Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

Matamoros Murders 165
Two of the central figures in the Matamoros killings, Adolfo Constanzo (left) and Sarah Aldrete (right). (Brad Doherty)
moros, Mexico, just across the border from
Brownsville, Texas. Although many of the
murders were directly related to the day-to-day
violence of the drug-running business, some of
the victims were killed in the belief that sacrificing
them would provide the gang with magical
protection. After the mutilated body of
University of Texas student Mark Kilroy, along
with bodies of members of rival gangs, were
found buried on the grounds of a Mexican ranch,
the news media immediately proceeded to sensationalize
the story by describing the drug ring as
a Satanic cult.
A number of Associated Press wires, for
instance, bore such titles as “Satanic Cult People
Questioned” and “Satanic Ring Member
Arrested.”A story in Time magazine referred to the
group as a “voodoo-practicing cult of drug smugglers”
whose rituals were intended to “win Satanic
protection.” Many more examples in this vein
could be cited. Mexican authorities apparently
courted Anglo-American reporters anxious to
seize upon any titillating detail. Gary Cartwright,
reporting for the Texas Monthly, noted that the
commandant “made no attempt to seal off the
crime scene. During almost any hour of the day
journalists could be found stomping about the
ranch...looking for something—anything—that
no one else had found.”
The twisted spiritual beliefs of the Matamoros
group were based on Palo Mayombe, an Afro-
Cuban religio-magical system that is frequently,
though erroneously, equated with the better
known Santeria. This necromantic sect utilizes
human remains in its rites, but practitioners
purchase such remains from medical supply
houses or (in extreme cases) rob graves rather
than murder living human beings. The Palo
practices that were the core of the magic rituals
had been supplied by Adolfo Constanzo, a
twenty-six-year-old Cuban-American from
Miami who had been hired by a drug-smuggling
family to provide them with supernatural aid.
Before being hired by the Hernandez family,
Constanzo had developed a reputation as being a
sorcerer in Mexico City. The Palo connection was