[UNKNOWN]: You [SPEAKER_00]: On the evening of March 13th, 1989, a blonde, good-looking 21-year-old pre-med student named Mark Kilroy, joined a group of his high school buddies as they drove down US 77 across the Texas border, for a party that was meant to kick off their spring break.

[SPEAKER_00]: After picking up pals from various colleges along the way, they eventually arrived in the border town of Madamoros, which boasted a strip of cheap Mexican strip clubs and beach bars.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark spent the night drinking beer with his friends and trying to pick up girls, passing most of his time in a cantina called Sergeant Peppers, and a honky talk called the London Pub.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when his friends were ready to call it a night, they couldn't find him, and either barred.

[SPEAKER_00]: They assumed he'd gotten lucky and went back to the hotel without him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next day though, there was no sign of mark.

[SPEAKER_00]: His family, expecting him home for part of the spring break, didn't hear from him either.

[SPEAKER_00]: A week past, he was still missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: When there was no trace of him after the second week, the heat was turned up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Texas politicians, family members, and law enforcement officials became actively involved and started leaning hard on their Mexican counterparts.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Mark Kilroy was never seen alive again.

[SPEAKER_00]: In mid-April a month after Mark Vanish, an unexpected incident occurred in the Mexican Rio Grande Valley about 20 miles from Madamoros.

[SPEAKER_00]: With drugs mugling being the most profitable trade in the region, the authorities frequently set up roadblocks and traffic checks.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a car driven by a young man failed to stop at one of the roadblocks, the police gave chase.

[SPEAKER_00]: They pursued him to a rundown cattle ranch, and seized about 75 pounds of marijuana.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a routine arrest, or would have been if the officers hadn't taken a chance and showed the ranch's caretaker a photo of Mark Kilroy.

[SPEAKER_00]: They expected nothing to come of it, so they were shocked when the man admitted that he'd seen Mark, and he pointed to one of the shacks on the ranch.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the officers walked through the dusty windblown yard, they started to notice a foul smell in the air.

[SPEAKER_00]: They knew it was the stench of death.

[SPEAKER_00]: near the shack they found the source of the smell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Several makeshift shallow graves.

[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities would later unearth the corpses of 13 young men.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of them were stabbed death, others had been beaten, one was hanged, another was burned alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two had been riddled with bullets, others were sliced dozens of times, with razor blades or had their hearts cut out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nearly all of them had been mutilated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their ears, nipples, and testicles had been removed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their eyes had been taken out.

[SPEAKER_00]: The head of one corpse was missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And among the dead was the body of Mark Hillroy.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the day of the discovery, the officers that discovered the scene entered the darkness of the [SPEAKER_00]: Inside they found a large metal pot that was smeared with dried blood, along with a charred human brain, spinal column, and an assortment of other human bones, a turtle shell, and a rusted horseshoe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later discoveries would include containers of human hair, slain chickens, a goat's head, and a collection of sticks called Pollos, which were it was found used to communicate with the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Mexican authorities arrested four people at the ranch, and when questioned, they revealed a horrifying explanation for the ghastly discoveries made on the ranch.

[SPEAKER_00]: the authorities were dealing with a cult of drug smugglers who believed that human sacrifices would protect their drug shipments in the United States.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark Kilroy had been chosen at random.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was his brain and spinal column found in the black pod.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been lured away from his friend's kidnapped and driven to the ranch where he was tied up blindfolded and eventually executed on the orders of the cult's leader.

[SPEAKER_00]: a monster like nothing the authorities in Mexico and the United States, had ever encountered before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to American hauntings, the podcast dedicated to the history hauntings legends, lore, and the dark side of America, and welcome to the latest episode of Season 9, a season we call, based on a true story.

[SPEAKER_00]: American Honings is written and performed by Troy Taylor, that's me and is produced and co-hosted by Cody Beck.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this season, we're bringing you some of the scariest and most unsettling films about ghost demons, murder, and mayhem that have ever been shown on the silver screen.

[SPEAKER_00]: but you can't watch any of them and say it's only a movie.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every episode of this season offers the true story behind these horrifying films.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stories that are usually much scarier than anything a movie studio can create.

[SPEAKER_00]: and this might be especially true for this episode which is very different from all the others this season.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about two films, one of which was inspired by the real life events that you're just about to hear about.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the other plays a very different role.

[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out the terrifying crimes featured in this episode might not have happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: If not for the inspiration provided by that film, in this case, the horror wasn't based on a true story, it was the other way around.

