Today we visited the correct cemetery and located the grave and shrine of the patron saint of criminals.
The short story is that Emile Dubois was a french born serial killer who was finally caught, tried and executed in Valparaíso in the early 1900’s. However Dubois was viewed by some as a sort of Chilean Robin Hood as he killed and robbed the wealthy (however he kept all he stole…). Anyway, he wasn’t welcome at the local cemetery for obvious reasons so he was eventually buried just outside the cemetery walls, but before long those who viewed him as a “Robin Hood” knocked down and rebuilt the outer wall of the cemetery around his grave and it became a shrine. Dubois is now known as a patron saint of criminals in Valparaíso and still today people visit his shrine to leave offerings, light candles and give thanks… for what exactly we still aren’t really sure.
We witnessed exactly this when we visited today and had to wait around for more than 30 minuets just to visit the shrine. There used to be a big mural painted beside the shrine too, however it seems that the 2010 earthquake or time may have destroyed the wall as it was no where in sight.
Apart from visiting the patron saint of criminals we took a walk around the streets of Valparaíso just soaking in all the street art and general vibe of the place before we head back to clean cut Santiago tomorrow.
