The Lead Masks of Vintém Hill

during august of 1966 the dead bodies of two men were found on a hillside in brazil much of what was discovered at the scene would leave authorities baffled and has never been fully understood what we are left with is a 50 year old mystery known as the lead masks of vintaym hill [Music] [Music] so [Music] rio de janeiro literally translated it means river of january except there is no such water source when portuguese explorer gaspa de lemos landed on the shores of brazil in january of 1501 he mistook the huge natural harbour to be the

mouth of an almighty river and named it after the month in which it was discovered he did not come to realize his mistake until much later and yet the name stuck today rio de janeiro is one of the most prominent states in the entire country and its very name evokes images of a lush tropical paradise home to stunning beaches vibrant blue seas and of course beautiful people despite being one of the smallest of the 27 federative units of brazil it has the second largest economy third largest population and is home to no fewer than 20

cities the most notable of which is of course the state's namesake but just off to the east of that sprawling metropolis lies nitroi a thriving municipality in its own right during the sixties nitro was barely recognizable compared to how it appears today back then it was an underdeveloped poverty-stricken town suffering all the drawbacks of rapid industrialization which would ultimately enable its growth into the important financial and commercial centre it has become it was also the scene of one of the strangest and most enduring mysteries in brazil's modern history a case known internationally as the lead

masks of vintaym hill the late afternoon of saturday the 20th of august 1966 was uncharacteristically hot considering it was midwinter in the southern hemisphere the skies had been clear with a heavy sun beating down after a long spell of torrential rain as a result the air in niteroi had become still and humid as excess moisture evaporated into the atmosphere and with not even the gentlest of breezes to offer any kind of reprieve from the sticky heat the high rise of vintam hill however was far removed from the streets below here a young boy was flying

his kite running through the long grass whooping and cheering with delight at this altitude the winds could be felt coming in off the bay which were both cool and refreshing and perfect for the kite's uplift as he traversed the slopes tugging on the long string outstretched behind him he noticed an odd depression in the grass in which lay a dark heap that looked unnatural amongst its surroundings he decided to investigate and as he began to approach he could make out various items of clothing at first he assumed that someone had dumped their unwanted garments on

the hillside but as he got closer he found lying inside those garments the decomposing bodies of two men accompanied by the sickly sweet scent of death alarmed at his discovery he rushed back home and told his parents who wasted no time in notifying the local police station unfortunately as it was now early evening and due to the failing light and difficult terrain authorities were not able to reach the bodies until the following day early on the morning of the 21st of august several police officers and firemen arrived on the hillside where they were greeted by

an odd scene to say the least the two bodies were found lying next to each other in a small depression and were partially covered by the long grass they were dressed in formal suits each wearing a raincoat and next to them lay an empty water bottle and a package containing two wet towels however the strangest thing about them and the very attribute that gave this case its name was that both men were wearing small lead masks over their eyes which appeared to have been crudely cut from sheet metal in the pockets of the men's raincoats

police also found a number of receipts and a notebook which contained what was believed to be a list of alpha numerical codes and a set of instructions these instructions read 1630 be it the specified location 1830 ingest capsules after the effect protect metals await signal mask suffice to say authorities were mystified by these findings but were soon able to identify the bodies as those of manuel pereira de cruz and miguel jose vienna two electrical technicians from camposters goethe cases a small town 170 miles northeast of the city of rio de janeiro there were no signs

of violence or of a struggle and the men carried very little on them in the way of money or valuables shortly after they were discovered the bodies were sent to the local coroner's office for autopsy but due to the fact that the coroner was busy with other cases at the time they were not examined until a number of weeks later by that stage however their internal organs decomposed to the point where it was impossible to determine how exactly the two men had died authorities instead concentrated their efforts on trying to understand the movements and intentions

of the cruz and vierna and they hoped that this would shed some light on how and why they had lost their lives police spoke to a number of witnesses in niteroi who claimed to have seen the two men in the days leading up to their deaths and from these accounts they were able to piece together a timeline of events it is believed that de cruz and vierna traveled by bus from campos to niteroi on the 17th of august carrying enough cash to purchase a used car this information was ascertained from their business account which showed

a single withdrawal of a large sum of money what they intended to do with this money is anyone's guess but it is widely assumed that they were interested in purchasing electronic parts for their business following this they arrived in nithroi at 2 30 pm that afternoon and the receipts found on their bodies indicated that they had purchased their raincoats from a local shop soon after they walked to a bar further up the street where one of them ordered a bottle of water the waitress there stated that both men seemed agitated particularly vierna whom she noticed

glancing nervously around the establishment checking his watch every few minutes the last time they were seen alive they were riding in the back of a jeep driven by two other men heading to an unknown location although authorities speculated that their intended destination would have been the foot of vintam hill what happened from that point onward is a complete and utter mystery and for the last 50 years or so that has remained the case but the questions surrounding their deaths are still as prevalent today as they were all those years ago why had they traveled to

niteroi who were they supposed to meet why had they donned those lead masks and to what did those codes and instructions in the notebook pertain as with any bizarre or unexplained death there inevitably comes with it a torrent of speculation especially from those within the fortian community and it was no different with this case brazil is a hotbed for strange events some of which we have already addressed in other episodes and others which we intend to cover in the near future so it comes as no surprise that a supernatural angle has been applied to this

