Real Life Crime Stories
Alicia
Muñiz`s case
By Ramiro Rocco Welsh Alicia was born in Uruguay in 1956 and she died because of Carlos Monzón. She was a model, a vedette and an actress. This is the crime: The night of 13 february, Alicia and her husband Monzón decided to go to Sergio Velazco´s birthday. There they meet Adrián “facha” Martel, the actor. This actor invited them and other two friends to Peñarol club, to drink some alcohol. When they finished drinking in Peñarol club, Alicia and Monzón decided to go home. When they arrived at the house, the first thing that they did was sex. After that they started to discuss about money. The boxer immediately got too angry so he started to kick her in her face and in all her body, also he strangulated her neck. After he finished the beating he through her from the balcony. In the morning the police saw her body on the ground, of course they started to investigate about the case. The police suspect that the criminal was Monzón. So they started a trial. A lot of people present to the trial, but the key to solve the case was Rafael Cristiano Baez, a vagabond. He insisted that Monzón took her by the neck, and then he threw her from the balcony. Immediately the doctors decided to make her an autopsy and they found that she had fractures of thyroid and also the autopsy show that she was strangulated shicked and that she suffer skull explosion. The police, finally, realized that the last person who was with her after her death was Monzón. So Monzón was condemned to 11 year in prison.
Luis “Gordo” Valor By Agustín Dutruel He was an integrant of the gang called “superbandas”.He argues that criminals today have no codes. He is 57 years old. Between 1984 and 1985 they started robbing banks then seeing that no one was actually building reinforced trucks. They kept stealing the money from them. The amount of money they looted was $1000000 and sometimes $2000000; they used assault rifles, shotguns and light machineguns. They used to eat barbecues with the judges. He was condemned to 24 years in prison for a series of thefts, to 20 years, due to a robbery to an armored truck in which one police man and 2 prisoners died, to 7 years, for escaping from Devoto’s prison. He is actually in the “Unidad Penal N°21, Campana”.
Angeles Rawson’s Murder By Gonzalo Balcarce Angeles Rawson was a teenager of 16 years old who lived in Colegiales. On 10th June, when she left school, she disappeared. On the next day, 11th June, she appeared dead on the ground of CEAMSE. At this weekend, we had 3 suspects: the stepfather, the stepbrother and the doorman, Jorge Mangeri. According to police sources and the autopsy, the criminal was Mangeri, the doorman. For a moment, we speak that Angeles had been sexually abused, but it is wrong. The police said that would kill her in the basement of the building and then carried the body to CEAMSE. Then there appeared a taxi driver saying that this day he had transported Mangeri to the dump site with a large trash bag, which complicated Mangeri. This case shocked Argentina and still remains unresolved.
The Head Kid (El Pibe Cabeza) By Lautaro Justo Rogelio Gordillo was born in Colon, Buenos Aires, on June 9, 1910. It was one of seven children of a marriage of landholders. When his father died, his mother, Gregoria Laparda, left the field and settled in General Pico, La Pampa. "Go in bad company," complained her sisters. At 18 he fell in love with a girl of 15. As her mother was opposed to the relationship, he went to see her and hit two shots. He killed her by accident. It was like this: at first he lost a woman. He was imprisoned two years in Rosario and during the same week that he went out , he raided a shop in a rural town, He was with Antonio "El Vivo" Caprioli and Florian "El Nene" Martinez. It was not Roger, but "The Kid Head". The newspapers fed the myth: •the Head Kid band steals in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe" headlines Review in 1935. The Head Kid wants to go to the capital to see his love . They came to carnival. A "Snitch" had passed the data to the federal police and four robberies and theft agents began to watch the house. One Tuesday, the Kid and Caprioli were out for a spin. Mari is there. The police are in a car, slowly, among people. The head Kid goes behind a tree, pulls out two guns and started shooting at the police car. Caprioli escapes. The Kid pulled with both hands until he drops dead, at the end with 27 years lost by a woman.