[SPEAKER_00]: One other thing about this episode, there is some pretty awful stuff, detail here, as you may have already heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: We usually don't offer a warning, but this is not an episode for everyone, so if you [SPEAKER_00]: This is Episode 20 of Season 9, The Believers, and Borderland.

[SPEAKER_00]: In June 1987, a film called The Believers was released by Orion Pictures.

[SPEAKER_00]: Based on an novel called The Religion by Nicholas Konday, it's an occult thriller set in New York City that follows the connections between a series of brutal murders and a secret unnamed religion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Directed by John Slesinger, The Believers stars Martin Schene, one of those actors like [SPEAKER_00]: He's a policeman, a psychologist named Cal Jamison.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's called in to help a detective named Lopez played by Jimmy Smiths, who started to behave strangely after dealing with the ritualistic stabbing of a young boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Lopez very publicly and graphically takes his own life, Cal starts piecing together a loose series of clues that eventually lead him to a cult which believes that if the firstborn son of a family is sacrificed, his family will have success beyond their wildest imaginings.

[SPEAKER_00]: As his involvement with the cult becomes dangerous, Kalsun Chris is taken from him, leading to the film's final shocking twist, which I'm not giving away because this is a great film and all urge you to seek it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you still want to after this episode that is [SPEAKER_00]: The film was released to generally good reviews, with critics praising how the familiarity of New York City becomes more menacing as the story moves into increasingly bizarre areas of experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others clearly noticed how the film underlined clear distinctions between good and bad magic, praising how it dealt with the central theme of belief and belief systems.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of all, though, they were struck by how plausible the supernatural elements of the film were presented and the credible way that in which everyday life was stealthily invaded by the uncanny and the other worldly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But no one could have predicted that the believers would have a connection to the murder of Mark Kilroy, or the horrors that would be discovered in the wake of his death.

[SPEAKER_00]: While the killings likely would have occurred even if the believers had never been made, the cult almost certainly would have behaved much differently and went in a different direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: As would eventually be learned, the film was considered so influential by the cult that it was used as a training model intended to both lure men into the group and to teach [SPEAKER_00]: New members of the cult were required as part of their initiation ritual to watch the film 14 times.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the believers, the cult has spiritual beliefs that combine voodoo, Catholicism, and human sacrifice in an attempt to attain success and power.

[SPEAKER_00]: The film refers to this religion as Santa Rea, a religion that evolved when African slaves blended the worship of the gods and spirits of their ancestors with Catholicism.

[SPEAKER_00]: Detective Lopez describes it to Cal as, quote, African gods hidden inside Catholic saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: and tells him it's a thousand years older than Christianity.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is good Santa Maria in the film.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs.

Ruiz, the famous and family maid, practices the good kind.

[SPEAKER_00]: She protects them with amulets and charms, lighting candles, and casted a love spell to bring together Cal and the new Land Lady Jessica, played by Helen Sheaver.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Mrs.

Ruiz tries to use Santa Rea to protect Cal Son Christ though, Cal becomes scared and angry and throws her out of the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Mrs.

Ruiz is aware of what's happening and knows that Chris is in danger from the believers who practice a bad kind of Santa Rea that involves snakes, pagan alters, slaughtered animals, and, of course, human sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Santa Rea by the way is a very real religion, with hundreds of millions of followers around the world, mostly in the Caribbean and South America, and while animal sacrifices part of Santa Rea, it's considered a mostly benign religious faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like the cult in the believers, there's also a side to Santa Maria that blends the religion with darker beliefs involving harmful magic and human sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: These concepts often called the dark side of Santa Maria are referred to as Palo Mayombae and Brujaria.

[SPEAKER_00]: Palo Mayombae [SPEAKER_00]: evolved alongside Santeria in the Congo region of Central Africa and is based on black magic rituals that center around the manipulation of the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're used to provide protection, financial power, and the destruction of enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: When humans are sacrificed, they're badly tortured first so that their spirits are charged up, so to speak, with fear and pain when they reach the other side.

[SPEAKER_00]: It generally uses the bones of a person who's already dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Esbruharia, which also uses elements of Aztec religions that focuses on the ritual of human sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was an anti-religion created to compete with the Catholic faith that was forced on the people by the Spanish in the 16th century.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can be used for either good or evil and is found today throughout Mexico and in parts of the American Southwest.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Madamoros cult was strongly influenced by the darkest elements of all these faiths.

