Galan was born on April 5, 1978 and had served in the Spanish army, including a deployment to Bosnia. He was living near Madrid and working intermittently.
Between January 4 and March 18, 2003 he shot six people dead and wounded three more, in Madrid and in towns around it, using a pistol he had obtained illegally. The victims were unconnected to him and to each other: people at a bus stop, in a bar, in a doorway. At two of the scenes a playing card was found, and the Spanish press named him el asesino de la baraja, the deck of cards killer. The Spanish press called him el Asesino de la Baraja, the Playing Card Killer, after the cards left at the scenes.
Those named in the record are Juan Francisco Ledesma Ledesma, eighteen; Juan Carlos Martin Estacio; Mikel Jimenez Sanchez, eighteen, and Juana Dolores Ucles, fifty-seven; and George and Diona Magda.
He turned himself in in July 2003 and confessed, then retracted, then confessed again, and gave shifting accounts of why he had done it.
He was convicted and on March 9, 2005 sentenced to 142 years and three months.
That figure is nominal, as with every long Spanish total in this roster: the law caps the time that can actually be served, and for offences of this period the practical maximum was in the region of twenty-five to thirty years. Sentenced in 2005, he is eligible for release considerably sooner than the headline suggests, and nothing accessible records his current position. This one belongs on the re-check list.
The playing cards are what the case is remembered for and are close to the only thing about it that was deliberate.