The General Cemetery of Guatemala & Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano, aka La Mujer Verdugo

The Guatemala City General Cemetery is the biggest cemetery in Central America, and also, super haunted, people hear tiny footsteps, the laughter of children, have seen the ghost of a woman and a girl, who may be the girl in black. In this episode, Carmen shares hauntings from the general cemetery of Guatemala and Cristina shares the case of Mexico's first woman serial killer,  Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano. First, they read a a listener story and end with spooky recs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, Ala, This is Christina and Carmen and this is
a Spooky Tells, a podcast for all things as spooky,
true crime in Latin America, one hundred places, legends, you know,
things like that, and that's what we're doing today. I
know last episode it was kind of a little bit
of a deviation from that. Oh wait, that was the
last last episode. So I was like, I don't even

(00:26):
remember what we did last episode. Wow, sorry, I forgot
about the book club episode. Oh we did a book
club episode. I was referring to Italian story. Oh yeah,
that was so was before the book club. Yes, yes,
so yeah, we've got a listener story. We have a
paranormal topic and then my true crime topic. So we're good.

(00:51):
We're back to normal. Before you share the listener story,
a quick reminder that you can catch us live number
first twenty five at El Kukui is going to get
you November first, twenty twenty five, doors open at six
thirty in Yakama. The link is in the show notes.
It's gonna be great. We're gonna be telling spooky stories.

(01:11):
It's gonna be us and Jonathan from latinos Acond spooky
shit and yeah, scary stories, spooky mercado things, food, It's
gonna be a good time, fun stuff links in the
show notes. Okay, before you show the listener story, you
can send us your stories at a spookito dot com.
You can submit it on Discord. You can call you

(01:33):
a spooky hotline. You can record a voice note and
email that to us. You can also leave a voicemail
on our website. There's so many ways to get us
the stories, and we love receiving them. Okay, so listener story. Yes,
Chefi High School in Ontario, California is hunted. At least
there's a lot of stories. I was a Schefy High

(01:54):
School student, class of two thousand and nine. I was
a theater kid from two thousand and five to two
thousand and seven, and I can can affirm seeing and
hearing things down in the basement of the theater. One
time I went down to get a prop and then
the other side of the room felt like something From
the other side of the room, it felt like something
was watching me. But then I began to hear shuffling

(02:15):
and movement and I ran upstairs. Yeah, so a bell
tower story with a dead girl, that one is true
as well. So one night, around two am, I was
leaving a friend's house and I saw her at the tower,
just standing there looking. As I passed the school, I
watched her turn and watched me. I ran and looked back,

(02:36):
and then she was gone. Scary, It is scary. Yeah,
I love a haunted school story, though I don't want
to attend. Like, I'm so glad. I had never attended
a haunted school as far as we know, Like, we
didn't have any experiences at school, you know, I always
swore that Laura's uerta, but probably wasn't. But no, it
was just like stories we told as kids, but nobody

(02:57):
had like a verifiable experience. But what was our What
was that building across the church, Yeah, but it looked
like there was like rooms up there, oh like church storage. No,
but they looked like rooms. There was like an attic
above that same building. I remember everyone used to say
a lady would look through the window through the windows,

(03:17):
but I never saw any either. What I'm saying, yeah, yeah, so,
but I love. I love a hunted school story. I
live he hearing other people's stories. Yeah, yeah, I love
hearing other people's hunted school stories. All right, Well, thanks
so much for that story and let's uh do the

(03:44):
paranormal topic. Okay, So this is about the Cementioala. The
Guatemala City General Cemetery is the biggest cemetery in Central
America and it's also super haunted. Oh. It is located
in Las Natres and Guatemala City. It's full of elegant

(04:05):
mausoleums and at first was made for the rich elite
of the city as all cemeteries. Cemeteries have blin which
we love and we do love it. Love is my
favorite cemetery. After that, it's should we have favorite cemeteries? Well,

(04:25):
I have one and I'm ready to turn it onto
the list, right, I need to start making a list. Yeah. Yeah.
It was built in eighteen eighty during the presidency of
Henerale Justos. Is this a presidency or is this a dictator?
I am not sure. I haven't looked into this time
period of Guatemala. Okay, okay, I'm just asking. Yeah. The

(04:49):
artistic vision was inspired from movements like Neo Classicism, Romanticism,
and Art Neveau New Art fancy, fancy and very European.
It was originally built with perfect symmetry, perfectly aligned streets
and luxurious tombs. Wow, that sounds like a commercial for
the cemetery. Wow, put me in one of those. Put

(05:12):
me in one of those luxurious mausoleums. Give me the
most curious one you have. That's my trans Atlantic accent.
Did you like? Yeah? I loved it. I loved it.
Thank you. So. Yeah. It was one of the first
public buildings to have electric lights. And how sad the
dead people get the electro lights first. Yeah. Yeah, the

(05:34):
rich dead people. Yeah, I was gonna say rich dead people.
It also happened to contain eight Mayan hills within it.
These hills were part of Gaminali Huu, which means the
Hill of the Dead. This is a pre Columbian Mayan
site where what the Mala city is today and has
been described as one of the greatest archaeological sites in

(05:56):
the New World. These hills surrounding old fear that some
belief was used to play ceremonial ball. But it's more
narrow and longer compared to other fields, so it's not
for sure, okay, But what is for sure these lands
contain history and they were destroyed for this rich people cemetery.
Is that where we're going? Yeah? At first, the plan

