It was the ’80s: big hair, gold lamé, car phones, greed, Satanic Panic…and a young borderland woman who had a hand in helping to create that panic. When Sara Aldrete met cult leader Adolfo Constanzo, her goal of becoming a state college transfer and P.E. instructor changed to dark dreams of becoming a black magic high priestess. Before police caught up with what was later dubbed the “Matomoros Murder Cult,” 23 people were brutally murdered, including a young college student named Mark Kilroy, whose disappearance helped bring publicity to the case. Sara was desperately infatuated with Adolfo–but was she culpable for these crimes?
This is the fourth episode in the podcast’s first season, “Accessories to Murder.” If you like this episode, please subscribe, rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or wherever you access podcasts, and consider supporting us at Patreon.
Host: Paris Brown
Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown
Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. “Theme for ‘The Mad Thinker'” from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab, 2005 and by Haunted Corpse. “Haunted House” from Dirges for the Undead, 2014. Creative Commons attribution license.
Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner (nathalierattnerart@gmail.com)
Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics
Featured photo from: Bonnie’s Blog of Crime.
Reddit discussion group
Sources:
“Alleged Cult Priestess Gets Literature Prize in Prison.” El Paso Times. 21 Oct. 2004, p.12.
Homes, Edward. Buried Secrets: A True Story of Serial Murder, Black Magic, and Drug-Running on the U.S. Border. Penguin, 1991.
Provost, Gary. Across the Border: The True Story of Satanic Cult Killings in Matamoros, Mexico. Crossroad, 2014.
Schiller, Dane. “‘Devil Ranch’ Priestess Confronts Chance of Dying Behind Bars.” Santa Cruz Sentinel. 25 Mar. 2004, p. 25.
Williams, Joel. “Ballad about Slayings Hitting Radio Airwaves in South Texas.” Associated Press. 16 May 1989.
Crime Scholar 