Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Lead Mask Case

Transcript

The Lead Mask Case · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: It's no surprise that I like a good mystery case.
0:11
Speaker 1: So today I have one that's been sitting on my
0:14
Speaker 1: list for a while, and since spooky season is slowly
0:17
Speaker 1: creeping up on us, it just seemed like the perfect
0:21
Speaker 1: time to share it. Well, are talking about a case
0:25
Speaker 1: that takes us back into the nineteen sixties where two
0:28
Speaker 1: men were found dead under very strange circumstances with two
0:32
Speaker 1: lead masks laying next to them. The investigation that unfolded
0:38
Speaker 1: would take authorities down all kinds of rabbit holes that
0:42
Speaker 1: would include UFO sightings with government investigations. This is the case,
0:49
Speaker 1: the infamous case known as the lead Mask Case. My
0:57
Speaker 1: name's Ben, I'm.
0:58
Speaker 2: Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
1:00
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast material audience listener. I changed it up.
1:35
Speaker 1: I opened my beer in the intro.
1:36
Speaker 2: I liked it.
1:37
Speaker 1: You liked it. I haven't even sipped it yet.
1:39
Speaker 2: I'm drinking a good old ice coffee.
1:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, you are a vanilla one.
1:43
Speaker 2: Rare time that I drink coffee, staying good.
1:46
Speaker 1: Drink those Starbucks ice ones all the time, though I do.
1:49
Speaker 2: I don't think they're not very strong coffee flavored, but it's.
1:52
Speaker 3: A frappuccino technically is it? It's a coffee, you know
1:59
Speaker 3: those ones that you can get a convenience stores in
2:01
Speaker 3: the glass bottle. That's what she's down on.
2:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, she likes it. It's real good. And we're about
2:07
Speaker 2: to leave on a jet plane here, Yeah.
2:10
Speaker 1: We are. I was really wanting to sing that song
2:13
Speaker 1: right away as as as you said that, but I'm
2:14
Speaker 1: holding myself back to save your ears. But yeah, we
2:17
Speaker 1: are leaving on a jet plane. We're heading over to
2:19
Speaker 1: the East coast. We're going over a little bit of
2:22
Speaker 1: a work trip slash vacation, and we're gonna be hitting
2:26
Speaker 1: up Disney World and Universal Studios.
2:29
Speaker 2: While we're there. Yeah, it's gonna be good.
2:31
Speaker 1: It is. It's gonna be good. Go see Mickey and
2:33
Speaker 1: many and all the.
2:35
Speaker 2: Podcast funny that we have been. Well, it's gonna be
2:38
Speaker 2: our second time being at disney World, but yet we
2:40
Speaker 2: haven't gone to Disneyland, which is you know.
2:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially considering we're on the West coast. Yeah,
2:45
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's so close.
2:46
Speaker 2: Well, I think you could. Probably it's way closer.
2:50
Speaker 1: It's way closer, yeah, but I wouldn't say it's close closer.
2:54
Speaker 2: I mean, we were supposed to go there one year,
2:56
Speaker 2: but COVID yeah.
2:58
Speaker 1: Like literally, Okay, you guys remember when the first like
3:00
Speaker 1: COVID shutdown happened. Yeah, we were supposed to be in
3:04
Speaker 1: Disneyland that first week of COVID shutdown.
3:07
Speaker 2: Well yeah, because we were celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. Yeah,
3:10
Speaker 2: and then we renovated our basement instead.
3:13
Speaker 1: Yep. It was so sad, yep, but it was a
3:18
Speaker 1: good time though I'm still sitting at home. It wasn't
3:21
Speaker 1: as great as Disneyland, but I'm sure we all still
3:24
Speaker 1: have some fun memories from Well. Yeah, COVID times.
3:27
Speaker 2: Got shit done somehow, we didd true.
3:30
Speaker 1: But we also got to thank patrons because, I mean,
3:33
Speaker 1: without the show, you guys listening and people signing up
3:35
Speaker 1: and supporting us over in Patreon, we probably wouldn't still
3:38
Speaker 1: be doing this. So shout out to Rachel Fabri and
3:42
Speaker 1: Freya Thompson.
3:44
Speaker 2: Nice.
3:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, they signed up on Patreon this week and they
3:46
Speaker 1: get all that exclusive behind the scenes and extra content.
3:49
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
3:49
Speaker 1: It is awesome. They're awesome, and you guys are awesome
3:52
Speaker 1: too for being here. So thank you.
3:53
Speaker 2: Okay, so what do you got for.
3:55
Speaker 1: Us well, the interlube intro Interlube interlude interlude intro. I
4:03
Speaker 1: gave you a little bit of a hint, will not
4:05
Speaker 1: hint information on it. It's called the Lead Mass Case.
4:08
Speaker 1: Have you heard this one?
4:09
Speaker 2: No?
4:09
Speaker 1: No?
4:09
Speaker 2: Really, well I don't think so. No.
4:12
Speaker 1: It's been on my list for a long time. It
4:15
Speaker 1: is a potentially a true crime case. There is death,
4:19
Speaker 1: and there is some some spookiness to it, you know.
4:24
Speaker 2: So sounds like it's right up your alley it is.
4:27
Speaker 1: And I think, you know this time of year, we're
4:29
Speaker 1: not even in October yet, but I think a lot
4:31
Speaker 1: of people are feeling that spooky season early this.
4:33
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it already feels like it's basically October to me, right,
4:37
Speaker 2: So I wanted to kind of throw this one in
4:39
Speaker 2: there because it just seemed good.
4:40
Speaker 1: I was gonna save up potentially for Halloween week, but
4:44
Speaker 1: you know what, let's do it early, Let's do it.
4:46
Speaker 1: Let's do it, Okay, So you ready for this?
4:48
Speaker 2: Mm hmm?
4:49
Speaker 1: All right. So on August twentieth, nineteen sixty six, eighteen
4:53
Speaker 1: year old George da Costa Alvez was out on Vitamin
4:56
Speaker 1: Hill flying his kite. What a strange smell caught his attention.
5:00
Speaker 1: You know, it was a warm and sunny day in
5:02
Speaker 1: southeast Brazil at the time, following a series of rainstorms,
5:05
Speaker 1: and George expected, you know, to breathe in the fresh
5:07
Speaker 1: scent of wet grass, or maybe even the salty breeze
5:11
Speaker 1: coming off the ocean and the beach nearby, right, But instead,
5:15
Speaker 1: what he encountered was something a little more unpleasant. It
5:18
Speaker 1: was foul, and it was an unmistakable odor, one that
5:23
Speaker 1: we all know as decay rotting. Well, George was curious,
5:28
Speaker 1: and he began to search for the source. Not far
5:32
Speaker 1: from where he stood. That's when he saw two pairs
5:35
Speaker 1: of legs protruding from the grass. At first glance, it
5:38
Speaker 1: seemed almost like there was two men laying there and
5:40
Speaker 1: simply just you know, out for a nap, laying in
5:43
Speaker 1: the sun or whatever. Right, But the swarm of insects
5:46
Speaker 1: and the stench made it very clear that something was
5:50
Speaker 1: something else was happening here. They weren't out just for
5:52
Speaker 1: you know, just an afternoon nap in the grass. Now,
5:54
Speaker 1: these guys, the smell was rot These guys were dead clearly.
5:58
Speaker 2: You know, I'm honestly kind of impressed that they went
6:02
Speaker 2: looking for the smell, because I am almost certain that
6:05
Speaker 2: I wouldn't.
6:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, just peace out, Yeah, I can't blame you on
6:08
Speaker 1: that one.
6:09
Speaker 2: I don't think I wouldn't think it's a human or anything,
6:11
Speaker 2: but I maybe an animal or something, and I just
6:14
Speaker 2: don't think I would like try to go find it.
