The Lead Masks Case

On August 20, 1966, two men were found dead on Vintem Hill near Niterói, Brazil. They wore formal suits, raincoats, and crude lead eye masks. Beside them lay a notebook with cryptic instructions. No cause of death was determined, and the case remains one of Brazil’s most puzzling mysteries.

The Discovery

A young man flying a kite on Vintem Hill discovered the bodies of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana. Both men were electronic technicians from Campos dos Goytacazes, about 180 kilometers away. They had traveled to Niterói three days earlier.

The men lay side by side, wearing suits and new raincoats. Each wore a simple lead eye mask, like those used to protect against radiation. Near them was a small notebook, a towel, and a bottle of water.

The notebook contained cryptic instructions written in one of the men’s handwriting: “16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for the mask signal.”

The Investigation

No cause of death could be determined. The bodies showed no signs of violence, poisoning, or natural disease. The weather had been too rainy for a proper autopsy in the days following the discovery, and potential evidence degraded.

Investigators learned that the two men had been interested in “scientific spiritualism,” a Brazilian movement combining spiritualist beliefs with pseudo-scientific practices. They had apparently been attempting to contact extraterrestrials or spirits.

The men had purchased the raincoats in Niterói and the lead eye masks had been crafted beforehand, suggesting premeditation. Whatever they planned to do on that hill, they had prepared for it.

Theories

Multiple explanations have been proposed for the Lead Masks case:

The men may have been attempting to contact aliens or spirits through some ritual, took a hallucinogenic or poisonous substance as part of the ritual, and died from its effects. The lead masks may have been intended to protect them during the “contact.”

They may have been murdered, with the strange circumstances staged to confuse investigators. However, no motive was established, and the men had no known enemies.

They may have died from natural causes—simultaneous heart attacks or a lightning strike—with the strange setting purely coincidental.

Some Brazilian ufologists have suggested the men succeeded in making contact and were killed or taken by whatever they contacted.

Previous Incidents

Investigators discovered that the men had participated in at least one previous experiment on Vintem Hill. A witness reported seeing them on the hill with another man who was never identified. This suggests they had been attempting their “contact” multiple times.

Another electronics technician from the same region had been found dead under similar circumstances in 1962, also wearing a lead mask. This earlier death was ruled a suicide, but the connection raised questions that were never answered.

Assessment

The Lead Masks case combines documented facts—two men dead with no determined cause, wearing strange equipment, with cryptic written instructions—with a context of fringe beliefs and possible experimentation with unknown substances.

Whether Manoel and Miguel died attempting something genuinely dangerous, fell victim to fraud or murder, or experienced something genuinely anomalous is unknown. The lead masks stare blankly from the crime scene photographs, hiding whatever the men saw, or expected to see, in their final moments.