Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Satanic Panic Pt. 3

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

From Adolfo Costanzo and the Narcosatanists to the gruesome Chicago Rippers, these horrific groups showed that fears of murderous devil-worshipping cults weren't entirely unfounded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains graphic discussion of murder, rape, domestic abuse, and torture that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. Deputy Ron Cole still hated getting these calls, even after so many years in the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. Some cases, you just never get used to, no matter how many you say. see. For him, it was kids. On February 2nd, 1986, 17-year-old Lloyd Gamble was murdered in his home. Somebody shot him twice while he slept in his bed. When police got there, he was still tucked under the blanket. As the lead investigator, Ron had been the one to interview Lloyd's family.

He was the one who promised to find justice for their boy. But as the investigation unfolded, Ron was forced to face some hard truths about his victim and whether or not he might have even been complicit in his own death. When Ron searched the Gamble's home, he discovered a black robe, a dagger, and a chalice. More disturbing, he found a small vial of thick red liquid, blood, or at least something made to look like blood. When he talked to Lloyd's friends at school, Ron realized what the items were for. Lloyd was part of a satanic cult, along with about a dozen other teenagers from airport high school. Lloyd's younger brother, who was only 15, was also involved in the rituals. Apparently, the group met in an abandoned house to worship the devil and perform their various rituals.

They'd painted the walls and windows black to keep the badness in and the goodness out. And to the cult, February 2nd, the day of Lloyd's death, was a special day. An unholy day, the witch's Sabbath. As Ron Cole put the pieces together, he came to a horrific realization. Lloyd Gamble's death wasn't a murder at all. It was a sacrifice made in the name of Satan. I'm Greg Paulson. Welcome to the third episode of our five-part special on the Satanic Panic,

exclusively on cults. For the next three weeks, we'll continue our deep dive into what, sparked this modern-day mass panic in America. New episodes air every Tuesday. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of cults and all other originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

With several decades' worth of distance, it's easy to pass judgment on those who were swept up in the madness of the satanic panic. But we're examining exactly how it took hold. From 1960s popular culture and the rise of evangelical Christianity to serial killers and murderous cults were delving into the facts that fed the falsehoods. This week, we're looking at cults that claimed to worship Satan. First, we'll cover the Chicago Rippers, who murdered at least five women in the Chicagoland area between 1981 and 1982.

Then we'll cover the gruesome narcosaetanists and their murderous leader Adolfo Constan. Next week, we'll delve into the rise of Christian evangelist preachers who used events like these to perpetuate fears of devil worship. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the Unit bomber, It's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So if you're hiring, I've got news for you.

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Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Starting with the Manson family murders in 1969, fear of satanic cults and ritual killings crept across the United States. This anxiety over devil worship was further validated by the bogus 1972 memoir, Satan Cellar. Written by Evangelist Mike Warnke, the book detailed is, time living in a satanic cult. Warnke claimed that as a teenager, he took part in sex orgies and served as a satanic high priest. Warnke's claims were debunked, but the truth hardly mattered

once the idea of his satanic cult was planted in the public's mind. And once killers like David Berkowitz murdered with Satan's name on their lips, people's fears felt tangible. Suddenly, it seemed as though an otherworldly darkness was brewing. By 1980, many believed the devil was coming for them. It was just a matter of when. And soon, residents of the Chicago area would learn that Satan's minions had already moved into town. Robin Gect's early years are a bit of a mystery. Born in 1953, something in Robin's troubled childhood caused him to leave his parents and siblings and go live with his grandparents for a time. There's strong evidence that before he dropped out of high school, Robin was abused.

As a teenager, Robin's music of choice was said to be heavy metal, though he was hardly unique in that respect. In the 1970s, interest in both black metal and Satanism was on the rise. It seemed every teenage outcast fancied himself as a young Ozzy Osbourne. And like many of his peers, Teenage Robin got his hands on a call. cult books. He was entranced by the secrets they held and began experimenting with basic dark rituals. To teenagers who grew up in Christian households, Satanism represented the ultimate counterculture. For Robin Gekd, the appeal might have been a sense of belonging, something he felt he lacked

given his fractured relationship with his family and his academic shortcomings. Either way, his curiosity about the occult wasn't inherently bad. The issue is that Robin's interest in the occult went hand in hand with his thirst for violence. His satanic rituals made him feel superior to everyone around him, like he held a dark secret that few were privy to. As his peers slowly transitioned out of their occultist phase, Robin delved deeper into the world of Satanism. In early adulthood, he began practicing occult rituals.

