The Sensationalized Crimes of Mexico’s First Female Serial Killer

The surprising true story of Mexico’s hunt, arrest, and conviction of its first female serial killer, Juana Barraza Samperio, is told through ten years of research and one of the only interviews that Barraza Samperio has given while in prison. Susana Vargas Cervantes deconstructs this story, focusing on the complex gendered aspects of the case and how Barraza Samperio—with her “manly” features and strength, her career as a masked wrestler in lucha libre, and her violent crimes—disrupted traditional narratives about gender, criminality, and victimhood in the popular imagination.

Susana Vargas Cervantes is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is the author of the book Mujercitos.