story the theory goes that the crews and vienna were not your average electronic repairman they were in fact highly trained technicians who had used their expertise to engineer a means of contacting extraterrestrial beings and that they had arranged to meet these beings on vintaym hill both men had been given a specific set of instructions and after this process had been followed it is postulated that their physical bodies ceased to function and that their minds had been transported into some kind of extraterrestrial afterlife existing forevermore in a realm of infinite knowledge and consciousness and as unbelievable

as this sounds investigators have found other elements of the story which seem to corroborate connections with the supernatural at least two reputable newspapers reported at the time that a resident had seen a bright orange spheroid shaped ufo hovering over vintam hill on the same evening that the cruise and vienna went up there secondly a close friend of the two men elsio gomez stated that the three of them were all part of a local group calling themselves spiritual scientists he said that two months prior to their deaths they had built a device in their backyard which

they had apparently used to contact other worldly beings but that it exploded shortly afterwards with this in mind our attention is once again drawn to the writings in the notebook it was stated that there was a list of alphanumerical codes and some had theorized that these were encrypted messages received via their device which translated into the given instructions if we are to look at those instructions again it doesn't require much of an imagination to see how such an extraordinary theory has been put forth 1630 be it the specified location 1830 ingest capsules after the effect

protect metals await signal mask this is exactly how the instructions were written down and as it stands the latter half of the sentence does not make a lot of sense however if we apply some speculative punctuation the meaning becomes a little clearer 1630 be at the specified location 1830 ingest capsules after the effect protect metals await signal mask exactly what the capsules were or how the cruise and vienna had come by them is unknown nothing of the sort was found on their bodies and it seems obvious that the men must have ingested them as instructed

and as those capsules remain unidentified it is difficult to determine what effect they were supposed to have the protect metals line seems a little more cryptic but as no valuables were found on either man some have speculated that they were being instructed to remove their watches rings or other kinds of jewelry and that perhaps these were to be wrapped in the towels found next to their bodies finally whatever signal they were supposed to look out for is also a mystery but the word mask obviously refers to the small lead cutouts which covered their eyes these

masks had no functionality whatsoever they were not see-through and they had no stems to hook over the years so clearly they were not meant to be worn for any extended period of time instead their crude design points to the possibility that they were intended to briefly protect the eyes from an intense and blinding light source and according to many a proponent of this theory that light source would have been none other than a ufo but are we to accept this theory based solely on anecdotal and circumstantial evidence it seems there are many people who are

skeptical about this version of events and believe that the deaths of these men have a far more rational and indeed earthly explanation they believe that de cruz and vierna were simply duped into coming to the hill where they were killed and robbed of their belongings it has been suggested that they were targeted by a group of criminals who saw them as naive and easy prey this group probably cultivated the cruise and vienna's trust over a period of weeks or months promising to put them in contact with extraterrestrials or to allow them to partake in some

other form of spiritual enlightenment they then provided them with the capsules and a set of instructions just unusual enough to suggest that they were going to experience something extraordinary those capsules were more than likely a form of poison and once the two men had ingested them and died on the spot someone from the group arrived to collect their money and valuables it should be noted that all the cash the men had on them when they arrived in niteroi at least three million cruzeiros was never found neither were any of their belongings and if we add

to this the fact that another man also an electronics technician was found dead four years earlier on top of a different hill wearing a similar lead mask then suddenly this theory seems to gain more traction again much of this is pure speculation and even if the evidence supporting the idea of a robbery is pretty damning how could two men who are intelligent technically-minded individuals be so naive to fall for such an obvious ploy and what about the codes also found in their notebook does their existence prove that the instructions were received via an encrypted transmission

rather than face-to-face communication it seems not as the codes were later identified as part numbers of various electronic components and had no relation to anything else in the investigation yet how do we explain the ufo seen above the hill on the night of the men's deaths we should stress that this was witnessed by only one person and if there is one thing we have learned during the course of our research on many strange events it is that ufos are reported almost invariably in the aftermath of something unexplained this is not to cast doubt on the

individual's claim but we feel we must be honest about the nature of such things when all facts are considered this case does seem to have foul play written all over it although we shouldn't dismiss other theories out of hand the assumption is often made that extraterrestrials would have no interest in money or valuables but who really knows for sure if some other eyewitness accounts are to be taken seriously in which people have allegedly seen aliens posing as human beings then surely they would need such items in order to blend in in any case whether there

was something more sinister going on and the truth has simply been covered up or the deaths were the direct result of foul play both possibilities are equally disturbing unfortunately as intelligent as de cruz and vienna may have been their belonging to a group calling themselves spiritual scientists demonstrates that they had a desire to believe in something more and as we are well aware beliefs are often strong enough to defy and override simple logic making them difficult for an individual to let go of it could be that they were so enamored with the idea of a

higher intelligence and a never-ending pursuit of knowledge that they allowed themselves to suspend all cynicism and critical thought which otherwise might have saved them if the idea of robbery is to be accepted then it is truly sad that two innocent men lost their lives over something as trivial as money gone from this world their physical bodies may be but their spirits will forever rest on the slopes where they died overlooking the city of niteroi there's a cool lonely breeze rolls in off the bay of the january river and silently whispers through the long grass of

vintaym hill