Pishtaco - Peruvian Fat Vampires

"In a remote makeshift laboratory, a victim would be bludgeoned to death, his head and limbs hacked off with a machete, and his eviscerated torso hung from metal hooks. Votive candles warmed his abdominal flesh from below, so its rendered fat would drip through a funnel and collect in a basin on the floor."

The full story on slate: here.

Scholarly and fascinating, with little tidbits like the one about the Andean creator-god, Virocha, who's name can be literally translated as "sea of fat.