6:16
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Well, George did go find it, and after
6:19
Speaker 1: he found it, he quickly alerted the authorities and police
6:22
Speaker 1: arrived on the scene very quickly. It was immediately clear
6:25
Speaker 1: that this was no ordinary case because lying in the
6:28
Speaker 1: tall grass where of course, these two men, their two
6:31
Speaker 1: bodies their remains, but a little bit more so, these
6:34
Speaker 1: two were seemingly in about their thirties. They were dressed
6:37
Speaker 1: in informal black suits and wore raincoats. Nearby investigators found
6:44
Speaker 1: things that the game began to get a little bit strange.
6:47
Speaker 1: There were two lead masks. Now these weren't full lead
6:49
Speaker 1: masks it would cover an entire face, but instead resembled
6:52
Speaker 1: like oversized sunglasses made entirely out of lead. Adding to
7:00
Speaker 1: the mystery, there was a peculiar note that was found
7:03
Speaker 1: near the bodies, and it read four thirty pm. Be
7:07
Speaker 1: at the determined place six thirty pm. Swallow capsules after
7:13
Speaker 1: effect protect metals weight for mask signal.
7:18
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I don't get this lead mask thing though.
7:23
Speaker 2: That doesn't make sense, Like I'm having trouble visualizing what
7:25
Speaker 2: it is.
7:26
Speaker 1: Think like a big old pair of sunglasses. Okay, and
7:30
Speaker 1: they're they're metal.
7:32
Speaker 2: No lens, so nothing that you can you can't see
7:35
Speaker 2: through it, then, I.
7:36
Speaker 1: Don't think so, as far as I'm aware, maybe there
7:37
Speaker 1: was a pinhole or something. I don't think so. Okay,
7:40
Speaker 1: I have never actually tried to look up a photo
7:42
Speaker 1: of it, if I'm being honest, But as far as
7:44
Speaker 1: my understanding is, they're just solid lead.
7:48
Speaker 2: Interesting, yes, well.
7:50
Speaker 1: Investigators continue to comb through the area. They discovered a
7:53
Speaker 1: few more items, a bottle of mineral water, two towels,
7:57
Speaker 1: and a sum of money, which, when convert to today's value,
8:01
Speaker 1: would be about a couple thousand dollars. The men showed
8:05
Speaker 1: no sign of visible injury, but due to the advanced
8:08
Speaker 1: stage of decomposition, it was difficult to determine much about
8:11
Speaker 1: their final moments. Their bodies lay on a patch of vegetation,
8:15
Speaker 1: and it appeared to have been deliberately cut, like with
8:18
Speaker 1: a knife for a pair of scissors or something like that.
8:20
Speaker 1: But there was nothing found in the area to explain that.
8:23
Speaker 1: The police were stumped. They weren't able to cause to
8:28
Speaker 1: figure out the cause of death, at least not right away.
8:31
Speaker 2: This sounds like some cult shit to me, you.
8:34
Speaker 1: Think so kind of it could be. Well, what they
8:37
Speaker 1: were able to identify was the men's The two men's names,
8:42
Speaker 1: One was Manuel Pierra de Cruz and the other was
8:46
Speaker 1: Miguel Jose Vianna. Both were electronic technicians and in their
8:51
Speaker 1: early thirties. They both had young families and lived in
8:54
Speaker 1: a town called Campos, and it was about one hundred
8:57
Speaker 1: and seventy five miles away from the location where the
9:00
Speaker 1: bodies were found. So what exactly were these two doing
9:04
Speaker 1: on Vitamin Hill dressed informal suits with lead masks and
9:08
Speaker 1: a bizarre note?
9:09
Speaker 2: Well and very young, yeah, exactly so young?
9:12
Speaker 1: But mostly what killed them. The more authorities investigated, the
9:17
Speaker 1: more questions seemed to arise, and each piece of the
9:20
Speaker 1: puzzle only deepened the mystery. Police interviewed George, the boy
9:24
Speaker 1: who first discovered the men, and George revealed that he
9:27
Speaker 1: had actually seen the men on the hill a few
9:28
Speaker 1: days prior, on August seventeenth, sitting in the same spot
9:32
Speaker 1: where they were later found dead. The following day, after
9:35
Speaker 1: George first saw them, he returned to the area and
9:37
Speaker 1: saw the men again, now laying down. However, at this
9:40
Speaker 1: time he wasn't alarmed. It was it was just some
9:44
Speaker 1: guys laying the grass. They were there the day before.
9:46
Speaker 1: Why can't they be you there today? After all, he.
9:48
Speaker 2: Is a favorite spot or something right, right.
9:51
Speaker 1: It wasn't until a couple days later when the pungent
9:54
Speaker 1: smell of decay became the overwhelming, you know clue in
9:58
Speaker 1: his mind that you know, something else is going went
10:00
Speaker 1: on here and the alerted authorities. So after speaking with George,
10:03
Speaker 1: investigators began to piece together the days leading up to
10:06
Speaker 1: the death of Manuel and Miguel by interviewing those closest
10:09
Speaker 1: to them, and they managed to put together a bit
10:12
Speaker 1: of a timeline. So in the morning of August seventeenth,
10:15
Speaker 1: both men informed their families that they were heading to
10:17
Speaker 1: Sal Paulo to purchase some electronics and use car into
10:21
Speaker 1: a used car. Given that they worked as electronic repairman,
10:25
Speaker 1: it checked out right. Maybe it was parts or extra
10:28
Speaker 1: activities or who knows, but it checks out. What did Simon, however,
10:34
Speaker 1: was that they were going such a long distance several
10:37
Speaker 1: hours in fact, to buy a car. Another strange detail
10:41
Speaker 1: was a significant amount of money they took with them
10:43
Speaker 1: and estimated three million kuerzos, which in today's currency would
10:48
Speaker 1: roughly estimate to translate at about thirty thousand US dollars.
10:53
Speaker 2: Oh shit, which is way more than they needed for
10:56
Speaker 2: this car.
10:56
Speaker 1: I'm assuming definitely more than they would need for a
11:00
Speaker 1: a used car. I can understand people traveling distances for
11:03
Speaker 1: used vehicles.
11:04
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that doesn't seem odd to me at all.
11:06
Speaker 1: Usually though it's a collector. I can understand maybe traveling
11:10
Speaker 1: an hour, maybe two. But these guys are going several
11:13
Speaker 1: hours just for a used car.
11:15
Speaker 2: I don't know, because I've met people who bought used
11:18
Speaker 2: vehicles from Vancouver.
11:20
Speaker 1: But that is also in today's world, where you can
11:23
Speaker 1: find deals online travel to go purchase it. Oh yeah,
11:27
Speaker 1: this is the sixties, right. They don't have a car
11:31
Speaker 1: that they're going specifically for. If they're going to go
11:34
Speaker 1: travel several hours to go search for a car, it's
11:37
Speaker 1: most likely gonna be a very specific car thereafter. And
11:40
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case here.
11:41
Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense then, well, it doesn't make sense
11:44
Speaker 2: when it makes sense, you know.
11:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotcha.
11:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:46
Speaker 1: So, despite their claims of heading to South Paulo, Manuel
11:49
Speaker 1: and Miguel never went there. Instead, they made their way
11:52
Speaker 1: to Niterio, which is a wealthy suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
11:57
Speaker 1: So the decision left investigators puzzled the sudden change in destination.
12:02
Speaker 1: What business did they have there? Was it a lie?
12:04
Speaker 1: What's going on? So upon arriving in Indio, Manuel Miguel
12:09
Speaker 1: made a few purchases, but not for any electronics equipment
12:13
Speaker 1: or the car that they mentioned to their families. Instead,
12:16
Speaker 1: with rain being in the forecast, they bought matching raincoats
12:19
Speaker 1: for around nine four hundred creezos, and after that, the
12:23
Speaker 1: men stopped by a local bar where they purchased a
12:25
Speaker 1: bottle of mineral water. At the time, Brazil had a
12:28
Speaker 1: program in place where you could return the bottle get
12:30
Speaker 1: a small refund with the receipt, just like recycling returns today.