Arquímedes Puccio, the master of kidnapping By Augusto Nievas It was in the neighbourhood of San Isidro where Arquímedes and his five sons lived. Arquimedes had a yachting store. All the nights Arquímedes cleaned the sidewalk and all the neighbours thought that he was mad. All began on 22 July in 1982 , when an important rugby player of CASI disappeared .soon the family received a blackmail , an order of 250.000 dollars , and they paid , but it was all in vain because one day later Ricardo Manoukian was killed with 3 shots in his head , and the body was found later. Ten months later Eduardo Aulet, another rugby player (engineer), was kidnapped and there was an order to the family of 150.000 dollars, again it was in vain, Eduardo was killed and found 4 years later. In July of 1984 again a businessman was tried to be kidnapped but this man, Emilio Naum started to resist so Arquímedes put 3 shots to him. The cause was carried to trial, but was closed because they did not have enough evidence, four years later the cause was forgotten. But the victim number four, a businesswoman, Nelida Prado, was found in the basement of Arquímedes alive , and inside the house was his son, Alejandro, who was found accomplice and guilty. The same day the police arrested all the band including Arquímedes when he was taking the money from the family of Nelida Prado. With the time the neighbours understood why Arquímedes cleaned the sidewalk at 3:00 in the morning. He had two holes for oxygen in his basement that were facing in the street. And all the nights he controlled that the screams of the victim were not listened by any neighbour.
Cromañon´s fire By Octavio Simone If we start to think about the tragedies in the history of Argentina, Cromañon´s fire will be a good example. All started the night of 30 December, New Year´s, 2004 when a flare, better known as "three shots", was lit on and a shot burned a decorative element in the roof. 194 people die while other 365 were injured. There were 2000 people in the place in the place said the owner, but other sources said that there were more than 4000 people. This amount of people was because a famous band calle Callejeros played that night. The saloon was not habilitated by the government, but they continued. 4 out of 5 emergency doors were closed and when the smoke started to increase more than 100 peolpe died inmediately. There were 30 minors among the dead , this was a huge problem to the implicated. The police and paramedics carried on a badly rescue and many people of the neighbourhood assisted the injured people. A few hours later they realized that there were dead babes, the women tha had children and they could not leave them at home rhey carried them to the toilets and waited until the end of the show. The fist year nobody was condemnd, the police investigated that the flare was lit on by members of the band. The singer declared that his manager authorised them to throw it. 6 months later the court called to session to the whole band composed by Patricio Santos Fontanet ,Christián "Dios" Torrejón , Abel "Crispín" Pedrellos ,Luis Lamas, Álvaro "Pedi" Puentes, Juancho Carbone and the owner Rafael Levy. But again the justice did not answer to the people. On August 19, 2009 judgment was entered in the crminal case, being absolved musicians band members. On april 2011, the Court of Appeals reviewed the veredict condemning all the band as " incendio culposo seguido de muerte en concurso real con cohecho activo".
ALBERTO RICARDO BARREDA`S CRIME By Estanislao Santillán Iturres Aberto Ricardo Barreda (June 16, 1939) is an Argentine dentist in the city of La Plata who became known in 1992 for murdering his wife, Gladys Mc Donald, her mother, Elena Arreche, and two daughters, Cecilia and Adriana Barreda. In 1995 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In early 2008 he was awarded the benefit of house arrest, for good behavior and for being over 70 years, then by rape revoked with the excuse of needing to go to pharmacy. On February 11, 2011, the benefit was returned to house arrest. After violating house arrest in March, 2011, he returned to prison. At the end of that month he was granted parole. On November 15, 1992, at the home of street 48 between 11 and 12 in La Plata with a shotgun Brand Sarasqueta, he killed his wife, Gladys Mc Donald (57 years), her mother Elena Arreche (86 years) and two daughters Cecilia (23) and Adriana Barreda (24), who was a dentist and lawyer respectively. According to Barreda this morning he woke up and told his wife that was going to clean the cobwebs from de ceiling. She said contemptuously, “Go, and clean that, pussy”. The poor relation and Barreda put sometime and always remembered the same humiliation; that would have suffered by his wife,(mother in law), daughters and decided to go get the shotgun Victor Sarasqueta that her mother brought from Europe. He took the shotgun, loaded took and took extra cartridges in his pockets. In the kitchen of the house were his wife and his youngest daughter, Adriana. His wife was killed first and then Adriana. Down the stairs, he killed her mother whom he shot and finally killed his daughter Cecilia, who fell behind her grand mum. After he collected the cartridges and put them in the trunk of the car. In order to pass this as a robbery, Barreda were furniture and papers. At noon he took his card and got rid of the cartridges and shotgun which he threw in a canal at a place near PuntaLara. He felt calm and went to the zoo and then to the cemetery and later to the hotel accommodation with his lover Hilda Bono. Upon returning home at midnight, she called to an ambulance service. When the police arrived, he was calm and told the story of the theft. Upon transfer to the police station, commissioner Angel Petty gave him a copy of the criminal code open on a page containing the article 34 which establishes the criminal responsibility of those who do not understand what they do, crazy or otherwise. Barreda apparently felt safe with this data and shortly after he confessed everything the police chief.
