Delfina and María de
Jesús González (known as "Las Poquianchis") were two sisters from the
Mexican state of Guanajuato, located 200 miles north of Mexico City. From the
1950s until the mid-1960s the sisters ran Rancho El Ángel, called the
"bordello from hell" in San Francisco del Rincón. And murdered Women,
men and fetuses (prostitutes, their babies, and male customers), during the
1950’ until their discovery in 1963. The
number of victims was in the order of 91+
The method of each murder is still a mystery today.
They were each sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1964.
Delfina died in prison due to an accident on October 17, 1968. Maria de Jesus
finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. It is unknown
why and when she was freed.
The arrest and investigation:
The police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a
procuress, on suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, and
during questioning, she implicated the two sisters. Police officers searched
the sisters' property and found the bodies of 11 men, 80 women and several
fetuses, a total of over 91.
Investigations revealed the scheme was that they would
recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads; though the ads would state the
girls would become maids for the two sisters. Many of the girls were force fed
heroin or cocaine. The sisters killed the prostitutes when they became too ill,
damaged by repeated sexual activity, lost their looks or stopped pleasing the
customers. They would also kill customers who showed up with large amounts of
cash. When asked for an explanation for the deaths, one of the sisters
reportedly said, "The food didn't agree with them." Tried in 1964,
the González sisters were each sentenced to 40 years in prison. In prison,
Delfina died due to an accident, and Maria finished her sentence and dropped
out of sight after her release.
Although they are often cited as the killers, there were two
other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died
in jail due to cancer; Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would
be killed by angry protesters. The sisters were the subject of the 1977 book
Las Muertas by Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia.
The Full Story:
Las Poquianchis: The Macabre Case That Shocked Mexico
In the first weeks of January 1964, Catalina Ortega went to
the Judicial Police office in Leon, Guanajuato and told a macabre tale. Visibly
shaken, scared and showing signs of abuse and malnourishment, Ortega told the
police officers that in nearby San Pancho, the Gonzalez sisters held a sort of
concentration camp/ brothel. Thus began the most scandalous and sordid tale of
prostitution and murder, the most shocking in annals of Mexican crime history. Delfina,
Maria de Jesus, Carmen and Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela were born in El
Salto de Juanacatlan, Jalisco in poverty. Their father, Isidro Torres was an
abusive and authoritarian man. He formed a part of the Rural police, during the
Porfirio Diaz days, in charge of riding thru town and making sure everything
was ok. A violent man, who often abused his power, he shot and killed a man
during an argument. When his young daughters wore makeup or "risque"
clothing not to his liking, he would lock them up in the town jail to teach
them a lesson. After shooting the man
and gaining many enemies, Isidro Torres, his wife Bernardina Valenzuela and
their daughters relocated to the small village of San Francisco del Rincon,
Guanajuato, called San Pancho by the locals. As the Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters
grew older, their constant fear of poverty made them open up some businesses in
town. Together with some money they had they opened a saloon in San Pancho, and
this bar, although it didnt bring in loads of money, it gave them enough to
eat.
Later on they would venture into prostitution. The sisters
would bribe local officials with money or the sisters would "bribe"
them using their sexual skills. Nevertheless they opened up clandestine
brothels in San Francisco del Rincon, Purisima del Rincon, and Leon in
Guanajuato state other bordellos in El Salto and San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco
and another one in San Juan del Rio, Queretaro state, near Mexico City. Carmen,
Delfina and Maria de Jesus "Chuy", operated the whorehouses in
Guanajuato and Jalisco while Maria Luisa "Eva the Leggy One" ran her
bar/brothel near the Mexican border. The sisters bought a bar in Lagos, Jalisco
from a gay man nicknamed "El Poquianchi" . The nickname was passed on
to the sisters, who were now called Las Poquianchis, a nickname they both hated. They would prowl the countryside, hitting the
nearby ranches in Guanajuato or venture into rural Jalisco and Michoacan states
and look for the prettiest young girls. They would offer them jobs in
Guadalajara or Leon, as maids or waitresses. The poor young peasant girls, with
dreams of life in the big city and money, would be happy to oblige. Other times
the Gonzalez sisters, with the help of an Army Captain/Henchman and Delfina's
lover, Hermengildo Zuniga, would simply snatch the young girls, never to be
seen again. In the late 1950's Carmen had died due to cancer. At their
"Guadalajara de Noche" and "Barca de Oro" Bars, the young
girls would be put to work. The prettiest virgins were saved for later,
awaiting patrons with fat wallets, who would pay top peso for an untouched
girls. The others would be raped, intimidated and showered with ice water as
initiation. The girls would have to buy their clothes and makeup strictly from
the Gonzalez sisters. The girls, held against their will, never being allowed
to go outside were controlled by the sisters and Zuniga "The Black
Eagle". Delfina's son Ramon Torres "El Tepo" also served as
muscle, keeping the girls in line. For years the sisters made tons of money
selling booze and whores to soldiers, councilmen, cops and horny villagers. When
one of the girls got pregnant, she would be beaten and forced to abort, the
fetuses dumped in the back yards of the brothels or buried at the sisters main
ranch that resembled a concentration camp, Loma del Angel.