(06:18):
was to keep these hills intact and build the most
exclusive tombs within the eight hills, but over time the
hills were modified and destroyed. Sounds about right. The first
hole was used to build a tomb of former President
Justo Rufino, and the Mayan Hill needed to be empty
to build this. So that was the history now the hauntings. Yes,

(06:43):
Cecilio del Pinalo works at the cemetery and one day
a woman walked up to him saying, Micho masnat son,
can you do me in the favor of decorating. She
had brought her own flowers in and was asking him
to place them on a tombstone for her, and he
agreed because it was part of its job. And so
he took the flowers and followed the women to a
grave and she stopped in front of it and pointed

(07:06):
for him to place the flowers, and so he did.
And this wasn't one of the tombstones that are on
the ground. It was one of the ones that are
stacked like on a wall of tombs. I'm sure everyone
has seen those. Yeah, I feel like that's the thing
in Latin America. I don't know about I think they
do it here too, Okay, I think so okay, yeah,
maybe I'm not sure, but I think so mm hmm.

(07:29):
So yeah, it's one of those stacked ones. Yeah, like
a wall, yeah, a wall of tombs. And the one
she pointed out was up high. She was pointed the
second most highest one, and there were also two bouquets.
So after he placed the first one, he climbed down
and when he turned around, the woman was nowhere to
be seen and her bouquet was on the ground. So

(07:51):
he was like what and he picked up Okay, he
picked up the second bouquet, facing the tubestone, confused, and
that's when it took a moment to look at the
picture on the grave and it was the very same
woman that had asked him to place the flowers on
the grave. No oh, no moment. But you know what,

(08:17):
get your own flowers, girl, you put them up next time.
Finally Cyrus said I can buy Yes. I was like,
what did she say? And even in death you can
buy yourself flowers. Don't let that stock you. She bought them,
you know, she just didn't put them up herself. That's true. Yeah.

(08:40):
So our second story from the cemetery Donia Anita, whose
husband passed away a few years ago. Is that the
cemetery at least once a week, and she goes to
visit him, puts fresh flowers on his grave, make sure
it's clean, you know, the usual. Yeah. Well, during one
of these normal weekly visits, as she was cleaning her
husband's plum, she heard singing. Just like the last story,

(09:03):
her husband's grave is one of those wall ones. So
this line wall, this wall of tombs was kind of
like a hallway, and so she was at one end
and she heard the singing on the other end of
the row of the hall. But it was early in
the day and there was no madiachi or anything like that.

(09:24):
It was just like a capella singing that she heard.
So she walked over there just to see and there
was nothing there. So she walked all the way back
down to her husband's grave and continued cleaning, and then
she heard the singing again. She was like, what the fuck,
And so she walked back and turned the corner, thinking, Okay,

(09:46):
maybe they're on the other side and I just didn't
see them before. But when she looked, there was no
one there. So she walked back again and this time
ran into a friend. When I was alive. I hope, oh,
I hope. So, oh yeah it was. And at this
point she just thought it was, you know, just some
little hooligan, some low kid, some youth ye sing with her.

(10:09):
But again, she didn't see anyone around where the singing
was at. And as she was leaving into the cemetery,
she told her friend what happened, and this friend told her, no, Donia,
that was not anyone alive. It's just the spirits doing
what they didn't get to do while they were living,
singeing acapella together in the cemetery. Okay, it's kind of cute.

(10:31):
Uh yeah, yeah, And Donia Alita also thought it was cute.
She wasn't scared or anything, okay. And another woman was
with her friend when they saw a girl in a
pink dress wandering by herself, and they thought she was
lost and wanted to get her back to her parents,

(10:53):
so they walked around until they spotted her again, so
she ran past them, and then they're like, okay, well,
let's try to catch up to her, and they ran
after her, and then they watched this girl run straight
into a mausoleum and vanish. Oh no, yeah. And so
speaking of that, little girl. People do hear the laughter
of children at the cemetery, and also the sound of

(11:15):
kids running like little footsteps. And when they look, there's
no kids around, of course not why were they? Why
would they be there? But there is one legend that
has to do with the girl. Oh. The legend has
a poem tied to it, and it goes like this,
can sequento and oh I know? And now in English,

(11:48):
I want under the shadow of a wing to tell this,
tell in bloom the girl from Gatemala, she who died
of love. That sounds better in Spanish. I was gonna say,
it's a little more like oh in Spanish, yeah it is, yeah,
can I ask you? Yeah, right here in the heart
and an English and English I was just like, okay,
then hit the same and now I'm just kidding. And

(12:11):
so she died of love? Okay, snorted Sorry. And this
poem was written by the poet Jose Marti, and it's
the poem about a haunting story of a young woman
who dies of unrequited love. It said that this was
written about Maria Garcia is the daughter of General Miguels,

(12:36):
and she died at eighteen. They say that Jose Marti
wrote it about her in her honor, and she's buried
in the cemetery, and some believe she remains there haunting
it for eternity. Some tir her to the legend of
La Nina the Negro, a separate legend. Uh huh. According
to legend, during Semana Santa Holy week always Semana Santa,

(13:00):
that's a time of haunting. It really is. A mysterious,
frail and delicate young woman dressed in all black appears
in the church of San Sebastan, located in Centrol, the
center of Guatemala City. And she appears there looking like
she's in pain, deep in thought. I'm picturing like a
Victorian child, Yeah, like a sickly ye, dark circles, gaunt. Yeah.

