17. A Beautiful and Ferocious Bandit Leader, and Seven Ears
Bandit leader Anésia Cauaçu was reportedly strikingly beautiful. She was tall, blue eyed, with long, dark hair, and silky skin. She was also incredibly courageous. Mounted on a horse, clad in leather clothes, with a leather hat, and a distinguishing scarf, she was skilled with a rifle, and always ready to fight. Her greatest feat of marksmanship was to shoot off from a considerable distance the index finger of a police commander, as he pointed out to his men where to position themselves during a firefight with her band. Her cangaceiros dominated their local outback for years, until 1916, when Cauaçu decided to give up the bandit life. She went to live with her family, under the promise of protection of a powerful land baron indebted to her for past services. However, he betrayed and handed her over to the police, after which point her fate is unknown.
Another notable bandit was Januário Garcia Leal, known as Sete Orelhas (Seven Ears), who operated in Southeast Brazil in the early nineteenth century. Initially a law-abiding landowner, things changed when his brother was captured and skinned alive by seven siblings from a rival family. The colonial justice system proved indifferent and made no attempt to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators, so Garcia Leal took justice into his own hands. He formed a private militia, and went after his brother’s murderers. He eventually killed all seven perpetrators, and severed an ear from each. He strung them in a macabre necklace that was eventually decorated with seven ears – hence, the nickname. Garcia Leal’s legacy has been controversial ever since. To some, Leal was an honorable vigilante who pursued justice that the government failed to deliver. To others, he was merely a bandit who led a vicious group of cangaceiros.
