The Pishtaco
In the Andes, a pale stranger was said to waylay travellers to take their fat, and in 2009 police briefly claimed the legend had come true.
What was reported
The pishtaco is a figure of Andean folklore, usually described as a tall, light-skinned outsider who attacks Indigenous travellers on lonely roads to steal their body fat, which he sells for church bells, machines or medicine. The legend goes back to the colonial era.
In November 2009, Peruvian police announced that they had broken up a gang that killed people to sell their fat abroad, and the story went around the world.
Explanations offered
The claim soon fell apart: experts said there was no market for human fat, and senior officers involved were removed from their posts while it was investigated. Anthropologists see the pishtaco as an expression of fear of exploitation by outsiders, from colonial rule to modern development.
- When
- Told since colonial times; police claim in 2009
- Where
- Ayacucho, Peru
- Witnesses
- Andean tradition, and the Peruvian police
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.