The 13 Lost Souls of the Joelma Building, São Paulo, Brazil
Joelma Building circa. 2008
What causes a seemingly happy and normal home to invite evil? We often think our neighbors and loved ones could never act on their deepest and darkest impulses. Impulses so heinous that it appears as if the devil had taken hold.
But if they do invite this evil, does it ever leave the home? Or is it and the land below it now cursed to suffer tragedies until the devil gets his due?
PART 1 - The Evil Within
“Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are.”
Karl Barth
In 1948 São Paulo, Brazil, 26-year-old Paulo Ferreira de Camargo, on the surface, was leading a productive and happy life. He had worked his way up to the Assistant Professor of Chemistry position at the University of Sao Paulo and was considered intelligent and eccentric among his peers.
His eccentricities at one point even led him to be reprimanded by his superiors for his unconventional tests involving a firearm to quote “verify the effects of friction on the materials that make up gunpowder.”
On top of this, Paulo had begun a relationship with 23-year-old nursing assistant Isaltina dos Amaros. It had blossomed to a point where Isaltina’s mother loved him like a son. Meanwhile, in his one-story home, Paulo took care of his ailing mother and two younger sisters. The three even agreed to let Paulo bring his experiments home to avoid any other punishments from his superiors.
Behind the Curtain
But under the façade of a happy life, Paulo’s relationships and work were much darker than he let on. Paulo had run more than one test using a firearm at the University, one even led to the police being called to question Paulo on why he brought a firearm to the school. After less than a day, the police eventually let him go on the condition he no longer brought the firearm to campus.
Paulo’s home life had also recently become stressful, his 56-year-old mother, Benedita, had been diagnosed with cancer and required regular treatment at the hospital, his 23-year-old sister Maria suffered from epilepsy, and finally, his 19-year-old sister, Cordelia, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The mounting pressure of bills and appointments was becoming too much for Paulo.
The only thing that seemed to be going right was his relationship with Isaltina until his family found out about her. Before meeting Paulo, Isaltina had fallen in love with another man and lost her virginity. At the time this made Isaltina a social outcast and Paulo’s mother and sisters did everything they could to attempt to end their relationship.
While their relationship withstood the verbal attacks, Paulo buried himself in his at-home experiment. He was planning to create a fertilizing system in his backyard but would first need to build a new water source, so he hired some men to help him dig up a well in the backyard of the home. By the end of October 1948, the well was built and ready to use.
A Plan
But first Paulo told his friends and Isaltina, that the four at home needed to take a vacation together to destress from the recent troubles. On November 5th the family set out but just a few short days later, Paulo reached out to his friends and Isaltina, telling them of the tragic news, his mother and sister had died in a car accident while on the trip.
The news eventually reached a half-brother of Paulo’s named Carlos who questioned him about the details and pressed on why the accident hadn’t been in the paper. Over the next two weeks, Paulo’s story changed from a simple car accident to a car driving off a cliff. This led Carlos to inform the police.
Cracks in the Plan
Before the police would approach Paulo, they first questioned his colleagues at the university. One of his superiors told police of strange questions Paulo had made before his trip regarding chemicals that can decompose bodies. The police questioned his neighbors who found the well in the backyard strange since right after the trip and before Paulo could conduct any experiments, he sealed the well up, preventing its use in the future.
Finally, Isaltina was also questioned, she told police about Paulo’s mental state after the fights he had with his family regarding their relationship. Paulo had complained to Isaltina about his increasing difficulty dealing with them and how tired he was of it all.
Confrontation
On November 23rd, 1948, the police arrived at Paulo’s home, who appeared calm and friendly. After some questioning the police turned their attention to the sealed well in the backyard, still, Paulo maintained his composure informing them they are free to unseal it and take a look for themselves. He even offered to help.
Within minutes firefighters arrived to help break the seal open, as the cracks began to form, Paulo excused himself to the bathroom for a moment. The police and firefighters pulled apart the stone slabs illuminating the well when from behind a gunshot rang out.
The police rushed into the home, weapons drawn, lowering them as they entered the bathroom. On the floor lay Paulo with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart. Back outside firefighters were shocked at what they found at the bottom of the well. The bodies of 56-year-old Benedita, 23-year-old Maria, and 19-year-old Cordelia lay rotting at the bottom. Each had been tied up, shot twice, and had a black veil placed over their head before being tossed into the well.
As for motive, the police were never able to pinpoint exactly why Paulo carried out the murders since there was no note left, the home troubles and issues with his relationship with Isaltina were just speculations. The only thing they did know for sure is one man tragically cut short the lives of his own family before taking his own.
Soon a dark cloud loomed over the home. Before long people claimed the boarded-up home was haunted. With distant screams coming from either the home or what was left of the pit.
