The Lead Masks case part 2
From skeptic to Believer
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| Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallee |
What I didn’t know back then was Jacques Vallee and J Allen Hynek, complete skeptics to begin with, both underwent a complete turnaround in their beliefs from doubter to believers after a very prolonged period of thorough and scientific study. Not only that, but Vallee in particular was of the opinion this phenomenon is not really extraterrestrial in nature as so many claim, and these sightings and experiences are not really visitors from a Galaxy far far away . . .
but in fact much closer to home. . .
Heres Jacques Vallee again . . .
ln my earlier works, most notably in “Dimensions”, I have enumerated the difficulties of the extraterrestrial theory and the concerns raised by the abduction reports. I will not repeat the details here. Careful analysis of the reports shows that there are many more landings and "close encounters" than would be required for a survey of our planet. The reported interaction with the occupants of the objects is absurd and their overtly "scientific" experiments are crude to the point of being grotesque. The "medical examination" to which abductees are said to be subjected, often accompanied by sadistic sexual manipulation, is reminiscent of the medieval tales of encounters with demons.
Lets see how this concept ties in the the reports. . .
1966 - Rio de Janeiro
The bodies of two men are found on a hill outside Rio.
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| The City of Campos - over 200 km from Rio |
A boy named Jorge da Costa Alves (who was 18 at that time) was flying a kite at the Morro do Vintém (Vintém Hill), situated in the relatively wealthy Rio de Janeiro suburb of Niterói. I when he stumbled across two dead men and immediately alerted the authorities.
As the investigation began, the case became more and more bizarre Police were summoned and found the two men, Manoel Pereira da Cruz (32) and Miguel José Viana (34), who were electronics repairmen in Campos dos Goytacazes, which is about 200 kilometres away. Both men lived in the town of Campos where they were well known and respected citizens.
The bodies were next to each other, slightly covered by grass, they were both wearing business suits and raincoats, with a package containing an empty water bottle and two small towels. But the oddest thing of all is that they were wearing lead masks. There was no clue what the lead masks were, or what the cause of death might have been.
The first angle of investigation was to see if they had been murdered, but this was ruled out.
Reconstruction of Events
After an investigation, the detectives reconstructed a plausible narrative of the last days of both men.
On August 17, they left their city, Campos dos Goytacazes, stating that they intended to buy some materials for use at their work. They took a bus and arrived in Niterói at 14:30.
The men took a bus to Rio and had a reasonable amount of money on them (about the equivalent of $1000) apparently enough to buy a used car. The bodies were found with very little money on them, which placed some suspicion on the policeman who found them.
They had also bought the raincoats on that day since they had the receipts and it was raining they also had a receipt for a bottle of water, which could be later returned for the deposit
The waitress who served them on the bar stated that Miguel seemed very nervous and looked at his watch frequently. From the bar, they went directly to the place where they were later found dead.
No obvious injuries were discovered at autopsy. The coroner Astor de Melo concluded that death was by natural causes (cardiac arrest) and closed the file. No trace of poison was found in the bowels (although in another report it was stated that the bodies had decomposed too far for this to be verified.)Apparently a second autopsy was conducted which also revealed nothing.
Jacques Vallee visits the site
In his book “confrontations” Valle writes . . .”everything I knew about the case had come to me secondhand through the U FO rumour mill or through the media, a notoriously unreliable source in Latin America.
The only way to learn more about the precise circumstances of the event was to fly to Rio and climb that hill.
With me were my wife, janine, and a small party of investigators : Saulo Soares de Souza, a detective from Rio police headquarters who specializes in long-term follow-up of unsolved cases; Mario Dias, a journalist; Alberto Dirma, a press photographer; a local French teacher who was kind enough to serve as my interpreter; and the first adult who had seen the bodies that August day in 1 966, when a group of boys came running to his house.
He had accompanied them to the police station at the foot of the hill, where they described their grisly find to the officer in charge, Oscar Nunes.
The Lead Masks
The masks appeared to be a ‘homemade’ cover used for possibly for protection from radiation.
But in an article from “Skeptoid's” Brian Dunning says the following
“English and Brazilian blogs both describe these eye shields as being similar to what's used to protect against radiation.
Ummm.... no. They're not. I dug to find as many different radiation shields and masks as I could to see if there was anything like these lead eye shields. Masks for working in high radiation environments cover your whole head or face, and incorporate goggles so you can see what you're doing. These were the opposite; leaving the entire head and face unprotected, but blocking and blinding the eyes. There is no environment in which such shields would be useful.”
Police found a small notebook stating: "16:30 estar no local determinado. 18:30 ingerir cápsulas, após efeito proteger metais aguardar sinal máscara", which translates to "16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for sign mask [or 'mask sign’]".
Were the two men expecting to be contacted by a UFO? Or were they, more prosaically, taking part in a spiritualist experiment that went wrong?
Occult Society
Police found similar masks in Miguuel Jose Viana’s home along with remnants of the lead that had been used. Also found was a book called “Scientific Spiritualism”. Passages had been underlined with regarding spirits, intense luminosity and masks. Miguel’s sister was interrogated, she mentioned he spoke of a “secrete mission”
The widow of Manuel Pereira da Cruz told of a “spiritist group” both men were members of, an occult society of unknown objectives.