1995 TRIAL AND IMPRISONMENT: Declared on 7 and August 14, 1995, where very calmly he told every detail of the crime to the judges (Carlos hortel, Pedro Soria and Maria Rosentock). Bartholomew Capurro, expert witness, said Barreda suffered from “delusional psychosis”. This theory was accepted by only one of the judges (Rosentock) and Barreda was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and manslaughter triple simple. While in prison he began to study law and was paired with a woman. Barreda said he was “extremely sorry” for that happened and he felt “anguish and very deep pain”.
HOUSE ARREST: On May 23, 2008, Ricardo Barreda left the duchess jail under home confinement benefit, to live with this girlfriend Berta Pochi Andre in the Belgrano district of Buenos Aires. On February 10, 2011 Barreda returned to house arrest by order of the court of the criminal chamber La Plata, comprising judges Oyhamburu, Pedro Soria and Mary, to make room to a presentation by Eduardo Gutierrez.
BARREDA TODAY: In the book “CONCHITA”. Ricardo Barreda, the man who loved women. Journalist Rodolfo Palacios tells the story of the dentist after the crimes: the jail, the infatuation of the girlfriend Berta and the strange idolatry that the murderer continues to arouse in men and women. It also tells how, for the first time, Barreda is penitent; how could I have killed them! Why I do it? I was a good guy! I’m a bastard! I cannot live like this! He confesses.
Cayetano Godino
(a small person with a big meanness)
By Tomás Baioni It was an ordinary day in December( 3rd 1912). Cayetano Godino was the son from an imigrant couple from Italy, Foire Godino and Lucia Ruffo. From a very young age, Cayetano showed signs of social mismanagement. Starting in childhood, Godino often killed cats and birds and enjoyed playing with fire. In January, 1912, he set fire to a warehouse. He confessed what he did telling the cops: "I like to see firemen working. It is nice to see how they fall into the fire". During his entire life, Cayetano killed six victims (all kids) but them one which is well known is the murder of Gesualdo Giordiano( which is the last murder from Cayetano Santos Godino). He was a three-year-old kid who got out from his home after breakfast with his parents to play with some friends. Cayetano walked towards them and invited a little girl (that escaped from him) and the victim. As usual, he asked him if he wanted candies, which the answer was yes, so he followed Cayetano to a country house. There, the killer grabbed the little kid( he put the kid's knee onto his chest) and took out a thread that he always used to strangle his victims. He did that, but the kid was so brave that he survived this process, so he got out from there to search something to kill him. Outside, the kid's dad asked him if he knew where Gesualdo was and Cayetano answered he did not know but told the adult that was good if he told the police that his kid was being searched by him. In the kid's vigil, Godino was there and touched the kid's head. He was arrested, but in 1914 he was absolved because the judge said he was irresponsible for his actions (madness). After ten years, in 1923, he was moved to Ushuaia in life imprisonment. His death is something curious. He killed the jail's cat so it is said that the other prisoners killed him.
Luis “EL GORDO” Valor By Francisco Romero Luis Alberto Valor was born on October 15th, 1953. He lived with his parents until 19 years old then he moved to another house. The problems appeared at the age of 20 when Luis began to steal cars and that's why he was locked up for four years but after the punishment he was free. Anyway, Valor came back to prison because he had robbed to a man with a handgun. During the time in prison, "el gordo" crated a big band composed by many criminals who had robbed bank and money with submachine guns, rifles and shotguns. This band started to rob armore trucks that had 2 million pesos inside; the best truck had 8 million pesos, this happened between 1984 and 1985. All robbers were caught.
The leakage In September, 1994 Luis Valor escaped from the prison service with Hugo "la garza" Sosa, Emilio Nielsen, Julio Pacheco and Carlos Paulillo. The break was during midday. They fought against two policemen and forced doctors to change clothes, after that the band made a rope of seven meters with sheets to pass a wall, outside the prison there was a car waiting for them. The police couldn't capture the band, "el gordo" and his accomplices were free for 244 days but after almost a year the criminals were caught.
