Posted this before in /r/unresolvedmysteries, but thought there might be a wider reach here. I recently finished Edward Humes' phenomenal Buried Secrets, a true-crime read about the death cult led by Adolfo Constanzo, who brainwashed his followers into believing he possessed supernatural abilities and led them into bloody rituals.
Constanzo claimed to follow a twisted version of a sort-of 'dark twin' to Santeria, the Path of the Saints, called Palo Mayombe: while both involve bloody ceremonies and both involve syncretization in terms of associating Catholic saints with older, native deities, Santeria believes that the death of an individual liberates that spirit. Palo Mayombe, however, subscribes to the belief that a soul or spirit can be instead captured at death and used to strengthen the imprisoner.
Using this flimsy cover as a mask for his homicidal tendencies, Constanzo would order his followers to bring him victims, who would be tortured and mutilated while alive before being murdered. Their mutilation was systematic: Constanzo believed a soul that died in agony would create a more malevolent, violent spirit that would be easier to control and use to inflict damage.
The body parts taken from the murdered victims would be put in what was called an nganga, basically a black cauldron with a disgusting mixture of rotting animal corpses, blood, and human body parts: per Constanzo's disturbing belief system, ngangas grew more powerful the stronger and stomach-churning their stench was.
While this is considered by some to be the closest we have to a documented case of "satanic ritual abuse," this is not correct: while they did worship a dark deity, Constanzo's version of the devil, named kaliempembe, they did not worship Satan. In fact, Humes quotes Constanzo as mocking those who misinterpret their religion as satanism. This case and the ensuing inaccuracies surrounding it did, however, help to make Satanic ritual abuse the media powder keg it was in the nineties: Lawrence Wright mentions Matamoros, the border town where the murders occurred, as instrumental in leading to an almost witch-hunt atmosphere in the persecution of Paul Ingram in Remembering Satan, compounded by the blind way "experts" like Geraldo Rivera and Oprah Winfrey charged in to make half-baked "investigations."
Constanzo, beginning with uncanny parlor tricks to gain confidence, wove a web around his cult and got himself involved in the drug trade. Just how deep his connections went, which famous celebrities and politicians Constanzo performed ceremonies for, is unknown—per Jim Schultze's book on this same topic, several pages of Constanzo's journal were carefully removed when it was found due to the incriminating material found there. I believe Hume mentions this as well, but I can't locate the page at the moment.
With corrupt cops on his payroll, coming to him for services, Constanzo was able to parlay a lucrative job: he becomes the Godfather of a once-thriving but now-struggling drug family on the border and brings them into his bloody rituals. By claiming his murders allowed him foresight (the information was actually coming from the cops on his payroll), he was able to swindle his followers into believing he really did have supernatural powers, further putting them under his spell. After Constanzo came and started performing his magic, the bad luck spell facing the cartel dissipated!
Ultimately, interpretations differ, but two key events brought Constanzo down: one was the order to bring him a gringo for a victim, leading to the kidnapping of Mark Kilroy, a college student who was murdered and mutilated so his brain could be dumped into the nganga, allegedly to make the malevolent spirit within smarter. Kilroy's uncle had connections (I want to say he was a border patrol officer) and put on pressure for an investigation. The really big thing that brought them down was when one of Constanzo's drug-running associates, empowered by his cult leader telling him he was invisible, ran through a Mexican drug checkpoint in a pickup truck.
He wasn't invisible.
The cops hopped in a car and followed him inconspicuously right to the ranch where they were holding drugs—and where the murders were occurring. It led, in the end, to the unraveling of the case.
So, what's the mystery?
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While Constanzo was brought to justice, there are still questions about just how many people he and his group killed, as well as which famous celebrities, politicians, and members of the elite he was performing his ceremonies for.
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Humes or Schultze (can't recall who, though Schultze plays more fast and loose with the facts) also mentions the discovery of several pairs of bloody baby's clothing, opening the disturbing question of whether or not the ritual sacrifice of children was involved. I believe the bloody clothing was found in particular at the 'altar' of Sara Aldrete, the cult's high priestess. Another part of one of the books (foggy on this memory) mentioned a rumor around town that Constanzo had allegedly been looking into a coven of women for the purpose of having a supply of babies for sacrifice, showing how deranged he had become as time went on. The theory was that poor women on the border facing a life-or-death decision between starvation or entering his employ to provide for his 'sacrificial baby mill,' would opt for the latter—I can only hope this rumor isn't true.
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What happened to his escaped associates? Were they ever captured or are they still out there somewhere? Allegedly, near the end of his life, one of Constanzo's last, desperate hopes to get away was getting plastic-surgery and fleeing deep into South America, where he and his followers could continue to practice their butchery—did any of them get away and pull off something similar?
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After his death, one of the ngangas on the ranch went missing; Malio Fabio Ponce Torres, the man who kidnapped Mark Kilroy, escaped and "Mexican investigators believe he retrieved the nganga found to be missing from the room of the dead in Mexico City, then put it to use as a means of magically preserving his freedom." Later, in 1989 FBI agents meaning to serve a warrant on a suspected drug dealer in Brownsville found a back room painted crimson red; it contained a stinking refrigerator filled with vials of blood and other fluids, names inside the vials. On an altar were three voodoo-doll like figures pierced with pins, with the words "Law Be Gone" printed on them. The centerpiece of the altar had a stabbed newspaper of Juan Benitez Ayala, the man who brought down Constanzo. Could this alleged dealer have been Torres or another associate?
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How widespread was his cult, not counting those who escaped and the rich people he provided services for? In another part of the book, Humes discusses Constanzo's captured associates (Constanzo had a follower shoot him down rather than be captured) admitting to knowledge of "others who practiced black magic and sacrifice—sister groups of Constanzo's... Then Sara [Aldrete, the 'high priestess' of the cult], said something very similar at one of the big press conferences, 'I don't think that the religion will end with us, because it has a lot of people in it. They have found a temple in Monterrey that isn't even related to us. It will continue.'" Through the preceding two years, sixty ritual killings of adults had occurred, including two after Constanzo's death; fourteen babies were also found. While Constanzo was initially suspected, different methods emerged, indicating more than one active group.
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Are there any other books or sources available that take an investigative, factual approach like Humes and analyze cult crimes like this, or study the influence and role of these dark cults in different societies? Terrifying as the contents of the book are, it was gripping and has pushed me toward an interest in reading more about sort of cult crimes in contemporary society—a book like Humes', written about these crimes but in the last five years, hell, even the last ten, could provide a lot of new information. Been particularly intrigued on reading up on some of the more recent crimes Humes referred to that've been linked to Palo Mayombe (baby found ritually murdered within hours of birth; a man found with two skulls, which still had flesh attached and no embalming, indicating homicide—were the murderers ever caught?), but they seem to be borderline impossible to find articles on, much less books about. As far as I'm aware, these might be the only books (and Schultze's is more yellow-journalism than investigative). T.J. Knab's A War of Witches is another pretty similar sort of study.
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One other book I have to wonder about as well, and perhaps if anyone here speaks Spanish, they might help: what does Sara Aldrete have to say in her book? She published a book available only in Spanish after being put in prison; obviously, it should be taken with a whole shaker of salt as she has an agenda and a reason to whitewash her own crimes, in spite of the fact that she literally led one of her exes to Constanzo's ranch when Constanzo found out he had flirted with her and got mad. She supervised and oversaw torture and killings—she's no innocent.
Submitted April 23, 2017 at 11:51AM by UWCG http://ift.tt/2pSrM6E conspiracy
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