The stories about serial killers come from cases that appear in the media, are sold through documentaries and films, and that we ultimately consume through the media.
On this occasion we will tell a little-known story, that of Juan Vallejo Corona, who later became known as “the machete murderer” or in our language “the machete murderer”.
Juan Vallejo Corona was born in 1934 in the municipality of Autlán de Navarro in Jalisco, Mexico. At the age of 19, he immigrated to the city of Yuba, California, in the United States. He settled there, married and had two daughters. His life was normal and the American dream served him well: he was a cheap farm contractor.
In 1956 he began to have psychological problems, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was treated with electroshock therapy. His trace was lost by 1971.
On May 19 this year, a Japanese farmer checked his plantation and found a hole the size of a human. He was surprised, but he left.
When night fell he found the hole covered up, called the police and they found the body of a man. A local homeless man who was injured and hit in the head had homosexual pornography on his clothing and was believed to have been murdered for these reasons. The case went unnoticed.
But less than a week later, on the 24th, workers operating a tractor found a pile of dirt; When they checked, they found another body, another homeless man, another homosexual.
On this occasion the police were more vigilant, lifting rubber tracks, inspecting nearby paths and coming across a collective grave. 25 bodies were exhumed, all Anglo-Saxon men.
They were shot and had machete wounds. A receipt in the name of Juan Corona was found in one of the graves. He was accused of the murders.
In the long trial, no evidence was presented other than the receipt that directly linked Corona to the murders. The tire tracks did not match his truck, there were no complaints of ill-treatment or witnesses to his alleged homosexuality, the motive for the murders.
There were also no traces of blood on his machete and the only blood stain found in the truck came from an injured worker who Corona had taken to a health center.
His brother, an admittedly violent and homosexual man, was indirectly targeted by the defense, but they presented no evidence to charge him. Nor did he attempt to prove that Juan was not mentally ill.
He was ultimately sentenced to 25 consecutive life sentences. Other lawyers reopened the case but came to the same conclusion: “It was the most likely thing.”
He was stabbed in Corona prison and lost an eye in the attack. His health deteriorated, he developed senile dementia and died on March 4, 2019.
Many believe he was innocent and that the real murderer was released. CDM
