “Her eyes / lit up with Fire / For the dreams / she entertained . . . / Seems something in her / knew already / just how well / They’d burn. / A.R.P. / 11-19-00.” The predominant markings were sets of three Xs—suggesting that the folk practice is undergoing transition (that is, the specified number of raps or turns is apparently becoming transferred to the number of Xs to be inscribed).

  Although some of the markings are done in black (as from charcoal), most are rendered in a rusty red from bits of crumbling brick. One New Orleans guidebook says of the wishing tomb:

  The family who own it have asked that this bogus, destructive tradition should stop, not least because people are taking chunks of brick from other tombs to make the crosses. Voodoo practitioners—responsible for the candles, plastic flowers, beads, and rum bottles surrounding the plot—deplore the practice, too, regarding it as a desecration that chases Laveau’s spirit away [Cook 1999, 110, 112].

  Echoing that view, another guidebook advises: “On the St. Louis tour, please don’t scratch Xs on the graves; no matter what you’ve heard, it is not a real voodoo practice and is destroying fragile tombs” (Herczog 2000, 158, 186).

  The scuttlebutt, according to the professional guide 1 commissioned (Krohn 2000), is that the practice may have evolved from the appearance of ordinary graffiti, which was then transformed by an early cemetery guide into a pseudo-voodoo custom that brought him tips. Of the wishing practice, one writer wryly observes that there is “no word on success rates” (Dickinson 1997).

  Perturbed Spirit

  Given the belief that Marie Laveau’s spirit can be invoked to grant wishes, it was inevitable that there would be alleged sightings of her ghost. According to the author of Haunted City (Dickinson 1997,131):

  Tour guides tell of a Depression-era vagrant who fell asleep atop a tomb in the cemetery and was awakened to the sound of drums and chanting. Stumbling upon the tomb of Marie Laveau, he encountered the ghosts of dancing, naked men and women, led by a tall woman wrapped in the coils of a huge snake.

  Or so tour guides tell. But did the “vagrant” perhaps pass out from drink and have a vivid dream or hallucination? How much has the story been embellished in the intervening two-thirds century or so? Do we know that the alleged event even occurred? These are among the problems with such anecdotal evidence.

  The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits asserts: “One popular legend holds that Marie I never died, but changed herself into a huge black crow which still flies over the cemetery.” Indeed, “[b]oth Maries are said to haunt New Orleans in various human and animal forms” (Guiley 2000). Note the anonymity inherent in such phrases as “popular legend” and the passive-voice construction of “are said to.” In addition to her tomb, Marie also allegedly haunts other sites. For example, according to Hauck (1996, 192, 193), “Laveau has also been seen walking down St. Ann Street wearing a long white dress.” Providing a touch of what literary critics call verisimilitude (an appearance of truth), Hauck adds, “The phantom is that of the original Marie, because it wears her unique tignon, a seven-knotted handkerchief, around her neck.” But Hauck has erred: Marie in fact “wore a large white headwrap called a tignon tied around her head,” says her biographer Gandolfo (1992, 19), which had “seven points folded into it to represent a crown.” Gandolfo, who is also an artist, has painted a striking portrait of Marie Laveau wearing her tignon, which is displayed in the gift shop of his New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (and is reproduced in Gandolfo 1992, 1).

  With a bit of literary detective work, we can track the legend-making process in one instance of Laveau ghost lore. In his Haunted Places: The National Directory, Hauck (1996, 192, 193) writes of Marie: “Her ghost and those of her followers are said to practice wild voodoo rituals in her old house.” Are said to by whom? Hauck’s list of sources for the entry on Marie Laveau includes Susy Smith’s Prominent American Ghosts (1967, 139-40), his earliest-dated citation. Smith merely says of Marie, “Her home at 1020 St. Ann Street was the scene of weird secret rites involving various primitive groups,” though she asks, “May not the wild dancing and pagan practices still continue, invisible, but frantic as ever?” Apparently this purely rhetorical question about possible ghosts was transformed into an “are-said-to”-sourced assertion about supposedly real ones. In fact, the house at 1020 St. Ann Street was never even occupied by Marie Laveau; it only marks the approximate site of the home she lived in until her death (then numbered 152 Rue St. Ann, as shown by her death certificate). That cottage, which bore a red-tile roof and was flanked by banana trees and an herb garden, was demolished in 1903 (Gandolfo 1992, 14-15, 34).

  Many of the tales of Marie Laveau’s ghost, if not actually invented by tour guides, may be uncritically promulgated by them. According to Trommefs New Orleans 2001, “We enjoy a good nighttime ghost tour of the Quarter as much as anyone, but we also have to admit that what’s available is really hit-or-miss in presentation (it depends on who conducts your particular tour) and more miss than hit with regard to facts” (Herczog 2000, 158, 186). Even the author of New Orleans Ghosts II— hardly a knee-jerk debunker—speaks of the “hyperbolic balderdash” that sometimes “spews forth from the black garbed tour guides who are more interested in money and sensationalism than accurate historical research” (Klein 1999, 64).

