Horror in Mexico

[0] Today's podcast features two separate, unique stories that are both themed around the same thing, true Mexican horror.

[1] The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from my YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's podcast.

[2] The links to the original videos are in the description.

[3] The first story you will hear is called The Ritual, and it's about a young man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time during his spring break vacation to Matamoros, Mexico.

[4] The second story you'll hear is called The Most Feared Girl in Mexico, and it is about the horrible thing that a young boy witnessed when he accidentally stumbled into a cave high up in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountain Range.

[5] These stories are both exceptionally graphic.

[6] As such, listener discretion is advised.

[7] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week.

[8] once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[9] So, if that's of interest to you, please put a metal fork in the five -star review buttons microwave, set it for 99 minutes, hit start, and then leave their house.

[10] Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

[11] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[13] What's the answer?

[14] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[15] Hysterical.

[16] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[17] Binge all episodes of Hysterical Early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[18] Okay, let's get into our first story called The Ritual.

[19] In the early morning hours of March 11, 1989, four young men who were all in their 20s and all very close friends, left their homes in East Texas and headed south.

[20] Nine hours later, they arrived in the beautiful resort town of South Padre Island, which is just off the coast of Southern Texas.

[21] They were there to enjoy their spring break by sunning on the beach, drinking in bars, and meeting girls.

[22] When they finally arrived that night, they were so exhausted from the trip that they went right to bed.

[23] The next morning, when they got up, they went straight down to the beach and they had some drinks.

[24] And then by the afternoon, they were talking amongst themselves, and they decided that for their first full night of being on vacation, they would kick things off with a bang, and they would go into Mexico and party there.

[25] And so they piled into their car and they drove an hour southwest to Brownsville, Texas, which is a town that sits right on the border of Mexico.

[26] And when they got there, they parked their car and then walked right over the footbridge that crossed the Rio Grande River into Mexico.

[27] On the other side, in Mexico, they found themselves in the town of Matamoros, which is very popular amongst spring breakgoers for their bars and their clubs.

[28] And so the four friends got a quick bite to eat at a hamburger joint, and then they made their way into the bars and the clubs, and they danced and they drank for hours.

[29] And then at some point, they got tired and left the bar scene.

[30] They crossed over the footbridge back into the, the U .S. and made their way back to their hotel in South Padre Island.

[31] The next morning when they got up and they recovered from their hangover, they decided they had so much fun in Matamoros the night before that they had to go back.

[32] And so that night, they piled back into their car, they drove back down to Brownsville, Texas, they crossed over that footbridge into Mexico, and then all night they partied and danced and had a great time.

[33] And then at some point, the four decided it was time to leave, and so they left their bar and began walking towards the footbridge.

[34] But that night, it was so crowded in Matamoros that you could barely move a foot without bumping into someone.

[35] And so the foursome split into two separate pairs.

[36] And the lead pair, they made their way ahead and they stopped at the gift shop right at the foot of that bridge going back to the U .S. side.

[37] And there they waited for the trail pair.

[38] The trail pair, which consisted of Mark Kilroy and Bill Huddleston, they weren't far behind, but they got sidetracked when Mark saw a girl standing next to a house that he had seen earlier in the night and he just wanted to go up and talk to her and say bye to her.

[39] And so they go over to this girl and while Mark is talking to her, Bill moves on head and goes down an alleyway to urinate.

[40] And then when he comes back out, Mark and this girl are not there.

[41] Bill assumed Mark Mark must have just moved on the little ways up to the bridge where the other two friends were at the gift shop.

[42] And so after looking around for just a couple of seconds, Bill makes his way up to the bridge and he meets up with the other two friends.

[43] And when he gets there, he asks the other two friends, you know, where's Mark?

[44] Did he come up here already?

[45] And they say, no, we haven't seen him.

[46] And so now the trio is a little bit concerned, but they're thinking, okay, he must be with this girl he had seen.

[47] And so they backtracked a little ways and they looked for Mark.

[48] They went back to where he had been talking to that girl and again he wasn't there.

[49] And so they decided, okay, he must have already crossed the bridge and made it to our car.

