Raúl Osiel Marroquín Reyes was a former sergeant in the Mexican Army who, in the last months of 2005, kidnapped young men he had met in gay bars in Mexico City's Zona Rosa and held them while he demanded ransoms from their families. Four of the men were killed. Two others were released. When federal agents presented him to the press in January 2006, he spoke calmly about the killings and said he had done society a favor. Mexico City courts convicted him of kidnapping and murder in a series of judgments between 2006 and 2010, and the total of his sentences has been reported as about 280 years.
The Associated Press reported his arrest in the same story as that of Juana Barraza Samperio, the wrestler accused of killing elderly women in the capital, and the writer Carlos Monsiváis argued at the time that both should be understood as hate crimes. Investigators of the Mexico City prosecutor's office classified Marroquín's killings in exactly those terms, as crimes of hatred motivated by homophobia, according to later reporting by Infobae. Mexican newspapers gave him two nicknames, El Sádico (the sadist) and El Asesino del Arcoíris (the rainbow killer). Monsiváis thought the first was probably a police invention.
Marroquín was born on September 1, 1980, in Tampico, the port city in the state of Tamaulipas, according to Infobae, which drew on the journalist Fernando del Collado's book on homophobic crime in Mexico. The Ecuadorian newspaper El Telégrafo gave his birth year as 1981. An Associated Press report from the week of his arrest gave his age as 29, while Infobae said he was 25 at the time of the crimes.
Accounts of his childhood differ. El Telégrafo wrote in 2017 that his early years were marked by mistreatment from his father, who it said had taught him to hate gay men. Marroquín himself has described a normal childhood. After his arrest he told reporters that he had grown up normally, Monsiváis noted in January 2006, and years later, in a prison interview reported by El Heraldo de México, he described a large, low-income family and honest parents.
He finished school in Tampico and joined the army. Infobae, citing del Collado, reported that he enlisted as a soldier on January 21, 1999, in the 15th Infantry Battalion in Tampico and rose to the rank of sergeant. Infobae's 2020 account described him as a sargento primero, a first sergeant. He told El Heraldo de México's interviewer that he had joined at 18 and had been a good soldier. Monsiváis, writing from the information police released in January 2006, said he had studied for a year at the army's medical school, the Escuela Médico Militar, and had served four and a half years in the army. In the later interview he said he had completed two semesters of military medicine and had left because of money problems.
How he left the service is also told in more than one way. Infobae's 2021 account said he was discharged in May 2004. Its 2020 account said he deserted. El Telégrafo said he asked to leave after four years and seven months. The Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana wrote in 2022 that he was expelled after a robbery conviction.
That conviction came soon after he left the army. El Telégrafo reported that, unable to find work, he turned to armed robbery and was jailed from May 2004 to August 2005. Infobae reported in 2021 that he had records for several crimes, including robbery with violence, and that he was held for 14 months for that offense; its 2020 account said he served about a year and was freed in August 2005. In the El Heraldo interview he said he had turned to crime, first robbery and then kidnapping, because he wanted money.
After his release he moved to Mexico City. Monsiváis gave his arrival as October 2005. El Telégrafo reported that he rented an apartment in the Venustiano Carranza borough and began to spend his evenings in the Zona Rosa.
He did not act alone. Police named his accomplice as Juan Enrique Madrid Manuel. In Monsiváis's summary of the police account, Madrid waited at the apartment while Marroquín brought the men back. El Mañana wrote that Madrid made contact with the families and collected the ransoms. Infobae reported in 2022 that Marroquín had a strong emotional dependence on Madrid, and in 2021 that how the two men met and began working together was not known. El Telégrafo said Marroquín discussed his plans with Madrid and that it was Madrid who suggested holding the men for ransom. Marroquín denied having any relationship with his partner beyond their crimes, and denied being gay himself.
Police described a pattern. Marroquín went to bars in the Zona Rosa, introduced himself under a false first name, according to Infobae, and struck up conversations with young men. He asked about their families. If a man's family had no money, police said, he was let go; in Monsiváis's summary of the police account, Marroquín insulted such men before releasing them. If it did, he was taken to the apartment and held there, usually for five to seven days, while the families were called and told to pay. García Luna, the head of the federal investigation agency, told reporters that the ransom demands ranged from 15,000 to 120,000 pesos. The men were strangled. Afterward their bodies were left in suitcases on the streets of the city.
Marroquín told the press that he chose gay men because they approached him of their own accord and because they were easy to handle without weapons or a car. In his later prison interview he said he had realized that gay men found him attractive and that he used it to deceive them. He said he changed taxis when he moved the suitcases to avoid being traced. Monsiváis reported that, by his own count, he made about 150,000 pesos from the kidnappings.
Jonathan Razo Ayala was 20 years old, according to Infobae and El Mañana; the police summary Monsiváis described also included a 20-year-old taken in October. Infobae reported in 2020 that he was taken on October 27, 2005, and that his family was asked for 50,000 pesos. He was killed on November 12, 2005, according to Infobae, and El Mañana described him as the first of the four to die.
