1) On May 11, 1975, the newspaper News popular announced on the cover, in bold letters: “The devil was born in São Paulo”. The news said that, in a hospital in São Bernardo do Campo, a city on the ABC Paulista, an “incredibly fantastic birth full of mysteries” had taken place, marked by “running and panic on the part of nurses and doctors”.
two) According to the publication, the baby had “a supernatural appearance, with all the characteristics of the devil, in flesh and blood”, and was born talking, threatening his own mother with death. The child had a body full of hair, two pointed horns, a tail of approximately 5 cm and the fierce look, “which causes fear and shivers”.
3) No other publications reported the story. better for the NPwhich saw the edition run out quickly. In the 2,000 newsstands that sold the newspaper in São Paulo, there were only eight copies left. Despite the success, the editor-in-chief, Ebrahim Ramadan, was reluctant to pursue the case, but management ordered the writing to continue. Until June 8, 27 reports were made.
4) Why was the baby born like this? O NP gave two explanations. First, because, invited to a procession in Holy Week, her mother would have beaten her belly and stated: “I won’t go until that devil is born”. Second because, according to a supposed doctor, she would have created “negative magnetic discharges” when venting: «Because of that little devil, I can’t go dancing». The child’s father would be a discreet farmer from Marília (SP) who, according to neighbors, «wouldn’t take his hat off for the world»…
5) The public went hysterical – and ended up making the news too. Worker Maria Aparecida, for example, went to the maternity ward, demanding: “That this happened, it happened. So why not show it?” Domestic worker Prudência Antônia Pereira assured that she had seen the child: “When they didn’t understand his desires, he growled like a dog. Afterwards, he cleaned his nails with his own tail.”
6) The May 12 edition reported that the devil baby threatened female employees with death, ripped up pillows with the horns and fled the hospital by jumping from a 3rd floor window. In the following days, various evil acts by the little devil were reported: he walked across rooftops, drove a woman crazy, ended an Umbanda ritual and scared a taxi driver, asking him to take him “to hell”.
7) Despite this, the newborn did not have an easy life. Sorcerers, religious fanatics and even the Coffin Joe were ready to finish him off. A private clinic offered to exhibit it to the curious public – as long as the visitor was over 18 years old, wore a crucifix, had no heart problems and was responsible for possible “demonic possessions”.
8) As the days went by, the story cooled down and gained less and less prominence in the newspaper. In early June, it was reported that the baby devil had fled to the Northeast, after being kidnapped by people willing to burn him alive. The NP even tried to placate two more devils, from other cities, a “fish baby” and an “atomic baby”, but without success.
On the other hand…
Newspaper was famous for coming up with News sensationalist
– In May 1975, reporter Marco Antônio Montadon, from the Folha de S.Paulo, went to ABC to confirm the report that a child had been born with “two bumps on the forehead” (horns) and “an extension of the coccyx” (tail). But they were just malformations, which were corrected with a short surgery.
– Montadon turned the story into a (fictional) chronicle of terror, in the Sheet. The editorial secretary of the NPJosé Luiz Proença, and the police editor, Lázaro Campos Borges, summoned a reporter to “redesign” this text and transform it into the news of the birth of the devil baby.
– consulted by ME, orthopedist Gustavo Borgo, from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, said he had never seen medical reports of tails in children. According to him, possibly the “baby-devil” had a common birth defect, called myelomeningocele, which impairs the closure of the newborn’s spine. It is resolved with surgery shortly after delivery.
– O NP he was adept at seeking out official sources (such as doctors and hospital directors), but using their denial in a way that aroused even more suspicion in the public.
– The story is also not original. A few years earlier, Rosemary’s Baby (1969) caused a similar panic in Brazil and the rest of the world. Another recent film at the time that also caused controversy was The Exorcist (1974).
– The audience of NP it was composed of simpler people, with a greater tendency to cling to supernatural beliefs. Months before, the newspaper itself had already released articles about the “blonde ghost” and the “vampire from Osasco”, for example.
SOURCES Book Squeeze That Comes Blood: A Study of Sensationalism in the Pressby Danilo Angrimani, and Nothing But the Truth: The Extraordinary History of the Newspaper News popular, by Celso de Campos Jr., Denis Moreira, Giancarlo Lepiani and Maik Rene Lima; documentary Baby-Devil was born in São Paulo, by Renata Druck; and website Folha de S.Paulo
CONSULTANCY Gustavo Borgo, orthopedist at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein and Hospital Samaritano