  A Haunting Tale

  One alleged Laveau ghost-sighting stands out. Tallant (1946, 130-31) relates the story of an African-American named Elmore Lee Banks, who had an experience near St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. As Banks recalled, one day in the mid-1930s “an old woman” came into the drugstore where he was a customer. For some reason she frightened the proprietor, who “ran like a fool into the back of the store.” Laughing, the woman asked, “Don’t you know me?” She became angry when Banks replied, “No, ma’am,” and slapped him. Banks continued: “Then she jump[ed] up in the air and went whizzing out the door and over the top of the telephone wires. She passed right over the graveyard wall and disappeared. Then I passed out cold.” He awakened to whiskey being poured down his throat by the proprietor, who told him, “That was Marie Laveau.”

  What are we to make of this case? (Perhaps the reader will want to pause here and reflect on the possibilities.) Let us assume, provisionally, that such an event did transpire, although we can predict that the narrative may have been affected by the well-known influences of misperception, memory distortion, the unconscious temptation to embellish, and other factors. We can begin our analysis by noting a few clues. Fir
st, it seems significant that Banks was a customer in a drugstore; this suggests that he may have been ill and/ or on medication. Second, it seems curious that he “passed out cold” from a mere slap, especially a ghostly one. (It seems contradictory that ghosts—which are reputedly nonphysical and often are reported to be able to pass through walls—are able to perform physical acts.) A third clue, I think, comes from the contrast between the first part of the story, wherein the woman appears quite unghostlike and acts in concert with the real world, and the second part, in which her behavior (flying through the air) seems consistent with an hallucinatory experience.

  Putting the clues together gives us the following possible scenario: Banks visits the drugstore because he is unwell, possibly seeking to get a prescription filled or refilled. An elderly woman comes in, recognizes him (perhaps from some years before), and is bemused that he fails to recognize her. Suddenly, from the effects of his illness or medication or even alcohol, Banks passes out, but in the process of swooning and falling to the floor he hallucinates. This may have involved his brain perceiving the lowering of his body in relationship to hers as the converse action—as her rising above him—and so triggering a dreamlike fantasy of her flying. (Hallucinations can occur in normal individuals with various medical conditions, including high fevers and reduced respiration rates, as well as alcoholic states and many other conditions. And hallucinations “share much in common with dreams” [Baker 1992, 274-76].)

  The various elements in the story may have become confused— misconstrued and misordered as to sequence—as Banks teetered on the brink of consciousness. For example, although the woman may have slapped him in anger, another possibility is that she did so slightly later in an attempt to revive him. Similarly, the proprietor may have run to the rear of the store not because he recognized the “ghost,” but in order to fetch the whiskey with which to revive Banks. Subsequently, while seeming to have “witnessed” the entire event (Hauck 1996, 192, 193) and to have identified the woman as Marie Laveau, the store owner may in fact only have been commenting on the perceived events that Banks related. Over time, as Banks repeated and rehearsed his tale, it became a dramatic, supernatural narrative about Marie Laveau. States psychologist Robert A. Baker: “The work of Elizabeth Loftus and others over the past decade has demonstrated that the human memory works not like a tape recorder but more like the village storyteller, i.e., it is both creative and recreative” (Baker and Nickell 1992, 217).

  Such impulses may be especially strong in a climate of magical thinking. They have helped foster the many tales and claims about Marie Laveau. In addition, according to the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (Salzman 1996, 1581), “the legend of Marie Laveau was kept alive by twentieth-century conjurers who claimed to use Laveau techniques and it is kept alive through the continuing practice of commercialized voodoo in New Orleans.”

  REFERENCES

  Baker, Robert A. 1992. Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

  Baker, Robert A., and Joe Nickell. 1992. Missing Pieces: How to Investigate Ghosts, UFOs, Psychics, and Other Mysteries. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

  Cook, Samantha. 1999. New Orleans: The Mini Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides Ltd.

  “Death of Marie Laveau.” 1881. Obituary, Daily Picayune(New Orleans, La.), n.d. (after June 15), reprinted in Gandolfo 1992, 38-39.

  Dickinson, Joy. 1997. Haunted City: An Unauthorized Guide to the Magical, Magnificent New Orleans of Anne Rice. Secaucus, N J.: Citadel Press. Gandolfo, Charles. 1992. Marie Laveau of New Orleans. New Orleans, La.: New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. 2000. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. 2d ed.

  New York: Checkmark Books. Haskins, Jim. 1990. Voodoo & Hoodoo. New York: Scarborough House. Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books. Herczog, Mary. 2000. Erommefs 2001 New Orleans. New York: IDG Books Worldwide.

