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Assassination of the Marquesses of Urquijo

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Event.png Assassination of the Marquesses of Urquijo (murder,  low-level deep event?) Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Marquesses of Urquijo.png
The murdered banker couple
Date1 August 1980
LocationMadrid,  Spain
DescriptionMurder of prominent Spanish bank owners in 1980

The Spanish nobles and bankers María Lourdes de Urquijo, 5th Marchioness of Urquijo and Grandee of Spain, and her husband Manuel de la Sierra, were murdered in their Madrid home on 1 August 1980. Their son-in-law Rafael Escobedo was convicted of the crime, and later committed suicide in prison.[1] Escobedo's friend Javier Anastasio de Espona fled before being brought to trial, but much later asserted his innocence.

Murder

The main suspect, and the only person convicted for the crime, was Rafael Escobedo (1955–1988). He had married Miriam de la Sierra y Urquijo, daughter of the Marquesses, on 21 June 1978. The relationship deteriorated and in 1979 Miriam formed a relationship with Richard Dennis Rew, known as "Dick the American".[2] The Marquess was owner of Banco Urquijo, whose shares were plummeting at the time.

During the night of 1 August 1980, the Marquesses of Urquijo were shot to death, while they slept at their palace in Somosaguas near Madrid. On 8 April 1981, Escobedo was arrested and confessed to police, after some pistol cartridges were discovered at a property belonging to his father and appeared identical with those used to kill the Marquesses.[3] The next day, Javier Anastasio de Espona, a friend of Escobedo, and Diego Martínez Herrera, butler to the Urquijos, separately travelled in haste to London, where Juan, the son of the Marquesses and Miriam's younger brother, was living.

Investigation

From the first moment, the investigation of the crimes presented at least unusual circumstances, which have caused it to be questioned whether the case has been completely solved.[4]

Apart from the fact that an editor of the newspaper El Caso arrived at the scene of the crime before the police, one of the strangest facts was the role played by the administrator of the Urquijos, Diego Martínez Herrera. As soon as he heard about what had happened and before the forensic officers appeared, he ordered the corpses to be washed. In addition, he destroyed documents stored in the Marquises' safe. Although the administrator may have deleted evidence that could have proved crucial to the investigation, neither the police nor the judge ordered that he be investigated.[4]

At the beginning of the investigation, the police considered several hypotheses. One of them was the financial scheme. At that time, the integration of Banco Urquijo into Hispano Americano was being negotiated. The Marquis, almost alone, was opposed to this merger, but after his death it was approved by his sons. The possibility of a "terrorist" attack was also considered. However, the investigations ended up targeting Rafael Escobedo, whose motive allegedly was personal revenge for the accumulated hatred against his in-laws.[4]

Trial

On April 8, 1981, Rafael Escobedo was arrested at his family's house in Cuenca. Some bullet casings similar to those used by the weapon suspected in the homicides were found in the family house. After a tough interrogation he collapsed and ended up confessing guilty of the death of his in-laws.[4]

His lawyer went so far as to say that his client had been physically and psychologically tortured to extract that written confession from him. In fact, that was the only time Escobedo pleaded guilty. Although he admitted to having been at the Somosaguas mansion on that night, he always maintained that he had not committed the crimes.[4]

The police investigation was fraught with failures. To the already reported lack of investigation of the family administrator's activity after the crimes, is added the fact that the main evidence against Rafi, his written confession of the crime, disappeared from the police files before the trial. Also, at the time it was stated that the weapon used was a Star caliber 22 long rifle pistol, a collector's weapon and that it was very similar to the one Rafi Escobedo's father had. But the shell casings that had been found in the Escobedos' house also disappeared from the envelopes containing the evidence.

The disappearance of the cartridges complicated the progress of Escobedo's trial. In July 1983, however, Escobedo was found guilty and sentenced to 53 years in prison, and the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain in 1985. Escobedo maintained his innocence, accusing Anastasio of the crime, until his death in the prison of El Dueso on 27 July 1988.[5]

Javier Anastasio had been detained in January 1983 and his trial as participant in the murder was set for 21 January 1988. However, a month before the trial he escaped to Brazil via Portugal, and since then his whereabouts have been unknown. The only sighting of him was seven years afterwards, when he was interviewed for television by Jesús Quintero in Brazil. In May 2010 the charges against him were withdrawn and the case was closed under the statute of limitations, 30 years having passed since the crime.[6]

In February 1990, Mauricio López-Roberts y Melgar, Marquess of Torrehermosa, was sentenced to ten years in prison for obstruction of justice.[7]

In 2010 Anastasio was interviewed for the first time for the magazine Vanity Fair in Buenos Aires. He denied having committed the crime.[8]


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References

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