The stifling heat of almost 50 degrees enveloped the Los Galindos farmhouse on July 22, 1975, the day five people lost their lives in the farmhouse. The owners of the estate were the Marquises of Grañina. Some maintain, including one of the couple's children, that the marquis could have been involved in the tragic events.
The deceased were the foreman of Los Galindos, Manuel Zapata, 59 years old; his wife, Juana Martín, 53 (both lived in a house on the farm); another farm employee, José González, 27; his wife, 33, Asunción Peralta, the only one who was not linked to the agricultural exploitation; and tractor driver Ramón Parrilla, 39.
Those were the five people murdered for reasons that were never officially clarified. The case expired in 1995 without any punishment.
The Los Galindos farm is located in Paradas, a municipality in the province of Seville. Alba García, local Culture Councilor, calls for the town not to be defined solely by this tragic event.
However, he acknowledges that the incident, which has been the subject of numerous rumors and theories over the years, has left a deep mark on the community, often fueled by legends and falsehoods.
Except in the case of Ramón Parrilla, the tractor driver, whose body was found with gunshot wounds, the other four victims died mainly due to blows inflicted with a piece of iron, similar to an old television antenna known as a “little bird.” ”, irregularly. In addition to the blows, some of the victims also suffered impacts with the butt.
The person or persons responsible tried to burn the bodies of the couple, José González and Asunción Peralta, in a shed. According to Professor Luis Frontela, who performed a second autopsy ten years after the crime, it is suggested that this attempted arson occurred after a possible attempt to dismember the bodies.
Juana Martín's body was found hidden in a room of her house, located in the foreman's house, although it seems that she was attacked near the door, as suggested by the trail of blood on the floor. To move it, two people were needed who carried it loaded with arms and legs.
On the other hand, the body of her husband, Manuel Zapata, the foreman, was discovered three days later covered in straw in an area of the farm that had supposedly already been checked, but that no one noticed at that initial moment. Some maintain that someone placed it there later.
During the three days of his disappearance, Zapata was unjustly suspected of everything. It was when his body was found that investigators, first the Civil Guard and then the Police, focused on José González. He was blamed for a massacre out of jealousy or resentment in an implausible story, suggesting that he then tried to commit suicide by falling into the fire after fainting.
“The initial moments after the discovery of the bodies were chaotic. All the evidence was destroyed,” Dr. Ildefonso Arcenegui tells La Vanguardia. At that time, he was a medical student who accompanied his father, a retired forensic doctor, but who had to take charge of the surveys due to the absence of the heads of the court, who were on vacation, as was the own instructor.
“When we were heading there, it seemed to be a routine task. However, the murder of a woman was extremely unusual. Most uprisings involved traffic accidents or suicides, such as hangings. Later, I personally found the two bodies that had been the subject of an attempted arson, and later, together with my father, we discovered another body,” explains Dr. Arcenegui, who also documented part of the crime scene with photographs.
During these tasks, he was accompanied at many times by José Zapico, a 78-year-old retired officer from the Écija court, who at that time was on vacation in the area. He was involved in the improvised judicial commission that was organized for the most important criminal case in the province of Seville.
Zapico visited the farm every day for more than a month and a half after that first day that marked his life. He performed visual inspections and took meticulous notes of every detail.
“The scene looked like a market,” Zapico tells this newspaper, referring to the crowd of curious onlookers and journalists who came to the farmhouse after the discovery of the first four bodies.
“It does not seem to have been a crime of passion or rural. In fact, the perpetrators were unarmed, suggesting there was no intention to kill anyone. I don't think there was premeditation,” emphasizes this retiree from the judicial system, who admits that the case has aroused his interest almost to the point of obsession. He is completely familiar with the file.
He believes that the reason behind the foreman's unplanned death - the first to die and the last to be found - was purely economic. In this opinion he agrees with Juan Mateo Fernández de Córdova Delgado, son of the marquises, who was 15 years old at the time of the events. Last year, this businessman published a book, “The crime of the Galindos, the truth” (Almuzara), where he implicates his father, the marquis, in the events.
According to the author, in conversation with La Vanguardia, the marquis would be involved in embezzlement in a cooperative in Utrera, and the foreman, upon discovering it, would have decided to inform the marchioness and her father, who contacted an intimidating man named Curro to persuade Zapata to remain silent. The administrator, Antonio Gutiérrez, would have collaborated with the marquis in this operation.
In the narration of the judicial agent Zapico and in the reconstruction of the events carried out by the marquises' son, premeditation is not mentioned. According to Juan Mateo Fernández de Córdova, “It was something fortuitous. “They wanted to persuade him, and it is even possible that they wanted to attack him, but then everything got complicated.”
After the death of the foreman, the other deaths allegedly occurred by chance and due to the criminal's incompetence. “My father witnessed two of the deaths, but he did not participate in any,” emphasizes the descendant of the marquises.
“With this book, I wanted to prove the innocence of our workers and their wives once and for all, although this has caused me problems with my family. It has been a path full of difficulties, but I am happy with the work done,” highlights the author of the latest book on the Los Galindos crime.
“If what the book tells is true,” says Paradas Councilor for Culture, Alba García, “justice has been done to the victims and the people live in peace and move forward, although there has been a lot of fear here.”
Court officer Zapico does not believe that González de Cordova's account of the events fits what he considers to have occurred and considers it a fictional narrative. "I believe that the motive was economic, but not the one described by the marquis' son, but rather the fact that the marchioness, owner of the properties, was going to separate (as actually happened the year after the crime) and leave the marquis “outside the administration of that immense fortune,” comments the man who carried out the first visual inspections.
Regardless of who is right, the interrogations of the then marquis were marked by the old late Franco methods. A retired Army major, he was interrogated by a post chief corporal who reportedly had to honor him on several occasions, suggesting that he was not going to submit easily. He stated that he would spend the first night after the discovery of the first four bodies in the farmhouse and no one could stop him.
In the book, the marquis' son relates that he and the administrator had hidden the foreman's body in a closet in the house and then moved it outside. Zapico does not believe this version, but others do.
45 years of uncertainty have passed, with new challenges. The marquis' son does not rule out a second installment with information provided by people who say they know the facts and who have reacted after reading his book.