The last armored truck After three days of the break, the "big band" tried to rob a truck that had a lot of money. Three men died, two of them were criminals and the other was a policeman. The criminals couldn't get away with the treasure, so the judge locked them up for 20 years. In an interview Luis Valor said that he had had contact with judges and policemen; he had also eaten meat with them. "El gordo" couldn't arrange a trial but he can stay less time in prison.
Disappearance of Jorge Julio López By Ignacio Meichtry Jorge Julio Lòpez was born in 1929, in Buenos Aires, province of Argentina. He is an argentine retired bricklayer, who was kidnapped during the National Reorganization Process, and disappeared again during the government of Nestor Kirchner. He has been missing for 6 years and 11 months after the last kidnapping. The first kidnapping was during the National Reorganization Process, in that time two laws blocked investigations of crimes committed by members of the military and the police, they are known as Due Obedience and Full Stop. Lòpez was kidnapped and taken to different clandestine detention centres during the dictatorship. He was subject to torture and remained detained without formal charges or trial from October 21, 1976 until June 25, 1979.In that time the Director of Investigations of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, head of one of the clandestine detention centres, and the right hand of former Ramòn Camps was Etchecolatz. The second kidnapping was about thirty years after the end of the military government and the laws were repealed. When the democracy came back in 1983 there was an assembly to judge the militaries. In the 2006 the trial was resumed and Lòpez was a key in that trial because his testimony involved 62 military and policemen, so in part of this, Etchecolatz was sentenced to life imprisonment. Lòpez disappeared just hours before he gave his final testimony on September 18, 2006.He was last seen at his home in the city of La Plata,40 km. south of Buenos Aires. After the disappearance, the government of Buenos Aires raised the reward for information on Lòpez to 200.000 pesos. Many pictures of Lòpez were posted in many places. Nowadays the Provincial Government and the family continue searching him but without news, so the family asks for information and doesn´t matter if it is good or bad news.
The poisoning by Yiya Murano By Tomás Quintana Mártire María de las Mercedes Bernardina Bolla Aponte de Murano (20th May, 1930), also known as Yiya Murano. She was a common widow, with a lot of economic problems. She wore all the time imported clothes and used a lot of cheap jewellery that she couldn´t pay. The police discovered that a neighbour called Nilda Gamba was murdered on 11th February, 1979 by a heart attack, the same as a friend called Lelia Formisano de Ayala on 19thFebruary by a heart attack, too. On 24thMach,1979, Caren Zulemade Venturini, her cousin, was found dead on the ladder of the building of HipolitoYrigoyen, where she lived. The doctors diagnosed that she suffered a heart attack, but they didn´t discover why, what thing caused this heart attack. The daughter of Zulema, Diana Maria Venturini, accused Yiya of murder and a con based on some money that Zulema lent to Yiya. The staff of the building said that the same day Yiya Murano went to visit her, and they said that she entered with an envelope that later it was discovered that it contained cookies, and a small jar but what it contained… The doctors did a new autopsy where they discovered that Zulema was poisoned with cyanide, the same substance that the jar contained. With these items the police went to the house and arrested Yiya with the criminal charges of homicide and fraud and was put in jail on 12thJune with the title of “preventive prison” in Ezeiza. After three years in jail, the judge Angel Mercado left Yiya free of the charges. Then, three years later the appeals chamber, condemned her to a permanent prison. In 1993 her conviction was reduced to 25 years. And in 1995 she was free. In 1998 Yiya went to the TV program “Almorzando con Mirtha Legrand”, where she said that she was innocent. Today she is in a geriatric.
José Luis Cabezas By Agustín Sighel José Luis Cabezas was born in 1961 and died in 1997. He was an Argentinean news photographer and reporter from the magazine “Noticias”. On 25 January 1997, Cabezas disappeared in Pinamar, he appeared on 28 January in General Madariaga in a car rented by “Noticias”, the car was burned, and Cabezas was inside whit two shots in the head. He was kidnapped and murdered when he left a party. The causes of those things are that Cabezas was investigating Alfredo Yabran, a corrupt businessman. It also happened just as the press in Argentina enjoyed the best public image. “Noticias” was known for its exposures of allegedly corrupt individuals and institutions. The murder of Cabezas was viewed as an attack on independence journalism by those institutions.
