Juana Barraza was dealt a terrible hand. So, she made it her mission to ruin the lives of society’s vulnerable...
Taking to the ring, La Dama del Silencio – The Lady of Silence – knew how to captivate an audience.
Her real name was Juana Barraza, and she had a passion for lucha libre – astyle of professional wrestling originating from Mexico.
Donning a colourful mask, wrestlers perform high-flying manoeuvres, aiming to pin their opponent to the floor. The loser must then remove his mask.
For Juana, performing to an adoring crowd was miles away from her early life.
Juana did not have the best start to life.
Born to parents Justa Samperio and Trinidad Barraza on 27 December 1957, Juana grew up in Epazoyucan, Hidalgo, a rural area north of Mexico City.
Her mother was a sex worker, and her father was a policeman.
Justa struggled with a crippling alcohol addiction and desperate to get her fix, she would prostitute her young daughter to far older men.
Juana spent her early years in poverty, physically and sexually abused at every turn.
But at 13, her life would change again.
Sold to an old man by her mother, for the price of just three beers, Juana would spend the next five years with her captor, who was known to be violently abusive.
Her rapist would tie her to his bed so she couldn’t escape, and eventually she bore her first son.
After enduring the abuse for five years and after her mother died of cirrhosis, Juana fled to a better life in Mexico City.
Falling into professional wrestling as her career, Juana also had four more children after a string of failed relationships.
But wrestling it seemed, just wasn’t paying the bills.
Losing her eldest son to injuries sustained in a mugging aged just 24, Juana was a single mum and desperate to put food on the table.
She’d been married a few times, but no relationship stuck – her life wasn’t really going anywhere.
It would seem that professional wrestling did not have all the glitz and glamour one might think it has.
And Juana was becoming desperate for cash.
She was never taught to read or write, and therefore struggled to get a good job.
She relied on the cash-in-hand of her wrestling shows – where she only earned £13 to £22 per show – and other menial jobs.
And so, she hatched a very devious plan with her friend Araceli Tapia Martínez.
Dressing as unassuming nurses, the duo planned to visit the homes of the elderly and gain their trust, before robbing them.
And at 6ft 1in and pretty bulky with it, Juana could quite easily overpower her victims.
A heinous crime, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and Juana was never really brought up with a moral compass anyway.
And fo
