The Little Old Lady Killer The Sensationalized Crimes of Mexico’s First Female Serial Killer / Susana Vargas Cervantes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vargas Cervantes, Susana, author.

Series:

Alternative criminology series.

NYU scholarship online.

Alternative criminology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Barraza Samperio, Juana Dayanara, 1954-.

Women serial murderers.

Serial murders.

Serial murders--Mexico--Case studies.

Women serial murderers--Mexico--Case studies.

Mexico.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 pages).

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2019]

Summary:

The surprising true story of Mexico's hunt, arrest, and conviction of its first female serial killerFor three years, amid widespread public outrage, police in Mexico City struggled to uncover the identity of the killer responsible for the ghastly deaths of forty elderly women, many of whom had been strangled in their homes with a stethoscope by someone posing as a government nurse. When Juana Barraza Samperio, a female professional wrestler known as la Dama del Silencio (the Lady of Silence), was arrested--and eventually sentenced to 759 years in prison--for her crimes as the Mataviejitas (the little old lady killer), her case disrupted traditional narratives about gender, criminality, and victimhood in the popular and criminological imagination.Marshaling ten years of research, and one of the only interviews that Juana Barraza Samperio has given while in prison, Susana Vargas Cervantes deconstructs this uniquely provocative story. She focuses, in particular, on the complex, gendered aspects of the case, asking: Who is a killer? Barraza--with her "manly" features and strength, her career as a masked wrestler in lucha libre, and her violent crimes--is presented, here, as a study in gender deviance, a disruption of what scholars call mexicanidad, or the masculine notion of what it means to be Mexican. Cervantes also challenges our conception of victimhood--specifically, who "counts" as a victim.The Little Old Lady Killer presents a fascinating analysis of what serial killing--often considered "killing for the pleasure of killing"--represents to us.

Contents:

Nicknames, Masks, and DisguisesKilling as Performance; 4. Performing Mexicanidad II: Criminality and La Santa Muerte; Feminicides in Estado de Mexico and Ciudad Juárez; Spiritual Sisters: La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Santa Muerte; La Catrina and La Santa Muerte; La Santa Muerte and Jesús Malverde: The Saints of Narcos; Conclusion; Acknowledgments; Notes; Bibliography; Index; About the Author

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Introduction; 1. Framing the Serial Killer: El Mataviejitas; Serial Killers, Mexican Anomie, and Narcosatánicos; El Chalequero, Goyo Cárdenas, and Las Poquianchis; The Hunt for El Mataviejitas; 2. The Look of the Serial Killer: El/La Mataviejitas; La Cara del Mexicano; "Se buscan" "Ayúdanos a prevenir!"; From El Mataviejitas as "Brilliant" to La Mataviejitas as "Pathological"; The "Look" of a Serial Killer; 3. Performing Mexicanidad I: Criminality and Lucha Libre; Born Mexican: Born Criminal, Born Wrestler

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4798-4342-3

OCLC:

1107879643