Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The Forgotten Serial Killers: Child Care Providers (“Baby Farmers”) Who Murdered Children


baby farm1.) a place that houses and takes care of babies for a fee. 2.) a residence for unwed pregnant girls or women that also arranges adoptions.

Most of the baby farmers listed her were serial killers. Several notable cases involving murder and abuse by baby farmers that are not serial killer cases.

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Abbott, Evelyn (USA), 1891 – scores of babies died.
Alexe, Smaranda Alexe (Romania), 1912 –
Andrasen, Fru (Norway), 1901 – 27 infants died.
Ashmead, Elizabeth (USA), arrested 1904, 1909, 1911 – 100s of babies died.
Atherton, Dr. Bessie (USA), (with Cramer), 1926 – 3 dead babies discovered.
Bamberger, Henrietta (USA), 1899 – midwife; 300 est; conv of 1 abort-murder of mother.
Banks, Leila (USA), 1925 – 3 babies died.
Barnes, Catherine (England), 1879 – 3 babies died.
Barthian, Mme. (France), 1893 – 25 babies died.
Batten, Annie (Australia), 1904 – “alleged wholesale infanticide.”
Batts, Ellen (Australia), 1889 – 3 babies murdered.
Bednerek, Ghelente (Josefa) (Poland), 1892 – 15 bodies found.
Bellears, Mary (Australia), 1904 – multiple killings.
Bilien, Valentina (Germany), 1946 – 114 babies killed by severe neglect.
Binmore, Bessey (England) – 1875  – 4 deaths
Blair, Anne (Australia), 1870 – 1 baby died.
Blicenzyk, Marie (Poland), 1907 – multiple deaths.
Blochberger, Antoine (Austria), 1899 – 4 (?) deaths.
Boehme, Frau (Germany), 1912 – 4 deaths.
Breszczak, Marianna (Poland), 1908 – multiple deaths.
Bronzo, Rosa (Italy), 1879 – “several bodies.”
Breitschwart, Christine (USA), 1892 – 4 babies abandoned in streets in winter, 1 died.
Budzinska, Viktoria (Ukraine), 1915 – 11 deaths.
Calahan, Julia (USA), 1871 – 3 babies died.
Campbell, Nellie (USA), arrested 1902 – 8 babies died.
Chard-Williams, Ada (England), 1899 – 1 baby died (executed).
Chartier, Eleonote Vauthier (France), 1906 – 1,500 babies died.
Chivers, Daisy Ellen (England), 1928 – 1 baby murdered; suspicion of others.
“Christiana Baby Farmers” (Norway), 1902 – “a small army of tiny corpses were dug up.”
Claus, Charles & Catherine (USA), 1890 – 5 babies died.
Clayton, Madge (Australia), 1908 – 6 babies died.
“Cologne Baby Farmer” (Germany), 1902 – 50 babies died.
Compton, Mary (England), 1673 – willfully starved 4 children (executed).
Connelly, Matilda (USA), 1912 – 4 babies died.
Cooper, Martha & Daniel (New Zealand), 1922 – 3 dead babies discovered.
“Copenhagen Baby Farm Couple” (Denmark), 1860 – 23 babies died.
Cramer, Marie (USA), (with Atherton), 1926 – 3 dead babies discovered.
"Croatian Angelmaker" (Croatia), 1913 – 6 deaths.
Day, Gertrude (USA), 1914 – unsolved mystery.
Dean, Minnie (New Zealand), 1895 – 3 babies & 1 toddler died (executed).
De Jesus, Luisa (Portugal), 1772 – poisoned to death 28 babies (executed).
