This legend is common in most of South America, therefore many versions exist. It tells of a ghost dressed as a priest, who went around town after midnight to scare the few persons who dared go out late in the night. His particularity was that he had no head, though in some versions he had one but it was a fleshless skull.

It is said that in reality it was a bon-vivant priest who loved to play pranks on his naïve flock; to be able to visit his mistresses without being recognized, he dressed himself in such a way his head was completely covered and it looked as if he had no head at all. This way, he could go see his ladies as much as he wished and nobody suspected it was him, scared to death as they were by the headless padre.