Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch (born 22 January 1952), also known as The Angel of Death and The Black Angel, is an Argentine serial killer. He was convicted of at least eleven murders (including the killing of at least one accomplice), one attempted murder, seventeen robberies, involvement in one rape and one attempted rape, one count of sexual abuse, two kidnappings, and two thefts. Most of the offenses occurred in the northern area of Greater Buenos Aires.

Early life and initial legal encounters
Robledo Puch was born on 22 January 1952 to Víctor Robledo Puch, a former technician for General Motors, and Josefa Aida Habendak, a housewife who had emigrated from Germany shortly after World War II. His family is descendants of Dionisio Puch, a soldier who was governor of the Salta Province, and Martín Miguel de Güemes, a military leader who defended the nation during the War of Independence. Robledo Puch is of maternal German descent. In 1956, when Robledo Puch was four years old, his parents moved the family to Borges Street, Olivos, Buenos Aires Province, where they rented a first-floor apartment above a hardware store. Coming from a hard-working, middle-class family, Puch was known to be shy and quiet like his mother, who took great care of him. Robledo Puch is a football supporter of River Plate. Puch studied piano and learned German during his childhood. He had troubled school years, where he usually stole items from his classmates. In 1967, Puch was caught stealing money from the secretary's office and was expelled from school. Puch, who was victim of bullying at school, had a difficult relationship with his father. After his arrest for the serial killings, Puch's grandmother died suddenly and his mother attempted suicide. His father allegedly blamed Puch for these incidents, which Puch never forgave. Shortly after his capture, Puch threatened his father via letter, telling him that he would kill him the day he would be freed. His father eventually divorced Puch's mother and was expelled from his job due to ostracization for his son's actions.

In December 1968, Puch had the first legal encounter, when he entered the workshop of a man who worked with bicycles and robbed a motorcycle. After being arrested for this robbery, Puch confessed to more than 14 thefts. He was sent to a reformatory, where he spent twenty days under the order of a judge of minors. Towards the end of 1969 or early 1970, Puch knew his accomplice in many robberies and murders, Jorge Anotnio Ibáñez. In early 1971, Puch and Ibáñez committed at least four robberies, stealing millions of pesos and spending them on luxurious items for themselves. They were arrested in January 1971 for one of these crimes and were charged with felonies. Puch was released shortly afterwards but was ordered to present himself for a court appearance. Puch and Ibáñez, who had also been released on bail, escaped to Mar del Plata on train.

Criminal activity

On 15 March 1971, Robledo Puch and his accomplice, Jorge Antonio Ibañez, robbed the nightclub Enamor, stealing 350,000 pesos. Before fleeing, Robledo Puch, using a Ruby pistol, killed the club's owner and the night watchman while they slept.

On 9 May 1971 at 4 am, Robledo Puch and Ibañez broke into a Mercedes Benz spare parts store in Vicente López. In one of the rooms, they found a couple with their newborn baby. Robledo Puch shot and killed the man and shot the woman, who only sustained gunshot injuries. Ibañez attempted to rape the injured woman. The woman survived the ordeal and later testified at the trial. Before fleeing with 400,000 pesos, Robledo Puch shot at the crib where the newborn lay crying, but he missed.

On 24 May 1971, both criminals killed a night watchman in a supermarket.

On 13 June 1971, Ibañez raped a 16-year-old girl in the backseat of a stolen car, after which Robledo Puch killed the teenager by shooting her five times. On 24 June 1971, they drove to the same location and repeated the crime - Ibañez attempted to rape a 23-year-old woman, whom Robledo Puch executed afterward by shooting seven times.

On 5 August 1971, Ibañez died in a car accident. Robledo Puch drove and fled, injured, from the scene of the accident.

On 15 November 1971, Robledo Puch and his new accomplice, Héctor Somoza, stormed a supermarket in Boulogne and, using a .32 caliber Astra pistol that they had obtained a few days prior in the robbery of an armory, riddled the scene with bullets.

