Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. All right. Welcome back to another episode of the Psychopedia podcast. I am your co-host, Hank Sinatra, here with my micro host. Investigators later. I don't know what to do with my hands. Oh, this is weird. Guys, it's been a year.
And we just got microphone stands. Yep. We were doing it like a stand-up comedian in the basement of a church. Yeah. Tuesday night comedy. The church needs revenue. Do you realize what I'd have to do every single time we recorded?
balance a laptop, hold a microphone, try not to make noise that I inevitably would make that our editor would have a very difficult time dealing with. And it just took us a year to be like, let's fix this. Well, you did mention it quite a few times. I know. I'm being kind and I'm saying we, but this is really a you thing. Yeah, we got some gooseneck stuff. I mean, you could have ordered them. I'm just saying, welcome to the podcast. We're about to have a great time. I don't know what's happening. She does. She's got a laptop and a mic stand and she looks unscathed.
Stop. Pabot. I'm ready for Shabizness. Yeah. I miss Shabizness. I know. I actually wrote myself a note to say that during the podcast. I've been severely lacking Shabizness in my life. Bring it in. Yeah, I wrote, I miss Taylor Shabizness. And then I wrote merch, which you can find, by the way, at psychopediapodcast.com, which is
I thought it was psychopediapod.com. It is not. What is it? psychopediapodcast.com. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Oh, man, we got to learn this stuff. Maybe by the time this is out, we'll have it done. I want a t-shirt that says, in my shabizness era. Love it. It can be done today. Yeah. Dave can design it and we can just get it right over to the shop. Yeah. I'm trying to make a joke work on threads. It's not, it's not working. Like,
I keep writing in my epoch era over and over again. I don't think I understand it. Epoch is like an era. It's another word for an era. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Maybe that's why it's not catching on. I don't think a lot of people do. I know a few words. I don't know that one. Epoch is like one of those, like that word annals. I say annals all the time.
all the time. In fact, I will tell you that it will come up in this episode. Anal retentive. Anal is a tough one to get off without a hitch. Yeah, it is. It really is. You throw that in a fucking sentence, you better be confident you're not going to make that A long. You better be confident not to lengthen that A a bit.
It's funny. Anyway, we're here. We're ready. We're going to jump right into it. But first, real quick, because, well, this isn't Unhinged, but it feels very much like an Unhinged episode because I'm having a tough time keeping my thoughts together. Speaking of Unhinged, totally unrelated, which is fucking weird. I was going to say, go over to patreon.com slash psychopedia pod, no cast, for Unhinged episodes, ad-free episodes. They're
They're finally up there and I have to, have to give proppers to investigate us later for uploading every episode. And I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but a lot of work to someone who doesn't know about it. But when I was asked to do it, I almost had a panic attack. I know you did. And...
She's got like 50, 51 episodes up there. However many there are. All of them. Yes. Thank you for the propers. When you texted me and said that it was done, I was like, no, no way. When I did the last one, I was like,
This happened. I put my mind to it and I did it. Do you know that this laptop just was attached to me for two days straight? So everywhere I went, I'm like, oh, I got 10 minutes before like they're going to work on my car. I'm going to upload an episode. Was getting my hair done. You're so disciplined. It's hooked into their Wi-Fi and was like,
love you to my stylist. Please don't talk to me. Yeah. I'm working. I got your business to take care of. That's right. So yeah, that's big news over on patreon.com slash psychopedia pod. There are ad free episodes also unhinged also behind the scenes also. And this is news to investigate us later as well. Oh God, I hate when you do this. Okay, go. I think I want to do a segment at the end where I like just say something that I've like realized.
over the past week. That's great. We did talk about this. So this isn't total news to me. I support it. I love it. I think you have so much insight to offer. I tell you this all the time. You say things in passing that are so profound and impactful. And for me personally, will like change the way I live. I do be dropping jewels. You do. I think that you owe it to everyone, not just me in passing and anybody who's lucky enough to absorb what you're saying. Can you give me the Ben Affleck speech real quick before we start? Oh,
Uh, which one? You know what the best part of my day is? I get out of my car, I walk up here. And for the 30 seconds I'm walking up to the house, I think maybe he's not fucking here anymore.
Maybe he took off. You know how hard that was for me to understand when I was a kid? I was like, this guy's a dick. Why does he want his friend to be gone? Yeah. And I was like, oh, he wants the best for him. Yeah. Not a thought I had had up until that point. Dave and I had that vibe about you all the time. You wanted me to just disappear and be gone? Yeah. When you moved to California, as devastating as it was, particularly for your other, Dave, you were like, go, go make it. Go do it. Yeah. Go. Go.
I was not even close. Yeah, well, you're back here making it, so. Last note before we start. Dave's jawline is looking chiseled as fuck. Let me tell you something about Dave. That post on Investigator Slater from whatever you guys were doing with the wine thing? Yeah. It looks like it hurts. Here's what's really annoying about Dave, and I say this lovingly. The guy wakes up, I swear to God, and looks like that. Like, chiseled jaw, like, coiffed hair.
Soft hair, beautiful blue eyes. I look like roadkill when I wake up. Yeah. It's rough. Yeah. And then I roll over and look at him and I'm like, what are you doing with me? What's happening? One more thing. Go. We played a music trivia game last night, which by the way, I absolutely fucking murdered. I'm sure. It's a little unfair, whoever was your opponent. Do you know what Beyonce's first solo single was? No. I'll never be able to tell you that. Just take a wild guess. Oh, first solo? Yeah.
To the left, to the left. No. Crazy in love. Solo? First solo single. But Jay-Z was in it. Yeah, but she was out of Destiny's Child. Oh, yeah. I mean, I... Not really flying solo there. I'm not saying it wasn't a duet. It was her first solo single featuring Jay-Z. Understood. And I was blown away by that. I couldn't believe it. It just felt like it was so... She was already such a massive star at that point. I mean, she was.
Just not independently. Destiny's Child. Right. She was always the star. Yeah. Oh, yeah. She was going to be it. She was going to Beyonce. If you can be anything, Beyonce. All right. Without further business, because it's back, I would love to hear about this case and just marvel in all of the hard work that you did to make it happen. Thank you for that. All right. You ready? I am ready. Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the exhilarating high-flying world of Lucha Libre Wrestling, where masked marvels and gravity-defying athletes clash in a spectacle of strength and flamboyance.
In this arena, the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary as masked warriors known as luchadores embody not just an outrageous character, but a living, breathing legend in the making. Picture this, a battleground where the thunderous roar of the crowd melds with the pulsating rhythm of heart-pounding action.
Each luchador, a masterful blend of acrobat, gladiator, and artist, steps into the ring not just to fight, but to tell a story.
a story of heroes known as technicos and villains known as rudos etched into the chronicles of wrestling lore with every leap, every slam, every audacious move that defies both physics and faint-heartedness. Give her the Nobel already for literature. Like, what are they doing? I don't need it. I got you giving me my propers. Man, I am, I mean, that corn looks good. Save me a piece of that corn is what I'm thinking right now.
You're going to be talking about Lucho Libre's and you haven't seen Nacho Libre. This is the whole episode is going to be a nightmare for me. Okay. It's okay. I'm here for it. You haven't seen it. I have not seen it. Oh my God. Okay. Just keep going. In the world of Luchador wrestling. It's not just about the victory. It's about the honor, the performance, the sheer unadulterated thrill of the fight. Every fight is a theatrical fiesta and every wrestler is a unique story waiting to be told.