[50] And he's probably just waiting for us over there.

[51] And so the trio crosses over the bridge into the U .S. side.

[52] They get to their car and Mark's not there.

[53] And so at this point, they are pretty concerned about Mark, but they eventually convinced themselves that he must have just left with this girl and they probably are back at the hotel together.

[54] And so after a little while, the trio decides, let's just go back to the hotel, we're bound to find Mark.

[55] And so they drive all the way back to South Padre Island.

[56] They get to their hotel room and Mark's not there.

[57] But again, they tell themselves, he's not here because he's probably with this girl in another room.

[58] And so they don't worry about him.

[59] They go to bed.

[60] But the next morning, when Mark still had not come back to the hotel room, they decide, you know what, something's wrong here.

[61] We have to tell police.

[62] And so they file a missing person report, but the police get so many of these about spring breakers who go missing and Matamoros that they don't really take them seriously at first, because typically, the missing person will just show up 24 hours later with a horrible hangover and no memory of how they got back from Matamoros.

[63] And so the police were expecting this to happen with Mark, but after 24 hours when Mark didn't show up with a bad hangover, they were convinced that something had happened to him, and American and Mexican police suspected foul play because Matamoros in the surrounding areas are not exactly safe for tourists, but they didn't have any leads, and so Mark's case languished.

[64] Three weeks later, a drug smuggler drove through a police checkpoint without stopping just outside of Matamoros.

[65] And so the police pursued him and this guy ultimately stopped at this secluded ranch up in the mountains.

[66] After the police arrested the smuggler, they noticed a ranch worker was standing nearby and on a whim, they showed him a picture of Mark and said, hey, have you seen this guy?

[67] And the worker, despite being scared and not really sure what to do, he said to police, yeah, I have seen him here.

[68] The smuggler and his friends, they brought him here in handcuffs.

[69] And then the worker turned around and pointed up the mountain towards the shack.

[70] It was about 400 yards up the mountain.

[71] And he said, that's where they took him.

[72] And so authorities began walking up the hillside towards the shack.

[73] And when they got about 100 yards away, they saw this big metal cauldron sitting on the front stoop of the shack.

[74] And then when they got about 50 yards away, they were hit with this horrible smell of death and decay.

[75] And then when they got right up in front of the shack and could see inside of this cauldron and inside of the shack itself, what they saw was so grew.

[76] gruesome and horrible, that even the most senior and grizzled responding officers were totally shaken up by it.

[77] Under intense questioning, the drug smuggler that had originally led police up to the secluded ranch and the shack, admitted that he was a part of a gang and that his gang had taken Mark.

[78] Three weeks earlier, while Bill was urinating in that alleyway, Mark spoke to that girl he wanted to see, and then she went off, and then Mark was left standing alone waiting for Bill to come back.

[79] And while he was waiting, a man on the street parked in a red truck, yelled out to him to come over.

[80] He needed help or something.

[81] He lured him to the truck.

[82] And so Mark went over to the truck and then right when he asked the man, you know, what do you need?

[83] Two men, one of which included this drug smuggler, jumped out from behind a building and tried to grab Mark and put him inside of this red truck.

[84] Mark was a very fit, big athletic guy, and so he was able to fight the two men off and then took off running down the road.

[85] But he only made it about two blocks when another car full of gangsters showed up, cut him off, and then at gunpoint got him to come into the second vehicle.

[86] So once he was restrained inside of this vehicle, they drove him out of the town of Matamoros onto some back country roads up into the mountains to this suited ranch where they left him overnight in the car.

[87] The next morning, the gang members came back out and they wrapped duct tape around Mark's mouth and his whole face and his eyes.

[88] They just left a little slit around his nostrils so he could breathe, and then they pulled him out of the vehicle with his hands tied behind his back, and they walked him up the hill to that shack.

[89] This gang that had abducted Mark that this drug smuggler was a part of was more like a cult, and this cult was led by a man named Constanzo, who practiced a form of black magic called Palo.

[90] Constanzo would perform Paulo rituals, which he claimed to his followers, would make he and all of them invincible.

[91] These rituals, which took place in the shack up in the mountains, involved human sacrifice.

