Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 67

One of the strangest stories to come out of the Texan city of San Antonio is that which revolves around a terrifying character referred to locally as the Dancing Devil, and who surfaced briefly in 1975. According to many eyewitnesses, as well as newspaper articles from the time, a dashing, handsome, young man dressed entirely in white entered the El Camaroncito night club on Old Highway 90 late one night, around the time of Halloween, 1975.

According to all of those who were present, the man was a fabulous dancer and impressed and captivated many of the ladies who were in attendance that evening. As the night progressed, however, things took a horrific turn when one of the man’s dancing partners happened to glance down at his feet. The woman screamed out in terror, broke free of the man’s grip and immediately began pointing downward. It was then, amidst a flurry of gasps and shrieks that the patrons noticed the man’s shoes had transformed into creepy, clawed, chicken’s feet!

In some versions of the story, his feet had become something akin to the hooves of a goat. Either way, it was certainly a bad sign to be sure, as the night club attendees were now quite certain they were in the presence of none other than the Devil himself. After a couple of seconds of uncomfortable silence, the man dashed, or perhaps waddled or galloped, towards the men’s room, where he vanished out of an open window. In his wake remained a cloud of smoke, which was permeated with a strong, sulfuric smell—surely a classic calling card of the horned and forked-tailed one himself.

But that’s not all: for weeks afterwards, stories circulated that the Dancing Devil had been seen performing late-night, Voodoo-style rituals in a certain area of San Antonio woodland, where he and his disciples secretly sought to create a slave-like army of definitive I Walked with a Zombie style. Since, as history has clearly shown, the city did not become overrun by mind-controlled dead(ish) slaves, we can conclude one of two things: (a) the rumors were without merit; or (b) the Dancing Devil failed in his attempt to plunge San Antonio into apocalyptic chaos. Either way, it was very good news for the people that called the city their home.