Campo Elías Delgado Morales

Case record: Campo Elías Delgado Morales

Background

Campo Elías Delgado Morales was a Colombian Vietnam War veteran. He lived with his mother. He was an electronics engineer and studied medicine. He taught private English lessons and was taking graduate studies at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He served in the Vietnam War, including a second tour as a voluntary, and friends reported that his experience in Vietnam had made him antisocial and bitter.

Some acquaintances described his relationship with his mother, Rita Elisa Morales de Delgado, as tense and often violent, and said he often beat her. He grew more resentful of his mother over time. After his father committed suicide when Delgado was married in Argentina, Delgado blamed his mother and later did not develop friendships, which he also attributed to her.

The offence

On 4 December 1986, Delgado embarked on a killing spree. The murders started in the afternoon in the apartment of one of Delgado’s English students, Claudia Rincón, and her mother, Nora Becerra de Rincón.

Delgado stabbed Claudia Rincón, who was 15 years old, and Nora Becerra de Rincón to death. He then returned to the apartment he shared with his mother and packed his briefcase with ammunition and loaded his pistol. He walked up behind his mother and killed her with a single stab to the back of the neck. He wrapped her corpse in newspapers and set them on fire.

Delgado ran through the apartment complex screaming “ ¡Fuego! ¡Fuego! ” (Fire! Fire!), luring people into the main hallway where he killed them one by one. One man was killed with a knife. Delgado then took the firearm from the briefcase and opened fire on others, killing five more people. He then left for an Italian restaurant in the Chapinero district.

Delgado arrived at the restaurant at around 19:30 EST and ordered an expensive meal (spaghetti alla bolognese according to accounts of survivors and Mendoza's book), red wine, and eight vodka tonics. About one hour into the dinner, he opened fire on the diners. A woman quickly called police, who arrived ten minutes later. By the time police arrived, Delgado had shot 21 people to death, mostly women.

Delgado’s method involved cornering his victim and shooting them at point-blank range in the forehead, then moving on to the next victim. Delgado promised himself not to kill any children, but he accidentally killed a six-year-old girl sitting at an adjacent table when his pistol misfired.

During the police response, Delgado turned his attention to police, holding them off for one minute. Delgado was apparently killed with a shot to the temple by a police officer. There was also a belief that Delgado committed suicide.

Investigation

Police later discovered with a comparison of the bullets that Delgado was shot by a police officer when he was reloading. Other reports indicated that police determined no motive for the shootings.

Some accounts alleged that Delgado’s killings involved firearms and that there was controversy over whether police were responsible for some deaths, including an allegation that Delgado only had a revolver and a knife, while many of the dead were killed by an Uzi. Another account also described the shoot-out as ending when a police bullet found its way into Delgado’s head.

Quotes

Delgado was heard screaming “ ¡Fuego! ¡Fuego! ” (Fire! Fire!) to lure people into the main hallway.

Arrest / police action

Police arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes after a woman called them. Delgado continued shooting when police arrived, and police stormed into the restaurant. Delgado was killed during the resulting shoot-out.

Trial

No trial information was provided.

Sentencing

No sentencing information was provided.

Appeals

No appeals information was provided.

Outcome

Delgado was killed during a shoot-out with the police the same day.

The total number of people killed was given as 27, 28, or 29 across the accounts in the material: one account said 27 people died; another said a total of 27 people died; another said 28 were slain; and another said Delgado killed 30 people with 15 wounded. In the detailed enumeration of victims included in the material, the number of named dead victims was 28 and the number of named wounded victims was 8.

Victims

Delgado’s victims killed in the material included the following individuals:

• Nora Isabel Becerra de Rincón
• Claudia Marcela Rincón, 14
• Gloria Isabel Agudelo León, 50
• Gloria Inés Gordi Galat
• Nelsy Patricia Cortés, 26
• Matilde Rocío González Rojas, 23
• Mercedes Gamboa Gonzáles, 20
• Maria Claudia Bermúdez Durán
• Diana Cuevas, 45
• Carlos Alfredo Cabal Cabal
• Pezantes Andrade Antonio Maximiliano Pezantes
• Hernando Ladino Benavides, 41
• Grace Guzmán Valenzuela
• Giorgio Pindi Vanelli
• Judith Glogower Lester
• Zulemita Glogower Lester
• Alvaro J. Montes
• Jairo Enrique Gómez Remolina, director of Revista Vea
• Rita Julia Valenzuela de Guzmán, 51
• Andrés Montaño Figueroa
• Alvaro Pérez Buitrago, major in the Colombian military
• Sonia Adriana Alvarado
• Guillermo Umaña Montoya
• Margie Cubillos Garzón, 6
• Laureano Bautista Fajardo
• Sandra Henao de López

The wounded victims included:

• Victor Mauricio Pérez Serrano
• Maribel Arce de Pérez
• Juliet Robledo
• Jose Darío Martínez
• Miriam Ortiz de Parrado
• Alfonso Cubillos
• Yolanda Garzón de Cubillos
• Jhon Cubillos Garzón
• Pedro Jose Sarmiento

Other details

A journalist reported that Delgado was described as a fan of the novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Police said he killed his mother, set her afire, and then killed 18 others, including 14 in a restaurant. Another report described him as a 52-year-old teacher who fatally shot his mother, set her afire, and went on a shooting spree in his apartment building and a nearby restaurant before being killed by police, and said a total of 27 people died.

Some accounts described Delgado as having fought with US forces in Vietnam. Pentagon officials were said to have no such record, and could not rule out the possibility in another report.

A witness account quoted Juan Guillermo Gomez as saying police surrounded the restaurant and ordered Delgado to surrender, and that he continued shooting. Another friend, Saul Serrato, said Delgado had been a crewman on a plane in Vietnam and had fought with United States troops there.

“His experience in the war in Vietnam seems to have been very negative because he hated violence,” Saul Serrato said in an interview with the Caracol radio chain.

Among the dead, one account stated that the daughter-in-law of former President Betancur was killed.

The novel “Satanas” (Satan) by Colombian writer Mario Mendoza was published in 2002 and analyzed the case of Delgado. Mario Mendoza met Delgado at the university in Bogota when he was a literature student and talked to Delgado “just a couple of days before the massacre.” In 2006, Colombian filmmakers Rodrigo Guerrero (Producer) and Andi Baiz (Director) adapted “Satanas” into a film with the same title.

President Virgilio Barco expressed shock at the massacre. Hospitals appealed for blood donations to save survivors of a massacre carried out by a deranged Vietnam war veteran who killed 29 people, including his mother.

Across accounts, Delgado’s age was reported as 52 and his lifespan as June 24, 1934 – December 4, 1986. One account described him as living with his mother and having returned to Colombia 15 years earlier to live with her in a Bogotá apartment. Another account stated that he lived for several years in the United States.