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

166 Matamoros Murders
especially clear from the characteristic cauldrons
found at the Matamoros ranch:
The paraphernalia recovered at the scene in
Matamoros included three cauldrons (one
large and two small) which can be identified
from their contents (some of the victims’
brains, blood, human and animal bone, turtle
shells, chicken and goat heads, gold colored
beads, etc.) as ngangas, a form of charm used
in Palo Mayombe. Also found was an altar
with ritual candles, broken glass, cigars, chilis,
and bottles of cane liquor, also consistent with
Palo Mayombe. Where this group differs from
Palo Mayombe groups is in the source of their
human body parts. (O’Sullivan 1991)
Reporters dwelled on the human remains in the
cauldrons as indicating that the group practiced
cannibalism, an assertion reflecting a complete
lack of knowledge about Palo. Instead of going to
the trouble to gather accurate information, it is
clear that reporters drew their attribution of cannibalism
from the popular fantasy about Satanic
cults sacrificing and eating human beings.
The notion that human sacrifice could provide
practitioners with magical power and protection
were supplied by Sara Aldrete, one of the group’s
core followers. This young woman was repeatedly
referred to as being either a “witch” or Constanzo’s
“high priestess.” Such labels have the net effect of
shoring up the otherwise dubious parallels
between the Matamoros group and the Satanic
cult stereotype. Aldrete had been an honor student
at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, where
she had studied the anthropology of religion.
Perhaps more importantly, she had also become
fascinated with the film The Believers, which
features a Santeria-like cult composed of rich
urbanites who sacrifice human beings in order to
gain supernatural power. Members of Constanzo’s
group were shown the film over and over again to
indoctrinate them into the necessity of committing
ritual murder.
Building on news media stories about
Matamoros, advocates of Satanic conspiracy theories
immediately appropriated the murders as
providing concrete evidence for the real existence
of a secretive Satanic network plotting to take over
the world—despite the fact that the only parallel
between the Matamoros group and popular
stereotypes of Satanism was human sacrifice.
Blinded by their own belief system, some diabolical
conspiracy buffs even expressed surprise that
certain components of the stereotype were
missing. For example, one such observer stated
that, “Where there’s drugs involved, often you will
find Satanism. What is odd is that the bodies were
not cremated” (O’Sullivan 1991). This comment
alludes to a familiar item of Satanic ritual abuse
lore, namely that Satanists cremate the remains of
sacrificed victims as a way of destroying evidence.
In an insightful analysis included as part of his
groundbreaking book, In Pursuit of Satan, Robert
Hicks pointed out three reasons that the
Matamoros incident appealed to what he called
“cult cops” (and, by implication, to other Satanic
conspiracy advocates):
First, the nine-month spree of murder
included the abduction of innocents, a theme
which figures significantly in some cultseminar
claims and also in rumors, urban
legends, and subversion myths.
Second, cult cops cite Matamoros as
indirect proof of the international Satanic
conspiracy, because the case proves that
people like us, fairly well educated with
middle-class upbringings, can form secret
loyalties that involve murder.
Third, cult cops have taken Matamoros as
Satanic because the newspapers have used the
term. If newspapers use it, and Texas Attorney
General Mattox uses it as an opportunity to
advise Texans against the Satanist forces who
left behind the Matamoros bodies on their
march to world subversion, then why should
cult cops not reap the same rewards of
frightened audiences (81–83)
Prior to Matamoros, the closest things to
documentable homicidal cults were Charles
Manson’s family and Jim Jones’s People’s Temple.
But there were problems with using these groups
as examples of Satanic cults. Specifically, the Jones
group was, even at the time of the mass suicide in