Las Poquianchis

María Delfina González Valenzuela (1912 – 17 October 1968), María del Carmen González Valenzuela (1918–1949), María Luisa González Valenzuela (1920 – 19 November 1984) and María de Jesús González Valenzuela (1924–1990), known as Las Poquianchis, were four sisters from the western Mexican state of Jalisco. From 1950 until 1964, the sisters ran "Rancho El Ángel", the locus of their large-scale prostitution ring and the site of the murder of at least 91 people, but it is believed that the four sisters killed more than 150 people or even more than 200 people. Guinness World Records called them the "most prolific murder partnership".

Biography

The sisters were born in the rural town of El Salto de Juanacatlán, Jalisco, to Isidro Torres, a policeman, and his wife, Bernardina Valenzuela. Their father was reportedly a strict man who expected his daughters to not wear makeup or interact with boys. If they broke his rules, the sisters were punished by beatings or confinement in the very jail cells where he interrogated prisoners. Contemporary and later accounts report that their father was a policeman with a reputation for brutality and alcoholism.

Following an incident where Isidro Torres shot and killed a man with his service pistol during a heated argument, the family had to relocate to the village of San Francisco del Rincón, Guanajuato, where they had to change their surname. The resulting loss of income and isolation caused them to sink into deep poverty.

With their father's abuse worsening, the sisters pooled their money to open a bar to support themselves financially.