[92] Constanzo would tell his followers that these people who were going to be sacrificed, they didn't just need to die.

[93] They needed to die screaming.

[94] Because Constanzo believed, the more agony he inflicted on his victims before they were ultimately died and were sacrificed to the gods, the more power the gods would grant to he and his followers.

[95] And so the people who got kidnapped and marched up to that shack to be sacrificed were subjected to unspeakable atrocities, and Mark had been selected to be the next ritual sacrifice.

[96] After Mark was led out of the vehicle with his face all taped up, he was walked up to that shack where he spent several horrifying hours with Constanzo and his cronies, and then at some point Mark was killed when a machete was brought down on the back of his neck.

[97] Afterwards, Mark's brain was removed and placed into their sacred cauldron and boiled, and then Mark's legs were removed, and then a long wire was inserted into Mark's torso and fished around inside of him until they hooked it onto his spinal column, and then they buried his torso and his legs, and they left that wire protruding from his body up out of the dirt.

[98] There was basically a lead poking out of the ground, and the reason they did that was because later on, they could just pull on that wire and pull up Mark's bones and use his bones to make jewelry.

[99] Mark's body was one of 15 discovered in and around this shack.

[100] The total number of people that Constanzo and his cult ritualistically murdered is at least 16, but believed to be closer to 26.

[101] However, the police were not able to get the official number from Constanzo because Constanzo had his followers shoot and kill him before the police could get to him.

[102] Five other cult members were ultimately convicted for their roles in the cult's murders, and they were each given a sentence of over 60 years in prison.

[103] The next and final story of today's episode is called The Most Feared Girl in Mexico.

[104] The Sierra Madre Oriental is a major mountain range that starts on the southern border of Texas and Mexico and cuts 700 miles south through the northeastern section of Mexico.

[105] About halfway down this mountain range on the eastern face lies a series of caves.

[106] And situated below these caves at the foot of the mountains are several small villages that are very isolated and they're populated primarily with illiterate poor farmers.

[107] One night back in May of 1963, a 14 -year -old boy named Sebastian Guerrero, who lived in one of these small isolated villages, decided to go for a walk up in the mountains and he wanted to go explore the different caves.

[108] Now, this was something he did fairly regularly because there was a local rumor that there was actually hidden treasure in these different caves.

[109] Now, it's unclear if Sebastian literally believed that, or if that was just kind of an excuse to go have a lot.

[110] look around himself.

[111] But regardless, he headed out of his house and he began walking up the mountain towards these caves.

[112] The entrance to these caves were a couple hundred feet up the mountainside, and then each of the various entrances, which ranged in size from fairly small to enormous, were spread out a couple of miles in each direction.

[113] So Sebastian starts walking up the mountain towards the first entrance he can see.

[114] It's dark outside.

[115] He's got no flashlight.

[116] He's just walking up and as he's walking, he notices off to his right, fairly far away from where he was, there was light coming out of one of the cave entrances.

[117] And he had never recalled seeing light coming out of any of these caves.

[118] Nobody ever went in these caves, especially not at night.

[119] And so his interest was peaked and he decided he would kind of abandon his original plan to just kind of look around near his village and he would actually walk all the way over to that lit up cave and see what was going on.

[120] So he turned right and began kind of walking up uphill at an angle in the direction of this lit -up cave.

[121] And so as he's walking, he's getting farther and farther away from the village where he lives and he's starting to hear sounds coming out of this lit -up cave entrance.

[122] It sounds like a person potentially, either they're laughing or they're screaming, he doesn't really know, he's thinking, you know, maybe someone's having a party inside one of these caves, he has no idea.

[123] But after he gets maybe two or three hundred feet away from this entrance, he realizes it's definitely a person and they're definitely screaming and it does not sound like they're screaming out of joy.

[124] It sounds like they're screaming because they're scared or they're in pain.

[125] And as he's getting closer and closer and closer to this cave, his anxiety is starting to ramp up because he's really starting to be frightened by what he's hearing.

[126] And he's starting to realize there's more than one person inside of this cave.

