Enriqueta Martí

Enriqueta Martí

Enriqueta Martí i Ripollés (Sant Feliu de Llobregat 1868 – Barcelona 12 May 1913) was a Spanish child murderer, kidnapper and procuress of children.

Early life

As a young woman, Enriqueta moved from her hometown of Sant Feliu de Llobregat to Barcelona where she worked as a maidservant and nanny but soon she turned to prostitution, both in brothels and in places dedicated to this activity, like the Port of Barcelona or the Portal de Santa Madrona. In 1895 she married an artist, a painter called Joan Pujaló, but the marriage failed because of, according to Pujaló, Enriqueta's affairs with other men, her strange, false, unpredictable character and her continuous visits to houses of disrepute. In spite of marriage, she continued to visit locales of prostitution and people of doubtful virtue. The pair reconciled and separated approximately six times. At the time of Enriqueta's detention in 1912 the couple had been separated for five years and had not had children.

Enriqueta was leading a double life. During the day she dressed in rags and begged at houses of charity, convents and parishes in the destitute parts of town where she selected children who looked the most abandoned. Taking the children by the hand, she made them pass as her children. Later, she prostituted or murdered them. She did not have any need to beg since her double work as a procurer and prostitute gave her sufficient money to live well. By night she dressed in luxurious clothes, hats and wigs, and attended the El Liceu, the Casino de la Arrabassada and other places where the wealthy of Barcelona gathered. It is probable that in these places she offered her services as procurer of children. In 1909, on the Tragic Week, she was arrested in her flat on Minerva Street in Barcelona, accused of running a brothel that offered sexual services from children between the ages of 3 and 14 years. With her, a young man of a wealthy family was arrested. Thanks to her contacts with high Barcelona society that were contracting her services as procurer of children, Enriqueta was never tried and the matter of the brothel was lost in the judicial and bureaucratic system.

At the same time as she was prostituting children, also she was practicing as a witch-doctor. The products that she used to make her remedies were made from human remains of the children that she was killing, who ranged from infants up to children of 9 years. From these children she used everything that she could, the fat, the blood, the hair, the bones (that normally she turned into powder); for this reason she did not have problems disposing of the bodies of her victims. Enriqueta offered salves, ointments, filters, cataplasms and potions, especially to treat tuberculosis, which was highly feared at the time, and all kinds of diseases that did not have a cure in traditional medicine. Wealthy people were paying big sums of money for these remedies.

It is suspected that she kidnapped to an indeterminate number of children, since she operated over a span of twenty years. At the time of her last arrest they were in her flat in El Raval, exactly the number 29, mezzanine first of Ponent Street (today Joaquín Costa Street), and in different flats in Barcelona where she had lived, the bones of a total of twelve children. The forensic experts had a lot of work since the remains were few and managed to differentiate a total of twelve children. Enriqueta is possibly the deadliest serial killer that has existed in Spain. If she managed to know all the children whom she abducted and killed, the number probably would skyrocket. It is clear that she acted for many years in Barcelona because in the public imagination people suspected that someone was kidnapping babies. There were many children who disappeared without a trace and there was dread among the population.

The first mezzanine of 29, Ponent Street

On February 10, 1912 she kidnapped her last victim: Teresita Guitart Congost. For two weeks the city looked for her and, the midst of the search, there was great public indignation since that the authorities had been extremely passive regarding the missing children. It would be a suspicious neighbor, Claudia Elías, who would find Teresita's trail. On February 17 Elías saw a girl with cropped hair looking from a casement from the interior court of her stairs. The flat was the mezzanine of the number 29, Ponent Street. Elías had never seen this girl. The little one was playing with another child and Claudia asked her neighbor when she saw her appear in the window if the girl was hers. The neighbor in question was Enriqueta Martí, who closed the window without saying a word. Surprised, Claudia Elías commented on the fact to a friend of hers on the same street, a mattress-maker, and that she suspected that the little girl was Teresita Guitart Congost. She also informed him of the strange life that her neighbor of the mezzanine was leading. The mattress-maker informed a municipal agent, Jose Asens of the suspicions of what was happening in Enriqueta's flat and he, in turn, communicated this to his chief, the Ribot brigade. On February 27, with the excuse of a complaint about the possession of chickens in the flat, the Ribot and two more agents went to look for Enriqueta who was in the court of Ferlandina Street informing her of the accusation they took the suspect up to her flat. She proved to be surprised but did not object, probably to avoid suspicions.

