Las Poquianchis

Oral Presentation

2 points for correct use of visuals (Not a lot of text, just keywords; visuals that are relevant to the
presentation)

3 points for information

4 points for grammar and syntax

1 point message and fluency (not reading)

Written Report

Name, Birth date, and background history

Gonzales Valenzuela sisters

● Delfina: 1912. Irapuato, Guanajuato.
● María de Jesús: 1st of January, 1924. Irapuato, Guanajuato.
● Carmen: n.m. Around the XX century. Irapuato, Guanajuato.
● Maria Luisa: n.m. Around the XX century. Irapuato, Guanajuato.

The Gonzales Valenzuela sisters were constantly beaten up as kids by their dad, Isidro Torres.
They were witnesses of many executions since their dad formed a part of the Rural police,
during the Porfirio Diaz days, in charge of riding thru town and making sure everything was fine.
When his young daughters wore makeup or "risque" clothing, not to his liking, he would lock
them up in the town jail to teach them a lesson. Due to the hatred everyone had for the father in
town, they mode out of the state and survived by working at a bar. They had to rely on
prostitution after that.

The sisters owned many brothels in San Francisco del Rincon, Purisima del Rincon, and Leon
in Guanajuato state other bordellos in El Salto and San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, and another
one in San Juan del Rio, Queretaro state, near Mexico City. known for human trafficking,
kidnapping of teenagers, and prostitution. Their most famous brothel was called Rancho El
Ángel. Carmen, Delfina, and Maria de Jesus "Chuy", operated the whorehouses in Guanajuato
and Jalisco while Maria Luisa "Eva the Leggy One" ran her bar/brothel near the Mexican border.
The sisters bought a bar in Lagos, Jalisco from a gay man nicknamed "El Poquianchi". The
nickname was passed on to the sisters, who were now called Las Poquianchis, a nickname they
hated.
Characteristics and number of victims

They committed around 150 murders; the official number of victims was 91. In 2002, workers
clearing land for a new housing development in Purisima del Rincon, Guanajuato, down the
road from the notorious Loma del Angel ranch, found the remains of about 20 skeletons in a pit,
so the number of official deaths could increase to 110.

Prostitutes, their babies, and male customers.

Years active

January 14, 1964

M.O and signature

They recruited women around 12-15 years from the countryside or rural areas of Jalisco and
Michoacan. They would offer them jobs in Guadalajara or Leon, as maids or waitresses. The
sisters killed the prostitutes when they became too ill, damaged by repeated sexual activity, lost
their looks, or stopped pleasing the customers. They also murdered customers who showed up
with large amounts of cash. "The Black Eagle", Delfina’s lover, and the sister's chauffeur
handled the bodies, burning them to ashes or burying them in mass graves.

Captured (how, when) or Not caught (why)

January 14, 1964. The police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, on
suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, and during questioning, she
implicated the two sisters. Police officers searched the sisters' property and found the bodies of
11 men, 80 women, and several fetuses, a total of over 91. The Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters
were arrested and charged with kidnapping, human trafficking, and aggravated homicide, giving
them the maximum penalty at the time of 40 years in prison.

Is he/she dead or alive? If dead, how and when. If alive, where he/she is now?
Delfina died in prison because she went mad, fearing she would be murdered in jail. On October
17, 1968, while she screamed and ranted, workers, doing reparations above her cell in Irapuato
jail, looked down to catch a glimpse of the notorious woman and accidentally dropped a bucket
of cement on her head, killing her. Maria de Jesus finished her sentence and dropped out of
sight after her release. Legend has it she met a 64-year-old man in prison, and once both were
outside, they married and lived their lives in obscurity, finally dying of old age in the mid 1990s.
Carmen died in jail due to cancer on an unknown date. Maria Luisa went mad because she
feared that she would be killed by angry protesters, so she went to a Mexico City police station
and turned herself in, fearing being lynched. She thought she was immune, a judge had granted
her immunity from the charges her sisters faced but upon arriving in Irapuato she too was
arrested.
References (at least 3, in Harvard style)

Franco, R., & Durán, J. (n.d.). “The Poquianchis” were history’s most feared Mexican women
serial killers. SanDiegoRed. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from
https://www.sandiegored.com/en/news/188449/The-Poquianchis-were-historys-most-feared-Me
xican-women-serial-killers

Osegueda, R. (2019, September 18). Las Poquianchis, las mujeres más despiadadas del siglo
XX. Com.mx; México Desconocido.
https://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/las-poquianchis-las-mujeres-mas-despiadadas-del-sigl
o-xx.html?amp

Las Poquianchis una historia de horror mexicano. (2022, June 22). Periódico Notus.
https://notus.com.mx/las-poquianchis-una-historia-de-horror-mexicano/