Delaware, Miss (New Zealand), 1889 – many babies killed.
Dellavoda, Therese Komjalhy (Hungary), 1897 – multiple deaths.
Delpech, Anne Gaillard (France), 1868 – murdered 10 babies.
Dieden, Maude (USA), 1929 – 10 babies died.
Douglas, Amy (England), 1899 – 3 babies died from starvation.
Duda & Dudek (Bohemia, Czech), 1893 – 14 babies died.
Dunn, Honora (Australia), 1881 – multiple babies abused & murdered.
Dunne, Maria (Ireland), 1898 – 3 babies died.
Dupin, Anne (France), 1869 – 40+ deaths.
Duplaca, Frau (Poland), 1901 – multiple deaths.
Dutschak, Domnika (Ukraine), 1891 – multiple deaths.
Dyer, Amelia (England), 1896 – 100s of babies died (executed).
Eckhardt, Wilhelmena (USA), 1906 – 12 babies died.
“Erenfeld Angel-maker” (Germany), 1902 – 50+.
Faure, Madame (France), 1908 – 81 deaths.
Feddern, Frau (Germany), 1898 – 25 deaths.
Firletowna, Marianne (Poland), 1878 – 4 deaths, far more suspected.
Fortmeyer, Julia (USA), 1875 – 3-100 babies murdered.
Gabler, Anna (Austria), 1896 – multiple "disappeared" babies.
Geisen-Volk, Helen (USA), 1925 – 53 babies died.
Gobay, Annie & Emma Kitchen (USA), 1903 – at least 3 babies died.
Grammage, Augusta (England), 1875 – convicted of murdering a child.
“Grey Nuns of Montreal” (Canada), 1876 – 631 babies died.
Gunness, Belle (USA), 1908 – 21 babies “disappeared.”
Guy, Mary Ann (New Zealand), 1906 – convicted of manslaughter for one death.
Guzovska, Madame (Poland), 1903 – “over 500” babies died.
Gyorgyevits, Frau (Hungary), 1894 – 20+ deaths.
Gyulai, Therese Gyulai (Hungary), 1900 – Nagy-Koros, Hungary
Hall, Mary Ann (England), 1892) – 
“Hameln Angel-Maker” (Germany), 1902 – multiple deaths.
Hanson, Annie (USA), 1892 – at least 5 babies died.
Haven, Nellie Haven & Hattie Graham (USA), 1892 – San Francisco, California, USA
Hawkins, Laura & Nettie Van Sarver (USA), 1917 – 1 known death.
Heinz, Laura Heinz (Hungary), 1899 –
Hill, Abigall (England), 1658 – 4 deaths (executed).
Hoerl, Katharina (Austria), 1874 – 14 babies murdered.
Holmen, Mrs. (Sweden), 1906 – over 1,000 babies died.
Ishikawa, Miyuki  (Japan), 1948 – 103 babies died.
Jager, Mari Azalai (Hungary), 1895 – a very large number of babies died.
Jarenkiewicz (Ukraine), 1887 – 10 babies died.
Johannesen, Fru (Norway), 1901 – 27 infants.
Josefowitsch, Marie (Ukraine), 1902 – 8 deaths.
Juhass, Mary Orban (Hungary), 1885 – multiple deaths.
Julien, Victoire Veysseire (France), 1867 – midwife, many victims.
Kadletz, Frau (Czech Republic), 1906 – 50 victims.
“Kherson Angel-Maker” (Ukraine), 1900 – 6 baby corpses.
Kirkbride, Elizabeth (England), 1877 – Liverpool, England
King, Jessie (Scotland), 1889 – 3 babies died (executed).
Knorr, Frances (Australia), 1894 – from 3 to an estimated 13 babies died (executed).
Knowles, Emma, Emma (England), 1901 – 25
Konopkova, Marianne (Poland), 1906 – 30 babies died.