And boy, do I have a story about a luchadora for you today. See a real bad hombre? She. Thank you very much. There are female luchalibres? Luchadoras? Luchadora. Luchadora. Si. Si, pero no es luchadoro. Es luchadore. Si. Si, pero no es luchadora. No, no. Luchadora es ella. She. She.
Today, we are venturing into the dark and complex saga of Juana Barraza, a figure whose life story reads like a paradoxical tapestry woven from radically different threads. A 48-year-old single mother from Mexico, Juana led an extraordinary double life,
In the public eye, she was a professional lucha libre wrestler known in the ring as La Dama del Silencio, the Lady of Silence. But beyond the floodlights and cheering crowds, she harbored a sinister secret that earned her the infamous title of La Mata Viejitas, the Little Old Lady Killer. Viejitas, yes. Juana's life was a study in contrasts marked by the masks she wore, both the literal and figurative kind.
In the wrestling ring, she donned a silver butterfly mask, an emblem that, while not particularly flattering to her features, I have to say, became a symbol of her alter ego. However, it was not this mask that was most chilling. Far more daunting was the mask of normalcy she wore in everyday life.
a facade that concealed her true nature and hid her from suspicion. And this mask was the most dangerous of all, for it veiled a cold-blooded killer believed to be responsible for the deaths of nearly 50 innocent elderly women. She was 48 years old?
Yes, sir. Jumping around a ring and killing old ladies? By that point, she had retired. Oh, okay. So this is like her life leading up to 40. You're going to hear about it. Are we going to circle back? Maybe. Juana's story is not just a tale of crime and deception, but a profound commentary on the duality of human nature, the hidden depths beneath the surface, and the unsettling reality that sometimes the most terrifying masks are those that look just like you and me.
This is the case of Mexico's first documented female serial killer, La Mata Viejitas. Quite a debut for her. Much like Beyonce, debuting Crazy in Love. There you go, you brought it back. I mean, the first documented female serial killer killing 50 is, I mean, that's hard to top. Let's get ready to rumble.
Pretty good. I mean, faded out a little bit at the end there. Well, because I got embarrassed. That is, you know what? I do that to my kids. I'll get them singing so loud in the car and then I'll turn down the music so fast. I love it. It's so funny. And I see you. I wasn't singing. Dad, shut up. That happened to my twin sister last night. Hold on.
We were listening. My niece was in the backseat and my son. So we were listening to Taylor Swift, lover. We're belting it out, all of us. Yeah. And the line that says, you save all of your dirtiest jokes for me. And she says it really, really high pitched. It's not an easy note to make. Yeah.
If you're saying it with the artist, right? Yeah, sounds exactly like it. You feel like you're hitting it. Yeah. But my mother called me. Oh, no. And it took the song out of the car and my...
And my sister was singing that line by herself. But she wasn't singing it. She was like, I don't know, squeaking it out. Did you berate her and tell her it was flat and that you were going to save it with the solo? I laughed so hard I had to pull over because my mascara was blinding me. Oh, man, I wish that was, I wish I was there. Yeah, it was good. It was good. Anyway, we are unhinged, man. So let's get ready to rumble. I am.
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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Juana Barraza was born on December 27th, 1957 in Hidalgo, Mexico, a rural area situated north of Mexico City, renowned for its diverse landscape of mountains, valleys, and plateaus. Juana's mother, Justa Samperio, was just 18 years old and employed as a sex worker when she gave birth to Juana.
Juana's father, Trinidad Barraza, aged around 18 or 19 at the time of Juana's birth, remained almost entirely absent from her life due to his occupation as a truck driver. In fact, Juana is believed in many sources to have never even met him. When Juana was just a few months old, her mother, Justa, took her away and severed all ties with Trinidad permanently. Interestingly, Trinidad went on to father 31 children
children with various women indicating that he wasn't significantly affected by not meeting his daughter. He was busy. He was getting busy. Yeah.
Sadly, Juana experienced a profoundly difficult childhood marked by poverty and severe abuse. She never learned to read or write beyond just her name and was either neglected or physically tormented by her mother, Justa, who was a psychopathic, violent, raging alcoholic. She would beat Juana until Juana was bathing in blood, which is a quote directly from Juana herself.
If Juana wanted to eat, she'd have to rummage through dumpsters for food. Eventually, Justa and Juana wound up moving in with Justa's married stepfather, Refugio Samperio, after Justa started having an adulterous sexual relationship with him. He moved in? She moved in. Oh, she moved in. Yeah, but still, he was her stepfather. And this was the man who Juana would ultimately regard as her own stepfather, even though he was technically, I guess, her step-grandfather.
But by all accounts, Refugio actually treated Juana with kindness. But it wasn't enough to save her from a harrowing childhood spent in relentless darkness defined by the unpredictable and brutal nature of violence, the ever-present cloak of fear, and a pervasive sense of shame that haunted her evermore.
every single day. Yeah. Because at the tender age of just 12, the culmination of relentless abuse, violence, indifference, and horror reached a sickening and deeply traumatizing climax. This was when Justa sold Juana, who was 12, to a 40-year-old man named Jose Lugo in exchange for three beers. No. Yep. That can't be legally binding.
I mean, if I sold my kid for three beers, I'd be like, listen, obviously that wasn't a real deal we were making. It was real. Both parties wanted to keep it going. So it was real enough that this poor girl wound up in the clutches of a predator.
Why? Because he's a sicko. He's a predator. I know, but like, I don't know. First of all, if someone is willing to buy a child...
That should disqualify them immediately. From what? From being able to buy a child. They're not, okay. I know, buying children is illegal across the board, but I'm saying like, I can't even think for a second that her mother was like, no, he's a good guy. He just went, he's lonely. You know what I mean? No, she didn't think that at all. She didn't give a shit. Yeah. She had zero thought.
That's a really tough position to be in. Again, I feel bad for her. I know I won't in a little while, but right now. Oh, Juana? Yeah. A hundred percent. My heart breaks for the child that was Juana Barraza. Yeah. A hundred percent. She was tormented. She was sexually abused, physically abused, sold to a 40-year-old man by her own mother for three beers. That is, I don't think there's a word for it. It's horrific. Yeah.
This horrific torture, degradation, and imprisonment continued until Jose's mother discovered Juana bound against her will to her son's bed. However, while Jose's mother may have physically freed Juana from her physical restraints, she was resigned to the idea that Juana now belonged to her son Jose. So rather than releasing her and getting her medical attention, having endured a week of sexual assaults, instead she decided to keep her enslaved in the family home.
which meant the brutality continued. According to Juana, Jose kept her as his sex slave for an entire year. Then, still at the age of 12 and barely pubescent, Juana became prostitute.
I knew you were going to say that, and I hated it before you even said it. Yeah. It was after she gave birth to the baby, a little boy, when a concerned neighbor finally alerted Juana's relatives to what they came to realize was an abusive situation. Some sources say that it was her aunt and uncle who was alerted by the neighbors. Other sources say that it was Juana's siblings. It's unclear.
In either event, there was an intervention and Juana and her baby were finally able to escape captivity. Yeah. However, upon their return to Justa's home, which is Juana's mother, Juana was met with hostility and rage as her piece of shit, vile mother threatened her with violence for returning home.
Wow. So, in a protective gesture, Refugio nearly bashed Just so many levels of fucked upness. Start to finish. So far. So far. And we're not even into it. No way. Not even close. Following this incident, Husta never dared to cross Juana again, but the psychological damage to Juana, of course, had already been done.