(13:25):
And most people just see her, and that's that. They
move on with their lives, not even realizing what they
just saw. Those unfortunate few that she chooses to approach
have a different story. Oh. She walks up to them
and offers a gold chain. Those that take the gold
chain will find that there's a piece of paper inside
of the necklace, and in that paper there's an address

(13:49):
to wear to the general cemetery. Weird I don't like it.
I don't like it, okay. And by the time that
the person opens a necklace and reads the address, the
girl in the black is nowhere to be seen. And
if that's not already creepy, it said that if you
happen to take the necklace and read the address, you

(14:10):
will lose your mind. It's not a proper Latin American legend.
If someone's not losing their mind, if your mind is
attacked by the end, it's not a proper story. No.
There's also another grave known as Latumba. According to legend,
Abruca is buried there. This area of the cemetery is

(14:32):
surrounded by these tall, circular stones, and in the middle
there's a tree, always a tree. If there's not a
tree surrounding that grave, it's not a proper legend. Sorry,
I'm literally just thinking about La Little Bambido, the vampire
tree in that's what I think. Like that too. Yes,
this tree grew around a cross, and now the cross

(14:55):
is not even visible, just the tree. Then right in
front of the tree is this metal look door that
lifts up underneath. That is where the alleged Brucha is located.
Oh and this metal door, thing is locked and no
one really knows the last time it opened. You know
what this reminds me of two? Is that book Thirsty
or is it thirst Oh thirst the vampire one where

(15:19):
it's that tomb that no one opens and then the
key is passed down. Yeah, and it's a vampire. Mhm.
It also seems like no one knows the name of
the person that is buried there, just like the book.
Oh my god, this is crazy, but the image of
it is creepy, and it's not surprising that even if
there is just some normal person buried there, that legend

(15:41):
of a girl because it's creepy looking. Yeah, and some
people believe her apparition is seen during the night, but
others think it's another woman ghost. So just some pictures ghost, Yeah,
just any old ghost not yeah, just your average woman ghosts,
you know. Oh yeah that's great. Yeah, yeah, that's creepy. Yeah,

(16:02):
we'll post these pictures, you'll see them. And this leads
us to David's story, Okay, da Vid. So David was
unemployed and desperately trying to find a job, so when
a friend of his told him about a security position
at the General Cemetery, he knew that he's going to
be pickying. He was like, I guess I am unemployed. Yeah,

(16:24):
so he went down there to that's a man, right now.
Real men don't want to work at graves anymore cemeteries,
I mean. Yeah, So he went down there to ask
about the job on her Friday, and by the time
he left, he had a start date, which is not
a good sign. No, that's a they're too eager to
hire you run walk away led a flag. So yeah,

(16:45):
he had a start date that following Monday, three days
and so yeah, that was quick, but you know he
needed a job. Yeah, And he showed up on Monday
afternoon and the other security guard let him know that
around eight people would start leaving and then at nine
the entrance would be officially locked. So his job was
just to do rounds, make sure no teenagers were sneaking in,

(17:07):
things like that, and it sounded simple enough. By the
time it was nine, no one was left and he
walked around in silence. As he walked, he started remembering
all the stories his Abulita would tell him, stories about
brucas doing this and ghosts. He started to get nervous,
especially as the wind picked up, and he could hear

(17:27):
the leaves of rustle more and more. But the night
went by and aside from psyching himself out, it was uneventful. Okay,
that's good for that being. But the next night, oh no,
he went back and kick, going back, you know, to work,
I'll find a normal okay, but oh, on his seventh shift,

(17:47):
things changed. He walked around doing his rounds when he
noticed an older lady. He thought someone accidentally left her
after some funeral or something, so he walked up to
her and told her, ma'am, yeah, gotta go. You got
to go, mamy, I got to go. You got to go.

(18:08):
U No, But he said, this area is prohibited at
this hour. Please leave. I don't want to see you.
When I'm done with my rounds, I don't want to
see you anymore. And so he continued to walk and
he was finishing his lap and coming back when the
old bitch was still learn no why, so he was
like the fuck and he stumped towards are annoyed and

(18:30):
he's like, ma'am, I told you to leave, And so
the woman looked up at him and told him, how
am I supposed to leave? This is my new home? No,
I want to share my pants, like for real, and
he didn't remember what happened after that. He probably passed
out and not oh he did so he passed out,

(18:55):
didn't know what happened after that, and that's why his
partner and the other security guard found him around three
in the morning and he asked David what happened? Why
didn't he come back from his rounds? And so David
told his coworker what he saw and the last thing
he remembered, and his partner was like, oh, yeah, a
lot of people have described seen a woman like the
wing he described and that we just like, bye, bitch.

(19:15):
He put his resignation that same night and he never
looked back. Damn. And we don't blame that. We for that.
They could have at least warned him. No, they purposely
so that he went quit before. Hey, we got seven
shifts out of him. We got seven out of this one.
This one stayed all week. No, no, wow, that's that's horrifying.

