Santeria

[Anonymous]

Two indicted for insurance fraud in voodoo murder scheme
Randy Furst
Star Tribune
Published Jul 12, 2002

Predicting his own demise, self-styled voodoo high priest Mark Foster wrote a letter to his nephew, Brent Thompson, to be opened upon his death.

"I have been [in] fear for my life," he wrote. "Brent, please tell all my family of my undying love."

+++On Wednesday, Thompson, 29, of Minneapolis, and Gregory Friesner, 28, of New York City, were indicted by a grand jury in Madison, Wis., for their alleged role in a bizarre scheme to kill Foster and collect more than $100,000 in insurance money.

The indictment says Foster designated Friesner to kill him, assume his voodoo priesthood role and inherit the souls of previous high priests.

Foster's body was found July 18, 1997, on a deserted road about 35 miles south of Superior, Wis. He had a single gunshot wound to the chest.

+++The indictment said Foster claimed that he became a "Santeria . . . high priest" by ritually killing the previous high priest, thereby acquiring his and his predecessors' souls. There is no evidence that such a killing occurred.

"Foster, who was in debt after a failed business and under investigation by federal authorities, decided to turn over the priesthood -- by his own violent death -- to his student in Santeria, Gregory A. Friesner," the indictment said.

Friesner and Thompson each were designated as $50,000 beneficiaries on Foster's State Farm life insurance policy and Thompson and another person was named $100,000 beneficiaries on another policy.

+++The FBI searched Foster's house for child pornography four months before he was killed, but no charges were filed.

In an affidavit, Foster wrote that he was living with "a roommate, Gregory Friesner" and two children. He said an ex-girlfriend was accusing him of "child pornography, pedophilic tendencies . . . practicing a very sinister religion, ordering murder of animals and humans, frenzied sexual behavior and other equally fantastic acts." He said he denied the allegations.

There were other hints of the murder-to-come, according to the insurance investigator's interview with Douglas County investigators. At a custody hearing three months before his death, Foster's ex-girlfriend testified that he wanted to be killed by Friesner and that his soul would go into his pregnant girlfriend's baby.

-- Randy Furst is at rfurst@startribune.com

ex http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3054303.html

[aleyo]

this post is full or classical errors. many which come from a simple ignorance about various african-based religious beliefs.
one should know the difference between:
Palo
santeria
Abakua
Voudum (voodoo)
nanieigo
Yoruba
Carabali
Obeah
and various forms of afro-carribian worship.
good luck on your search for the truth

[Anonymous]

'Faith healer' jailed for sex assault of girl
By JANE GADD
COURTS REPORTER
Thursday, October 17, 2002

A professed faith healer who persuaded a superstitious mother to let him sleep with her daughter from the age of 10 until she was 16 to remove a curse has been convicted of sexual-abuse charges and jailed for 15 months.

Yesterday's ruling ended an eight-year legal nightmare for the unnamed victim; the abuser, 52-year-old psychic Hugo Llorenz, had three separate trials.

Mr. Llorenz, who claimed the girl would die on her 16th birthday without his "treatments," terrorized the child into submission by using fishing line to shake a chandelier in the dark, telling her it was a demon. He was convicted of sexual assault, sexual interference, sexual exploitation and gross indecency.

He was convicted in 1995, but the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 2000, citing an error in the way the prosecution presented its case to the jury. Mr. Llorenz had served 4½ years of an eight-year sentence. His first trial, in 1994, ended in a mistrial.

Mr. Justice Arthur Gans of the Ontario Superior Court, who heard the case alone, found that Mr. Llorenz is a pedophile who exploited the mother's belief in an ancient African religion called Santeria to gain access to the girl and have sex with her "hundreds of times" between 1985 and 1991.

He told her during a tarot card reading that he would need to spend a lot of time alone with the child to work on removing the curse.

The treatments included sexual intercourse and fellatio, and Mr. Llorenz provided props, including crotchless underwear and pornographic videos, the judge said.

When the girl approached the age of 16, she realized Mr. Llorenz was a charlatan, the judge said, but waited two years, until 1993, to report him to police.

"She was a scared and confused young woman," Judge Gans said, dismissing the defence argument that the delay undermined her credibility.