[SPEAKER_00]: A collection of beliefs that had been mixed together by one of the most sinister criminals in the history of Mexican and American crime.

[SPEAKER_00]: His name was Aldafo, day Jesus Constanzo, and he was born in Miami on November 1st, 1962, the son of a teenage Cuban immigrant.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was still an infant when his widowed mother moved to Puerto Rico and married for a second time.

[SPEAKER_00]: There, Constanzo was baptized a Catholic and served the church as an altar boy until he was 10 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was at that time the family returned to Miami where Constanso's stepfather died and left the boy and his mother financially well off.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was also during this time when under his mother's influence Constanso veered away from traditional religion and embraced Santa Maria and its darker offshoots.

[SPEAKER_00]: neighbors of the Constancils in the little Havana neighborhood noticed that was something odd about the mother Aurora and her son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some said Aurora was a witch and those who angered her were liable to find headless goats or chickens on their doorsteps in the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Aurora took her son to Haiti for instruction in Voodoo and when he was 14 he was given as an apprentice to a practitioner [SPEAKER_00]: who would become wealthy selling magical protection to local drug dealers.

[SPEAKER_00]: As mentioned, Polymyambi could be used for both good and evil in ten.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were rights of healing and spells of protection, although most of them still used bones stolen from local graveyards.

[SPEAKER_00]: The darker elements of the religion were also prevalent in Miami.

[SPEAKER_00]: As far back as 1903, a practitioner of Polymyambi was caught after killing a young girl for a ritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: On another occasion, an infant was found murdered in a ritual, its tongue and eyelids removed.

[SPEAKER_00]: A police search that occurred at a drug dealer's home and boat turned up a cauldron containing two human skulls, while another search discovered human skulls and bones along with a goat's head, live chicken, guns and cocaine.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was into this faith that Constanzel was initiated, and as his teachings progressed, Aurora began to believe that he had psychic powers and was able to predict future events, like the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if this was true, Constanzel apparently had trouble foretelling his own future.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since by age 19, he had been arrested twice for shoplifting, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to know what that was for.

[SPEAKER_00]: By sexual by nature, but with a strong preference for male lovers, the handsome Constanzo moved to Mexico City in 1983 to do some modeling work.

[SPEAKER_00]: He spent his free time in the city's infamous Zona Rosa prostitution district and gained a reputation for a cult knowledge and terror reading, since he began at that time to gather his first disciples, including Martin Quintana, Jorge Montez, and Omar Aria.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of them had been immersed in the occult since they were teenagers and believed Constanso was the leader they'd been waiting for.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a brief return to Miami, Constanso moved to Mexico City full-time in 1984.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gained followers throughout the city as his reputation grew for his psychic powers and his talent for effective ritual cleansings of those who'd been cursed by their enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: of course those who requested his services paid dearly, which meant that he was soon almost exclusively rubbing shoulders with Mexican high society.

[SPEAKER_00]: Among his followers were doctors, re-listed investors, fashion models, and celebrities.

[SPEAKER_00]: As his mentor in Miami had done, Constanza went out of his way to charm wealthy drug dealers using his magic to help them schedule shipments and meetings and offering protection.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a price, he gave them spells that would make the dealers and their gunmen invisible to the police and bulletproof against their enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was all nonsense, of course, but most smugglers came from backgrounds that believed in folk magic and were strongly inclined to accept his claims.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to Constanza's ledger, one dealer in Mexico City paid him $40,000 for magical services rendered over a three year period.

[SPEAKER_00]: At those prices, customers demanded something in return, and Constanso knew it was a bad idea to disappoint a ruthless crime lord who carried an automatic weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: His magic required first rating gradients, and in mid-1985, he and three of his disciples rated a Mexico City Cemetery for human bones to start his in Ganga, the traditional [SPEAKER_00]: Constance's reputation even managed to lure high-ranking law enforcement officers into the cult including at least four members of the federal judicial police.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of them, Salvador Garcia, was a commander in charge of narcotics investigations, which came in especially handy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another, Florentino, Ventura, had retired from the police to lead the Mexican branch of Interpol.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the 1980s, when bribery permeated all levels of law enforcement, and federal officers sometimes served as triggermen for drug smugglers, corruption was not all that unusual, but the devotion of Constancil's followers ran deeper than just money.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1986, Constanza was introduced to Guillermo, Cazada, head of one of the largest cartels in Mexico.

[SPEAKER_00]: He won Ovo Cazada and the other leaders with his charm and promises of magical protection and he profited immensely with it from his contacts with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: By early 1987, he'd paid cash for several luxury cars in an upscale Mexico City, condominium.

