Customer Reviews

Buried Secrets: A True Story of Drug Running, Black Magic, and Human Sacrifice

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This book literally scared me!! I am an avid reader of horror, sci fi and true crime, but this one was the wildest tale I'd ever encountered. Adolpho deJesus Constanzo, a Cuban American, takes up residence in Mexico and acquires a cult. The religion he practices is a mix of Santeria and Payo Mayombe, an ancient African religion which steals souls through murder and acquires power through blood rites. He tortures and kills his victims in horrendous fashion and "steals their souls" as they scream to their death. Some of the murder scenes were so graphic I could barely read them. The cult is a bunch of drug runners (shoes drop all over the place in this one!) who beleive they are invisible and invincible through the powers of their Priest. The Priest is also bisexual, acquiring female Preistesses and male devotees alike. Most of his early victims are rival drug dealers. They run into trouble when Constanzo insists on a blonde American victim and they steal a college kid who is out partying across the border. Buried Secrets is an understatement when you realize how many bodies are finally unearthed on discovery. In the end, the Preist has his followers kill him on the promise that he can easily return. Hair raising, on a par with the Exorcist for those of us with Christian backgrounds. This man was so evil I nearly beleived he could come back!! Read this at your own risk. Not for the squeamish. Although, I must admit I read it several times and I recommend it highly for anyone who is an avid reader of true crime or books about the occult.

As I first began to read this book, I wasn't sure I'd be able to stomach it, but Edward Humes has written a superb book on Adolfo Constanzo and his "cult".

Constanzo, a Cuban-American born in a family where their religion routinely sacrificed animals, was raised to believe he had special powers. In the 1980s, Constanzo moved to Mexico, and read fortunes and performed "cleansings" which involved animal sacrifices to help his clients achieve fame, wealth and protection. Constanzo had some people believing in his magic so strongly that they actually thought they'd be invisible to police and impervious to bullets.

As successful as he was, Constanzo wanted more power and money, and turned his energies to drug smuggling. Constanzo became more sadistic and delusional, and justified human sacrifice in order to provide shelter from harm (as well as remove competition), but it didn't stop at murder - he wanted to torture, rape and dismember in the name of his religion. Sadly, 15 victims were found buried near the shed where the rituals occurred, one of whom was American student Mark Kilroy.

There's a lot of background on each of his followers, the culture and people of Matamoras, and the Santeria and Palo Mayombe religions. There's also interesting information on Mexican law enforcement and corruption, and the distrust between their agencies and US agencies.

I would highly recommend this book.

I am from the area where this happened, and i remember seeing this on tv, when they unearthed all the bodies in the Ranch of Santa Elena. To this day, i dont think i've seen a scarier true story of mass murder than this. when i read this book, it literally blew my mind!! i am not easily scared, and this book is scarier than any movie out there. the book covers the early life and up bringing of the cult leader and how he rose to power using magic, and eventually capturing the young blonde spring breaker who was partying in mexico, tortured and killed him along with many many others. i believe it was over 40 bodies that were found, well, peices of them. you really need to read this. it will get you hooked!!

Great read. I found this book a few years ago and have read it over 5 times. My brother wanted to borrow it but I couldn't part with it so I found it online at a severly inexpensive pricetag. I bought it for him and sent it his way. So far he's enjoying the truth behind this monster of a cult. We grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and this story hits close to home when the Mark Kilroy disappearance went on. Such a sad ending to this promising young man, but a well deserving outcome for the monsters who participated in such a macabre and sickening massacre.

This is a surperb book, I've read it twice and found it so good I went back for thirds! This book covers this religious sacrifices and durg deals made by the charismatic cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a Miami-born ex-altar boy who's love for power and money cause him to form his cult. The religion in which they practice is Santeria, which includes animal sacrifces and in the end, human sacrifices. I highly recomend this book :)

I got the book faster then what the est. time said it would come. Book was in good contition. However, there was a page torn out in the front of book. But not an important page and it still looked good. Thank you

Nice book, once you read you don't want to stop, but it needs more description of how the people die, and to enjoy or not enjoy , those descriptions.