12:34
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, the men kept the receipt for the water,
12:37
Speaker 1: a detail that could actually be significant in this case
12:41
Speaker 1: because if they had planned to end their lives, holding
12:45
Speaker 1: onto the receipt might suggest otherwise. It might say that
12:48
Speaker 1: they expected to return.
12:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, why would they keep that?
12:52
Speaker 1: Yeah?
12:52
Speaker 2: I also just have to say, I love that they
12:54
Speaker 2: bought matching raincoats. Can we find matching raincoats when we're
12:57
Speaker 2: are we?
12:57
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're gonna see us in Disney World
12:59
Speaker 1: and like a few and we're just gonna be walking
13:01
Speaker 1: around with matching raincoats.
13:02
Speaker 2: I would love that, of course you would.
13:05
Speaker 1: Well. Witnesses at a bar where they purchased the water
13:08
Speaker 1: bottle noted that the men seemed a little bit nervous
13:11
Speaker 1: and Miguel kept glancing at his watch. At around three
13:14
Speaker 1: fifteen pm, they hitched a ride in a jeep at
13:17
Speaker 1: the base of Vitamin Hill. From there they made their
13:20
Speaker 1: way up on sorry to the base of Vitamin Hill.
13:23
Speaker 1: So from the bar to the base of Edmond Hill,
13:25
Speaker 1: and from there they made their way up the hill
13:28
Speaker 1: on foot to what would be their final resting place,
13:31
Speaker 1: at least before they were buried. So when their bodies
13:36
Speaker 1: were eventually discovered, only one hundred and sixty one thousand
13:41
Speaker 1: crew row I'm probably butchering how you say this, cruise zeros,
13:46
Speaker 1: which is their currency, remained on them. And given that
13:49
Speaker 1: the raincoats cost nine four hundred and the bottle of
13:53
Speaker 1: water certainly didn't cost two point eight million. The pressing
13:57
Speaker 1: question arose when happened to the rest of their money,
13:59
Speaker 1: and sorry.
14:00
Speaker 2: How should you just say that they had left.
14:01
Speaker 1: One hundred and sixty one and they started with three million? Wow,
14:06
Speaker 1: so where's the rest of them?
14:07
Speaker 2: No shit.
14:10
Speaker 1: Adding to the frustration, the corner's responsible for the corners,
14:14
Speaker 1: or i should say singular responsible for the examination of
14:17
Speaker 1: the bodies, actually told the police he was too busy
14:20
Speaker 1: to conduct a proper autopsy on them. So he could
14:23
Speaker 1: do the autopsy, but he wasn't able to do a
14:26
Speaker 1: toxicology report.
14:28
Speaker 2: Which, curiously, Yeah, that is like a job that I
14:32
Speaker 2: just don't think that you can say I'm too busy.
14:34
Speaker 1: I know, especially considering this it would be a murder.
14:38
Speaker 1: And there's a note specifically talking about taking pills brutal.
14:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like, that's kind of shit I don't
14:46
Speaker 2: think would fly today.
14:47
Speaker 1: I know.
14:48
Speaker 2: No, like you got to do this, but maybe they
14:51
Speaker 2: were massively shorthanded, like you did never know, but still
14:54
Speaker 2: like you have to do.
14:55
Speaker 1: It, yeah, exactly. So Unfortunately it didn't get done, and
14:59
Speaker 1: without the testing, there was no way of knowing what substance,
15:02
Speaker 1: if any that they actually ingested from these capsules or
15:04
Speaker 1: pills that they mentioned.
15:06
Speaker 2: That's brutal.
15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, speaking of the note that actually mentioned these
15:11
Speaker 1: these capsules or pills, I think it said capsules, but
15:13
Speaker 1: I keep saying pills. So capsules I do actually have
15:17
Speaker 1: more than I didn't mention earlier. That was written on
15:19
Speaker 1: the note, so it also read quote Sunday, one capsule
15:24
Speaker 1: after lunch, Wednesday one capsule at bedtime. Another puzzling detail
15:30
Speaker 1: was a mathematical formula also scralled on the note. It's
15:34
Speaker 1: Ohm's law and it says it's V equals I are,
15:38
Speaker 1: which is a basic principle used to calculate electrical currency.
15:42
Speaker 1: And given their profession, I mean, that does kind of
15:45
Speaker 1: check out. So it does actually potentially tie the note
15:49
Speaker 1: to the men being them, the ones who wrote it,
15:53
Speaker 1: and not someone else.
15:55
Speaker 2: Okay, something I just thought, is there any way that
15:58
Speaker 2: say capsule could mean something other than like a pill
16:02
Speaker 2: or some of sorts that you're consuming.
16:04
Speaker 1: I mean, potentially, but what else? I have no idea?
16:09
Speaker 2: Hmmm, Well, because also too, it doesn't make sense the
16:12
Speaker 2: length of time in between taking them, right, Yes, if
16:16
Speaker 2: I don't know if these are a pill or something
16:18
Speaker 2: that like kills you. I don't know. I just think
16:22
Speaker 2: that would make no sense to have that gap in
16:25
Speaker 2: between you know.
16:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not too sure why hmm oka. And it's
16:29
Speaker 1: obviously not something standard like penicillin or anything, because that
16:32
Speaker 1: gap obviously is not a schedule that you'd fall for
16:35
Speaker 1: or sorry follow for something like that. So who knows
16:38
Speaker 1: what these capsules if they are a pill, which they
16:41
Speaker 1: most likely are, what they would hold mm. So Now,
16:47
Speaker 1: as a police examined the scene and the sparse evidence
16:50
Speaker 1: that they had on hand, they began exploring theories. One
16:53
Speaker 1: possible explanation was a robbery that had gone wrong, though
16:57
Speaker 1: this seemed unlikely given the significant amount of mine that
17:00
Speaker 1: was still found on their bodies. Most likely someone would
17:03
Speaker 1: have taken all of it if they were taking something, yeah,
17:07
Speaker 1: for sure. Even more problematic was the coroner's rushed autopsy,
17:10
Speaker 1: which did state that there were signs of foul play
17:14
Speaker 1: or that the men had been killed. I'm sorry, not
17:16
Speaker 1: that the men had been killed violently, on, leaving the
17:18
Speaker 1: police to focus on other possibilities. So the potential foul play,
17:22
Speaker 1: but it's not a violent death, so were they poisoned
17:25
Speaker 1: or we don't know, thanks for doing the toxicology report.
17:28
Speaker 2: And the fact that that isn't available is just like,
17:32
Speaker 2: how the hell are you supposed to.
17:33
Speaker 1: Solve this exactly? So the prevailing theory became that this
17:38
Speaker 1: was potentially a double suicide, but again without the toxicology report,
17:44
Speaker 1: the idea of this was just a question mark. How
17:48
Speaker 1: could they prove it? Did they take something on purpose
17:50
Speaker 1: to kill them? So we don't know. A year later, though,
17:53
Speaker 1: the bodies were exhumed for further testing, and this time
17:57
Speaker 1: a toxicologuesy a toxicology there we go examination confirmed that
18:03
Speaker 1: the men had not ingested common poisons like arsenic, mercury,
18:08
Speaker 1: barium or whatever. So there was not they were not poisoned.
18:12
Speaker 2: Okay, what just like a waste? So hey, I just
18:15
Speaker 2: feel like they if they just had done that a
18:18
Speaker 2: year prior, right then they wouldn't have had to you know,
18:22
Speaker 2: like you know, unburied Barry eg zoom zoom, Yeah, then
18:28
Speaker 2: have to lay them rest again, Like that just sucks,
18:30
Speaker 2: I think.