When the policemen entered, two girls were found in the flat. One of them was Teresita Guitard Congost and another girl called Angelita. After a statement, Teresita was returned to her parents. She explained how in a moment in the one that moved away from her mother, Enriqueta took her by the hand promising her candies, but Teresita realized that she was being taken too far from her house and wanted to return and Enriqueta covered her with a black rag taking her by force to her flat. After reaching the flat, Enriqueta cut the girl’s hair and changed her name to Felicidad, telling her that she did not have parents, that she was her stepmother and that she had to call her that when they were out on the street. Enriqueta fed her with potatoes and stale bread, she did not beat Teresita but pinched her, and had prohibited her from going out to the windows and balconies. She declared also that she was in the habit of leaving them alone and that one day they risked exploring the rooms that Enriqueta forbade them to enter. In this adventure they found a sack with girl’s clothes full of blood and a boning knife also covered with blood. Teresita never left the flat during her captivity. Angelita's declaration was more frightening. Before Teresita's arrival to the flat, there was a five-year-old boy called Pepito. Angelita declared that she saw Enriqueta, who she was calling “mom”, had killed him on the kitchen table. Enriqueta did not realize that the girl had seen her and Angelita ran to hide in the bed and pretended to sleep. Angelita's identity was more difficult to pinpoint because of the vagueness of Enriqueta's first statements. The girl did not know her real surname and affirmed Enriqueta’s claim that her father was called Joan. The kidnapper maintained that Angelita was her daughter by Joan Pujaló. Enriqueta’s estranged husband presented himself before the judge of his own will only to discover his wife’s arrest and declared that he had not lived with her for years, that they had not had children and that he did not know from where Angelita came. Ultimately Enriqueta stated that she had taken her when she was a newborn of her sister-in-law, whom she made believe that the girl had died at birth. Enriqueta Martí Ripollés was detained and deposited in the “Reina Amalia” prison, an institution demolished in 1936. In the second inspection of the flat, one found the sack about which the girls were speaking, with child's clothes filled with blood and the knife. Also they found another sack with dirty clothes but that the bottom had human bones of small dimensions, at least thirty units. The bones showed evidence that they were exposed to fire. They found also a lounge sumptuously decorated with a cupboard with nice clothes from a boy and girl. This lounge contrasted with the rest of the flat, which was austere and impoverished and smelled badly. In another locked room they found the horror that Enriqueta Martí was hiding. In it, there were fifty pitchers, jars and washbowls with preserved human remains: greasy lard, coagulated blood, children’s hair, skeletons of hands, powdered bones... and pots with the potions, ointments and salves already prepared for sale. Continuing the inspection, two more flats were registered where Enriqueta had lived: a flat in the Tallers Street, a third in Picalqués Street, and a little house in Jocs Florals Street, in Sants. In all of them they found false walls and, in the ceilings, human remains. In the garden of the house on Jocs Florals Street, they found a skull of a three-year-old child and a series of bones that corresponded to 3, 6 and 8-year-old children. Some remains still had pieces of clothes, such as a darned sock, which gave an understanding that Enriqueta had habitually kidnapped children of impoverished families and of scanty means to look for their missing children. They found more housing in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, property of Enriqueta's family, where also they found remains of children in vases and jars, and books of remedies. The house belonged to the Martí family and was known in the population by the nickname of "Lindo", but Joan Pujaló was barred because of the bad administration of the Enriqueta’s father, according to the testimony of the husband.

In Ponent's flat also they found curious things: an ancient book with parchment covers, a book of notes where she had written recipes and potions in elegant calligraphy, a package of letters and notes written in coded language and a list with names of families and very important figures in Barcelona. This list was very controversial since among the population it was believed that it was the list of Enriqueta's rich clients. The people believed that they would not pay for their crimes of pedophilia or of buying human remains to treat their health because of their wealth. The police tried to stop the list from leaking. But it rumors ran that in it there were doctors, politicians, businessmen and bankers. The authorities had the Tragic Week fresh in their minds and, out of the fear of a public riot, they calmed the spirits of people, making that the newspapers would publish an article where it was explained that in the famous list only there were names of people to whom Enriqueta begged and that these families and personalities had been swindled by the lies and requests of the murderer.

Enriqueta was imprisoned in the "Reina Amàlia" jail in wait of judgment. She tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists with a knife of wood, something that made the public indignation explode because the people wanted Enriqueta face trial execution by the garrote. The authorities of the prison made known through the press that measurements had been taken in order that Enriqueta was not left alone, meaning that three of the inmates with more authority in the prison were sharing cell with her. They had instructions to uncover her in bed when she had covered herself to avoid any hidden suicide attempt.

But Enriqueta was never tried for her crimes. A year and three months after her arrest and past the public outrage, her death arrived. Her companions in prison killed her by lynching her on one of the prison patios. The process of Enriqueta was found in phase of instruction in those moments. The murder of the woman did not give an opportunity judge the woman and expose the secrets that she held. The kidnapper and murderer died the early morning of May 12, 1913, officially of a long illness, but the truth was as a consequence of a brutal beating. She was buried secretly in a common grave of the Cementerio del Sudoeste, situated on the mountain of Montjuïc in Barcelona.

Enriqueta's declarations, testimonies

She was interrogated about the presence of the Teresita Guitart in her house and she gave the explanation that her had found her lost and hungry the day before in the Ronda de Sant Pau. Claudia Elías denied this because she had seen the girl in her flat several days before the arrest.