[SPEAKER_00]: By now, Constanza was no longer feeding his in Ganga with just old bones from cemeteries.

[SPEAKER_00]: His latest sacrifices were much fresher.

[SPEAKER_00]: No final tally for his victims was ever made, but at least 33 ritual murders were well documented around this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But some Mexican authorities later noted this might have been the tip of a blood soaked iceberg.

[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, his willingness to torture and kill total strangers is [SPEAKER_00]: Well, as sometimes close friends, impress the ruthless Cartel members who were his most important clients.

[SPEAKER_00]: After about one year of lucrative association with the Cartel, Constanzo started believing his own press and managed to convince himself that his magical powers alone were responsible for the continued success and survival of the Calzata Cartel.

[SPEAKER_00]: In April 1987, he demanded a full partnership in the syndicate, but was immediately refused.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Stanzo seemed to take the rejection and stride, but secretly, he was plotting revenge.

[SPEAKER_00]: On April 30, 1987, Guillermo Cazadas and six cartel leaders vanished under mysterious circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were reported missing on May 1st when melted black candles and other evidence of a strange religious ceremony were found left behind and caused out his office.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then between May 7th and May 14th, the police recovered seven corpses from a local river.

[SPEAKER_00]: all had been mutilated in all head signs of sadistic torture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some had fingers, toes, or ears removed, while others were missing their hearts and genitals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Part of the spine was missing from one body and two others were missing their brains.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bodies, of course, turned out to be [SPEAKER_00]: The Missy body parts had been fed to the in Ganga to generate power for greater conquest to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: In July 1987, Constonsib was introduced to another cartel.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one led by Brothers, Elio, and Ovidio, Hernandez.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pair were as superstitious as the others Constonsib would encounter in the drug business and quickly charn them into handing over large sums of cash for the protection only he could offer.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was around the time that he was also introduced to a woman who would become the high priestess of his cult, Sarah Aldradi, a 22-year-old Mexican national with resident alien status in the U.S., so she could attend college in Brownsville, Texas.

[SPEAKER_00]: A highly intelligent young woman with a lifelong interest in the occult, Sarah was dating drug dealer Gilbert Sosa when she met Constanzo.

[SPEAKER_00]: while he quickly put an end to her relationship with Sosa so he could have her for himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: She immediately took her place at his side, embraced Castanzo's black magic rituals, and even added her own twist to the torture of his sacrificial victims.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanza's rich was became more elaborate and more sadistic after he moved his headquarters to Rancho Santa Elena, which was located in a lonely stretch of desert 20 miles from Manomoros.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first sacrifices at the ranch took place on May 28, 1988 when a smuggler and a local farmer were shot to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Disappointed by the lack of carnage, though, he directed his followers in Mexico City to dismember a man named Ramon Esquivel and then leave his remains on a street corner where they were found by school children.

[SPEAKER_00]: A month later, Constanso narrowly escaped a Houston police raid on a drug house that sees not only the city's largest ever-stash of cocaine, but numerous occult items too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanso claimed his magic saved him from arrest, enhancing his reputation in the Hernandez cartel, who soon ordered him to use his magic to save one of its own.

[SPEAKER_00]: On August 12, Ovidio Hernandez and his 12-year-old son were kidnapped by members of a rival Cartel and the family demanded Constanso help them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That night, another human sacrifice was staged at the ranch and the following day Ovidio and his son were released unharmed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanso claimed credit for their return and Ovidio became a full-fledged member of the cult, further cementing the ties between Constanso and the Cartel.

[SPEAKER_00]: filled with self-congregulation, Constanzel barely noticed when follower and Mexican Interpol Officer, Florentino Ventura committed suicide in Mexico City, killing his wife and a friend before shooting himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: On February 14, 1989, Constanza ordered the torture sacrifice of a competing smuggler named Esquivel Luna, and went to other dealers, Ruman Garza and Ernesto Diaz showed up at the ceremony uninvited, they were sacrificed too.

[SPEAKER_00]: A short time later, when Constanza ordered a sacrifice without warning, a video Hernandez gladly joined a hunting party, [SPEAKER_00]: turned over his 14-year-old cousin, Jose Garcia, for the bloody ritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: On March 13, 1989, Constanzo sacrificed another victim at the ranch near Montamoro, but declared the ritual had failed because the victim didn't scream and cry for mercy as was required for it to work its magic.