Kreis Children’s Home: Ella Schmidt, Liesel Bachor, Kathe Pisters (Ger.), 1946 – 370 babies. 
Kühnel, Marie (Austria), 1907 – 7 deaths
Kusnezowa, Madame (Russia) 1913 – 1,012 babies died.
Lacroix, Diana (Canada), 1927 – 7 babies died.
Laphame, Belinda (USA), 1893 – 3 or 4 babies killed, kept in jars; others killed.
Larsson, Olivia Charlotta (Sweden), 1912 – 1 death; 2 rescued from starvation.
Laskowskiej, Julji, “Baba Ljuskowska” (Ukraine), 1893 – many deaths.
“Limburg Baby Farmers” (Germany), 1892 – multiple babies died.
"Lodz Angelmaker" (Poland), 1913 – 40 babies killed.
Lowry, Mary (USA), 1904 – 2 babies died, 3 babies near death.
Ljuskowska (Ukraine), 1893 – hundreds of deaths.
Lynn, Rachel (USA), 1911 – unknown number of babies died.
Mabre, Louise (France), 1763 – 62 babies died (executed).
Makin, Jane (Australia), 1892 – 13 babies died.
Machayie, Mrs. (England), 1884 – 5 deaths.
Maksymischin, Paranka (Galicia (Poland)), 1890 (executed).
McClosky, Margaret (USA), 1876 – 6 babies in starving condition.
McDonald, Cynthia (USA), 1887 – 2 babies died, 2 babies in starving condition.
McKenzie, Emily Charlotte (England) 1884 – many babies died.
Miller, Mrs. A. H. (USA), 1903 – 2 babies died; additional bodies searched.
“Minneapolis Baby Farmer” (USA), 1908 – starving baby rescued.
Minogata, Ischi & Akino Kawabarg (Japan), 1909 – 11 deaths
Mitchell, Alice (Australia), 1907 – 37 babies died.
Mittlestedt, Pauline (USA), 1886 – “professional infant murderess.”
Morris, Jane (USA), 1898 – New York, N. Y.; BF; 5.
Murakina, Alexandra (Russia), 1903 – “numerous” children killed.
Myer, Frau (Germany), 1892 – 58 babies died.
Newman, Isabella (Australia), 1913 – 3 babies died.
“Nijni-Novrogod Nurse” (Russia), 1894 – 17 babies died.
Nilsson, Hilda (Sweden), 1917 – 17 babies died.
Nivison, Symenthe S. (USA), 1884 – 22 babies died.
Nordberg, Alva (Sweden), 1905 – 4 babies died.
Noskina, Feige (Lithuania), 1892 – 65 babies died.
Nowatka, Frau (Germany), 1905 multiple children poisoned to death.
Oberly, Mary (USA), 1887 – 3 deaths.
Olsen, Fru (Norway), 1901 – 27 infants died.
Orban Juhass, Marie (Hungary), 1885 - multiple deaths.
“Osaka Baby Farmers” (Japan), 1902 – 300 babies died.
“Osaka ‘Devil Woman’” (Japan), 1906 – 100 babies murdered.
Osborn, Elizabeth (USA), 1899 – 7 deaths.
Ostrouszko, Caroline (Poland), 1908 – multiple deaths.
Ostrovoskafa, Rachel (Ukraine), 1885 – more than 3 babies died; infanticide cult.
Overbye, Dagmar (Denmark), 1920 – 11 confessed child-murders.
Parr, Agnes (USA), 1877 – multiple babies died.
Pausch, Anna (Austria), 1870 – multiple babies died.
Persson, Maria (Sweden), 1911 – 21+ babies died.
Piard, Annie (USA), 1883 – multiple babies starved to death.
Piersch,Widow (Belbium), 1908 – multiple deaths.
Pilsch, Frau (Belgium), 1908 – 7 babies killed.
Porro, Rose & Margarite Coraldi (Italy), 1873 – 8 babies killed (executed). 
Prussenkowa, Frau (Ukraine), 1901 – multiple deaths.
