It is very difficult for someone who writes about the ‘Wonderful Life of Santos=Dumont”, to talk about his death. But 15 years after the beginning of this blog, at the request of readers, here goes my research on the subject.
I would like to start and end this article with the beautiful words of Henrique Dumont Villares, his nephew:
WHO GAVE MAN WINGS - 1953
“...From São Paulo, which, at the poignant moment of this passage, found itself isolated from the rest of the world by force of the armed movement, the unexpected, heartbreaking news departed and rumbled far away.
Expressions of regret were universal. Then, on July 25, the government of Brazil decreed “national mourning for three days, for the death of Alberto Santos=Dumont”, noting, on his “considerations”, that “the Brazilian Alberto Santos=Dumont, inventor of the direction of balloons and mechanical flight, providing humanity with new devices for its development, tightened ties between nations and cooperated for peace and solidarity among peoples, thus becoming worthy of the gratitude of Brazil, whose name it honored and glorified ”.
Incidentally, this was not just a national mourning: it was a universal one. He was a genius that the whole world missed. Forever closed his wings who gave wings to man.
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We can start this report with the sad note of July 9, 1932, Santos=Dumont followed the news of the confrontation in Praça da República, between members of the Getulist Revolutionary Legion, founded by Miguel Costa, and people contrary to what the Legion defended.
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| According to the October 24, 1932 article, since that time, the suspicion of suicide had been on the agenda. |
In this clash, where even weapons of war were used, the young men from São Paulo Miragaia, Martins, Dráusio and Camargo died, which would give rise to the acronym MMDC that brought together the revolutionary conspirators, and also to an unprecedented armed confrontation in the history of São Paulo.
It was the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932. The State of São Paulo was leading a revolt against Getúlio Vargas, who, in his view, had assumed power in an undemocratic manner. Dissatisfaction increased due to Vargas' appointment of an external intervenor for São Paulo.
Liberal elites in São Paulo demanded elections and a new Constitution, but this did not happen.
It was then that aviation played an important role; Federal Government had about 58 aircraft at dutry for Navy and the Army, while São Paulo rebels had only two Potez and two Waco planes, in addition to some other planes used in truism.
Another plane was obtained by the rebels with the desertion of Lieutenant Artur Mota Lima, who was bringing an aircraft from Campo dos Afonsos, in Rio de Janeiro.
The "vermelhinhos", as the federal government planes were called, were used in combat to bomb cities in São Paulo, including Campinas, and also for propaganda, dropping leaflets over enemy cities and places where rebel troops were concentrated.
Aircraft from the Constitutionalist Air Units (UAC), nicknamed “gaviões de penhacho” (crested hawks), had limited participation.
During the 1932 Revolution, despite aircraft limitations, aviation performed two remarkable feats: on September 21, it attacked Moji-Mirim and disabled five of the seven federal planes before they could take off; and on September 24, three "Gaviãos de Penacho" attacked the ironclad Rio Grande do Sul in Santos to relax the blockade of the port.
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| Planes of the Brazilian Revolution of 1932 - on the legalist side there were 58 Waco CSO-5 aircraft, the so-called "Vermelhinhos" - on the São Paulo side, the UAC - União Aérea Constitucionalistas, called "Gaviões de Penacho" had, initially, two WACOs CSO and two Potez 25 TOE, later other aircraft were added like this Nieuport-Delage NiD-72 called “Negrinho”. |
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Our story takes place months before, on the 23rd of July, when Santos=Dumont is brutally tormented by the flights of war.
The concern with the use of aircraft in war was not new, six years earlier, in 1926, Santos=Dumont had already sent a letter to the League of Nations asking for a ban on the use of aircraft as a weapon of war, even offering an amount money for whoever wrote a monograph on the subject.
His request was ignored.
In the face of so much pain, the inventor's death occurred at the Hotel La Plage, when his convalescence rest for a 'nervous disorder' was abruptly interrupted by the noise of planes going to their war destination - the pain became unbearable.
The cardiac syncope version
Even perplexed by the attacks on São Paulo, public opinion tried to understand what actually happened to Dumont, the official version, told by the press, was that Dumont had died of cardiac arrest.
This is the excerpt from the obituary report of coroner Roberto Catunda:
“Guarujá – Alberto Santos Dumont – 23-July-1932. Alberto Santos Dumont – Brazilian, white, single, 59 years old, inventor. Apparently, he was found dead in one of the apartments at the hotel in La Plage, in Guarujá, where he lived. It is the corpse of a man of medium height and regular build, still in a state of muscular flaccidity. He wears a black cashmere suit, black tie and black boots. We found no trace of traumatic injury on the body. Death was due to heart failure.”
As we know, due to the revolution of 1932, S=D could not have his wake and burial at the moment of his death, it was then that professor at the Faculty of Medicine of São Paulo, Walter Haberfeld prepared S=D's body to keep it intact until the effective funeral, on December 22, 1932, in the tomb that he had built in the São João Batista cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro.
