The High Priestess of Blood: Dig up this horrific true crime case
The bread & butter of the true crime community, what gets a lot of people curious about the topic, will always & forever be serial killers. Samuel Little, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Zodiac Killer, these are all some of the worst monsters humanity has to offer. Yet, we’re fascinated by them. What also darkly fascinates people interested in true crime? Cults.
Naturally, a case about a serial killer in a cult? That would definitely get people’s attention, right? Well, not really, otherwise the true crime community would be talking about the case of serial killer Magdelena Solís a lot more. She was also known as the High Priestess of Blood and she more than lived up to the title, especially in terms of her body count.
Here’s what you need to know.
How the cult started
We’re going back to Mexico in the early 60s for this case, people. Born in poverty, Solís turned to sex work at an early age with her brother as her pimp. Many believed that she would have worked as a prostitute her whole life under her brother. Things changed when she met brothers & scam artists, Santos and Cayetano Hernandez. The brothers had a scheme to get money from the town of Yerba Buena.
Here’s how the scam went. They told the people of Yerba Buena that they were prophets of exiled Incan gods, who promised them prosperity. In return for this? They needed people’s unquestioning loyalty. Yes, the Incan gods part is a new angle. But, well, how many cult leaders claim to have a direct line to god? Nearly all of them. Or they claim that they’re Jesus reborn. It’s seen a lot in true crime.
The people of Yerba Buena, impoverished & illiterate, didn’t know that the Incan gods were associated with Perú, which is very south of Mexico. They didn’t care. They bought the story and followed the prophets off into the mountains. Like many cults, there were forced orgies & sex slaves that followed as they lived in the supposed caves while listening to their prophets.
How Solís got involved
The villagers of Yerba Buena wanted to meet these supposed gods that they were paying sexual tribute to and living in the mountains for. The Hernandez brothers went to Monterrey, where Magdalena lived, and recruited her & her brother to help with the scam. Using literal smoke & mirrors, they pretended that Solís was a reincarnated Incan goddess.
The villagers immediately believed this to be true. It didn’t take Solís long to pounce on the opportunity given to her. In short order, she had the cult and her fellow con artists under her thumb. Of course, as in all cults, it’s very difficult to leave. When two people made the attempt, Solís had them lynched in front of the group. This led to establishment of her blood rituals.
The blood rituals
Every time someone questioned Magdalena’s authority, they were ritually sacrificed. Their blood was then mixed with chicken blood along with marijuana & peyote. It was then presented to her to drink as she claimed that human blood allowed her to live forever. These rituals did not keep her in power for very long, only about six weeks. When a local teen saw the blood rituals, it was pretty much all over.
He tried to tell the police and an officer did volunteer to follow him to where he believed the cult was . . . unfortunately. The pair mysteriously disappeared. When the officer failed to return, authorities & the Mexican Army descended upon Yerba Buena. A fire fight followed killing multiple cult members, including Santos Hernandez. The cult did kill the teen & the officer, even ripping the latter’s heart from his chest, Aztec style.
Solís was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murders of the teen & officer. Authorities believed, however, that she killed many more. But members of her cult refused to testify against her at the time. It was only years later that they would come forward and share everything.
