Francisco Guerrero Pérez stood on the muddy banks of the Consulado River in 1880, wearing his finest silk vest and reciting Bible verses. Below him lay the body of 17-year-old María Guadalupe Hernández. She was the first confirmed victim. But she wouldn’t be the last.
Between 1880 and 1888, this elegantly dressed shoemaker killed at least 20 women in Mexico City. He raped them. Strangled them. Then positioned their bodies in ritualistic poses with copper coins over their eyes. And here’s the disturbing part. Everyone knew. Neighbors whispered his name in cantinas. Authorities received regular complaints. Yet for eight long years, Francisco continued killing with complete impunity.
This happened before Jack the Ripper. Francisco Guerrero Pérez was murdering women in Mexico while London’s most famous killer was still unknown. Today, you’ll learn details that Mexican criminal archives kept secret for over a century. The story of Mexico’s first officially documented serial killer. A man who transformed the Consulado River into his personal cemetery while maintaining a completely normal life next door.
Could you identify a serial killer living beside you? Let’s find out.
Francisco Guerrero Pérez’s Childhood: Born Into Violence in 1840
Francisco Guerrero Pérez came into the world around 1840 in the arid mountains of Hidalgo. A region where death was a constant companion. Where violence was common currency. His family lived in an adobe hut that looked more like a tomb for the living. No windows. No ventilation. The smell of urine and feces mixed with the sweet aroma of decomposition always floated over the poor.
A Mother Who Taught Him to Kill
His mother, Esperanza Guerrero, was a woman consumed by alcohol. She distilled aguardiente clandestinely in the back of the house. But it wasn’t just alcohol that transformed her into a monster. It was an ancestral rage against existence itself. A fury she unleashed on her children with cruelty that bordered on torture.
Francisco learned early what it meant to have the air cut from your lungs. Esperanza had a particular technique. She held her children’s necks with one hand while covering their noses with the other. Watching their eyes roll back. Their bodies convulse to the edge of unconsciousness. Then, in the last second, she released them. Whispering that God was testing their resistance.
What made these sessions even more terrifying? The absolute silence Esperanza demanded. Any sound, any moan of pain, resulted in even more severe punishments. Francisco learned to suffer in silence. Developing a pain tolerance that would be fundamental in his future criminal career. More importantly, he began to associate control over others’ breathing with absolute power.
A Father Who Watched and Did Nothing
Father Ramón Pérez was a human shadow. He appeared sporadically to deposit some coins and disappear again into the mountains. When present, he observed the torture of his children with the same vacant expression used to watch cattle being branded. For him, this was just a natural part of childhood education.
Francisco had five siblings. But only three survived the first years of life. The other two simply stopped breathing during the night. According to parish records from the era, authorities listed their deaths as natural causes. Nobody investigated further.
The First Signs of a Monster
The domestic violence Francisco absorbed didn’t remain contained. It fermented. Grew. Transformed into something much more sinister. During long winters in the mountains, when the family was confined to the hut for weeks, violence intensified.
Francisco observed how his mother chose different victims on different days. How she varied her punishment techniques. How she prolonged suffering to maximize psychological impact. These observations would become the basis of his education in sadism.
By age 10, Francisco already demonstrated signs we’d recognize today as childhood psychopathy. Small animals in the region began appearing dead in increasingly elaborate ways. First came the rats. Then, cats, discovered with broken necks and positioned in poses imitating crucifixions.
Local inhabitants whispered about “the devil’s child.” But nobody dared confront the Guerrero family. Esperanza had cultivated a reputation as a witch among neighbors. Many believed she could cast curses on whoever opposed her. This atmosphere of fear and superstition created the perfect environment for Francisco to develop his predatory instincts without external interference.
The First Victim: A Child Gets Away With Rape at Age 12
At 12 years old, Francisco committed his first documented act of sexual violence. An 8-year-old girl, daughter of traveling merchants, was found unconscious near the village well. Someone had raped and nearly strangled her. But she survived.
