00:08Today we are looking at a case from the mid 20th century so sit back as we go to Mexico.
00:18The four Gonzales sisters were born in El Sato in the state of Jalisco in Mexico. Their names
00:27were Delfina, Carmen, Maria de Jesus and Luisa. They were raised by a very strict father named
00:36Isidro Torres who was an extremely controlling man. He wouldn't let his daughters go out and
00:43would lock them up for wearing makeup. Their mother was very religious and went to church every day
00:49and when the girls complained to her about their father she would tell them to pray. The four
00:55sisters became accustomed to the environment in which they lived and tried to make the best of
01:00their situation. Their father was a member of the local militia who took it upon themselves to ride
01:06horseback around the village in order to impose the rule of law onto the locals. Over time he began to
01:14abuse his power which resulted in him shooting a man after an argument. This meant that he would have to
01:20be very vigilant as many of the victims friends and relatives wanted to avenge his death. So in order
01:26to avoid any vigilante style justice the family quickly moved away and set up home in the small
01:33village of San Francisco de Rinc贸n in the state of Guanajuato. San Francisco de Rinc贸n was known locally
01:41as San Pancho. Carmen was the oldest of the sisters and when she grew up she started going out with
01:49an
01:49older man and together they opened a bar. At first the bar did okay but never made enough money for
01:56the
01:56better lifestyle she had hoped for and her boyfriend proved to be a poor businessman who liked to drink
02:02their profits. It didn't take long for the bar to close but Carmen having had a taste of independence
02:08from her dominant father thought of other ways to generate an income.
02:16Delfina joined Carmen in business and together they opened a bar that doubled up as a brothel.
02:22They recruited the other two sisters to help run the operation and they soon discovered that the best
02:27way to grow the business was by bribing the local officials. Their business model seemed to work and
02:34they opened up more of these clandestine establishments. They opened in San Francisco de Rinc贸n,
02:40Purismo de Rinc贸n and Le贸n all in the state of Guanajuato as well as another in the city of San
02:47Juan del Rio
02:48in the neighboring state of Corretaro. The next expansion came when they purchased a bar in the town of San
02:55Juan
02:56de Lagos in the state of Olisco from a man who was locally known as El Poquianchi. The nickname Poquianchi
03:04seemed to stay with the bar and it was now what the sisters would be known as. They never seemed
03:09to like
03:09the name but if it increased business it was a minor issue. As the business grew the sisters would need
03:16more girls to work. They had always operated a very successful recruitment campaign and now they started
03:22to increase for numbers. Their recruitment method was simple. They would visit poor rural communities
03:29mainly in the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoac谩n where they would find the prettiest girls
03:35and offer them work as maids or waitresses. They would tell them how they had businesses in the cities
03:40of Le贸n, San Juan del Rio and Guanajuato and that the girls could have a better life in the city
03:46with many more opportunities than they would have if they stayed in their villages. The girls didn't need
03:52much persuading. This was the 1950s and many of them had dreams of living and working in the city
03:58and experiencing the urban lifestyle. In some cases the sisters would simply kidnap women
04:05with the help of ex-army captain and the sisters' security named Herman Gildo Zuniga who was also
04:12Delfina's lover. Once the girls entered their new place of work they would soon realize that their
04:18amazing new opportunities were actually a living nightmare. They were imprisoned and forced to sell
04:24themselves to the many visitors who frequented the bar. The prettiest girls were set aside for special
04:30customers who paid the highest prices. The sisters ran a very strict and controlled operation very much
04:37like how they had been brought up by their father. The girls were rarely allowed outside and they had to
04:43obey the sisters at all times. They were told what to wear and how to wear it. The girls were
04:49told what
04:50to do by the sisters, Delfina's boyfriend Zuniga or Delfina's son Ram贸n Torres nicknamed El Tepo.
04:58They kept their workers in terrible conditions and in constant fear of abuse and torture. When they became
05:07sick or were no longer liked by customers they would be killed either by being locked in a room and
05:12starved to death or sometimes they would make the other girls kill them by beating them with sticks.