“Przemysi Baby Farmers” (Poland), 1893 – 27 babies buried in cigar boxes.
Przybylska – (Poland), 1897 – 100 killed in 3 years.
Rakoczy, Elisabeth (Hungary), 1899 – 2 known deaths.
Ravailhe, Widow (France), 1876 – hundreds of babies killed.
Reece, Adelaide (England), 1883 9 deaths.
Reignolds, Mary (USA), 1875 – 5 babies died.
Roberts, Ellen (USA), 1873 – 30 deaths.
Rogers, Frances (England), 1871 – 4 children died, sentenced to 20 years.
Rohm Couple (Denmark), 1909 – 20 deaths.
Roseberry, Edna (USA), 1948 – tortured babies routinely.
Rost, Klara (Germany), 1908 – 10+ deaths.
Sach, Amelia & Annie Walters (England), 1902 – probably 100s of babies died (executed).
Saldakowa, Julia (Galicia, Ukraine), 1903 – 4 deaths.
Sánchez Aguillón, Felícitas (or Sánchez Neyra) (Mexico),1941 40-<100 murders.
Schaubmayr, Marie (Austria), 1917 – 19 deaths.
Schmidt, Midwife (Lower Saxony, Germany), 1897 – 
Schofer, Friederike (Silesia), 1913 – 1,500 deaths.
Scholes, Elizabeth (Australia), 1906 - 2 confirmed dead, probably several more.
Schulkin, Riva (Russia), 1890 – multiple deaths.
Schwartz, Frau (Poland), 1897 – dozens "disappeared."
Schweinhammer, Katharina (Austria), 1901 – 3 deaths.
Seiler, Barbara  (Germany), 1907 – 7 deaths.
Sisters of St. Anne (Italy), 1908 – 143 deaths.
Skoublinska, Marianne (Marianna Skublińska) (Poland), 1890 – 76 babies.
Skrobanetz, Sanda (Austria), 1914 – 4 deaths, several near death.
Spinks, Ann (England), 1898 – at least 2 babies died.
Suffert, Jennie (USA), 1889 – 2 babies dead, 4 dying.
Tanaka, Mrs. & Mrs Juniki (Japan), 1924 – 8 babies murdered by fake foster parents.
Tann, Georgia (USA), 1950 – 1,000s of babies died.
Todd, Sophia Martha (England), 1877 – 5 deaths.
Tooke, Annie (England), 1879 – 1 child murdered & dismembered.
“Turn-Severin Angel-Maker” (Romania), 1939 – 5 deaths.
Turner, Maud (Canada), 1909 – suspected of numerous murders.
Turniak, Marie (Russia), 1912 – "large numbers" killed.
Tydrych, Leontina (Poland), 1927 – 60 babies died.
“Villa Vico Baby Farmer” (Portugal), 1854 – 9 babies died.
“Warasdin Baby Farmers” (Croatia), 1893 torture & maiming, child trafficking.
Ward, Mary Josephine (USA), 1884 at least 10 babies died.
Waters, Margaret (England), 1870 – 5 babies died (executed).
Wiese, Elizabeth (Germany), 1903 – burned babies in stove (executed).
West, Mrs. Fred (Clara West) (USA), 1906 – burned babies alive.
Wilczynska, Josefine (Poland), 1893 – 2 deaths, 4 starving.
Willis, Rhoda (Wales), 1907 – 2 babies died.
Wimmer, Frau (Austria), 1908 – 14+ deaths.
Winsor, Charlotte (England), 1865 – unknown number (executed).
Wogen, Chaja (Poland), 1903 – multiple deaths.
Worcester, Rozilla (USA), 1877 – 6 babies died (in 30 day period).
Wroclawska, Juliana (Poland), 1908 – multiple deaths.
Wühler, Frau (German), 1913 – 11 deaths.
Young, Lila & William (Canada), 1936 – an estimated 400-600 babies died.