[127] Hey, all you fans of the strange, dark, and mysterious.

[128] It's me, Mr. Ballin.

[129] And today I have some big news.

[130] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it.

[131] But this is something you're really going to want to see.

[132] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[133] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[134] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[135] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length, Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[136] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it.

[137] And it's just...

[138] just absolutely stunning.

[139] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .ballinstudios .com.

[140] Again, that's book .bollinstudios .com.

[141] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[142] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[143] We just launched a brand -new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[144] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.

[145] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[146] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[147] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and add free on Amazon Music.

[148] In addition to the person that is screaming out, there also sounds to be a large contingent of other people that are either singing in unison or chanting in unison, but some group of people are doing something in unison while some other person is screaming out.

[149] And so he's really starting to get nervous about this cave, but he just can't help feeling curious about what was going on.

[150] And so he just continued walking until he was maybe 10 feet away from the entrance to this cave, and he plopped down behind a rock.

[151] And so he's not a really sure if it's a good idea to look he doesn't want to be spotted by whoever is in there but finally he kind of works up the courage he takes a deep breath and he slips out from behind the rock and he goes right to the edge of this big opening maybe 10 foot across opening and he peeks his head right around the edge of the opening and he looks inside and what he sees causes him to just freeze in terror then his survival instincts just kick in and he turns and he starts running down the mountain away from this cave he has no idea if he's been spotted or not but he's sensing that someone could be chasing him.

[152] And so he is just running as if his life depended on it.

[153] And he would not run back to his village.

[154] Instead, he would run nearly 10 miles to the nearest police station.

[155] And when he gets there, he bust through the front doors and he's totally hysterical.

[156] He's drenched in sweat.

[157] And the police officers are totally caught off guard.

[158] And so they're trying to tell him to calm down.

[159] And so Sebastian finally would kind of compose himself.

[160] But then he just was not able to describe what he had seen inside of this cave.

[161] Whatever he had seen, he knew it was bad.

[162] but the words were just escaping him.

[163] And so the way he described it to police was he basically thought he saw vampires.

[164] And as soon as he began describing vampires to the police, they're thinking to themselves, okay, I don't know what's going on with this kid, but this just cannot be serious.

[165] And so they consoled him and kind of calmed him down and said, look, kid, you know, I don't know what you're talking about.

[166] You know, if there's any news that comes out of something happening in the cave that's bad, you know, I'm sure we'll hear about it and we'll follow up.

[167] But for now, we're just going to bring you back to your village.

[168] And so at this, Sebastian was really frustrated and he was kind of pleading with the police like, no, you got to take me seriously.

[169] There's something bad happening in this cave.

[170] Someone could be hurt.

[171] Someone could be dying.

[172] I don't know, but you got to go to this cave.

[173] You got to go see what's going on.

[174] But the police at this point, they're just not really interested.

[175] And so they ultimately do just drive him back to his village.

[176] And so he goes back into his home.

[177] The police go back to their station and everyone just kind of goes to bed for the night.

[178] The next day, when Sebastian wakes up, he just can't shake what he saw inside of that cave.

[179] And so he would once again run back to the police station, and when he got there, he began pleading with the police.

[180] Like, you got to go, you got to go see what's inside of this cave.

[181] I'm telling you, there's something awful in there.

[182] And this time, one of the police officers, his name was Luis Martinez, he would say, you know, okay, kid, bring me to this cave and I'll have a look around.

[183] And so Luis and Sebastian, who was very grateful, they left the police station, they hopped in a police car and they took off.

[184] And then, later on in the day, the other police officers who were not really paying attention to this cave thing, they realized that Luis and the boy had not returned yet and Luis had not checked in via his radio.

[185] And so at some point in the afternoon that day, the other officers began calling out to Luis.

[186] They began calling him on his radio and trying to figure out what's going on, but he wasn't responding.

[187] And so the police thought that was odd, but they thought, you know what, I'm sure he'll be back soon.

[188] There's got to be an explanation for this.

[189] But the rest of the day would go by without Luis reaching out to them and he didn't return with the boy.

[190] And so by that evening, the other officers were genuinely concerned that, you know, something bad had happened to their colleague.

