The serial killer who sowed fear on the streets of Madrid in 2003 left mysterious traces next to the bodies of his victims.
Izvor: Youtube/ The Back of the Archive/Screenshot
Twenty years ago, in 2003, Spain faced an alarming rise in violent crime, and the capital Madrid was at the center of this upsurge. During that time, in February of the same year, a body was found at a bus stop in Madrid’s Barajas district. The bus driver found the body and contacted the authorities. The victim was identified as a 28-year-old janitor named Juan Carlos Martin Estacio. Juan Carlos was killed by someone with a gun and no obvious connections between him and the mafia or any criminal gangs could be found. Soon there is one game card from the Spanish deck of cups found next to the victim’s feet, which sparked media interest. What could be the significance of this card, the Ace of Cups, was discussed in all the TV news shows and newspaper articles.
Just a month after the murder of Juan Carlos, a couple in the Tres Cantos area of the capital was suddenly approached by a man who then shot one of them, Santiago Eduardo Salas, in the face. Santiago’s girlfriend, Anahid, managed to escape unharmed, because she reported that the killer’s gun probably malfunctioned and he had to flee the scene. But before he left, he dropped another card, the two of hearts right at the scene of the crime. Only eleven days later, in the same month of March, a Romanian couple in Madrid’s Arganda del Re region was killed, and two cards, the Three of Cups and the Four of Cups, were on the scene.
While the media had already begun to extensively follow the case and tried to find out everything about the mysterious significance of the cards, these three murders led to an absolute media frenzy. Police authorities were also under pressure to find the perpetrator as quickly as possible and began their investigation into one of the country’s most gruesome serial murders. People no longer went out into the streets out of fear, and the killer killed both day and night and randomly – there was no target group.
Police investigators were following another matter at the time and weren’t too concerned about the maps left at crime scenes. Instead, they were focused on the weapon used to commit the murders, which was a very specific type of gun. Based on the wounds in each of the cases, it was concluded that the bullet found in each crime was a 7.62 millimeter caliber, which in itself is very different from the usual size of 9 millimeters. This specific bullet was only used with a special gun called the Tokarev. All the bullets used in the murders were from the former Yugoslavia. and this fit well with the fact that countries with Soviet influence often kept the Tokarev as part of their official arsenal. The question that concerned the police now was how the person obtained a foreign weapon that was illegal in Spain, and they investigated the matter to find the gun.
At the same time, the police connected these three murders with two other incidents that happened earlier, but in which there was no playing card at the scene of the crime. In January 2003, a month before the murder of Juan Carlos, A 50-year-old doorman named Juan Francisco Ledesma was shot dead in his own home in front of his son. The bullet used in this case was also the same 7.62mm Tokarev bullet, suggesting that the same gun was used, certainly by the same perpetrator, as the gun was extremely rare and only one person in Madrid probably had it. Then, the very next day after the murder of Juan Carlos, an attacker entered a bar called Rojas in the locality of Alcala de Henares and killed a young man and a woman. The bullets used in this case were also similar. So these two murders were seemingly connected to the same serial killer, even though no playing cards were found at the crime scene.
Who was Fichaje? Was he the real perpetrator?
The fact that the killer used a Russian gun was quickly linked to the fact that the Spanish military has been on missions in former Soviet countries in recent years.. It was suggested that the perpetrator must have been a member of the army, and it was also believed that he must have been a supporter of the Spanish ultra-right, who had a prominent position in the army. This theory was actually proposed by a journalist, as some of the victims were immigrants in Spain and foreign nationals. This theory then answered the question of how the killer got hold of the Tokarev gun, and soon the police were asking the army for records of soldiers and officials receiving treatment for mental health problems.
Until then, there were two survivors who escaped from the serial killer – Anahid, in Tres Cantos, as well as the owner of the Rojas bar, Teresa, who survived even after being shot. The police received sketches of the perpetrator’s face based on the testimony of both women. but the two sketches did not match at first. To further the investigation, the police have now asked for Teresa’s help to identify the killer. A number of men, all of whom had served in the Spanish army and were also linked to far-right beliefs, were picked up by the police, and Teresa was asked to identify the attacker from the ranks.