  Klein, Victor. 1999. New Orleans Ghosts II. Metairie, La.: Lycanthrope Press.

  Krohn, Diane C. 2000. Personal communication, 3 December.

  Salzman, Jack, et al., eds. 1996. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, vol. 3. London: Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International.

  Smith, Susy. 1967. Prominent American Ghosts. Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing.

  Tallant, Robert. [1946] 1990. Voodoo in New Orleans, reprinted Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing.

  19

  A Case of “SHC” Demystified

  A case of March 4, 1980, in Chorley, England, mystifies paranormalists, who invoke spontaneous human combustion (SHC) in a fatal accident. Where is the mystery? Tony McMunn, a fireman who encountered the case and became an SHC enthusiast as a result, insists that “there is not a lot of flesh or fat on the head, and the fire should have gone out.” He and others are also impressed by the severe destruction of the body, in which some of the bones were reportedly calcined (reduced to ash). However, the following investigative chronology, keyed to the pen-and-ink drawing shown in FIGURE 19-1 and based on a published photograph, easily resolved the mystery. (See Randies and Hough 1992, 84-85, 91, and illus. 6 following p. 112.)

  Bucket indicated to investigators that the victim, an elderly lady, was in the process of relieving herself when she fell.

  FIGURE 19-1. Illustration based on photograph of a woman’s body allegedly destroyed by spontaneous human combustion.

  The missing shoe is consistent with this or other possible scenarios. Apparently it came off during the victim’s fall and is out of view; it may be that her attempts to take it off even caused the fall.

  In falling, the victim obviously hit her head on the fireplace; the impact either knocked her unconscious or possibly killed her outright.

  Her head struck the iron grate, which has been sharply displaced to the left.

  The fall caused flaming embers from the now-exposed “open coal fire” to shower upon the body.

  The victim’s clothing ignited. As the fire progressed, her own melting body fat contributed to the overall destruction.

  The rug beneath the body may have retained melted body fat and thus aided in the severe destruction—a process known in the forensic literature as the wick effect.

  The fire was probably further enhanced by the chimney effect—a “drawing” of the flame and venting of smoke; in this case, the venting took place through the chimney itself. At about 9:30 on the preceding evening, when the fire was believed to have taken place, neighbors saw a great amount of smoke and sparks issuing from the chimney.

  Heavy deposits of soot above the fireplace, tapering toward the chimney opening, are consistent with the chimney effect and the venting of considerable organic material.

  The destruction of the body was in approximate proportion to its proximity to the fire source. The torso—which contains a large amount of fat—was most severely destroyed, whereas the lower legs and feet remained intact.

  As in many other such cases, the lower extremities were spared because fire burns laterally only with difficulty.

  Nearby objects failed to burn for the same reason. Only radiant heat, not flame, reached these objects.

  The only mystery remaining is why anyone would ever have considered that the death occurred by spontaneous human combustion!

  REFERENCES

  Randies, Jenny, and Peter Hough. 1992. Spontaneous Human Combustion. London: Robert Hale.

  20

  Tracking the Swamp Monsters

  Do mysterious and presumably endangered manlike creatures inhabit swamplands of the southern United States? If not, how do we explain the sightings and even track impressions of creatures that thus far have eluded mainstream science? Do they represent additional evidence of the legendary Bigfoot, or something else entirely? What would an investigation reveal?

  Monster Mania

  The outside world learned about Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp Monster in 1974, when two hunters emerged from a remo
te area of backwater sloughs with plaster casts of “unusual tracks.” The men claimed that they had discovered the footprints near a wild boar that lay with its throat gashed. They also stated that more than a decade earlier, in 1963, they had seen similar tracks after encountering an awesome creature. They described it as standing seven feet tall, being covered with grayish hair, and having large amber-colored eyes. However, the monster had promptly run away and an afternoon rainstorm had obliterated its tracks, the men said.

  The hunters were Harlan E. Ford and his friend Billy Mills, both of whom worked as air traffic controllers. Ford told his story on an episode of the 1970s television series In Search of. According to his granddaughter, Dana Holyfield (1999a, 11):

  When the documentary was first televised, it was monster mania around here. People called from everywhere. . . . The legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster escalated across Southern Louisiana and quickly made its way out of state after the documentary aired nationwide.

  Harlan Ford continued to search for the monster until his death in 1980. Dana recalls how he once took a goat into the swamp to use as bait, hoping to lure the creature to a tree blind where Ford waited with gun and camera—uneventfully, as it happened. He supposedly did find several different-sized tracks on one hunting trip. He also claimed to have seen the monster on one other occasion, during a fishing trip with Mills and some of their friends from work. One of the men reportedly then grabbed a rifle and went searching for the creature, and fired two shots at it before returning to tell his story to the others around the campfire (Holyfield 1999a, 10-15).