(19:40):
How am I supposed to leave? This is my wall?
Said wol I wonder him and no, he bitch, I

(20:01):
was trying to spin off my water. Wow, wow, I
gotta recover. That was hilarious. Okay, for me. All right,
let's take a little and break here and then we'll
come back with my help of the episode. And we're

(20:26):
back with my true crime case. And this one was
requested by a listener. She left the comment I think
it was on Instagram. She was like, have you heard
of this? And I was like no. She's like, oh,
I've been curious about it, and I was like, well,
let me add it to the topic list. OK. So
that's how that happened. Yeah, I'm telling you and our

(20:46):
listeners about Buela Lupe Martinez de Bejarano aka La moucher verdugo.
That means the executioner, ew what aka Latin mible Becherano,
the fearsome Becherano. Oh my god. Yeah. She was one
of the first serial killers in Mexican history, notably the

(21:10):
first the first known woman serial killer. Wow, a trailblazer,
if you will. Yeah, making room for like, I don't know,
Las pociancis. That's terrible. Don't like that. And normally I don't.
I make a case not to purposely cover serial killers.
I try to find like things about the victims first,

(21:31):
but this was so long ago that that's just not possible.
With this case because she was active during the Portfitiato. Oh.
Also worth noting that this time period also gave us
the other people considered the first serial killers in the

(21:51):
history of Mexico, Filippe Espinosa, Francisco Guerrero Perez and Rodolfo
Fierro and then Buela Lupequier who's the first women troll blazing,
you know, let women kill basically, And it's no coincidence
to me that they were all active during the Portfitiato,

(22:13):
the dictatorship of Porfito Dias, because violence was rampant. Yeah.
So just a little, a little tiny refresher on this
time period context, Yeah, because we love contexts. So Mexico
went its independence from Spain on September twenty seventh, eighteen
twenty one, and though it's independence had been gained socially

(22:36):
and politically, not much change for the population. Power remained
at the hands of the white elite, and the Plan
of Iwana set Mexico as an independent country that would
be a limited monarchy, and the Roman Catholic Church was
set as the official state church, and upper class status
was given to the Spanish and then the Mestizo populations.

(22:57):
Despite the fact that at the time indigenous and our
freaking descent populations were the majority. Political turmoil and warrants followed,
with the presidency changing many times. Spain attempted to retake
Mexico in eighteen twenty nine, coups occurred in eighteen twenty
eight and eighteen thirty three, the Mexican Revolution in eighteen

(23:17):
thirty five that ended in eighteen thirty six, then the
Mexican American War from eighteen forty six to eighteen forty eight.
Then there was geiap guerrilla warfare that led to the
ex exile of the of Santa Ana and then rebel
leader Juan Alvarez rose to power at eighteen fifty seven,
and they did want to reduce the wealth and power

(23:40):
of the Catholic Church, and then they also wanted to
guarantee freedom of speech and like universal male suffrage because
at the time certain populations didn't have that, you know,
like yeah, indigenous populations, the black populations, because yes, they
again were around and consider conservative groups while they opposed

(24:01):
this new reform, which led to the War of Reform
which lasted from eighteen fifty seven to eighteen sixty one.
And so this time period led. There was two separate
governments in Mexico. At this time, there was the conservative
government in sud that Mexico and then the liberal government
in Veracruz. And the liberal side won and this is

(24:22):
when Benito Benitojuares became president. And then Mexico was invaded
by friends in eighteen sixty two. I mean a lot
lted tell this, but they were basically claiming that the
Juarez government owed them money, and really they also wanted
to install a ruler that they could control. You've heard
of Maximilian, Yes, this is this time period. This is

(24:43):
what during this time period was the Battle of Puebla,
which is Cinco le maon okay, okay, okay, Yes, when
we defeated the French in that one singular battle, but
the overall war. The French won and established their government
in Mexico City, and then the actual Mexican government fled.
I want to say Africa where they fled to. But

(25:05):
they fled and they had a few allies. Nobody recognized
their French really as the government even though they had won.
Mexico took back the country from the French in eighteen
sixty seven and then Manittoajuanas died of a heart attack
in eighteen seventy two, and then there was like again,
more turmoil up until eighteen seventy seven. There was another

(25:26):
revolt against Sevastian lro Tejada, who was Beninitojuaras's successor, and
in eighteen seventy seven is when Porfirio Diaz took control
of the country. And during the Porfiliato, Mexico City was growing,
becoming wealthy, but the wealth was at the hands of
the elite. Most people lived in poverty. He really wanted

(25:49):
to Americanize Mexico. He gave so much money and control
to American businesses and this was a difficult era. Porfiodias
Mexico with an iron fist. Uh. There was repression, arrest,
literal concentration camps for indigenous people in the Yucatan region

(26:09):
of the country. He was especially cruel towards the Yaqui
indigenous people who were met with state violence. And yeah,
he was essentially a dictator up until the Mexican Revolution
in nineteen ten, and there were a few breaks between
his times as president, but overall, like when you put
his sign together, he ruled for thirty years from eighteen

(26:30):
seventy six up until the Mexican Revolution. And so yeah,
that's the context of where these first serial killers arose
in Mexico. Wow, questions none at this time. Okay, So
now back to La terrible Megrano. Oh sorry, oh latmible Mekrano. Right.

(26:56):
What a name whose span of crimes go from eighties
seventy seven to eighteen ninety two and so not much
is known about her private life early or private life,
only that she was born in eighteen forty three and
married to a commander named Macario Becherano, and they had
one child together. His name was Aurelio Bergerano Martinez, and

(27:20):
the family was either upper class or upper middle class.
They lived on Casa Numero Uno e Meglio de la
Cayed de Jesius, one point five Glasson Street, near where
El Colegio de San Ignacio de Loyola Vicaynas is today
in the historic center of Mexico City. Her first victim
and trigger warning from here on out, this is fucking terrible,

(27:41):
all of this that she did. Oh my god. Her
first victim was her own son, Aurelio. She regularly beat him,
but it wasn't until January fourteenth, eighteen seventy six, when
he was eleven years old, that one of the neighbors
learned the extent of this abuse. Emiliodias, the neighbor, was
looking out of his win picking out and he saw
a boy walking outside. This boy was severely injured, was

