WEBVTT - A Double Murder in Madrid 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:12.240 and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener discretion advised. On the 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:17.000 morning of August one, nineteen eighty, a Spanish nobleman and 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.920 his wife, the Marquis and Marchioness of Arquillo, had just 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:25.360 moved into their summer chalet in Soto Grande, right outside 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.000 of Madrid, where they would spend the entire month of August. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.640 But neither of them, Maria lords or Quillo nor Manuel 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.760 de la Sierre Torres, her husband, came down for breakfast 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.440 that morning. When the Marquis's driver arrived at the chalet, 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.400 he told the cook how strange it was that they 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.559 had slept in so late. They called them on the 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.599 internal line in the house and no one answered. When 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.880 they went up to the Marquis's room, they found that 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.120 Maria lords or Quillo and Manuel de la Sierre Torres 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.280 had been murdered. Aside from the cook, there hadn't been 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.240 any other domestic workers in the house. Maria and Manuel 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.639 had encouraged them to take the previous afternoon and evening off. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.480 The cook would later tell the police that she hadn't 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:23.240 heard anything. Even more inexplicable was that Bully, the marquess's 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:29.000 famously loud poodle, didn't bark even once that night. It 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.920 seemed like whoever had carried out the murders knew the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:37.160 house well. The killer got in through the indoor pool, 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.440 using a blow torch to activate the latch and get 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.640 into the main house. Even though they broke through the 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.920 glass door in the back of the house, no glass 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.960 shattered to the ground. They knew where the alarm was 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:56.600 and switched it off. Nothing was stolen. There was no 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:02.680 clear suspect. Initially, Maria and Manuel's children, Miriam and Juan, 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:07.600 were considered. After all, the nobles had forty three million 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:12.240 pesitas that their children could have inherited upon their parents' deaths, 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:18.120 but both had alibis. Miriam was with her lover, Richard Rue, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.360 a coworker from her office whom the press nicknamed Dick 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:27.240 the American, and Juan was in London getting a master's 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.960 degree in finance. When the police finally did arrive at 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:38.239 the scene, they discovered one even stranger detail. Someone had 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:43.400 already washed the blood off of Maria and Manuel's bodies. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:54.760 I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood with no 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:59.200 suspect in sight. The investigator on the case declared, quote, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.560 this case is inexplicable. After spending a few hours at 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:08.040 the crime scene. The case would remain inexplicable four months. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.760 The police couldn't find any solid evidence that could pin 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.040 anyone to the murders. There was no murder weapon, no DNA, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.280 just a few bullet casings at the marquess's summer house. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:25.200 This didn't stop the press from speculating about the culprit 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:29.480 of course. By nineteen eighty, the Franco dictatorship had been 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:34.000 over for just five years and journalists were eager to 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.440 flex their new freedom of expression. Besides, in the middle 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.480 of the summer heat, when many Spaniards were on vacation, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.720 there was barely any other news to report on. On 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:51.400 August second, nineteen eighty, the only other story making it 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.200 to the front page of a major Spanish newspaper, El Pais, 0:03:55.760 --> 0:04:01.600 was government vacations paralyzed political activity. The case would only 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.880 pick up steam as months passed and the press speculated 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:13.160 on potential culprits. Readers devoured stories about the iquios in 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:18.200 various newspapers and weeklies, theorizing that the murderer was a 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:23.719 member of the Basque nationalist terrorist group. ETA later that 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.400 it was a hit man, or even that it could 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.240 have been a former domestic worker fired for a gay 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:36.480 affair with the marquess. A clear suspect finally emerged nearly 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:41.000 a year after the murders. One morning in April nineteen 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.000 eighty one, a child playing in the San Juan reservoir 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:49.480 in Madrid found a pistol on the shore. This gun 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.360 matched the one that had killed the Marquesses of Quillo, 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.320 a small twenty two caliber pistol with a silencer. It 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.040 was registered in the name of Miguel Escobedo, the father 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:08.360 of