193 cases [March 29, 2021]

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NOTE: A few of the cases in the list involve non-serial killers: baby-torturers or providers who are confirmed to have killed only one or two of their charges.

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Murder Method (when known, incomplete list):

Battery – Geisen-Volk, Noskina

Buried Alive – Ashmead, Wiese

Crushed to Death – Winsor

Drown – Delpech, Overbye, Wiese, Noskina (in cesspool)

Drugging / Poisoning – Dean (laudanum), Jager (poison), Kusnezowa (poison), Mabre (arsenic), Reignolds (laudanum), Sach & Walters (chlorodyne), Topper (poison), West (laudanum), Nivison (morphine, belladonna), West (laudanum), Dean (laudanum), Reignolds (laudanum), Waters (laudanum), Luiza de Jesus, Wiese (morphine), King (arsenic), Laphame (opium)

Exposure – Tann (sun), Chivers (cold), Barnes (no clothing), Geisen-Volk (frozen), Breitschwart (frozen) 

Incineration alive – Ashmead, Fortmeyer, Overbye, Stysinski (arson), West, Wiese

Needle into heart° – Makin (needle, heart), Mittlestedt (darning needle, heart)

Neglect – Ishikawa, Mitchell, Nivison, Rogers, Spinks, Waters, Young, McCloskey, Geisen-Volk, Larsson, Nilsson, Persson (incomplete list)

Starvation – Barnes, Barthian, Campbell, Lowry, McClosky, Mitchell, Seifert, Tanaka, Waters, Julien

Strangling by hand or instrument – Chard-Williams*, Claus, Compton, Cooper, Douglas, Dyer, King, Knorr, Ostrovoskafa, Overbye, Turner, Geisen-Volk

Suffocation – Dean, Newman, Winsor, Noskina

Twisting baby’s neck – Eckhardt

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Burned corpses after murder: Asmead, Birney, Chivers, Eckhardt, Overbye, "Vivienne Midwife," West, Wiese

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* Chard-Williams - Stunned, strangled and trussed up with cords
° Similar method used by nursemaid: Schnell (hairpin into brain)

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• Baby Farmers & Baby-Killing Midwives Executed

1763 – Louise Mabre (France)
1772 – Luiza de Jesus (Portugal)
1870 – Margaret Waters (England)
1873 Rose Porro & Margarite Coraldi (Italy)
1896 – Amelia Dyer (England)
1902 – Amelia Sach & Annie Walters (England)
1889 – Jesse King (Scotland)
1903 – Elizabeth Wiese (Germany)
1865 – Catherine Winsor (England)
1907 – Rhoda Willis (Wales)
1895 – Minnie Dean (New Zealand)
1922 – Daniel Cooper (Australia)
1894 – Frances Knorr (Australia)

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For a detailed look at a baby farm visit:


This photograph of Frankie Heath, rescued from a Minneapolis baby farmer,   is taken from this post:

“Minneapolis Baby Farmer” (USA), 1908 – starving baby rescued

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Edith Rendell, The Baby Farmer” (poem),  Kerang New Times (Victoria, Australia), Sep. 24, 1909, p. 4

THE BABY FARMER.

Ye mothers of Australia
O lend your pitying ear
To the wail of helpless infants
That’s borne upon the air.

As ye clasp your own loved darlings
In comfort to your hearts, I
Just think upon the fate of those
Who hear neglect’s cruel smarts.

Unwelcome little strangers
To this cold world they come,
No mother love awaiting them.
No friend, no name, no borne.

Not theirs the fault that brings them,
It is the parent’s sin,
Yet on their helpless bodies
Falls all the wrong and pain.

Who’ll rid me of this burden,
The desperate mother cries,
I cannot, will not face my friends
With shame before my eyes.

An accommodating stranger,
For dross to be paid down,
Takes the tender infant
To nurse him as her own

O luckless little creature.
Thy doom hath now its seal.
The horrors that await thee
The inquest will reveal.

Not by violent measures
She deprives hint of his breath —
By methods known unto the craft
The child is done to death.

Not alone in other states
The baby farmer thrives,
Ev-u in our very midst
She’s sacrificing lives.

She’s not a downcast person.
She’s possessed of many wiles;
She laughs and talks and is quite gay,
But she murders while she smiles.

We seek for population
In countries far away,
Yet human life is wasted
Around us every day.

The care of babes should not be left
To private enterprise
A home should be provided,
Which the state should supervise.

You say an institution
Would foster vice and sin;
How can this be
The evil hath ever with us been.

Ye women of Australia
O stay this fearful wrong,
And by concerted action
Save the helpless throng.

Ye Christian men and women.
Give it your earnest thought
To found a home for waifs and strays,
To which they may be brought.

Root out the baby farmer
By giving her no place,
And free this youthful land of ours
From murder and disgrace.

    Edith Rendell.

