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gruesometruecrimestories · 3 months ago

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Juana Barraza

Other Names:

Mataviejitas ( Little Old Lady Killer) and La Dama del Silencio (The Lady of Silence)

Childhood and Adolescence

Juana Barraza was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico on December 27, 1957. Barraza's mother, Justa Samperio, was a stay at home mom but was an alcoholic. Juana grew up in poverty, North of Mexico City, and had never learned to read or write much. The main source of trauma in Juana’s life, it seems, was her mother, Barraza didn’t really know her biological father. When she was about thirteen her mother reportedly exchanged her for three beers to a man, Jose Lugo. He would repeatedly raped her in his care, and by whom she became pregnant with a son. Lugo tied her to his bed, and would continually rape her over and over, even when she had an abortion, or when she gave birth to a son. After five years, her uncles finally found her and rescued her. It turned out, Juana’s mother had been lying to the rest of the family this entire time, saying that Juana had just left with her rapist of her own free will.

Adult Life

Barraza finally left for Mexico City after her mother died of cirrhosis. She underwent several failed marriages, from which she had four children. Her firstborn died in a gang related shooting when he was 24 years old. During the 1980s and 1990s, Barraza held a variety of jobs. She also toured central Mexico as a masked wrestler named La Dama del Silencio ("The Lady of Silence"), which was an alias she chose in reference to her own shy, silent personality. After the birth of her fourth child in 1995, she was short of cash, she began to steal items from shops and later evolved to burglarizing homes. In 1996, she came up with a plan with a friend, Araceli Tapia Martínez, to steal from the elderly. The two of them dressed up in white clothes and pretended to be nurses. They did this in order to gain access to the homes of elderly people living alone. The two continued robbing them once they were inside, however, Tapia was also in a relationship with a corrupt Federal Police officer, Moisés Flores Domínguez, and they concocted a parallel plan to extort Barraza. Flores met Barraza after a burglary that she had committed alone and he demanded 12,000 pesos in return for not arresting her. In 2000, Barraza retired from wrestling, where she earned 300 to 500 pesos per fight, and her situation became desperate. This is when her crimes began to become more violent and rash.

Crimes

From the years 2002 to 2006, Juana Barraza continued her burglaries but she began stabbing, strangling, and murdering those whose houses she was breaking into. It is suspected that she had been responsible for as many as 40 deaths. All of Barraza's victims were women aged 60 or over, most of whom lived alone. She would bludgeon or strangle her victims, and afterward would rob them. It is said that Barraza would pose as a social worker or nurse offering medical services to earn the victims' trust and gain access to their homes without forced entry.

Alleged Victims and Timeline

November 25, 2002

Maria de la Luz Gonzalez Anaya, 64, was beaten and manually strangled.

March 2, 2003

Guillermina Leon Oropeza, 84, strangled.

July 25, 2003

Maria Guadalaupe Aguilar Cortina, 86, strangled.

October 9, 2003

María Guadalupe de la Vega Morales, 87, her arms were fractured, she was tied up, and fatally strangled.

October 24. 2003

María del Carmen Muñoz Cote de Galván, 78, strangled with a stethoscope.

November 4, 2003

Lucrecia Elsa Calvo Marroquín, 85, strangled with a cord.

November 19, 2003

Natalia Torres Castro, 85, strangled with a ligature.

November 28, 2003

Alicia Cota Ducoin, 76, strangled with a ligature.

February 20, 2004

Alicia González Castillo, 75, beaten and strangled.

February 25, 2004

Andrea Tecante Carreto, 74, beaten and strangled.

March 20, 2004

Carmen Cardona Rodea, 76, beaten and strangled with a cord.

March 26, 2004

Socorro Enedina Martínez Pajares, 82, beaten and strangled with a cord.

May 24, 2004

Guadalupe González Sánchez, 74, beaten, slammed, and strangled with two cords.

June 25, 2004

Esthela Cantoral Trejo, 85, strangled with a stethoscope.

July 1, 2004

Delfina González Castillo, 92, beaten and strangled.

July 3, 2004

María Virginia Xelhuatzi Tizapán, 84, strangled.

July 19, 2004

María de los Ángeles Cortés Reynoso, 84, beaten and strangled with a belt.

August 31, 2004

Margarita Martell Vázquez, 72, strangled with a cord.

