Juana Barraza (born 1958) is a Mexican professional wrestler
and serial killer dubbed La Mataviejitas (Spanish for: "The Old Lady
Killer") sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing eleven [11] 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 the
killer's victims, with estimated totals ranging from 24 to 49 deaths.
Her 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 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 Police Investigation:
The authorities were heavily criticized 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 Maria 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. 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 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.
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.
***
The following appeared in a variety of publications, since
her arrest:
Old Lady Killer
handed 759 years in a Mexican prison
A single mother who nursed ambitions to be a professional
masked wrestler has been sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing 16 elderly
women in Mexico City. Dubbed the Mataviejitas, or Little Old Lady Killer, Juana
Barraza was arrested in January 2006 after she was seen hurrying from the house
of her last victim, the only murder she has confessed to. The judge heard
evidence that Barraza, 50, cruised public places in search of elderly women on
their own. She sometimes gained their trust and access to their homes by
helping with their shopping bags and requesting cleaning work. On other
occasions she pretended to be a nurse or social worker offering a free check-up
or information about benefits. The prosecution said Barraza used objects such
as phone cables, tights or the stethoscope she often carried with her to
strangle her victims.
Barraza was known as La Dama del Silencio or the Lady of
Silence as a wrestler and occasionally wrestled in minor events on the amateur
circuit. Profilers believe she killed elderly women to release the rage she harbored
against her alcoholic mother, who gave her away at the age of 12 to a man who
abused her. Barraza showed little emotion as she heard the verdict. "May
God forgive you and not forget me," she said, adding that she would appeal
against all but one of the convictions. The Mataviejitas epithet was coined in
2005 when several elderly women were found strangled in their homes. Police
found fingerprints and put out an artist's impression. But with profilers
suggesting the murderer was a transvestite, nobody looked twice at Barraza with
her neatly cut short hair and strait-laced street clothes. In the end it was
the unexpected arrival of a lodger, just as Barraza was leaving the house where
his 82-year-old landlady lay dead, that triggered her arrest.
***
Life for Mexico's
Old Lady Killer
One of Mexico's most prolific serial killers, a former
female wrestler, has received multiple life sentences for the murders of at
least 11 women. Juana Barraza, nicknamed the Little Old Lady Killer or
Mataviejitas, was sentenced to 759 years in jail for the killings of mostly
elderly women. It is thought she may have actually been responsible for up to
40 deaths. Juana Barraza, 50, said she had been motivated by a lingering resentment
against her mother. Under Mexican law, she is likely to spend a maximum of 50
years in prison as multiple sentences are generally served concurrently.
The killings began in Mexico City in the late 1990s. Transvestites
questioned. After reports that a woman had carried them out, police suspected a
man in woman's clothes. It meant months were spent detaining and questioning
transvestites. But police said the broad-shouldered Barraza, who as a
professional wrestler was known as the Silent Lady, resembled composite
profiles of the suspect. She was arrested in 2006 after she was seen leaving
the house of one of her victims who had been strangled with a stethoscope. She
was found in possession of social benefits papers and a social worker's
identification card, which she used to gain entry to victims' homes by
pretending to be a government employee who could sign them up to welfare programmers.
The lady killer
For three years, a serial murderer has terrorized the
elderly women of Mexico City. Could the culprit really be a 48-year-old female
masked wrestler? Around midday on January 25 this year, in Mexico City,
48-year-old single mother Juana Barraza, approached an elderly woman called Ana
Maria de los Reyes, entering her house and asking for a glass of water. Once
inside, Barraza picked up a stethoscope that happened to be lying on the living
room table and used it to strangle her hostess. She was detained shortly
afterwards as she hurried from the murder scene, identified by the victim's
lodger. He had seen Barraza leave just before stumbling on his landlady's
corpse.
The news of Barraza's arrest spread fast. The serial killer,
whom the local press had dubbed the Mataviejitas ("Little Old Lady
Killer"), had apparently been caught. Since 2003, the Mataviejitas has
been linked to 32 murders in Mexico City. All the victims were elderly women,
usually strangled with cables, scarves or stockings. Eye-witnesses had
described a masculine-looking woman hanging around several murder scenes and,
given the rarity of female serial killers, profilers were convinced the killer
was a transvestite. Almost four months on from her arrest, Barraza has been
charged with 10 murders, pleading guilty to just one - strangling Reyes - and
not guilty to the rest. City prosecutors have told reporters that they hope to
charge her for 27 murders and they apparently have fingerprints putting her at
the scene of at least 11.
"I only killed one little old lady. Not the
others," Barraza told the court on her first appearance in February.