Rafi de Escovedo, the Marquess's estranged son in law, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:14.080 who was married to their daughter, Miriam. Rafi Escobedo was 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:19.440 a handsome law school dropout and a known playboy. Like 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.159 the Marquesses, he was also a noble, as his mom 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.080 was from the Prada Armeno family, but his parents had 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:32.760 fallen on hard times. His family's dire financial circumstances didn't 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.400 get in the way of his social life. He spent 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:41.280 his teens and early twenties cavorting with Madrid's young elite 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.640 Miriam de la Sierra, the marquess's daughter, and Raffi, met 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:50.159 at their equestrian club when she was twenty. Miriam developed 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.480 a crush instantly. She wrote in her memoirs, quote Raffi 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:59.680 was very attentive, charismatic, friendly, and very affectionate. He was 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.440 all he's making plans. He took me to parties. He 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:08.160 even taught me how to dress differently. Raffi provided a 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:14.360 refreshing contrast to Miriam's strict upbringing. Her father was known 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:18.360 for being stingy with his kids, to such an extent 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.719 that Miriam and Juan were called the poor in their 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.640 posh circle of friends. She started working at the age 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.640 of fourteen to earn her own money. With no allowance 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:36.520 to speak of, Miriam hoped that with her responsible, practical attitude, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.360 she could clean up Raffi's act. She wrote in her memoirs, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.719 I love being a mother to everyone. Raffi was like 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:50.800 a child, attractive, charming, friendly. So with Raffi, I adopted 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:56.039 the same role of savior. I wanted to transform him. 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:01.600 Being so young and sheltered, Miriam wasn't yet aware that 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:06.400 an I can fix him. Attitude doesn't exactly bode well 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.480 for a couple. The Marquesses were not so naive. They 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.200 strongly objected to their daughter's marriage, since Raphael had no 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:21.040 job or prospects, but Miriam stuck to her guns, and 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.800 after a year and a half of dating, the couple 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.640 married at the Church of Humera on June twenty first, 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:32.520 nineteen seventy eight, with all members of the high society, 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:37.400 from the Duchess of Alba to the Egyptian ambassador in attendance. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:47.239 The marriage deteriorated almost immediately, as soon as Miriam said, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.520 I do she regretted marrying Rafi. They started out living 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.320 with her parents in their summer home in Sasagas, but 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:01.600 they clashed constantly. Once Rafai even called the Marquess his 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:07.440 father in law a quote pig, miser and cretan. In response, 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:12.040 the Marquess threatened to cut Rafae off without a passetta. 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.200 Sick of fighting with Raffi, the Marquesses threw the young 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.720 couple out of their house. The newlyweds went to live 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:25.320 in an apartment in Madrid, where they suffered various periods 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:30.760 of financial hardship without Miriam's parents stepping in to support them, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.400 which Raffi resented. Raffi and Miriam were so broke that 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:40.840 he had to pawn Miriam's engagement bracelet. Soon they began 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:45.800 living completely separate lives. Sometimes Miriam would come home from 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.160 work and find their apartment full of people drinking, doing drugs, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:55.400 and gambling, things that she recalls she quote couldn't or 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.120 didn't want to know about. She felt she never fit 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.680 in with Raffie's friends other rich kidd layabouts when she 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:08.920 never drank a drop of alcohol in her life. Miriam wrote, quote, 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.800 little by little, I realized that my relationship with Raffi 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:17.600 was hopeless. At first we had daily arguments, but later 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:22.040 he decided to disappear and dedicate himself to his travels. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:28.760 After just six months of marriage, Miriam and Raffie were separated. Miriam, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.320 regretting her union with Raffi, made amends with her parents, who, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.880 to their credit, never said I told you so. The 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.080 marquess and his deeply religious wife, a member of the 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:46.120 Roman Catholic Opus Day Organization, agreed to try and help 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:51.560 Miriam escape her marriage by seeking a church annulment by 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:56.040 Easter nineteen seventy nine, nine months after she had married Raffi. 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.000 Miriam was in a new relationship with Dick the America, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.880 a coworker at the company she worked at. By the 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.280 time of the murders, Miriam and Raffi had been separated 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:12.880 for over two years. Initially, neither the police nor Miriam 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:17.320 considered Rafi as suspect because he had no financial motive. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.200 He didn't stand to inherit anything if the marquesses died 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.800 because they had signed a separation of property agreement before 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:30.200 the marriage. But after finding the pistol at the San 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:38.080 Juan reservoir, another motive emerged revenge. Unlike Miriam, Raffi resented 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.960 his in laws for their stinginess and blamed them for 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:47.040 their financial struggles. They had fought constantly, and Raffi made 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.160 no secret of his hatred of his father in law. 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:55.360 It's true that Raffi's general incompetence seems not to fit 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.200 the precision of the crime, with not even a shard 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.720 of glass left at the crime scene, but he was 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:09.000 also a loose cannon, unpredictable and reckless. Miriam began to 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.160 wonder if Raffi's venomous words for her father could have 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.920 turned into actual violence. In the weeks after the murder, 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:23.120 she remembered a frightening anecdote from her past. After a 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.719 particularly bad fight with the marquess, Raffi had told her, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.320 I have a plan prepared and I am going to 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:40.079 kill your family. A few days after finding the gun 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.320 in the San Juan reservoir in April nineteen eighty one, 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.920 inspectors went to Raffi's family home with a search warrant. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:52.439 At the shooting range, they collected samples of bullet casings 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.320 which they compared with the ones from the crime scene. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.720 They confirmed that they were the same, and so they 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.200 had to the Escobedo family ranch in Quinca, where Raffi 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.640 had retired with the intention of setting up a pig farm. 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.199 From there, Raffi was taken to the General Directorate of Security, 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.560 which at that time was located in Puerta del Sol 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:21.960 in Madrid. Raffi suffered through hours of interrogation and humiliation, 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:26.240 and at the end of the night he confessed he 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.079 had killed the Marquesses of Urquillo, and he also said 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.800 he had not done it alone. He wrote by hand 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.800 in a statement, I am guilty of the death of 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.600 my in laws, the Marquesses of Urquillo, he gave key details. 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.800 He said that he used tape to break the glass 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.000 door that led to the pool of the village or 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:52.440 wooden chatter. He refused to say who else had been 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:57.679 with him that night. The next day, he immediately recanted, 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:02.520 saying that he confessed under duress. Although he did admit 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.800 to having been in the Samasaguas mansion that night, he 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.440 said that he was not the one who pulled the 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:15.240 trigger and actually killed his in laws. After Raffi insisted 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.920 on his innocence, the case suffered even more setbacks. The 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.040 four twenty two caliber shells that had been found in 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.400 the marquess's room and the two hundred and sixty five 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.760 that had been collected at the Raffi's family estate disappeared 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.520 from court, as did the murder weapon recovered in the 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:40.680 reservoir and Raffi's handwritten confession. When the trial finally began, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:46.040 it was a media event. Journalists crowded in the front row, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.480 and the courtroom was so packed that people could barely 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.480 get in and out. Hossein Maria Stampabroun, Raffi's defense attorney, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:59.800 emphasized that having lost all of the evidence, the prosecution 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.840 did not have enough proof to convict Raffi. The lack 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.360 of evidence made both sides cases much more difficult. The 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.320 defense expert claimed that the shells from the crime scene 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:17.120 didn't match the ones from Raffi's house, while the police 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:22.360 maintained the opposite. Still, the defense attorney Stampa Braun put 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.640 up a formidable defense. When the prosecution brought out an 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.560 expert witness testifying to these similarities between the two sets 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.440 of casings, Braun dictated to the Secretary of the court 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.680 a report in which he qualified and questioned that evidence. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.520 The prosecutor interrupted him, saying that he was behaving inappropriately. 