Gregório Fortunato, the "Black Angel"

Gregório Fortunato (1900-1962), the "Black Angel", head of President Getúlio Vargas' personal guard, talks with Major Enê Garcez dos Reis (1914-2000), chief of staff of the Presidency of the Republic. Born in São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1900, Fortunato was the son of freed slaves. He worked as a cattle ranch hand on farms in the region and became close to the Vargas family during the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, when he fought against the São Paulo forces in the military brigade commanded by Benjamin Vargas, brother of then president Getúlio Vargas. From 1938 onwards, he joined Getúlio's personal guard, of which he would soon become leader. His constant presence at Vargas' side when he returned to the Presidency of the Republic in 1951 earned him the nickname "Black Angel", taken from the name of a play by writer Nelson Rodrigues. In 1954, Fortunato and Benjamin Vargas were accused of being the masterminds of the shooting attack that injured journalist Carlos Lacerda (a fierce opponent of the government) and killed the Air Force officer who was his driver. Arrested and convicted of the crime, Fortunato died murdered by another inmate in a Rio de Janeiro penitentiary in 1962.