If a girl got too sick, due to malnourishment or an STD or
due to an impromptu abortion, she would be locked in a room, starved to death
or the other girls would be forced to beat her to death with sticks and heavy
logs. "The Black Eagle" and the sister's chauffeur handled the
bodies, burning them to ashes or burying them in mass graves. Johns with a lot
of cash would also be murdered and their bodies buried, and their cash stolen.
In 1963, Ramon Torres "El Tepo" got into an
argument with Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco cops and was shot to death inside one of
the Gonzalez' sisters brothel. The police closed down the place and its said
that Delfina, Tepo's mother, in a fit of rage ordered Hermenegildo Zuniga to track
down the cops who killed her son and kiledl them on the spot. And kill them he
did. In January 1964, one of the
Gonzalez sisters "whores" managed to escape Loma del Angel through a
small opening in the wall and fled. Zuniga and his cronies searched for Ortega
to kill her but they could not find her throughout the countryside. Ortega
managed to get ahold of her mother and together they went to the Leon,
Guanajuato police to file a complaint.
She was in luck, the cops she talked to were not on the
sinister sister's payroll. They soon got a search and arrest warrant against
Chuy and Delfina Gonzalez and on January 14th, 1964 they raided Loma del Angel
ranch. There the sisters, still dressed in black, mourning El Tepos death and
wearing shawls were herded throughtout the ranch, while angry villagers
gathered outside demanding to lynch the sisters. Police and reporters found a
dozen emaciated and dirty women at the ranch, locked in a room. As police and
reporters explored the ranch, some of the girls pointed to spots in the ground
and told them thats where they would find "the bodies".
Angry and shouting obcenities at their new accusers, the
Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters could do nothing but watch as their chauffeur, also
arrested, was forced to dig. There authorities found decomposed bodies and the
bones of at least 91 women, men and fetuses. Under heavy military guard, the
sisters were taken to a jail San Francisco del Rincon, but seeing as how the
whole town wanted to lynch the women, a judge sent them to squalid Irapuato
City Jail. A week later, Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela went to a Mexico City
police station and turned herself in, fearing being lynched. She thought she
was immune, a judge had granted her immunity from the charges her sisters faced
but upon arriving in Irapuato she too was arrested. There began the hectic
interrogation and sensational trial of the century.
Dozens of ex prostitutes accused the sisters of rape, murder
and extortion. The women accused "The Poquianchis" as the women were
dubbed by the media, of dabbling in Satanism, forcing the women to practice
sexual acts on animals, and killing and torturing dozens of young girls and
johns. They accused Delfina, Maria Luisa and Maria de Jesus of corrupting and
bribing local and state authorities, who were also regulars to the sisters bars
and brothels. The chaotic trial, peppered with insults and yelling back and
forth from the Gonzalez sisters and their accusers was short and a judge
sentenced all 3 sisters to 40 years in prison. Delfina Gonzalez Valenzuela, the
oldest "Poquianchi" went mad, fearing she would be murdered in jail.
On October 17, 1968, while she screamed and ranted, workers doing reparations
above her cell in Irapuato jail, looked down to catch a glimpse of the
notorious woman and accidentaly dropped a bucket of cement on her head, killing
her. Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela "Eva the Leggy One" died alone
in her cell at Irapuato jail on November 19, 1984. Her body, already being
eaten by rats, was discovered a day later.
Maria de Jesus Gonzalez Valenzuela, the youngest of the
"Poquianchis" was the only one to be freed. It is unknown why or when
she was freed, but legend has it she met a 64 year old man in prison, and once
both were outside, they married and lived their life in obscurity, finally
dying of old age in the mid 1990's.
In 2002, workers clearing land for a new housing development
in Purisima del Rincon, Guanajuato, down the road from the notorious Loma del
Angel ranch, found the remains of about 20 skeletons in a pit. Authorities said
the victims were probably buried there in the 1950's or 1960's, the could be
more victims of Las Poquianchis. If this
is true, it raises the number of victims at 111.
As always, stay safe !
Bird
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