"It isn't right to pin the others on me." Asked to reveal her motive,
she said simply, "I got angry." What makes her story even more
sensational is her hobby. When she was detained, Barraza looked respectable and
unremarkable, with neatly cut hair and conservative clothes. But she has not
always been so restrained, indulging a fanatical enthusiasm for the sport of
lucha libre - Mexican masked wrestling. Lucha libre typically involves titanic
battles between fighters with cartoon-character names and costumes who are
identified as either técnicos (good guys who fight by the rules) and rudos
(villains who break them.) Interviewed by a major television channel at a
wrestling event just a few weeks before her arrest, Barraza described herself
as "rudo to the core". She was often seen in the front rows of the
established arenas, and also organized wrestling events for small-town fiestas,
occasionally fighting in the ring herself. Her wrestling persona was La Dama
del Silencio, The Lady of Silence. She reportedly told police she chose the
title, "because I am quiet and keep myself to myself".
When it comes to Mexican trials, there are no juries and few
public hearings. Instead, prosecutors and defense lawyers present their
evidence to a single judge during largely closed-door proceedings that can last
years. But if the formal legal process is slow, Barraza's public trial in the
local media was all but over in the first couple of days. Within hours of her
arrest, Barraza was paraded before the cameras, posed beside a plasticize bust
of the prime suspect, made during the hunt, to which she bears some
resemblance. The police also released snaps of her recreating the murder of
Reyes for detectives, along with videoed excerpts of her initial police
interrogation. All this before she had even been remanded in custody. "The
presumption of innocence is not clearly established here," says Emilio
Alvarez, human-rights ombudsman for Mexico City. "The media has become the
great judge." As the trial inches along, the defense’s strategy has mixed
Barraza's claims that she is being scapegoated for all but one of the murders,
with attempts to get her declared mentally unfit to stand trial. However,
prosecutors told local reporters last month that psychological studies of
Barraza ordered by the defense had concluded that she was entirely conscious of
her actions. She was born in 1956 in a poverty-stricken village in the largely
rural state of Hidalgo, just north of Mexico City, and certainly has the
difficult background that often typifies cases of mental disturbance. She has
never learned to read or write much beyond her name, and media reports,
confirmed by her defense lawyer, describe an early childhood in the charge of
an alcoholic mother who gave her away at the age of 12 - some say in exchange
for three beers. Barely pubescent, she was repeatedly raped by her new guardian
or a third man (versions vary), becoming pregnant and giving birth to a boy.
While the details of the abuse differ, there seems little doubt that Barraza harbors
deep resentment towards her mother for letting the abuse happen. Miguel
Ontiveros - the criminologist associated with the case - believes Barraza was
so damaged by her experiences she ended up targeting old ladies because she
identified them with her mother. Within this context, Barraza's own
relationship with her four children (by three different fathers) seems
remarkably stable, if marked by tragedy.
Her eldest died as a young man, from injuries received when
muggers attacked him with a baseball bat. Her second child, a girl, married
early and left home, although she stayed close to her mother's modest
ground-floor rented flat on the very eastern edge of Mexico City. Barraza lived
there with her youngest two children - a boy aged 13 and a girl aged 11 - who
are now staying with their elder sister. According to her lawyer, the accused
is "proud to say she has kept things going on her own. She is proud of
being both a father and mother to her children." Barraza seems to have
supported the family through a mixture of domestic work, street vending and
petty theft. Neighbors in this otherwise largely middle-class area described
the children as friendly and their mother as always pleasant in passing. But
what attracts the attention of criminal anthropologist Elena Azaola is how far
Juana Barraza, if she is guilty, has strayed from the trends revealed by her
study of convicted Mexican murderesses a decade ago. "A Mexican woman
killing even just one little old lady is virtually unheard of ... How much our
society must have changed if it can produce a [female] mataviejitas."
***
Woman held in
Mexico killer hunt
Mexican police hunting the country's most-wanted serial
killer have arrested a female wrestler.
Juana Barraza, 48, was held as she allegedly fled the scene
where a woman in her 80s had been strangled with a stethoscope, police said. Ms.
Barraza, known in wrestling as the Silent Lady, is now feared to be Mexico's
"Little Old Lady Killer". She reportedly admitted to Wednesday's
killing, but denied a murder spree in which at least 30 women may have died. The
killings began in the capital in the late 1990s.
Mexico City prosecutors said fingerprint evidence linked Ms.
Barraza to at least 10 murders carried out in recent years. She was arrested at
the scene of the killing of 82-year-old Ana Maria Reyes on Wednesday in the
Venustiano Carranza area of the capital. After reports that a woman had carried
out the killings, police suspected a man in woman's clothes.
Transvestites
arrested:
It meant months were spent detaining and questioning
transvestites. But police said the broad-shouldered Ms. Barraza resembled
composite profiles of the suspect, and a wax mock-up, with a similar short
reddish haircut and facial mole. They said they found in her possession of a stethoscope,
social benefits papers and a social worker's identification card. Police have
long suspected that the culprit got into victims' homes by pretending to be a
government employee who could sign them up to welfare programmers.
As always, stay safe !
Bird
***
