Chapter 2: The Smell of Fear in the Air

January 1999

Lou normally did not deal with these types of crimes. There was a lot of voodoo practiced in south Florida. I must contribute that to the fact that south Florida probably has more immigrants from the Caribbean than there are actual US citizens. I also knew that there were Satanic churches in the state as there are in all over the country, not to mention the whole world. This story had occult activity written all over it! Just what was Francisco Cordero up to? Maybe the police were trying to determine if Francisco had done any “graduate work” in his study of blood sacrifice.

I brought my crew in for filming. Lou warned them of what they would see though it did not prepare my crew, who thought they had seen everything. I thought Kevin was going to lose his breakfast on the carpet. After a few minutes, I thought I was going to join him. The smell was as bad as the sight of it.

Lou took me to the room where the police believe the killers slew the animals. A plastic sheet covered the floor as well as the walls. “I suppose that was to protect the carpet and walls from bloodstains. That part is easy to put together,” I remarked.

In the middle of the room was the “dead give-away” piece of evidence. A stone altar, stained with blood, stood roughly about three feet high, two feet wide, and four or five feet long, supported by a pillar of mortared cinder blocks, stood directly in the middle of the room. The stone slab had some intricate designs along the side.

“Lou, some of these symbols I recognize but ... I can’t be sure.” I could not decipher the others. It was a hideous sight, to say the least.

“Malcolm, do the best you can. I am way over my head here with this stuff,” Lou replied. Then he took me to the next room. “I call this room the armory. Have you ever seen such a collection of blades in all your life?” All sorts of ceremonial daggers, swords, masks, clubbing weapons, darts hung on the walls. You name it, and it was probably there.

Lou was already calling the other room with the altar the “slaughterhouse.” I think it was the animals fear, exuded prior to their sadistic demise, making the air revolting to breathe. Those poor creatures! Kevin was turning pale from the horror of such cruelty.

I told Lou “What you have here is definitely some type of occult activity, of which a blood sacrifice was needed, and it seems often. I can’t imagine Cordero doing this because his cable was out, and he had nothing else to do.”

“Yes,” Lou said, “I thought you would say that. However, they don’t work alone in such ways, do they? Aren’t they always involved a group of followers?”

“Cordero was obviously involved with a group of cult members who, among other things, believed in animal sacrifice. The other things they might believe in disturbs me more. One of the neighbors outside was telling me she had been observing this house for quite some time. I think you are going to want to talk to her and her husband,” I replied. I wrote down some notes regarding the symbols, some groups that could possibly have ties to this type of activity, and other tidbits regarding these practices. As much as Lou and I had worked together in the past, you would think that he would have gotten started in his own research effort. He found it fascinating, yet morbidly revolting. Me? I have made it my business for two reasons.

First, when people know that I know a lot about witchcraft, voodoo, astrology, and other occult activity, they know they can trust me to tell them the truth when they ask me the questions. Secondly, this knowledge can get me into places that ignorance will never get me. That was precisely why I was in the house right now, and uniformed officers were still holding out all the other reporters on the lawn at bay. I do not do this for personal gain, as I honestly believe that it has been God’s hand guiding my research regarding the dark.