Cayetano SANTOS GODINO
AKA "El petiso orejudo" ("Big Eared Midget")
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics: Juvenile (10-16) - Arsonist
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: 1906 / 1912
Date of arrest: December 4, 1912
Date of birth: October 31, 1896
Victims profile: A 2-year-old girl / Arturo Laurona, 13 / Reyna Vainicoff, 5 / Jesualdo Giordano, 3
Method of murder: Fire / Strangulation / Hammering a nail on the head
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Status: Declared insane and ordered him to stay in the reformatory. On 12 November 1915 an appeal was approved ordering him to be moved to jail on 20 November. Died in prison on November 15, 1944
Cayetano Santos Godino (October 31, 1896 – November 15, 1944), also known as "Petiso Orejudo" ("Big Eared Midget"), was an Argentinian serial killer who terrified Buenos Aires at the age of 16. In the early 20th century, he was responsible for the murder of four children, the attempted murder of another seven children, and the arson of seven buildings.
Biography
Godino was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of eight boys. His father and mother Fiore Godino and Lucia Ruffo, were alcoholics and abusive. Godino's father contracted syphilis before Godino was born, causing Godino to experience serious childhood health problems.
Early signs of violence
Starting in childhood, Godino killed cats and birds, and enjoyed playing with fire. His violent behavior and lack of interest in education caused him to jump from school to school.
When he was seven years old, Godino beat two-year-old Miguel de Paoli and threw him into a ditch. A nearby official saw this and led the children to the police station, where their mothers picked them up a few hours later.
A year later, Godino beat Ana Neri, a child in his neighborhood, with a stone. A police officer intervened, and Godino was released from jail due to his young age.
When he was 10, Godino's parents discovered his compulsive masturbation. Not knowing what to do with him, his mother told the police, resulting in a two-month jail term
Crime spree
On January 17, 1912, Godino set fire to a warehouse on Corrientes Street. When he was arrested, he told police, "I like to see firemen working. It's nice to see how they fall into the fire." On January 26, 1912, Arturo Laurona, 13, was found dead in an abandoned house. A few months later, on March 7, 1912, Godino set fire to the dress of Reyna Vainicoff, 5, who did not recover and died some days later.
In late September 1912, he set fire to a railway station, which was extinguished without extensive damage. On November 8, 1912, he tried to choke 8-year-old Roberto Russo. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder but was released until the trial. On November 16, 1912, he hit Carmen Ghittoni, who suffered minor wounds before a police officer intervened. On November 20, 1912, he kidnapped two-year-old Carolina Neolener, who cried out and was rescued by a neighbour. Later in the same month, he set fire to two large sheds that were extinguished quickly.
On December 3, 1912, Godino saw Jesualdo Giordano playing outside his house and offered to buy the boy some sweets to convince him to go with him. Providing a few sweets then offering more, Godino took Giordano to a country house. When they were inside, he threw him to floor and unsuccessfully tried to choke him with his belt. Then he cut his belt and tied his hands and legs. He started beating him and considered hammering his head. He left the house looking for a nail and saw Giordano's father, to whom he said he did not know where the child was. He then re-entered the house with the nail. He hammered it into the side of Giordano's skull and hid the corpse. The body was found by the father minutes later. At 8:00 PM, Godino went to the wake and touched the skull where he had fixed the nail. At 5:30 a.m. on December 4, 1912, he was arrested by police, confessing his crimes.
Jail
On 4 January 1913 he entered a reformatory, where he tried to kill some of the inmates. Due to medical reports, which declared him insane, the judge discontinued the case and ordered him to stay in the reformatory. On 12 November 1915 an appeal was approved ordering him to be moved to jail on 20 November.
On 28 March 1923 Godino was transferred to Ushuaia Penitentiary. During the course of 1933 he spent some time in hospital for a beating he suffered from inmates due to having killed two cats which were their pets. From 1935 onwards he was always ill and received no visitors until he died on 1944 in strange circumstances.
Sources
Leyenda del petiso orejudo. (book.Spanish) By Leonel Contreras.ISBN-10: 9879473272 ISBN-13: 9789879473276
Wikipedia.org
"The Petiso Orejudo"
Big Ear Pest
Before I begin narrating, I just want to say that this guy is at the top of my "bizarre" list of S.K.'s. If there was ever a "Poster Child" for Birth Control, this guy is it.
