This beast had adopted the name "Vermin". He is the loving owner of another monster called "Mongrel".
Underneath that garb lies a sad and diseased vulture, seeking vengeance and playing God in response to his inhumane treatment at the hands of shady, government-paid medical scientists who believed they were using the Bubonic Plague to assist in developing a cure for Ebola. The true purpose for injecting this man with Yersinia pestis is unknown, yet it is possible he was meant to be a guinea pig for the bio-weaponization of the disease.

Formally "Laurence", Vermin was conscience -yet sedated- for most of the process, which lasted months. A lab "accident" (he may have had a sneaky hand in this) allowed Laurence to escape his confines. After seeing the damage, he proceeded to kill every scientist involved by infecting them with the very plague that has destroyed his body. He adopted the name Vermin after the rats and fleas that were allegedly responsible for the spread of Black Death in the 1300's.

Vermin is immune to his own plague, which has accepted him as a host and continues to adapt. It has infected his entire body, but he will not die from it. Vermin uses the classic plague doctor gear to protect others from himself. Once he decides someone is not worthy of the gift of life, he traps them, removes his mask, and breathes on the offender's face. They die rather quickly to this new plague. Vermin proceeds to eat every scrap of corpse to prevent unwanted spreading of the disease.

Interestingly, his knowledge of life after death is quite strong. He is not quite on Carson's level, but his enlightenment is bizarre in the sense that it is caused by constantly existing in a near-death state.