Though we don't know what these entailed, it seems that their aim was to increase Robin's connection to an evil power. Had anyone known about Robin's dark hobby, they might have intervened, but throughout his early 20s he was skilled at keeping his religious beliefs a secret. So secret that in the early 1970s, Robin convinced a nice Catholic girl named Rosemary to marry him. Unfortunately for her, Rosemary didn't know that her new husband had a sexual fetish for pain.

Robin was a sadist, someone who finds it sexually exciting to cause their partner's physical pain. He particularly liked to prick his wife with pins and burn her with candles while they had sex. Robin also tortured Rosemary with infidelity. Not long after their wedding, he began having sex with other women. She confronted him about her suspicions, but he denied the accusations. And so, despite her best judgment, Rosemary stayed with Robin. The couple soon became pregnant, and over the next few years, grew into a family of five. From the outside, the Gechtz were a normal family unit.

Robin started his own construction company and appointed himself carpenter and electrician. Then he hired a few guys from the neighborhood to help out on jobs. He also bought a big red van to haul supplies back and forth from job sites. Things went well for a little while. At home, Rosemary still dealt with his house. his abuse, but otherwise pretended everything was normal. Of course, Rosemary had no idea that her husband was practicing Satanism in the attic of their home. Unbeknownst to his wife, Robin turned the family attic into a satanic temple. He decorated the place with upside-down crosses and demonic statues.

In the center of the room, he constructed a small altar. On top of the altar, he placed a wooden box. He intended to use it for a dark satanic ritual. But first, he needed a few helping hands. One night in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Robin brought home Edward Spritzer and Andrew Colcorales, two young men who worked at his construction company. For whatever reason, Robin invited them to move in with his family. Rosemary was likely furious,

but as with so much in their marriage, she felt powerless to say no to her husband. And so the boys lived with the gecks on and off for months. The family also frequently played host to Thomas Cocorales, Andrew's older brother. Thomas was in his early 20s, but had learning disabilities. He tended to do whatever his little brother told him to. Robin likely sensed that these three young men were highly impressionable. He knew they looked up to him as their boss, at least.

It gave him a sense of control, a manifestation of the power he felt when he discovered the teachings of Satanism. By 1981, Robin decided to bring his three followers into a secret dark world. One night, while Rosemary was at work, Robin told Thomas, Andrew, and Edward his closely guarded secret. He was a Satanist. Robin then led his friends up to the attic, to his chapel. The young men marveled at the black and red room, taking note of the wooden box on the altar, draped over with cloth. Robin told them it was his trophy box, though he didn't elaborate on what that meant.

The chapel, he told them, was a safe space where they could conduct dark rituals. Over the next few months, Robin taught Thomas, Andrew, and Edward, the ways of the Church of Satan, or his warped version anyway. They were easy converts. Being part of the small coven gave them a sense of purpose, and serving Robin made them feel important. They followed him without question. It was only once the men were fully under his control that Gekd divulged what the Dark Lord truly wanted, a human sacrifice. They needed to abduct a woman and perform demonic rituals with her body. On the night of May 23rd, 1981, the four Satanists made their way to Chicago's Northside neighborhood, where they cruised the streets looking for a victim. Just by Rinkley Field was a

seedy strip of road, known for attracting sex workers. There, they abducted 26-year-old mother of two Linda Sutton. Linda was likely drawn into the red van with the promise of sex work, though it only took seconds for her to realize she'd made a mistake. The four men pounced on her, handcuffing her in the back of the vehicle. Robin instructed Andrew and Edward to bind and gag their terrified victim. He then drove to a field behind a motel in a western suburb called Villa Park. Once they were parked, Robin reminded his followers that the instructions he gave were direct orders from the Dark Lord himself, and that Satan must be appeased. In the bushes near the motel, Robin began raping and then beating Linda. At certain points, his followers joined in on the depraved ceremony.