Awful side note, by the way, that baby boy, whose name was Jose Enrique, was later beaten to death by a baseball bat in a gang-related mugging incident in 1998 when he was 24. What? So that was the end of his story. Oh, oh, well, terrible. But I thought he was...
beat to death as a baby in a gang. Oh my goodness. No, it was like, why did they? No, maybe. Sorry for that moment. That's okay. Making something horrendous, even more horrendous. Yes. Horrendous as is. It is. But this event, which Juana has described as being the saddest moment of her life is often cited in discussions about Juana's background in terms of the possible influences of her subsequent criminal activities. Yeah.
Not that she needed another reason in terms of having a very, very, very broken background. Yeah.
At 16 years old, following her escape from sexual slavery, Juana tragically perpetuated the cycle of violence by marrying an abusive alcoholic named Miguel Angel Barrios Garcia. When that marriage inevitably failed, Juana got married again to another man named Felix Juarez Ramirez, which also didn't work out. At the end of three failed marriages, Juana was now left single, illiterate, and raising four children by herself.
Then, when Juana turned 18 years old, Justa, who was now only 36, died of cirrhosis of the liver. Because remember, she was a severe alcoholic. And this propelled Juana to make a pivotal decision, which was to leave behind the devastating reality that was her life in Hidalgo and embark on a journey to Mexico City in search of a fresh start. And it was here in the
the bustling streets of Mexico City that Juana stumbled upon the electrifying world of Lucha Libre. Entranced by its mesmerizing allure, Juana felt an undeniable pull towards the theatrical spectacle of the entire experience. She envisioned herself slipping into a flashy spandex onesie and kicking the shit out of an opponent, suddenly finding her calling. Yeah.
The Lucha Libre rings were not just stages for physical contests. They were realms where narratives of struggle, triumph, and identity played out, resonating profoundly with Juana.
Envisioning herself in this role, she felt a surge of purpose and excitement. It was as if a dormant part of her had awakened, a part that craved the spotlight, the adrenaline, the roar of the crowd. For Juana, embracing Lucha Libre was not just about adopting a new hobby or career. It was a transformative experience.
She wasn't just learning to wrestle. She was reinventing herself, claiming a space in a world that was as thrilling as it was empowering. In that sense, I'm happy for her because just to be able to create a new identity, I mean, most people will never know what that's like to have the opportunity or the need to do so. I'm sympathetic with her and happy for her so far. I just want to make a note that that is not going to carry through to the end of the episode. No.
No, but we talk about this often. Okay. All right? It's okay. She had a lifetime of poverty and abuse, and that's something that we can empathize with or sympathize with. Yeah. And, you know, I do. You do. So the ring became her domain in which she could maintain control, a place where she could express strength and ferocity, a stark contrast to the constraints and challenges of her everyday life.
This moment represented a pivotal turning point for Juana, a metamorphosis that was represented by her silver butterfly luchadora mask. Franz Kafka, shout out. Don't know. Metamorphosis? Yeah. And the guy turns into the bug? Nope. They'll know. Okay. Juana went on to proudly wear a vibrant hot pink one-piece costume adorned with silver details.
Paired with knee-high boots and matching hues, sounds like a Saturday night to me, a vision reminiscent of the Pink Power Ranger. But this was no childish character driving a gigantic robotic vehicle in a silly kid's show. Esta la dama del silencio. This was The Lady of Silence.
So allow me a moment to delve into the rich cultural tapestry of Lucha Libre in Mexico, which is a topic both captivating and deserving of exploration. Please do. Thank you. Established officially in the 1930s, the sport has transcended mere athletic competition to become a cornerstone of Mexican culture, standing as the second most popular sport after soccer in a nation of over 125 million people. Really? Yeah.
What distinguishes Mexican wrestling from its North American counterparts is its emphasis on agility and acrobatics over sheer power.
In contrast to the robust style prevalent in the U.S. or Canada, Lucha Libre dazzles with lightning-fast sequences of holds, breathtaking high-flying maneuvers, and an infusion of American promotion tactics and Japanese shoot-style offense, adding a depth and diversity to its traditional roots. Wow, interesting. The rules governing Lucha Libre matches closely resemble those in American wrestling, with rounds typically decided by a three-count pin, submission, and
count out, or disqualification. With rounds or matches decided? Rounds. There's three rounds. Oh, so like if you pin, that's the end of round one. Exactly. Got it, okay. The sanctity of the ring is upheld with stringent regulations against using ropes for leverage and infractions such as illegal moves or removing an opponent's mask.
can lead to disqualification. Masks are a huge deal in Lucha Libre. Is it scripted like the WWE or? Well, they have characters. I don't know if they practice their moves and stuff like that. I'm sure they do. I'm sure that, yeah. Right. I'm sure that they do. And I think that their characters are far more elaborate than American wrestling. Yeah. Oh,
A hallmark, as I started to indicate, of Lucha Libre is its adoption of masks, evoking ancient Aztec traditions and infusing the sport with profound historical significance. Initially simplistic, modern masks are intricate works of art, symbolizing the archetypal personas wrestlers embody in the ring. Mm-hmm.
I kind of was thinking about what... It sounded cool as hell. What would my mask look like? What would it look like? Well, it would definitely be black, even though... No question. Yeah, it would be dark and creepy and maybe bats. Some kind of queen of darkness type of vibe. If it was a full face mask, I see you with like black, but like with a weird smile, like bloody teeth or something. And ears. What would my mask be? A beluga whale? Oh.
No, your mask. I feel like you would, it would be like a happy, you'd be like a good, so I would be a rudos and you would be a technicos. Si, si, claro que si. Si. So masks are not merely accessories, but they're sacred symbols of identity with wrestlers often starting off in their careers masked and then they undergo unmasking rituals as their journey progresses throughout their careers. Really? So they don't, I thought the masks were like a non-negotiable, non-negotiable, where
Where they change masks. Exactly. Oh, okay. Losing a mask could also mark the end of a character. The reverence for masks is epitomized in the iconic Mascara Contra Mascara matches. Where luchadores wager their identities and the unmasking of a defeated wrestler is a momentous event when he or she must reveal his or her true self to the world.
So basically they have these like competitions and whoever loses is demasked. Wait, so like do these people, nobody knows who they are? Some luchadors wear their masks in public. No. They truly never sort of, they're like Batman forever. What if, nice, that was a good movie. What if, what if you got like a loose-lipped family member or something? I mean, what if? I don't know.
Snitches get stitches, you know? Yeah. So in summary, lucha libre is more than a sport. It's a vibrant cultural phenomenon that celebrates tradition, athleticism, and theatricality in equal measure, weaving together centuries of history with modern spectacle. I like how you casually just said almost with a sense of approval that your sister tells someone who you are, just beat the shit out of her. Give her stitches. Yeah. Stitches get stitches.
Everybody knows that. I'm a luchadora. You gonna fuck with me? I don't think so. So it's become popular outside of Mexico as well. There was even an American cartoon series that aired from 2003 to 2005 called Mucha Lucha and a 2006 Jack Black comedy movie called Nacho Libre. Pop quiz?
