Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández

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Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández
Los Angeles, California, United States
Other names"The Tacuba Strangler"
"Goyo"
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Victims4
Span of crimes
August – September 1942
CountryMexico
Date apprehended
September 7, 1942
In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Cárdenas and the second or maternal family name is Hernández.

Gregorio "Goyo" Cárdenas Hernández (Latin American Spanish:

Los Angeles, 2 August 1999), also known as The Tacuba Strangler (estrangulador de Tacuba), was a Mexican serial killer
. He was the first serial killer whose case was widely published in the Mexican media, and became a sensation on national media.

Early life

Cárdenas Hernández was born in Mexico City to a family originating from the state of

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).[1]

He started visiting prostitutes from age 15 and was concerned that constant bed-wetting would prevent a long-term relationship. However he met and married Sabina Lara Gonzalez around 1932. The marriage did not last. She told people about his bed-wetting and he lost respect for women generally.[2][full citation needed]

Murders

Cárdenas Hernández committed his murders in August and September 1942.

On 15 August 1942 he was visited in his house in the

prostitute María de los Ángeles González. After having sex with her, Cárdenas strangled De los Ángeles and buried her body in his garden. In the following weeks he also murdered prostitutes Rosa Reyes and Raquel Martínez de León, both aged 16, and finally 19-year-old fellow chemistry student Graciela Arias Ávalos. His neighbors started to get suspicious and informed the police. Shortly before the police exhumed the bodies, Cárdenas had himself committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he was arrested on 7 September 1942.[1]

Cárdenas was incarcerated in the notorious

life sentence. He escaped prison in 1947 and fled to Oaxaca
, but eventually was rearrested.

Fame

Cárdenas became a celebrity in Mexico, being the first multiple murderer receiving widespread media attention in that country. In the years following his murders there were reports of several

pornographic movie based on his story was made. Cárdenas himself wrote three books while in prison and was regularly questioned and investigated by the country's top psychiatrists and criminologists. Cárdenas was allowed to pursue psychiatry and law studies while in prison. He learned to play the piano, wrote poetry
, and even married in prison. His wife bore him four children.

In 1976 Cárdenas was pardoned by president Luis Echeverría. He was invited by interior secretary Mario Moya Palencia to give a speech in the Congress of the Union, where he was celebrated as a hero. He was hailed as a "great example" and a "clear case of rehabilitation". Cárdenas completed his law studies and worked as a lawyer until his death in 1999.

A chance meeting with Alejandro Jodorowsky in a backstreet bar in Mexico City inspired the psycho-magician to create the 1989 film Santa Sangre, based loosely on Cárdenas's life.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Antonio Avitia Hernández, Corrido Histórico Mexicano, Tomo V (1936-1985) (Mexico City: Porrúa, 1998) 71.
  2. ^ The Horrifying and Disturbing Case of Gregorio Cardenas Hernandez
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