Mexico's female serial killer

Witness History

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former female wrestler Juana Barraza was found guilty in March 2008 of murdering at least eleven elderly women in Mexico city over a period of seven years. Barraza, who became known as the "little old lady killer", admitted to murdering three women, and told investigators that it was because of her lingering resentment for the abuse that she'd suffered as a child at the hands of her alcoholic mother. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from Mexican neuro-psychologist Dr Feggy Ostrosky, who spent days interviewing Barraza in jail, trying to understand what had turned her into a serial killer.

(Photo: Former female wrestler Juana Barraza. Credit: David Deolarte/AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast on the BBC World Service
0:45.3	first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. I'm Mike Lanchin.
0:49.5	Today we're going to Mexico and the disturbing story of the former female wrestler who became
0:55.8	the country's most prolific serial killer.
1:02.3	On March 31st, 2008, a court in Mexico City convicted Juanabarasa for the killing
1:08.6	of at least 11 elderly women over a period of eight years. She was sentenced to more than 700 years in
1:14.9	jail. But what drove her to carry out such shocking crimes? I'd been speaking to
1:20.8	someone who spent hours interviewing the woman known as the little old lady killer or Mata Vijitas.
1:27.0	You check the eyes and you can see the soul of the person or you can try to understand the soul.
1:34.8	But her eyes were really like seeing through you. A penetrating stare.
1:40.0	Right. I was afraid a little bit and she was sitting in front of me and I was trying to be nice and she was trying to be nice with me and but behind both of us is what are you thinking who are you it was like a gain of power a game of power right that's
1:58.9	Dr feggie Ostrowski she had the unenviable task of trying to delve into the mind of the 48 year old
2:04.9	former professional wrestler Juan Barbarasa to try to work out just what had turned her
2:10.3	into a serial killer. I'm a neuropsychologist, a neuroscientist,
2:15.0	and I want to know the brain-behaving relationship.
2:18.0	So I don't think that Juana just wake up in the morning and said, oh, I'm bored. What I'm going to do today?
	...

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