No, but I definitely gave you PQ vibes. Yeah. Do you know the story behind Nacho Libre and that it was based on a real character? No. So it's loosely inspired by the story of a real-life Mexican Catholic priest named Reverend Sergio Guiterrez Benitez. So Father Benitez, who wrestled under the ring name Frey Tormenta,
competed as a masked luchador for over two decades to support the orphanage he ran. So cute. How fucking cool is that? And I didn't see Nacho Libre, but in my research, he was a cook at an orphanage, I believe. Yeah. Right? One of my favorite scenes of any movie is when there's this woman that he's trying to impress. She's a nun, but like, I guess he thinks we can, you know, we can make it happen anyway. And he's like trying to play off how much he hates his life. And he's like, I wake up every day at 4 a.m. and make soup.
I love it. As he's dying on the inside. Oh my God. Yeah. I need to see that movie. It is very, I need to make a list of about 10 movies that you need to see that like, you'll just feel, I think more of a like human being.
Because there's no way you can walk around in society feeling like you fit in not having seen particular movies. Maybe that's exactly why I feel like I don't fit in anywhere except true crime. Yeah. Honestly. Yeah.
I feel like I know enough and I've earned my stripes in true crime and I connect, but really everywhere else. Maybe we don't need you being universal. Maybe we need you to focus. I feel like because I don't know Anchorman, I'll just never fit in. I mean, there's something to that. Not that people are shouting out Anchorman quotes anymore, but it's in everybody's brain. Yeah. Deep. Not mine. But you got stepbrothers in there. I sure do. And I love it. All right. Getting back to Juana.
So she started training as a luchadora after connecting with some people in the industry. She trained every Monday and Wednesday and regularly attended matches to learn more and more about the sport. After five years of intense training, Juana was ready to fight and began competing in the amateur circuit. And she was a bruiser. Yeah. Pop quiz. Oh, wow. That was a time-delayed guess on my part. What was she able to do?
A, bench 220 pounds for 20 repetitions. Oh, okay. B, lift a VW Beetle four inches off the ground by the bumper. Okay. C, overhead press a miniature donkey. Lift a VW Bug. No, that would be our guy, Columbo. Well, I... Wow. Okay. Jeez. If the parking spot is too tight, just have your boy Franco nose it out. Okay. Jeez. So she...
Either did 225 for reps like she's at the NFL Combine. 220, but yes. Same thing. Or overhead pressed a donkey? A mini donkey. I don't give a shit. Oh, my God. I mean...
The most likely one from a strength perspective is she overhead pressed a mini donkey. She did not. What the fuck? Yeah. Are you kidding me? I am not kidding you. Benched 220 for reps. Yeah, she was a bruiser. Yo, I mean, she was on steroids for sure. Don't know. No, I know. Okay. Yeah, I mean, 20 reps, 225, like that's a lot of weight a lot of times. Yep.
That's wild. So Juana considered herself Ruta to her core or villain to her core. I'd be terrified of her. Well, you'd be safe because you're not a 90-year-old elderly woman. Not yet. Not yet. True. So she liked not having to follow all the rules, which was like the part of the Ruta in the ring was the rule breaker, the one who could, you know, be more about the theatrics than like the actual wrestling moves, right? Yeah.
A bit telling of her defiant nature, right? That she identified with being a villain to the core. By the way, I'm a little hung up on the benching thing. If she could do that, she could definitely overhead press a donkey and lift a VW bug. Both. But I can't prove it. I don't know what I'm saying. I mean, I need to see video of this chick repping out 220.
In her fighting career, Juana fought legendary fighters like La Parca, Latin Lover, Charlie Manson, and Sacred Mask Jr. Anybody who knows, you know, Lucha Libre will know who these figures are. As Juana continued to get better and better and make a bit of a name for herself, her fan base grew and she started to make more and more money and would fight multiple times a night. At her peak, Juana was pulling in 1,000 pesos per fight.
Wow. But even with her handsome earnings, she had no choice but to also work another job during this time as well. Pop quiz. Wow, back to back. A little bit of a double header. What other job did Juana work? A, she was a sex worker in Zona Roja or the Red Light District. B, she was a healthcare aide at a nursing home. C, she was a popcorn vendor at a wrestling stadium. So she was a popcorn vendor, a caretaker, or a sex worker.
To the red zone.
I think she was a popcorn vendor at wrestling events. Yes. You know why I think that? No. So she could spy on people and figure out their moves. Oh. I just think that it was easy. I don't actually think she had any more thought to it, but maybe? Yeah. She really, really loved Lucha Libre. She really did. She just wants to be around it. Exactly. Juana was doing pretty well, though, financially at this point between wrestling and working this part-time gig as a popcorn vendor.
Until the other shoe, or knee boot, dropped in 1992 when at 35 years old, she suffered a spinal injury during a match. And this injury, after two decades of performing, was career ending. Oh, I see where this is going. You do. Yeah. Good for you. Not that I would start killing old ladies if I broke my back. But...
No, but you can, the whole point of everything I've been talking about until this point, obviously, is to paint a picture, right? Someone who loves Luchador. Loves Luchador. I think she was likely getting her aggression out in the wrestling ring. She felt like she had control. She felt like she had power. She felt like she was somebody. She spent her entire upbringing under a vicious thumb. One person's thumb or another, right? Her mother to Jose and...
I mean, she really, really went through it. Like the guy who, what happened to that guy in Fuck to Death by a Horse, that episode we did with Mark Norman where he had like an injury and couldn't feel. He also had a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. And he lost sensation. And so in order to have sexual gratification, the only way he could do that was severe sexual intercourse, like not even just regular, you know, human size intercourse. Yeah. Hence his partner. Yeah.
Yeah. A horse. Mr. Ed, up in those guts. Jesus. So she has this crushing setback, the spinal cord injury, but she still managed to land on her feet, so to speak, and seamlessly transitioned to the promotional side of wrestling operations where she found considerable success in
In this new role as a promoter, she often earned up to 20,000 pesos per event. What? Surpassing her earnings as a wrestler. She's crushing it financially, huh? Very lucrative, yes. All in all, she really continued to thrive post-injury. Yeah. Initially. So it begs the question, right? How did Juana...
Six years after leaving the ring and while making a substantial amount of money as a promoter, become at the age of 41, Mexico's first documented serial killer. Yeah. I'm sure we're going to find out, aren't we? That's why we're here. Tragically, as is often the case, physically escaping a traumatic environment, even years and years and years have passed by, doesn't always heal the deep-seated emotional and psychological wounds it inflicted.
This was the agonizing reality for Juana, who even after all these years, continued to be burdened with a relentless, simmering anger towards her mother. Even though, again, her mother had died many years by this point ago. Somebody doesn't have to be alive for you to be mad at them. Exactly right. This dark shadow persisted to overshadow Juana's entire existence. In moments of happiness or grief, through all the ebbs and flows of life, the pain lingered.
What's an interesting point to make, if I may, that I think people believe that, like you said, time away from trauma or traumatic experience gives you time to heal and time heals all wounds, blah, blah, blah. It really doesn't. Unless you're working towards healing actively, time can have the adverse effect where it's just you spin and spin and spin and spin and spin. And then all of a sudden one day you're like,
Oh, I'm going to fucking start killing people. I think the point is, is that it's different for everyone. Of course. Yeah. I think what we do know about time is that things happen, right? So this is why, for example, I personally lobbied for the adult survivors act to pass in New York to allow people who were sexually abused at any point in their adult life to be able to come forward regardless of how long ago they were sexually abused and
to have a case, right? So the reason for that is because the whole premise that I stand for and that people who supported the Adult Survivors Act stood for, because it did pass. But you're saying in their adult life, meaning they're adults now or they had to be assaulted when they were an adult? To come forward under this law, you had to have experienced sexual abuse or assault as an adult. Okay. 18 or up. So the whole premise, the whole sort of tagline that we all operated under was trauma takes time. Yeah. Right?