Part of this embalming process was the removal of all internal organs. Walter discarded all the other bad organs but kept the heart preserved, "I wanted to transform the preserved heart into a physical representation of Dumont on his carnal plane". Haberfeld kept Dumont's heart secretly stored in formaldehyde for 12 years, many believe that he wanted to keep Dumont's heart as a way, in the near future, to reveal the true cause of Dumont's death.
The fate of this organ was unknown until 1944 when Paulo Gomide presented it again.
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| Santos=Dumont's preserved heart is in a golden casket in the shape of a metallic celestial sphere, supported by an Icarus, which surrounds another crystal sphere, which, in turn, keeps the heart preserved in chemical solutions. The piece was made by Fundição Zani and has a plaque with the following inscription: ON OCTOBER 24, 1944, DURING THE "WING WEEK" CELEBRATION, DELIVERY WAS MADE BY DR. PAULO SAMPAIO, PRESIDENT OF PANAIR DO BRASIL, AD DR. SALGADO FILHO, MINISTER OF AERONAUTICS, OF THE EMBALMED HEART OF ALBERTO SANTOS DUMONT, WHICH HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM HIS BODY DURING THE AUTOPSY CARRIED OUT BY DR. WALTER HABERFELD, ON JULY 24, 1932. THE MAKEUP OF THE SCRIPT WAS INITIATIVE BY DR. PAULO SAMPAIO, AND THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTION WAS BY AMERICO MONTEROSA AND GUY EYMMINET. |
It was Asa Week, in 1944, the heart was taken to Rio de Janeiro on a flight, being delivered to the then Minister of Aeronautics, Joaquim Pedro Salgado Filho, by the president of Panair, Paulo Sampaio.
Suspected Hanging
A significant chapter in the history of aviation and humanity was coming to an end, while the world mourned his departure, the events that followed revealed the complexity of human emotions and reactions in the face of such an important loss, at such a dark moment in the history of the Brazil.
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| The important journalistic coverage of Revista O Cruzeiro, written by Edmar Morel in 1972, on the conquests and achievements of Santos=Dumont, as well as the testimony of delegate Raimundo de Menezes, sent from Santos to Guarujá on the day of his death, proving the hanging. |
The sad event of room 151 would reverberate in a series of events. Jorge Dumont Villares, who was staying in room 152, next to his uncle and mentor, found himself facing a great challenge at that moment.
Human solidarity emerges like a ray of light in the midst of darkness, friends, family and admirers came together to honor Santos=Dumont and offer comfort, however, not all reactions were permeated with respect and empathy.
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| Luxurious Grand Hotel La Plage, in Guarujá and some last photos of Santos=Dumont there, before the tragedy in room 151 |
Some hotel staff, reporters and people who were present at the time, in a cruel and callous gesture, made disrespectful and morbid comments about the events that took place in Room 151. Their actions demonstrate a lack of understanding of the depth of grief and historical importance from that moment. And this generated a series of rumors and misinformation that persist to this day.
But it was only on November 1, 1972 that the true story was revealed, in a historical report by Edmar Morel, author of 'The Father of Aviation', entitled “Santos=Dumont, O Gennio Torturado”, makes an overview of the conquests and glories of the inventor, as well as a surprising report by the delegate Raimundo de Menezes, sent from Santos to Guarujá on the day of his death:
“One night, I received information from Guarujá that the great inventor had been found dead in the bathroom. I organized the caravan and we went there. At “Hotel La Plage”, the most elegant on that beach, we had to break down the bathroom door, through the skylight we could see the body hanging from a tie or a robe cord. Extremely thin, he was a bundle of bones.
Convinced that he was to blame for the invention of the plane, which was being used to bomb his fellow countrymen, he told Edu Chaves, with whom he was staying at the hotel, that he felt distressed by it.
Taking advantage of a moment of carelessness, he accomplished his intention: he hanged himself. I immediately communicated to the Chief of Police, Dr. Tirso Martins, what had happened, as well as the family's request that the body be handed over to them, without further legal procedures.
Authorized, I proceeded like this, and for that reason the newspapers of the following day announced the episode as natural death, having the coroner Dr. Roberto Catunda given the attestation as such. There was no police inquiry.
It was a matter of national glory. Hence the dispatch from the Secretariat of Security, at the request of the family.
Here's what I know about it.”
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Even with the shocking report of the police chief, who witnessed the death and put an end to the mystery and the bad words of the cruel, even today the death of Santos=Dumont is surrounded by controversy.
Sophia Helena, a close relative of the aviator, had great difficulty in approaching this theme, she said something like "it seems that he killed himself" or "they say that he killed himself" in the documentary by Nelson Hoineff, script by Henrique (in the version that has 10 minutes more), as if he didn’t want to believe it.”
And at the end of this hard but important article, as she said at the beginning, I end with the phrase of another relative, Henrique Dumont Villares:
“And then, on July 23, 1932, his eyes, which had so often seen what we had yet to see, closed forever.”
There is a speech by Leonardo Da Vince, which I consider a prayer and illustrates very well the life and death of Santos=Dumont:
“Siccome una giornata bene spesa dà lieto dormie, così una vita bene usata dà lieto morire”.
Just as a day well spent brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