18:32
Speaker 1: So they were wondering if this was a suicide. Again
18:35
Speaker 1: back to that water bottle receipt, why keep it? Was
18:38
Speaker 1: it simply out of habit, you know, Did they just
18:39
Speaker 1: put in their pockets they usually do, or was it
18:41
Speaker 1: a sign that the men didn't expect to die that day?
18:44
Speaker 1: Investigators were left scratching their heads. If not a suicide,
18:47
Speaker 1: what other explanation was there. One possibility floated by the
18:51
Speaker 1: police was that the men might have been struck by lightning,
18:54
Speaker 1: but this theory, like many others, failed to account for
18:57
Speaker 1: any of the peculiar details surrounding the case. Police in
19:00
Speaker 1: there scrambled to piece together any kind of logical explanation
19:03
Speaker 1: for the death of Manuel and Miguel were grasping at
19:06
Speaker 1: every possible lead. It had been raining heavily that day,
19:11
Speaker 1: the day that they had passed right, not that they
19:13
Speaker 1: were found yet, and some locals had actually reported seeing
19:17
Speaker 1: bright flashes in the sky on the night of August seventeenth,
19:20
Speaker 1: which is how the idea of lightning actually came into
19:22
Speaker 1: play in the first place. But the bodies surrounding the
19:25
Speaker 1: area didn't. Sorry, The bodies and the surrounding area didn't
19:27
Speaker 1: show any signs that supported a lightning strike. The physical
19:31
Speaker 1: evidence just simply didn't add up. However, those strange lights
19:37
Speaker 1: witnessed by locals took on new significance when a prominent
19:40
Speaker 1: member of the community, a woman named Garcinda Barbosa, came forward.
19:48
Speaker 2: So.
19:50
Speaker 1: Garcinda was a well respected woman in Nierio, and while
19:54
Speaker 1: she was driving home with their children on the evening
19:56
Speaker 1: of August seventeenth, they all saw something very bizarre in
20:00
Speaker 1: the sky. She described it as quote an oval shape
20:06
Speaker 1: object glowing orange, with a ring of fire encircling it
20:12
Speaker 1: and strange blue rays shooting outward in different directions.
20:17
Speaker 2: Hmmm, oh is shit. I freaking hate cases like this
20:21
Speaker 2: because now my brain is just like going a mile minute.
20:24
Speaker 1: It's just like scrambled eggs.
20:25
Speaker 2: In there now it is. And I'm like, I want
20:28
Speaker 2: to solve it, but I'm just one person. I'm probably
20:30
Speaker 2: not going to be able to solve this shit.
20:32
Speaker 1: Well, I mean a lot of people have been working
20:34
Speaker 1: on this case since the sixties.
20:35
Speaker 2: Well yeah, so I asked one question. I don't know
20:38
Speaker 2: if you'll know, but like these lead glasses or face
20:42
Speaker 2: masks or whatever, Yeah, is that like a prominent thing
20:45
Speaker 2: back then? Or it was like kind of weird and
20:47
Speaker 2: random to find this.
20:48
Speaker 1: It was weird and random to find it.
20:50
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, interesting.
20:53
Speaker 1: So soon after the locals local press caught wind of
20:56
Speaker 1: this story of this thing saw the sky and published
20:59
Speaker 1: an article about it. Other residents began contacting the police
21:04
Speaker 1: with similar reports. They kind of read it in the
21:06
Speaker 1: paper and were like, oh, I actually I saw that too.
21:09
Speaker 1: Multiple people corroborated this account, claiming they too saw it,
21:13
Speaker 1: this thing in the sky, just as it was described
21:15
Speaker 1: in this article, And when they were asked why they
21:18
Speaker 1: didn't come forward sooner, most of them just explained that
21:20
Speaker 1: they were too afraid of being labeled it's crazy.
21:22
Speaker 2: Well yeah, because I mean, yeah, who would last? People
21:26
Speaker 2: would not believe you. So I'm not sure I would
21:29
Speaker 2: you saw something weird in the sky, would you like
21:31
Speaker 2: call right away?
21:32
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's hard to say.
21:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
21:35
Speaker 1: But for these people though, with Griscinda's reputation being a
21:38
Speaker 1: very prominent individual and society around here and her and
21:42
Speaker 1: her credibility coming forward, they're like, well she can come forward,
21:45
Speaker 1: I can too.
21:46
Speaker 2: Right, So it makes sense.
21:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, they felt a little bit more comfortable.
21:49
Speaker 2: Well yeah, in numbers too, it's easier right exactly.
21:52
Speaker 1: Now, whether or not these sightings were reliable or they just,
21:55
Speaker 1: you know, like we're part of this frenzy of whatever
21:59
Speaker 1: that happened once was published in the paper. I don't know,
22:02
Speaker 1: it's entirely unsure, but police did continue to dig deeper
22:05
Speaker 1: into the lives of Manuel and Miguel, hoping to uncover
22:09
Speaker 1: something that was a little less out of this world.
22:14
Speaker 1: I like that.
22:15
Speaker 2: That was good too.
22:17
Speaker 1: So inside the men's workshop, officers found scraps of lead
22:20
Speaker 1: that were consistent with the material used to create the
22:23
Speaker 1: bizarre lead eyeglasses that the men were wearing, or sorry
22:26
Speaker 1: that had been found next to them when they died.
22:29
Speaker 1: The discovery strongly suggested that the two had constructed the
22:33
Speaker 1: masks themselves deliberately and preparing them for some sort of
22:37
Speaker 1: specific purpose. Which what purpose that is were unsure. But
22:42
Speaker 1: the most intriguing find came when police uncovered a collection
22:45
Speaker 1: of books in the men's possession, particularly those on scientific spiritualism.
22:51
Speaker 1: Several passages in these books had been highlighted, and they
22:54
Speaker 1: were about contact with extraterrestrials. The text claims that when
22:59
Speaker 1: humans come into contact with aliens, the light they admit
23:02
Speaker 1: is so intense that it will blind you unless you
23:04
Speaker 1: wore specific protection, specifically sunglasses made of lead.
23:11
Speaker 2: Holy shit, Hey, it's like they like called them or something, yeah,
23:17
Speaker 2: or knew something that no one else did.
23:19
Speaker 1: Exactly, which is very strange because if they're out there
23:22
Speaker 1: for that purpose, that's one thing. But there's also reports
23:26
Speaker 1: of seeing UFOs that fucking night.
23:30
Speaker 2: But do you think that they could have just been
23:32
Speaker 2: doing something with the light.
23:34
Speaker 1: Maybe that is very potential.
23:37
Speaker 2: Huh, Because I see, I'm kind of one of I'm
23:39
Speaker 2: a skeptic, Like I actually don't super Oh gosh about
23:42
Speaker 2: saying this, I'm like, I shouldn't say this out loud,
23:44
Speaker 2: but I don't know if I do really believe in
23:46
Speaker 2: aliens and stuff.
23:47
Speaker 1: I doue like I, but I'm a skeptic just like you.
23:51
Speaker 1: I want to disprove every account out there to find
23:54
Speaker 1: the real ones. If that makes sense.
23:55
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because I have heard people say before, like
23:58
Speaker 2: it's what would be the word, but it's unrealistic for
24:01
Speaker 2: us to think that we're like the only people or
24:04
Speaker 2: like things that exist in this universe or whatever. Right.
24:07
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know the exact calculations, so don't quote
24:10
Speaker 1: me on this. I'm just gonna make one up just
24:12
Speaker 1: to give an example. But there was an article or
24:16
Speaker 1: something that was written out there on a scientist doing
24:19
Speaker 1: the math on what it would be for another Goldilocks planet,
24:23
Speaker 1: which is what Earth is to be in the perfect
24:25
Speaker 1: zone from its son to support life. He did the
24:28
Speaker 1: math on what it would take for another Goldilocks planet
24:30
Speaker 1: to exist out there, and it was like something wild,
24:34
Speaker 1: like one in like several billion or something. Right, Oh, okay,
24:38
Speaker 1: but there are hundreds of millions of trillions and gazillions
24:42
Speaker 1: of fucking stars out there, let alone planets. So that
24:46
Speaker 1: basically the math just proved the existence of like, not
24:50
Speaker 1: necessarily intelligent life, but a Goldilocks planet existing that would hold.