Ricardo López Hernández was the second. Infobae's 2021 account said his family was asked for 120,000 pesos and managed to pay 28,000, and that he was held for nine days before he was killed on December 9, 2005. The complaint about his kidnapping, made on November 30, 2005, was the starting point of the federal investigation, according to Infobae and El Telégrafo. His was the first case for which Marroquín was sentenced.
Armando Rivas Pérez was 25, according to Infobae, which reported that he was kidnapped on December 17, 2005. La Jornada spelled his surname Riva Pérez in its 2007 report on the sentence for his death. Monsiváis, drawing on the police summary, described two men aged 23 who were kidnapped on December 17 and 18 and found dead in suitcases.
Víctor Ángel Iván Gutiérrez, named by Infobae as Víctor Ángel Iván Balderas, was also 25, according to Infobae, which said he was kidnapped on December 20, 2005, and that his family was asked for 8,300 pesos. El Telégrafo wrote that Marroquín met him in a Zona Rosa bar on December 16. Infobae reported that he and Armando Rivas were found on December 23, 2005.
Little more than their names, ages and the dates of their deaths has been published about the four men. Their families were the ones Marroquín and Madrid called with demands for money, and in the case of Ricardo López Hernández, Infobae reported, part of the ransom was paid and he was killed anyway.
Two more men were taken and released alive. The Associated Press reported in January 2006 that police accused Marroquín of kidnapping two other gay men and letting them go after ransoms of up to 11,500 dollars. Infobae's account of García Luna's statement also listed two men who were held and later released.
Marroquín was arrested in Mexico City on January 23, 2006, according to Infobae, El Telégrafo and El Heraldo de México. The Associated Press reported that police arrested him on a Monday and did not say what had led them to him. Infobae's 2020 account gave the date as January 26, the day García Luna announced the arrest.
The federal investigation was run by the AFI together with SIEDO, a unit of the federal attorney general's office, according to Infobae, which reported in 2021 that pressure from the press had grown after two of the men were found dead in the city.
Accounts differ on how he was found. El Telégrafo wrote that federal agents caught him while he was collecting a new ransom, and that his voice had been recorded in the agency's files in two kidnapping cases. El Heraldo de México gave a different account: that evidence found by a passer-by led police to the building where he had been staying, and that information about a friend of his found there led them to him. In his prison interview, as El Heraldo reported it, Marroquín himself said a friend's information had led to his arrest.
When he was detained he was carrying three bank cards used for the ransom payments, a mobile phone and the voter identity cards of the men he had killed, according to Infobae's account of García Luna's statement. Madrid escaped.
On January 26, 2006, García Luna presented Marroquín to reporters. He did not deny the kidnappings or the killings. "I snuffed out four homosexuals that in some way were affecting society," he said, in the Associated Press translation, and he told reporters he would kill again if he had the chance, though he would refine his methods. The AP noted that his arrest was the first official confirmation that a serial killer had been targeting gay men in the city, after reports of rising attacks.
He told reporters he was not homophobic and was not gay. He said he felt no remorse, only concern for what his own family was going through, Monsiváis reported, and he justified the killings by saying he had done society a favor. Asked about the families of the men he killed, he said he had never thought about them, according to Infobae.
Monsiváis wrote about the case in a column published in El Siglo de Torreón on January 29, 2006. He set Marroquín beside Juana Barraza Samperio, arrested at about the same time and accused of murdering elderly women, and argued that both cases belonged in the category of hate crimes. He called Marroquín's claim to have done society a favor morally repugnant, and he wrote that the killings of gay men in Mexico were too often treated as routine, with most cases never solved. He also pointed out that the figures given to the press did not agree: the police account he summarized described five dead men, while the newspapers counted four.
Investigators of the then Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal, the Mexico City prosecutor's office, classified the killings as hate crimes motivated by homophobia, Infobae reported in 2020 and 2021. Whether a separate hate-crime aggravation formed part of the court judgments has never been made public; the sentences were described as convictions for kidnapping and homicide.
Marroquín was prosecuted in the courts of Mexico City, then the Distrito Federal, in more than one case. In October 2006 he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the homicide of Ricardo López Hernández, La Jornada reported.
On May 25, 2007, a court sentenced him to 147 years for the kidnapping and homicide of Jonathan Razo Ayala and Armando Rivas Pérez. Miguel Mancera, the deputy attorney general for trials (subprocurador de Procesos) of the Mexico City prosecutor's office, announced the sentence in an interview with La Jornada, which reported that the total of his sentences now passed 200 years, that other proceedings against him remained open, and that Juan Enrique Madrid Manuel had been sentenced to the same penalty.
