Part 18

July 24, 1998, STATE OF OREGON v. MICHAEL JAMES HAYWARD, SUPREME COURT OF OREGON, 963 P.2d 667, 1998 Ore. LEXIS 593, Murder, Assault, Kidnapping, Robbery, and Burglary Affirmed, Death Sentence Affirmed.

Overview: Appellate documents state that on April 10, 1994 Jason Brock, Daniel Rabago, Jason Brumwell, and Johl Brock, three of whom considered themselves to be Satanists and members of a "Death-Metal" band, decided to rob a Dari Mart. They listened to their Death-Metal music before they committed the crime, which included lyrics to "The Pick-Axe Murders," An Experiment in Homicide," "Hammer smashed face," Meat Hook Sodomy," "Gutted," and "Living Dissection." They planned their crime and went to a Dari Mart store, killed a female clerk, and brutally beat another one.

Jason Brock described the lyrics of “Cannibal Corpse,” as songs which “explain or picture through words killing people.” Johl Brocks testified that the death metal lyrics to which the group listened “described basic satanic practices, ceremonies and stuff.” He also stated that the lyrics on the CD by the band Decide is what led to the two of them “dabbling into Satanism.” Daniel Rabago testified “we were all into evil and we were all pretty much deathers.”

The evidence of "Death-metal" music and Satanism was admitted into the court testimony and was upheld because it partially explain the motive for the crime and the motive for the degree of brutality used.

April 28, 1998, LUBUK PAKAM, INDONESIA, Achmad Suradji Sentenced to Death for Murdering 42 Women.

Overview: News reports state an Indonesian sorcerer Achmad Suradji, 47, was sentenced to death for murdering 42 women as part of a bizarre attempt to “boost his magical powers.” The case first came to light in April last year when police, following up a missing person's report, found a body buried in a sugar cane field near Suradji's house. When they went to question the sorcerer, they found women's shoes and handbags. Over the next few weeks, a further 41 bodies were unearthed close to his village. According to the police, Suradji said that he had a dream in 1986 in which the ghost of his father had told him to kill a total of 70 women and then drink their saliva in order to enhance his mystical powers. See "Sorcerer to die for 42 murders," The Daily Telegraph, April 28, 1998 and "Witch Work; How an Indonesian lured 42 women to their death," Asiaweek, June 13, 1997

March 25, 1998, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, Elio Hernandez Rivera, David Serna Valdes and Sergio Martinez Salinas, Sentences for Murder, Conspiracy, Drug Trafficking and Weapons Violations Reduced

Overview: News articles state that reputed “Godmother,” Sara Maria Aldrete Villarreal, a student at Texas Southmost College, and four other members of a cult were sentenced to more than 60 years in prison for the ritual slaying of 13 people, including Texas College student, Mark Kilroy. After they appealed, an appellate judge reduced the sentences of Rivera, Valdes, and Salinas from 67 to 50 years.

Mark Kilroy, 21, a pre-med student, was kidnapped on the streets of Matamoros on March 14, 1989 during Spring Break. Police arrested cult member Serafin Hernandez, a drug trafficker, after he drove through a federal judicial police roadblock outside Matamoros believing he was rendered “invisible” by his cult’s “black magic.”

Hernandez confessed to participating in the kidnapping and burial of Mark Kilroy and took authorities to his remains on a ranch near the Rio Grande. Sara Aldrete and other cult members had taken Kilroy there, where they ritualistically murdered him, removed his brain and cut his body into pieces. The police also discovered the remains of 13 other victims, including another U.S. citizen, and a 9-year-old child.

Decomposed goat heads, parts of a rooster, bowls containing dried blood, a cauldron with human remains, including a brain and a heart, and spines crafted into necklaces, were found on the ranch. Authorities said Sara Aldrete was the “Godmother” who presided over rituals along with “Godfather” and cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanza. In 1989 Aldofo Constanza was killed by another cult member at his request during a police shootout.

The group thought their self-styled religion, which drew from the Caribbean Santeria and the African Palo Mayombe traditions, would render them bulletproof and protect them from police and rival gang members which was the rationale for why they “sacrificed” Mark Kilroy and others. See “I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This Before,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 16, 1989; “Texan Arrested in Cult Killings,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 1989; “Behind Drug Cult Killings in Mexico,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 7, 1991; “Cult Killers Given Lighter Sentences,” San Antonio Express-News, March 25, 1998; “’Devil Ranch’ Priestess Still Says She’s Innocent,” San Antonio Express-News, March 21, 2004

March 18, 1998, SOUTH AFRICA, Naledzani Mabuda and his Wife Helen Madida Confessed to Murder

Overview: News reports state the father, Naledzani Mabuda, 26, a traditional healer and spiritual medium, and his wife, Helen, 22, confessed to ritually killing their 23 month old son because Mabuda’s ancestors had threatened to destroy him if he did not. Police found the boy's head, legs, hands and genitals buried under various parts of the floor in the couple's house. Mabuda testified in court that killing his son as a sacrifice to the family’s ancestors was central to his role as a traditional healer and spiritual medium. Later searches revealed the toddler's intestines, liver and other internal organs found in a series of ritual "graves" on the nearby mountainside.

The couple were refused bail after another local traditional leader banned them from the village. He testified that the couple had committed a crime of the "greatest evil" and that the townspeople were terrified by the act. A series of sangomas were asked to testify about ritual human sacrifices as part of traditional African beliefs. See, "A Sangoma Couple in Court for Sacrificing Child to Ancestors,” Africa News Service, March 18, 1998. 

In January 1998 several of South Africa's witch-doctors, or sangomas, claimed that ritual murders and killings related to the medicinal quest for body parts had decreased by more than 90 percent. The news article reports that police estimate that several hundred people, many of them children, are killed in South Africa each year for their body parts. Female genitals, breasts and placentas are used for infertility and good luck, while hands burned to ashes and mixed into a paste are seen as a cure for strokes, and hearts for heart disease. Blood is given to impart vitality and brains for political power and business success. However "true sangomas eschew the use of body parts, treating physical and mental ailments using herbal medicines." See "Witch-doctors not making a killing any more: South African healers say ritual murders no longer in vogue." The Ottawa Citizen, January 2, 1998


See Part 19