"Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião (more archaic spelling 'Lampeão', Portuguese pronunciation: [lɐ̃piˈɐ̃w], meaning "lantern" or "oil lamp"), was the most famous bandit leader of the Cangaço. Cangaço was a form of banditry endemic to the Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s. Lampião's exploits turned him into a 'folk hero', the Brazilian equivalent of Jesse James.