When Nobody Believes the Victim
When questioned about the attacker, she pointed directly at Francisco. But adults dismissed her accusation as the fantasy of a traumatized girl. Francisco observed this reaction with scientific interest.
He learned that his age and innocent appearance were powerful shields against suspicion. More importantly, he discovered that the word of a poor girl held no value against that of a boy from an established family. Even if that family was dysfunctional.
What most impressed neighbors was the coldness with which Francisco reacted to violence around him. While his siblings cried and hid during episodes of maternal fury, Francisco watched with scientific curiosity. As if he were studying a natural phenomenon. This capacity for emotional dissociation would become one of his most dangerous characteristics.
Practicing on Animals
During adolescence, Francisco developed a morbid obsession with female anatomy and strangulation techniques. He practiced on animals of different sizes. Timing how long it took each species to lose consciousness. He discovered he could prolong the agony by applying intermittent pressure. Allowing the victim to partially recover consciousness before squeezing again.
The domestic violence Francisco suffered didn’t transform him into a victim. It educated him. Each beating was an anatomy class of pain. Each maternal strangulation session was an advanced course in life and death control. Esperanza, unknowingly, was creating the most prolific killer in Mexican history.
When Francisco turned 20, he had already killed at least three people in the region. Two children and one adult woman. But authorities attributed the crimes to accidents, illnesses, or divine will. The rural community possessed no knowledge or resources to identify criminal patterns. Francisco exploited this ignorance with the cunning of a born predator.
Moving to Mexico City: Finding the Perfect Hunting Ground
In 1862, at 22 years old, Francisco made the decision that would forever change Mexican criminal history. He would leave the mountains of Hidalgo. Head to Mexico City. Where he could operate on a much larger scale. Where thousands of poor and vulnerable women waited, unknowingly, for their executioner.
Becoming Invisible in the Crowd
In Mexico City in 1862, Francisco Guerrero Pérez achieved something few men of his origin reached. Social invisibility. In a metropolis of almost 200,000 inhabitants, where faces were lost in the crowd, and personal stories could be reinvented daily, he found the perfect environment for his final transformation.
Francisco established himself as a shoemaker in the Tepito neighborhood. A region where poverty and violence were so common that nobody asked questions about neighbors’ pasts. He rented a small room in the back of a workshop. Installed his tools. Began building his new identity.
Learning to Work With Leather and Skin
The work with leather revealed itself as prophetic for Francisco. His hands, already accustomed to violence, now learned to manipulate dead material with surgical precision. He discovered that the same techniques used to soften animal leather could be applied to human skin.
The instruments of his trade found much more sinister uses. Sharp knives. Pliers. Thick needles. His hands, callused from years of manual labor, possessed tremendous strength developed during decades of domestic violence.
Francisco discovered he could break a chicken’s neck with a simple movement of his fingers. This ability would soon be tested on larger prey. He practiced constantly. Strengthening his grip until he could crush an apple with one hand.
Studying His Future Victims
During his first years in the capital, Francisco dedicated himself obsessively to studying the behavior of poor women in the city. He observed their daily routes. Their work schedules. Their vulnerability points.
He discovered that washerwomen working on the banks of the Consulado River were particularly isolated during early morning hours and late afternoon. Perfect targets.
Building the Perfect Disguise: The Devout Catholic
Francisco developed a carefully constructed public persona. He attended San Hipólito church religiously. His apparent devotion impressed even the most skeptical priests. He memorized hundreds of Bible verses. But his interpretation of Scripture was profoundly distorted.
Religion as a Weapon
For Francisco, the Bible was a manual of justifications for violence against women. What most impressed parishioners was the intensity with which Francisco prayed. He spent hours kneeling before the altar. Whispering prayers that mixed genuine devotion with violent fantasies.