Mr. Llorenz continued to deny the charges as he was sentenced yesterday.

"You are the one who makes the decisions and I totally respect your decisions," he told the judge through a Spanish interpreter. "But I continue arguing that, in my case, I am innocent."

He testified earlier that he never laid a hand on the girl in an inappropriate way, that he wanted to be her moral guardian because her mother neglected her, and that she made up the sex allegations as a result of hanging around with a bad crowd in high school.

Judge Gans found there was no truth in Mr. Llorenz's statements, and said his claim of moral guardianship was not credible considering the pornographic videos and teen-sized undergarments found by police when his apartment was searched in 1993.

The 15-month sentence imposed by the judge was calculated as the portion remaining on the eight-year sentence handed down by Madam Justice Patricia German in 1995.

Although it adds up to less than six years when combined with the 4½ years Mr. Llorenz has served, that fairly reflects the normal provisions for mandatory release after two-thirds of a sentence has been served, the judge said. He also imposed two years of probation with terms that can be removed if immigration authorities deport Mr. Llorenz to his native Argentina.

Crown prosecutor Jon Ball said yesterday that the victim now wants more than anything for Mr. Llorenz to be deported.

But he feared that deportation proceedings could be delayed if immigration authorities interpret the sentence as 15 months, not 15 months plus 4½ years, since deportation is automatic only for an offence punishable by two years imprisonment.

<FONT SIZE="-2">http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20021017/UCOURM/national/national/nationalTorontoHeadline_temp/1/1/5/</FONT>

[TB]

Please check out our new site for people who are survivors of Santeria, Palo, Ifa and related religions.

http://thebelievers.freeservers.com

[Anonymous]

Miami man guilty in bizarre Santeria killing

By Diana Marrero
Miami Bureau
Posted March 22 2003

MIAMI -- At 30, Henry Cuesta has already spent a sixth of his life in jail awaiting trial for murder. On Friday, a Miami-Dade County jury convicted him in the contract killing of Dulce Diaz, a Santeria practitioner, eliminating his chances of ever being a free man.

In less than four hours, the jury found Cuesta guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He will be sentenced next month to mandatory life in prison without parole.

... During the trial, prosecutors told jurors Cuesta accepted a deal from Eusebio Hernandez, Diaz's ex-husband, to kill Diaz and her new boyfriend for $6,000. Diaz's boyfriend survived and helped lead investigators to Cuesta and Hernandez, who is awaiting trial on the same charges.

... Lenamon said Cuesta is a former altar boy, who was a little slow but had never gotten in trouble with the law before.

... Prosecutors ... told jurors that Hernandez was a scorned ex-husband, who was consumed with jealousy and tried to harm Diaz through brujeria, witchcraft. When that failed, prosecutors said, Hernandez decided to hire a hit man to kill her. They said Cuesta didn't hesitate to take Hernandez's money because he was out of work and desperate for cash.

... Diana Marrero can be reached at dmarrero@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5005.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-dsanteria22mar22,0,2338884.story?coll=sfla-news-miami (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-dsanteria22mar22%2C0%2C2338884.story?coll=sfla-news-miami)

[Anonymous]

There are no errors in any of these articles. Voodoo is a generic term. The word itself is nonspecific, coming from the Creole word for 'black sorcerer', vaudoux. It is quite appropriate to call a santeria priest a voodoo priest. The Creoles applied it to all of the syncretized Carribean/African/Catholic religious barbarism, so why can't the AP?

[Portugesa (209.158.54.186)]

Voodoo and Santeria are two different religions. While they have their base is an afro-carribean religion, they do have different beliefs and dieties. These religions are not all about black magic either. They are very beautiful in their beliefs and rituals. While it is true there are a few bad seeds, name a religion that doesn't have them (do we even need to bring up the Catholic church?)

[brokergrl (152.163.253.102)]

Agreed Portuguesa. Anonymous, how ironic that you use that name. It is incorrect to call a santero a voodoo priest. While Voodoo is a generic term, the religions are very different. Santeria is called this because it aligns its deities with saints from Catholicism. That is why many spiritists from santeria also deem themselves as devout Catholic, they feel,and I do not disagree that there is conflict between the two.

[Anonymous (4.139.18.155)]

Santeria = Killers from Hell