Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-23
BEGAN THIRTY YEARS AGO.
Crushed His First Victim While
Riding on Horseback.
OTHERS STRANGLED AND DRAINED.
His Wife and Daughter Held as Accessories
to the Murders.
WAS TOO POOR TO SUPPORT CHILDREN
SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE p1srArcH.1

the nlted states OF COLOMBIA, Is the scene
of as startling a sensation as the annals OF
crime contain. 1t consists in the discovery
of series of murders beginning in 1859 OF
1860 and continuing to 1890, and resulting
in the death of ten sons and daughters and
three grandchildren of the murderers.
The author of these crimes is Marciano
Medina, and his wife, Paulina BenavideS,
and his daughter, Remigia, have been the
accessories, if not the accomplices, in sew
eral of the murders.
Since 1871, Marciano Medina has lived on
q ranch near Lomas de Zamora. He has
family consisting of wife, six sons and one
daughter, Remigis He is s. and his wife
is 43 years old. Medina is employed among
the corrals of Lomos, and is considered q
useful worker among the men Of his class at
election times.
DISCLOSED BY A LOVE AFFAIR.
The discovery of this mans crimes was
due indirectly TO the action of Remigia in
leaving her fathers home to elope with her
lover On July IS, Medina called upon the
police commissary of Lomos de Zamora,
Orvaldo Guerri, and requested that his
runaway daughter be apprehended. At
the very moment of this conference police
agent, Pedro Miranda, called the commits
sarv aside and said that he had Just come
from a ranch near LGmos de Zomora, where,
in the course of the comments which had
been made upon the elopement of Remigia,
il had been charged that Medina
and his wife had killed a number
of their children and buried them on
their ranch. At hearing this the
commissary returned to Medina, and with
out arousing his suspicion dismissed him
with the promise that everything possible
would be done 10 secure the arrest of
Rcmigla. The commissary next visited the
ranch where the story of Medinas crimes
was repeated TO him. On the following
day Remigia was found hiding on a ranch
near the village of Quilmos, and was
brought before the police authorities of
Lomos de Zamora.
OBTAINED A FULL CONFESSION
She declared that she had left her home
on account OF the cruel treatment at the
hands of her parents On close question
ing Remigia admitted that her father had
murdered several of his children. She said
that some of the bodies of her brothers and
sisters, who had been killed shortly after
birth, were buried in her parents house.
while others had been buried at the old
barn, which formed an outlying post of the
ranch
Upon this evidence Medina and his wife
were arrested. Thev at first deDied the
charges. then made a partial confession, en-
tangling themselves in a macs of falsehoods,
and at length were induced to fully confess
their crimes.
According to the confession, Medina and
his wife lived formerly in Les Flores, where
they were married in 1865. They lived in
an inn Of the village, the husband being
man of all work, and his wife attending the
kitchen of the establishment The first
murder occurred after they had been mar
rled year and half.
CRUSHED on A SADDLE.
4 son had been born 10 them who, when
few montS old, was afflicted with a touch
Of fever. One night Medina took the child
awav from home on horseback under the
preteNt Of consulting doctor. While rid
ing along he placed the child's breast
against the pummel of his saddle and
crushed the breath out of the little BODY.
Then he carried it to the shore of Lake
blanca and buried it on land belonging to
DR. MontcS Deoca.
When VI edna returned home he told his
wife what he had done. She was heart
broken and reproached him for his crime,
but took no steps to expose him. Medina
justified his act on the ground that they
were too poor TO support children. A year
later a second son, Guadaloupe, 6 weeks old,
was taken from home bv the father The
baby was murdered, and it's body was
taken home and buried in the presence of
the mother, who again became an accessory
tu the crime by her silence. The next vic
tim, a baby boy, was killed by strangula-
tion when three months old. The body was
buried in a neigh boring ranch. The next
two unfortunate infants were girls. Felipa,
who was smothered in her cradle when
four months old. and Feliia. whose brains
were blown out by Medina when she was
five months old
BURIED WHILE STILL ALIVE
The parents moved TO Lomos De Zamora
whore, in 1874 Medina murdered his sixth
child, baby eight days old who had not
been christened This crime was especially
atrocious. According TO the confession of
the mother, Medina crushed the babe vio-
lcntly aCalnst his breast, and buried him
while Yet half alive on the ranch where
they lived.
Throughout the following eight wears
Medina seemed to have abandoned his muir
dcrous actions and five sons and daughter |
were born TO him, all of whom are still ly- |
ing. Two other sons born after these. how
ever were killed by Medina. Twins born |
10 the couple died under suspicious |
circumstances, although Medina stoutlv |
protests that they died natu- |
raj deaths. He saws he carried |
their bodies three davS after birth TO the /
public cemetery in a cart, not being able to
90 ia the expense of a regular funeral, and
that the sexton buried the children. The |
cOmmissary, however, has been unable to
find any mention of such transaction in
the records of the municipality, and il is
suspected that the twins were also foully |
dealt with.
KILLED HIS DAUGHTERS CHILDREN
The list Of Nedina's crimes was not re-
stricted to his own offspring, but included |
the murder Of three sons of his unmarried |
danghtc-, Rcmigia The first, born in 1889, |
and the second, born in 1890, were beaten to |
death by their grandfather They |
were buried on the ranch In |
December, 1890, Eemigia gave birth to the
third SON When the babe was 22 davs old |
Medina ordered Remigia down TO the
kitchen. While she was absent he killed
the baby. Remigia and her mother helpcd
Medina to bury the child behind the
kitchen.
The discovery of these crimes has occa-
stoned intense excitement in Lomas de
Zamora and the adjacent towns. Excaya-
tions made on Medina ranch have re-
suited in the finding of the skele-
tons of some of the murdered chill
dreu Medina seems little moved
either by the contemplation of his crimes
or the peril in which their discovery has
placed him. He saws that he murdered his
own children because he had not the means
to support them, and killed Remigia's sons
to hide his daughters shame