My unknown is Cayetano Santos Godino. He was the first S.K. in Argentina's history. He was born on Halloween 1896, the last of 10 kids. His parents were Calsbrian immigrants who moved to Buenos Aires in 1884, escaping poverty. They were also running from personal tragedy of their first-born 10 month old son's death from cardiac affection.
Cayetano was doomed before his parents ever conceived him. His father was an Alcoholic and played the guitar. One thing led to another until he contracted "sifilis" from one of his fans. Sifilis is a sexually transmitted disease who's cure is Penicillin that wasn't even discovered yet. {1929} That didn't stop Fiore from wanting his "little man" satisfied so Cayetana was made.
During his earliest years. he was on the brink of death several time with Enteritis. This nasty infection is usually caught by eating or drinking contaminated food or water, Improperly prepared food, poor hygiene or sanition or close contact with an infected person or animal, Take your pick as to why he was so sick with this illness so much.
So here he is still alive, fragile and with bad genes but fate wasn't done with him yet. On days when his father got drunk, he used his entire family like punching bags. When Doctors examined his head at a much later date, they found 27 scars on his head alone that was created by his father and older brother.
Now picture a young boy who is very short for his age, small head, very long arms. and extremely large ears. Better yet, let's have a peek at what he looks like...Reminds me of Dumbo, the flying elephant..LOL.
He entered school at age 5. He had to go to 6 different schools, each one expelling him for his lack of interest in studing and rebellious behavior. And in all that time, nobody taught him how to read. But that gave him more time to roam the streets of his neighborhood looking for something evil to do. Because of his appearence of being an "idiot", most grown-ups overlooked him and he had no problem of gaining trust of "little ones" with the promise of play or candy in the future.
On Sept. 28. 1804, Cayetano gained the confidence of Miguel de Pauoli with the promise of candy. He was almost 2 at the time. They walked to a wasteland before Cayetano threw the boy on a pile filled with thorny branches. A policeman hear the cries from near-by and came before he could hurt him anymore. A trip to the police station while waiting from dear old mom to come and take him home was the only punishment this time. That was his first attempt at murder!!!
A year later, he led Ana Neri, 18 months old, into another wasteland and starting wacking the toddler's head with a rock. Because of the child's cries, this action was interrupted by a policeman. Cayetano was consider too young and they thought it was just a fight between two boys, so he was sent back home with his father.
On March 22, 1906, {Maria?} Rock Phase went missing. By time they heard about her final hours on this earth, the parents of this girl had moved back to Italy and a two-story house was builded on the "suppose" burial site. There was no corroborating evidence to back up his story. I guess they were too lazy to dig up the house just to see and since the parent were immigrants that had gone back to their own country, why brother. Cayetano wasn't going nowhere and they needed to bring some peace to the community at the time. Maybe it was for the best at that period in time.
He did describe taking the hand of a little girl and leading her to a wasteland. Once there, he tried to strangle her. When that didn't work, he buried her alive in a ditch filled with rubbish. Then he just walked away. The missing girl was never found.
Just a few days later, April 5, his father discovered upon waking, a shoe box filled with the family's pet canaries, dead and with their eyes gone, laying beside his bed. He went to the police station and begged them to do something about his boy. His outrageous behavior towards his family and neighbors and the threat of injury to all who lived around him was the reasons he gave. They agreed and took his troubled son off his hand's and mind for two months. When he returned home , it was "life" as usual with one more treat he learned as he wandered the streets. Masturbation!!! Several times a day, he would beat his meat while day-dreaming about the evil things he could do to his future victims.
On Sept. 9, 1908, he found his another victim playing unattented and got Severino Gonzalez, aged 2, to go with him with the promise of sweets. They went to a Warehouse right across the street from the School for Scared Heart. where he proceeded to drown the little boy in a horse trough. Zacanas Caviglia, the propreter of this place. heard the disturbance that the boys were causing. What he found was two boys, both wet, with one in the large tub. But Cayetano talked his way out of his crime by telling of following a mysterious "woman in black" and being there in the nick of time to help the toddler from certain death. They believed him. He even led the police to the "place" where he first started following the "evil lady" the next day...
Only six days later, He burned the eyelids of a 22-month old child named Jolio Botle with a cigarette. The screams of this child brings the mother running. Cayetano takes off and is gone by time the mother reaches her child.
