Further reading for Juana Barazza
Juana Barazza is a character ready-made for the current internet hype surrounding true crime. She is exotic and strange. Mexican authorities called her La Mataviejitas, a lyrical and beautiful phrase which unfortunately means, The Old Lady Killer. She was a prolific murderer, having been convicted for 16 murders, sending her up the river for nearly 800 years of jail time, but suspected for as many as 60 murders. There is some disagreement among people familiar with the case for how many she is actually accountable for, however, since at the same time she was killing, there were also two other murderers in the area whose victims were also little old ladies. To put a nice red cherry on top, Juana was also a luchador, a masked wrestler of some renown, going by the ring name, La Dama del Silencio, The Lady of Silence.
Raised in terrible poverty in Mexico City, Juana’s life bears a bit in common with Charles Manson, having been given away by her mother to a man in exchange for a little booze and being subjected to terrible sexual assault by the same man. That she was functional at all is actually quite amazing, but being in the care of people who, at their very best, could barely be bothered to take care of her, and at their worst, saw her as prey to be abused and exploited. Juana’s options for the future weren’t numerous and the roads that led to adulthood all seemed to end at murder and mayhem.
Juana isn’t like other serial killers, however. A serial killer typically murders for reasons outside of rational explanation. The death is either a product or a process for them and the death lies at the center of their motivation. They kill to kill. Juana, however, killed mostly for robbery. It moved her along and kept her solvent as her wrestling career slowed to a halt.
Episode: 478
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