3. A Pretty Bandit, and Ugly Vengeance
Brazilian bandit Anésia Cauaçu was strikingly beautiful, tall, blue-eyed, with long, dark hair, and silky skin. She was also incredibly courageous. On horseback, 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, as Brazilian bandits of the era were called, dominated their local outback for years, until 1916, when Cauaçu decided to give up the criminal 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.
Januário Garcia Leal, known as Sete Orelhas (Seven Ears), was another remarkable bandit who operated in Southeast Brazil in the early nineteenth century. Initially a law-abiding landowner, he changed when his brother was captured and skinned alive by seven siblings from a rival family. The justice system proved indifferent and made no attempt to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators, so Leal took justice into his own hands. He formed a private militia, and went after his brother’s murderers. He eventually killed all the perpetrators, severed an ear from each, and strung it in a macabre necklace. It was eventually decorated with seven ears – hence, the nickname. Leal’s legacy has been controversial ever since. To some, he was an honorable vigilante who pursued justice that the government failed to deliver. To others, he was merely a criminal who led a vicious bandit group.
