The Santos Malandros: Venezuela's Holy Thugs Cult | M.P. Pellicer

Caracas has become the murder capital of the world. In the heart of this city where poverty and violence are experienced by those living there on a daily basis is a shrine. The altar is not populated by recognized religious statues, but by colorful cap-wearing images with brightly-colored trousers and cigarettes hanging from their mouths. It is to these dead gangsters that the desperate come to pray for protection.

The most widespread religion in Venezuela is Christianity, but the poor and vulnerable come to pray in a shrine in the heart of Caracas. It is located in Cementerio General del Sur, which dates back to 1876. It is surrounded by slums perched on hillsides overlooking the roughest part of the city.

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The Black Canon of Lyons | M.P. Pellicer

In early 1893, Joseph-Antoine Boullan died. A defrocked priest, he was the head of a schismatic branch called the Church of the Carmel. He was also known as the Black Canon of Lyons.

Born in 1824, Boulan was ordained in 1848. He became a follower of Eugene Vintras, once a foreman in a cardboard box factory who claimed to be the reincarnation of Elijah.

Vintras founded two sects, the Work of Mercy and the Eliate Church of Carmel. He was dogged by rumors of demonic rituals and sexual excesses. In an 1846 pamphlet he was accused of homosexuality, conducting black masses in the nude and masturbating on the altar. He was condemned by the Pope, which would have made him a very unsuitable person for a Catholic priest to fraternize with.

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Folk Ritual Magic Gone Wrong | M.P. Pellicer

It was the dark of night on Thanksgiving Day 1928, when three farmers stole into the house of another man located in York County's Rehmeyer's Hollow. They tortured and murdered Nelson Rehmeyer spurred by the belief that he was a witch doctor steeped in the old Dutch mysticism known as Pow-Wows.

 

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