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The Lancet zombi cases (FI, WD and MM)

Also called: Littlewood and Douyon cases
Folklore and mythUndeadShambles1968 to 1999

In 1997 a British anthropologist-psychiatrist and a Haitian physician published the only clinical study of people identified in Haiti as zombis. They examined three individuals whose families said they had died and been buried years earlier. All three had psychiatric or neurological conditions, and genetic testing showed that at least two were strangers taken in by bereaved families. The paper remains the main medical evidence that the living zombi is a social diagnosis applied to vulnerable, wandering people.12

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1997
Published by Roland Littlewood and Chavannes Douyon in The Lancet, 1997
Origin
Haitian
Haiti
What causes it
Other
Families attributed each case to sorcery; the investigators diagnosed mental illness, brain damage and learning disability, with mistaken identity in two cases.
How you become one
Each had died young after a short illness, been buried, and was 'recognised' by relatives years later.
How it moves
Shambles
One was noticed walking through a market in a detached, shambling manner.

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1997

Published by Roland Littlewood and Chavannes Douyon in The Lancet, 1997

field notes

What the sources say

1

FI, a woman buried beside her house, was identified three years later wandering near her village12

2

WD, dead at 18, was identified by his family at a cockfight eight years after his burial12

3

MM was seen in a town market thirteen years after her death at 1812

4

Examination with EEG and CT scans found catatonic schizophrenia, epilepsy with brain damage, and a developmental learning disability12

5

DNA and fingerprint tests showed that two of the three were not the dead relatives at all12

6

The authors did find tetrodotoxin in samples of bokors' powder, but thought misidentification the likelier general explanation12

Could you outrun it?

Speed class from how the sources describe it (shambles), not a measurement.

The Lancet zombi cases (FI, WD and MM) about 3 km/h
You, walking about 5 km/h
You, jogging about 10 km/h
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h

Sources

  1. A medical study of the Haitian zombie - Mind Hacks
  2. Zombie - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.

Folklore from the same lands

Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750Clairvius NarcisseHaitian, 1980Felicia Felix-MentorHaitian, 1937