Palo Mayombe

[How Brown]

Despite many protestations from some pretty bright people,Palo Mayombe IS real. Not just in the backwater areas like Nigeria or Haiti, but a little closer to home and in a slightly larger setting........New York City. I am going to try and translate the Portugese article into English( I know Spanish,but some words are a little different...) and I will send the URL. I am hoping that a certain writer from the Isle of Wight would contribute to this thread with his knowledge on Palo Mayombe How Brown ::: Seção O MUNDO


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Dr. Charles Wetli, médico chefe especialista em palo mayombe.
Foto: Veronique Louis
Reduto macabro em Manhattan - 28/08/00

O New York Post (28 de agosto de 2000) descreveu a descoberta de um tenebroso apartamento em Manhattan, EUA, contendo um macabro acervo de caveiras, ossos humanos, estátuas de santos católicos e até o corpo de uma menina preservado em formol. As autoridades não sabem a origem do cadáver e desconhecem sua identidade.

A polícia acha que Margaret Ramirez, de 74 anos, e seu filho Michael Grajales, de 54, que moravam no imóvel, faziam rituais de palo mayombe, uma antiga crença afro-cubana relacionada à santeria. Os praticantes daquela modalidade de magia negra usam partes de corpos para aprisionar os espíritos dos mortos.

Margaret Ramirez morreu num acidente automobilístico em 17 de julho de 2000. O filho, mentalmente abalado com a morte, é um recluso. Veterano da Guerra do Vietnã, Grajales está internado numa clínica psiquiátrica e nega qualquer envolvimento com a ocultação do corpo. Um diário foi encontrado no local. Nele havia descrições de vários objetos ritualísticos e procedimentos de magia negra.

[grahf]

Here's a rough translation from translate.google.com:

Dr. Charles Wetli, doctor head specialist in palo mayombe.
Photo: Veronique Louis Redoubt macabro in Manhattan - 28/08/00
The New York Post (28 of August of 2000) described the discovery of a tenebrous apartment in Manhattan, U.S.A., contends one macabro human quantity of caveiras, bones, statues of saints catholics and until the body of a girl preserved in formol. The authorities do not know the origin of the corpse and are unaware of its identity. The policy finds that Margaret Ramirez, of 74 years, and its son Michael Grajales, of 54, that they liveed in the property, made rituals of palo mayombe, one old related afro-Cuban belief to would santeria. The practitioners of that modality of black magic use parts of bodies to imprison the espíritos of deceased. Margaret Ramirez died in an automobile accident in 17 of July of 2000. The son, mentally shaken with the death, is an inmate. Veteran of the War of the Vietnam, Grajales is interned in a psychiatric clinic and denies any envolvement with the occultation of the body. A daily one was found in the place. In it it had descriptions of some ritualísticos objects and procedures of black magic.

[How Brown]

Grahf: Muchas gracias for the translation ! This report is at least the third I have heard or read about in the last calendar year. There was another incident in Northern New Jersey this year and the one that occured in Philadelphia that the media,police,and citizenry wish would go away.

[How Brown]

Thanks for mentioning A.J. Constanzo for two significant reasons. One,in that here is an example for them what doubt that a member of the privileged class( as he was in Mexico ) would not "stoop" to such a primitive cult. He was their leader. The other fact is that here is yet another example of a homosexual killing heterosexuals in ritualistic/serial fashion. I have a really good article on him in an encyclopedia of crime that goes into depth about the depravity he and his followers( one,a Mexican-American girl,college student,bright,affluent,blah blah blah....) committed. One murder required them to kill an Anglo and eat his brain to acquire the intelligence that gringos possess (?)

[WTM]

I remember this case well - it happened in the early 1990's in Texas. They had beheaded Kilroy and buried him in a shallow grave with wire run down his spine and left looped above the grave. The idea was that after sufficient decay, the high priestess would be able to pull out the vertebrae like carrots and make herself a necklace with them (very potent magic!).


