The Shadow 097 The Voodoo Master

THE VOODOO MASTER was originally published in the March 1, 1936 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Dr. Rodil Mocquino is the sinister voodoo master of the title. The Shadow must battle the evil of the voodoo cult headed by Dr. Mocquino. The Shadow must free the zombies from the clutches of Dr. Mocquino. And The Shadow must confront Dr. Mocquino in his hidden lair. It's one of The Shadow's most amazing adventures against one of the most insidious masterminds he ever encountered. It begins when the police consult with Dr. Rupert Sayre about a man with no name. A man who remembers nothing, who stares straight ahead with bulging eyes, who has no initiative of his own. A zombi! The police want Dr. Sayre, one of the highest rated practicing physicians in Manhattan, to determine what mysterious ailment afflicts the mystery man. Dr. Sayre has had some experience before with men in this condition. In the Shadow story published three years earlier entitled MASTER OF DEATH, Dr. Sayre had encountered living men who moved about like mechanical figures. They were victims of a strange brain operation performed by the evil Eric Veldon. The police, knowing of Dr. Sayre's part in the overthrow of Eric Veldon, have come to him for assistance. What the police don't know is that Dr. Rupert Sayre is the personal physician of The Shadow. It was The Shadow who defeated Eric Veldon, the master of death. And thus it's not surprising that Dr. Sayre calls upon The Shadow to help him with this new threat to humanity. The Shadow determines that this mystery man, this zombi, has been subjected to no brain operation. No medical proceedure has created this living automata. Something else is controlling him. And that something is Dr. Rodil Mocquino, the voodoo master from San Domingo. Eventually, The Shadow is able to return the man to normalcy and discovers he is Stanton Wallace, recently from Texas. He is newly arrived in New York, and is discovered to be a member of a voodoo cult. A cult headed by the mysterious Dr. Rodil Mocquino. Dr. Mocquino plies his evil trade in order to aquire great wealth and power. It's up to The Shadow to stop him. And in doing so, the reader is swept along on a thrill-a-minute ride that makes this one of the top Shadow novels of all-time. Assisting The Shadow to find the mysterious lair of the evil voodoo doctor is Hawkeye, Cliff Marsland, Miles Crofton, Clyde Burke, Moe Shrevnitz and Harry Vincent. Burke appears early in the story and then heads off to Europe on orders from The Shadow to safeguard one of Dr. Mocquino's intended victims. Detective Joe Cardona represents the law along with his assistance Detective Sergeant Markham. The Shadow appears in several disguises in this story. He appears in his oft-used disguise as Lamont Cranston, the wealthy clubman and world traveler. He also appears as the police-station janitor Fritz. And he appears in a new disguise, James Rettigue, an investment broker. Finally, a few special notes about this story. Dr. Sayre has a featured part in this story. He is more than just The Shadow's personal physician. He is an active agent of The Shadow. He knows the secret phone number to contact Burbank, and is recognized when giving his name. His role is more active than in others stories in which he appears. This story stands out as being perhaps the single best showcase of his talents. The Shadow has a hypnotic gaze here. He doesn't go quite as far as to "cloud men's minds" as in the radio series, but he definitely has some hypnotic powers that were left vaguely described. The Shadow also apparently has some medical training, because he is able to pierce the mystery of the zombi and discover the medical reason for his condition - something that even Dr. Sayre could not do. The Shadow's autogiro appears several times in this story. We are told that is a new improved type of autogiro that is wingless and can take off vertically. The typical autogyro had wings and needed to taxi a short distance to take off. This new improved autogiro seems to be more of a helicopter. Lamont Cranston is identified as the owner of the autogiro, although it is piloted by Miles Crofton. Crofton also appears at the helm of The Shadow's trim speed boat, showing he's equally as good at piloting a boat as at the autogiro. The infamous vial of purplish liquid makes an appearance here. It's given to The Shadow by Cliff Marsland after The Shadow is injured in a battle with the minions of Dr. Mocquino. It revives him and gives him added strength. As speculated before, this mysterious elixir probably had some narcotic base and had to be used by The Shadow with great caution and only when absolutely necessary. The Shadow wouldn't want to chance an unintended addiction. It's interesting to note that when the story was reprinted in the 1943 Shadow Annual, it was edited down by over 2,500 words. Part of what was removed was any mention of the swastika. In the original version, which is the one you can now download, the swastika is mentioned along with a pentagram as a lucky talisman engraved on a unique gold piece of Dr. Mocquino. This story was written in mid-1935, even though it wasn't actually published until 1936. And at that time, the swastika had not yet become the reviled symbol it would be eight years hence. It was merely considered an ancient good-luck symbol. But when the story was reprinted in the 1943 Shadow Annual, the swastika was the hated symbol of Nazi foreign agression. Not surprisingly, it was excised from the reprint version. It won't be giving anything away to reveal that Dr. Mocquino is killed at the end of this story. Two of Mocquino's loyal servants spirit his body away, and it's never found. This is to pave the way for Dr. Mocquino's return two months later in CITY OF DOOM. Somehow he comes back to life and once again challenges The Shadow. And two years after that, he made his third and final appearance in VOODOO TRAIL. The three stories make a great trilogy.