[SPEAKER_00]: irritated he ordered that his men bring him an American the next time, and that was when his men abducted Mark Kilroy from the streets of Madamoros.

[SPEAKER_00]: Targeting an American college student from a middle-class family turned out to be a misstep and what had been an unknown series of depraved killings.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark's disappearance was the beginning of the end for Constanza and his homicidal cult.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever magic the monster possessed had started to fade.

[SPEAKER_00]: On April 9th, Colt member Seraphon Hernandez was returning from Brownsville, Texas, and failed to stop at a police roadblock.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worst, he then ignored the police cars that quickly followed and pursued.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hernandez believed that what Constanzo told him about being invisible was true, so he was a little surprised when the police officers trailed into his destination outside Madamoros.

[SPEAKER_00]: even so, the smuggler remained arrogant, inviting the police to shoot him since he knew the bullets would just simply bounce off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they arrested him instead, along with another cult member, David Martinez.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two others at the ranch, Elio Hernandez and Sergio Martinez, were also arrested in the four were interrogated throughout the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: They revealed accounts of black magic, torture, and human sacrifice with a perverse kind of pride admitting to their grizzly deeds with no remorse whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_00]: When taken before reporters in Manomoros, the shirt of one of the suspects was pulled open to show a series of scars on his body that formed inverted crosses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Markings that showed he was intended as a future sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later, the police punished him in another way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Having discovered from their interviews that there was one further body buried at the ranch, they hauled him back to the grave site and forced him to dig in the blazing sun without water until he uncovered it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now on the hunt for Constanso, Lawmanum both sides of the border searched in vain for the sorcerer and what remained of his cult.

[SPEAKER_00]: On April 17th, they arrested another gang member in Houston, Texas.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they raided the house where he had been hiding, they seized weapons and cash, but found no evidence of blood rituals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanso, when his closest followers remain on the run.

[SPEAKER_00]: On April 18th, Constanso still believing in his occult gifts, discovered signs of betrayal.

[SPEAKER_00]: in the tarot cards.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew that informers must have given up his compatriots and now he cautiously watched his friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paranoid kept a gun close by and rarely slept for more than a few minutes at a time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Increasingly, he threatened those around him with power that he promised exceeded that of the police.

[SPEAKER_00]: They cannot kill you, he warned.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unable 22nd, the ranch was scoured for evidence in the police tore apart the shed where Constanso kept his sinister in Ganga.

[SPEAKER_00]: Performing their own cleansing of the ranch, they burned the shack to the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: Commander Juan Benitez Ayala, head of the Emexican artisan narcotics squad, said that he'd burned the building because he knew it would drive Constanso crazy and hopefully end a making a mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was right, because Stanza flew into a rage the next day when watching the television news and saw the police at Burnt Ishack and spread a holy water on its smoldering remains and on the emptied graves that were nearby.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanza, Sarah, and a handful of others had taken shelter in a small apartment in Mexico city, and he tore the place apart, smashing lamps, and overturning furniture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another cult member, Jorge Montez, was arrested on April 24th, and like the others, he spilled everything he knew about Constanso and the string of murders.

[SPEAKER_00]: When word reached Constanso with the arrest, he and his last remaining followers moved to their final hiding place, an apartment house on Rio Signa in Mexico City.

[SPEAKER_00]: On May 2, one of the last of them, Sarah Eldrothi, wrote a note and tossed it from the bedroom [SPEAKER_00]: The note read.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please call the judicial police and tell them that in this building are those they are seeking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell them that a woman is being held hostage.

[SPEAKER_00]: I beg this because what I want most is to talk or they're going to kill the girl.

[SPEAKER_00]: A passerby found the note a few minutes later, he read it, but kept it to himself, believing it was someone's poor attempt at a joke.

[SPEAKER_00]: Upstairs in the cramped apartment, Constanzo began making plans to flee Mexico with his disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would start fresh, she said, where no one knew them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't fear the police because he told them his magic would protect them all.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his plans fell apart on May 6th when the police came to Riocia.

[SPEAKER_00]: Making door to door inquiries.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were asking questions everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: but not about Constanso.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were working on a completely unrelated case involving a missing child.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, when Constanso spotted police officers out the window, he panicked and grabbed a machine gun.

[SPEAKER_00]: He opened fire at the officers below when an alert went out to every precinct.

[SPEAKER_00]: the authorities converged on the building and returned fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: The shootout lasted for 45 minutes, although miraculously, the only person wounded was a police officer who was struck by constonsos and initial shots.