Robin fed on having total control. of not only his victims, but his worker bees as well. It made him feel powerful, as is evident by his fixation on dominating his sexual partners. After putting Linda through hours of abuse, Robin ordered one of his followers to remove Linda's left breast. He wanted to bring her flesh back to the chapel as a tribute to the devil. The man did as he was told. Then the group stabbed Linda to death. They discarded her body in the field near a motel before heading back to Robin's home. Back in the chapel, Robin laid the severed breast on his altar, and the men kneeled in front of it. Robin read verses from his Satanic Bible, then cut the breast into pieces and forced the men to

consume it, an unholy communion. Robin placed the remainder of the flesh into his trophy box, a tribute to the Prince of Darkness. When the ceremony was over, the men retired to their bedrooms. The next morning, it was as if nothing had happened. It's important to remember that Robin and his cohorts were in no way practicing the teachings of famous Satanist, Anton LeVay, or LeVe's Satanic Bible. LeVay was a colorful character who conducted theatrical rituals for shock value. In reality, he was an atheist who didn't believe in a deity of any kind. But if Robin was influenced by LeVay, then that symbolism was completely lost on him.

Instead, he warped metaphoric Satanism to his own sadistic ends, and he was only just getting started. Up next, Robin Gecht and the Chicago Rippers strike terror into hearts across the United States. Hey, parcasters, starting October 1st, we're bringing you the scariest, most hair-raising ghost stories ever imagined. Every Thursday, on the all-new original series Haunted Places Ghost Stories, Alistair Murden summons a new spine-tingling tale of wraiths, phantoms, and chilling apparitions. These stories come from all over the world, including Japan, India, the UK, and even ancient Rome. Don't miss Stone Cold classics like The Kit Bag from Algernon Blackwood, a sinister account of a condemned murderer's final wish, and the lengths he go to fulfill it.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget, October is our favorite month and one of our busiest. So make sure to search Parcast Network in the Spotify search bar to see all our new shows. Thank you.

Now, back to the story. In May of 1981, Robin Geked and his young followers abducted, raped, tortured, and killed, 26-year-old Linda Sutton, all in the name of Satan. After taking one of Linda's severed breasts home to Robin's perverse secret chapel, they ate pieces of it, and left the rest in a trophy box as an offering for the devil. After their first kill, Robin and his boys laid low, working construction by day, and practicing Satanism in their free time. They didn't pursue another sacrifice for nearly a year.

But as May 1982 rolled around, Robin informed his three followers that they needed to repeat the ritual if they wanted to stay in good standing with the dark one. So on the morning of May 15, 1982, the four men loaded into Robin's van. Robin told Edward to drive. He had a baby face that women were sure to trust. They drove to Elmhurst, a sleepy suburb west of Chicago.

Soon they came across 21-year-old Lorraine Ann Barowski on her way to work. Edward slowed down as they approached, and he asked Lorraine if she wanted a ride. She turned him down and picked up her pace. Determined to claim their victim, Robin and the Cocorales brothers jumped out of the van and grabbed Lorraine so quickly that her shoes flew off and were left scattered on the pavement. The men drove to a nearby motel and smuggled Lorraine into a room. There they tortured and raped her for hours. Once night fell, they killed her and abandoned her mutilated body in a cemetery.

Again, they took part of her back to Robin's chapel. Killing and consuming his victims made Robin feel strong. He told his followers that these blood rituals pleased the dark prince and that in return the devil would protect them from harm. Perhaps seeking to strengthen that protection, they decided to find another sacrifice. Just two weeks after the men killed Lorraine, they set out to find their next victim. 30-year-old Shui Maq was an impressive young woman. She had recently emigrated to the United States from Hong Kong and had a full-time factory job that she worked to support herself.