24:55
Speaker 2: Life some sort of other life yeaheah.
24:59
Speaker 1: So don't quote me on those exact numbers, but it
25:01
Speaker 1: was something along those lines. But and then of course
25:05
Speaker 1: you have to account for well, are the intelligent and
25:07
Speaker 1: are they still alive today? Have they destroyed themselves? Are
25:11
Speaker 1: they far left long enough in their evolution to travel?
25:15
Speaker 1: And there's so many other questions into it.
25:17
Speaker 2: But yeah, we're probably not about that for a while,
25:21
Speaker 2: couldn't we.
25:21
Speaker 1: Oh, if you get a couple of drinks in me,
25:23
Speaker 1: I will talk about it all.
25:24
Speaker 2: Night, oh goss.
25:27
Speaker 1: But Manuel's wife confirmed that the two men were indeed
25:31
Speaker 1: involved in scientific spiritualism, and they were deeply involved in
25:35
Speaker 1: a community of like minded individuals that were scientific spiritualists.
25:39
Speaker 1: In fact, she actually revealed that many of the electronics
25:42
Speaker 1: repairmen the area shared this belief system, specifically in this
25:45
Speaker 1: this this field of work, regularly engaging in secret meetings
25:50
Speaker 1: and even seances. And what did you say earlier?
25:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like in my head, I'm like, yeah, this
25:55
Speaker 2: is like a cult of sorts.
25:56
Speaker 1: There there we go.
25:58
Speaker 2: Okay, So this.
25:59
Speaker 1: Secret society spiritualists wasn't an unusual hobby for the men
26:03
Speaker 1: in this profession, especially in the nineteen sixties Brazil, where
26:07
Speaker 1: the lines between science and spirituality were often blurred. So
26:11
Speaker 1: Miguel's niece added to an even stranger sorry, added an
26:14
Speaker 1: even stranger layer to this story. On the day of
26:17
Speaker 1: Miguel leaving the house, she asked him where he was headed.
26:21
Speaker 1: His reply was he was going to Saint Paulo to
26:23
Speaker 1: buy a car. When she questioned, why you travel so
26:26
Speaker 1: far to make a purchase that could easily be done
26:28
Speaker 1: closer to home and probably for a far better price,
26:31
Speaker 1: Miguel responded, quote, I need to know one thing. Then
26:36
Speaker 1: when I get back, i'll tell you if I really
26:38
Speaker 1: believe in this story of spiritualism or not.
26:41
Speaker 2: Oh jeez, hey, I do want.
26:43
Speaker 1: To highlight one thing he said, then said there, then
26:47
Speaker 1: when I get back, When.
26:51
Speaker 2: I get back, Yeah, he was planning to return.
26:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he was not planning to die. Okay, his
26:59
Speaker 1: words hinted at something much deeper than a simple car purchase.
27:02
Speaker 2: Obviously, right, that was just like a cover story.
27:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, Miguel seemed to be on the verge of some
27:07
Speaker 1: kind of revelation or test regarding his beliefs and whether
27:11
Speaker 1: this final journey was intended to confirm or debunk his
27:14
Speaker 1: faith in spiritualism. It kind of remains unclear, but it
27:17
Speaker 1: suggests that the men were actively involved in something significant
27:20
Speaker 1: related to their spiritual practices, and at this point the
27:24
Speaker 1: investigation began to circle around the question what exactly were
27:28
Speaker 1: Manuel and Miguel getting involved in and what role did
27:32
Speaker 1: their spiritualist activities play in their deaths. Now, it's important
27:36
Speaker 1: to clarify spiritualism, and more specifically scientific spiritualism. In essence,
27:42
Speaker 1: it's the belief of communication with the dead and believing
27:45
Speaker 1: that it's possible that there's hidden channel between the living
27:49
Speaker 1: and the afterlife, and that one can tune into this
27:51
Speaker 1: channel and to speak with lost loved ones. But Manuel
27:55
Speaker 1: and Miguel were not just ordinary spiritualists. They were part
27:58
Speaker 1: of a movement known as saying tific spiritualism. This subset
28:03
Speaker 1: basically seeks out or sought out to prove that observable
28:08
Speaker 1: phenomena and experiments through these sort of things, that the
28:12
Speaker 1: supernatural was real. So think of like ghost hunting today
28:17
Speaker 1: and using technology, similar sort of thing. Through technology, we
28:21
Speaker 1: can prove that this sort of spiritualistic idea and these
28:26
Speaker 1: phenomena are real. That's kind of what they are, very
28:30
Speaker 1: early stage ghost hunters.
28:32
Speaker 2: Essentially, right, Okay, it makes sense.
28:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they basically believe using science to demonstrate the existence.
28:40
Speaker 2: Now okay, sorry, they weren't really Okay, I'm just confused.
28:46
Speaker 2: Were they kind of wanting to talk to the dead
28:48
Speaker 2: or were they wanting to be seeing if there's like
28:50
Speaker 2: alien and stuff like it's really unknown kind.
28:53
Speaker 1: We'll get to that, okay, yeah, okay, So in nineteen
28:56
Speaker 1: sixties Brazil, this fusion of science and sp spiritualism spiritual
29:01
Speaker 1: reality really penetrated certain professions, particularly the electronic repairment profession.
29:08
Speaker 2: Really, that's bizarre to me. This whole case.
29:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't really know why it leaked into that
29:14
Speaker 1: profession specifically, Maybe because I guess their ability to work
29:20
Speaker 1: with electronics. They're trying to like tune the electronics to
29:24
Speaker 1: this certain frequence. Maybe it's just their knowledge that they
29:27
Speaker 1: held it was a certain skill set for it.
29:30
Speaker 2: I'm like almost on vacation here, and you're making me
29:33
Speaker 2: you have to think way too.
29:36
Speaker 1: It is a bit of a convoluted case, but most
29:41
Speaker 1: of this stuff you don't actually have to think too
29:43
Speaker 1: hard on. Okay, So basically they were found dead, there's
29:47
Speaker 1: some spiritualistic stuff going on that really comes from like
29:50
Speaker 1: their hey electronics businesses or whatever, and there's a UFO
29:55
Speaker 1: sighting that occurs the same night as their death, which
29:59
Speaker 1: is very suspicious. Yeah, that's what they're seeking out. That's
30:03
Speaker 1: basically all you really need.
30:04
Speaker 2: To know, I know. But it's still like just you know,
30:06
Speaker 2: the gears are turning because understandable wanting to figure this out.
30:09
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Well, the police were also wanting to figure
30:12
Speaker 1: it out, and the investigation was continuing, and they learned
30:15
Speaker 1: of a figure who was actually tied to Manuel and Miguel,
30:18
Speaker 1: which was an individual who was also an electronic repairman
30:22
Speaker 1: by the name of Elco. Now, Elcio was believed to
30:25
Speaker 1: be the last person to see Manuel and Miguel alive,
30:30
Speaker 1: while also admitted to being a scientific spiritualist person. Like
30:34
Speaker 1: others in the profession, the police couldn't actually find concrete
30:37
Speaker 1: evidence directly linking him to the men's death. He just
30:40
Speaker 1: happened to be the last one to see him alive.
30:41
Speaker 1: Sort of thing, right, But nevertheless, Elsio provided a fascinating
30:45
Speaker 1: bit of insight into Manuel and Miguel and their search
30:49
Speaker 1: on Vitamin Hill. He revealed that their goal wasn't simply
30:53
Speaker 1: to communicate with the dead. These men were seeking contact
30:57
Speaker 1: with higher and more intelligent beings. So also knew how
31:03
Speaker 1: outlandish this sounded, but he assured the police that their
31:06
Speaker 1: work was real and that he could prove it so.