(28:05):
swelling and bruising all over his body, which was more
easier to see, like the bruises and the swelling and
all that, because the boy was naked. As Emilio got closer,
he realized it was Aurelio, his neighbor, and he could
see that had been lashed, parts of his skin ripped
open from the lashings. Apparently his mom, Guadalupe, regularly did

(28:29):
this to him, locking him in a large wooden box
until he stopped screaming after the lashings. But this time
he escaped. Oh my god. Yeah, And Emilio took Aurelio
to his house, propped him in a blanket, and he
thought that Guadalupe would come get him, but when she didn't,

(28:49):
in a couple like maybe a few hours passed and
he returned Aurelio to his house along with the letter,
and in that letter he pleaded with Guallalupe not to
put into Aurelio for not coming back home right away.
He didn't want to send him back in the state
that he was in and to just like stop being

(29:10):
so hard on him. But he didn't like go to
the police right away or anything. But you know, maybe
he was scared of her too. I don't I don't
know what led him to not do anything more. Did
the police even do anything about this back then, right,
is what I'm wondering too. So maybe you know, he
had his reasons not to say anything else other than
write that letter to her. I mean, it's sad, It

(29:31):
is so sad. In response to that letter, Guadalupe told
Emilio that Aurelio deserved this for being a poor student
and a bad son, and that she knew Emilio intended
to report her to the authorities for her constant punishment
to Aurelio. And then she said, but that Aurelio quote

(29:55):
manifests very clearly his little to no love for me
for work or or for study. That he deserved this
because he was he didn't work or study, or he
was a bad son. Oh my god. And apparently it
took a million years to report her. By the time
he reported her, someone else had also reported her for

(30:16):
the murder of Casimira Juadis. So then Audelio was still
alive at this point. Yeah, Audelio was alive the whole time.
Just he was the first person who faced her abuse.
So I thought you were saying he was the first victim,
like being killed, no victim, but in beatings. Wow, I
mean that's terrible. But of course someone who's willing to

(30:37):
kill most of the time, no, always does it to
someone else first, right, Like, yeah, there's like a ramping
up of the violence. Right. Well, I was gonna say
they most of the time abuse their children. Oh yeah,
and even when they don't physically abuse them, they are
like controlling and have anger impulses things like that. Yeah,
there's always something something there and so yeah, and maybe

(31:01):
other the neighbors didn't say anything about this until she
was also being arrested now for the murder of another
kid years later. But you said her crimes went on
for past this, right, Oh well, I said eighteen seventy
seven and her beating her son that it was found

(31:21):
out it was what year was this, eighty seventy six,
So a couple years later when she was arrested. Sorry,
the years it depends what source you're looking at. They
change by one. I guess because you said her crime
spanel till eighteen ninety two. So then I was like, well,
she's not done. This is the beginning. Also she was
like okay, go on, yeah, this is the beginning. Oh

(31:42):
my god. So yeah, a couple of years after she
was seen or that a would Elio, her son was
like wandering the streets, injured and naked. She was arrested
on June twenty first, eighteen seventy eight. The building caretaker
reported her. And it's a little unclear if he like

(32:03):
overheard something and that's why he reported her or what
actually led to this. There's not a lot of information
out there. I found this on infobay, which they have
a lot of like new stuff. Oh sorry, I just realized.
So she was arrested two years after the incident without
Ali for beating out Alio. Yes, no, no, no, for

(32:24):
the murder. And that's when Emilia was like, well, also
she beat her son. Oh okay, so how did this
murder happen? Then? Huh oh, this murder happened. That's why
I'm about to share. Okay, it wasn't like it was
very confusing to read the events. So yeah, again, it's
a little unclear to me how the caretaker found out

(32:44):
because he's the one who reported reported her to the police.
So this is the account that I found on info Bay,
which is also the only place I could find more
details on this woman. So it seems that this the
caretaker reported her to the police, and then police found

(33:05):
a twelve year old girl under the first flight of
stairs that led to where she lived, which was like,
you walk in this entrance and then there's just like
houses and so kind of like you know how, imagine
like a vestin Dad situation, but for rich people. So
it's like a gated area and you walk in and
then there's like a communal batio and yeah, so in

(33:30):
that there's a set of stairs that goes up to
where the houses are at. So police, after the caretaker
of this entire building reported her, went to this area.
They went in and under the first flight of stairs
that led to the houses, they found a twelve year
old girl. And again this is terrible, so warning. So
the girl was lying on the ground, face like on

(33:52):
the ground, surrounded by insects and trash. She had rope
burns around her wrists and ankles, bruises everywhere, and a
very very deep wound on her head. Oh my god,
that was like open and old where apparently like maggots
were growing out of the wound. Oh my god, horrifying.

(34:16):
And there were burns on her mouth and in her genitals,
and the girl begs for water. She was so scared.
She was taken to the hospital where she later died.
And her name was Gassimira Juarees. And it turns out
that guil A Lupe had hired Gasimira to work for
her as a housemaid. But apparently if Gassimieda did something wrong,

(34:39):
and that could be anything, hmm wow, whether Lupe's punishments
were extremely violent and so supposedly what she did to
this girl was a punishment for her like not cleaning something, right.
I just can't get it's like so excessive and that's
like an understatement, right, And so this she was arrested.