Priests interpreted his fervor as holiness. Never perceiving that Francisco was developing a personal theology. One that would transform murder into a sacrament.
In 1865, three years after arriving in the capital, Francisco married María Elena Vázquez. A 17-year-old orphan who worked as a seamstress. The church arranged the marriage. María Elena saw in Francisco an opportunity to escape extreme poverty. She couldn’t imagine she was marrying a monster who would use her as a guinea pig to perfect his torture techniques.
The Nightmare Marriage
Francisco and María Elena’s honeymoon was a nightmare that would last decades. On their first night as a married couple, Francisco revealed his true nature. He raped his wife with brutality that left her unconscious. Whispering in her ear that an obedient wife must accept anything her husband desires.
When María Elena tried to resist, Francisco demonstrated his strangulation technique. Stopping only when she was on the edge of death.
Francisco established rigid rules for his wife. She couldn’t leave home without permission. Couldn’t talk with neighbors. Couldn’t question his schedules or activities. Any disobedience resulted in punishments. Ranging from brutal beatings to strangulation sessions that left purple marks on her neck for weeks.
The Suspicious Deaths of Three Children
María Elena became pregnant six times during the marriage. But only three children survived the first years of life. The other three died under suspicious circumstances. Always during the night. Whenever Francisco was caring for them alone.
María Elena suspected the truth. But she never dared verbalize her fears. Neighbors occasionally heard screams coming from the Guerrero house. But Francisco had developed a convincing explanation. He spread rumors that María Elena suffered from hysterical attacks, common in women of a fragile constitution.
This narrative, accepted without questioning in a deeply machista society, provided perfect cover for his domestic experiments.
The Elegant Chaleco: How Clothes Became His Weapon
During this period, Francisco began developing his obsession with elegant clothing. He spent a disproportionate portion of his earnings on silk vests. Fine linen shirts. Hats are imported from Europe.
Why They Called Him “El Chalequero”
His neighbors knew him as “El Chalequero.” The nickname carried double meaning. Both his passion for vests (chalecos) and his unstable nature. Always rolling from woman to woman.
Francisco discovered that elegant clothing was a powerful predation tool. Poor women, accustomed to dealing with ragged and rude men, lowered their guard when approached by a well-dressed gentleman. He invested in expensive perfumes and hair pomades. Creating an appearance that contrasted dramatically with his bestial nature.
Mapping His Killing Fields
Francisco spent years exploring the banks of the Consulado River. Mapping every curve. Every area of dense vegetation. Every point where a scream wouldn’t be heard. He identified isolated places where he could operate without interference. Areas that would become scenarios of his future crimes.
But Francisco wasn’t just a potential killer. He was a student of violence. He observed how different women reacted to fear. How their screams varied. How they tried to escape. Each observation was mentally catalogued for future use.
In 1875, 15 years after arriving in the capital, Francisco was ready to begin his criminal career on a grand scale. He had spent more than a decade studying, planning, and preparing. He knew every street, every alley, every possible hiding place in the poor neighborhoods of the city.
More importantly, he had identified the perfect place for his crimes. The isolated banks of the Consulado River.
The Killing Years: 1880-1888, Twenty Women Dead
The first body of the official era was discovered on a foggy March morning in 1880. María Guadalupe Hernández, barely 17 years old, lay on the muddy banks of the Consulado River. Clear signs of sexual violence and strangulation covered her body.
The Ritualistic Positioning
Her clothing was torn in a specific way. Revealing a pattern of violence that would repeat for the next eight consecutive years. What most impacted investigators wasn’t just the wounds. It was the position in which the body was found.
Francisco had positioned Guadalupe ritualistically. Arms crossed over her chest. Copper coins covering her eyes. A practice he would repeat on all his subsequent victims. It was as if each murder were a perverted religious ceremony.
Choosing the Perfect Victims
Francisco had chosen his victims with the precision of an experienced predator. Young women. Poor. Without an influential family that could pressure authorities for justice. Sex workers nobody would miss. Desperate widows who accepted any work. Rural immigrants are lost in the urban vastness of the Mexican capital.
