Enriqueta Martí

Enriqueta Martí Ripollés (1868 – 12 May 1913) was a Spanish child serial killer, kidnapper, prostitute and procuress of children. She was called "The Vampire of carrer Ponent", "The Vampire of Barcelona" and "The Vampire of the Raval" in the press.

Early life Enriqueta Martí was born in Sant Feliu de Llobregat in 1868. As a young woman, Martí moved from her hometown to Barcelona where she worked as a maidservant and nanny;

Biography In 1909 Martí opened her own brothel, which attracted some of the more affluent people in Barcelona. Some of them had unusual desires which she accommodated for a premium. Some expressed a desire for children. To accommodate them, she dressed as a pauper during the day and frequented the poorer parts of the city. When she came across unaccompanied children she abducted them to prostitute them in her brothel. She begged and joined bread queues at the monasteries to find the most abandoned-looking children. By night she attended the El Liceu, the , and other places where the wealthy of Barcelona gathered, likely offering her services as a procurer of children.

At the same time as she was prostituting children, Martí was also practising as a witch-doctor. She claimed drinking the blood of children could cure tuberculosis, and offered creams and elixirs that could stop ageing and prolong life. The ingredients she used to make her remedies came from the remains of the children that she was killing, who ranged from 5 up to 15 years of age. She used the fat, blood, hair, and bones. For this reason, she did not have problems disposing of her victims. Martí offered salves, ointments, philtres, poultices, and potions, especially to treat tuberculosis, which was highly feared at the time, and various other incurable diseases. The wealthy paid large sums of money for these remedies.

During the Tragic Week of 1909, Martí was arrested at her flat on Barcelona's carrer Minerva, along with a young man from a wealthy family, and accused of running a brothel that offered sexual services from children. Thanks to her contacts with Barcelona's high society using her services, she was never tried.

Over the next three years many more children disappeared, but as they were from poor families police investigations into their disappearance were minimal.

It is suspected that Martí kidnapped a large number of children over a span of twenty years.

Forensic experts managed to differentiate a total of twelve children with what little evidence they were able to recover. In spite of suspicions, and because Martí did not tally her activities, experts are unsure if she was Spain's deadliest killer. It is clear that she acted for many years in Barcelona. The public suspected that someone was kidnapping babies, and many children disappeared without a trace causing dread among the population.

Congost told authorities that Martí was in the habit of leaving them alone and that one day they risked exploring the rooms that Martí forbade them from entering. They had found a sack with a girl's clothes and a boning knife, all covered in blood. Congost never left the flat during her captivity.

During the second inspection of the flat, detectives found the sack with the bloody clothing and the knife. They also found another sack with dirty clothes and at least thirty small human bones.

Counter theories For his book Barcelona 1912 (published in 2014), Barcelona writer Jordi Corominas conducted an exhaustive investigation into the life of Enriqueta Martí. Reviewing the journalistic chronicles that were published at the time, he warned that many articles were based on the rough information that was available in the first days, but there were no subsequent investigative follow-ups.

Works about Enriqueta Martí Literature Los diarios de Enriqueta Martí by Pierrot is a novel that centres on a few supposed diaries that Enriqueta Martí wrote before beginning her murderous career. Illustrated by the author. El misterio de la calle Poniente is a novel by Fernando Gómez. In February 1912 the disappearance of a three-year-old girl shocked Barcelona. The investigation and, later discoveries, revealed to the public a series of macabre murders that shook a city that was recovering from the Tragic Week. The book details many prominent figures who helped to shape the story; individuals of flesh and blood, many of them incapable of being the protagonists of their own story. They converge to outline faithfully the authentic face of the merciless Enriqueta Martí, who begs by day, dresses as a marquise by night, and knows the power from the darkest side. The fresh blood is her valued goods, the children her suppliers, and a sick middle-class her clients. El Cielo Bajo los Pies is a non-fiction book by Elsa Plaza. In a case that shocked Barcelona in 1912. Enriqueta Martí, called by the derisive names "The Vampiress of Barcelona" and "The Bad Woman", was besieged by all kinds of rumours from the moment police arrested her, accusing her of making children disappear with the most aberrant intentions, from turning them into objects of pleasure for the wealthy to making cosmetics and salves to prolong life. Martí is presented as a likely scapegoat and a number of destitute families are accused of selling their children, albeit out of economic desperation. Barcelona Shadows, a novel by Marc Pastor. "Pastor’s humble but effective storytelling innovation is to have Death narrate the story… It sounds gimmicky, but in Pastor’s able hands (neatly translated by Mara Faye Lethem) it adds a fateful dimension… Pastor is also skilled at creating brief, crisp scenes that get into the minds not only of his detective but of two captive little girls, and other characters as well. He’s grittily insightful into the psychology of a city under stress… dark, fast-moving tale." — Blogcritics La vampira del carrer ponent o els misteris de Barcelona by Josep Arias Velasco.

Theatre La Vampira del Raval (The Vampire of the Raval) a 2013 musical by Albert Guinovart won the Max Awards for the Performing Arts (Los Premios Max de las Artes Escénicas, Spanish) for his musical score of this piece.

Films In the Spanish film "Diamond Flash" (2011), directed by Carlos Vermut, the character of Enriqueta is inspired by Enriqueta Martí. In the film, Enriqueta controls an organization that is dedicated to the kidnapping of children. "The Barcelona Vampiress" or "La vampira de Barcelona" (2020), directed by Lluís Danés. In early 20th century Barcelona, little Teresa goes missing shocking the country. When police start investigating Enriqueta Martí, the "Vampiress of Raval", they cover a much more sinister affair.

Television In episodes 20 and 35 of the first season of Cuarto Milenio, broadcast in 2006, the theme of the so-called vampiresa was discussed. The figure was characterized in the Spanish TV series El ministerio del tiempo (episode Separadas por el tiempo played by Maria Rodriguez) as a former servant of one of the protagonists who was dismissed for theft and inadvertently discovers through time travel that she will become a serial killer who exploits children, and tries to avoid her destiny by escaping into other periods in history. Eventually, her younger self offers to not change history any more than she already has and agrees to become the woman history says she was on condition that she be allowed to die a more painless death than what was previously described in jail