Fiore and Lucia had enough of his "shocking" behavior by now, so they carted his ass to the police once more. The time the authorities sent him to the Colony of Smaller Peace for three years. There is no way to discover the physical and emotional abuse he had to go through. The horrors that he had to endured. {But maybe I am bringing too much into it. Maybe he didn't have enough "brain" to feel much while he was there.} He did try to escape on many occasions through. He got to come home in time for the Christmas Holiday Season on Dec. 23, 1911. He had just turned 15, two months before. Do you think it was a Merry Christmas to the Godino's household that year.
When he hit the streets again, his mind had grown cold and hard. Although his father had found him a job, it didn't last long {three months} before he lost it and was trolling the streets again. This time his neighborhood expanded to reach the seedy parts of the town. It was there that he learned how to drink alcohol. Real hard "task" to do, if you know what I mean. With drinking came extreme headaches where the urges to kill was great. Maybe it was the "Spirits" talking to his head.
During the same time-line, he discovered another little secret pleasure. It's name was fire. Two houses, a brick factory. a station filled with street cars and a stockyard filled with materials, felt his passion as he hides while flames are growing higher. While the firemen are arriving and the crowd is growing thicker by the minute, he comes out of hiding to watched all of the excitement of seeing the firemen fighting back the flames of pain that are threatening these men with death. When asked about his obession with fire later on, he said "I like to see work to the firemen...is pretty to see as they falling the fire.
On Jan 21, 1912, the body of 13 yr. old boy named Arturo Laurora was found dead in a vacated house. Beaten, half naked and with a cord tied around his neck, the police had no clue where to go and search for this child murderer. It wasn't until the killer's confession later on in the future that they realized how evil this "idiot" really was. He claimed to have taken this boy to an empty house and covered his mouth with a handkerchief after tieing him up. He proceeding whipping him with a branch from a fig tree. When he grew tired off that game, he strangle him and then left to go wandering the streets again. Nobody saw!!!
March the 7th of the same year. Pretty Reyna Vainicoff, 5 years old, was admiring shoes in a store-front when she started screaming from pain and for attention. Someone had set her pretty little dress on fire. Her grandfather heard her cries of desparation from across the street and started running to save her. He never got the chance as he was stuck by a car and died right there in the street. A Policeman near by threw the little girl to the ground and try to killed the fire with his own body. She was sent to the hospital where she died 16 days later. Cayetano was there in the crowd watching his handiwork explore into action.
{Let's not forget about his cruelty toward animals. On Sept. 24, he creeped into a stable and killed a mare with a knife.}
Nov. 8, he tries to killed another small victim named Russo Roberts, aged 2, by promising him candy . He takes him to a Warehouse where he ties the feet of this poor child with a rope used as a belt from around his trousers. But death was not there that day as he is interrupted by a Laborer who worked near by. As the police arrived , they hear his tale of yet another child saved by the large-ear boy. Since they didn't have any concrete evidence, they had to let him go. { I ever think he got money for all his troubles when he returned the child to his mother.
He failed twice more to get what he desired after his encounter with the police. The last intended victim, a little girl, started stuggling with him on their way to his future site of dark pleasures. His fury got the best of him that time as he began beating her right there in the middle of the street. A man looking out his window saw the entire thing and was that little girl's savior that day. Both times, he was able to get away before the crowd could catch him.
I think Cayetano was a lot smarter than the public gave him credit for and he used that to his advanage. Because of his great knowledge of the city, he knew all the locations of deserted land and buildings so he knew where to take all of his victims before he ever got his hands on them.
To me, I would have been scared shitless at nearly being caught, but to Cayetano, the thought never crossed his mind. To his eyes, it was a great big smorgasbord of children playing and having fun. All he had to do is wait and watch for the youngest child that was unattended by older folks. He was very focus on his task at hand and to that I say,"Bravo Big Ears!!!
The police were keeping a "eye" on him now. Since they knew all about his past history, they grew very suspicious at being called to "possible" crime scenes and his explanations about how he was there at the exact moment when the "kids" in question needed his help. Because of each child's age, they couldn't get the real story. All they could do was sit and watch. They would all be happy soon.
The police finally caught their "moran" when on the morning of Dec. 3, 1912, Mrs. Maria Giordano, a neighbor of the Godino's, looked out her front door and peer at the clouds that had been there since she had rolled out of bed. Then she looked at her "pride and joy" and decided that it would be alright to sent him out to play. She needed to do some houehold chores so she reached for the red ball lying next to the front door and told him that if he would stay on the path, that he could play outdoors. Little did she know that she was sending him out to death's highway. This was the last time she would see her "baby boy" alive and beaming with joy. Poor, Poor woman. I can feel her pain as it is ripping through my soul.