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.280 Braun responded, quote, if the detailed report of a lawyer 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.680 made in defense of someone who is risking sixty years 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:56.320 in prison is considered inappropriate, then I from this moment 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.400 resigned from the defense and ceased to be a lawyer 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:04.160 because I am not interested in collaborating with justice. The 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.560 audience in the courtroom burst into applause, and the presiding 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:13.160 judge had to order the courtroom to be cleared. For 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.880 their part, the psychiatrists who examined Raffi and testified at 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.480 the trial established that he was quote incapable of killing 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:27.800 a fly. They concluded that he lacked the quote capacity, 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.840 intellect and will to kill with such certainty and coldness. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.880 Ismael Fuente and Camilla vele Quantos, who covered the trial 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.280 for L Payes, wrote on June twenty fourth, nineteen eighty three, quote, 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.800 with the exception of Escobedo's confession of guilt, which he 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.880 later retracted, and which is the central issue of the trial, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.720 from the point of view of the criminal procedure law, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.800 none of the alleged evidence could be proven to the 0:15:59.920 --> 0:16:04.640 end accused, but it seemed like the judge ban Venito 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.240 Guevara had already decided Raffi was guilty from the beginning 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.360 of the trial. According to a journalist who covered the case, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.480 one of the sessions of the trial began with the 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:22.520 judge saying to Raffi guilty, one get up. On July seventh, 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:27.120 nineteen eighty three, Guevara's sentence was released to the public 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.160 in a decision that only took up a page and 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:35.960 a half. Raffi Escobedo alday was sentenced to twenty six years, 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.840 eight months and one day of imprisonment for each of 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.000 the crimes. For committing two crimes of murder with the 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:51.040 aggravating circumstances of premeditation and nocturnality. Upon hearing the sentence, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.800 Raffi said, I didn't think I was going to be convicted. 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.640 What can you do in spite of the shaky evidence. 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.600 With the trial over and a verdict reached, it would 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:08.240 seem that the Archio case was closed, But in his sentence, 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.359 the judge included a phrase that would fuel decades of 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:18.040 further investigation by the police and press alike. He stated 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:23.720 that Escobato murdered his former in laws, either alone or 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:28.359 in the company of others lo and Behold No more 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.639 than Two days after the verdict had been reached, a 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.639 bombshell article dropped in Spanish magazine Interview that promised to 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:44.879 reveal who those others might have been. On July ninth, 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:50.480 nineteen eighty three, Interview magazine introduced a new suspect into 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:56.960 the Arquio case, Mauricio Lopez Roberts, fifth Marquis of Torre Amosa. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.920 Lopez Roberts was a close friend of Raffi's and ran 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:07.480 in the same circle of Madrid socialites. The magazine alleged 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:12.119 that being a good shot and an inveterate hunter. He 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.919 had ordered a silencer for a gun from a workshop 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:20.240 days before the crime. The silencer, which they alleged, was 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:25.320 then used on the gun that killed the Marquesses. Mauricio 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.840 Lopez Roberts was taken into police custody, where he clarified 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.320 that the silencer he had ordered was for a rifle, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:39.360 not a pistol, disproving the allegations from the magazine. Still, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:44.160 he admitted that he was connected to the case. Lopez 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:49.000 Roberts told the inspectors that on July thirty first, nineteen eighty, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.280 after having dinner at Ls Bejo and a few drinks, 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:59.399 Raffi arrived with his friend Javier and Aastasio. Anastasio was 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.920 another boy from a well off family, a flirt and 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.120 a party animal who spent his nights out at famous 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:12.479 Madrid clubs. Anastasio and Raffi had been friends since they 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.240 were six. Anastasio did not belong to a family of 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.920 ancient lineage, nor did he have a noble last name, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.280 but his father owned a gas station in the center 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:28.119 of Madrid, with which he amassed a considerable fortune, which 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:33.560 made him a rich kid. According to Lopez Roberts, after dinner, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.240 Anastasio did not accompany Raffi to the chalet to kill 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:44.160 the marquesses. That said, on August third, nineteen eighty, Raffi 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.720 met Anastasio in Madrid's Placa del Conde del Villa Asuchil, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.760 where he gave him the bag he had taken two 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:58.320 somasaguas on the night of the crime. It contained guns, gloves, 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.639 a blow torch, and the hammer that had been used 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.760 to gain access to the inside of the