From the lucha libre rings to cold-blooded murder, Juana Barraza’s life took a chilling turn. Behind the mask of “La Dama del Silencio,” the Lady of Silence, lay a deadly predator who would eventually become one of Mexico’s most notorious serial killers.
By any standards, the life of Juana Barraza was a difficult one. Born in 1957 in rural Hidalgo, north of Mexico City, her mother was an alcoholic prostitute who abandoned Juana’s father to pursue a relationship with her stepfather. At the age of twelve, her mother forced her into prostitution, allegedly selling her to a man named José Lugo for the price of three beers.
Lugo beat and raped her, impregnating her twice, though both infants died. After her mother died of cirrhosis, Juana moved to Mexico City. In her early adulthood, she drifted through low-paying jobs and several failed marriages, resulting in four children. Her eldest son was killed at the age of twenty-four in a gang shooting.
Things seemed to take a turn for the better in the mid-1980s when Juana pursued one of her long-time passions—lucha libre. She toured the country as a masked wrestler, adopting the name “La Dama del Silencio,” the Lady of Silence. She earned 300-500 pesos per fight as a professional wrestler. However, by 1998, after the birth of her fourth child, the money was no longer enough to support her, so she turned to a life of crime.
She concocted a plan with a friend, Araceli Martinez, to pose as social workers in order to rob elderly women. This went well for a time, until Martinez and her husband blackmailed Barraza for 12,000 pesos. This financial setback put Juana in a dire situation, forcing her to retire from professional wrestling in 2000 and leaving her with few options other than pursuing a full-time life of crime.
Barraza’s first confirmed victim, Maria Anaya, was murdered on November 25, 2002. According to Barraza, Anaya made derogatory comments, which enraged her and led her to beat and strangle the elderly woman to death with her bare hands.
Previously, in 1998, rumors of a serial killer targeting elderly women had started circulating through Mexico City. The press dubbed the killer El Mataviejitas (“The Old Lady Killer”). At first, police denied any connections between the crimes, but by the time of Maria Anaya’s murder, the bodies were piling up, and the police began investigating the murders as the work of either one individual or a pair of killers. It is widely speculated that these murders were committed by Juana Barraza.
The police investigation was criticized from the start for being inept. Compounding their dysfunction was the general belief that the killer was a man. Several eyewitness reports described a large man in women’s clothing fleeing from some of the crime scenes. Coupled with the violence of the murders and the strength required to commit them, this skewed the profiling, leading investigators to the wrong conclusions.
In addition to focusing exclusively on male suspects, the investigation was criticized for its treatment of the transgender prostitute community, whom police heavily targeted. This further misdirected the investigation, allowing Barraza to continue her killing spree. She eventually took on a new partner: her taxi-driving boyfriend, El Frijol (“The Bean”). Together, they altered their methods of attack—changing from day to night—further confusing investigators.
A break in the case came in January of 2006 when a tenant at an apartment building witnessed Barraza leaving the scene of a murder and reported it to the police. A passing patrol officer arrested her. Upon investigating her apartment, they found a trophy room filled with newspaper clippings about the murders (odd considering that Barraza was later revealed to be illiterate) and personal items taken from the victims. They also discovered shrines to Santa Muerte and Jesús Malverde, two patron saints of criminals.
Juana Barraza was tried for thirty murders and convicted of sixteen. It is generally believed that she was indeed El Mataviejitas and guilty of 50-60 murders in total. During her trial, Barraza stated that she killed these women because they reminded her of her own mother and that she thought she was helping people escape the fate she suffered at her mother’s hands. While her mother was undoubtedly a terrible person, this is hardly an excuse for serial murder.
Juana Barraza wore many masks in her life: victim, mother, killer, and the brightly colored mask of a luchador. Proof positive that when you meet a stranger, you may never know which face is real, which is a mask, or what lies beneath.
Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.