Her son was named Gerald {Jesual} and he was 3 years old.
Cayetano had spend his morning being yelled at by his father. He had been "antic" every since his last failed attempt and this yelling was reaching beyond his control. As he plunged out the door into the cloudy day, he saw his perfect "angel" playing ball with the other kids from around the neighborhood. Just waiting to get plunk off the street.
He knew the routine of getting little ones to follow him.. Separate and promise. So he blended in with the other kids on the block without raising mistrust from anyone. It was so easy. For the price of 2 cents, he would live out his evil fantasy once more.
So off they go, hand in hand, each happy in their minds but for different reasons. They stop at the general store for the promised sweets. Cayetano even gives the boy a little piece with the promise of more to eat when they reach their final destination. But as they approach the entrence to the building called Fifth Colored Person,{what a name for a building.} the little boy is frighten and all he wants is his mommy's arms around him. This angel starts stuggling with Cayetano's hand, trying to run away. But the "big-eared" boy is stronger, so he picks up the small boy and carried him through the gateway to hell. My mind can feel the terror of this child. His screams for mommy as this demon is taking him to the place of his coming death.
So he carries the boy inside and plops him next to the big furance. He is eager to begin his morbid brand of entertainment. To keep the child in place, he put his knee across the child's chest while reaching for some discarded rope that the workers in the building have toss to the side. Maybe he had gone in before that day and gather the rope himself and put it there in anticipation. Who knows?
He wraps the wicked thing around that poor baby's throat 13 times before attempting to strangle him. The child fought for it's life as he tried to stand up. Cayetano was smart as a whip and to eliminate that problem, he quickly tied the child's hands and feet so he could go on and end this child's life. The child's soul wanted to stay as Cayetano's hands tired with so much effort so he gave up this form of torture and went outside to find another weapon.
As he surveyed the outshirts of the yard besides the building, he could hear the distance thunder. As he started to look at the sky, his eyes crossed the perfect items. A piece of broken brick and a rusty nail. His "Gods" must be smiling on him today. He felt eccentric with a strange enery as he hurried across the yard to receive his prize...
As he reached down to get his prized possessions, he heard someone call out to him. As he turned around, he recognized this older man coming toward him. Please not again!!! But his Gods were with him that day, as they whispered the perfect solution to his problem.
The man that Cayetano knew was the little boy's father. Mr. Giordano was frantic with worry as he hurried along looking for his missing child. Where could he be? He was so young and innocent and now he had a very bad feeling in his heart.
His wife had sent one of the boys to fetch him at work and he had asked all the young boys around the block about their morning."Yes, yes he was here when we started playing ball". But the excitement of the game was too much for them and now his "angel" was gone.
Please, don't let him come to any harm, he prayed when he saw that wacko neighbor boy. He was always wandering around the neighborhood, maybe he had seen his little boy.
"Oh, you are a smart boy, not dumb like all the bigger boys say," he thought as this man was coming his way.. He would show them. He would show the whole damn town just how smart he was.
So they met at the edge of that junkyard. At least it looked like one with all the scattered shit all around. It's worker's a thing of the past. The building"s soul had been dead for a while. All the hope that this desperate man had in him as he looked at this strange boy, would be dash in a few minutes and the boy would be known as he truly was throughout the world.
" I don't know anything about your son, Mister. I would go to the police if I was you", he said. "Go now! Hurry.The police will help you find."
So with his big plans already in motion, he gathers up his weapons of convenience and runs back the way that he had come.
As he reaches the entrance, he looks back to see if he is truly alone and he hears a big "BOOM" of thurder as the clouds look darker by now. He feels "eccentric" with dark thought's about how to make this murder a one of a kind too.
As he kneels down, he could still see the little boy struggling for breath although this child seem asleep. He did try to wake him for a second or two and was satisified because it would make the final step go that much quicker.
So he lifted his "rock" as a hammer and drove the nail through the forehead of this dying boy. He looked at his handiworked for just a moment and covered his final victim with a piece of tin before running home.
He had to see the action unfolded because this time he had choosen a kid near to where he lived.