(35:03):
There was a trial. I would Elio, her son, testified
against his mother during this trial, where he included the
abuse that he faced because of her too, and because
of his testimony and witness to Casimira, because he was
like thirteen years old at this time. She was sentenced

(35:23):
to thirteen years in prison, which she began to serve
on June twenty seventh, eighteen seventy eight. But so many
journalists and like those that were keeping up with the
case just could not believe that a woman like her,
a rich nights looking woman, could be capable of something
like this. Sexism strikes again, right right, Like let women

(35:48):
be guilty too, Yes, women can be. No, but they
can't be abuse doers. No, Yeah, they certainly can, Like
we're being serious now, Yeah, it's serious. Month. They can
most certainly abuse who both men, children and other women.
They can certainly do that, yes, but no, they thought, no,

(36:08):
not her, not someone from that family, not someone who's married,
not a mother, yes, exactly, And they literally described her
as someone with gentle and kind eyes, not someone with
the eyes of a hardened criminal. Oh my god. And
so they started believing that guil the Lupe Martinez Bercherano,
deserved mercy, and they did not let down. And then

(36:32):
Porfideo Diaz himself pardoned her eight years into her thirteen
year sentence, Oh my god, on August twenty sixth, eighteen
eighty six. And so she got out wow. And after
her release, she seemed to be laying low like there
was nothing notable about her until eighteen ninety one, some

(36:55):
sources of saying eighteen ninety two she was arrested again,
this time for the murder of the panda sisters. Some
sources say it was only Crescenzia Banda and not sisters,
And that's the most detailed account of this crime, so
I'll share that one first. So I couldn't find the date,

(37:17):
just the year, which was either eighteen ninety one or
eighteen ninety two, at it on a date taking place
in either eighteen ninety one ninety two, rushed into the
San Andres Hospital in Mexico City, and he was carrying
a girl, but she was so disfigured it was hard
to even like like the doctors were like, what are
we looking at? Oh my god? The girl had bruises,

(37:40):
burns and cuts all over her body, and the doctors
and nurses kept asking who is she? Who is the patient?
What is her name? But Aurelio would not talk until
a woman named Eulogia Monroi arrived at the hospital with police,
and Eia was Censiastia, her aunt, and she had been

(38:02):
searching for her niece who hadn't been home in a
few days. And it's unclear to me how Crescenzia started
working for Gualla Lupe, but she did. She would do
cleaning or run errands for Wallalupe, and then she would
go back home to her tia oh Lokya. And at
some point Caresensia didn't arrive, she didn't get shedn't go home,

(38:24):
and so al Lookia trying asking Guallalupe where her niece was,
but Guadalupe would tell her, oh, I sent her to
go get medicine all the way Buebla. And the exact
age isn't shared, but she Caresnia is in between twelve
and fifteen years old, so that's like if she swell,
that's a little young to send her all the way

(38:46):
to Buebla by herself to pick up medicine. So al
Lookia didn't believe this, and she had already gone. She
had already gone to the police repeatedly to try and
report her niece missing. I could not find how she
found out her niece was in the hospital, but she
had arrived with police there and she was like that
boy or that man, because I think at this point
was eighteen. Alle kept Crescenzia and they kept a prisoner

(39:12):
and they flogged her. That's what she told them. Oh wow.
And so Aurelio was taken away arrested as well, and
Cresnia died the next day, and Guadalupe was also arrested.
At this point and through the trial it was discovered
that Audilio was not actually involved in the beating. Okay,
I was just getting asked, like, was he just like
his mother doing the tube? I like didn't want to

(39:33):
believe that. No, right, So it appears that he wasn't.
But he was given a two year sentence for his inaction.
Like he didn't step in sooner, Like I get it,
because he's probably scared of his mom. Yeah, and his
whereabouts after his two year sentence was served or unknown.
Some people believed he joined the military. As for Guadalupe,

(39:56):
she received a ten year sentence ten years and eight
months and she was sent to the Berlin Prison for
a woman. But she had to be isolated for her
own safety because other inmates hated her for what she did.
And then she ended up dying of natural causes just
a few years into her sentence. I couldn't find exactly,

(40:16):
but she didn't serve the full ten years because she died.
And so there's that's one version of events. There's another version.
This is the one where there's not a lot of
information out there. But in this version, Gualla Lupe and
Cassia Pinda were employed by Walla Lupe and she abused

(40:36):
and tortured them for months. By the time the police
found the sisters, they had been dead for weeks after
months of abuse. Guadalupe would hang them, whip them, and
then make them sit on a burning Brasier Brazil. I
don't know how you say that, but it's basically this
like stove thing that you can heat up like a pot. Okay, wow, yeah,

(41:03):
I think I put a picture in the yeah, and
I'll post this as well. And she would also starve
them and so they either died from their injuries or
from starvation after months of being in under Guadalupa's employment.
And so those are the two versions of either she
killed Crescentia Pina or both of the sisters, and over

(41:27):
time she was largely forgotten, but during the second trial
she was infamous. There was like newspaper off the newspaper
Jose do you know who he is? No, he basically
invented the katrina like theine. Okay, yeah, yeah, this is him.
He painted a painting of her. I included it in

(41:50):
the document if you want to look at it, and
I'll post it as well. Very scary. Yeah, it's it's
a little morbid, which he was known to, Yeah, marble things,
it was his thing, and so yeah, apposed a picture
and then Antonio Vanegas Arroyo wrote a corrido about her.
And it's a been wild to find the words. I
was hoping to find someone singing it, but I couldn't.

