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10 things we learned about zombies from a New Orleans voodoo expert

Profile image for Helen Anders
Helen Anders
Jerry Gandolfo, owner of the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans.
Jerry Gandolfo, owner of the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans.
An altar representation of Ghede, the spirit that deals with zombies, at the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans wears a top hat.

NEW ORLEANS — When the zombie apocalypse comes, I am ready. I know how to make them go away.

You learn the darnedest things in New Orleans.


The museum, which organizes tours of New Orleans sites that are associated with voodoo, was founded in 1972 by Gandolfo’s late brother, Charles, an artist.

“Voodoo was the only subject that hadn’t been taken” in the museum realm, says Gandolfo, who took over after his brother’s death. “After he died, I discovered our great-great-grandfather was raised by a voodoo queen.”

That might raise eyebrows anywhere else, but not in New Orleans. So I asked him about zombies. Now that we’ve seen what Brad Pitt can do with zombies, consider 10 key things I learned about them from Gandolfo.

1. The word zombie comes from the Congo, where in local folklore Nzambi is the great spirit. Known as Li Grand Zombi in New Orleans, Gandolfo said, the great spirit is symbolized by the snake.

2. In voodoo lore, your body houses a petit angel and a grand angel. When you die, the grand angel goes to heaven. The petit angel hangs out in your body for three days or until you’ve finished rotting. If anything happens to the petit angel before your time’s up, you might turn into a zombie. This is why, in Haiti, people might sit on a loved one’s grave for three days.

3. Getting from the petit angel stage to the zombie stage requires the work of a magician or witch doctor to intercede with spirits. Gandolfo said spirits are all inherently benign, “but they’re easily manipulated.” Ghede, the spirit that deals with zombies, “is an alcoholic. He can be had for a fifth of rum.”

You can bribe Ghede to steal the spirit from a not-fully-decayed corpse and thus reanimate the corpse. Alternatively, the spirit can be kept in a jar for future use.


4. In Haitian folklore, becoming a zombie is a fate far worse than death, because zombies are considered eternal slaves, raised from the dead to work in the fields.

5. A real zombie’s feet never touch the ground. He or she is not earthbound. That’s why they always wear long dresses and pants that drag the ground.

6. There are also chemical zombies. These folks aren’t undead, but they might wish they were.

First, you poison the person with a blowfish-based nerve agent. It’s put in the person’s shoe, because taken orally it would kill the person outright. After that person is considered dead and has been buried, the trick is to dig the person up quickly and administer the antidote, made from an equally deadly plant called angel’s trumpet or zombie cucumber. The seed pod from the plant causes hallucinations, amnesia and disorientation, so the resulting dug-up person is likely to walk funny and act strange.

7. There is also, Gandolfo said, a Louisiana zombie called rougarou, which is sort of half alligator and half man, with red eyes. He can steal your soul by looking at you. Then it’s up to you to go find somebody else’s soul to steal.

8. Jelly Roll Morton was a zombie. This is yet another kind of zombie, Gandolfo said, called a jazz zombie. After Morton’s father abandoned him and his mother died, he lived with his grandmother until she kicked him out for being a musician. He went to live with his godmother, a voodoo queen.

Every time Morton’s career went south, Gandolfo explained, the godmother fixed things. Legend has it, Gandolfo said, that Morton, to further his career, relinquished his soul to his godmother, who kept it in a jar. Who knows? But, Gandolfo said, one thing’s sure: Four days after the godmother died, Morton died — of no apparent cause. Souls in jars, Gandolfo said, have to be fed.

9. It’s easy to get rid of a zombie. If a zombie bothers you, Gandolfo advised, “Invite him to lunch and feed him salt. When he eats salt, he will know he’s dead and go back to the grave.” If he refuses the lunch invitation, just throw salt on the zombie. Also, Gandolfo said, “Zombies are deathly afraid of frogs.” Travel in the company of an amphibian.

10. Every legend in the zombie world has numerous iterations with different details. There’s a lot of disagreement out there, and Gandolfo made clear that some of what he told me about zombies might be disputed by people who believe differently.

For example, he said he thinks that Mardi Gras Indians — the elaborately feather-and-bead-encased dancers you’ve seen on HBO’s Treme — have a tie-in with zombies, but that Mardi Gras Indians will vigorously deny that.

As for the zombies themselves, well, I couldn’t get a single one to agree to an interview.

Party with zombies in New Orleans

Sept. 21: Z-Day Nola Zombie Run and Festival: Music, a 5K and more in Laketown Park in Kenner (suburb just west of New Orleans). Tickets are $20. More at