house. Apparently, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:11.639 Raffi asked Anastasio not to look at what was inside 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.280 the bag and just to get rid of it, and 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.120 Anastasio was the one who threw it into the San 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:22.159 Juan reservoir the next day. Lopez Roberts warned Anastasio of 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.720 the danger if he were arrested, and recommended that he 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.600 flee to England and from there to South Africa, a 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:34.879 country with which there was no extradition treaty. Since Anastasio 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.960 had no money on hand to escape, Lopez Roberts lent 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:44.359 him twenty five pesetas. The police confirmed this information and 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:49.120 also confirmed Lopez Roberts' alibi for the night of the murders. 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.760 It might seem strange that Lopez Roberts would confess to 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:58.440 helping an accessory to the crime escape, but he declared 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.879 that Raffi's sentence was indefensible and that he just wanted 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.760 to help the police find the true culprit. I say 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.439 this now because I want justice to be done, he 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.440 told the police, while assuring that his friend was innocent 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:19.200 and was paying the price for others. After Lopez Robert's revelation, 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:24.040 both he and Anastasio, who hadn't actually fled, were arrested 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.480 and both spent three and a half years in provisional 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:32.000 prison awaiting trial. They were released on March twenty first, 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:38.959 nineteen eighty seven. Nine months later, a lawyer went to 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.679 Anastasio's house to notify him that the Madrid Provincial Court 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.240 had set the date for the oral hearings for both 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:53.080 his and Lopez Roberts's trial, but Anastasio was nowhere to 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.560 be found. It turned out he had escaped. He took 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.439 a bag with some clothes and the money from an 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.680 apartment he had sold, and drove across the border into 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.639 Portugal with one of his eight brothers. From there, he 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:10.600 took a direct flight to Brazil, a country with no 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:16.080 extradition treaty with Spain. Meanwhile, Rafi Escobedo was in prison. 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.840 He had been transferred to al Duezo prison in cell 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.359 number four on the second floor. He decorated it with 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:28.679 photos of Miriam and paper airplanes in every corner of 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:32.800 the room. Raffi also kept in his cell a collection 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:39.000 of letters stored in cardboard boxes and a canary. While 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.440 in prison, Ralfi agreed to an interview with the journalist 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:46.760 Jesus Quintero, who had the nickname the Madman on the Hill. 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:51.680 Raffi spoke of his depression in prison and his alleged 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.760 unfair treatment by the justice system. There has been no 0:22:55.880 --> 0:23:00.680 investigation and there will be no investigation because nobody interested 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.399 in investigating it, he said to Quintero, I am nothing 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:09.879 any more. On July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty eight, fourteen 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:14.680 days after that interview, Raffi Escobedo was found hanged at 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:17.720 the age of thirty three in his cell. He had 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:22.479 hanged himself using a sheet. Later that year, Lopez Roberts 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:25.680 was taken to court where the judge, who happened to 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.040 be the son of the judge who had originally tried Raffi, 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:33.719 presided over the case, Lopez Roberts was accused by the 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:38.080 prosecutor of covering up the perpetrators of the murders and 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:42.439 of having had news of the event both from Raffi 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.679 and from Anastasio. The case was much less of a 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.360 media event than it had been in the early eighties. 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:55.080 The courtroom was not even half full. In court, Lopez 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:58.720 Roberts tried to downplay his knowledge of the crime, saying, 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:03.320 Raffi told many things, some were true and others were not. 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.679 I did not believe absolutely everything he told me because 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:11.720 he had changed his version about two hundred times. But 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:16.280 Lopez Roberts admitted to having met with Anastasio the day 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:21.040 after Rafi's arrest at a cafe in Madrid. Quote, I 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.240 found him very worried about the arrest, and I advised 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:27.320 him to go to London, where his girlfriend was, so 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.119 that she could console him. He told me that he 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:33.440 had no money, and I lent him twenty five pisetas 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:37.440 if I knew that Anastasio was actually involved in the affair, 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.080 I wouldn't have lent him that money so he could 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:45.520 go anywhere. Lopez Roberts maintained almost to