(42:12):
But I didn't find the words. So here they are
in Spanish, and now with them in English. Conuna cruda, atros,
la tribleo, a cometido, la infamia, crement mass inmano iracunda, martirisa,
a keas carnes, tannas conteraduras andos brazos in naspernas. Yeah,

(42:36):
Dan is digna, the compassion, the loke, thevestufried and serrada
and suprision yeah yeah, and Trella negra sombra, the suscuro calaboso,
the la vitnosente raal espectro espantoso and la innocente crescencia Martirisa,
the the TL suerte n sente ao, una temper morte,

(43:01):
agnos asei ottro, grimen iguala, esto gustisia, apricion, la sentencio
and now an in glaiz an eglasion in English, with
atrocious cruelty, That terrible, the terrible Beharano has committed infamy,

(43:23):
the most inhumane crime crime in wrath. She tortures those
tender fleshes with terrible burns on the arms and legs.
And despite her wickedness, she's worthy of compassion for what
she must suffer locked in her prison, and there enters
the black shadow of her dark dungeon of the innocent victim.

(43:44):
She will see the frightful specter. She tortures the innocent
Crescentia in such a way that this innocent victim met
in early death. Years ago, another crime similar to this
one was committed and for which justice sentenced her to prison.
Down and that is the case of la Vert. What

(44:06):
is something already? You should have put it at the
bottom again. Oh that I'm scrolling. I'm gonna find her
nickname again? Where did you go? Yes? Yes, that was
the case of the and yeah, wow, she's so scary. Yes,

(44:31):
and they let her get away with it because she's
a woman, and she did it again. Yeah. Yeah. If
they hadn't done that, she wouldn't have gone out and
found this other girl to torture and abuse to death.
So wow, terrible, terrible stuff. Yeah, speaking of terrible stuff,

(44:55):
do you have any spooky recommendations? Yeah? I have two.
I I started watching Interview with the Vampire from amc
oh MJ. Loved that show. Well, I'm a fan. I
love that show. And then I was looking up the series,
but it's a little too much for me to get
into the series. There's like thirty Yeah, it's only the

(45:17):
first six are good. Oh so I don't know, but
I don't really read series like that. You know what.
Every time I look up a book and I see
that as a series, like never mind, I can't do
this anymore. Yeah, but the show is amazing. Oh my god.
You know what, maybe I'll finally Paul liked it. That's crazy,

(45:38):
I say that because it doesn't really like Paul doesn't
like Vampire. Well one, it's hard for him to find
a show that he likes. But right now we're into
an interview with the Vampire, and then the show about
Hawaii with Jason Momoa. Oh okay, it's on Apple to
but we're watching it bootleg. And now I'm watching season two,

(45:58):
also bootleg because it's not on Netflix. Oh of interviewed
with the Bat there's only season one. Oh yeah, because
the rest is on AMC streaming service, which is where
all the Walking Dead stuff is at too. Yeah, but man,
that show is so good. Okay, I'm gonna watch it.
You would like it. I know you would like it.
I know. I knew I would like it, even when

(46:19):
MJ was like, you need to watch you just haven't
watched it. You need to watch it. I haven't done it.
I and I remember I was like, oh, I think
I would like that, but then like I forgot about
it or something. Yeah, and we were looking for a
show and then we put that on and we're like, oh, amazing.
And then my other reck is a book I listened
to called A Wake Up and Open Your Eyes Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

(46:43):
by Clay McCleod Chapman, and it is interesting. It reminds
me of American Rapture, with which both me and Christina
like I loved the American Rapture. Mm, it's been icniq
when my favorite Hohore reads well, listen, yeah, I listened

(47:06):
to that this year. This year has been so long.
It's been a long year. Yeah. Yeah, so this description.
Noah has been losing his polite Southern parents to far
right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves
him a voicemail warning him that the Great Reawakening is here,
he assumes it's related to one of her many conspiracy theories,

(47:27):
but when his phone calls go on answered, Noah makes
the drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers
his childhood home and shambled and his parents locked in
a terrifying trance like state in front of the TV. Panicked,
Noah attempts to snap them out of it. Then Noah's
mother brutally attacks him, also sexually attacks him. By the way,

(47:48):
that's why people think it's like weird and they don't
like it. But that's how reminded me of American Rapture
because it was the same thing. They're not doing it
because it's her son. She's just doing it because she's
a zombie now all parent, right, Yeah, and zombies don't
discriminate like the sas or a zombie type of thing.
But Noah isn't the only person to be attacked by

(48:08):
a loved one. Families across the country are tearing it
to their apart, literally, as people succumb to a form
of possession that gets worse the more time they spend
glued to a screen. In Noah's a Richmond based family,
only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together
they must race it back to the safe haven of Brooklyn,
but can they make it before they fall prey to
the violent hordes? And uh yeah, so, oh my god,

(48:33):
that sounds almost too scary because it sounds too like
that right now. It's very it's very other nodes. But
I didn't like hate it, but it is a very much,
very timely if you will. And I liked because so

(48:54):
it's about Noah. It talks about yeah, Noah, and then
his nephew's family, so his brother who are like an
hour away from his parents, and they talk about the
parents falling into this basically all right like right extreme
right wing pipeline from watching and in the book it's
called facts News, but it's like Fox again on the nose. Yeah,

(49:18):
but it's like on purpose, like almost a terriical no no, no,
of course, yeah yeah yeah, and uh and then the
the brother falls. Noah's brother falls into the same pipeline,
like just like his dad. And they even they talk
about it's like it's hard to listen to because it's
these normal things that become extreme and like I'm telling you,