September 29, 2004

Simona Bedolla Ayala, 79, beaten, smothered with a pillow, and fatally strangled.

October 24, 2004

María Dolores Martínez Benavides, 70, beaten and strangled with a stethoscope until her neck snapped.

November 9, 2004

Margarita Arredondo Rodríguez, 83, beaten and strangled.

November 17, 2004

María Imelda Estrada Pérez, 76, beaten and strangled.

January 11, 2005

Julia Vera Duplan, 60, strangled with a pantyhose.

February 10, 2005

María Elena Mendoza Vallares, 59, killed by unknown causes.

April 13, 2005

María Elisa Pérez Moreno, 76, strangled with a pantyhose, then fatally beaten when she put up a fight.

April 14 , 2005

Arturo Patiño Barranco, 74, strangled.

April 19, 2005

Carolina Robledo, 79, stabbed.

April 20, 2005

Ana María Velázquez Díaz, 62, strangled with a wire.

June 17, 2005

Celia Villaliz Morales, 78, beaten and strangled with a wire.

June 29, 2005

María Guadalupe Núñez Almanza, 78. strangled with a stethoscope.

July 5, 2005

Julia Vargas, 64, killed by unknown causes.

Mario Cruz Flores, 84, killed by unknown causes.

July 20, 2005

Emma Armenta Aguayo, 80, beaten and strangled with a bathrobe belt.

August 9, 2005

Emma Reyes Peña, 72, beaten and strangled with a ligature.

August 11, 2005

Carmen Sánchez Serrano, 76, bludgeoned.

August 15, 2005

Dolores Concepción Silva Calva, 91, strangled with a bandanna and set on fire post-mortem.

September 28, 2005

María del Carmen Camila González Miguel, 82, beaten and strangled.

Guadalupe Oliver Contreras, 85, beaten and strangled with a pantyhose.

October 18, 2005

María de los Ángeles Repper Hernández, 92, beaten and strangled with a scarf.

January 25, 2006

Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro, 84, strangled with a stethoscope.

Arrest and Capture

Relying on eyewitnesses and the nature of the crimes, Mexican police believed their suspect was a cross-dressing man or transgender male with broad shoulders, large hands, and a muscular build. Under intense pressure from the media and concerned residents, authorities incorrectly arrested several innocent people, including a nurse, a slew of transgender men, and prostitutes who they believed resembled the suspect. By late 2005, the number of deaths linked to the serial strangler reached 47. Mexican officials had no leads or potential suspects. The Governor of Mexico City, Alexandro Encinas, reached out to the National Autonomous University of Mexico neuropsychologist Dr. Feggy Ostrosky to study the murders. It wasn’t until January 25, 2006, when there was a break in the case when Barraza was seen by a tenant as she left the murder scene of landlady Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro. She ended up being arrested by a passing police patrol. Though Barraza was illiterate, a search of her home found a trophy room with newspaper clippings of the murders. The police also found objects taken from the victims and an altar to Jesús Malverde and Santa Muerte. These were two folk saints commonly venerated by Mexican criminals.

Trial and Conviction

In 2008, Barraza was tried for 30 murders and was found guilty of 16 of them. She admitted to one murder, that of Alfaro, and told the police her motive was lingering resentment regarding her own mother's treatment of her. Aside from the murders she was also involved in 12 robberies. The convictions were mostly for murders she could be tied to through fingerprint evidence. Barraza was sentenced to 759 years in prison, but she will be paroled regardless in 2058, at the age of 100.

Where is Barraza Now?

Barraza received multiple long sentences, all of which adds up to 759 years if served consecutively, but if they are served simultaneously, it’s possible she wouldn’t spend more than 60 years in prison. This is the highest sentence ever given to a criminal in Mexico. She was sentenced at 51 years old, so it’s unlikely she’d be alive after 60 years behind bars. In 2015, Barraza married fellow inmate Miguel Ángel, a 74-year-old man who was serving a sentence for murder in the men's sector of the Santa Martha de Acatitla prison. The marriage lasted only a year after they met just three times. Barraza now sells tacos in the prison courtyard to support her family and works as a gym instructor. One of her main activities at the prison is walking older women around.

Interviews and Additional Resources

youtube

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/world/americas/woman-held-in-mexico-city-serial-killings.html

#true crime research #crime #female rage #Youtube

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