[191] And so they tried calling Luis a few more times on the radio.

[192] It didn't work.

[193] And so the officers, they made their way over to Sebastian's village and they found Sebastian's family believing that, you know, maybe the boy was back and he could give some insight into where Luis went.

[194] But when, When they talk to Sebastian's family, they would say, hey, you know, he's not back yet either.

[195] And so both Sebastian and Luis at this point have not talked to anyone all day and they are missing.

[196] And so the police at this point, they realize this is an emergency.

[197] They need to figure out where these two went.

[198] And so they were kind of understaffed.

[199] And so they contacted the Mexican Army.

[200] And they explained, you know, we're missing one of our colleagues.

[201] We're missing a child from this village.

[202] And so the Mexican Army would actually send out a military unit to assist them in going and finding these two people.

[203] and so the unit they show up later that night and the police and the Mexican army they head out to where this cave was and when they saw what was inside the cave, it would shock the world.

[204] To understand what was found inside of this cave, we need to go back six months to December of 1962.

[205] That month, two brothers, Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, who made their living basically traveling around Mexico stealing from people and swindling people, they decided they were going to pull off their biggest heist.

[206] yet.

[207] They were going to rip off an entire town.

[208] Their plan was to go into a small, fairly isolated village that was populated primarily with poor and illiterate people, and they would go in there and they would convince the villagers that they, the brothers, were actually prophets of an exiled Incan god.

[209] And if these villagers did everything they said, they would make them rich.

[210] And so the village the brothers identified as their target was a place called La Yerba Buenna.

[211] which was located right at the foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental right below where that cave was that Luis and Sebastian went to investigate and La Yerba Buena was exactly what the brothers were looking for.

[212] It was home to only about 20 families that were all very poor and illiterate and they were very suggestible.

[213] And so right before the new year, the Hernandez brothers strolled into La Yerba Buena and they put on this very dramatic show explaining how they were the prophets of the Sinkin God.

[214] And these two brothers, they were very charismatic and they were excellent salesmen.

[215] And so they really sold the lie.

[216] And these villagers who were very vulnerable and cut off, really, from the rest of the world, they believed them.

[217] They thought this was their big break.

[218] They're going to be rich.

[219] We just have to do whatever they say.

[220] And so almost immediately, the villagers effectively became the Hernandez brothers slaves.

[221] They would give them anything they wanted and do anything they wanted.

[222] But after a couple of months of this, some of the villagers started to be frustrated with the Hernandez brothers, the prophets, because it seemed.

[223] like they were not really working towards making the villagers rich.

[224] Instead, it just seemed like they were horribly mistreating the villagers.

[225] And it just didn't feel like this was a relationship that was benefiting the villagers.

[226] And so when this sentiment began to kind of make its way around the 70 -ish people who lived in La Yerba Buena, the brothers picked up on it and they could have, at that point, just kind of abandoned their gig.

[227] At this point, you know, they've robbed the town dry.

[228] There's nothing left for them to give to the brothers.

[229] But for whatever reason, the brothers decide instead to salvage their operation.

[230] And so the brothers, they leave the village and they go to a city that's relatively close by.

[231] And they recruit this young woman named Magdalena Solis.

[232] She was a prostitute.

[233] And they tell her, hey, you know, we have this con we're doing in La Yerba Buena, where we're pretending to be prophets of this Incan god.

[234] And they're starting not to believe our lie.

[235] And so we need you, if you're willing, to come with us and pretend to be an actual Incan goddess.

[236] And so when you show up, they'll know that we were serious, that we have a direct line to the Incan gods and goddesses, and they'll believe us again, and they'll fall back in line.

[237] And so Magdalena, she likes the idea of participating in this con. And so she agrees to do it in exchange for some money.

[238] And so she, along with the Hernandez brothers and Magdalena's brother, his name was Eliezer, and he functioned as her pimp, those four people, they went back to Yerba Buena.

[239] And when they got there, the Hernandez brothers snuck Magdalena, past all the.

[240] the villagers up to that cave up in the mountains.

[241] And they put her in the back of the cave.

