When two men were found lying in a field, their bodies decomposing rapidly from the deleterious conditions of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil police knew they had a mystery on their hands. But the more they looked into the case, the deeper the mystery went. And since that day on August 20, 1966 when Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were found, the mystery of the men with the metal masks has only continued to confound even the most dedicated researchers.
The men were lying in the field wearing suits and metal masks over their faces. Alongside them was a note scrawled in an unidentified handwriting instructing them to take capsules, then wait for these pills to take effect before putting on the metal masks and waiting for the signal. Though it has often been thought to be involved with UFO activity, others suggest the case could have been a plot to rob the two of their earthly possessions. Neither man was found with any money on them. And there was a list suggesting they may have been setting out to buy electronic parts for an upcoming project.
The two had been involved in the UFO culture for many years, attempting everything they could to design a method for contacting extraterrestrials. And so it seems their latest escapade had come from an unknown source and may have actually resulted in both men being instructed in a way to contact extraterrestrials and then dying as a result of an unknown poisoned capsule. The only problem is, no tests were performed to see if they had been poisoned. It was simply assumed and then left at that. So what would they have believed to make them ingest poison? Consider the following scenario.
It was the late 1960s, and solutions to many problems were coming in the form of mysterious pills people even though many didn’t know just how medicine worked. While most had an idea of the limitations of drugs, with new hallucinogens like LSD coming out and a good portion of the population in the US taking Benzidrine as a strong stimulant for both medical and recreational uses, the idea of a pill to help users reach a plane where contact with aliens may have been conceivable at least to try to Manoel and Miguel. But for whatever reason – whether the drug was purposefully designed to kill them or it was simply accidentally dosed in such a way that took their lives, they lay there on the ground that evening and died.
But if the story that night sounds like nothing more than a murder mystery, it gets far stranger from there. It would seem on the evening of August 19th several unidentified flying objects were reportedly seen in the area around the two who later died. And then there’s one fact that often is overlooked in this case. The note they had said “wait for signal, then put on masks.” The two were wearing the masks when they were found lying in the field. Is it possible they could have received the signal prior to their deaths? If an extraterrestrial entity with compassion knew what was going to happen, it may very well have appeared to them in those last minutes knowing they would not be able to tell anyone afterward, and fulfilling their final wish. Of course whoever had set up the murder plot may have seen it too, but been forced to remain silent all these years or else betray that he had been responsible for the two men dying.