The Lead Masks of Vintem Hill | Brazil 1966

Two men in suits. Two homemade lead masks. One cryptic note. And a mystery that's haunted Brazil for nearly sixty years.

In August 1966, a teenager flying a kite on a hillside outside Rio de Janeiro stumbled onto a scene that would become one of South America's most baffling unsolved cases. Two electronics technicians—Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana—lay dead on the grass, positioned side by side like they'd simply fallen asleep. But they weren't sleeping. And the crude lead masks covering their eyes weren't for rest.

Jinkies—wait until you hear what was in their pockets.

A handwritten note with specific instructions. References to ingesting capsules at precise times. And the chilling phrase: "Await signal. Mask."

The gang investigates what these two "scientific spiritualists" were actually doing on that remote hillside. Both men had lied to their families about where they were going. Both had been conducting experiments combining electronics with supernatural practices. And both died reaching for something—whether spirits, extraterrestrials, or something else entirely—that required lead shielding and careful preparation.

What killed them? The most frustrating part: we may never know. Brazilian authorities in 1966 never performed a toxicology test. Two men found dead with a note explicitly mentioning capsules, and no one thought to check what those capsules contained. The case was closed as "undetermined."

Like, what if someone gave them those capsules knowing exactly what would happen?

Shane, Josh, and Kim explore every theory—from a spiritual experiment gone wrong to UFO contact (witnesses reported strange orange lights over the hill that night) to murder by a mysterious female contact who purchased the water bottle found at the scene but was never investigated. The trail leads through 1960s Brazilian spiritualism, amateur electronics experiments, and a community of believers who thought they could contact beings from other dimensions.

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