Enriqueta changed his first name, Martí, to Marina. With this surname came known and leased floors of which she almost always missed paying the rent. During the statements to the police confessed her real surname, made that was corroborated by the testimony of her husband, Joan Pujaló.

She was also questioned by the presence of bones and other human remains as well as creams, potions, poultices, ointments and with blood bottles prepared to sell that it possessed in the floor, as well as the boning knife. Had she known that the bones, according to the forensics, had been subjected to high temperatures, i.e. had been burned or cooked. Enriqueta first argued that she made studies of human anatomy. Under pressure from the interrogation she ended up confessing that healer and used children as raw material for the production of their remedies. She was an expert and knew how to make the best remedies and that their preparations were very well paid by wealthy people of good social position. A moment of weakness was when she suggested to investigate the dwellings of the Tallers Street, Picalqués, Jocs Florals and her home in Sant Feliu de Llobregat. At that time, it was already known convicted and wanted to benefit for his services as a procurer of pedophiles. However this moment of weakness and anger about the fate that awaited him, Enriqueta did not say one name of customers.

Regarding Pepito, she was asked for his whereabouts and she said that he was not with her, that he had been the country because he had become ill. She repeated the excuse that she had given to the neighbor, Claudia Elías, when she asked why she did not see him or hear him. Pepito had reached her hands according to her because a family had entrusted the child that she could take over. They knew of the existence of the little boy both by the testimony of Angelita and by that of Claudia Elias, whom she had seen on occasion. The testimony of his murder explained by Angelita and the bloody clothes in a sack, the knife and some remnants of fresh fat, blood and bones shattered the excuse of the murder. These remains were those of Pepito. Nor could she ascertain the family that had been entrusted her with the child, being clear that the boy was another kidnapped child.

An Aragonese immigrant from Alcañiz recognized her as the kidnapper of her infant son, some six years earlier, in 1906. Enriqueta displayed an extraordinary kindness to the exhausted and hungry woman after a very long journey from their land and was allowed to hold the child. With an ingenious excuse, she moved away from the mother then disappeared. The mother never found her son nor came to know what she did with him. It is likely that she used the baby to manufacture her remedies.

She tried to pass Angelita as her daughter by Joan Pujaló. She even taught the girl to say that her father was called Joan, but the girl was completely unaware of their names and she had never seen her supposed father. Pujaló denied that the girl was his, for he had never seen her before and claimed that Enriqueta had faked a pregnancy and childbirth in the past. A medical examination corroborated that Enriqueta had not ever delivered. The final testimony of Enriqueta was that Angelita was actually the daughter whom she had stolen from her sister-in-law, Maria Pujaló, whom she had assisted in childbirth, making her believe that the child had died at birth in order to keep her.

References

• Book La mala dona by Marc Pastor. Template:Ca icon ISBN 9788498672176

• Book, Vampiros: mito y realidad de os no-muertos by Miquel G.Aracil. Template:Es ISBN 9788441412422

• Book, Los diarios de Enriqueta Martí by Pierrot. Template:Es ISBN 9788496106628

• Book El misterio de la calle Poniente by Fernando Gómez. Template:Es ISBN 9788483746738

Enriqueta Martí in literature

• Los diarios de Enriqueta Martí by Pierrot. A novel that centers on a few supposed diaries that Enriqueta Martí wrote before beginning her murderous career. Illustrated by the author.

• El misterio de la calle Poniente by Fernando Gómez. In February, 1912 the disappearance of a three-year-old girl shocked Barcelona. The investigation and the later discoveries showed to the public a series of macabre murders that shook a city that was recovering from La Tragica Semana. The book strolls over many prominent figures who helped to shape the story. Individuals of flesh and bone, many of them incapable of being the protagonists of their own story. Seen separately only they have the value of the anecdotal thing, but on the set they converge to outline faithfully the authentic face of the merciless Enriqueta Martí, who begs by day, dresses as a marquise by night, and knows the power from the darkest side. The fresh blood is her valued goods, the children her suppliers and a sick middle class her clients.

• El Cielo Bajo los Pies by Elsa Plaza. A case that shocked Barcelona in 1912. Enriqueta Martí, called by the derisive names "The Vampiress of Barcelona" and "The Bad Woman", was besieged by all kinds of rumors from the same moment in which the police arrested her, accusing her of making children disappear with the most aberrant intentions, from turning them into objects of pleasure for the wealthy, up to making cosmetics and salves to prolong life. Nevertheless, when a young and indomitable journalist puts all her determination in discerning what hides under these sensational cases of missing children and child exploitation, there is not a delay as the eyes arise before a plot that one forks toward the most unexpected scenes: from the Parisian suburbs to the luxurious flats of the high Catalan middle class, from the caberets and the brothels of the poorest neighborhoods to the casinos and posh dance halls, the extent of exploitation is presented.

External links

• enriquetamarti.wordpress.com. Blog in Catalan with photos and press articles.
• Journal article from 'El país' about Enriqueta. In Spanish. Very accurate.