(49:42):
it's a little yeah, wake up, you know, it's normal
to sit down and you know, watch TV on your
lazy boy chair and uh. Then and then the Noah's
why yeah, no, no, Noah, Noah's sister in law, she
falls into the pipeline from a wellness space. And then

(50:07):
the teenage son from being chronically online. This is it's
literally what we're seeing. And then also like when they
talk about Noah's brother's family, it talks about the family
basically living their own lives and it's like superficially they're connected,

(50:29):
but not really, they're not really investor in each other
and like communing with each other. Yeah in community, Yeah
yeah exactly. And so that's how they each get into
their own pipeline. So I don't know there was Soul's
going to say. I was gonna say, thus making them
susceptible to the pipeline. Yes, yes, exactly that. And then
it also about Noah, you know, as he's he comes

(50:52):
across his family like that, he comes across his nephew,
he has to try to survive, and then it touches
on hypocrisy of basically middle ground like liberals and centrists.
I was gonna say, don't tell me, it's such on
the hypocrisy of liberalism straight up does yeah, And so
like as a survival mode, he hears the voice of

(51:12):
Anderson Cooper in his mind and he's like, Oh, you
thought you were safe in your little haven and blah
blah blah. Oh you should have stepped in sooner to
help your family. You thought you were better than them,
but actually you're just like them, like shit like that.
And I'm like, oh my god, wow, I don't know.
I liked it, I will say. So. Then they also
besides like getting into no when his family, they also

(51:33):
have like transcripts of like videos of people falling or
becoming these zombies and stuff like that. But it reminded
me kind of like a World War Z like that
kind of thing in that sense. And so, but those
I feel like those parts do get a little repetitive,
but it's just showing like the pattern of people succumbing
to this. I thought it was good. I'm gonna request

(51:54):
it right now from my library support libraries. Yeah, okay, wow, Well,
I don't have recommendations that I've watched yet, just things
that I want to watch. So after watching Weapons, or

(52:15):
after Weapons came out and I posted about how obsessed
I was about Weapons, then Aiden and I did an
episode recapping and just obsessively talking about Weapons on Patreon.
Then a listener, a couple of listeners told me that
there's a Mexican movie called The Alexandra, which reminded them
of Gladys from Weapons, and I was like, Okay, I

(52:39):
need to see this. It's on YouTube, but I haven't
seen it because I want to go down to Scarecrow
Video and know they do have it. I'm already checked
oh and actually physically pick it out at first. I
just love. One of my favorite things before all the
DVD stores and rental places started closing down was just
walking through the aisles of DVDs and looking at them.

(53:04):
This place is awesome. It has like I don't know,
three or four floors of DVTs. It's the largest media
collection in the world. Wow, and they have this movie
and so I haven't seen it on YouTube just because
I want to go grab the movie physically, that whole experience. Yeah,
that's what I want. I'm gonna get a membership too,
which is gonna give me a discount like punches, and

(53:27):
then I will save on my selections. So yeah, that's
on my list. I'm obsessed with the idea of going.
I just haven't gone because I can, but I'm a
little under the weather. But I can't wait. And as
the idea, yes, I have been thinking about it NonStop.
I'm looking forward to it, but again I have a
little under the weather, so I haven't gone. But as

(53:48):
soon as i'm better, I will be on my way
to grab the movie from the shelf. Yes, just like that.
And that's so that's the one thing that I am
preemptively recommending. I haven't seen it, but yeah, Alexandra, because
people said it reminded them or they thought about it
when watching a new Weapons. And then the other thing

(54:08):
I want to see, but I don't know if I
want to go watching in the theater. I wait till
it's out streaming somewhere. But him, oh oh yeah, yeah,
it's getting mixed reviews. But again, I just don't always
trust reviews when it comes to horror movies. I want
to see it for myself. Yeah, and someone was saying
that the themes that him is touching on are a

(54:29):
little on the nose, just like you were talking about
with the book. So but again I haven't seen it.
I want to see it. So those are the two
things that I'm like looking forward to watching sometime soon,
and then I'll give my thoughts when I do. But yeah,
those are my recommendations. Also, Scarecrow Video just as a
whole if you're in the Seattle area, because that place

(54:51):
is awesome. Actually, I bought Night of the Living Dead
from there last time we were there, but I still
haven't seen it. We haven't seen it a Living Dead. No,
I haven't seen it since I bought it. Oh, okay,
we did watch it. No, I haven't watched it since
I bought it. Yeah, nice, yeah, but I did it
buy it anyway, all right? Yeah, I was just in

(55:13):
that reminder you can catch us live November one, twenty
twenty five. That info is in the show notes, and
we hope to see some of you there. And yeah,
I just in that watch out for old ladies at
the cemetery because it may be ghosts. Yeah, and they
will tell you that's where they live. Now, this is
my all right, stay spek. You will catch everyone next time.

(55:38):
Bye bye. A Book Tells is hosted by Christina and Carmen,
produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen and
with the help of Don Shout out with Don. If
you're enjoying the podcast considerably, going to say five star review,
we would really appreciate it. If you don't want to
live a five star review, just don't leave a review.
But don't even even know where than that, please, I'm

(55:59):
just kidding. You can reach out to the podcast at
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(56:19):
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(56:41):
Spookie season, so yeah, get your hoodies. You're gonna need them.
If you don't want to do all that, that's fine too.
You can just listen like you're listening now, and that's
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our socials at a Spooky Tells all this this in

(57:04):
the show notes, and we appreciate every single listen. Thank
you so much, Stay a Spooky