the end that 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:50.320 in his conversation with Anastasio, the latter made no reference 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:53.240 to having gotten rid of a bag containing the gun 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:57.000 used in the murders, the hammer, the blowtorch, and abutane 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:01.720 cylinder used to break into the quio. He knew from 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:04.879 Rafi that Anastasio had taken care to get rid of 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:08.480 these objects, but at the cafe they didn't mention it 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:13.600 quote as Lopez Roberts says, although I imagine he was worried 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:19.080 about it. On February twenty sixth, nineteen ninety, Lopez Roberts 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:21.840 was sentenced to ten years in prison for being an 0:25:21.920 --> 0:25:26.960 accessory to the crime, lending Anastasio money to escape the country. 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:33.280 While Lopez Roberts served his prison sentence, Anastasio was still missing. 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:38.719 It wasn't until twenty fifteen that Vanity Fair finally found 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:43.280 Javier Anastasio in Buenos Aires. The charges against him have 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:47.600 been dropped, and he insisted on his innocence, alleging that 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:51.760 Juan de la Sierra, the marquess's son, was actually the 0:25:51.760 --> 0:25:55.680 one behind the murder. He poked holes in Juan's alibi 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.439 that he was in London at the time, saying that 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.240 none of the journalists who had waiting for Juan at 0:26:01.240 --> 0:26:04.120 the airport to see him arrive back to Madrid, had 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:08.399 actually seen him, and that Juan denied a judge's request 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:13.080 to show his plane ticket and passport. Most damningly, he 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:16.520 said that the Knight Raffi, told Anastasio to take him 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:20.200 to the Marquess's house. Raffi had said it was because 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:26.760 he had an appointment with Wan. It's still unclear what 0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:30.920 exactly happened on the night of July thirty first, nineteen 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:35.280 eighty and who killed the marquesses. Even if you believe 0:26:35.320 --> 0:26:39.439 that Raffi did pull the trigger, Javier Anastasio buried the 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:45.040 evidence and Mauricio Lopez Roberts helped Anastasio escape. It remains 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:49.080 murky what Raffi would have had to gain from such 0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:52.679 a gruesome murder and why his friends were so willing 0:26:52.760 --> 0:26:57.160 to help him with such a high profile crime. It's 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:00.280 even less clear if there were even more people were 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:05.000 involved in the crime. It was the case's ambiguity that 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:09.560 so captivated the Spanish media. Their Quio murders were the 0:27:09.600 --> 0:27:14.880 first parallel trial in democratic Spain, creating a media circus 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:19.720 and a slew of conspiracies in its wake. Every aspect 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:23.760 of the case was up for debate, even the smallest detail, 0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:28.080 like why the marquess's poodle didn't bark when an intruder 0:27:28.200 --> 0:27:31.800 arrived that night, or why the bodies of the marquesses 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:37.240 were washed before the police arrived, making a forensic autopsy impossible. 0:27:38.040 --> 0:27:41.720 We still don't have answers for those questions, and police 0:27:41.800 --> 0:27:46.200 mismanagement only made things worse, given that the most crucial 0:27:46.280 --> 0:27:50.280 evidence in this case, the murder weapon, the bullet casings 0:27:50.320 --> 0:27:53.240 found at the scene of the crime, and Raffi's handwritten 0:27:53.280 --> 0:27:58.399 confession all went missing. This allowed the media to pick 0:27:58.440 --> 0:28:04.600 apart and speculate about every detail and let conspiracy theories proliferate. 0:28:05.960 --> 0:28:08.800 As a journalist who covered the case put it quote, 0:28:09.160 --> 0:28:12.280 it had all of the ingredients of a good soap opera. 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:17.320 Two dead marquesses, Raffi's morbid gang, well off guys who 0:28:17.359 --> 0:28:20.600 spent their time drinking gin and tonics at the country club. 0:28:21.160 --> 0:28:24.800 There was also a divorce, an American lover, a guy 0:28:24.880 --> 0:28:29.280 with no job or prospects, strange moves in the jet set. 0:28:29.960 --> 0:28:44.080 This case had everything everything, perhaps except definite answers. That's 0:28:44.120 --> 0:28:46.280 the end of the story of the murder of the 0:28:46.320 --> 0:28:49.960 Marquesses of her Quio, but keep listening to hear even 0:28:50.120 --> 0:28:54.240 more about some shady behavior that happened in the house 0:28:54.360 --> 0:29:05.120 on the morning of the murders. The day after the murder, 0:29:05.160 --> 0:29:09.719 the marquess's financial administrator, a man named Diego Martinez Herrara, 0:29:10.280 --> 0:29:14.120 arrived to work wearing black clothes as if he were 0:29:14.160 --> 0:29:17.800 already in mourning, even though it was a sweltering August 0:29:17.960 --> 0:29:21.640 in Madrid. As soon as he found out what had happened, 0:29:21.960 --> 0:29:25.400 he went immediately to the Marquess's office. He took some 0:29:25.560 --> 0:29:28.800 documents from the table and went out to the garden 0:29:29.040 --> 0:29:32.920 to burn them. He asked for help from the butler 0:29:33.080 --> 0:29:36.360 to burn the documents, but the butler kept many of 0:29:36.400 --> 0:29:39.800 the papers and then handed them over to the police. 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:45.200 This detail continues to confound those investigating the crime what 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:49.400 documents were burned and why. While we don't have an 0:29:49.440 --> 0:29:53.760 answer and the police never considered the administrator nor the 0:29:53.760 --> 0:29:58.760 butler prime suspects, the act was suspicious enough to raise 0:29:58.920 --> 0:30:03.760 questions about the involvement in the case. Raffi, for example, 0:30:04.160 --> 0:30:09.120 did accuse Diego Martinez Herrera of collaborating with Juan, their 0:30:09.160 --> 0:30:13.520 son in murdering the Marquesses for the record, The butler, 0:30:13.640 --> 0:30:17.040 who took every opportunity to talk to the press about 0:30:17.040 --> 0:30:22.120