31:10
Speaker 1: A few weeks before Manuel and Miguel's death, Alcio explained
31:13
Speaker 1: that the men had conducted an experiment to see if
31:15
Speaker 1: they could communicate with extraterrestrials, specifically beings from Mars. They
31:21
Speaker 1: had even built a device for this purpose in Elsio's garden. Now,
31:25
Speaker 1: according to him, the belief within the scientific community, or
31:28
Speaker 1: whatever the spiritualist community it wasn't limited to contacting spirits
31:32
Speaker 1: that deceased. They held the idea that all spirits, living
31:37
Speaker 1: or dead, could be reached. So this whole spiritualistic idea. Yes,
31:42
Speaker 1: you can contact the dead, but you can contact living
31:45
Speaker 1: spirits too, also known as other spirits on other worlds
31:49
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, aliens, so including those of intelligent life,
31:55
Speaker 1: all these other spirits, they were all up for graps.
31:59
Speaker 1: This desice device sorry, that they built was supposed to
32:02
Speaker 1: facilitate that communication. Though the exact mechanisms of this device
32:07
Speaker 1: remained unknown, it was unclear that the men viewed this
32:10
Speaker 1: as a serious piece of technology. Sorry, it was clear,
32:14
Speaker 1: not unclear, It's very clear then the men viewed this
32:17
Speaker 1: as a very serious piece of technology. However, when they
32:20
Speaker 1: first activated the device, things didn't go as they planned.
32:24
Speaker 1: They're hoping to fire this thing up and begin using
32:26
Speaker 1: it almost as like a two way radio, and start
32:29
Speaker 1: talking with these spirits, but the machine instead violently exploded,
32:33
Speaker 1: cutting the experiment very short. And after the explosion settled,
32:37
Speaker 1: something strange caught their attention. A mysterious powder that had
32:42
Speaker 1: appeared around the garden scattered in the aftermath to Elcio
32:47
Speaker 1: and the others This wasn't just debris from the explosion.
32:50
Speaker 1: It was proof that their experiment had worked. They believed
32:54
Speaker 1: the powder was evidence of spirit or extraterrestrial presence. With
33:01
Speaker 1: that apparent success under their belts, Alsio, Manuel and Miguel
33:05
Speaker 1: decided they wanted to try again, but this time on
33:08
Speaker 1: a much grander scale. So in June they traveled to
33:12
Speaker 1: Adipon Beach, where they hoped to where they hopped into
33:16
Speaker 1: the secluded location and they hoped that it would allow
33:19
Speaker 1: them to conduct their experiment with few interruptions. On that warm,
33:24
Speaker 1: still night, three men set up their equipment and began
33:27
Speaker 1: to work. As they were in the midst of the experiment,
33:29
Speaker 1: they looked up to see something incredible, a large glowing
33:34
Speaker 1: object descending from the sky above them. According to Alsio,
33:40
Speaker 1: they watched this illuminated craft for about five minutes as
33:44
Speaker 1: it came closer and closer to Earth. Then, just as
33:48
Speaker 1: suddenly as it appeared, the object began to ascend back
33:51
Speaker 1: up once again, disappearing into the clouds. As it did,
33:55
Speaker 1: a bright flash and a deafening bang echoed across the
33:58
Speaker 1: beach and across the sky, as if a bomb had
34:01
Speaker 1: gone off in the sky, and once again, a powder
34:06
Speaker 1: substance was left behind, scattered in its wake, just like before.
34:12
Speaker 2: Holy shit, I just feel like they're just almost kind
34:15
Speaker 2: of playing with fire here in a way.
34:18
Speaker 1: Potentially whether this is a real situation they're actually calling
34:22
Speaker 1: these spirits, let's just say yah for a second, they are. Yes,
34:25
Speaker 1: you're playing with fire in that regard. If not, and
34:28
Speaker 1: you're just blowing up some electronics equipment on a beach,
34:31
Speaker 1: you're also playing with fire.
34:32
Speaker 2: That's true. Like really, yeah, So now I'm either it's
34:36
Speaker 2: still potentially a cult in my mind, but it also
34:39
Speaker 2: could just be like an experiment gone wrong too.
34:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be. Well, Elciel's tail was understandably met
34:46
Speaker 1: with some skepticism, just like we are a little bit
34:48
Speaker 1: skeptical right now. But these three men attempting to contact
34:51
Speaker 1: aliens and actually succeeding to bring a UFO to Earth,
34:54
Speaker 1: only for it to leave them with a massive explosion.
34:57
Speaker 1: It sounds pretty far fetched, like something out of a
35:00
Speaker 1: science fiction film. But Elsio was adamant that they witnessed
35:05
Speaker 1: this thing and it was real and it was proof
35:08
Speaker 1: of contact with extraterrestrial And here's where the story takes
35:12
Speaker 1: an even stranger turn. As if it hasn't already taken
35:15
Speaker 1: a bit of a strange term. But there were multiple
35:18
Speaker 1: documented reports from other witnesses who had heard a loud
35:23
Speaker 1: explosion and seen these mysterious lights that Elsio had described
35:27
Speaker 1: over top of the beach that night. In fact, in fact,
35:30
Speaker 1: the event was so significant that it even caught the
35:32
Speaker 1: attention of the Brazilian Navy and Air Force, who launched
35:36
Speaker 1: an official investigation into it.
35:39
Speaker 2: Okay, and this story is the night that they died, right, No, oh,
35:43
Speaker 2: this was the other night.
35:44
Speaker 1: This is when Elsio is working with them on the
35:47
Speaker 1: beach prior to them even die. So we now have
35:50
Speaker 1: two documented nights where there are supposed experiments happening, with
35:57
Speaker 1: documented UFO sightings.
36:00
Speaker 2: Yeah well yeah, to even get like the did you
36:03
Speaker 2: say the Navy or the army or something.
36:05
Speaker 1: The Air Force and the Navy.
36:07
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, okay, yeah.
36:10
Speaker 1: So now, during their inquiry, the military discovered that they
36:12
Speaker 1: had picked up three unidentified radio signals on the night
36:16
Speaker 1: of the explosion, signals that they couldn't trace to any
36:19
Speaker 1: known source. They even reported hearing a strange conversation over
36:23
Speaker 1: the radios. Of the contents of the conversation were never
36:26
Speaker 1: revealed publicly. What made it even more mysterious was that
36:30
Speaker 1: despite having technology to locate the origins of the radio transmissions,
36:34
Speaker 1: the military was unable to determine where the signals came from.
36:38
Speaker 1: None of the radios involved in the transmission were registered
36:42
Speaker 1: within Brazil.
36:44
Speaker 2: M okay, And was there with these two bodies that
36:48
Speaker 2: they'd found? Was there any sort of powder? Not that
36:52
Speaker 2: I'm aware of, okay, I can't remember if you like
36:54
Speaker 2: said that, and I just knowed it, okay, not.
36:56
Speaker 1: That I'm aware of. And the powder there is no
36:59
Speaker 1: doc documented evidence of this powder. That is strictly just
37:02
Speaker 1: what els was talking, right, But unfortunately, this beach experiment,
37:07
Speaker 1: this was the last time that Elsio actually saw Manuel
37:10
Speaker 1: and Miguel alive before they ended up passing on vitamin Hill.
37:14
Speaker 2: And why the heck wasn't he involved in this other one?
37:17
Speaker 1: Hey?
37:19
Speaker 3: Wasn't.
37:20
Speaker 1: Just wasn't so. As the months went by, police struggled
37:22
Speaker 1: to come up with an answer, and the case remained
37:25
Speaker 1: very confusing. Then a little over a year later, a
37:28
Speaker 1: new lead emerged that added a potential clue to the puzzle.