[SPEAKER_00]: Realizing he was not invisible to the police, Constanza accepted that his magic had failed him, and that escape was impossible.

[SPEAKER_00]: He handed his weapon to Loyal follower of our O'Daleon Valdez and ordered him to kill him and Martin Kintana.

[SPEAKER_00]: Valdez hesitated at first, but then re-lented and killed the two men with the machine gun.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constanso was dead when the police stormed the apartment.

[SPEAKER_00]: They arrested Valdez and Sarah Adrarte and took them to jail.

[SPEAKER_00]: In custody, Valdez cheerfully informed the police that Constanso, quote, would not be dead for long.

[SPEAKER_00]: but the Mexican authorities were less concerned with Constanza's impending resurrection than with making charges stick against the surviving cult members.

[SPEAKER_00]: Valdez confessed to two murders, but Sarah insisted she was a victim, claiming that the gang took her as a hostage.

[SPEAKER_00]: She later betrayed herself, though, inadvertently disclosing intimate knowledge about the cult's bloody rituals.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the wake of the Mexico City shootout, 14 additional cult members were rounded up.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were indicted on various charges, including multiple murder, weapons and narcotics violations, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sarah Adraughtay continued to protest her innocence, but the jury didn't believe her.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1994, she and four male accomplices were convicted of multiple slains at the ranch outside Manomoros.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sarah was sentenced to 67 years in prison.

[SPEAKER_00]: The others ended up with even longer terms behind bars, and they remained there today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if any of them live long enough to be released from custody in Mexico, the authorities in the United States are ready to prosecute them here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, with Castanso dead and the cult in Chambles, it seemed the horror he created was over.

[SPEAKER_00]: but was it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Between 1987 and 1989, Mexico City Police recorded 74 unsolved suspected ritual murders, 14 of them involving infant victims.

[SPEAKER_00]: Constance's cult was thought to have been involved in at least 16 of these cases, but no one could say for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities never had enough evidence to pursue charges.

[SPEAKER_00]: When asked about the cases, prosecutor Guillermo Abara told reporters, quote, we would like to say that yes, Constance of Did The Mall and Poof, all those cases are solved.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact is we believe he was responsible for some of them, they will never prove it now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he didn't commit all those murders, which means someone else did, someone who is still out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, many believed he was right that someone was still out there, and some even believed it might be Constanzo himself, refusing to believe he died in that apartment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Speculation even by some police officers hinted that his occult magic somehow worked to protect him, and the body found that the scene was not his.

[SPEAKER_00]: The condition of the corpse, shot in the head at close range with an automatic weapon, [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, Mexican newspapers reported that two people were spotted fleeing the building as the police closed in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Could one of them have been Constanza?

[SPEAKER_00]: paranoia surrounded his death and the gruesome discovery in Matamoros, none of which was surprising considering the sheer horror of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Parents were terrified of sending their teenagers away for spring break.

[SPEAKER_00]: The economy of the small Mexican town of Matamoros, which depended on the money spent by party and college students, was shattered.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it was terrifying to think that [SPEAKER_00]: might still be out there, seeking new victims.

[SPEAKER_00]: The cult leader, of course, never resurfaced, but it took nearly a decade for college students to be willing to take a chance and return to Matamoros and for the terrible memories of what happened there to start to fade.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then someone decided to stir them up again with a horror film.

[SPEAKER_00]: Borderland was released in 2007, and let's face it, it's not a great movie.

[SPEAKER_00]: It comes from the Maxim Magazine era of Bro Horror Films that gave us young American morons in danger in foreign countries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Movies like The Last Resort, The Ruins, and Soon The Darkness, and slightly better entries, like Hustle and Touristas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their films that regard the third world as a dangerous place that uses dumb American tourists for sport, Oregon harvesting white slavery, or in this case for human sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Borderland though just happens to be loosely based on a true story.