A civilian pilot, Elcio Correa da Silva, was also a member of this group. He described a number of “experiments’ that were conducted one of them on the beach at Atafona in which a huge blast occurred. This was two months before the tragedy in Niteroi.
A priest and parapsychology professor said that they could have been making an experiment to see to the "other world", some people apparently say that there is a very strong light for which protection is needed, and that people who make that experiment take some kind of drug before.
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| The Note found on the Bodies with the bizarre instructions |
Calling Mars
Gomes said the three of them were interested in trying to contact Mars, and that the explosion had been the unfortunate failure of some device they'd built in pursuit of their spiritualist interests. Compounding this was a book found in Miguel's home workshop, where police found the tools and scrap used to cut the lead masks, with passages highlighted pertaining to "intense luminosity" related to spirits. Someone expecting to be exposed to "intense luminosity" might well choose to protect his eyes with lead shields.
Apparently, four years before, a television technician died in the same place in similar circumstances; no signs of violence, no other objects and a lead mask. He was trying to catch a "television signal" without any electronics and he died after taking a round pill.
UfO presence
Skeptoid mentions an article by Charles Bowen who did as thorough an investigation as possible way back in 1967. He found articles reporting a round orange coloured UfO hovering near Vintém Hill on the night that the men went up there.
Jacques Vallée mentions in his book “confrontations” that after the initial newspaper report the police were ‘deluged with calls’ from the public in the Niteroi area.
He reports on a caller, a ‘society matron’ called Gracinda Barbosa Coutinho de Souza. She reported she was driving with three of her children when her daughter told her to look up at a large oval orange coloured object, “sending out rays in all directions” hovering over Vintem Hill. She stopped the car and observed the object as it rose and fell vertically for a few minutes, giving off a distinctive “blue ray”. She told her husband when she arrived home, he drove back to the vicinity but didn’t see anything.
This account was confirmed by a large number of witnesses who called the Police independently and described a similar object. All of these reports placed the mysterious object at the same time in the vicinity of the two dead victims.
Vallee reports: March 16, 1966, at 9: 15P.M., two months before the tragedy. A luminous object, elliptical in shape, was seen al an altitude of 100 feet. The witness, a Fifty-four-year old manager with an electronics firm trained as an industrial technician. He drew a sketch of a series of what he called "effervescent" spheres that he observed with his wife, his daughter, and his future son-in-law, an official with the Bank of Brazil. The object flew over the Morro da Boa Viagem, in Niteroi.
Possible theories
Murder
Theories abound as to why these men died that fateful day on Vintem hill. One was that the two men were lured to the location by an unknown third party and murdered. Proponents of this idea point to the note, claiming the spelling and grammatical errors were due to the words being dictated by someone else, possibly in an attempt to take advantage of these men’s gullibility in order to rob them. Acceptance of this scenario requires several assumptions, however, the main clue was the missing money, stolen from the men after unwittingly ingesting poison pills.
Gay suicide Pact
Another popular theory is they were homosexuals who had made a suicide pact and wanted to go out with a misleading story.
Time travel
Or perhaps they were attempting to put to the test a scientific test to do with time travel or worm holes.
UfO Rendevous
The UfO connection to the men is not clearly determined but there certainly seems to be a strong link between these events. The most persistent theory was they were attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial visitors. The victims were both said to be very intrigued by the mysteries of flying saucers, researching them extensively.
Unanswered questions
But then why take the capsules and what were the two towels for? There is no evidence the men even took the capsules since the note is the only reference to them. The organs of the men were too decomposed for a definitive report on the contents of their stomaches.
we are not even sure if the notes refer to that day, though at least that seems likely. “Protect the metals” may refer to some metals they were meeting to get rid of. “Wait for mask signal” obviously means they were waiting for someone to tell them to put on their masks.
Even years later, grass refused to grow at the location where the bodies were discovered giving rise to many sinister theories. Apparently the area was checked for radiation, but nothing was found. In the case of decomposing bodies investigators who work the scene sprinkle formalin around the area to hide the smell, and that this is what could have contaminated the soil.
References:
Bowen, C. "The Mystery of the Morro do Vintem: How Did the Men with the Lead Masks Die?" Flying Saucer Review. 1 Mar. 1967, Volume 13, Number 2: 11-14.
DIMENSIONS: A Casebook of Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy 1)Jacques Vallee
CONFRONTATIONS: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 2) by Jacques Vallee
REVELATIONS: Alien Contact and Human Deception (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 3)Jacques Vallee
Dunning, B. "Solving the Lead Masks of Vintem Hill." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc., 21 Jan 2014. Web. 19 Jul 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Masks_Case
Where to from here?
One more quote from Jacques Vallee:
Like many of my colleagues, I have become convinced that the U.S. government, as well in other governments, was very much involved in the UFO phenomenon. This involvement is not limited to the kind of data collection that is the normal responsibility of intelligence agencies. It extends to the close monitoring of the UFO organisations themselves and, in some cases, to the staging of false sightings and the occasional leaking of false documents. It is not my business to interfere with such activities. The belief in extraterrestrials, like any other strong belief, is an attractive vehicle for some mind control and psychological warfare activities
That’s some pretty heavy statements to make and to be sure what ever information is available out there we are gonna check it out piece by piece
follow the rabbit hole Alice. . .