In mid-April, a pre-med student named Mark Kilroy, from Santa Fe (between Houston and Galveston), who had gone missing in the border town of Matamoros, turned up dead with 14 others outside of town. The killers were marijuana smugglers whose leader, along with his girlfriend, mutilated their victims in order to gain magical protection from the cops. Apparently, a LAW STAY AWAY candle wasn't enough. The girlfriend, Sara Maria Aldrete Villarreal, was an anthropology student at a city college in Brownsville. She'd researched religions like Santeria and Palo Mayombe, which both used animal sacrifices to gain divine favor, but are practiced respectably throughout the Americas. Human sacrifice, which included boiling brains and other organs, was her own innovation, and even that may have been ripped off from the 1987 howler The Believers, also a huge influence on the pair. As the gang were rolled up, Costanzo holed up in town and had another gang member shoot him as the police closed in. Aldrete was captured, tried and convicted, and was still in a Mexico City jail as of 1998. Kilroy's mother founded an anti-drug organization called Make A Responsible Kommitment. Various opportunistic authorities tried to cite this as a direct link between drugs and satanism, but that was met the indifference it deserved. Houston band The Pain Teens wrote the song "Sacrificial Shack" about it.

[How Brown]

I just got through an e-mail discussion with Philadelphia writer Nicole Weisensee ( from the Philly Daily News ) Here is an article she sent me.....one more to follow= Gruesome death of Pete Kent still a mystery

Mar 19, 2003

By JIM NOLAN nolanj@phillynews.com

THREE weeks ago, the frozen body of William "Pete" Kent was found in an abandoned house in North Philadelphia.

It was no ordinary death.

Kent's throat had been slashed and a rope was around his neck. His chest cavity had been opened up. Some ribs had been removed. And Kent's heart, liver and kidney, in addition to part of his esophagus, had been crudely cut out.

His clothes were still on.

At first, police weren't sure what they had.

They still aren't sure.

But the search to find answers to the 60-year-old's mysterious death and gruesome evisceration has taken dogged homicide detectives on a journey well beyond the neighborhood where the popular Kent, who abused alcohol and drugs, was known to hang out and had no apparent enemies.

Investigators have probed the disturbing details of at least half a dozen similar crime scenes throughout the region and even overseas, looking for possible links or patterns that could give away a killer, or point toward an explanation for the missing organs.

In Erie, Pa., they examined the case of a woman murdered in the late 1980s whose organs had been removed. Further investigation developed similarities with Kent's death, but no connection.

In New York City, investigators spoke with detectives about a headless cadaver that yielded no further leads.

In London, they tracked the report of a young boy found murdered in the Thames River. The boy's extremities, head and genitals had been chopped off in what may have been a ritual murder, but the internal organs were intact.

In Newark, N.J., they investigated the case of a woman held in the thefts of corpses from cemeteries for use in religious ceremonies.

The woman was identified as a "high priestess" in the Palo mayombe cult - a derivative of a West African religion that slaves took to Cuba in the 19th century and later transported to the United States over the last 30 years.

Palo priests, the detectives learned, conduct rituals around cauldrons containing human bones, sticks, animal parts and other items. But human organs such as the ones removed from Kent's body were not necessarily involved.

Part of the reason for the extensive outreach stems from the condition in which Kent's body was discovered - unprecedented in the memory of Philly investigators, some of whom have been on the job for 30 years.

The Police Department also has sent out a national alert message to every law enforcement agency in the country detailing the nature of Kent's death.

So far, however, all investigators have gotten is an education in the occult and a refresher course in human cruelty.

"Having spoken to people in the neighborhood who know this man, and in tracking down other similar cases to the best of our ability, we can't find any indication of anything like [cult or religious ritual murder] going on," said Homicide Lt. Joseph Maum.

"That's not to say that it's not what happened. We still have to play that string out and we're not taking it off the board."

But having explored the more exotic explanations for what might have happened to Kent, the investigation by Maum and detectives Julie Hill and Dave Baker is now starting to focus on more pedestrian possibilities.

"We're taking a little different tack," said Maum. "We've dropped back a bit and are looking at some simpler explanations.

"At this point, I'd rather concentrate on something I know is going on in Philadelphia than consulting somebody in England."

Among the possiblities being considered:

Was somebody mad at Kent? Did he owe money? Was his mutilation a message?

Or was his death the result of an argument, and his mutilation the byproduct of post-homicidal rage?

These are more common explanations for why people kill each other.

So over the last week, detectives have recanvassed the North 7th and Jefferson streets neighborhood and other areas Kent was known to haunt, interviewing still more people.

