By With sadistic patterns and disturbing motivations, these criminals became figures as feared as they were misunderstood. What led them to commit such unimaginable atrocities? We tell you.
Although Spain is not a country traditionally associated with serial killers, it has recorded chilling cases that shocked the nation and left scars in its collective memory. These individuals not only challenged the authorities, but turned the streets into a place of constant fear.
Each of them carries a history of psychopathy, trauma and excessive violence that catapulted them into public horror. And their meticulous and repetitive ways left an indelible mark on the country’s criminal archive, transforming their names into synonyms of terror.
1. Manuel Delgado Villegas (48 victims)
Known as ” el Arropiero ” , Manuel Delgado is considered the biggest serial killer in the criminal history of Spain. Throughout his life, he confessed to killing 48 people between 1964 and 1971, although only eight of these homicides could be proven.
Born in 1943 in Seville, Delgado was a vagabond who travelled around Spain and other European countries, choosing his targets at random. His modus operandi consisted of strangling his victims with his bare hands or hitting them on the head with stones or blunt objects.
In addition to the extreme violence of his crimes, this man had paraphilias and disturbing sexual behaviors that made him even more feared. He had sexual relationships with both men and women and, in several of his murders, he committed acts of necrophilia , which adds a layer of horror to his profile.
“El Arropiero” suffered from severe mental disorders and was a very dangerous and unpredictable figure. His capture in 1971 was accidental and, after his arrest, the authorities discovered the extent of his crimes. He was never tried due to his psychiatric diagnosis, and spent the rest of his life in mental hospitals, until he died in 1998 from a lung disease.
2. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega (16 victims)
Also known as “El Mataviejas” , he was one of the most infamous serial killers in Spain, responsible for the deaths of 16 elderly women between 1987 and 1988. He was born in 1957 in the city of Santander, capital of the Cantabria region.
Rodríguez Vega already had a criminal record for sexual assault before becoming a serial killer. Due to multiple rapes, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 1978, but only served eight years and was released in 1986 for good behavior.
After his release, he began his crime spree, targeting older women, whom he considered easy prey due to their vulnerability.
He gained the trust of his victims, all aged between 61 and 93, by posing as a friendly repairman or someone willing to help them with household chores. Once in their homes, he would attack them brutally, raping and murdering them, almost always by suffocation or strangulation.
Authorities captured the killer in 1988 after an investigation revealed his pattern of behavior. During the investigation, it was discovered that José Antonio not only acted with chilling meticulousness, but also had sexual relations with his victims, both before and after killing them.
During his trial, he showed a complete lack of remorse and a defiant attitude towards the court. In 1991, he was sentenced to 440 years in prison for 16 murders, but his end was as brutal as his crimes: in 2002, he was stabbed to death by two cellmates in Topas prison in Salamanca.
3. Francisco Garcia Escalaro (11 victims)
Nicknamed ” El Matabegdigos ” (Beggar Killer) , García Escalero is one of Spain’s most notorious murderers, with 11 confirmed victims. He was born in 1949 in Valladolid and began his criminal career in the 1990s, moving between several cities and using his beggarly appearance to gain the trust of his victims.
This criminal targeted vulnerable people, often in helpless situations, and attacked them. His methods included hanging and stabbing , and his crimes are believed to have been motivated by a mixture of hatred for society and a drive for domination.
His unkempt appearance and beggar-like behavior allowed him to avoid suspicion for a time, as he blended in with the population without raising too many alarms.
He was arrested in 1998 and, during the trial, it was determined that his schizophrenia made him unaccountable. He declared that ” I heard inner voices , they called me, to do things, strange things, that I had to kill.” After the sentence, the authorities confined him in the Fontcalent penitentiary psychiatric hospital (Alicante), where he died in 2014 after choking on a plum stone.
4. Joaquin Ferrandiz Ventura (5 victims)
Originally from Valencia, Joaquín Ferrándiz, alias ” Ximo “, became one of the most famous serial killers in Spain, after killing five women between 1995 and 1996 in the province of Castellón.
Unlike other criminals, Ferrándiz Ventura, born in 1963, seemed to lead a normal life, working as an insurance agent, which allowed him to move freely without raising suspicion. But behind that facade, he hid a mind obsessed with sexual violence .
In 1989, Ferrándiz was convicted of sexual assault. However, in May 1995, he was released for good behavior. Upon his release from prison, his impulses intensified, and he began raping and murdering young women, targeting them in a calculated and meticulous manner.
He would approach his victims on the road while they were hitchhiking or after leaving bars and clubs; then he would take them to remote places where he would rape them, strangle them and abandon their bodies.
Ferrándiz was arrested in 1998 and sentenced to 69 years in prison, but was released in 2023 after serving 25 years. This was because the revisable life sentence, which could have extended his sentence, was not in force when the sentence was imposed. Consequently, he was allowed to be released after serving the stipulated time.
5. Alfredo Galan (6 victims)
Between January 24, 2003 and March 20 of the same year, Madrid experienced the terrifying period of murders committed by Alfredo Galán Sotillo, known as ” the Playing Card Killer . ” During those two months, Galán killed six people and left a playing card next to each of his victims.
His nickname originated when during his second attack, at a bus stop, an ace of cups appeared on the scene, a detail that the press used to baptize him.
He was a former soldier who served in Bosnia and was diagnosed with neurosis and anxiety after his return . Although his sentence did not recognise any psychiatric pathology, his crimes revealed a disturbing behaviour. He killed from behind and at close range, seeking to experience the sensation of taking a life.
Police arrested Galán in 2003 in Puertollano after he confessed to the crimes, although he later retracted his statement, alleging coercion by a neo-Nazi. Despite his retraction, evidence, such as bullet casings and testimony from survivors, confirmed his guilt.
He was sentenced to 140 years, although Spanish law limited his imprisonment to 25 years, the same as Joaquín Ferrándiz. Because of this, he is expected to be released in 2028. Galán’s story inspired a documentary series for Netflix.
6. Joan Vila Dilmé (11 victims)
Also known as “the Olot Caretaker” and “the Nursing Home Killer ”, Joan Vila Dilmé is considered the biggest Spanish serial killer of this century, with a total of 11 victims. Born in 1968 in Girona, Vila trained as a nursing assistant in 2005. He committed his murders between 2007 and 2009 at the La Caritat nursing home in Olot, Girona, where he killed nine women and two men.
He used various methods to poison the elderly, including administering caustic products such as lye, which caused severe internal damage and agony . He also mixed barbiturates into residents’ drinks and administered lethal doses of insulin, which induced severe hypoglycemia and led to death.
The case was discovered in 2009 when Vila murdered his last victim, Paquita Gironès, by giving her bleach to drink. The authorities intervened because they did not believe that he died naturally. The subsequent investigation revealed the pattern of murders and the subject’s modus operandi , which culminated in a sentence of 127 and a half years in prison, of which he will only serve 40.
Vila is currently serving his sentence at the Puig de les Basses Penitentiary Centre, sharing a cell with another inmate and actively participating in activities within the facility. His family, who have been marked by the stigma of his crimes, live in a state of seclusion and silence in their hometown. Journalist and writer Matías Crowder recounts the case of Vila Dilmé in his book El Celador de Olot (2022).
An indelible stain on the history of Spain
Learning about the stories of Spain’s most famous serial killers helps us understand not only their dark crimes, but also the complex factors that drove them. These cases, although shocking, are a window into the mysteries of the human mind.
Evil has no limits and reflecting on these events helps to value the importance of justice, support for victims and the construction of a safer and more conscious society.