'Fat for cosmetics' murder suspects arrested in Peru
Some of the suspects were carrying bottles of fat when arrested
10:18 GMT, Friday, 20 November 2009
Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.
The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before killing them and extracting their fat.
The liquidised product fetched $15,000 (£9,000) a litre and police suspect it was sold on to companies in Europe.
At least five other suspects, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.
Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in Peru's Huanuco and Pasco regions.
One of those arrested told police the ringleader had been killing people for their fat for more than three decades.
The gang has been referred to as the Pishtacos, after an ancient Peruvian legend of killers who attack people on lonely roads and murder them for their fat.
At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.
One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person's body tissue removed for sale.
Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters news agency some of the suspects had "declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it".
Police said they suspect the fat was sold to cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, but have not confirmed any such connection.
Human fat is used in modern cosmetic procedures but in most cases it is the patient's own fat that is used and under strict legal guidelines.
Medical authorities have expressed scepticism about a black market for human fat, partly because of the wide availability of fat for use in surgical procedures.
Gen Felix Burga, head of Peru's police criminal division, said there were indications that "an international network trafficking human fat" was operating from Peru.
The first person was arrested earlier this month in a bus station in Lima, carrying a shipment of the fat.
The Associated Press news agency quoted Col Jorge Mejia as saying one of the suspects had described to police in detail how the victims were killed and their fat removed.
The suspect said the fat was then sold to intermediaries in Lima and that the gang's leader, Hilario Cudena, had been carrying out such murders for decades, AP reported.
The alleged buyers of the fat are also being hunted by police.
Color me flabbergasted. Pishtacos are real!
Urban legends about organ thieves are rife not only in Central and South America, but throughout the world. We've all heard the one about the bathtub full of ice and the missing kidney, haven't we? But tales of people being killed for their body fat is an almost uniquely Peruvian phenomenon, the sole province of a creature known as the pishtaco.
From Catharine R. Stimpson's forward to Cholas and Pishtacos by Mary Weismantel:
The pishtaco is a fantasy figure, a bogeyman. A Peruvian friend tells me that the adults would warn her that the "pishtaco" would get her is she did not behave... The pishtaco is nearly always a vampirelike white man, who roams the countryside and plunders the fat from Indian bodies, disemboweling and dismembering and raping the Indians as he does so... The exact representation of the pishtaco has varied over time. Its origin may have been the practice of colonizing Spanish soldiers who took Indian fat to help heal their wounds. In the eighteenth century, the pishtaco appeared as a priest with a knife, and then evolved into a man on horseback or in a powerful car. During the economic crisis of the 1980s, when rural residents immigrated to urban centers, the pishtaco reappeared as the sacojos, white medical technicians in dark suits who steal and dismember children.Pishtacos appear as very large men, always tall and often stout. Their eyes are light and their skin is pale and covered with hair. They sport heavy beards, and almost always wear long overcoats to conceal the guns and long knives they inevitably have on them. Successful pishtacos wear leather clothes made from the skins of their victims. They can also be identified by their strange devices - automobiles, cameras, tape recorders, and the like.
Pishtacos are voracious in their appetites for food (human flesh in particular), drink (especially milk), and sex (they are notorious rapists). They will occasionally let female victims live to give birth to little pishtacquitos, who then accompany their father on his travels.
Pistacos are nocturnal hunters, wandering the lonely trails on horseback or in their cars, searching for victims. When a good prospect is located, the pishtaco puts them to sleep through the use of mesmerism, technology, or magic powders made from the genitals of their prey. The pishtaco then drags the unfortunate Indian back to its lair, traditionally a secret cave, where they are hung upside-down before their throat is slit and their precious fatty tissue drained out.
Some pishtacos are able to drain fat from a distance using a special device. Needles connected to the machine are inserted into an unconscious victim's buttocks and used to attune the device to that particular person. When the pishtaco has finished, the process has left no mark on the subject, who is invariably unaware that anything unusual has occured. However, a terrible fate is in store for them. Over the following days, the Indian's life force is drained away, causing them to weaken and slowly die.
The reasons why the pishtacos needs human fat have changed over the years. Anglo priests were said to use the fat to cast their church bells. White engineers required it to run their machinery. Sorcerers needed it for black magic, echoing Old World superstitions of witches using the fat of unbaptized children to enchant their flying broomsticks. And there were always tales of foreigners simply devouring the fat and washing it down with the victim's blood. Most recently, as evidenced by the article above, it has been established that human fat is needed to produce cosmetics and perform plastic surgery for wealthy Anglos. Whatever the stuff was actually used for, demand for it was so great that in the 80's and 90's, the Peruvian government attempted to erase its national debt by sending agents into the hills to "harvest" fat to sell to America - at least, that was the rumor.
Dealing with a pishtaco is pretty straightforward. The best course of action is to avoid traveling at night, especially alone. If approached by a pishtaco, do not let it come close enough to make eye contact or blow sleeping powder in your face. Never let it take your picture or record your voice, and always refuse its offers of money or other gifts. These creatures can be easily driven off by strength of numbers, especially if confronted during the day. After all, despite their size and uncanny habits they remain essentially human, and they can be killed like anyone else.
I first learned about the pishtaco some years ago, and it immediately became one of my favorite obscure bogies (in my defense, I wasn't aware of all that rapin' at the time). Clearly, the pishtaco has its roots in an exaggerated stereotype of the Anglo male - big, hairy, hungry, and horny. All of the pishtaco's traits and behaviors can be traced to the "odd" habits still exhibited by visitors to the Andes. Unfortunately, this has led to persecution and even violence against foreigners in rural areas of the country.
The pishtaco has made few incursions into American pop culture, at least as far as I've noticed; a couple of short stories here and there, an entry in a supplement for Eden Studios' terrific All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG, and I think an appearance as a "monster of the week" for some TV show or other (though I can't recall which offhand). But now they're likely to crash right into the mainstream after inspiring some grisly real-life murders.
I have to assume that these dimwits bought into the legends and believed that there was a lucrative market for human fat, only to get busted a short while after setting up shop. I can't imagine they'd have been able to run a profitable endeavor for over thirty years, as suggested in the article. At best, I can see a sort of mini tulip mania, where various Peruvian ne'er-do-wells bought and sold the greasy stuff amongst themselves, confident that someday one of them would be able to leverage it to an outsider and become set for life. I guess we'll find out for sure if and when the rumored buyers are apprehended.
In a way, I kind of hope the experts are wrong and there actually is a high demand for human fat. All my financial woes would be over!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes (Mary Weismantel, University Of Chicago Press, 2001)
The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends (Jan Harold Brunvand, Norton, 1994)
Atlas of the Walking Dead (Graeme Davis, Eden Studios, 2003): The source of the image above.
WEB
"Organ Theft Narratives" (Veronique Campion-Vincent, Western Folklore, Winter 1997): The article is available on-line here.
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