Juan Díaz de Garayo y Ruiz de Argandoña,Becerro de Bengoa, Ricardo (1881) El Sacamantecas. Su Retrato y sus Crímenes. Narración escrita con arreglo a todos los datos auténticos. Viuda e Hijos de Iturbe, Vitoria, 58 pages.Bernaldo de Quirós, Constancio (1909) Vidas Delincuentes. Centro Editorial Góngora, Madrid, 118 pages also known as "The Sacamantecas" ("The fat extractor" in Spanish) (17 October 1821 – 11 May 1881), was a Spanish serial killer active near Vitoria, Álava, who strangled five women and a 13-year-old girl, and attacked four other women during two different periods, 1870 to 1874 and 1878 to 1879. A lust-motivated serial killer, Garayo's first victims were sex workers, who he murdered after supposedly hiring them for their sexual services. Later on, as he became more opportunistic and willing to take risks, he also murdered women who he happened to see walking alone in the country. His last two victims, murdered in consecutive days, were also stabbed, and the second was disembowelled.
Garayo's persona and crimes were the subject of El Sacamantecas, an 1881 monograph written by Ricardo Becerro de Bengoa, who visited Garayo while he was in prison awaiting execution.
Early life and family Garayo was born on 17 October 1821, the ninth child of farmers Nicolás Díaz de Garayo and Norberta Ruiz de Argandoña, in Eguilaz, a village near the town of Salvatierra in Álava, Basque Country, Spain.Baptism certificateEl Sacamantecas, p. 15 He was illiterate, (having never received an education), hard-working, and austere. Between the murders, he lived and worked in Vitoria as usual, attracting no suspicion.El Sacamantecas, p. 14
At age 14, during the First Carlist War, Garayo was sent by his parents to serve in the neighbouring towns of Salvatierra, Alaiza, Ocáriz, Izarza, Añua and Alegría-Dulantzi, where he worked temporally as a farmhand, shepherd, and coal miner. In 1850 he began to serve Antonia Berrosteguieta,Gamboa, Erlantz (2011) Enciclopedia del crimen y el sadismo. Leer-e, Pamplona a widow from Vitoria who was looking for a servant with experience in farming and field management. Shortly thereafter, he and Berrosteguieta married. Berrosteguieta was nicknamed La Zurrumbona after her first husband, who had been known as Zurrumbón, a nickname that Garayo would inherit.
The couple had five children, three of whom (Cándido, Josefa and TomásGamboa, Erlantz (2011) Enciclopedia del crimen y el sadismo. Leer-e, Pamplona) survived. This marriage ended in 1863 with the death of La Zurrumbona, and Garayo married his second wife, Juana Salazar,Gamboa, Erlantz (2011) Enciclopedia del crimen y el sadismo. Leer-e, Pamplona shortly after. Unlike the first marriage, which was happy, the second was loaded with conflict between his new wife and her stepchildren. His eldest son left to serve in a house and the other two increasingly spent their time in the street away from the family home. Salazar died from smallpox in 1870 and Garayo committed his first murder shortly after. Garayo married a third time, again shortly after the death of his previous wife, and this marriage was even more plagued by conflict, as the woman was an alcoholic. After only five years of marriage, in 1876, Garayo found his wife bedridden and in agony upon returning from work; he called for a doctor but was told that nothing could be done about it. She died, and one month later he married his fourth and final wife, an elderly widowEl Sacamantecas, pp. 15–22 named Juana Ibisate.Gamboa, Erlantz (2011) Enciclopedia del crimen y el sadismo. Leer-e, Pamplona
Although the relationship with his later wives wasn't idyllic, there is no evidence that Garayo had any part in their deaths. When asked about the most suspicious, the third, the imprisoned Garayo declared:El Sacamantecas, p. 51
Murders First spree
Garayo's first victim was a well-known woman from Vitoria who had turned to prostitution while her husband was in jail, and he hired her on the afternoon of 2 April 1870. The two walked out of the city through the Portal del Rey, took the road to Navarre, and stopped by the Recachiqui (ErrekatxikiGamboa, Erlantz (2011) Enciclopedia del crimen y el sadismo. Leer-e, Pamplona) stream to have sex. Once done Garayo offered her three Spanish reales and she protested for finding it too short. Garayo offered one more real but she demanded five. At this point, Garayo threw her to the ground and oppressed her throat with both hands until she became unconscious. He then took his victim to the stream and submerged her head in the water until she drowned. Garayo then undressed the body and placed it face up on the ground. He sat next to the body for a while before covering it with the clothes and returned to the city during the night. The murder was discovered the next morning by a servant who was picking flowers by the bankside and alerted the authorities, but the case was archived for lack of evidence shortly after.
The second murder was committed on 12 March 1871, also during the afternoon. Garayo met a poor widow begging in Portal del Rey and offered her to come with him. After she said that she had not eaten that day, Garayo gave her one real and told her to not get late, saying that he would be waiting for her on the road to Navarre. The woman bought bread and a glass of wine in an inn and the two walked the road to a place known as Labizcarra, 400 metres from the Recachiqui, where they had sex. Once again, Garayo offered a short sum, the woman protested and he brought her down and strangled her with his hands, returning home at night. The body was discovered the next day but once again the investigators found no lead to the culprit.