[Edith Rendell, The Baby Farmer” (poem),  Kerang New Times (Victoria, Australia), Sep. 24, 1909, p. 4]

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ALSO SEE the related category of Baby-Sitter Serial Killers

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http://www.avoiceformen.com/?s=death+on+the+baby+farm

To learn more details about murderous child care providers in history, including baby farmers, adoption agents and baby sitters, see the 2-part article “Death on the Baby Farm,” by Robert St. Estephe, A Voice for Men, July 16, 2013

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http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2013/06/female-serial-killers-collections.html

SEE MORE: Female Serial Killer Collections

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[21,594-8/22/18; 27,964-10/14/20]
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Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Baby Farming: Setting the Record Straight on Certain Misperceptions


Wikipedia states that “Baby farming refers to the historical practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment in late-Victorian Era Britain and, less commonly, in Australia and the United States. If the infant was young, this usually included wet-nursing (breast-feeding by a woman not the mother). Some baby farmers ‘adopted’ children for lump-sum payments, while others cared for infants for periodic payments.” [“Baby Farming” page, Wikipedia]

Two aspects of this description are misleading: historical period and geographical distribution. The reason for the error of regional restriction is simply the fact that “Baby Farming” is the term coined in England that is used in the anglophone world. The chronological error results from the fact that the most widely known baby farmers, most particularly the serial baby-killer Amelia Dyer, date from late Victorian England.

The fact is that the practice was common throughout Europe, parts of Asia, Mexico. Further research might well make extensive additions to the list. Baby Farmers who have been prosecuted for serially murdering their charges are known as early as the 17th century England (Abigail Hill, 1658; Mary Compton, 1673) and 18th century in Portugal (Luiza de Jesus, 1772) and France (Louise Mabre, 1763) and as late as the 1940s in the United States (Georgia Tann; Edna Roseberry) although the term “baby farming” was not current or regionally idiomatic at these times.

The Forgotten Serial Killers lists around a hundred cases of Baby Farmers prosecuted for, or suspected of serial child murder. By overlooking the scale and breadth of the Baby Farming phenomenon we end up ignoring crimes of immense magnitude, leaving criminologists and other scholars in the dark regarding important data. The industrial-scale child-murders discovered in 1906 by Mr.and Mrs. Holmen in  Stockholm is a case in point.

Revelations concerning the “National Children’s Sanitorium” have just been announced after an investigation by the authorities, which has been going on for some weeks. It appears that the alleged sanitorium was simply a baby-farm on in immense scale and that wholesale murders of babies were committed.

Over a thousand babies over a period of three years were murdered there. The infamous American "child-rearing expert" and adoption-racket kidnapper and baby-seller, Georgia Tann of Memphis, may well have been even more prolific at baby-killing than the Swedish couple, though the term “Baby Farmer,” obsolete by the 1940s, has never been applied to her, let alone "serial killer" (except by the this author).

An extensive overview of the subject is to be found in the illustrated article “Death on the Baby Farm” by Robert St. Estephe. 
 
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[165-9/5/21]
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Itzel Nayeli García Montaño, “La Degolladora,” Serial Killer - Mexico, 2015


“La Degolladora” – She holds her victims with her right arm while slashing their neck with a knife in her left hand. [Pablo de Llano, “Is a female serial killer behind mystery attacks in a Mexico City suburb?,” El Pais (Mexico), Oct. 5, 2015]

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Wikipedia:

Itzel Nayelí Montaño García (born 1995 in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, Mexico) is an alleged Mexican spree killer accused of a series of crimes committed in the municipality of Chimalhuacán. Montaño attacked random strangers from behind, stabbing them in the neck. In total, a total of seven attacks occurred, two of them fatal.

She was nicknamed “La Degolladora” ("The Decapitator of Chimalhuacán") by the media. She was a disorganized killer, highlighted by the fact that her attacks were committed "body to body", an unusual modus operandi in female spree killers.

~ Life ~

Itzel Montaño was born in 1995, in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, to a poor family in which she was the second of six children, her father working unofficially as a "car washer". Her childhood was spent in a marginalized area of her home municipality, sharing a house with her parents, siblings and several relatives. She used to take care of her younger siblings while her parents worked, and was described by relatives and acquaintances as "quiet and calm". She attended school only until the third grade, as her childhood and adolescence were marked by poverty.