His method was diabolically simple. He approached victims dressed in his best suits. He presents himself as a prosperous merchant seeking companionship. He offered generous amounts for services to be provided in a more reserved place. Always near the river.
His respectable appearance and educated manners reassured women accustomed to dealing with rude and violent clients. What these women didn’t know? Francisco had developed brutal techniques of sexual violence and strangulation.
The Technique That Killed Them
First, he raped them with brutality that frequently resulted in serious internal injuries. Then, when they tried to flee or resist, his hands closed around their necks. With the strength developed during decades of manual labor.
Francisco had perfected the strangulation technique during years of domestic practice with his wife. He knew exactly how much pressure to apply to prolong the agony. To keep his victims conscious as long as possible. He wanted to see recognition of approaching death reflected in their eyes. He wanted to be the last thing they saw in this world.
During these attacks, Francisco developed the disturbing habit of whispering Bible verses in his victims’ ears. He recited passages about female obedience and purification through suffering. Transforming each murder into a theological perversion.
For Francisco, he wasn’t just killing. He was saving these women from their carnal sins.
Everyone Knew, Nobody Acted: Eight Years of Impunity
The local community began whispering about “the demon of the river” as early as 1881. Mothers forbade their daughters from going out after dark. Merchants closed their doors earlier. Washerwomen began working in groups, never alone.
The Open Secret
But what was most disturbing? Many knew who was responsible. Francisco didn’t hide. On the contrary, he boasted about his acts in cantina conversations. Describing intimate details of his crimes to anyone who wanted to listen.
He had developed a reputation as a storyteller. Many men gathered around him to hear his adventures with women. What didn’t they perceive? Francisco was confessing to real murders.
What made these confessions even more sinister was the way Francisco presented them. He mixed real details of his crimes with fictional elements. Creating narratives that seemed like exaggerated masculine fantasies. His listeners laughed and applauded. Never perceiving that they were celebrating descriptions of real tortures and murders.
Why the Police Did Nothing
The impunity was total and systematic. Local authorities, when faced with complaints, alleged a lack of concrete evidence. After all, who would believe the word of prostitutes and washerwomen against a respectable and devout Catholic merchant?
Francisco had built his reputation specifically for this moment. He also developed a religious justification for his crimes that revealed the depth of his psychopathy. He genuinely believed he was performing a sacred service. Purifying sinful women through violence and death.
During attacks, he recited distorted Bible verses. He explained to his terrified victims how their sufferings brought them closer to God.
The First Capture: Justice Fails Spectacularly
On a stifling afternoon of August 1888, eight years after beginning his reign of terror, Francisco Guerrero Pérez committed the error that would finally bring him to justice. His arrogance had grown so much that he decided to attack in broad daylight. Near an area of commercial movement.
The Victim Who Fought Back
The chosen victim was Isabella Moreno, a 19-year-old who had arrived in Mexico City only three days before. I come from a small village in Puebla. Isabella was selling artisan textiles in the market when Francisco approached her. Using his usual persona of a prosperous merchant interested in buying all her merchandise for a generous price.
Francisco offered to pay double the value of the textiles if Isabella accompanied him to his warehouse near the river. To inspect the quality of the merchandise. Isabella, desperate to sell her products and return home with enough money to feed her family, accepted the proposal without hesitation.
What Francisco didn’t know? Isabella carried a small defense knife hidden among her textiles. A gift from her father, who had insisted she protect herself during the trip to the capital.
The Witness Who Finally Spoke
Rodrigo Mendoza, a 53-year-old fish merchant, was returning from his daily route. He decided to take a shortcut along the banks of the Consulado River. Around 3 PM, he heard strange sounds coming from an area of dense vegetation.
