3. The End of the Road for the Lantern and Pretty Mary
On July 27th, 1938, Lampiao’s band camped on a farm in the outback of Sergipe state. It rained that night, and the entire gang slept snugly in their tents – their location believed to be especially secure. A paramilitary force snuck up so quietly, that not even the dogs noticed. Around 5:00 am on the 28th, the cangaceiros awoke and began their daily routine of morning prayers followed by coffee, when one of them raised the alarm. It was too late, and the bandits were caught completely off guard. A police force led by a Lieutenant João Bezerra da Silva and a Sergeant Aniceto Rodrigues da Silva opened fire with machine guns, and the cangaceiros had no time to organize a defense. Within minutes, out of thirty four bandits present, eleven were killed, the first of whom was Lampiao. Soon afterwards, Maria Bonita was seriously injured. Some cangaceiros managed to escape.
Flush with victory, the police seized the camp’s contents, including significant amounts of money, gold and jewelry, and mutilated the dead. Per custom, they cut off the heads of Lampiao and his fallen comrades. Maria Bonita was badly injured, but still alive, when she, too, was beheaded, along with other wounded who also had their heads severed while still alive. One police officer, in a frenzy of rage, bashed in Lampiao’s head with a rifle butt, deforming and rendering it nearly unrecognizable. That helped birth a later legend that Lampiao had survived and escaped. The severed heads were salted, placed in kerosene cans full of brandy and lime to help preserve them, and carried off. The bodies were left behind in the open for the vultures. The authorities then took the severed heads on a tour of several Brazilian states, to demonstrate the end of Lampiao and his gang.