The third occurred on 21 August 1872. This time the murder was at noon and the victim wasn't a prostitute. Garayo was travelling to Gamarra Mayor when he met a 13-year-old servant girl walking in the opposite direction, who had been sent on an errand to Vitoria by her employers. Garayo seized her and hauled her off the road, oppressing her throat until she became unconscious, and raped her. He strangled her again until she died and hid the body in a ditch, returning to Vitoria by 2 pm. The discovery of the murder the next day caused a great commotion in Vitoria and its region. However, the doubled efforts of the investigators met again with a lack of leads, and even worse, with news of another murder only 8 days later, on 29 August.
At dusk, Garayo approached a 23-year-old woman not far from his own home, whom he knew to be lewd, and offered her money for sex. The two left this time by the Portal de Barreras and advanced through the road to La Rioja, Garayo walking a distance behind her to prevent people from seeing them together. They reunited after a while and had sex next to a bridge. Garayo offered her two reales and after she protested, three and then four. She kept demanding more and he brought her down and strangled her until he thought she was dead. The victim, however, made a slight movement. Garayo then took her hairpin, straightened it, and stabbed her in the heart while holding her body under his knees. He placed the body next to the river and went back home during the night. The police investigated a soldier destined for Vitoria (the Third Carlist War had just broken out), but he was found innocent and cleared of suspicion. The panic among the population increased, with many women refusing to go outside alone and villages becoming deserted at night.El Sacamantecas, pp. 5–14
In August 1873, again during an afternoon, Garayo took another prostitute to the Recachiqui. Again he offered little money, she protested and he attempted to strangle her, but the woman could scream and alert some guards from Polvorín Viejo – the prison where Garayo would be executed later – forcing him to flee.
In June 1874, Garayo happened upon an old, sickly beggar woman on the road of La Zumaquera. Without saying a word, Garayo attempted to strangle her, but she screamed and defended herself until two other women arrived and Garayo ran away. The victim identified Garayo and said that he was drunk and had tried to kill her for no reason, but nobody informed the police.El Sacamantecas, p. 21
Hiatus and possible imitators
Díaz de Garayo would not act for four years after the second unsuccessful attempt. It was believed at the time of his execution, however, that his murders had inspired others to commit crimes in the Basque region:El Sacamantecas, pp.. 23–27
On 2 January 1878, six years after the last successful murder, a 55-year-old woman was killed on the way back from Arechavaleta, where she had gone to buy wine. The murder was far more gruesome than any of the ones committed by Garayo: the victim was stabbed repeatedly in the chest and belly, disembowelled, and her right hand was severed. On 28 February, in the very same Vitoria, a 75-year-old man knocked on a house's door and when an 11-year-old girl opened it, he seized, raped and stabbed her several times in the belly with a razor, before abandoning the weapon and fleeing. The girl was hospitalized and identified her aggressor three times before dying on 3 March. The man recognized the razor found as his own but denied having done the crime. He was found guilty of the last crime, but there was no evidence to link him to the others, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison which the Supreme Court of Spain overturned and changed to death penalty. He was garroted in Vitoria on 19 May 1880. Right around that time, another woman was murdered in the countryside around Vitoria. The prime suspect was a shepherd seen in the city shortly before, who could not be found nor apprehended.
Second spree On 1 November 1878, Garayo visited a mill outside Vitoria that he had been previously to and found the female miller cooking alone. After some words, he tried to strangle her but Garayo, 57 at the time, was overpowered by the woman and forced to flee. She denounced him and Garayo was arrested and sentenced to two months in prison.
On 25 August 1879, Garayo left Vitoria through the road to Castile. Between the villages of Gomecha and Aríñez, he found an old beggar woman and offered her alms. He then pushed her off the road; she fell and hurt her head on a rock. However, when Garayo jumped over her, she kicked him in the belly and he fell backwards. The woman got up and ran to Vitoria, screaming. Garayo followed her from a distance, and arriving in Vitoria he asked his fourth wife to speak with the woman and reach an agreement that would keep him out of jail. The victim wanted to denounce him but eventually agreed not to in exchange for 20 pesetas (80 reales). Until the woman was convinced, Garayo cautiously left the city and looked for work in the Somorrostro mines, in Biscay.
On the way back to Vitoria, on September 7, he latched to a 25-year-old woman from Zaitegui, María Dolores Cortázar,Olmos, Martín (2010) El destripador de Vitoria. Published in El Correo who had worked as a maid in Vitoria and began to converse with her. Once he was sure that no one else was around (a mail service employee had passed them and seen them talking together), he pushed her off the road, took her handkerchief and tied it to her neck, asking for sex and promising discretion and money in return. As the victim kept resisting, he threatened her and finally stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a razor. He raped her and then stabbed her in the belly again until she died.