Moved by curiosity, Rodrigo approached silently. He witnessed a scene that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Hidden behind a pile of debris, he saw Francisco Guerrero Pérez strangling Isabella with his own hands. While reciting Bible verses in a voice that alternated between reverent whispers and screams of ecstasy.
What Rodrigo witnessed wasn’t just a murder. It was an act of extreme violence combined with religious perversion. Francisco had undressed Isabella. He was brutally raping her while applying intermittent pressure on her neck.
The Knife That Changed Everything
But Isabella wasn’t a passive victim like the previous ones. In a moment of desperate lucidity, she managed to reach the knife hidden among her textiles. Stabbed the blade into Francisco’s arm.
The wound wasn’t serious. But the pain and surprise made Francisco momentarily relax his grip. Allowing Isabella to scream with enough force to attract attention.
Rodrigo ran directly to the nearest police station. This time, there was a credible eyewitness. A merchant established without motives to lie. When authorities finally went to the place indicated by Rodrigo, they found not only Isabella’s body. But evidence of years of criminal activity that had been carefully hidden.
The Trial and Sentencing
During the investigation that followed, authorities discovered personal objects buried in the vicinity. Belonging to several of Francisco’s previous victims. Blood-stained ropes. Torn women’s clothing. Other instruments reveal the extent of his crimes over the years.
The wound on Francisco’s arm, caused by Isabella’s knife, provided irrefutable physical evidence of his presence at the crime scene. Fresh blood on Isabella’s clothing corresponded to Francisco’s blood type. Creating a forensic connection he couldn’t deny or explain.
During the trial, several women who had managed to escape from Francisco found the courage to testify. Their stories revealed a pattern of violence that went far beyond the known murders. Exposing a network of terror that had operated with impunity for almost a decade.
The judge, horrified by the absolute coldness of the defendant, condemned Francisco Guerrero Pérez to death by hanging. The sentence was received with applause by the crowd gathered outside the tribunal. Including family members of several victims who finally saw the possibility of justice.
The Corrupt Politician Who Set Him Free
But Mexican justice was about to fail spectacularly. In 1889, only one year after his conviction, a corrupt politician commuted his sentence. Alleging that the judge had been excessively severe with a respectable family man.
Francisco was released. Returned to the streets. The release of Francisco Guerrero Pérez in 1889 caused outrage among the victims’ families. But their voices were drowned out by power and political influence.
Francisco returned home as if nothing had happened. Reassuming his role as a respectable shoemaker and devout family father. But a year in prison hadn’t cured his thirst for blood. It had only intensified it.
The Second Killing Spree: Even More Brutal Than Before
Francisco was now a 49-year-old man with graying hair and deep wrinkles around his eyes. But his hands maintained their strength. His mind had become even more calculating during the months of confinement. He had spent each day in prison planning his return. Fantasizing about new victims.
Learning From Other Criminals
During his time in prison, Francisco had met other criminals who taught him more sophisticated techniques to avoid detection. He learned about the importance of varying methods. Changing hunting territories. Eliminating evidence more effectively. His criminal education had been completed behind bars.
The first deaths of the second phase began discreetly in 1890. Francisco had learned from his previous errors. Developed more sophisticated techniques to avoid detection. He changed his hunting territory. Expanding his activities to more distant neighborhoods of the Mexican capital. Where his reputation wasn’t known.
His new victims were chosen with even more care. Francisco now preferred women traveling alone. Itinerant merchants. Religious pilgrims nobody would miss for weeks. He had become a more efficient predator. More lethal. More calculating than ever.
New Methods of Disposal
Francisco also changed his methods of body disposal. Instead of leaving them on the river banks, he began burying them in remote places. Or dismembering them and dispersing the parts in different areas of the city.
This new approach made it much more difficult for authorities to connect the disappearances with his crimes. During this period, Francisco also began documenting his crimes more systematically. He maintained detailed mental records of each murder. Developing a methodology that anticipates the techniques of modern serial killers.