So however that manifests for some people, it gives them strength. They can come forward. They can talk about it. They can seek justice. And for others, maybe it manifests in different ways, as we will see here.
Time and love heals all wounds. I'd like to end an addendum to that phrase. I believe love. I don't know about time. I really don't. I don't know that time counts for sure. It can help. Yeah. I don't know if it's just, it's more days in a row of taking care of yourself. If you're three days into it, like it's, you know, you don't know which way you're going to go. If you're years and years and into trying to heal this thing that broke you as a, as a whatever, I believe that repetitions count. You can only get repetitions over time. Yeah.
Can you do 20 repetitions of 220 pounds? I can, but I'm fucking jacked. You think you could lift a mini donkey? It's more than 220. Yeah, I mean, listen, all these feats of strength are incredible. She's like, she's very strong. I think with Juana, she had a permanent scar on her heart that time just could not erase. Yeah. If anyone out there knows Evanescence, you're going to know this. Wake me up inside? Wake me up! No, it's her other one. Her other big one. I can't wake up? No.
Bring me back to life? They're all the same song. Oh, okay. I was going to sing a line from it, but I kind of lost my... Oh, no. I did the let's get ready to rumble thing again? Yeah. You took the carpet from under my feet and I fell. Because you don't have far to fall. I'm embarrassed. Shut up. You took the carpet out from under my feet and I rolled backwards. Shut up. Rookie the Hut.
Shout out you, Joe. Ugh, so mean. I know. I'm so bullied sometimes. Juana's profound and unyielding animosity towards her mother manifested in her targeting innocent elderly woman as a means of venting her anger. Oh, because they're old women? Right. And they're like in the place of her mother. Right. And they're weak. Right. Ugh.
In a chilling revelation captured in a 2016 video by a Mexican news outlet called Azteca Noticias, Juana confessed, quote, I hated old women because my mom mistreated me. She always cursed me. She gave me away to an old man and I was abused. She also said when I saw them, meaning the victims,
I felt a lot of courage and more when they showed superiority or believed they could humiliate me for their money. This is all going to make sense as we go on. But just in these interviews, she's blatantly saying that I committed crime. I had animosity towards elderly women because of what my mother did to me. Yeah. But then she goes on to kind of contradict herself, which we will come back to. Okay. Can't wait. So here's exactly what Juana Barraza did.
She deceived elderly victims, all aged 60 and above, by masquerading as a government official or nurse involved in social welfare who was there to conduct a health check. This was something that Mexican government had implemented during that time, so it was not unusual to get that knock on your door. This guise allowed her to create a false sense of security so that when she'd offer assistance with domestic tasks like cooking and cleaning or whatever, her victims would willingly let her into their home. Then,
Then, once inside their homes, Juana would ruthlessly strangle them with whatever household items were around, like cable cords, pantyhose, a belt in one instance, scarves. Yeah. And then she would rob them. Because by this point, money was not flowing in as it once had been, and she had four children between the approximate ages of six and 21 to take care of. She's just making dough. Yeah. Yeah.
and her various jobs of being a street vendor. She was selling socks and jello at this stage. She was doing laundry for people. She was cleaning homes.
It wasn't cutting it. Yeah. And it wears on you. You go from being like this famous luchadora to a famous promoter. Yeah. Not that I'm not, I don't believe anybody is above any work, but I can imagine in that case, it might've been a little humiliating. Yeah. I just think, just honestly, I don't know. If you're an egomaniac, it's humiliating. Right. Not everybody. Well, I don't know if this was financially motivated. I don't know if that drop from making so much money and then suddenly not is what drove her to do what she did. I,
I think the bigger reason here is she was taking out her... It's a little of this, a little of that. Yeah, yeah. Like a smorgasbord. Yeah, thank you for saying that right. Yeah. But listen, this is not an excuse for what she did, obviously. Like what we're talking about, we're kind of not trying to figure out why she did it or justify why she did it. It's just obviously, as we do, exploring...
Human nature. Yeah. Authorities believe that Juana's first victim was a 64-year-old woman named Maria de la Luz Gonzalez Anaya, who was found beaten, strangled, and robbed in her Coyoacan Mexican city home. Four months later, following that classic serial killer cooling off period, Juana took the life of her second confirmed victim, 84-year-old Guiramina Leon, which is absolutely
absolutely devastating to think about. Yeah. In 84, it's devastating to think about any human being. Yeah. Absolutely. A hundred percent. But the vulnerability of an elderly person, it just hits me. Yeah. Over the course of her continued killings, Juana's body count was believed to have extended to as many as 46 additional murders on top of the two I just mentioned.
And law enforcement was faced with a challenging investigation. Here's what they knew at this point, okay? All attacks took place in the daytime. The victims were all lower middle class retirees who lived alone, often near public parks or gardens. The killer used the same kind of knot in cables when strangling the victims and did not appear to be very sophisticated or savvy with respect to covering his or her tracks as police were able to lift fingerprints.
But later on in the case, when we talk about profiling, we're going to hear about how they actually then decided to profile the killer as somebody being brilliant and clever. So they're kind of contradicting themselves at various parts of the investigation. At the time, however, the fingerprints did not match anything that they found in their existing police records. An intriguing coincidence also emerged.
Three of the victims possessed a copy of Jean-Baptiste Gruse's 18th century painting, Boy in a Red Waistcoat. Really? Three of the victims? Yep. So then they thought maybe there was something connected going on there. Yeah. Additionally, many of the victims were Spanish expatriates. And this pattern raised the question, could xenophobia have been a motive behind the attacks? So they were really all over the place. What does Spanish expatriates mean? Basically, immigrants, people who used to live
In Spain. Now they're in Mexico? Now they're in Mexico. Oh, that's interesting. Witnesses at various crime scenes reported seeing a larger built woman with masculine features, an observation that steered investigators in a very specific direction. Due to the rarity, though, of female serial killers and the perceived physical strength needed to subdue victims, even though that they were elderly, it still takes a level of strength. Yeah. Criminal profilers initially hypothesized that the perpetrator was transgendered.
Authorities also operated under the false assumption that a female would not be capable of bearing the guilt of harming elderly women, solidifying their firm belief that the suspect was indeed, without question, I'm doing air quotes, a man. Yeah. Whether a man in that he identifies as a man or transgendered.
Despite 64 eyewitnesses pointing towards a female culprit, 64, police arrested about 40 transgendered sex workers under the assumption that this was an accurate profile for the killer. They would not go in the direction of it being female. But none of the fingerprints matched the profile.
the prints that were found at the various scenes and all this did was divert attention away from the actual perpetrator and prolong her deadly spree. Yeah. Over 500 people were interrogated as potential suspects, yet the true perpetrator, Juana Barraza, remained undetected. All men, 500 men? Yes.
Remarkably, during this time, she even appeared on television as a guest at a wrestling match. They like interviewed her. Yeah. And she was wearing the same red sweater that was depicted in her identikit. Yet she still evaded capture. The third time mentioning identikit in a row. I know. I feel like we are definitely going to keep track of that word. Oh, yeah. An artist from Mexico City Department of Justice crafted a three-dimensional portrait
bust, like a statue, meticulously designed to mirror a composite image drawn from the 64 eyewitness descriptions. Yet despite this detailed and artistic endeavor to capture the likeness of the perpetrator, and it was pretty good, the connection to Juana Barraza remained frustratingly elusive.