37:32
Speaker 1: A Brazilian yoga professor stepped forward and claimed that he
37:34
Speaker 1: knew the purpose of the mysterious pills that had been
37:37
Speaker 1: mentioned in the note found with the bodies. According to
37:40
Speaker 1: this professor, who was a local scientific spiritualist and had
37:44
Speaker 1: knowledge of them, they had begun doing experiments with psychedelic
37:49
Speaker 1: drugs as a way to tune their minds for contact
37:52
Speaker 1: with these spirits or alien life. These substances were said
37:56
Speaker 1: to put people into a trance like state, which made
37:59
Speaker 1: them more perceptive to the signals and emissions that extra
38:03
Speaker 1: extraterrestrial beings might transmit.
38:07
Speaker 2: That kind of makes sense.
38:08
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, people do that today, like LSD acid, Like,
38:11
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm going on a trip, right, That's
38:13
Speaker 1: why they call it a trip because of all these
38:15
Speaker 1: different like plane traveling or what. I don't know the
38:18
Speaker 1: proper terminology, or I could be being a bit ignorant
38:20
Speaker 1: about it, but there are these sort of things that
38:23
Speaker 1: literally occur today in spiritualistic realms.
38:27
Speaker 2: Yeah stuff.
38:27
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and now because of these admissions were
38:32
Speaker 1: thought to be blindingly bright. He also said that, yeah,
38:35
Speaker 1: the lead masks makes sense because of this or whatever protection.
38:42
Speaker 1: I mean, a lot of this didn't really offer much
38:45
Speaker 1: new information, Like the police kind of already thought about
38:48
Speaker 1: that because they found the writings with Manuel and Miguel's books,
38:51
Speaker 1: things that were highlighted for regarding the lead masks, they
38:54
Speaker 1: found the lead in their workshops. They kind of already
38:59
Speaker 1: figured that it's not really any new information really. But
39:02
Speaker 1: in June of nineteen sixty eight, two years after the death,
39:05
Speaker 1: another potential break in the case would surface. The police
39:08
Speaker 1: announced that they were searching for a quote blonde man
39:11
Speaker 1: who was believed to have driven the jeep that transported
39:14
Speaker 1: Manuel and Miguel from Nitario to the base of Vitamin Hill.
39:18
Speaker 1: A witness had come forward stating that they had seen
39:20
Speaker 1: two men, the two men speaking with a blonde man
39:22
Speaker 1: in a jeep. They were reportedly the two There were
39:27
Speaker 1: reportedly two other individuals in the jeep as well, though
39:30
Speaker 1: witnesses didn't get a good look at them. Unfortunately, this
39:34
Speaker 1: lead turned out to be a dead end, okay, and
39:37
Speaker 1: the blonde man and the other occupants were never identified.
39:41
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's not like the best of descriptions to
39:45
Speaker 2: find somebody.
39:46
Speaker 1: There's a blonde dude and a jeep with two other guys.
39:49
Speaker 1: You described fifty percent of Californians. I'm sorry, Like, I'm
39:54
Speaker 1: just picturing like Hollywood's depiction of like a surfer. He's
39:56
Speaker 1: driving down like the beach highway with like the blaw
40:00
Speaker 1: flowing blonde air. It's jeep, you know.
40:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, it's not the best of descriptions.
40:05
Speaker 1: No it's not. It's pretty open ended in all honesty.
40:08
Speaker 1: But this case would take another unexpected twist when a
40:11
Speaker 1: man named Hamilton Bizani came forward claiming to know exactly
40:15
Speaker 1: what happened to Manuel and Miguel. Now, according to Hamilton,
40:19
Speaker 1: who was already a notorious criminal serving time in prison,
40:22
Speaker 1: he himself was responsible for the men's death.
40:26
Speaker 2: Oh okay, here we go.
40:28
Speaker 1: So Hamilton's story was bizarre, but he said that while
40:32
Speaker 1: hiding from the law in Rio de Janeiro, he was
40:34
Speaker 1: approached by three individuals who had a job for him
40:38
Speaker 1: in Nitorel and this job promised good pay for all involved.
40:42
Speaker 1: The group took him to Nitoreo, where they visited a
40:45
Speaker 1: spiritualist center. It was at this center, during a seance
40:49
Speaker 1: that Hamilton said that's when they met Manuel and Miguel.
40:54
Speaker 1: According to Hamilton, they learned during the sanths the two
40:56
Speaker 1: men were planning to return home to buy a used
40:59
Speaker 1: car and equipment and they had a significant amount of
41:02
Speaker 1: cash on them. Hamilton then claimed that the group drove
41:05
Speaker 1: Manuel Miguel to the base of him in hill, forced
41:08
Speaker 1: them to walk to the top, robbed them, made them
41:11
Speaker 1: drink poison, and that's that.
41:17
Speaker 2: You're frowning well, Afers, I was like, Okay, maybe this
41:20
Speaker 2: is going to get us somewhere, but that doesn't really
41:22
Speaker 2: seem like it does not really like at all? Yeah,
41:28
Speaker 2: not really well because they also did the toxcology report, right,
41:32
Speaker 2: and they didn't say that there was any poison in
41:34
Speaker 2: them exactly.
41:36
Speaker 1: Not to mention that this witness mentioned there were three
41:39
Speaker 1: people in the vehicle talking to Manuel Miguel. This guy's
41:42
Speaker 1: now saying that there was four of them plus Manuel Miguel.
41:45
Speaker 1: And I mean, in all honesty, if this was a robbery,
41:48
Speaker 1: like he's saying, like they they robbed him at the
41:50
Speaker 1: top of the hill and made them drink poison, why
41:53
Speaker 1: was there still money.
41:54
Speaker 2: In the body they're wanting have been like a dime left?
41:56
Speaker 1: And also, if you're going to rob them, why make
41:58
Speaker 1: them walk to the top of the hill before robbing them?
42:01
Speaker 2: Exactly?
42:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, why I walk them all the way up, rob them,
42:05
Speaker 1: then make them drink poison up that why not the
42:06
Speaker 1: bottom or anywhere else?
42:08
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, like, I feel like no one wants to
42:10
Speaker 2: willingly walk up the hill, right.
42:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, even to authorities as this guy's talking, they were
42:17
Speaker 1: not convinced. The whole story felt fake and force and
42:20
Speaker 1: they were just like, yeah, sure, buddy, so okay. The
42:25
Speaker 1: police had already been chasing complex theories involving UFO scientific
42:28
Speaker 1: spiritualism and cult like rituals, and now they're expected to
42:31
Speaker 1: believe the sudden tale of random robbery turned murder. And
42:34
Speaker 1: ultimately the police decided, yeah, they weren't chasing this one,
42:37
Speaker 1: and they did not charge Hamilton with the crime, and
42:39
Speaker 1: his confession was dismissed as completely unreliable. Frustrated and running
42:46
Speaker 1: out of leads, the police eventually closed the case. The
42:51
Speaker 1: investigation into the deaths of Manuel and Miguel have been shelved,
42:55
Speaker 1: and the authorities were done pursuing theories involving all these random,
43:00
Speaker 1: paranormal supernatural things, and officially the case remains unsolved and
43:06
Speaker 1: is today a mystery. However, for some, the lack of
43:11
Speaker 1: resolution in the bizarre details in the case only fueled
43:13
Speaker 1: further speculation. There are those who believe that the police
43:17
Speaker 1: knew more than that they were willing to let on,
43:20
Speaker 1: and that they closed the case due to lack of
43:22
Speaker 1: evidence because they didn't want to confront the possibility of
43:24
Speaker 1: something beyond their understanding or willingness to inform the public
43:28
Speaker 1: of the truth. Okay, this theory actually does gain some
43:32
Speaker 1: traction and isn't just based off people just talking about
43:35
Speaker 1: the police, Because there was another strange incident that occurred
43:38
Speaker 1: on Vitamin Hill just a couple years earlier, really, in
43:43
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, four years before the death of Manuel Miguel,
43:47
Speaker 1: another man, an electronics repair man named Hermes, was found
43:52
Speaker 1: dead on that same hill. He too was dressed in
43:56
Speaker 1: a suit and found with a lead mask.
