Death In The Jungle: Extraterrestrial Contact Or Contract Killing?

What led to the deaths of two men found in a clearing in the woods of a small town near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the summer of 1966? The men were discovered lying side by side with no signs of a struggle. Each wore a smart suit, had neatly combed hair, and wore a brand-new raincoat. Most peculiarly, both men had crudely formed lead masks over their faces.

A teenage boy walking through the woods of Niteroi on August 20^th discovered the bodies and promptly reported the grim find to the police. He recounted seeing the same men in the same spot three days earlier, around 5 pm on August 17^th, alive and sitting upright in the clearing. The next morning, he saw them again, this time lying on the ground. Assuming they were asleep, he continued on his way.

However, when he saw them a third time two days later, still in the same place, he decided to approach the scene for a closer look. The odor as he neared the clearing confirmed to him that the men were dead.

The Strangest Of Strange Deaths

What transpired between the evening of August 17th and the following morning when the young boy thought the men were asleep? The police investigation revealed some intriguing and perplexing details.

The deceased men, 43-year-old Jose Viana and 32-year-old Manuel Pereira de Cruz, hailed from the nearby village of Atafona. Both men were electricians and were well-liked and respected in their community. They appeared to have no enemies. Even more bizarrely, both men had died from massive heart attacks, which struck within seconds of each other. The odds of such simultaneous heart attacks occurring without a shared catalyst are astronomically low.

Police also found strange notes on the bodies, none of which were written in either of the men’s handwriting. One note read:

Sunday, one pill after meal. Monday, one pill after breakfast. Tuesday, one pill after meal. Wednesday, one pill lying down.

Another note read:

4:30pm be at appointed place. 6:30pm swallow pill. Then protect face with metal and await signal to show itself!

The meaning of these notes remains a mystery. However, from these notes and other items in their possession, police deduced that the men arrived at the clearing where their bodies were found about 30 minutes to an hour before the boy saw them sitting upright. Eventually, the police pieced together a fuller timeline of their movements.

A Mysterious Timeline Of Events

Investigators established that Viana and Cruz left their home village at 9 am on August 17^th, telling their families they were traveling to São Paulo to purchase electronic equipment and a new car. They carried a significant amount of money, equivalent to around $4000 today. However, there was no sign of a new vehicle or electronic equipment at the site where their bodies were found, nor were there any receipts for such purchases. Only a small portion of the money they took was recovered, with the bulk of it remaining unaccounted for.

The men arrived in Niteroi by bus at around 2 pm. Shortly after, they each purchased the raincoats they were wearing, as shown by receipts. Weather records confirmed it was raining in the village at the time, leading investigators to believe the raincoats were a last-minute purchase due to the conditions and not significant to their deaths.

A little later, the pair visited a local bar and bought a bottle of mineral water, keeping the receipts, which suggested they planned to return the empty bottles for a refund. This indicated to investigators that the men intended to return home and had not traveled to the area to end their lives. It appears they set out into the woods around 3 pm, heading to the clearing where their bodies would eventually be found.

More Details Emerge

As news of the men’s deaths spread, several local residents reported seeing a strange orange, oblong-shaped object hovering over the spot where the bodies were found on the night of August 17^th. Additionally, several strange beams of light were seen emanating from the object.

Given that the men were almost certainly dead, not just asleep, when the teenager saw them lying on the ground on the morning of August 18th, there was speculation—particularly among UFO investigators—that there might be a connection between the mysterious object and the bizarre deaths.

One investigator, Charles Bowen, not only examined reports of strange aerial objects on the night of August 17^th but also relayed an alleged incident from June 13^th in the men’s home village of Atafona. This incident culminated in a huge explosion felt for miles around.

According to Bowen’s investigation, a cloak of security surrounded the June events. Witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire moving through the sky, and some fishermen even claimed to see a flying saucer crash into the sea. Stranger still were rumors of a secret experiment involving a strange electrical device developed by local residents. Coincidentally or not, Viana and Cruz were among the witnesses that evening.

Bizarre Connections And Leads

Bowen made further remarkable discoveries suggesting a connection between the unsettling deaths of the two electricians in August 1966 and the rumored electrical experiments in the months leading up to their deaths.