Okay.
Oh, yeah. This naming signified a profound shift in the country's criminal narrative. It was the first instance in Mexico's history where authorities formally recognized and publicly declared the existence of a serial killer operating within their borders. This acknowledgement not only underscored the seriousness of the situation, but also marked a turning point in how the country confronted and communicated about such grave criminal threats.
So are there typically not a lot of serial killers in Mexico? There are not typically many, but there definitely are enough that it could have been recognized well before Guanabarraza.
I'm actually going to give you a pop quiz in about 30 seconds, and we're going to find out exactly how many serial killers. I was just curious because with the overshadowing, overbearing violence of the cartel, maybe like they're... My God, you're so smart. Why? Because I have a little section about that. Oh, okay. Great. I really am. I mean, and I wanted to...
Oh my God. I'm so excited. I'm so excited because I really, really like dived into this because I was fascinated by the same thing. Yeah. And just going to give you a little teaser about this. Yeah. The drug cartel killings is not to be classified as serial killings, even though in numbers it certainly could. Oh, sure. But to qualify as a serial killer, there has to be a psychological element. Yeah. And that is not the case for drug cartel murders. No, they're doing it for
business. I mean, they're obviously all a little bit
Crazy, but... Yeah, but there's a difference. If you hear me say that, Cartel, please, I'm just joking. Don't... Oh my God. I know. Theo's meal. Okay. So we have to ask. We have to ask why. Why had Mexican authorities never before made a formal or public announcement about the presence of a serial killer? It's a poignant question, especially considering that there were indeed other serial killers in Mexico prior to Guanabarraza. Well,
Well, for one reason, giving it a label made it real. And making it real meant instilling real fear in the public, which meant every aspect of the inevitable investigation would be placed under a microscope and broadcasted. Law enforcement, already contending with constraints like scarce resources, a deficit in advanced investigative training, and corruption problems, faced additional hurdles in the essential processes required to capture a serial killer, such as
identification and tracking. It's a tall order. This acknowledgement and labeling of the problem could and would necessitate crucial steps in mobilizing the necessary efforts to tackle it effectively. Also, according to Susana Vargas Cervantes, whose book I read while researching this case, the reason why Mexican authorities were reluctant to ever use the term serial killer before is
was because that was seen as an American problem. Yeah. Stemming from our lack of strong family bonds and our sense of individualism. And while it's true that America does hold the unfortunate distinction of having the highest number of serial killers, it doesn't have an exclusive claim on this problem. No. And people in glass houses should not throw stones.
The cartel is like another whole entire set of police over there. Right. Mexico certainly had serial killers prior to Juana, regardless of whether or not it was publicly acknowledged. It's like a kid who closes his eyes and then thinks like, if I can't see you, you can't see me. Like if I don't put a label on a killer as being a serial killer, then you're not going to think we have serial killers. It's just not how it works. No.
On a related note, let's delve into a quick PQ regarding statistics on serial killers. Vamanos. Pop quiz.
Among 92 countries ranked based on the number of serial killers, okay, with number one having the most and number 92 having the least, where does Mexico fall on the list? Okay. A, 15. Okay. B, 38. Okay. C, 61. Uh-huh. D, 85. D, all of the above. Wait, 15. 15, 38, 61, 85. 13, whatever the fuck he said. In the 10s, in the 30s, in the 60s, in the 80s.
61. No. Okay. 15. Yes. Yes. Yes. Wait, that's the amount of serial killers. No, that's where Mexico falls on a list of 92 countries. Like as the metric is number of serial killers. Yes, that is correct. But that's population though. Yeah. Yeah.
When it comes to sheer volume of documented serial killers, the United States leads by a vast margin with a total surpassing the combined count of the next 10 highest countries. That's how America does it. Yes, but some theories suggest that the U.S. doesn't necessarily have more. It's just that the U.S. is perhaps more proficient at catching them and then sensationalizing them once we do. Yeah. All right. In terms of the study that I looked at, in case anybody's curious...
Number two on the list was England. And number three was South Africa. Wow. Before Juana Barraza, there was Francisco Guerro Perez, a.k.a. El Chalacero, which loosely translates to mean a man who sexually victimizes women. This is in Mexico I'm talking about. Yeah. He was a Mexican serial killer responsible for killing 20 sex workers in Mexico City from 1880 to 1888. Wow.
Wow, long, long, long time ago. Yeah, and then one final victim in 1908. He was actually frequently compared to Jack the Ripper. Decades after that, in 1940s, Gregorio Cardenas Hernandez, also known as the Tacuba Strangler, killed four very young sex workers and buried their bodies in his yard to punish women after his wife told the world that he regularly wet his bed.
So why did Juana Barraza, as horrific as her crimes were, become the one to officially place serial killers on the map in Mexico? Well, the answer lies not in the perpetrator, but rather in the victims. Because the individuals being targeted and unjustly eliminated were part of a demographic deeply valued in Mexican culture. A lot of respect for elders. The elderly, yes. And this brought a heightened level of attention and urgency to the case and distinguished it in the annals.
of Mexican criminal history. During this epoch. Exactly. In Mexican culture, elderly women are often revered and respected figures, elderly people in general. Yeah, yeah. And embody the deeply ingrained values of familial respect and veneration for elders. So they're seen with respect to women as the matriarchs of their families, and they hold a special place in the social fabric. They're valued for their wisdom, experience, and the nurturing roles that they've played throughout their long lives.
These women are typically the keepers of family traditions, stories, recipes, passing down cultural heritage and family history to younger generations. In many communities, they're also sought after for advice and guidance on various matters, reflecting a societal acknowledgement of their life experiences and wisdom. This
This respect for elderly women is not just confined to the family, but extends to the wider community as well, illustrating the communal nature of respect for elders in Mexican society. It's legit. And in many ways, this level of respect and care and anger was not allocated to other demographics in Mexican culture during this time. For one example, the pervasive drug cartel violence and large-scale killings were not met with the same level of attention or public outcry. Why?
It's crazy that it's just part of the culture. Yeah. Well, the murders, it's exactly right. The murders resulting from the drug cartel violence during this time anyway were often regarded as collateral damage, a regrettable but explainable consequence of illicit and dangerous activities. Like you said, the cost of doing business, if you will. Yeah. Right. And while it wasn't, it's never condoned, but those deaths could be sort of rationalized to some extent. Right.
Conversely, the actions of a serial killer targeting elderly women were deemed less explicable, representing murder for the sake of murder. Yeah. And that was a different pill to swallow, apparently. Yeah. Another example that cannot and should not be overlooked was femicide during this particular period. Okay. Because during the exact same period of time we're exploring today, so from about 1993 to 2004, there
There were extensive killings and disappearances of women that went largely overlooked. In this time frame, Ciudad Juarez recorded 382 female deaths, while Estado de Mexico registered a staggering 4,379 deaths.
Despite these alarming numbers, these tragic incidents failed to ignite a national crisis or prompt a formal investigation. It's mind-blowing. Most of the victims were women from marginalized communities, including indigenous populations, highlighting the intersection of gender-based violence and systemic discrimination and inequality. In other words, we've said this before, the less dead or the less disappeared.
