JUANA "LA MATAVIEJITAS" BARRAZA

JUANA "LA MATAVIEJITAS" BARRAZA

Estimated Body Count: At least 10 (but possibly as many as 40)

Story: Juana Barraza ruled the Mexican women's wrestling circuit as "The Silent Lady," but she became infamous for another moniker, "La Mataviejitas"—the old-lady killer. Starting in the 1990s, Barraza knocked on the doors of Mexico City's elderly women, pretending to be a social worker. Once inside, she grabbed a sock, piece of string or phone cord—whatever was handy—and strangled her victims to death (until blood oozed from their ears).

Capture: In 2006, after strangling 82-year-old Ana Maria Reyes with a stethoscope, Barraza fled from the scene, only to be captured close by. Her prints matched those at 10 of approximately 40 crime scenes attributed to La Mataviejitas. It took police a long time to find her because they were unsure if she was a man or a woman—or a man dressed as a woman, or a woman dressed as a man. Her broad shoulders and the force she used to cause blood to seep from victims' ears made police think she was a man.

Punishment: 759 years, though she may serve less than 50 years

Juana Barraza (born 1956) is a Mexican professional wrestler and serial killer dubbed La Mataviejitas (Sp. "The Old Lady Killer") sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing eleven elderly women.[1][2] The first murder attributed to Mataviejitas has been dated variously to the late 1990s and to a specific killing on 17 November 2003.[3] The authorities and the press have given various estimates as to the total number of the killer's victims, with totals ranging from 24 to 49 deaths.[4][5]

Early life and family[edit]

Juana Barraza was born in Epazoyucan, Hidalgo, a rural area north of Mexico City.[6] Barraza's mother, Justa Samperio, 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.[6][7] She had four children in total, although her eldest son died from injuries sustained in a mugging.[6][7]Prior to her arrest, Barraza was a professional wrestler under the ring name of La Dama del Silencio (The Silent Lady).[8] She had a strong interest with lucha libre, a form of Mexican maskedprofessional wrestling in which the wrestlers engage in titanic mock battles.[6]

Profile[edit]

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.[citation needed]

Bernardo Bátiz, the chief prosecutor in Mexico City, initially profiled the killer as having "a brilliant mind, [being] quite clever and careful",[9][dead link] 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.[10]

Investigation[edit]

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 transvestiteprostitutes.[5]

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

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