Later judgments are reported less consistently. El Telégrafo wrote that he pleaded guilty and that on September 4, 2008, a court sentenced him to 288 years in prison. Infobae reported in 2020 and 2021 that he was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 280 years, and El Mañana gave the same 280-year figure in 2022. El Heraldo de México described his sentence as more than 290 years. The judges' names and any appeals have not been made public.
The figures are totals across several counts and several judgments, and no date on which he could be released has been made public.
Marroquín was first held at the Reclusorio Preventivo Varonil Oriente in the Iztapalapa borough. In 2010 he was moved to the Penitenciaría del Distrito Federal at Santa Martha Acatitla, according to Infobae, which reported in 2020, 2021 and September 2022 that he was serving his sentence there. El Mañana also placed him at Santa Martha in October 2022.
In prison he works as a craftsman and paints, according to El Heraldo de México, which described him as held in a maximum-security unit.
In 2006 Marroquín said he had no remorse. In an interview recorded in prison with the activist Saskia Niño de Rivera, as El Heraldo de México reported it, he gave a different account. He said that he regretted his crimes, that he could not turn back time and that he wanted to do something good with the rest of his life. He said prison had contained him and helped him, and that he now tried to persuade young inmates to leave crime behind.
He also said, in that interview, that he had not committed the crimes out of homophobia but only for money. He recalled the mother of one of the men crying at a hearing, said he felt sorry for the families, and added that he knew how much they must hate him and that he understood them. He said he felt more shame and pain for the families than for the men themselves.
His remorse has been reported in conflicting ways. El Mañana wrote in October 2022 that he had said he did not regret what he had done. El Telégrafo in 2017 repeated his 2006 statement that he would kill again if freed.
Madrid escaped when Marroquín was arrested. La Jornada reported in May 2007 that he had been sentenced to the same 147-year penalty as Marroquín, without saying whether he was in custody. Infobae reported in 2021 that he had never been captured and that he had been on the Mexico City prosecutor's list of most-wanted fugitives for kidnapping and homicide. El Telégrafo wrote in 2017 that he fled and was never caught.
Number of victims. Courts convicted Marroquín of four killings and police accused him of six kidnappings in all. Monsiváis noted in 2006 that the police summary described five dead men; Infobae (2020) and El Mañana (2022) wrote that there may have been more victims. No other killing has been charged.
Date of birth and age. September 1, 1980 (Infobae, 2021) or 1981 (El Telégrafo); the Associated Press gave his age at arrest as 29, other reports as 25.
How he left the army. Discharged in May 2004 (Infobae, 2021), deserted (Infobae, 2020), asked to leave (El Telégrafo), or expelled after a robbery conviction (El Mañana).
How he was caught. Arrested while collecting a ransom (El Telégrafo), or traced through evidence found by a passer-by and a friend's information (El Heraldo de México, and Marroquín's own later account).
The total sentence. 280 years in 2010 (Infobae, El Mañana), 288 years in September 2008 (El Telégrafo), or more than 290 years (El Heraldo de México).
Motive. He told reporters in 2006 that he had rid society of gay men; years later he said he acted only for money. Prosecutors' investigators classified the killings as hate crimes.
His childhood. El Telégrafo reported mistreatment by his father; Marroquín has described a normal, happy childhood.
September 1, 1980: Raúl Osiel Marroquín Reyes is born in Tampico, Tamaulipas (Infobae; El Telégrafo gives 1981).
January 21, 1999: enlists in the Mexican Army, 15th Infantry Battalion, Tampico; later rises to sergeant.
May 2004: leaves the army; jailed in Tamaulipas for armed robbery (El Telégrafo: May 2004 to August 2005).
August 2005: released from prison.
October 2005: moves to Mexico City.
October 27, 2005: Jonathan Razo Ayala is kidnapped (Infobae).
November 12, 2005: Jonathan Razo Ayala is killed.
November 30, 2005: a kidnapping complaint about Ricardo López Hernández starts the federal investigation.
December 9, 2005: Ricardo López Hernández is killed.
December 17 and 20, 2005: Armando Rivas Pérez and Víctor Ángel Iván Gutiérrez are kidnapped (Infobae).
December 23, 2005: both men are found dead (Infobae).
January 23, 2006: Marroquín is arrested in Mexico City; Juan Enrique Madrid Manuel escapes.
January 26, 2006: Genaro García Luna presents Marroquín to the press, where he admits the killings.
January 29, 2006: Carlos Monsiváis's column on the case appears in El Siglo de Torreón.
October 2006: sentenced to 60 years for the killing of Ricardo López Hernández.
May 25, 2007: sentenced to 147 years for the kidnapping and killing of Jonathan Razo Ayala and Armando Rivas Pérez; Madrid receives the same penalty.
September 4, 2008: sentenced again, to a total of 288 years by El Telégrafo's account.
2010: further sentence, reported as bringing the total to 280 years; moved from the Reclusorio Oriente to Santa Martha Acatitla.
September 2022: Infobae reports him held at Santa Martha Acatitla.