[SPEAKER_00]: The film, written and directed by Zeb Verman, stars Ryan Presley as Ed, writer strong as Phil and Jake Muxworthy as Henry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Three friends who have all graduated from school in Galveston, Texas and decide to cross the border into Mexico to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their Ed meets and is attracted to a bar made name Valeria after he stands up to an unruly customer on her behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, Phil wanders around town under the influence of mushrooms and is abducted by a van full of locals and Henry is just busy being a jerk who causes trouble makes racist remarks to locals and has dialogue filled with slurs that seemed okay in 2007 although they [SPEAKER_00]: The film mostly follows the same plot line as hostile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Three Americans travel to a country where law and order is a good deal more loosely upheld than they're used to and where they become victims of a brutal and sadistic group of locals that prey on tourists.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are the initial party scenes, the other searching for a member of the group that goes missing, the authorities that turn a blind eye or pretend ignorance to all of it and then they get help from a local girl and so on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this one, the Lost Buddy Phil wakes up as the prisoner to a fellow American, Sean asked in from the Lord of the Rings and stranger things and a bunch of other stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's in league with the leader of a Santa Rea cult that is marked fill as a human sacrifice, aka Mark Kill Roy.

[SPEAKER_00]: While he's tied up, his friends with help from Valeria are searching for him, but by asking questions around town, they draw the attention of cult members who start hunting them down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you've watched a lot of horror films from this era, which I have, and I'm not sure what that says about me, you'll be a little bored with how familiar the setup of the film is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's slickly put together in the acting is good, but seems to go everywhere that hostile is already gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, thanks pick up and then latter third of the film when we get a brutal sequence during which Henry is pursued by cult members through the hotel and up onto the roof.

[SPEAKER_00]: Followed by the climatic scenes where Ed and the others mount an assault on the cult's headquarters.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I said, it's not a great film, but it's watchable and while it's loosely based on the story of Mark Kilroy, Matt Amores and Constanso's cult, you're not going to mistake this one for a documentary.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, maybe that's for the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once you know the true story that this movie was inspired by, maybe a silly film where the good guys come out on top is just the sort of palette cleanser we can all use to forget about what really happened in that little town in Mexico in 1989.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening to American Honings and we hope you'll stay tuned for the post-mortem section in the episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming up right after these messages from our sponsors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in his new life, he's about to discover that the real horror is just beginning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go, Eddie!

[SPEAKER_01]: So don't you come any crowds, though?

[SPEAKER_01]: Just you and they ditched me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You said you found a body of gold, and with a lot of British's paraphernal in your eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: A religion has old as time.

[SPEAKER_00]: One life from each of us can't versus an unimaginable force for evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: This ritual's being performed now.

[SPEAKER_00]: One life was all here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing can stop them to power you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can't imagine what them to know who you are.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you?

[SPEAKER_02]: What are they not to use, Sean?

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't move.

[SPEAKER_02]: No one can help you.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got my seal!

[SPEAKER_01]: Put them in the end.

[SPEAKER_02]: You looked into his eyes, and you both are the power of the man who killed them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a judge!

[SPEAKER_00]: They know who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Chris was chosen, Cal.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he found the show, it was a sign.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me go!

[SPEAKER_01]: Gosh!

[SPEAKER_01]: No!

[SPEAKER_01]: The believers.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is thing on.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah sounds good.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hey everybody, it's Cody.

[SPEAKER_02]: Troy's out today.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's actually a New York city doing something that's so secret that I can't even tell you all about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mostly because actually he didn't tell me what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so we're all in the same boat.

[SPEAKER_02]: But hey, head to announcement.

[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to share with you all.

[SPEAKER_02]: We are officially launching the American Haunting's network, meaning in the months to come, we plan to offer other shows that, like this podcast, we're bringing you American history, Haunting's legends, lore, true crime, and the dark side of our past.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we plan to continue to do that in a way that's authentic, entertaining, and we'll hopefully send a chill up your spine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Our first show is actually American Dread, which a lot of you have listened to coming at some of the sample episodes that we've already launched.

[SPEAKER_02]: And now we're officially launching that as its own podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: Adam White, great guy, very smart.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to be doing stuff that's still in the same realm as American Honings Podcast, but not exactly the same.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we hope that you really enjoy all of that and then look forward to even more content in the future.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if this works, we're just going to keep going and more podcast and give you all more free stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you don't have to change a thing, keep your podcast [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm actually going to talk to Adam in just a second.

[SPEAKER_02]: So without further ado, here is my interview with our first podcast under our network.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is Adam White of American Dread.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so with me now is Adam White and Adam, you are the, what, I mean, creator producer host the, the mind behind American Dread, the first podcast that we're taking under our umbrella for American Honings.

[SPEAKER_02]: First off, welcome to the family and can you just tell me a little bit about yourself and we'll go from there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you know, it's a big honor to be part of the American Honings family and I've been part of the family actually for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I've been a honoured decator tour guide actually for going on 21 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've always had a fascination of crime and from the unsolved crime to, uh, [SPEAKER_01]: to murders and strange mysteries and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel with American dread, it's just a, it's like a secondary look from the outside, trying to tell the stories that most people don't either don't remember or have never heard before, especially in the like the Midwest.