And at night, she waitressed at her family's restaurant as a means of supporting her parents. When they were done at the restaurant, she usually rode home with her brother, but on the night of May 29, 1982, the siblings got into an explosive argument on the way home. Shway forced her brother to let her out of the car, insisting that she'd rather walk the rest of the way home. Her brother was so mad that he agreed, something he would regret for the rest of his life, because the moment he sped off, a red cargo van came creeping around the corner. As soon as Shui was alone, 28-year-old Robin and his followers descended. She fought them hard, so much so that one of the men punched her in the face.

The punch sent her reeling. She hit either the van or the concrete so hard that the back of her skull shattered. The men raped her and mutilated her body at Robin's instruction. When they were done, they abandoned her body in a construction yard. By now, the men. members of the tiny cult likely felt unstoppable. The more murders Robin and his crew committed, the more his sadistic hunger grew. Fueled by bloodlust, he manipulated his young followers into killing again. The cult's fourth victim was 23-year-old Angel York. They found her while

cruising the streets of Chicago's north side. By now, they were practiced in their ritual torture. However, instead of cutting off Angel's left breast, Robin, got a better idea. He told Angel that if she cut off her own breast, they would spare her life. Desperate, Angel agreed. She took the knife from Robin and began to slice away at her chest. Something about this sent Robin into a frenzy. He snatched the knife from Angel and stabbed her several times.

Then he and his followers threw her out of the moving cargo van, presuming her dead. But Angel clung to life with an iron fist. Not only did she survive, she reported her experience to the police, who quickly made the connection between her attack and Linda Sutton's murder. The revelation that the attacks were the work of a satanic group was horrifying proof to many that the occult was as dangerous as they'd feared. The media dubbed the microcult the Chicago Rippers, fanning the frenzy. It seemed so terrifying about these murders was the randomness of the attacks.

Women of every ethnicity and social class were targeted, and the killers snatched their victims from several different neighborhoods. This meant that no one was safe. Women lived in constant fear of being picked off by these predators. But nobody feared Robin more than Edward Spritzer and the Cocorales brothers. Robin had convinced them that he was capable of dark magic. genuinely believed he communed with Satan. So great was their fear that they avoided making eye contact with him. He warned his followers that if they should ever cross him, the dark lord would help

him enact his revenge. The Chicago Rippers struck twice more that summer, killing one woman and badly injuring another. Then in September, they abducted, raped, and murdered, 30-year-old executive Rose Beck Davis. The following month, they shot two men who got in their way, killing one. Their final known victim, a young sex worker named Beverly Washington, was abducted on the night of October 6, 1982. But instead of torturing Beverly while she was awake, Robin Forst fed her a handful of pills that knocked her out quickly. After raping and mutilating Beverly, the Rippers left her lifeless body in a heap of trash in an abandoned lot outside Chicago.

The next morning, a recycler rummaging through the trash heap found her battered body and called for help. Miraculously, Beverly was still alive, and her testimony helped police track down the river crew. The men were arrested the following month in November of 1982. It was only then that police and the media were able to fully grasp the depths of Robin Geck's depravity. While investigating Robin's home,

At home, police climbed the stairs to his chapel, stunned with what they found, a dark room that reeked of decay, decorated with defiled crosses and demonic chotchkes. And most upsetting, the police found Robbins' trophy box, where the breasts of several women were slowly being picked away by flies. The story dominated the national news cycle, cementing fears of Satanism that had been building since 1969. Here was a depraved killer cult leader who made his victim suffer terribly. But the piece of the story that people seized upon was that the devil made him do it. Robin Gecht was a sadist, a killer, and devoid of empathy. And his interest in devil worship was only one piece of his depraved puzzle. But satanic panic was about causation.

For evangelical preachers and the media alike, it was easier to blame Satan. than a killer's mental illness. To so many, Robin's arrest was unsettling for other reasons. From the outside, he and his family looked normal. Neighbors were used to seeing Robin's kids play outside while Robin fixed things around the house. His unmasking played into the fear that the devil could be lurking just outside your front door, already infiltrating your neighborhood.

