Manuel Blanco Romasanta

Manuel Blanco Romasanta (né Manuela; 18 November 1809 – 14 December 1863) was Spain's first recorded serial killer. In 1853, he admitted to thirteen murders but claimed he was not responsible because he was suffering from a curse that caused him to turn into a wolf. Although this defence was rejected at trial, Queen Isabella II commuted his death sentence to allow doctors to investigate the claim as an example of clinical lycanthropy. Blanco has become part of Spanish folklore as the Werewolf of Allariz and is also known as The Tallow Man, a nickname he earned for rendering his victims' fat to make high-quality soap.

Background

According to various accounts, he was of small stature, between in height, blonde, and "tender looking." As an adult, he worked as a dressmaker and was married. He was widowed a year later but was not suspected of having had a hand in her death. Following the death of his wife in 1833, Blanco became a travelling salesman, initially in Esgos, then eventually throughout Galicia and Portugal. Blanco was also known to act as a guide for travellers crossing the mountains to Castile, Asturias, and Cantabria, which gave him further opportunities for trade.

In 1844, Blanco was charged with the murder of Vicente Fernández, the alguacil of León. Fernández was found dead after attempting to collect a debt of 600 real that Blanco owed to a supplier in Ponferrada for the purchase of merchandise. When he failed to appear, he was judged guilty by default and sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment.

Other murders and arrest Fleeing from the threat of imprisonment, Blanco lived in hiding for almost a year in an abandoned shelter in Ermida. He reappeared later in public with a false passport using the name Antonio Gómez, a native of Nogueira, Portugal; and lived in the small village of Rebordechao in the district of Vilar de Barrio for at least a year. Although he helped with the harvest, he also worked as a cook, a coir maker, and as a weaver making yarn on a spinning wheel. He became friendly with the women of the village, which led the men to consider him effeminate.

Trial in Allariz When Blanco was brought to trial, Galicia was in the middle of one of the worst famines of several that had plagued the area throughout the nineteenth century. The famine led to mass migrations and a noticeable increase in fear and anxiety. In October 1852, Allariz doctors presented the court with a report on Blanco. Based heavily on phrenology, the report accused him of inventing his affliction. While noting that lycanthropy can be determined from a "visceral examination" and craneoscopia, the doctors found no causes or motives for his behaviour."His inclination to vice is voluntary and not forced. The subject is not insane, dim-witted or monomaniacal, nor were these [conditions] achieved while incarcerated. On the contrary, he instead turns out to be a pervert, an accomplished criminal capable of anything, cool and collected and without goodness but [acts] with free will, freedom and knowledge."

The court acquitted Blanco of four of the murders he had confessed to after forensic evidence indicated that these victims had died in real wolf attacks. He was found guilty of the other nine, the remains of which exhibited signs of butchering. On 6 April 1853, Blanco was sentenced to death by garrote with 1000 Real compensation to be paid for each victim. ) in France and his works on the influence of the mind were later developed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The "Wolfman" trial occurred at the beginning of the golden age of hypnotism.

Death The Celanova prison and its records no longer exist but it was widely believed that Blanco died within months of arriving. Locals say it was from illness, but there is also a rumour that he died after being shot by a guard who wanted to see him transform. "In Ceuta prison, the unfortunately famous Manuel Blanco Romasanta, known in all Spain as the werewolf as a consequence of his atrocities and misdeeds and who was sentenced to prison by the Court in La Coruña, died in that place on 14 of this month being the victim of stomach cancer."

Popular culture El Bosque del Lobo (The Ancines Woods) is a 1970 Spanish horror film produced and directed by Pedro Olea and starring José Luis López Vázquez. The film is based on the novel El bosque de Ancines by Carlos Martínez-Barbeito. Romasanta (also titled Werewolf Hunter – The Legend of Romasanta) is a 2004 Anglo-Spanish horror film produced by Fantastic Factory, directed by Paco Plaza and starring Julian Sands, Elsa Pataky, and John Sharian. The film is based on a script by Alfredo Conde, who is a descendant of one of the doctors involved in the original Werewolf of Allariz court case. Conde went on to write the fictional novel The Uncertain Memoirs of a Galician Wolfman: Romasanta. In the 2014 documentary 10 Most Evil Serial Killers from BayView Entertainment, Manuel Blanco Romasanta is portrayed by British horror actor Nathan Head. Romasanta may also have influenced the 1985 novel Perfume by German author Patrick Süskind. The Galician group Luar na Lubre made a song, Cantar de Romasanta, that explains the story.