Voodoo Craze

Vodoun, or 'voodoo,' is a respectable religion like any other. We discuss the the undeserved reputation of zombies, human sacrifice, and spooky shenanigans—with it's origin in events like the Affaire de Bizoton, the ax murderer Clementine Barnabet, and a voodoo craze of the early 20th Century. It carries on in stories like Zack and Addie's tragic New Orleans romance.

Show notes

07:00

Affaire de Bizoton

SOURCES

Article: Dash, Mike, The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name (Smithsonian Magazine), May 29, 2013

Article: (Indianapolis Daily Journal), pp 1, Sept 21, 1864

Article: The Aurora Commercial, pp 1, Sept 29, 1864

Article: Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism (London South Advertiser), pp 4, April 23, 1864

Article: (The Daily Age), pp 1, Oct 18, 1865

Richmond Daily Dispatch, pp 14, Feb 1, 1869

Article: The London Morning Post, pp 5, Apr 17, 1850

Article: The New York Times, pp 4, Jun 11, 1867

Article: Buffalo Evening Courier And Republic, pp 2, Jun 10, 1869

Article: Comhaire, Jean L., The Haitian Schism: 1804-1860 (Anthropological Quarterly), pp 1-10 , Vol. 29, No. 1, New Series Vol. 4 (Jan., 1956),

Book: Williams, Joseph John, Voodoos and Obeahs: Phases of West India Witchcraft (VAMzzz Publishing), 1932

Cooper, Melissa L., Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination (University of North Carolina Press), pp 40, 2017

Book: Vodou et Névrose (Port-au-Prince: La Presse), pp 46, 1931

Book: St. John, Sir Spenser, Hayti: or, The Black Republic (Smith, Elder and Co.), pp 182 - 228, 1884

20:00

New Orleans Voodoo and Marie Laveau

SOURCES

Book: Long, Carolyn Morrow , A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau (University Press of Florida), 2018

25:50

Clementine Barnabet and the Axe murders of 1911-1912

SOURCES

Book: Gauthreaux, Alan G. and Hippensteel, D.G., Dark Bayou: Infamous Louisiana Homicides (McFarland), pp 52 - 64, 2015

Article: Bovsun, Mara, Who do the voodoo and the ‘Church of Sacrifice’ (New York Daily News), Jun 9 2019

Woman confesses she murdered 17 (The Norwalk Daily Reflector), pp 1 , Apr 3, 1912

Article: Murder the test - Head of Bloody Cult Confesses (The Mitchel Commercial), pp 1, Apr 11, 1912

Article: (The San Antonio Light), pp 3, Apr 2, 1912

Negress sent to Jail (The San Antonio Light), pp 9, Dec 1, 1911

Article: Family Slain with an Axe (Benton Scott County Democrat), pp 2, Nov 28, 1912

Article: (Santa Fe New Mexican), pp 2, Apr 3, 1912

Clementine Says it Will Continue (Hutchinson News), pp 1, Apr 3, 1912

Louisiana Jury Convicts Clementine Barnabet (Bradford Era), pp 1, Oct 26, 1912

44:10

1920s Voodoo Craze and pop culture, White Zombie (movie)

SOURCES

, n.d.

48:30

Zack and Addie

SOURCES

Documentary: Zack and Addie, 2014

Article: A Grisly New Orleans Murder Mystery Takes Another Twist (ABC News), Oct 24, 2006

Article: Bartlette, DeLani R., The Gruesome Tale of Zack Bowen and Addie Hall — And What It Says About Our Fascination with True Crime (medium.com), Apr 29, 2019

Book: Brown, Ethan, Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder that Rocked New Orleans (St. Martin's True Crime), 2010

Show gallery

Sketch of 8 Haitian Voodoo devotees found guilty of cannibalism in 1864

Sketch of eight Haitian Vooodoo devotees found guilty in 1864 in the affaire de Bizoton. Published in 'The Civil War in Hayti' (Harper's Weekly,1865), captioned: 'Votaries of the God Vaudoux (Snake-Worship), Executed for the Crime of Cannibalism.

Harper's Weekly, 2 September 1865, p. 545

President Fabre-Nicholas Geffrard(8th president of Haiti). Haiti in a portrait taken circa 1867 at the London branch of the great French photograph Disdéri

Sir Spenser St John, served as British chargé d’affaires in Haiti through the 1860s. He later wrote a detailed account of the Bizoton affair, with biased belief in child sacrifice and cannibalism in Vodoun worship.

A photo often attributed to being of Marie Laveau is, in fact, not.

This 1920 painting by Frank Schneider, based presumably on a lost 1835 portrait by George Catlin is said to be of Marie Laveau. it is not. It is simply "A free woman of color." Those who knew her said it bears no likeness.

news clipping with photo of Clementine Barnabet

News clipping from The Atlanta Constitution, page 11, on April 7 1912, showing an image of Clementine Barnabet

Movie poster for White Zombie, a 1932 independent film based on William B. Seabrook's 1929 book on Haitian voodou, The Magic Island

Unknown, possibly employee(s) of United Artists derivative work: Crisco 1492 / Public domain

Copy of 1st Edition of Book, "The Magic Island"

A copy of 1st Edition of "The Magic Island" from 1929, by W.B. Seabrook

Weiser Antiquarian Books

The co-host's painting that was requested to be pulled from an art showing in a Phoenix restaurant, cited by a former missionary to Haiti as bad luck. Also published in the book "Children's book of mythical beasts and magical monsters" (2011)