The judgment: On 2 February 2000, the judgment took place, this day all the eight members of a band called “los horneros” were condemned to life in prison: Horacio Braga, Joseph Auge, Sergio Gonzalez, Hector Retana and Gregorio Rios, Sergio Camaratta, Aníbal Luna and Gustavo Anibal Prellezo, but currently they have all been released.
Destiny of those involved: Gustavo Prellezo, policeman former officer and inspector of the Buenos Aires police, was sentenced to life imprisonment but was benefitted with house arrest on 23 September 2010 for health reasons (he had an hernia). Miguel Retana, convicted, died in prison, he was the only member convicted that confessed and accused Gustavo Prellezo of being the ring leader and shooter. Sergio Anibal Camaratta, a policeman from Pinamar, was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later released after posting a 40,000 pesos bail and currently works in a security firm in Pinamar called Servicio Organizado de Seguridad (SOS)(which he denied), the agency, owned by the owners of the Constructora del Bosque, is in the name of Silvia Melgarejo Rosana, wife of Camaratta who drive around Pinamar in a brand new Toyota 4x4 and a Jeep even if he claims to be unemployed Aníbal Luna, was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released and is also working in Pinamar in the security firm Servicio Organizado de Seguridad (SOS) Gregorio Rios, head of custody and close friend of Alfredo Yabrán, was sentenced as an instigator of the crime and been denied release on December 2006, his life sentence of 27 years finally ended in house arrest. José Luis Auge was convicted, and released in 2004. Sergio Gustavo Gonzalez was sentenced to life imprisonment. In February 2006 he was released by reduction of sentence to 20 years. Horacio Anselmo Braga was sentenced to 18 years and was released on 25 January 2007, several factors influenced: benefitted from the 2 for 1 (subtract 2 years for each year sentence processing), scored well in psychiatric reports presented good conduct and paid a deposit of 20,000 pesos to exit the Penitentiary number 9. That same day, 6,000 people gathered in Pinamar in seeking for justice for Cabezas. Alberto Gomez, Commissioner of Pinamar, convicted of having "liberated the area" to which the crime occurred.
María Soledad Morales By Gonzalo Alonso Maria Soledad Morales was born in Valle Viejo, Catamarca, the on 19 September in 1973 ,she was a young student, with 17 years old and a charming smile, voted to be the ``queen´´ of her school dance. That Saturday night she was seen in the party with Tula , a young boy , who seemed to be her boyfriend. The morning after that , at 9:30 AM on Monday 10 her body was found by some labourers, her body was disfigured; she had been raped ,burnt with cigarettes , her scalp was taken, they had cut her ears, emptied an eye , broken the jaw and crush her skull . Later it was discovered that shehad died of a cardiac arrest because of a lethal dose of cocaine. Her body was recognized by her father when he saw a small scar on one of her wrists. Her murder marked a turning point over the country and unravelled the relation between political power and impunity in a semi-feudal province like Catamarca was. From the outset, the investigations were delayed and eventually manipulated. It took more than two months to open a judicial inquiry and once justice intervened, the favouritism for the people involved was evident. Under these conditions, a national deputy for Catamarca, Angel Luque, had declared that if his son had been the murderer, the body would not have appeared. The scandal led to the expulsion of the deputy of the Congress and that in 1991 the national government, then in charge of Carlos Menem, intervened the justice power first in the province and then the executive and legislative powers, dismissing Ramón Saadi. Federal intervention in the province, which included sending the Federal Police Comisionner Luis Patti to clarify the facts, also demonstrated a clear lack of willingness to solve the case. In 1993, film director Hector Olivera, author of "La Patagonia rebelde" and "La noche de los lápices", filmed The Case of María Soledad", leading the murder and impunity to the knowledge of the public in Argentina. Under these conditions in 1996 the trial for the murder of Maria Soledad started, being accused Luis Guillermo Luque and Tula. National television gave extensive coverage to the trial transmitting it live and recorded in detail the gestures of the judges, who showed a partial attitude toward the case. The gestures of the judges were repeated on national television and produced a new scandal that led to a mistrial. In 1998, a new trial was made. The political conditions in the country and in the province had changed considerably, and on September 27th Guillermo Luque was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the murder and rape of María Soledad Morales, while Luis Tula was sentenced to 9 years in prison as a participant in the crime on rape.
THE END