Kartaški ubica
Izvor: Youtube/The Back of the Archive
The man whom she seems to have identified was immediately arrested, and he is known by the name of Fichaje. The man was a club bouncer before serving as a paratrooper in Bosnia, and it is also known that he had neo-Nazi beliefs. However, it later turned out that Fichaje actually had nothing to do with the murders, and the man was released from police custody. One of the investigative journalists later revealed that the arrest was made by the authorities only to influence the elections in Madrid which were to be held only a week later. The government was also apparently under duress and ordered the arrest of any possible suspect to show the public that it was taking active steps against violent crimes.
How was the card killer Alfredo Galan caught?
While the police continued to investigate the case, there were no new leads or suspects in the following days, until the matter took a surprising turn in July of the same year in the Puertolano region of the Spanish province of Ciudad Real. A man named Alfredo Galan Sotillo he walked into the local police station in Puertolan and confessed that he was the real card killer. Although the police were naturally surprised by this and did not even want to believe the man’s claims, Galan provided details about the crimes that only the perpetrator could have known.For example, all the cards left by the killer were marked with a certain blue marker, but the police never published that detail in the media. However, Galan knew about this and told the police. Another example is that Galan described the crime scene at Juan Ledesma’s house with details that until now only the police knew.
Galan was a member of the Spanish army that went to Bosnia on a humanitarian mission sometime before 2003, and that’s where he acquired the Tokarev pistol.. The mission the soldiers were carrying out was to get rid of weapons from the general public, and the man found Tokarev during that time. When the army was leaving the country and returning to Spain, Galan hid the gun in a television set and brought it back to Madrid with his luggage.
Very soon it was officially announced that Alfredo Galan was indeed a real serial killer and he was sent to trial. However, Galan initially admitted to crimes under the influence of alcohol, and he then denied his statements the next morning when he woke up sober in a police station cell. He soon denied any involvement in the crimes before changing his story slightly. Galan now claimed that he had indeed returned the Tokarev gun to Spain, but that he had then sold it to two men, whom he described as “skinheads”.. Galan claimed that the murders were committed by these two men. The two allegedly threatened Galan that he must go to the police and confess to crimes he did not commit, otherwise they would kill his sister. But neither the police authorities nor the court wanted to hear more about this theory, and they almost didn’t want to let Alfred Galan go free at any cost. Galan had a history of mental health issues, dating back to his time in the military to cleaning up the Prestige oil spill. According to records at the time, he once tried to steal a car from an elderly woman and underwent a mental health evaluation afterward. Galan was then voluntarily dismissed from the service and returned to Madrid, where he actively followed local and global news about politics.. Some of his old friends from the army also revealed that he had indeed become involved with the far-right ultra-Sur groups in the army. Alfredo Galan has seemingly become violent and disinterested in the people around him. He stated that he chose to kill people just for the sake of it, and he really chose his victims at random, killing whoever he could when he was in the mood to kill. Throwing cards at the scene of the crime, which became his signature sign, wasn’t even part of his plan, and he only picked it up after the media frenzy. The presence of the Ace of Cups at the first crime scene it was a mere coincidence, but the way the media theorized about it made Galan feel he should go ahead with it.
What finally happened to Alfred Galan?
After the police investigation was completed and the court process began, various psychological experts spoke to Galan and concluded that he was indeed without a conscience for his actions. The details with which he described his murders made it seem as if he was secretly proud of his actions. On the last day of the trial, the judge allowed Galan to say whatever he wanted, but he refused to speak. To many, this was indicative that he was indeed guilty of the murders and therefore had nothing to say in his defense. Alfredo Galan Sotillo was eventually sentenced to 142 years in prison for all the murders he committed and attempted to commit., and the court also made it difficult for him to receive any privileges in prison or parole. Dok he was in prison, Galan wrote a letter to the police in 2015 in which he wanted to help them solve the case of the murder of Eva Blanco, a sixteen-year-old girl who was raped and killed back in 1997. He noted that the police should use the media to pursue him, as they had previously done with Galan himself. In 2016, Galan also changed his name and published a novel from prison, which told the story of a gay teenager who is regularly bullied at school.
Based on this case, Netflix made a documentary that describes each crime in detail, and it also features two women who survived the serial killer.
(WORLD)