[242] They kind of hit her behind some rocks.

[243] And they dressed her up in an Incan goddess costume.

[244] And then once she was in there, the brothers went back down to the village and they rounded all the villagers up and said, come on, let's go up to the cave.

[245] We have a special ceremony for you.

[246] And so the villagers made their way up to this cave.

[247] And once they were all inside, the Hernandez brothers used some basic magic tricks and created basically a smokescreen.

[248] Once they had this smoke screen kind billowing in the back of the cave, they secretly signaled to Magdalena, who was behind the smoke screen, and she knew that was her cue, and she leapt through the smoke, and she presented herself to the villagers for the first time, and she declared herself to be a reincarnated Incan goddess, and if you don't do what I tell you to do, I'm going to kill you.

[249] And so the message she was sending to the villagers was so intense.

[250] They completely believed that this was an Incan goddess, and therefore this was not a ruse.

[251] The brothers were not lying to them.

[252] This was all very real.

[253] There's a real goddess in front of us.

[254] And so they immediately fell right back in line.

[255] The plan worked exactly as the brothers wanted it to.

[256] However, there was an element of their plan they could not possibly have accounted for.

[257] And that was what Magdalena did next.

[258] Even though Magdalena was fully aware that what she was getting herself into was an act, it was a con, it was not real.

[259] Despite that, as soon as she jumped through the smoke and was standing in front of the villagers for the first time, and saw the looks on these people's faces as they stared up at her, and she saw their reverence for her.

[260] It had this profound impact on her.

[261] This was a woman who's never had control in her life.

[262] She's been a prostitute since a young age, and here she is the most powerful person in the room, and it's not even close.

[263] And it got to her head.

[264] And so when she left the cave that night, she literally believed she was a reincarnated Incan goddess, and she was not a merciful.

[265] one.

[266] Within the first few days of her stay at La Yerba Buena, Magdalena used threats of violence on the villagers to completely take over the village.

[267] She very easily supplanted the Hernandez brothers at the top of the power structure.

[268] Now, the Hernandez brothers probably were quite surprised to see this happen because they were expecting Magdalena to play more of a prop role to keep them in power, not the other way around.

[269] But ultimately, they kind of just went along with it because through Magdalena's control over the villagers, they were able to continue to exploit the villagers, and so they were getting what they wanted out of this relationship.

[270] Within a few weeks of being in La Yerba Buena, Magdalena was not only abusing every villager in every horrible way imaginable, she also was becoming completely delusional.

[271] She convinced herself that in order to survive, she needed to start drinking blood.

[272] And so she demanded all the villagers provide her with blood.

[273] And so in fear of retribution, the villagers began slaughtering all of their farm animals and their own pets, so Magdalena could drink their blood.

[274] For weeks and weeks and weeks, the horrible abuse Magdalena would dole out on the villagers would continue and these blood rituals would continue.

[275] And then finally, sometime in April, two of the villagers decided, you know what, I've had enough.

[276] I don't believe Magdalena is actually an Incan goddess.

[277] I don't believe the Hernandez brothers are actually prophets.

[278] I think this is all a scam.

[279] And so they decided the way they would handle this is they were just going to flee the village.

[280] Now, somehow their plans to run away, got out, and the Hernandez brothers found out about it.

[281] And they, in turn, told Magdalena about it.

[282] And when she heard the news, she immediately told everyone in the village to make their way up to the cave for a special ceremony.

[283] So all the villagers, including the two people that were planning on running away, they made their way up to the cave.

[284] And once everyone was inside, Magdalena walked to the front of the group and she pointed at the two dissenters, the two people that were planning on running, and she demanded that the rest of the villagers kill them.

[285] And on the spot, all of the other villagers jumped on top of the two dissenters and they lynched them.

[286] They beat them to death in the cave.

[287] And then after these two people have been killed, Magdalena orders their bodies be strung up on these two pikes she had set up in the back of the cave because she knew what she was going to be doing up in this cave.

[288] And so after these two bodies were strung up on these pikes, Magdalena grabs a chalice and she walks over to these two bodies and she presses the chalice up against their bodies where they're bleeding from and she fills it up and then she drinks from the chalice.

