Serial killer, Robber, who killed 11+ women ages range
between 64 years to 79 years old, between 2002 and 2006. Arrested January 24, 2006, in Mexico City,
Mexico, found guilty after a very graphic trial and received a sentence of 759
years in prison on March 31, 2008. All
the victims died of Strangulation.
Juana Barraza (born 1958) is a Mexican professional wrestler
and serial killer that was dubbed La Mataviejitas (Spanish for: "The Old Lady Killer") sentenced to
759 years in jail for killing eleven elderly women. The first murder attributed
to Mataviejitas has been dated variously to the late 1990s and to a specific
killing on 17 November 2003. The authorities and the press have given various
estimates as to the total number of this killer's victims, with estimated
totals ranging from 163 to 229 deaths.
Background
Juana Barraza was born in Hidalgo, a rural area north of
Mexico City. Barraza's mother was an alcoholic who reportedly exchanged her for
three beers to a man who repeatedly raped her in his care, and by whom she
became pregnant with a boy. She had four children in total, although her eldest
son died from injuries sustained in a mugging. Prior to her arrest, Barraza was
a professional wrestler under the ring name La Dama del Silencio (The Silent
Lady). She had an obsession with lucha libre, a form of Mexican masked
professional wrestling in which the wrestlers engage in titanic mock battles.
Her Profile
All of Barraza's victims were women aged 60 or over, most of
whom lived alone. She bludgeoned or strangled her victims, and afterward would
rob them. Police reported that there was evidence of abuse in a number of
cases. Bernardo Bátiz, the chief
prosecutor in Mexico City, initially profiled the killer as having "a brilliant
mind, [being] quite clever and careful", and probably struck after a
period spent gaining the trust of an intended victim. Officers investigating
suspected that she posed as a government official offering the chance to sign
up to welfare programs.
The Search
The search for Barraza was complicated by conflicting
evidence. At one point, the police hypothesized that two killers might be
involved. Then an odd coincidence distracted the investigation; at least three
of Barraza's victims owned a print of an 18th century painting by the French
artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Boy in Red Waistcoat.
The Intense Investigation
The authorities were heavily criticised by the media for
dismissing evidence that a serial killer was at work in Mexico City as merely
"media sensationalism" as late as the summer of 2005. Soon after
setting an investigation in motion, the police incurred further criticism by
launching what one journalist described as a "ham-fisted" and
unproductive swoop on Mexico City's transvestite prostitutes. By November 2005,
the Mexican authorities were reporting witness statements to the effect that
the killer wore women's clothing to gain access to the victim's apartments. In
one case a large woman in a red blouse was seen leaving the home of a murdered
woman. Two months later, police began checking the fingerprints of bodies in
the city's morgues in the apparent belief that Mataviejitas might have
committed suicide. A major breakthrough in the case occurred on 25 January
2006, when a suspect was arrested fleeing from the home of the serial killer's
latest victim, Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro, who lived in the Venustiano
Carranza borough of Mexico City. Alfaro, 82, had been strangled with a
stethoscope. To the surprise of many Mexicans, who had supposed the killer to
be male, the suspect detained was Juana Barraza, 48, a female wrestler known
professionally as The Silent Lady. Witnesses at previous murder scenes had
described a masculine-looking woman and police had previously looked for a
transvestite although they later admitted that the former wrestler resembled
composite images of the suspect. Barraza closely resembled a model of the
killer's features, which showed La Mataviejitas with close-cropped hair dyed
blonde and a facial mole, and was carrying a stethoscope, pension forms and a
card identifying her as a social worker when she was detained. The Mexico City prosecutors said fingerprint
evidence linked Barraza to at least 10 murders of the as many as 40 murders
attributed to the killer. The wrestler is said to have confessed to murdering
Alfaro and three other women, but denied involvement in all other killings. She
told reporters she had visited Alfaro's home in search of laundry work.
The Graphic Trial and verdict
Barraza was tried in the spring of 2008, the prosecution
alleging she had been responsible for as many as 40 deaths. She admitted one
murder, that of Alfaro, and told the police her motive was lingering resentment
regarding her own mother's treatment of her. On 31 March she was found guilty
on 16 charges of murder and aggravated burglary, including 11 separate counts
of murder. She was sentenced to 759 years in prison. Since sentences imposed in
Mexican courts are generally served concurrently, but the maximum sentence
under Mexican law is 60 years. She will most likely serve the full sentence in
prison.
Mujeres asesinas
Mexican producer Pedro Torres brought the story to
television on an episode of the 2010 Mexican Television series Mujeres Asesinas
3 that is being produced by Televisa. The episode is called "Maggie,
Pensionada" starring the Mexican actress Leticia Perdigón as Maggie and
Irma Lozano, Ana Luisa Peluffo and Lourdes Canale as victims.
Current Documentaries
Barraza was highlighted in the documentary "Instinto
Asesino" which aired on Discovery en Español in 2010. The episode was
entitled, "La Mataviejitas". Juana Barraza was also highlighted on
the show La Historia Detras Del Mito the episode was entitled La Mataviejitas.
- Bird...