Obviously not our terms or our thinking, but so fucking tragic that there is a term for this. So when nearly 50 elderly women were murdered, it sparked a coordinated search for the killer, a formal investigation, criminal profiling, a label of serial killer, media attention, and public outcry. In fact, for the first time in Mexican history,
A task force was organized and deployed called Parques y Jardines, Parks and Gardens, because most of the victims were murdered near parks or gardens. And the police officially announced the existence of a serial killer at large. To date, Juana Barraza is the only serial killer ever to have been officially identified as being a serial killer before capture.
Really? So they didn't know who it was. Yeah. But the fact that they identified that they had a serial killer before she was captured is the first and only time it's ever happened. Are they still hell-bent on pinning it on a man at this point? At this point, but obviously we're coming to the conclusion. So we're going to find out exactly why they switched gears and how that happened.
Mexican officials sought investigative help from abroad, bringing in detectives from France and Spain. These specialists had experience with a notorious serial killer case in France known as the Monster of Montmartre, who killed and robbed between 18 and 21 elderly women in Paris from 1984 to 1987. So their expertise, the French investigators, was specifically relevant to this case that's happening in Mexico.
So at this point in the investigation, the profile of the killer was as follows. A man with homosexual preferences, a victim of childhood physical abuse, lived, survived,
surrounded by women. He could have had a grandmother or lived with an elderly person, has resentment for that feminine figure and possesses great intelligence. Yeah. So this is sick profile. Yeah, really? We are looking for a man who has long hair, feminine features, is a woman, but couldn't be a woman. Homosexual preferences. Homosexual, definitely attracted to men, but not, you know, like we're just, it can't be a woman. We refuse to believe.
Listen, I don't know. I'm not saying I would or I wouldn't. I still can't get over the fact that she bent 220 pounds 20 times. Yes. Well, so if you told me that there was someone out there killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, I might be a little slow to believe it as well.
But finally, finally, on January 25th, 2006, that's how long this has been going on for, police finally got the break they needed when Juana Barraza left the home of 84-year-old Ana Maria de los Reos Alfaro after punching her in the face and strangling her with a stethoscope. So here's what happened.
A tenant in Anna Maria's home saw Juana leaving the home holding a box of coins and a pair of earrings right before this tenant then stumbled upon Anna's lifeless body in the home. This tenant chased Juana. Wow. There happened to be police officers nearby who saw the chase underway and intervened. Wow. And they stopped Juana in her tracks as she tried to escape. And when they apprehended her,
Investigators discovered a list of names and addresses of elderly women, as well as a stethoscope and fake social worker IDs in Juana's possession at the time of her arrest. Wow. When they tried to wrestle her down to the ground, they were probably like, I think, you know what? I think we've been looking for the wrong person. Yeah.
They knew that they captured, perhaps accidentally, El, or now La, Mata Villahitas, previously characterized as a brilliant, clever, and careful male by the chief prosecutor of Mexico City. With no conscience, because women could never handle the guilt. Nope. Too weak. Exactly. Yeah. However, now that she was in custody, they realized they had a woman on their hands.
And instead of her being brilliant and clever and calculated, she was instead deemed pathological to replicate international constructions around female serial killers. Is that because...
They didn't want to call a female brilliant? Yeah, because even as serial killers, men are often presented as possessing underlying traits that are desirable, such as brilliance, savviness, and ingenuity. Yeah. Whereas women are seen as strange, unnatural, and beyond redemption. Hysterical. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. We thought it was a brilliant, brilliant, handsome man. It turned out to be a dumb chick. Exactly.
So same murders, but just different looking now. Yeah, we think totally differently about this whole case now. So fucking ridiculous. And in this case, Mexican authorities were desperate not to shake the nation's general belief in women being the gentle fabric that weaves society together. So they harped on depicting Juana as existing outside of traditional constructions of femininity and further characterized and quantified
quote-unquote, scientifically validated her as pathological by criminologists and neuropsychologists. Feggy Ostrowski, a renowned neuropsychologist at the UNAM Department of Psychology, conducted several psychophysiological tests on Juana that involved showing Juana images while measuring her cerebral activity. Such interesting stuff.
According to Ostrowski, Juana showed evidence of psychopathy as her EEG revealed very little sensorial reaction to violent, loving, calm, or neutral images. Ostrowski also found that Juana presented a slight abnormality in her frontal lobes, which could contribute towards a loss of inhibition or control while enhancing aggression.
Juana was tried in the spring of 2008, and the prosecution alleged that she'd been responsible for as many as 40 murders. Wow. Now, Juana has only ever admitted to committing one murder, that of Ana Maria de los Reos Alfaro, the apartment that she was running from when she was caught. Oh, that's convenient. And she told the police that her motive was lingering resentment regarding her
own mother's treatment of her. So she indicated that she worked for Anna Maria doing her laundry and that they had a dispute about payment after which Juana punched Anna Maria in the face, causing her to fall backwards and hit her head and die. She also later years and years later said that she also choked her just a little bit. Yeah. Just to make sure. But it's important to note that Juana has always maintained her complete innocence with respect to killing anybody else.
So there are those who are in the camp of believing that Juana was innocent. Not many, but here's their points on that. One, if Juana was supposedly killing old ladies out of resentment towards her own mother, why wasn't she targeting women who were younger? Remember, her mother died when she was 36 years old. So why target women in their very, very ripe old age? That's how old she'd be now. Yeah.
Yeah. And also, I think when you're younger, you think people are a lot older than they really are. Anybody over 18 is like a grandma. Right. Exactly. Number two, the list of names and addresses of elderly women that was supposedly found on Juana when she was captured could have just been a client list, right? Because she was a house cleaner. She did do laundry. She was a vendor. And also, Juana could not read or write. So the existence of a list in and of itself is perhaps strange.
suspect. I think she was framed? It's not outside the realm of possibility. I'll just say that. Number three, at the time of Juana's arrest, police discovered a stethoscope in her bag, right? We know this. She was posing as a nurse, a social worker. But she wasn't those things. She
She was not. Oh, okay, yeah. But they found a stethoscope in her bag, but they also discovered a stethoscope in her victim's apartment, which was determined to have been the murder weapon used to strangle Anna Maria. How many stethoscopes did Juana walk around with? Yeah. Right? How could it be in her bag and in the apartment unless she walked around with multiple, which I guess is possible. Number four, in response to those who said, well, the killing stopped once Juana was arrested, clearly indicating that she was the perpetrator.
Well, the last old lady murdered in the string of old lady killings plaguing Mexico actually occurred in October 2005. And that was well before Juana's arrest, except for Ana Maria. So when she was killed three months after that, this marked the longest stretch of time between murders since the string of old lady killings began. Wow. And Juana admitted to killing Ana Maria, but said it happened by accident after she punched her, yada, yada. Yeah. So the timing is suspect. Yeah.
And then finally, number five, in response to her fingerprints being found at 10 of the murder scenes, well...
Juana did clean houses. She did sell quesadillas. She did do laundry. So these women could have theoretically been her clients. But even more to the point, Juana claims that after the police arrested her, they handed her several items while she was in her cell, which she held and touched and transferred her fingerprints onto. And these items, according to Juana, included pantyhose, scarves, and cable cords.
Okay. Are they not still corrupt? I mean...
They can be. I don't know. I can't comment to now because I haven't researched it. Yeah. But it's like a widely acknowledged issue in the 2000s for sure. Okay. Those are just some of the points to consider if you're wanting to hear both sides of guilt and innocence, right? Now, the police continued to search Juana's house following her arrest, obviously. And when they did, they discovered something else that made them believe she may have had a different motive. Pop quiz. Pop quiz.
