Surprising story of Mexico’s first serial killer—a feminine wannabe wrestler

Mexico loves it abuelas.

So, in 1998, when a rash of killings appeared to be focusing on Mexico Metropolis’s aged ladies, lots of whom had been grannies, residents had been up in arms.

The mysterious assassin was a shadowy determine who got here to be generally known as the Previous Woman Killer. Ultimately, the executioner — a wrestling fanatic with broad shoulders and highly effective palms — was not who anybody imagined.

“Grandmothers are essentially the most fragile, most susceptible members of society,” Laura Waldenberg, producer of “The Woman of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders,” which drops Thursday on Netflix, instructed The Publish. “When grandmothers began being killed, society was deeply affected. The murders generated rather more outrage than different killings within the nation.”

(Certainly, practically 14,000 known murders were committed in Mexico in 1998.)

As outlined within the “The Woman of Silence,” the anger was intensified by the truth that these murders had been the product of Mexico’s first confirmed serial killer. The ladies had been all strangled to loss of life, their residences ransacked, and valuables and keepsakes stolen.

Politicians and the media pressed police to search out the killer and put a cease to those brutal misdeeds. Grandchildren lived in concern for the lives of their abuelas and cop vehicles cruised the streets with composite drawings of the suspect — a girl — affixed to their home windows. 

A lady on the road, interviewed for native information on the time, summed issues up for grandmas all through Mexico Metropolis when she instructed a reporter, “I’m fearful of everybody.”

Below intense strain, police arrested the improper individuals. In a single occasion, an harmless nurse who resembled the composite illustration was yanked out of a financial institution and paraded by the cops. She was launched quickly after. Crossdressing prostitutes had been rounded up and a male burglar was incorrectly incarcerated for the killings.

As time went on, and deaths piled up, legislation enforcers turned satisfied that the killer needed to be a person. Judging by the character of the strangulations, it appeared unlikely {that a} lady, with small palms, might do it. 

In January 2006, with 47 ladies allegedly strangled by the Previous Woman Killer, a person named Joel Lopez went to go to his aged neighbor Ana Maria de los Reyes. 

Stunned to see her door unlocked, he stepped inside — and encountered a girl in a crimson coat. She made eye contact earlier than calmly exiting. The actual shock got here when Lopez ventured deeper into the house noticed Reyes laying on the ground of her bed room, the place drawers had been open and belongings scattered. A stethoscope was wrapped round her neck. Reyes was useless.

Outdoors, Lopez noticed the lady in crimson simply as a police automotive was passing by. The cops reportedly sensed Lopez’s misery, observed the lady quicken her tempo and apprehended her earlier than she disappeared right into a metro station.

As the lady was pushed into the police automotive, Lopez angrily requested, “What did you do? What did you do to my neighbor?”

Among the many objects on her, just a few had been notably surprising: receipts for leases of wrestling rings, enterprise playing cards of assorted skilled wrestlers and a keychain together with her personal wrestling identify: La Dama de Silencio (Woman of Silence).

Her actual identify was Juana Barraza, a 48-year-old single mom with a troubled previous who led police to consider she was knowledgeable wrestler.

In actuality, she was solely an excellent fan of lucha libre, a Mexican type of wrestling through which rivals all put on masks. She socialized with wrestlers, loaned them cash and, regardless of by no means competing in a professional match, in keeping with Waldenberg, thought-about herself to be one in every of them.

Inside her cluttered residence, a poster-sized photograph of Barraza in wrestling garb had pleasure of place.

“Juana’s dream was to be a wrestler,” mentioned Waldenberg. “She had a masks and costume and needed to be a part of the scene. She constructed the wrestling persona for the authorities and satisfied them that it was actual.”

The murderous Barazza put up a convincing entrance. “She wore a wrestling costume when assembly with [legit] wrestlers,” continued Waldenberg. “There may be one investigator who mentioned that the rationale she turned to homicide was as a result of she missed the thrill of being a wrestler. That was ridiculous as a result of Juana was clearly probably not a wrestler.”

Based on the Guardian, a criminologist engaged on the case provides a sadder and more rational explanation for the killings: Barraza harbored a lot dislike for her mom that she killed outdated girls.

Barraza claims that, when she was 12 years, outdated, her mom traded her away for “a carton of beer.” 

At that time, she fell right into a sexually abusive cycle with a a lot older man.

Functionally illiterate, Barraza turned pregnant whereas nonetheless a young person and gave start to a son who was later murdered by bat-wielding muggers. She had three extra kids, although there isn’t any file of her marital standing. She is believed to have made ends meet by a mixture of cleansing houses, promoting random items on the road and thievery. 

In distinction to her personal upbringing, mentioned Waldenberg, “She was very desirous about exhibiting that she is an effective mom. She labored laborious to domesticate that picture.”

However it didn’t do a lot to generate sympathy for her as soon as she was accused of homicide. On movie within the documentary Barraza is seen enthusiastically demonstrating for legislation enforcers how she dedicated her strangulations — trying proud as she tightens a pair of stockings across the neck of a criminologist.

In 2008, a decide declared Barraza responsible of 17 murders and sentenced her to 759 years in jail.

Based on Waldenberg, the Previous Woman Killer has discovered acceptance behind bars in a approach that she by no means did earlier than her sentencing. Mexican pop star Amandititita recorded a campy song about her, T-shirts abound (one reveals Barraza with devil-horns in a pretend wrestling poster that has her facing off against an angelic grandma) and there’s a minimum of one true-crime ebook about Barraza’s killing spree.

“Individuals within the jail respect her quite a bit. In the future every week, she sells meals to the opposite inmates,” mentioned Waldenberg. “She’s a pop icon contained in the jail and on the surface.”

As for regret and explanations, Barraza will not be huge on both. “I solely killed one outdated girl,” she insisted to the court docket. “It’s not proper to pin the others on me.”

When requested for a motive, she merely replied, “I acquired offended.”