"Cangaceiros" were groups of bandits (something like mexican cartels) who terrorized Northeast region of Brazil between late 1700 until 1940. These pictures are mostly from the most famous cangaceiros group: called Bando de Lampião.
There were some cangaceiros who got famous for their cruelty, like: Lampião, Corisco, Zé Baiano and Cabeleira.

Lampião once goes to the state of Alagoas and in less than 12 hours he killed 23 people, kidnapped 16 persons, burned down 6 farms and robbered three cities.

Corisco: there is a history about this guy that he kidnapped two cops, took them to a farm, made them get naked and get into a pigsty. There he demand them to rolled in the mud and whille he whipped the cops he yelled: "YEAH, SCREAM, SCREAM! LOOK GUYS HOW THESE PIGS SCREAM HAHAHAHAHA!"
The brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos called him "a violent and brute monster".

Zé Baiano was famous for mark his wives with heat iron to show to everyone that he was the owner of her. Also, he was the torturer of the group of Lampião.

And the Cabeleira (Literaly "The head haired guy") is considered the first cangaceiro and there is a lot of histories about him, but one is realy interesting. Once he went to a river to take some water, there he saw a teenage girl washing her clothes. He didn't think twice and raped her, then took a stick and beat in her head until kill her. At that moment her mother heard the screams and came to see what was happening: and then Cabeleira raped the mother and killed her too.
There is other histories, like that he almost kill a woman because she pushed his horse.

(These last pics are the members of the group of cangaceiros "Bando de Lampião")
(And the very last pic is one of the Zé Baiano's wives with her face marked).