[SPEAKER_02]: where do the idea for the podcast come from like I know you've done the haunted cater tours and stuff in your you've been leading those that's great I kind of met you through that stuff but uh what made you want to sort of podcast and how do you kind of get into this right we first off i'm sorry that you got connected with us but why did you want to do a podcast and [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's a podcast or just so popular now, especially the true crime stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say about a little over a year ago, I was working on a case that was going to put into a book and, you know, I can, I can write okay, but I like to, I'm a storyteller.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I like to be able to tell stories and I think I thought to myself, like, what if we did a podcast and these weird bizarre stories that we could find and talk about them and [SPEAKER_01]: really need to be able to kind of link together with American Honings podcast too and kind of do like a little not to spin off but you know like a you know it really gives more content for the listeners for not just American Honings podcast but then there's American dread you know just fill their wake up with just crazy odd creepy stories.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it kind of seems like the more episodes we put out in general before you came around the more people were just liking it and wanting to listen so it's like why not give them more stuff that they like and these morbid curious people they just they can't get enough and yeah that's the thing with true crime it you know it it's horrible to say this but.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, there's so much of it, you know, and it's so hard to, you know, like American Honings, you guys focus on, um, usually like a season, you'll do so many stories that are tied into that season, which is amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: The few episodes I've worked on, the amount of work that goes into it is mind-bullying, but blowing, and you guys have multiple seasons.

[SPEAKER_01]: So props to you guys, both of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I feel like there's stuff that sometimes overlooked, or there's just stories that are hidden out there, and sometimes we come across it, and I think this is opportunity to share some of these stories.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's awesome.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we've already done the, you know, three kind of, you know, little episodes kind of launch a little bit, but what was that experience like for you?

[SPEAKER_02]: Did you like it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Did you hate it here in your own voice?

[SPEAKER_02]: Where's it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anything surprising?

[SPEAKER_02]: Did you love it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like what, what happened with that?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because you and I really, we've only talked about it a little bit after the fact, but I do want to know what, what was it like to kind of launch a podcast?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the first episode was beyond nervous is not even the right word because you know I'm used to being like in front of a camera and filming but not audio wise, which sounds weird because you have audio on a camera too, but it's just so much different.

[SPEAKER_01]: took me like days to put together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And after talking with you, I kind of, I kind of pinpoint some stuff down and the next few episodes after that, you know, went a lot smoother.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm having fun doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It takes a little bit to, you know, get [SPEAKER_01]: The right information, but also to add in as much details as I can, to try to make you guys feel like you're there, like not witnessing the crime, but, you know, in the story, right, right, right, right, right, right, try to look for a word for him stumbling over myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, it's it's great and I'm I'm so excited to have you on board and you're doing you're doing great and I'm so excited for people I've heard a little bit about the stuff that's going to come out and I'm really stoked and I think people are really going to like it and we don't have everything set up right now as far as where to go, but we're going to have an easy link for people to check out everything that I'm doing and for listeners, you don't have to do a thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It will come out on the American Honings podcast podcast feed, so you will just see it no matter what will have different artwork to kind of show that this is an American dread episode versus this is a American Honings podcast episode versus this is American Honings podcast patreon episode or whatever, but you don't have to do it thing you'll be able to see.

[SPEAKER_02]: everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, give it a shot.

[SPEAKER_02]: And let us know what you think.

[SPEAKER_02]: Send me an email, you know, American Honks podcast, gmail.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll probably have some Spotify polls and things like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Definitely the people in the Patreon Facebook group.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, let us know how you're feeling the show and what you're thinking.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, everybody, just say, please check out American Dread.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be great.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm super excited.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got lots of stories that are in the works.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some major stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I've got a lot of stories from my local town that I live in, which is where the birthplace of the haunted cater stores started, but I'm going to venture out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And hit some stuff that, you know, maybe you've heard, but not to the full detail that we're going to tell the stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, we're not really holding back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously we got to watch a few things here and there, but we're not going to hold back.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to tell you the stories that some people just don't want to.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So morbid curious.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look for American dread the first episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: The first official episode is going to launch on Wednesday, October 15th.

[SPEAKER_02]: So looking your feeds and check that out.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, Adam, I'll be in touch.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's it's an honor to work with you guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, flatter me, but I know I know.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Check out American dread.