The Final Capture: An Old Man’s Mistake
In 1895, five years after his release, Francisco had killed at least a dozen more women. But this time, age was beginning to take its toll. His reflexes were slower. His physical strength diminished.
It was during an attempted kidnapping that he committed the fatal error that would seal his fate definitively. The chosen victim was a young merchant named Isabella Morales. She had arrived in Mexico City to sell artisan products from her native village.
A Victim Who Knew How to Fight
Francisco approached her with his usual technique. Offering a generous price for her products in exchange for a private meeting near the river. But Isabella was different from previous victims. Daughter of a military veteran, she had been trained in self-defense since childhood.
When Francisco tried to grab her, she reacted with violence that took him completely unprepared. The fight that followed attracted the attention of several people who ran to help the young woman. Francisco was captured in the act. Hands still around Isabella’s neck.
This time, there was no way to deny. No way to escape. At 55 years old, Mexico’s first documented serial killer had finally reached the end of his criminal career.
Death in Prison: The End of El Chalequero
The second trial of Francisco was even more revealing than the first. Now with more evidence and witnesses, the true scope of his crimes was finally exposed. Psychologists of the era examined him. Determined he possessed extreme psychopathic tendencies. Including an Oedipus complex that led him to project the image of his abusive mother onto all his victims.
Francisco was again condemned to death. But this time the sentence wouldn’t be commuted. He spent his final years in Lecumberri prison. He continued exercising a sinister influence over other detainees. He offered advice on female control. Religious justifications for domestic violence.
The Letters to Admirers
During his final years, Francisco maintained correspondence with admirers who had heard about his crimes. These letters, discovered decades later, revealed he had developed followers. Men who tried to imitate his methods. His influence extended far beyond his direct crimes.
Francisco Guerrero Pérez died in prison in 1908 at 68 years old. Until his last days, he maintained the conviction that he had fulfilled a divine mission. His last recorded words were a distorted prayer. Thanking God for the opportunity to purify so many women.
His death brought no peace to his victims’ families. Many never knew the exact fate of their daughters, sisters, and mothers. Francisco took with him secrets about the whereabouts of bodies that were never found. Leaving entire families without closure.
The Legacy That Refuses to Die
Francisco Guerrero Pérez died over a century ago. But his story continues resonating through time as a somber reminder about human capacity for evil. For almost three decades, between 1880 and 1908, he terrorized Mexico City. Killing at least 20 women. Torturing dozens of others who managed to escape.
The Descendant Who Broke the Silence
What makes Francisco’s story even more disturbing? The fact that he never demonstrated genuine remorse for the crimes committed. The family of Francisco tried to erase his legacy from history. They changed names. Moved to other regions. Denied any kinship with the killer.
But in 2018, exactly 110 years after his death, one of his descendants broke the silence. In a shocking interview for a Mexican podcast. This descendant, whose name remains protected by court order, revealed that the family had maintained Francisco’s personal writings as relics for generations.
More disturbing still, he admitted recognizing in himself some of his macabre ancestors’ behavioral patterns. The misogyny. The need for control. The violent impulses. The difference, according to him? He chose to seek psychological help instead of giving free rein to the dark impulses he feels growing inside.
Bones Found in 2020
In 2020, during excavations for an urban renovation project near the old course of the Consulado River, workers discovered human bones. Bones that may belong to unidentified victims of Francisco.
Authorities denied any connection. But independent investigations suggest he may have killed many more women than official numbers indicate. Somewhere in the dark waters still running through Mexico City, the spirits of his victims continue crying out for justice that never fully arrived.
Because Francisco Guerrero Pérez may have died. But the legacy of terror he created continues to live. Whispering through generations like a curse that refuses to be broken.
Related Cases
Sources: Mexican criminal archives, Lecumberri prison records, contemporary newspaper accounts from El Monitor Republicano and El Siglo Diez y Nueve, interviews with descendants (2018). December 2025.
