Manuel Delgado Villegas

Background

Manuel Delgado Villegas, also known as El Arropiero, was born in Seville, Spain on January 25, 1943. He was the son of José Delgado Martín.

His mother died during childbirth. Because his father worked as an itinerant salesman, Manuel Delgado Villegas and his sister Joaquina were sent to live with their maternal grandmother in Mataró, Catalonia. Manuel Delgado Villegas and his sister lived with their grandmother in the predominently Andalusian neighbourhood of La Cirera.

He attended school but never learned to read and write.

In 1961, at age 18, Manuel Delgado Villegas enlisted in the Spanish Legion. There he learned hand-to-hand combat techniques, including one of his preferred methods of killing, the golpe legionario or golpe mortal (literally "death blow"), described as a strike to the larynx with the knife-edge of the hand.

Timeline

• January 25, 1943 — Manuel Delgado Villegas was born in Seville, Spain.
• 1961 — At age 18, he enlisted in the Spanish Legion.
• February 21, 1971 — After the discovery of Antonia "Toñi" Rodríguez Relinque’s body in a secluded spot known as Pago Galvecito, on the outskirts of El Puerto de Santa María, he confessed to her murder.
• 1978 — The Audiencia Nacional ordered that he be preventively detained at Carabanchel Penitentiary Psychiatric Hospital.
• December 2, 1998 — He was released into the care of a psychiatric hospital in 1998.
• February 2, 1998 — Manuel Delgado Villegas died at the Hospital Can Ruti in Badalona.

Investigation

Manuel Delgado Villegas was active between 1964 and 1971. He claimed to have carried out 48 murders in Spain, Italy and France. Spanish police were only able to investigate twenty-two of these cases and charged him with eight.

At the time of his arrest, it was reported that he was diagnosed as having XYY syndrome, which led to claims that it may have been responsible for his violent behaviour. The link between XYY syndrome and violent behaviour has been disproven by modern studies of the condition.

In the process of investigating the veracity of his claims, the investigating magistrate of El Puerto de Santa María, Conrado Gallardo Ros, along with detectives involved in the cases, accompanied Manuel Delgado Villegas to the scenes of the crimes where he re-enacted and explained the crimes. He became the first serial killer to travel the scenes of his crimes by airplane.

Arrest

Following the disappearance of Antonia "Toñi" Rodríguez Relinque, a 38 year-old mentally retarded woman who had been seen on various occasions in the company of Manuel Delgado Villegas, the police accompanied Manuel Delgado Villegas to El Puerto de Santa María police station. He was questioned by Cadiz's Brigada de Investigación Criminal (Criminal Investigation Division) over the disappearance of the person who they now knew to be his girlfriend.

He initially denied killing Antonia "Toñi" Rodríguez Relinque. Following the discovery of her body in a secluded spot known as Pago Galvecito, on the outskirts of El Puerto de Santa María, on February 21, 1971, he confessed to her murder.

Manuel Delgado Villegas confessed that he had strangled the woman with her own tights whilst having sex. The local newspaper, the Diario de Cádiz, dubbed him El estrangulador del puerto (The Puerto strangler).

Over the next few days he admitted his culpability in the murders of four others.

Trial

He was never brought to trial because he was diagnosed with a severe mental disorder.

In 1978 the Audiencia Nacional ordered that he be preventively detained at Carabanchel Penitentiary Psychiatric Hospital.

Sentencing

Manuel Delgado Villegas was preventively detained at Carabanchel Penitentiary Psychiatric Hospital.

Outcome

He was never brought to trial.

He was released into the care of a psychiatric hospital in 1998 and died soon after.

Aftermath

Manuel Delgado Villegas died on February 2, 1998 at the Hospital Can Ruti in Badalona as a result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The offence

Manuel Delgado Villegas was associated with claims of multiple murders. The Spanish police investigated twenty-two and charged him with eight.

Victims

Adolfo Folch Muntaner (January 21, 1964) — A 49 year-old chef. He was killed on a beach in Llorac as he slept. "I saw a sleeping man leant against a wall. I approached him and very slowly, with a large rock that I had picked up close to the wall, hit him over the head. When I realised that he was dead, I took his wallet and the watch on his wrist. He had barely anything in it and the watch was crap! —Manuel Delgado Villegas

Margaret Hélène Thelese Boudrie (June 20, 1967) — A 21 year-old French student from Lyon. She was staying at Can Plana, a holiday home five kilometres from Ibiza, along with a friend.

Venancio Hernández Carrasco (July 20, 1968) — A 71 year-old man. Hernández was tending to his vineyards by the banks of the Tajuña River in the town Chinchón when he was approached by Manuel Delgado Villegas. Delgado asked him for some food, to which Hernández replied that he was young and that if he wanted to eat that he had to work. This comment cost him his life. His body was found floating in the river near the San Galindo dam. The police initially reported it as an accidental drowning.

Ramón Estrada Saldrich (April 5, 1969) — Killed in Barcelona.

Anastasia Borrella Moreno (November 23, - 1969) — Killed in Mataró.

Francisco Marín Ramírez (December 3, 1970) — A 28 year-old electrician for Renfe. He was a friend of Manuel Delgado Villegas. Manuel Delgado Villegas claimed that he had killed Marín after he had made sexual advances towards him. His body was found by a fisherman on December 12, floating in the Guadalete river, underneath the San Alejandro bridge in El Puerto de Santa María.

Antonia Rodríguez Relinque (January 18, 1971) — A 38 year-old woman. Manuel Delgado Villegas’s girlfriend, killed in El Puerto de Santa María.