al lawsuits while incarcerated. In 2008, after being released from prison, Cofield filed a sev-
enty-five-page lawsuit—his last to date—that a judge called “incomprehensible.” He sued 226
parties for more than $10 billion, and argued that past decisions in all his cases should be re-
versed in his favor, and that anyone who’d printed his name without permission should be in-
cluded in his suit, because he’d copyrighted his name. I was never able to get in touch with
him to interview him for this book.
Cliff Garret, Henrietta’s cousin, lived in his farmhouse in Clover until 2009, when his failing
health required him to move in with his son in Richmond, Virginia, where he currently lives.
HeLa is still one of the most commonly used cell lines in laboratories around the world.
When this book went to press in 2009, more than 60,000 scientific articles had been pub-
lished about research done on HeLa, and that number was increasing steadily at a rate of
more than 300 papers each month. HeLa cells are still contaminating other cultures and caus-
ing an estimated several million dollars in damage each year.
Howard Jones, Henrietta’s doctor, is an emeritus professor at Johns Hopkins and Eastern
Virginia Medical School. He founded the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk,
Virginia, with his late wife, Georgeanna. They were pioneers in the field of infertility treat-
ments, and were responsible for the first test-tube baby born in the United States. When this
book went to press, he was ninety-nine years old.
Mary Kubicek is retired and living in Maryland.
Zakariyya, Sonny, and Lawrence Lacks were deeply affected by Deborah’s death. Lawrence
charged more than $6,000 to his credit cards to cover the cost of her burial, and when this
book went to press, Sonny was saving money to buy her a tombstone. Zakariyya stopped
drinking and began studying the lives of yogis and others who’d achieved inner peace. He
started spending more time with his family, including his many nieces and nephews, who hug
and kiss him on a regular basis. He smiles often. Sonny has sworn to uphold Deborah’s de-
sire to gain recognition for their mother. Today, when the Lacks brothers talk about Henrietta,
they focus on the importance of her contribution to science. They no longer talk about suing
Johns Hopkins, though Lawrence and Zakariyya still believe they’re owed a share of the
profits from HeLa cells.