Juan Corona

 VICTIMS: 25+

Juan Corona was born in Mexico in 1934. His life there is somewhat of a mystery, but what we do know started when he moved to the U.S. in the 50's as a migrant worker. From here he turned himself into a successful labor contractor in Yuba County, California. And there were few signs of what really went on in Corona's head.

In 1970 a young Mexican man was viciously attacked with a machete (he was nearly scalped) in Corona's gay brothers cafe. The man accused Corona's brother, Natividad Corona, of the crime and filed a law suit, seeking $250,000, against him. Natividad fled the country not long after this and the case was forgotten. The crime wasn't linked to Juan, why would it?

On May 19, 1971, a farmer who had hired Corona to arrange labor for his farm found a large, grave shaped, hole between two tree's. He asked the nearest worker about it but he just shrugged it off, not knowing or caring it seemed. Well this farmer was a nosy bastard and really wanted to know what the hell was going on, so he returned to the hole later that night only to find that it had been filled in. And this bastard was a real nosy cunt. He called police and had them check it out. After a bit of digging they found themselves a nice fresh corpse. It was Kenneth Whitacre, a known bum. His head had been ripped apart with a cleaver or machete. They also found some gay porn buried with him, leading police to file the case as a sex crime.

Police were not that worried about the crime and never suspected what was to happen next.

Four days later on a nearby farm some workers discovered another body. It was Charles Fleming, a known drifter. As police searched the new burial site another corpse was found. Then another. Then another. Then another. I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture. After nine full days of excavation police called the search off. It was June 4. They had 25 corpses. And all had been killed since February. Now if that ain't prolific I'll suck Bill Clinton's cock.

Of the 25 victims police had been able to identify 21. Most were migrant workers, but some had been drifters and there were also a few bums. Most had been attacked with a machete or knife. All had been stabbed to death, a deep puncture to the chest followed by two slashes across the back of the head in the shape of a cross. All had been buried face up, arms stretched above their head and their shirts pulled up over theirs faces. Some had their pants pulled down and had signs of recent homosexual activity. The killer had some fun before or after they were dead.

None of the corpses had been reported as missing by family and if the bodies hadn't been discovered it would seem plausible that the killer would have gotten away with it all. But he had made four mistakes.
The 1st was to leave a grave open long enough to be seen by a nosy landowner.
The 2nd was much more stupid. He had buried a receipt with his name on it with one victim, Melford Sample. The name on the receipt was "Juan V. Corona."
The 3rd mistake was burying two bank deposit slips with the same name on them with another victim.
And the 4th was being seen with a victim.

Police picked Corona up on murder charges. The case against him was based almost completely on the receipts found on Melford Sample's body and purely circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately for Juan when police search his home they found a Machete, a pistol, two butcher knives and a ledger that contained the names of seven victims. Corona's lawyers tried to argue this and also tried to lay the blame on his brother, a known violent offender with homosexual tendencies. The only problem with this argument was that Natividad was not even in the country at the time of the murders. Corona's lawyers only called one witness during the trial, and also failed to mention that Corona was diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1956, thereby ruling out any chance of an insanity defence. Despite his hopeless defense it still took the Jury 45 hours to convict Corona of the 25 murders (a record for the U.S. at that time) and a month later he was sentenced to life in prison.

While in prison Corona was linked with a few more murders but nothing even came of it. And then in 1978 an appeals court upheld an appeal by Corona citing that his legal team was incompetent and that he would receive a new trial. Unfortunately for Juan he was attacked in prison while awaiting the new trial. He has never regained sight in one of his eyes. He was then put through an extensive psychiatric observation period, further delaying his retrial.

It never made a difference though. In 1982 Corona was again found guilty of 25 murders. He went back to prison to serve out a new life sentence.

In 1978 Corona was reported to have told a Mexican consulate who was visiting the prison that he was guilty. This is the only reported time of him admitting the crime. The exact quote went - "Yes, I did it, but I'm a sick man and can't be judged by the standards of other men"
 

MY OPINION

Juan Corona was one of the early pioneers of serial murder back in the early 70's and I would definitely rank him among Bundy, Kemper, Gacy and co. as a true great. The great let down with him is that he never really told of his crimes, so we were left with the sketchy details that police could figure out from the injuries to the corpses. It's always a great shame when killers don't explain their murders, especially when the killer is someone of the stature of Juan Corona.