It sowed even more enmity across the country. No one could be trusted. This widespread unease only intensified throughout the 1980s as more satanic serial killers came out of the woodwork. Richard Ramirez, the Nightstalker, was among the most heinous of these. He murdered at least 13 people in California in 1984 and 1985, and was infamous for the pentagrams he left at crime scenes. By the time the Nightstalker went to trial in 1989, The nationwide fear had turned to panic.

The previous October, curiously close to Halloween, Geraldo Rivera hosted a news special called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's underground. The pseudo-expose detailed instances of satanic cults abusing children, sacrificing babies and influencing murderers. It warned parents about the dangers of teenagers who dabbled in the occult and took claims from recovered memory therapy, patients at face value. The special had little basis in fact, but it capitalized on the building

hysteria over violent Satanists. And though there was little that the program got right, the fears of continuing satanic cult activity weren't completely unfounded. Just a few months later, during the spring of 1989, one cult would commit a murder that lit the country on fire. Mark Kilroy was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin. In March of 1989, he and a few of his buddies decided to cross the U.S.-Mexico border for spring break. They headed for Matamoros, a scrappy border town full of loud bars, a haven for thousands of spring breakers every year. On the 13th, they headed for the main dragged party. For whatever reason, they parked their car on the American side of the border, then walked

walked across the bridge to Montemoros. Mark and his three friends enjoyed a night of partying, then began the walk back across the border. His friend Bill Huddleston described what happened next in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Bill explained that about 200 feet from the border, he spotted a man waving Mark over. Bill remembered him saying something to Mark like,

Didn't I just see you somewhere? Not thinking much of it, Bill ran ahead to relieve himself in some bushes. His two other friends, Martin and Moore, continued walking. Mark stayed behind a minute to talk to the guy who supposedly recognized him. The boys waited, but Mark never reappeared. They backtracked to find him, but he was gone. They figured he'd gotten a ride back to their hotel, and they'd see him in the morning. But they'd never see him again. He'd been taken to Adolfo Constanzo, serial killer, drug kingpin, and leader of the most heinous, Satanic cult in Mexico.

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Find your euphoria. Discover the Euphoria Elyxer Collection by Calvin Klein. Now back to the story. Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo was born in Miami in 1962. He was Cuban American. His mother, Delia, was a devout practitioner of Santaria, a Cuban religion that draws on West African beliefs and deities, as well as a devotion to Catholic saints.

Delia taught Adolfo the ways of Sontaria, including the parts involving animal sacrifice. The ceremonial slaying of an animal isn't unique to Sontaria. It's typical of many other religions. After the sacrifice, the animals almost always consumed and receives a humane death. But Delia sacrificed far more animals than the religion of Sontaria would ordinarily call for, and she kept them inside the house before being slaughtered. So she and Adolfo lived in a squalid animal feces-ridden apartment. Unsurprisingly, they were isolated from other people.

Perhaps Delia was embarrassed of their living conditions and kept out anyone who might pass judgment on their home. Then Adolfo's world got even smaller after he discovered the insular religion of Palo Maioombay. Practitioners of Palo Mayombay believe that they can control the dead. Through spellwork, they coax spirits to do their bidding. There's nothing inherently criminal about Palo Maioombi, but it is centered around death and the power of live sacrifice. At some point in his youth, Adolfo began training under a Palero,

or Palo Mayombe priest. Reportedly, this particular Polaro made a living casting protective spells over the kingpins of Miami's drug trade. He taught Adolfo that non-practitioners were below them, and that anyone outside the inner circle was disposable. As such, it was fine to help drug dealers sell their poison because it took place outside of the Palo Mayombay fold. The Polaro also introduced Adolfo to the use of Enganga, also called a Prenda. These are the source of a Polaro's power. Enganga are cauldrons, filled with herbs, sacrificed animals, and, most notably, human remains,

usually taken from the graves of recently deceased and unclaimed criminals. The Nganga allowed the Polaro to control the spirit of the human it contains, turning the deceased into a loyal servant. It was this idea that took hold of Adolfo as he learned more about Paulo Maioombi throughout his teenage years. By 1984, when Adolfo was in his 20s, he moved to Mexico City, where he worked as a model and began a business as a fortune teller and spellcaster. There, he also made friends with two members of the underground LGBTQ community, Martin Quintana Rodriguez and Omar Francisco O'Rea Ochoa. Shortly after meeting, the three began a romantic relationship and moved in together. Initially, Adolfo hid his practice of Palo Mayombi from his boyfriends and his fortune-telling clients.