One of the most intriguing findings was the death of a television repairman four years earlier in 1962, discovered in Morro do Cruzeiro. Like Viana and Cruz, he was found lying on his back with no signs of a struggle and a similarly shaped lead mask on his face. Bowen also uncovered evidence of a secret society, or cult, in the area. This group was said to experiment with high-frequency thought waves and LSD, aiming to enhance mental alertness and alter brain frequency. They were described as a spiritual group rather than an ominous one.

Even more intriguing, according to Bowen’s findings, was that a member of this secret organization, Elcio Gomes, was questioned by police during their investigation into the deaths of Viana and Cruz. Gomes admitted to being a member of this group, describing them as scientific spiritualists, and stated that Viana and Cruz were also members.

Gomes further claimed that while he and the two deceased men had created the device that exploded in Atafona in June, the object seen on the night of the men’s deaths in Niteroi was not their creation. He believed it to be a genuine UFO. However, he did state that Viana and Cruz were using a similar device to communicate with beings from other worlds.

Signs Of Top-Secret Experiments

So, what could have happened to these well-liked, hard-working family men on that night in August 1966? Could the pills mentioned in the notes have been LSD, and were Viana and Cruz experimenting with them along with high-frequency waves, ultimately causing their deaths? Even if this were the case, what are the odds that both men would experience the same fatal reaction within seconds of each other?

Or, as Gomes claimed, were the two men attempting to communicate with extraterrestrials? Did they succeed, causing the glowing orange object to appear directly above them? Did one of the beams of light witnessed by several local residents unintentionally cause their deaths?

If they were trying to reach aliens with a device they created, why was there no sign of this device where their bodies were found? Given the bizarre nature of their deaths, the absence of the device, and the missing money, another possibility, speculative though it might be, is worth considering: could there have been involvement from one of the many clandestine intelligence agencies around the world?

The Involvement Of Dark Agencies?

Is it possible that the two men were genuinely on their way to purchase new equipment or materials for their experiments, as they had told their families, and had arranged to meet someone at the clearing? Given the police’s apparent attempts to suppress information about the incidents involving the men, might intelligence agencies have taken an interest in their activities and lured them to the clearing under the pretense of selling equipment? Perhaps they wanted to obtain the device for themselves, possibly after confirming its functionality. Could this speculative agent have also written the handwritten notes?

Notably, during the 1975 Church Committee probe into the CIA, it was revealed that the agency had developed a gun capable of shooting an extremely sharp needle of ice laced with poison. This needle would enter the body and induce a sudden, fatal heart attack. The ice would melt away, leaving only the tiniest entry point and no trace of the poison in the body.

As speculative as it is, if the two electricians were experimenting with a device that could communicate with otherworldly entities and had unwittingly attracted the attention of an intelligence agency, might such a weapon have been used? One that caused the two men to suffer heart attacks almost simultaneously?

Whatever the truth, we will likely never know what happened that fateful night in August 1966. Ultimately, the deaths of Jose Viana and Manuel Pereira da Cruz remain unexplained.

A Truly Disturbing Case

One thing is clear – the lead masks case is one of the most mysterious, thought-provoking, and disturbing cases of the twentieth century, and not just in UFO circles. To some who have researched and investigated the case, there is so much more to the two deaths in the woodlands of Brazil than misadventure or of a UFO sighting that somehow ended in tragedy.

Was there an involvement of some kind of dark, secretive agency? If so, who did they work for and what was their agenda? Were they in the employment of the Brazilian authorities or might they have worked for a government much further afield, perhaps even that of the United States? And what should we make of the bizarre connections to electrical workers? Were they experimenting with some kind of advanced technology, and if so, was our potential (and speculative) dark government agency involved in these also? Perhaps above all else, we should ask if the alleged UFO sighting on what is believed to be the night of the men’s death was connected or was it just a coincidence?

Indeed, like most cases, especially ones that involve strange and unsolved deaths, there are many more questions than answers. While it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that further information might come to light in the future, for the foreseeable, those questions will continue to greatly outweigh those answers.

The short video below explores this most perplexing case a little further.