At the age of 14, she moved in with a man and entered into a domestic partnership. At a young age she got pregnant for the first and only time—she suffered from an ectopic pregnancy, making it a necessity to undergo a hysterectomy in order to save her life, leaving her sterile. At age 16, she separated from her partner and began to consume alcohol, tobacco, and inhalants excessively. She maintained herself by selling sweets outside the Mexico City Metro. She had difficulties with reading, writing and maths.
At age 17, she met her second husband, a man named Rafael who drove a minibus. She moved in with him only after a few months of relationship. Their relationship was difficult, with fights which often ended in physical aggression.

~ Crimes ~

The first attack attributed to Montaño occurred on September 14, 2015. The victim was a man named Antonio Soto Leyva. The 43-year-old was attacked at 5:30 am by a woman who approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck. Despite a 15-centimetre (5.9 in) injury to his neck, no vital organs were damaged and the victim survived. Soto was able to pursue his attacker for 50 metres (160 ft), but could not catch her.

The first fatality attributed to the killer came just a day later, on September 15, when a 40-year-old woman named Rosario Laureano Ventura was attacked. The woman was travelling on a bus when she was repeatedly stabbed in the neck by a young woman. That same day there was a second attack, that of Rosa María Jímenez Martínez, who managed to survive. The second murder attributed to the murderer occurred on September 17, 2016, when a 16-year old woman, Brenda Chantal Mondragón Martínez, was assaulted while walking to her school. The killer cut her jugular vein.

Throughout September 2015, there were at least three more attacks on two men and one woman, which were non-fatal. One of victims was José Alberto Pichardo, 36, who was stabbed in the abdomen and then in the neck; Pichardo came to declare that his attacker was "very fast," like a "ninja".

~ Reaction and investigations ~

Soon the rumor began to spread that there was an active murderer in Chimalhuacán randomly attacking people on the streets. The neighbours began to form vigilante groups, arming themselves with blunt and sharp weapons, as well as firearms. Soon the media also began to cover the case and dubbed the alleged murderer as "The Decapitator of Chimalhuacán". A mass hysteria developed.

With the collaboration of victims and some witnesses, the police developed a profile of the attacker—she was described as a woman between 20 and 25 years of age, with light brown skin, long dark hair, thin, well-dressed and with two tattoos of the Santa Muerte. At first, it was theorised that the attacker could be a man dressed as a woman, because the killer's style of attack is atypical to female murderers, but this hypothesis was rejected.

There was no clear pattern in the victims, but the modus operandi was the same in every attack—the suspect approached the victim from behind in a public space and stabbed their neck from the back with a pocket knife. The perpetrator's characteristics made the victims feel not threatened. All attacks occurred in the neighbourhoods of tanners, farmers, cabinet makers, artisans and fishermen, and occurred mostly in the morning. Patrols were started by police on a recurring basis in order to arrest a suspect.

~ Arrest and trial

On October 2, 2015, after 20 days of investigation, Montaño was arrested in the vicinity of her home in Chimalhuacán, after being reported by her partner and a by a fellow street vendor. Both men reported that she tried to kill them by cutting their necks. She admitted to these two attacks and confessed to have committed them under the influence of alcohol and inhalants. Both attacks occurred on September 13, 2015; the aggression towards the partner occurred in the context of a domestic fight and the second, against a man named "Jorge", known as the "leader of the street vendors", who demanded Montaño pay him so that she could sell her sweets. At first the police denied that Montaño was related to the Decapitator's crimes, but by October 9, 2015, they reversed that statement and claimed that she was a suspect in the murders.

On July 2017, Montaño was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a charge of attempted murder, and is still awaiting trial for other charges. Her motives remain unknown, but according to declarations of relatives, when she consumed inhalants her behaviour changed drastically, becoming violent and uninhibited. She is believed to have been on drugs in all the attacks, including the two attacks she confessed to.

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CHRONOLOGY

1995 – Itzel Montaño was born, Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico,
Sep. 14, 2015 – first attack attributed to Montaño
Sep. 15, 2015 – Rosario Laureano Ventura murdered.
Sep. 17, 2015 – Brenda Chantal Mondragón Martínez, murdered.
Oct. 2, 2015 – arrested.
Jul. 2017 – Montaño sentenced to 20 years, attempted murder, awaiting trial for other charges.

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