In the early 1950s, the home was demolished leaving just an empty lot but that didn’t deter others from still claiming to feel a curse had fallen onto the land, some would even call it “The Home of the Devil”
PART 2 - The Devil Comes Knocking
Two decades after the murder, many of the homes surrounding Paulo’s were also torn down and a new state-of-the-art building was being built in its place. Though many were still weary of the cursed land, for others it was but a distant memory. Stories say the owners of the new building had purposely selected the entrance of the building to be on the opposite street so as to not share any similarities in address with the murders.
Regardless if the story is true or not, in 1972 the new 25-story Joelma Building opened, taking up the land on which Paulo committed his horrific murders. For two years all seemed fine until the morning of February 1st, 1974.
A New Tragedy
At the time the building was mainly occupied by one banking company with hundreds of employees. At 8:50 that morning there were 756 employees in the building when a faulty air-conditioner on the 12th floor short-circuited, igniting a fire.
Despite the building being constructed with reinforced fire-resistant concrete, the fire spread rapidly throughout the floor due to the flammable carpets, furniture, curtains, and ceiling tiles. The Joelma building had no emergency exits or stairwells, no fire alarms, and no sprinklers. The people on the upper levels of that building never had a chance.
Twenty minutes later firefighters were on the scene requesting additional assistance as they watched the flames move quickly up the building. Inside people rushed to escape the building using the only stairwell, but the fire had already climbed it, engulfing floors 12 through 15, filling the higher floors in debilitating smoke and intense heat.
With the assistance of four elevator operators, firefighters were able to use the elevators to evacuate 300 people before the elevators became too hot and dangerous to use. Many had no choice but to make their way to the roof as the only means of escaping the smoke filling their lungs.
Another twenty minutes went by and now most of the floors above the 12th were covered in flames. 171 people were on the roof hoping an incoming helicopter would be their salvation but the smoke and lack of helicopter pad made it impossible to land or save anyone. They were on their own.
Desperation had set in for the remaining victims, from the roof and balconies, they could see several stories down, the fire ladders that had only been able to reach the 15th floor. Forty people jumped attempting to reach the ladder seeing it as their only hope. Tragically none survived.
On the roof, 80 others curled themselves up under the roof tiles to escape the flames and smoke. All of them were later found alive.
The Thirteen
Inside the building, some people were still attempting to use elevators as a means of escape. Thirteen stuffed themselves into an elevator hoping to make it out alive as the intense heat built up in the metal box now surrounding them. At first, a sense of relief as the elevator made its way down but after only a few floors the elevator stopped and refused to move.
By 10:30 am the fire had burned itself out, in less than two hours there were 300 injured, and up to 189 dead. Firefighters now had the arduous task of finding the dead within the building. After some time they were finally able to prop open the elevators, in one finding the 13 who had become trapped within floors. In their last moments of life, they huddled together, embracing each other.
The intense heat made it impossible to know who they were and after weeks of identifying the other bodies, none of the 13 were able to be given identities. To this day no one has been able to figure out who the 13 strangers in the elevator were.
They became known as the 13 souls and were buried in adjoining anonymous graves at the nearby newly opened Sao Pedro Cemetery. Almost immediately stories of voices from the graves were being told. People claimed to hear distant screaming and cries for help coming from the cemetery at night. Car lights suddenly start blinking and ghostly figures are seen wandering the cemetery.
The New Building
But the hauntings didn’t end there. The Joelma Building closed for 4 years following the fire in order to rebuild. Once it reopened it was renamed “The Flag Square” building hoping to shed its tragic backstory but multiple people have claimed above the 15th floor, the building hasn’t forgotten its past.
Many claim to have seen ghostly figures wandering the halls, lights flashing on and off, fire alarms going off, and even the elevator malfunctioning near where the 13 souls were found. The stories of the hauntings were so prevalent and believed, that in 2004 when the mayor's team was assigned to work in the building, many refused to step inside until the building had been blessed by a Buddhist monk.
The act made news and the Buddhist monk was later interviewed on tv where she stated she purified their working areas but had warned the team she could do nothing about the other spirits that were roaming the upper floors. And she wasn’t the only one willing to go on TV regarding the spirits in and around the building.
The Cemetery
Luiz Nunes, the caretaker of the Sao Pedro Cemetery where the 13 souls were put to rest, has claimed to hear the voices of the 13 coming from their graves at night. Screams and moans for help throughout the night were a common occurrence until he started emptying water glasses on each of the graves to placate the spirits. He claims if he doesn’t pour water onto the graves the spirits become restless reliving their final moments.
Since the burial of those in the Joelma building, many have gone to pay their respects and pray for the unknown 13 souls at Sao Pedro Cemetery vowing to never forget their tragic deaths. They see the 13 as victims of the evil Paulo Camargo allowed into his home, cursing the land back in 1948. Before they leave the cemetery, at the top of the 13 memorials visitors leave dozens of letters, messages, and flowers... along with a glass of water.
But how about you do you believe the land below the Joelma building was actually cursed because of the murders Paulo Camargo committed or given the timeframe and the lack of fire safety in buildings in the 1970s, did both tragedies coincidentally happen in the same place?
