The following is a transcript of an interview with former U.S. Army Ranger Glenn Taylor, circa September 2005.
INTERVIEWER: Everything is ready, Mr. Taylor. I just need to verify some basic information. First off, where and when were you born?
TAYLOR: I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, just like my grandfather, and his grandfather before him. My birthdate is May 30th, 1946.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Now, briefly explain your military career, if you don’t mind.
TAYLOR: I joined the Army straight out of high school. It must’ve been… June of 64’. I excelled at boot camp. After that, I entered Ranger school.
INTERVIEWER: Can you describe your experience?
TAYLOR: Oh, it was tough. Especially for a young, stupid 19-year old like me. They whipped me into shape, that’s for damn sure. I finished everything up around February of 65’. And guess what happens a month later? That’s right, fucking Vietnam.
INTERVIEWER: Were you in Vietnam?
TAYLOR: Yeah, but not until 1966. What an experience that was. It’s just like you see in the movies or these new “video game” things. Brutal heat, sweating, bugs tearing you apart. I guess the natural beauty of the place made up for it, in a way.
INTERVIEWER: Can you recall where you were stationed?
TAYLOR: Vividly. It was a temporary encampment in the Southwest, directly across the land from Hue. Right in the heart of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. There was a small hamlet nearby. We called it “Làng Nhỏ”, “Little Village.”
INTERVIEWER: What was the village like?
TAYLOR: Pretty nice, actually. It was a small farming town. Mostly livestock, lots of pigs and the like. What was peculiar was the overabundance of cats there.
INTERVIEWER: Cats?
TAYLOR: Like, housecats. I take it they came from a nearby town and just reproduced rapidly. You know how cats are.
INTERVIEWER: How were the locals?
TAYLOR: Okay, I guess. They didn’t like us being in their country, but they never attacked us or anything. I can’t blame them honestly. We weren’t allowed to do this, but I would go down every once in a while, and share my rations with the kids there.
INTERVIEWER: That wasn’t allowed?
TAYLOR: No, not at all. In reality, Làng Nhỏ had a target painted on its back. You often hear about platoons going on massacres, gunning down villagers for no good reason at all. Like Mỹ Lai.
INTERVIEWER: How common was this?
TAYLOR: More common than you’d like to believe. We were terrible over there. That’s why I stuck with the protestors when I came back. I really liked that village. I’d spend a lot of my free time there. I even picked up a little Vietnamese. So that made what happened even worse…
INTERVIEWER: Is this referring to the events of December 1st, 1966?
TAYLOR: Yes. That was the worst night of my life.
INTERVIEWER: Can you elaborate?
TAYLOR: It must’ve been around 9 PM. Me and some other guys were playing cards in the base. That’s when the guys patrolling Làng Nhỏ came back. We cycled patrols, you see. So imagine my surprise when they come back bloodied and beaten. Now we are obviously thinking it was the North Vietnamese, so the base went on alert, we grabbed our rifles and prepared to take position. But then the patrolmen told us it wasn’t the North Vietnamese. It was something… stranger.
INTERVIEWER: What was it?
TAYLOR: Apparently, a villager had gone crazy and began attacking others. Not with weapons, mind you. Like, brutal barehanded attacks. They said he took bites out of his victims. So, my patrol decided to go down there.
INTERVIEWER: What did you see down there?
TAYLOR: As soon as I entered the village, I saw chaos. People running about, flailing arms, classic mass panic. As I moved deeper into the village, I noticed something a short ways away from me. It was shrouded in darkness. I turned on the gun-mounted flashlight, but it only lit up so much. I moved closer, and the shadow was illuminated for all the world to see. What it was… what I saw…
INTERVIEWER: Do you need a break, Mr. Tay-
TAYLOR: It was a man… eating a little girl. She must’ve been seven or eight. He had a chunk of meat in his mouth, ripped from her neck. He was soaked in blood, head to toe. His face was dyed a deep red. It glistened in the light. I froze in my tracks. I’ve seen dead bodies in my time, but nothing like this. I could face enemy soldiers with bravery, but I couldn’t stand up to this crazed cannibal. I was weak and cowardly. A man made of paper, blowing in the cold wind.
INTERVIEWER: What did this man do?
TAYLOR: He… smiled at me. A wide, ear to ear grin. It was unnatural. He then began to quietly repeat something, almost like a chant of sorts. I only had a limited understanding of Vietnamese. But I knew too well what he was saying. He was repeating, “I’m so hungry…” over and over again.
INTERVIEWER: What did you do?
TAYLOR: He began to run at me. I snapped out of my stupor and drew my rifle. I fired a few shots. One hit him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. I thought it was over. Some madman who couldn’t hold his liking for human flesh back anymore.
INTERVIEWER: And then-
TAYLOR: He got back up. Back on his fucking feet. Still smiling and chanting. He sprinted at me. I fired again, and again, and again, but no luck. This… thing refused to die. By the time my magazine was empty, half its face was gone. It had brain matter spilling out of the right side of its head. The right eye dangled freely by the optic nerve. And it… just kept going. I reloaded. I fired again, until my magazine was empty. Its legs were torn apart, but it just crawled to me. I just… couldn’t take it anymore. I ran. My legs were like jelly when I got back to base. My fellow soldiers heard the chaos, and asked me what happened. I didn’t respond. I drank down an entire bottle of whiskey and went to bed. When I woke up, the village, the entirety of Làng Nhỏ… was burned to the ground. My tour ended shortly after that.
INTERVIEWER: What did you do when you got home?
TAYLOR: Tried to forget. I ran with the anti-war protestors until 73’, when we pulled out. After that I started anew. I moved to Flagstaff, and started a roofing business. I hid my military service as much as I could. Eventually, I settled in, the horror of that night behind me. But it still lingered in my mind… what could’ve caused that? As time went on, zombie movies became popular. I thought it was something like that. A real, honest to God zombie. But, over two decades later, I found the truth.
INTERVIEWER: Can you explain?
TAYLOR: It was 1992. One of the new hires was a Vietnamese kid. We got along well, he was amused by my knowledge of the language, the usual. Until one day, we started talking about Vietnamese legends and the like. He told me about something called a “Quỷ Nhập Tràng”, a dead body carrying evil spirits inside. They made it very hungry, going so far as to eat live animals and people. That was exactly what happened back all those years ago. Apparently, the evil spirits possess a body when a black cat leaps over the body’s coffin. Then it all made sense. The massive amounts of cats in Làng Nhỏ, the walking corpse, the cannibalism, it all added up.
INTERVIEWER: That’s what you think happened?
TAYLOR: 100%. I faced down a Quỷ Nhập Tràng. A Vietnamese demon.
INTERVIEWER: That’s…
TAYLOR: I’m sorry. That’s about all I can say.
INTERVIEWER: O-of course, Mr. Taylor, have a great day…
TAYLOR: I sure hope so.
Glenn Taylor passed away on August 17th, 2012 due to complications with liver cirrhosis. For reasons unknown, this interview has never been released to the public.