José María Jarabo was a Madrid man from a well-connected family who, in July 1958, killed four people in two events within a few days of each other. The victims were Emilio Fernández Díaz, his wife and a young woman of their household, and then Fernández's business partner, Félix López Robledo. The cause was a ring: Jarabo had pawned a piece of jewelry belonging to his English lover at the shop the two men ran, and when she needed it back he set out to recover it.
He was arrested within days of the second killing and confessed. The Audiencia Provincial de Madrid sentenced him on February 10, 1959, and he was executed on July 4, 1959. The trial drew crowds to the courthouse and heavy newspaper coverage, and the press called it the crime of the century. He is remembered in Spain as the last person executed under a sentence from the ordinary civil courts, a description used by El Debate in a 2022 retrospective.
Jarabo was born in Madrid on April 28, 1923, the El Debate retrospective states. El Español, in a 2016 feature by Juan Rada, describes a distinguished family with judicial connections, including a relative who became president of the Supreme Court, Francisco Ruiz Jarabo. He attended the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Madrid, where some of his classmates later became senior officials and ministers.
After the Spanish Civil War he lived in Puerto Rico and then in the United States, where, El Español reports, he married and later divorced. El Debate adds that he was convicted by a jury in the United States at about the age of 23, served about three years, and returned to Spain in 1950 after breaking the terms of his release. Madridiario describes the same American episode differently, as a three-year term for offenses it lists as drug trafficking and pornography. The two outlets differ on the offense; both end the period with his return to Madrid.
In Madrid he lived expensively. El Español says he went through about fifteen million pesetas on parties and companions, and that his family stopped the money sent from Puerto Rico. Madridiario describes a man who went from party to party in immaculate clothes, drank costly liquor and mixed with the city's elite. When the money ran short he turned to pawning valuables.
In 1956, El Debate reports, Jarabo met an Englishwoman with whom he began a relationship. Madridiario describes her as married to a Frenchman who was abroad. To cover debts, Jarabo persuaded her to let him pawn a valuable ring that her husband had given her. The pawnshop, run by two partners, Emilio Fernández Díaz and Félix López Robledo, advanced 4,000 pesetas on a piece El Debate puts at 35,000 pesetas in value.
The ring became urgent when the woman feared her husband would notice it was missing. According to El Español, the shop demanded 50,000 pesetas before it would return the ring and a letter of authorization she had signed. Madridiario describes the same demand for a large sum and a signed letter. Jarabo arranged to come back with the money the next day, but he arrived late, and he later gave a light-hearted reason for the missed appointment: he had met a pretty girl on the way and forgot.
The first killings took place on the evening of Saturday, July 19, 1958, in the Retiro district of Madrid.
Three people died. Emilio Fernández Díaz was co-owner of the pawnshop. His wife was María de los Desamparados Alonso, called Amparo. The third victim was Paulina, a young woman of the household, whom one account gives the surname Ramos.
On the timing of the wife's death the accounts differ. El Español and El Debate place all three deaths in the first evening. Víctor Arrogante, writing for Confidencial Andaluz, lists Emilio Fernández and the maid on July 19 and gives July 21 for Amparo. Either way, three of the four deaths came in the first event and the fourth two days later.
On the morning of Monday, July 21, Félix López Robledo, the second partner, was killed, also in Retiro.
The motive stated in every account is the dispute over the ring. El Español says Jarabo later expressed regret for the two women but not for the pawnbrokers. Arrogante quotes him on his arrest as saying: "Yo no quise matar, pero no tuve más remedio" ("I did not want to kill, but I had no choice"), and says he claimed the pawnbrokers had been blackmailing him.
Madrid police at first suspected the pawnshop's own dealings, according to El Español. The inquiry was led by Antonio Viqueira Hinojosa, and a report from a Madrid business to the police led investigators to Jarabo. Several witnesses also identified him, El Debate says. He was arrested on the Tuesday, the day after the second killing, and taken to the Dirección General de Seguridad in the Puerta del Sol. Inspector Sebastián Fernández Rivas led the officers, El Español reports. The same article says Jarabo agreed to talk only on conditions: meals from the Lhardy restaurant and a bottle of cognac. He confessed to all four killings, and El Debate gives Wednesday, July 23, 1958, as the day of his confession.
Public interest was immediate. The weekly El Caso, which specialized in crime reporting, sold about 480,000 copies of the issue that covered the case, a record at the time according to El Español and, in a 2023 piece, Economist & Jurist. Andrés Lara, the director of Economist & Jurist, adds a report that the magazine's director sent Jarabo a box of cigars through the police officer who had interrogated him.
The case went to the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid. Madridiario states that the trial began on January 29, 1959, and El Español says it was held over five sessions. El Debate describes crowds queuing daily at the courthouse and reports that the singer and actress Sara Montiel attended some sessions. The press called the case the crime of the century.
Jarabo admitted the killings. El Debate quotes a remark attributed to him in court: "No sé si soy un psicópata o no. Ni me importa" ("I do not know whether I am a psychopath or not. I do not care either"). El Debate also reports that the court found him criminally responsible. It described him as a person who knew perfectly well the difference between what is acceptable and what is permitted, and noted that he was fond of alcohol and of drugs, without either having deprived him of awareness of his acts.
The sentence is dated February 10, 1959. According to El Debate, the court sentenced him to death as the author of four offenses of robbery, "de los que en cada uno de ellos resultó homicidio" (in each of which homicide resulted). It found treachery (alevosía) and premeditation as aggravating circumstances in all four cases, and "contempt of sex" (desprecio del sexo) in two. Madridiario, El Español and Confidencial Andaluz all describe the result as four death sentences.
The case did not end with the sentence. Arrogante states that the facts were established by a judgment of the Tribunal Supremo and that, of the four death sentences, only one was carried out. He writes that commutation had been expected but that Franco "se dio por enterado," that is, took note of the sentence and let it stand. The date of that decision and the content of the appeal are not on record.
Jarabo was executed on July 4, 1959, at Carabanchel prison in Madrid. The Economist & Jurist piece repeats a report that he spent the previous day smoking heavily.
El Debate describes him as the last person executed on a sentence from the ordinary civil courts.
Stories spread afterward that he had escaped execution. El Español reports that rumors circulated that family influence had saved him and that he had left for the Americas, and that accounts of sightings in Puerto Rico persisted for years. Every account gives the execution as carried out on July 4, 1959.
Several details differ between accounts and remain unsettled. The time of Amparo's death is placed on the first evening by two accounts and on July 21 by a third. The offense for which Jarabo was convicted in the United States is given as trafficking women by El Debate and as drug trafficking and pornography by Madridiario. The third victim of July 19 appears only as Paulina in most accounts. Madridiario's two articles also differ from each other and from other accounts on the victims and the dates, and only Madridiario gives January 29, 1959, as the day the trial opened.
No killing beyond the four of July 1958 is attributed to Jarabo.
April 28, 1923: José María Jarabo is born in Madrid.
After the Civil War: lives in Puerto Rico and the United States.
About age 23: convicted in the United States (the offense is given differently by different outlets); serves about three years.
1950: returns to Spain.
1956: meets an Englishwoman; her ring is later pawned.
July 19, 1958: first killings, in the Retiro district of Madrid (three deaths, with the timing of the wife's death differing between accounts).
July 21, 1958: Félix López Robledo is killed.
The following Tuesday: Jarabo is arrested.
July 23, 1958: he confesses to all four killings.
January 29, 1959: trial opens at the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid.
February 10, 1959: sentenced to death on four counts of robbery each resulting in homicide.
July 4, 1959: executed at Carabanchel prison.