Constanzo cult ritual killings (Palo Mayombe)

Cited record

Sources

Wikipedia (2024) 'Adolfo Constanzo', Wikipedia. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 29 June 2024). [archived copy]

'Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo (November 1, 1962—May 6, 1989) was a Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader who led an infamous drug-trafficking and occult gang in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, that was dubbed the Narcosatanists (Spanish: Los Narcosatánicos) by the media... The cult was involved in multiple ritualistic killings in Matamoros, including the murder of Mark Kilroy, an American student abducted, tortured and killed in the area in 1989... Constanzo was baptized Catholic and served as an altar boy, but also accompanied his mother on trips to Haiti to learn about Vodou... As a teenager, he became apprenticed to a local sorcerer and began to practice a religion called Palo Mayombe, which involves animal sacrifice... Before long, his cult decided that the spirits of the dead that resided in the nganga would be stronger (providing the cult more powerful protection) with live human sacrifices instead of old bones. The resulting killings soon totalled more than twenty victims, whose mutilated bodies were found in and around Mexico City. This process escalated until Constanzo eventually decided that the gang needed the power of a brain from an American student, culminating with the 1989 murder of Mark Kilroy... Constanzo began to believe that his magic, much of which he took from Palo Mayombe, was responsible for the success of the cartels and demanded to become a full business partner with one of the most powerful families he knew, the Calzadas.'

contemporaneous reporting · investigation United Press International, “Suspects in cult slayings detail bizarre religion” (Apr. 14, 1989).

Contemporaneous reporting from Matamoros records investigators’ account of the ritual killings, the Palo Mayombe-derived practices claimed by the group, and statements from arrested participants.