43:58
Speaker 2: Next time, Oh my gosh.
44:01
Speaker 1: His death was equally unexplained, and like the latter case,
44:05
Speaker 1: the police closed the file without offering any real answers.
44:09
Speaker 2: Holy shit, what a just wild ride though, that this
44:14
Speaker 2: case is even given the police, Like I can't even imagine.
44:19
Speaker 1: I know, I feel like the police are honestly just
44:21
Speaker 1: like rolling their eyes at whatever new twist and turn
44:25
Speaker 1: comes to them. Yeah, like okay, what next, Like you
44:29
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
44:30
Speaker 2: But it does make sense because I mean, it's not
44:33
Speaker 2: a new concept that like UFO or like alien life
44:38
Speaker 2: or whatever's hidden from the public, right, Oh, definitely, So
44:42
Speaker 2: that's that's I don't know, that makes sense to me
44:45
Speaker 2: a bit too well.
44:46
Speaker 1: And there is the idea that some people toss around
44:48
Speaker 1: a bit that these guys wearing suits out at the
44:50
Speaker 1: top of the hill, men in black. Oh yeah, those
44:56
Speaker 1: government individuals that show up and like force you to
44:59
Speaker 1: keep your else shut, like knows right.
45:02
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the fact that this is this is that
45:04
Speaker 2: has happened previously is bizarre. Yeah, bizarre.
45:10
Speaker 1: So that's the case of the lead mask. The lead
45:12
Speaker 1: mask case.
45:13
Speaker 2: Huh, holy shit?
45:16
Speaker 1: Yeah wow.
45:18
Speaker 2: I don't even know what the hell to say.
45:20
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ask me. I mean, they
45:23
Speaker 1: definitely ingested something, and I think they were intending to
45:26
Speaker 1: communicate somehow via these drugs. And I have a feeling
45:30
Speaker 1: the toxicology report being done a year later may not
45:32
Speaker 1: have been able to.
45:35
Speaker 2: Pick it up pick it up, yeah there.
45:37
Speaker 1: Or maybe at the time it wasn't able to pick
45:39
Speaker 1: up whatever they were taking, or they weren't searching for
45:41
Speaker 1: the right thing, who knows. I do think that they
45:43
Speaker 1: took pills hoping it would help them communicate with other
45:47
Speaker 1: worldly beings, whether dead or extraterrestrials. I'm just gonna say
45:49
Speaker 1: other worldly, and as a result, it killed them.
45:54
Speaker 2: Hmm. I also think these two men would have known
45:57
Speaker 2: too that this other person had done previously, right, I'm
46:01
Speaker 2: assuming most likely, So that just it's interesting that they
46:05
Speaker 2: would have gone about doing it.
46:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he did it wrong, We're.
46:08
Speaker 2: Going to do right, true, And then now there's just
46:11
Speaker 2: not a fourth person trying.
46:13
Speaker 1: And I also want to say I think that there
46:16
Speaker 1: was a third person involved, most likely that Elsio guy,
46:22
Speaker 1: because what I think is they had that experiment that
46:26
Speaker 1: blew up and left that residue right, and then they
46:29
Speaker 1: did it on the beach and they there was reports
46:31
Speaker 1: of this big light. Yeah. I think their experiment then
46:34
Speaker 1: also blew up, and that's why there's reports of these
46:37
Speaker 1: lights in the sky and the sound. I think they
46:41
Speaker 1: did it on this hill again, and Elsio was there
46:44
Speaker 1: with them. I think between the drugs and the explosion,
46:47
Speaker 1: these guys died. El SiO panicked and fucked off cleaning
46:53
Speaker 1: up the crime scene.
46:54
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, fair.
46:57
Speaker 1: It would explain the loud noise and the lights if
46:59
Speaker 1: they're an explosion.
47:00
Speaker 2: Like he knew more than he was saying kind of thing.
47:02
Speaker 1: I don't think there's an extraterrestrial I think they had
47:05
Speaker 1: some sort of experiment that went wrong, blew up, big
47:08
Speaker 1: bright flash of light, noise. I don't think they died
47:13
Speaker 1: necessarily from that, but I do think they died maybe
47:15
Speaker 1: a combination of that plus the drugs, because maybe they
47:19
Speaker 1: were on like they were already about to have a
47:22
Speaker 1: heart attack, their heart rate was so high the explosion happened.
47:25
Speaker 1: Maybe there was an emp I don't know, some sort
47:28
Speaker 1: of shockwave hit them, stop their hearts. Who knows. There's
47:32
Speaker 1: a bunch of theory go in with it, but I
47:34
Speaker 1: think combination of the explosion and drugs killed them. And
47:38
Speaker 1: Elco knew more than he's talking about, or someone else
47:42
Speaker 1: was there.
47:44
Speaker 2: Also still a cult? Yes, this is one percent to me, Well, okay,
47:48
Speaker 2: I'll do ninety nine percent. Sounds like a cult.
47:52
Speaker 1: Think it's a cult, it really does. I think you
47:54
Speaker 1: can be a spiritualist. I think you can be a scientist.
47:57
Speaker 1: I think you can be a scientific spiritualist and not
48:00
Speaker 1: be within a cult. But this one, this particular incident
48:02
Speaker 1: sounds cult too cult like to me.
48:05
Speaker 2: It kind of does it does. Yeah, Wow, that's wild. Dang, Like,
48:13
Speaker 2: why did you have to pick this kind of case
48:15
Speaker 2: for today? Now? My brain is just not going to
48:17
Speaker 2: shove it.
48:17
Speaker 1: It's just screen.
48:18
Speaker 2: We'll be like middle of the night on our way,
48:20
Speaker 2: like flying because we have to go to Toronto first,
48:23
Speaker 2: and I'll be like, what about this man? Maybe it
48:26
Speaker 2: was this.
48:27
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, let's talk about We'll theorize on.
48:28
Speaker 2: The people on the plane will be like, wow, those
48:30
Speaker 2: people have weird conversations.
48:32
Speaker 1: Let's let's get plane drunk. Let's just get drunk the
48:35
Speaker 1: plane and we're just going to talk about murders and
48:38
Speaker 1: ghosts and cults and all this stuff.
48:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if that would go well for us.
48:44
Speaker 1: It might not.
48:45
Speaker 2: It's a red eye, so my hope is that I'll
48:47
Speaker 2: be able to sleep. But we'll see how that goes.
48:50
Speaker 1: We'll see. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this case, if you
48:53
Speaker 1: guys have theories about it, because it is very all
48:56
Speaker 1: over the place, Like Nicole was saying, it's hard to follow.
48:58
Speaker 1: But the basics of the case of what you were
49:00
Speaker 1: you need to consider. If you want to dive deep,
49:02
Speaker 1: that's when you really get that little bit extra information.
49:04
Speaker 1: But I still want to hear your theories. Let us
49:06
Speaker 1: know she does a message, email, whatever. We're curious, and
49:09
Speaker 1: still we appreciate you guys being here, even if you
49:10
Speaker 1: don't have a theory, even if you don't reach out,
49:12
Speaker 1: but you can reach out. Check it our links down below,
49:15
Speaker 1: do all that good stuff. You're here. You're amazing. Thank you.
49:18
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time.
49:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, until next time.
49:21
Speaker 1: And next time we are going to be recording this on.
49:23
Speaker 2: Oh yeah trip. Yeah.
49:26
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll be talking from over in Orlando from
49:30
Speaker 1: our hotel room.
49:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool. And until then, stay wicked.