This might have been because, at the time, the religion was not widely accepted in Mexico and was associated with evil. It might also have been because Adolfo was not yet fully indoctrinated into Palo Mayombay. That ritual was to come soon. Though Adolfo's early years in Mexico City are something of a mystery, at some point he began the initiation process to become a full-fledged Polaro. In these ceremonies, which can take up to three days, an initiate stands before a specially prepared altar and removes his shirt.

Then the initiate is blindfolded, and a Polaro makes cuts across his back and arms, creating symbols. At this point, a chicken or other animal, such as a goat, is sacrificed in order to protect the initiate from malevolent spirits. The initiate must not remove his blindfold as the animal's blood is spilled. That's considered spiritually dangerous. After the sacrifice, the initiate says an oath at the altar and drinks the blood of the slaughtered animals. He is now a full Polaro. At this point, the initiates' former identity is dead. So he's given a new, secret name, which will protect him as he does his magic.

With the ceremony complete, he is now filled with the life force of the nature spirits, gods, ancestors, and dead people he needs for his work. However, Adolfo's conversion into Apollo Maenbe priest went beyond the traditions of the religion. of the religion. According to those who knew him, he used the darkest practices from Sontaria, Palo Mayombay and Voodoo whenever they suited him, and invented his own rituals to justify his bloodlust. For one thing, Adolfo began leading all sorts of rituals that were heavy on animal sacrifice. He'd practiced this kind of magic his whole life, but now it felt like there was a darker purpose. And with his boyfriend's Omar and Martine, Adolfo could also

be moody and cruel. Fights between the lovers were commonplace. While the domestic turmoil likely made them unpopular with the neighbors, across Mexico City, Adolfo's notoriety as a spellcaster was growing. He became so successful that he was able to shower his boyfriends with gifts, sometimes as lavish as a new car. Soon, Adolfo got in bed with the local cartel. In the 1980s, Adolfo began soothsaying for at least one member of local law enforcement who worked cases related to drug trafficking. At the same time, he advised local drug smugglers on when it was best to move their shipments. Of course, Adolfo's work was hardly clairvoyant. He tricked his law enforcement clients

into giving him information that he then used to help his drug trafficking clients. And the cartel didn't know about Adolfo's arrangement, so they paid him handsomely for what they assumed were his mystical powers. Meanwhile, Adolfo decided to bring his lovers into the Palo Mayombay fold. From there, he brought in a few more followers who believed he was otherworldly. Over the next few years, his little group quietly grew, his business alongside it. His followers benefited from Adolfo's protection and the financial perks of being associated with the cartel. By the beginning of 1987, Adolfo was pleased with his budding cult.

but he felt like his business dealings were a small time. He wanted an opportunity to grow. That year, he got one. Adolfo befriended a powerful family of drug smugglers who worked both sides of the border in Texas. They invited Adolfo and his followers to move onto a ranch in Matamoros, where they could be safe from the law. Adolfo saw this as an opportunity to move his business to a smaller town, where the competition wasn't as steep. He also liked the idea of being a big fish in a smaller pond. So he moved his growing cult to Matamoros and built out a small but lucrative narcotics ring.