When Mr. Giordano expressed his despairing concern for his little boy, there was a witness this time to help his father and the police to put their fears and suspicious on one boy. This witness was the woman who had been working in the store when Cayetano and Gerald came by, hand in hand, to buy the promised candy. When she described the features of the strange boy with big ears and long, long arms with his son. his Spirit cried out in torment as he knew where his baby was possibly at.
He led the police back to the building where he had spoken eariler with Cayetano. And it was he that found his son still with the cord around his tiny neck and the nail coming out of his forehead.
The Police set up outposts around the victim's house that night, waiting and watching to see who came by that night.
The Women of this community had laid out Gerald's poor little body on a table in one of the rooms in the house. There were so many who that came by to paid their sorrowful regrets about these parent's loss that night and to wait with them as one by one went to weep at this sight. So young and innocent and brutally murdered by some "Unknown Monster , who was snatching their young right off the streets of their community without any trace...
But Cayetano was used to blending in with the Adult crowd as he stole away and went inside to see with his "angel" right before the eyes of the police. Nobody noticed inside either as he went up to where they had laid the child and stared at it for awhile. Then he went closer and with his hand, pulled the face to when he could see to whether they had left the nail in his victim's head.
He became very upset to see it gone. Everyones looked at him as he made a "odd"comment and went running out into the night
Someone also reported seeing Cayetano around the crowd when the Police started their grusome work into this case. Since the murder happened so early in the day, the newspaper, the Press of Buenos Aires, published the titled news "Murder of a boy of three years: A Wild fact." In this article, they also raised the possibility of a sinister criminal organization like "The Black Mono', dedicated to kidnapping young boys.
But the Police had all the knowledge to connect all the crimes they knew of to the boy and their two witnesses. Early the next morning, with the Peire Assistant Paymaster and the Main Ricardo Bassetti leading the group, surrounded the house and arrested Cayetano without any problems at all. In fact Cayetano talked for many hours telling all that he had done in the past. They also found the newspaper article in his pocket although the boy could not read. He had brought the newspaper yesterday and cutted the article out so he could look at it whenever he wanted. His sister told about the blood she had found on his clothes when he arrived home after the crime had been commiited.
He was finally charged for 3 murders and 11 aggressions. The public wanted blood this time, so they cried out for Capital punishment but because Cayetano Godino was only 15 at the time, the two judges decided to sent him to a Mental Hospital of Merceds where he sented for the next two years.
While he was in the wacko hospital, the most important men of Criminal Psychiatry came to examined him and to get many interviews with this strange creature. They conclusions were this: His degeneration came from lack of affection, the limitation of intelligence, his destructive impulse and the problem that his father had before he was even born. Their ending thoughts was that he was predestined to his crimes. The Head of the hospital named Cayetano "Stupid Idiot one" and "Moral Crazy One".
While in this hospital, he assault and injured two inmates, one in a wheelchair and other confined to his bed.He had made so mant atempts of escape that the Court finally revolted the decided and he was sent to the National Penitentiary in Ushuaia.
There he got wrote up 13 times for his bizarrre behavior.
He was a loner and was very mistreated by the other inmates and was raped continuously. He also never recieved any vistors or letters from his family. He was never remorseful about anything that he had done on the outside or in the prison.
They pinned back his ears in 1927 in an operation, hoping that this was the "cause" for all of his "badness" but in did nothing to improve his behavior.
In 1933, he strangled a cat and tossed the corspe on the fire. The other inmates were so outraged because the cat was the prison masot, that they beated him so bad that he had to spend 20 days in the hospital.
After the cat incidence, a journalist and writer Jose Holy Maria Maria Soza Reilly, came to do a interview with Cayetano. It was published in a magazine called "Expensive and Masks".
In 1936, he reguested his freedom and was denied because the Doctors reported that he was a "stupid idiot" and still extremely dangerous for whoever he was around.
He was found dead in his cell on Nov. 15, 1944. The offical cause was reported as a internal bleeding caused by a gastrities outbreak, but who knows It could have been a pissed off inmate that put something in his food or beated him so bad that it cause the internal bleeding to begin.
The prison was closed down in 1947. As they dug up the graves of all the dead inmates, they found the bones of Cayetano missing. It was later learned that someone had maded a paperweight with one of his bones inside it and had given the "odd" gift to the last director of the prison.
The only good thing about his life is that he learned to read, write and do simple math.
The prison is now a museum with waxed figures of all the famous inmates that it ever had. Cayetano Godino is included in these.
SKCentral.com