Between 17 November 1971 and 24 November 1971, they broke into two car dealerships and murdered the watchman, stealing over 1,000,000 pesos.

Arrest

On 1 February 1972, Robledo Puch and Somoza broke into a hardware store. They killed the watchman and tried to open the safe with the keys they obtained from his body. They were unable to do so and, allegedly in a state of confusion during which Robledo Puch was startled by something, he shot Somoza and killed him. To impede or prevent the identification of his accomplice's body by police investigators, he took a blowtorch and burned the face of Somoza. After opening the safe with the same blowtorch, he took the money he found there and fled the scene. He was arrested on 4 February 1972, after his identity card was found in Somoza's pants pocket. He had just turned 20.

Trial, reclusion, and present day
He was tried in 1980 and sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum sentence in Argentina, to be served in the high-security prison of Sierra Chica near Olavarria. The last words he spoke before the court were, "This was a Roman circus. I was judged and sentenced beforehand." Robledo Puch later denied his involvement in the murders he was accused of, not denying he had stolen and saying he was tortured and coerced Theo into a confession. The only survivor (eyewitness) who did not testify in court (victim of May 3, 1971). She did not appear in court for health reasons. She said one had long hair and he raped me and shot me. Carlos Puch had short curly hair, and Ibáñez had long hair. In the newspaper Página/12 in 2022, the journalist Juan Pablo Csipka questioned the independence of Osvaldo Raffo, who cooperated with the military government. Part of the contents of the file of a psychiatrist who examined him, and presented at trial, read:
"Robledo Puch comes from a legitimate and complete home, absent from unfavorable hygienic and moral circumstances. [...] There were also no economic constraints of importance, reverses of fortune, abandonment of the home, lack of work, personal misfortune, illness, affective conflicts, overcrowding or promiscuity."
It was a show trial with no witnesses or solid evidence. In July 2000, he became eligible for parole; he did not submit a petition.

On 27 May 2008, Robledo Puch submitted a petition of request to be paroled. The judge who reviewed his petition denied him parole considering him to still be a threat to society.

In November 2013, he requested a review of his sentence or, failing that, his execution by lethal injection, even though the death penalty was not legal in Argentina. The Supreme Court of Justice denied both the request for review and the request for execution, the latter of which would have been illegal.

On 27 March 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice rejected an appeal filed by Robledo Puch against the aforementioned judicial decision whereby he was denied parole.

In 2018, a film based on Robledo Puch called El Angel, directed by Luis Ortega and starring Lorenzo Ferro, was released. The film is mostly fictional with some factual content. Quote: It was inspired by the story of Robledo Puch.

, Robledo Puch has spent over 50 years in prison, making him the longest-serving prisoner in South America. Dr. José Luis María Villada said his maximum sentence had been exceeded for years. He still maintains his innocence.

In March 2023, during an interview with América 24, Puch denied his crimes and blamed others for them. Puch said that he was "constantly suffering" in prison and that he wished to be "euthanized." Puch has a history of demanding that he be executed (even though the death penalty is not a legal punishment in Argentina), including in 2013, when he asked to be executed via lethal injection if his parole application was denied.

In June 2023, judge Oscar Roberto Quintana of the Court of Guarantees and Appeals, turned down his parole request once again, citing that Puch suffers from "inconsistent emotions [...] which could be expressed in an erratic way," adding that Puch also has "paranoid reflections."

See also
List of serial killers by country
List of serial killers by number of victims
Cayetano Santos Godino
Mateo Banks

References

Bibliography 

1952 births
Argentine people convicted of murder
Argentine rapists
Argentine serial killers
Argentine sex offenders
Living people
Male serial killers
People convicted of murder by Argentina
People from Buenos Aires
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Argentina
People convicted of rape
People convicted of attempted murder
People convicted of robbery
People convicted of kidnapping