In 1966, two electronics technicians traveled to a hill overlooking Rio de Janeiro — and were later found dead, lying side by side, wearing homemade lead masks over their eyes.

There were no signs of violence. No clear cause of death. And no explanation for why they were there.

In one man’s pocket, police found a handwritten note with strange instructions: a time, a reference to ingesting capsules, a warning to “protect metals,” and a final line — “await signal.”

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we dive into the bizarre and unsettling mystery known as The Lead Masks Case. We explore the discovery, the cryptic note, the unexplained deaths, and the cultural context of 1960s Brazil — including theories involving failed experiments, secret tests, and the era’s strange fascination with contactee beliefs.

This is not a case about what happened to these men — it’s a case about what they believed was going to happen next.

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About the show

Kat Has Questions is a curiosity-driven podcast about real stories that sound unreal — from unsolved crimes and strange history to the quietly weird corners of human behavior.

New episodes every week.

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Sources & Further Reading

- BBC News — “The Mystery of Brazil’s Lead Masks Case”

- Smithsonian Magazine — “The Strange Deaths of the Lead Mask Men”

- The Guardian — “Brazil’s Unsolved Lead Masks Mystery”

- Skeptoid Podcast — Episode on the Lead Masks Case

- The Brazilian National Archives (case summaries and police reports)

- Wikipedia — Lead Masks Case (used as a reference starting point only)

🎵 Music: “Scrunchy” by Night Drift

Licensed by Uppbeat

License code: CAHWZR9T33BFXDNY

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Contact

📩 kathasquestionspod@gmail.com

Instagram: @KatHasQuestions

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