Adolfo Constanzo

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Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo (November 1, 1962 - May 6, 1989) was a serial killer and cult leader in Mexico. His nickname was The Godfather of Matamoros.

Early life

Constanzo was born in Miami, Florida. His mother, Delia Aurora Gonzalez del Valle, was a widowed Cuban immigrant. She gave birth to him when she was 15 years old, and she would eventually have three children in total - each with a different father. She moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, after her first husband died, and re-married. While in San Juan, Constanzo was baptized Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy, but he was also influenced by his mother's participation in Palo mayombe. The family returned to Miami in 1972, and his stepfather died soon after, leaving the family with some money. His mother soon re-married, and his new stepfather was involved in the local drug trade and the occult.

Both Costanzo and his mother were arrested several times for petty crimes, such as theft, vandalism, and shoplifting. He graduated from high school, but he dropped out of junior college. His mother believed that he had psychic abilities for supposedly predicting the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. As a teenager, he befriended a Haitian Palo mayombe priest who taught him the skills necessary to be a drug dealer and con artist, training him for a career "profiting from evil."

Adulthood

Costanzo visited Mexico City in 1983, supporting himself as a tarot card reader. There, he recruited two younger men, Martin Quintana Rodriguez and Omar Orea Ochoa, to be his servants, lovers, and disciples. Constanzo returned to Miami shortly thereafter, but he moved to Mexico City in mid-1984. Over the next few years, he was the leader of a full-fledged cult, with drug dealers, musicians, and even police officers under his command. The cult sold drugs, held high-priced occult ceremonies and, by at least 1987, murdered people for use in human sacrifices. These victims fell along with the cult's rivals in dealing drugs.

When Costanzo and his followers murdered an American tourist, 21-year-old Mark Kilroy, in March, 1989, local police, facing pressures from Texas authorities, cracked down on Costanzo's cult, trying to repair the damage the highly publicized case brought to their international reputation. More and more of the cult's members were arrested until, on May 6, they had cornered Costanzo and two of his followers, one of whom was his lover, in an apartment. Determined not to go to prison, Costanzo ordered one of the disciples to shoot him and Rodriguez. They were both dead when the police finally broke in.

One of Constanzo's most trusted leaders within his cult, Sara Maria Aldrete, was arrested not long after his death. She was sentenced to a total of 68 years in prison for her involvement in the cult and the murders.

External links

[Crime Library] Court TV article on Constanzo
[Crime Library 2] another Court TV article on the "Death Priests"
["The Mexican Voodoo Massacre"] Bizarre Magazine
[The Godfather of Matamoros]

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