Juan Vallejo Corona
Juan Vallejo Corona ( February 7, 1934 - March 4, 2019 ) was an American serial killer of Mexican origin who killed 25 men within a few weeks in 1971.
Life
Corona was born in Mexico . After leaving school, he moved to Yuba City , California to work as a fruit picker and settled there permanently. In 1953 he married for the first time. He had four daughters with his second wife, Gloria Moreno, whom he married in 1960 and from whom he divorced in 1974. Despite schizophrenic episodes, he was considered a hard worker. He ran a farm where he grew peaches and also ran a temporary employment agency that placed foreign workers on other farms. Most of the workers he hired were also from Mexico.
Following an anonymous tip-off to Sutter County Police, a male body was discovered in a shallow grave on May 19, 1971 on his farm. Closer examination of the area revealed the remains of 24 other men. All victims were farm workers, showed signs of sexual abuse, and died from blows to the head with a machete . From the stage of putrefaction, they were all killed within six weeks, which is the cut of one kill every 40 hours. A machete with human blood was found in Corona's house. The names of the dead were also on his payroll.
Although he denied responsibility for the crime, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 life imprisonment. After exhausting all legal remedies, he obtained a retrial. In the second trial, the defense put forward the thesis that it was not Corona but his homosexual brother Natividad, who had already died at this point, that the real murderer was. The strategy was unsuccessful, Corona was convicted again and sent back to the California State Prison in Corcoran . Shortly after the bodies were discovered, he suffered two heart attacks within three weeks. In 1982 a fellow inmate gouged out his left eye.
background
A sexual motive has been suggested for Corona's actions. He was known for effeminate behavior , and it was believed that he was at least bisexual himself . At the time of the murders, non-heterosexual orientations were still completely taboo among Americans of Mexican origin . As a result, it has been widely believed that he had sex with the victims and killed them to prevent them from betraying him.
literature
- Tracy Kidder: The Road to Yuba City. A journey into the Juan Corona murders . Doubleday, New York 1974, ISBN 978-0-385-02865-3 .
Web links
- Juan Vallejo Corona in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Corona, Juan Vallejo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American serial killer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 7, 1934 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th March 2019 |