[289] And at this point, everything changed.

[290] Suddenly, Magdalena understood that it wasn't good enough to just be drinking animal blood.

[291] That was not enough to keep her a goddess alive.

[292] She now could only consume human blood.

[293] And so for the next several weeks, periodically Magdalena would order everyone in the village to go back up to the cave for a blood ritual, which they all knew what this entailed.

[294] This no longer had anything to do with animals.

[295] This was human blood rituals.

[296] She would order them up and they would have no idea who was going to be the sacrifice.

[297] And so all these people that get inside the dark cave and then Magdalena shows up and she stands in front of them and after kind of looking them over she identifies her next sacrifice and out of fear the other villagers who were the friends and family of the victim would launch themselves on top of the chosen sacrifice and lynch them in the cave and then afterwards their body would be strung up on one of the pikes and Magdalena would walk over with her chalice she would fill it with blood and she would drink it and so this would go on and on for several weeks.

[298] And one of the most distressing aspects of these human sacrifices is that as she did more and more and more of them, Magdalena got it in her head that beating the sacrifice to death before consuming their blood was spoiling the blood in some way.

[299] And so what she began doing was she would have the other villagers beat the sacrifice into submission and then she would have the sacrifice strung up to one of the pikes while they were still alive.

[300] And then she would carve their heart out while they were alive.

[301] And then she would drink their blood.

[302] So in May of 1963, when Sebastian, the 14 -year -old boy, when he poked his head around and looked into that cave, he watched one of these sacrifices having their heart cut out.

[303] And he didn't know what to make of it.

[304] And so he ran to the police.

[305] And then the next day, he and the police officer, Luis Martinez, they would go back to the cave and Magdalena and her cult would spot them, capture them, and dragged them both into the cave and both of them would be ritualistically sacrificed.

[306] They would have their hearts cut out and Magdalena would drink their blood.

[307] When the police and army arrived in La Yerba Buena, it was a ghost town because all of the villagers had been ordered up to the cave where they had barricaded themselves inside with weapons because Magdalena probably knew there was going to be a big police response because one of their officers has gone missing out here, they're bound to be found out.

[308] And so when the police and the army reached the cave, there's this big shootout with all of the villagers, and during the shootout, the majority of the villagers are killed.

[309] Also, the Hernandez brothers, they're also killed in the shootout.

[310] And then after the shootout stopped, the police and the army would go into this cave and they would discover the pikes, the bloody pikes that are in the back of the cave with bits of human remains all over the ground.

[311] And then they would leave the cave and they would search the town and they would find the remains of Luis and Sebastian outside a particular shack.

[312] And then inside the shack was Magdalena and her brother, Eliezer.

[313] They were still alive.

[314] They were trying to hide from the authorities.

[315] And so they would be arrested.

[316] It's believed Magdalena sacrificed and drank the blood of at least 15 of the villagers over a six -week period.

[317] However, the only remains to be positively identified were Luis Martinez and Sebastian Guerrero.

[318] Ultimately, Magdalena and her brother Eliezer were sentenced to 50 years in prison, and all of the surviving villagers who participated in the sacrifices or who participated in the shootout with police and the army, they were given 30 years in prison.

[319] Amazingly, none of the villagers ever testified against Magdalena or her brother.

[320] Despite the fact, they were almost certainly offered reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony.

[321] Clearly, they were more terrified of the Incan goddess than they were terrified of the prospect of 30 years in prison.

[322] Although the exact date of when this happened is not known, Magdalena would eventually die behind bars.

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[337] I'm Dan Taberski.

[338] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[339] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[340] I'm like, stop around.

[341] She's like, I can't.

[342] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[343] Like doubling and tripling and it's all these With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[344] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[345] Well, you were holding something back.

[346] Intentionally.

[347] Yeah, well, yeah.

[348] No, it's hysteria.

[349] It's all in your head.

[350] It's not physical.

[351] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[352] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[353] Or is it something else entirely?

[354] Something's wrong here.

[355] Something's not right.

[356] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[357] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

[358] Hysterical.

[359] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[360] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.