05:18When a girl was killed Zuniga and the sister's chauffeur named Salvador Estrada would dispose of the bodies
05:25which would either be burnt or buried nearby. Any girl that became pregnant would have their pregnancies
05:32terminated and if any carried the pregnancy full term and gave birth the baby would be taken away and
05:39killed. Any girl who didn't follow their strict rules would be made to kneel down and a brick would
05:45be placed on each hand and one on her head and they'd be forced to keep their hands in the
05:50air.
05:51The girls had to live on a diet of tortillas and frijoles. As the sisters seemed to be getting
05:57increasingly more powerful they had a setback when in the late 1950s Carmen died of cancer and Louisa
06:08Cruz. Their setbacks continued when in 1963 Delfina's son Ram贸n Torres got into an argument with a police
06:17officer and was shot and killed inside the sisters bar known as Bar El Poquianchi. The police then closed
06:25the establishment. Things now started to turn for the sisters. In the January of 1964 one of the girls who
06:34worked for the sisters named Catalina Ortega managed to escape from the room she was being forced to live
06:41in and found her way to the judicial police office in Lyon. She was wearing dirty clothes and looked
06:47unwashed and malnourished. She told the police a dark horrifying tale about being a captive of her
06:54Gonzales sisters. The previous year there had been a change in the ruling authorities in Lyon.
06:59The new regime were not paid by the sisters and didn't visit their establishments. The authorities
07:06were aware that villagers had reported that girls had gone missing from rural communities for years
07:11and there were local rumors of what went on at the places ran by the sisters. On January the 14th
07:181964
07:19the police raided the sisters bar in Loma del Angel and they were shocked at what they found. They
07:27discovered a dozen women all malnourished and scared some in chains. All were in a state of despair
07:33but their discovery was about to get even more horrifying. As police and press reporters explored
07:41the ranch some of the girls pointed to places in the ground and told them that's where they would find
07:47the bodies. The police instructed the chauffeur to start digging and as the hours passed they unearthed
07:54decomposed bodies and the bones of men, women and babies. The sisters looked on as their years of
08:02abuse were starting to unravel. They were arrested and taken to the jail at San Francisco del Rencon.
08:08On hearing the news many local people surrounded the jail demanding that they be allowed to exercise
08:14their own justice on the sisters. Concerned for their safety the judge sent them to be held
08:19in the Arapuato city jail. The police searched all the premises associated with the sisters and they
08:27found the remains of 91 different people. One week after the arrest Luisa went to the police and she too
08:35was arrested in charge of kidnapping and murder. In January 1964 she was tried along with her sisters
08:42Delfina and Maria de Jesus in a trial that caused a sensation throughout Mexico. Dozens of witnesses were
08:51called and most of them spoke about the sisters illegal business of kidnapping, abduction, extortion and
08:58murder. The trial was a very chaotic affair which resulted in the sisters being found guilty of at least 91
09:06murders and the three were sentenced to 40 years in prison which was the maximum sentence at the time.
09:13Delfina only spent four years in prison as on the 17th of October 1968 workers doing building repair work
09:21above her cell accidentally dropped a bucket of cement on her head which killed her. Luisa Gonzalez died
09:28alone in her cell at Arapuato jail on November the 19th 1984. Maria de Jesus Gonzalez the youngest of her
09:38sisters was the only one to be freed. It is unknown why or when she was freed but it is
09:44rumored that she
09:45met a man in prison and once she was released they got married and lived their life in obscurity finally
09:52dying
09:53of old age in the mid-1990s. In 2002 workers clearing land for a new housing development in Purismo del
10:02Rincon
10:03found remains of about 20 skeletons. Authorities presume that the skeletons are from the 50s or 60s
10:10and are very likely to be victims of the Gonzalez sisters. If these latest findings can be traced back to
10:18them. It would take their number of victims to above 100. Hello everyone and thank you so much for listening
10:28to another sad and tragic case. As per usual please leave me any feedback or comments you may have
10:35and I will see you in the next brief case.
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