THE LEAD MASKS CASE
THE LEAD MASKS CASE The Lead Masks Case was a series of events which led to the death of two Brazilian electronic technicians, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana. Their bodies were discovered on August 20, 1966, and the cause of their deaths has never been determined. On the afternoon of August 20, 1966, a young man was flying a kite on the Morro do Vintém (Vintém Hill) in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when he came upon the bodies of two deceased males and reported them to the authorities. The Morro do Vintém had difficult terrain, and the police were unable to reach the bodies until the next day. When a small team of police and firefighters arrived on scene, they noticed oddities: the bodies rested next to each other, partly covered by grass. Each one wore a formal suit, a lead eye mask, and a waterproof coat. There were no signs of trauma or any evidence of a struggle. Next to the corpses, police found an empty water bottle and a packet containing two wet towels. A small...