His followers reportedly swelled to nearly 20 people, mostly drug dealers. At first, Adolphos followers were unaware of his religious activities, but eventually he brought them all into the fold, teaching them the ways of Palo Mayombe. He told them that he embodied the spirit of evil, and that to worship him was to seek protection from the devil himself. But instead of sticking to animal sacrifices, Adolfo required human blood. The cult's first kill came in 1988 when a drug dealer was shot in a sacrificial manner. The next victim was the cult member's ex-boyfriend, Raoul Paz Esquivel. And the following month in August 1988, Adolfo allegedly kidnapped a random person and murdered

them in a violent sacrificial ceremony at the ranch. Several followers who witnessed this brutality fled the room to vomit. When the man was dead, Adolfo collected his blood and removed his brain. These, he explained, would be used in his Nganga. He believed that the immense pain the victim felt at the end of his life would only strengthen his spirit in the Anganga. He also made it clear that torture and murder were now a way of life within the tiny cult. Over the next year, the narco-Satainists murdered several more victims, seemingly because Adolfo enjoyed killing. In truth, there was nothing sacrificial about these

slayings, and yet his cult members didn't leave. More than likely, they were terrified of their vicious leader, and they were right to fear him. On the night of March of March, 12th, 1989, Adolfo sacrificed a stranger in a ritual to protect his stash of drugs. But unlike the dozens of victims before him, the man refused to scream while he was tortured. Adolfo hated this. He deemed the ritual of failure. Without any pain, he gained no power from the killing. So the next night, he sent two of his followers to find him another victim.

Which is how they ended up crossing paths with 21-year-old. old Mark Kilroy, the college student who drove down to Matamoros with his three buddies for spring break. They lured Mark away from his friends by pretending to recognize him. Once he stumbled over to their car, they offered him a ride home. Exhausted from a night of partying, Mark accepted. But instead of driving him across the border, the cult members delivered him to Adolfo Constanzo. After Adolfo failed to elicit fear from his last victim. He made Mark's murder uniquely gruesome. He kept Mark in prison for 12 hours, and then he was taken outside and decapitated with a machete chop to his neck. Then his legs, brain, testicles, and spine were cut away. His organs were placed in the Anganga.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, a search for Mark was already underway. Thanks to impressive police work, it only took a month to track down and arrest many members of the narco-Satainists on the little ranch where they were hiding. Unfortunately, they were unable to capture Adolfo, who killed himself a few weeks later, ordering a follower to shoot him. On the ranch, investigators discovered marks remains alongside a graveyard of mutilated corpses, most missing their eyes, ears, hearts, genitals, and brains. The graves were marked by the remains. The graves were marked by wire cord that was wrapped around the victim's vertebrae. Once the flesh fully decomposed, the vertebrae could be pulled from the ground and fashioned into a necklace that would bring the wearer

luck. Back home, all these gruesome details were reported on the nightly news. Media outlets even showed the mass grave in which Mark was found and told of the dismembered bodies. The world was rightfully horrified. Of all the murders committed in the devil's name, These were the grisliest and most depraved. It seemed to confirm everyone's worst nightmares about encroaching satanic ritual violence. Even the cult's nickname, the Narcosaetanists, sent a shiver down the spine of every parent in the United States. Because of Adolfo's crimes, Santeria and Paulo Maimbe were suddenly associated with devil worship and dark magic. In fact, in the United States, it began to seem like any non-wombo.

Western religion was suspect. Little attempt was made to understand any tradition outside of Judeo-Christianity. Anything else strayed too far from the light of the Lord, and in that darkness, the devil lurked. As people shivered in terror, afraid of what Satan's forces had in store for them, vocal evangelist stepped forward, vowing to fight back the darkness. They claimed their war was with the devil. But in truth, theirs was a battle for America's soul, and it had only just begun. Thanks again for tuning into cults. We'll be back next week with our fourth episode on the Satanic Panic. We'll chart the rise of evangelicals and fundamentalists and learn how this surge in fanatical Christianity fan the flames of a nation obsessed with hellfire.

For more information on the Chicago Rippers and the Narco Satanus, check out more episodes of Cults, only available on Spotify. You can find more episodes of Cults and all other originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Cults was created by Max Cutler and is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound design by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of Cults was written by Aaron Land, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon,

and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. If you're ready to get into the spooky spirit of the season, remember to follow Haunted Places Ghost Stories. Every Thursday, Alistair Merton brings a new, surprising, chilling, spine-tingling story to life. Follow Haunted Places, Ghost Stories free on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to hear something? Spooky. It reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.