I felt it coming. I can feel it. Oh, what? I sang that. And then? And you told me to stop. Yeah. Actually, it was a Patreon episode. Oh, nice. And Tony put in the music. He did. It was very good. Okay. Pop quiz. What did they discover? A. Gerontophilia pornography, which is porn involving elderly individuals. Oh, okay.
B, religious altars along with offerings. C, stacks of Social Security benefit checks. C? No. Fuck. A? Nope. The other one? Yep. Do you remember the other one? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. It was porn, checks, and I don't, I mean. Religious offers and offerings. Religious offers, altar, yes. And that's the answer. Wow. Wow.
In her home, which was painted red inside and out, Juana had several altars in her dining room and living room. An altar to La Santa Muerte, the Saint of Death, also referred to as the patron saint of criminals, as I saw it in my research,
as well as an altar to Jesus Malverde, the saint of narcotraffickers or drug dealers. There's a saint of narcotraffickers? Evidently. Wow. At the altar to La Santa Muerte were offerings including seven apples, seven glasses of water, seven glasses of liquor, cigars, seven candles, and money from different countries. Authorities felt that these altars were further proof of Juana's innate criminal nature.
Additionally, during the police search of Juana's home, they also found a
a trophy room. There were newspaper clippings with headlines about the murders as well as various items taken from the victims' homes. I mean, you had me thinking maybe she was innocent for a second there. Mm-hmm. With the whole fingerprints and lady housecleaning whatever's, but yeah. This trophy room's a little suspish. A little sus. By the way, did you know that some nurses call their stethoscope a stethy? I did not. It's the cutest thing ever. That is adorable. Yeah. I'm gonna ask my mom. She's a nurse. Yeah. So we
We have a couple of possible motives here, right? Resentment towards her mother. A second possible motive, according to authorities, was a religious or spiritual driven motive, right? But a third possible motive here is financial gain. Apparently, Juana initially started her illicit endeavors with an accomplice named Araceli Tapia Martinez. So when I say illicit endeavors, this is what I mean.
The two of them cooked up a scheme to trick elderly people into letting them into their homes where they would then rob them, right? And for a while, this was working. And all they were doing as a pair was going in and robbing elderly people. However, Araceli teamed up with a corrupt police officer and together they hatched a plan where they waited for Juana outside of a home that she was robbing. And then the corrupt police officer demanded 12,000 pesos from Juana...
or else she would be arrested. So needless to say, Juana's business partnership with Araceli dissipated, but she presumably kept going and then escalated. So maybe it was a financial motive. Yeah. FYI, by the way, 75% of female serial killers kill for financial gain. So it's the number one leading reason. 75%. Yep. Wow, that's a lot. Overpower, over sexual thrill, over attention-seeking behaviors like Munchausen by proxy, over it all.
So Juana Barraza's case went to trial in the spring of 2008. In Mexican court, there's no jury. It's only a sole judge, even in a criminal case, which I found interesting. So it's just the prosecution and the defense teams and the judge. Juana's defense team tried to declare her insane, but a psychological evaluation concluded that she was of sound mind and knew exactly what she was doing when she was doing it, which
which of course tossed the insanity defense right out the window. When asked about her motive during trial, Juana stated, I killed one little old lady, not the others, and I got angry. On March 31st, 2008, Juana Barraza was found guilty on 16 charges of murder and aggravated burglary. When the verdict was read, Juana said, may God forgive me and
and not forget me. Juana was sentenced to 759 years inside a women's prison in Mexico City, which is the longest sentence ever given to a murderer in Mexico. What was her sentence? How long was it? 759 years. Oh my God. She will be eligible for parole in 2058 at the age of 100. Oh, okay. Well, that's like...
That's pretty long, but still, it's like 759 years. So you're saying there's a chance? Yeah, pretty much.
On the inside, Juana spends three days a week making tacos that she sells in the prison courtyard. Her specialty is Yucatan-style slow-roasted pork, according to El Pais, which is a newspaper in Spain. In 2015, Juana actually got married to a male inmate named Miguel Angel, who also served time for murder. Their relationship was, of course, confined to letter writing, and their marriage only lasted one year. In conclusion...
Juana Barraza waged a cruel, unwarranted, profoundly unjust war against one of the most vulnerable demographics on the planet, the elderly. That's not to say that they're helpless. They're just vulnerable. Yeah, very. In her savage, twisted, and professionally trained hands, she extinguished lives rich in decades of experiences, stories, wisdom, and knowledge.
Yeah. Yeah.
a tragic end to lives that once flourished with human connection and history. Wow. And it's very sad. That is the case of Juana. Yes. There's been a lot in the media about Juana Barraza in September 2015. She was highlighted in the investigative discovery series Deadly Women in an episode titled Payback. And I know a lot of our listeners watch Criminal Minds. So the 19th episode of the first season called Machismo
is partly based on...
Juana Barraza. I saw that one. I don't remember seeing it, but I watched like three full seasons and I was like, I can't watch anymore. Really? Yeah. And also this case was the subject of a 2023 documentary film called The Lady of Silence, The Matavietas Murders on Netflix. Interesting. Yeah. So if you want to hear more, go there. Yeah. Or DM. Yes. And maybe I will have the answers for you. Maybe. Oh, wow. Well, thank you for putting so much work into that. I want to get my thought out. I have a thought. Amazing. I was going to have a thought.
Oh, yeah, that thought. Yeah, that thought. So to end things, I think from now on, I'm just going to give a little bit of something that has been rolling around my mind. So there's this saying that like, there's people out there that for every solution, they have a problem. You ever hear that before? I have, yeah. It's very frustrating to deal with someone like that. So when I was working with Adam very closely over at Brandfire, he would put this rule, quote unquote, it wasn't, there was no rules, but it was like a hard suggestion that
You were not allowed to give criticism unless you had another idea. Didn't have to be a better idea, but you can't just look at something and go, I don't like that. You can't poke a hole unless you have something to plug it with. Yes. Is that another saying? I just made that up. Fucking brilliant. Real smart. Real smart.
Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's something I forget where I heard something over the last week about like, you know, just, it's so easy. I'm sure there's a lot of sayings about this, but just in the future, if you can, it's a great exercise for those of you listening, whether it comes from, for instance, like my, I think I've told this story before. My dad said to my mother something about the laundry she was doing in like
1984. That guy did laundry until 19. I think he still does his laundry. So she's like, you think you could do better? And he goes, yeah. She was like, have at it, bro. You fold them however you want them folded. Yeah. And I've learned to keep my mouth shut big time. If I don't have a better idea, and again, not to emphasize better because it doesn't have to be better, but there has to be an alternative that you're posing rather than just
poking a hole that you don't have a plug for, which is, I think, better than anything I said. I'm going to... Sweet. Yeah, I'm going to have that one. No, that's... I like that. I'm going to keep that. So this, just so I know, because this is new, your thoughts will just be, like you said, whatever's in your brain, not related to the case, not related to true crime. No, no, no. Not at all. Okay. Just like a little tank tidbit. I'm here for it, and we're going to call it Tank Tidbit. I think we are. Yeah. I didn't know what we were going to call it, but that's what we're going to call it. I love it. Well, thank you for listening, listeners.
Thank you for researching Investigator Slater. And thank me for just being an incredible co-host at this. So good at this. But mostly, thank you to our listeners. If you've made it this far, you're a real one. You are a real one. And we appreciate you. And we will see you guys next week. Bye.