Still possible, though not necessarily probable, is that Kent's death was natural or accidental - and his subsequent slashing and evisceration a crime with a separate motivation.

Suicide has been ruled out. As has the idea that Kent's organs were sold on the black market, given the fact that they weren't removed with medical expertise.

Maum, who is still awaiting more results of the medical examiner's autopsy of Kent, will not officially declare it a homicide.

After more than 30 years as a cop, he's learned not to rule anything out. And with Pete Kent's heart, liver and kidney still at large, almost anything is possible.

"We're looking to cover all the bases," said Maum, who even researched ancient Inca and American Indian heart-eating rituals chasing the mystery.

For now, however, that possibility seems to be dead.

"If we find a group of ancient Incas out there, then we might have something," he said. *

TO HELP

Anyone with information about the slaying of William "Pete" Kent, should call the Homicide Division at 215-686-3334.

[How Brown]

HOUSE OF SATAN RITES?
SYMBOLS, SKULL ARE FOUND IN GERMANTOWN

Aug 30, 1995

by Nicole Weisensee, Daily News Staff Writer

Members of a Satanic cult could have etched the symbols on the walls of the house.

Or maybe it was practitioners of the black magic called Palo Mayombe .

Whatever the markings are, one thing is certain, experts in the occult say: The target shouldn't be expecting good fortune.

The symbols were discovered on three walls of a tiny dark room in the house on Chelten Avenue near Wissahickon, Germantown, where a real estate agent discovered a human skull on Monday.

They were used to cast a spell, said one woman who works in an occult store.

And along with the appearance of two demonic figures on the walls, they indicate Satanic ritual, said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.

"The symbols are to harm somebody, to kill somebody," she said after examining pictures of them. She identified a figure in one picture as a demon called Cabron.

"It's all negative witchcraft - or black magic, as we call it," said George Jones, manager of Harry's Occult and Spiritual Shop on South Street near 12th.

According to " Palo Mayombe ," a book by Carlos Galdiano Montenegro, initiates (called Paleros) use the forces of darkness to achieve their goals.

"It is believed that a Palero can also bring death within a 24-hour period to an individual," he wrote. "A Palero can make or break you by saying just a few incantations and performing a few minor rituals."

Investigators found other unusual trappings in the room: An altar with a dish that appeared to hold animal bones and next to the altar, a human jawbone in a pot.

A bookcase held Spanish titles and a closet with jars and dishes containing unknown substances.

Outside, police found more chicken bones, a goat jawbone and horns in two shallow graves.

The human skull was sent to the medical examiner's office. An anthropologist will be asked to determine its age and how long the person had been dead, said Capt. William Colarulo of North Detectives.

What caused the person's death will remain a mystery for the time being.

Colarulo said an expert from the Major Crimes Division determined that the basement room had evidence of "ritualistic activity."

The skull had been at the house less than a week, he said, because police who responded to an unfounded burglary call there a week ago didn't see it.

The last owner of the house was Santiago Pedroso, who police said shot and killed a friend of his estranged wife at a nearby restaurant three years ago and then supposedly fled the country.

Pedroso was a "spiritualist" who owned a religious goods shop called Botanica Olodu in Hunting Park. It is no longer in business.

Pedroso was from Mexico and probably fled there, said Homicide Capt. James Brady. But investigators will be checking to see if the skull might be Pedroso's.

Since Pedroso disappeared, neighbors have seen strangers go in and out of the house, seen lights flicker in the windows and heard strange noises from inside. They thought homeless people had broken in.

Now, those sights and sounds have taken on an ominous meaning.

"It's a little strange," said Erick Quick, 29, who lives next door. "You hear about these things all the time, but you never think it's going to happen to you. We're kind of unnerved. I hope they don't find any bodies."

[How Brown]

The mention of Wissahickon in the below document,is to a street not far from where I am right now. Many years ago, it served as the neighborhood of the established gentry of Philadelphia. During the "White Flight" to the suburbs,this neighborhood,that resembled an English countryside,has been reduced to a steadily declining 'hood. I live 7 minutes from that house..........This should wake up anyone who has a status quo attitude toward occult and ritualistic murders occuring only in Third World settings. A little too close for How Brown, if you ask me.