[electron1]

Due to the restrictions on posting WP articles in full, the rest of the article can be found at the link above.

The article talks about gruesome witch killings done on little children.

[spycatcher]

May be the plot of the next Harry Potter book

[AD from SpringBay]

Oh give me a break! There's no harm in a little witchcraft. Everybody knows it's all about being cute and funny and getting away with little "cheats". My gosh!

What are you, some kind of a bible thumper? How dare you even bring this up. There ought to be rules.

[ClearCase_guy]

But ... But ...

We are no better than they are.

Who are we to judge?

All cultures are equally good.

All cultures are equally valid.

It would be wrong to criticize.

[Aquinasfan]

This line was worth the price of admission:

However, as the victims' parents and community leaders have blamed the slayings on the dark side of popular African-influenced religions practiced by millions of Brazilians, that tolerance is facing its greatest test in years.

[Junior]

Sounds like the case in The Alienist ...

[Phantom Lord]

I think it was El Chupa Cabra!

[Phantom Lord]

I will admit that i have never read the Harry Potter books and I have no interest in reading them. My wife is getting the complete set for Christmas from her brother. I might have to break down and read them just to see what the big stink is about.

Or would it be better to not read the book or possibly face an eternity in hell if i do?

[RnMomof7]

Just a little harmless fantasy..God really likes it you know,that is why He gave us imaginations

So now lets move on to the next Potter book shall we?< /sarcarsm>

[Demidog]

Must be Harry Potter fans.

[discostu]

It's great how this has turned into a general religion bash mixed in with a typical HP thread and I really hate to spoil the fun. But anybody that spent anytime reading up on serial killers knows these killings aren't that "interesting". Genital mutilation, ritualistic posing and trophy gathering are pretty standard fare in serial killer land. The odd thing is that the victims are so you and male. I really hate to say it in this crowd but that would tend to indicate that the perpetrator is homosexual (serial killer victims are almost always the gender the killer is attracted to, and there have been very few female serial killers, and pedophilia does tend towards same sex; though it's important to note that homosexuality does NOT tend towards pedophilia).

As for hybrid religions being blames, much of the populace of London blamed Jews for Jack the Ripper (first documented serial killer) yet among ripperologists there are very few that take the Jew theory seriously. It's also important to note that most killers strike within their own group (for ease of movement generally, poor people don't tend to notice other poor people in their neighborhood) and in Brazil the impoverished are also the group most likely to be involved in one of these hybrids (when you have it as bad as these people do you'll pray to just about anything). So while I'd say there's a pretty solid chance the killer is a practioner, these acts are far to typical of the organized deviant killer to give any indication that the religion has anything to do with it. Though if he's similar to American serial killers when (here's praying it really is a when not if) he's caught he'll try to shunt blame to just about everything (once Son of Sam opened the door to the talking dog cop out the flood gates opened, some guys have even blamed the weather) the contents of his domicile will give us a lot more information than what comes out his mouth.

But, from what this article presents, the killing style is far too typical of the killing styles of American serial killers for me to seriously consider the possibility that a localized religion has any part of it. Read John Douglas' books (especially the first one, clearly his best) and you'll see what I mean. Basically this one reads like a cross between Ramirez, and the Atlanta child killer(s). A little bolder with the staging, but if this guy has been going for 10 to 13 years you'd expect that. Killers get bolder as the body count stacks up.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Adam Walsh (father is of AMW fame) was killed by witches. His head was found in a coffee can in Hobe Sound area (Florida).

[xm177e2]

There was a guy who turned himself in for molesting and killing over a hundred boys, I believe, somewhere in Latin America last year or a couple of years ago.

Law enforcement wasn't going to catch him, he just decided to turn himself in one day. Very sick.

They don't have the same level of policing there as they have here, people can get away with mass murder.

[Slyfox]

"African religious traditions in Brazil date to the first slaves brought here in the 16th century. They fused the Harry Potter books they were forced to read by the colonial Portuguese with the spiritualism of their homelands, inventing what anthropologists describe as new, hybrid religions such as Tambo de Mina, Candomble and Umbanda."