The term first lady serial killer sounds like something straight out of a political thriller or a cheap supermarket tabloid. You’d think it refers to a president's wife with a hidden stash of arsenic, but history is actually much weirder and more gruesome than that. If you’re looking for a member of the White House who went on a killing spree, you won’t find one. But if you look at the streets of Barcelona in the early 1900s, you find Enriqueta Martí. She was dubbed the "Vampire of Barcelona," and for over a century, she has been the figure most closely associated with the chilling title of a female predator who operated in the highest and lowest circles of society.
She wasn't a "First Lady" in the political sense. Honestly, that's a bit of a linguistic mix-up that’s gained steam in true crime circles lately. People often use the phrase to describe the first prominent female serial killer caught in the modern era, or they're hunting for a high-society woman who lived a double life. Martí fits that bill perfectly. She was a woman who moved between the slums of Raval and the glittering mansions of the Spanish elite, allegedly providing "miracle cures" to the wealthy made from the most horrific ingredients imaginable.
The Woman Behind the Myth
Enriqueta Martí didn't look like a monster. She looked like a tired, middle-aged woman struggling in a city undergoing massive social upheaval. Barcelona in 1912 was a powder keg. Anarchists were everywhere. The gap between the rich and the poor was a canyon.
Martí lived in a world of shadows. By day, she was a beggar, a "witch doctor," and a procuress. By night, she was something else. Her arrest in February 1912 sent shockwaves through Spain that haven't really settled even a hundred years later. It started when a neighbor, a woman named Mariane Menendez, looked through a window into Martí’s apartment on Calle de Ponent. She saw a young girl with a shaved head. That girl was Teresita Guitart, a child who had been reported missing weeks earlier.
When the police burst in, they didn't just find Teresita. They found another girl, Angelita. And then they found the jars.
The Horrors of Calle de Ponent
This is where the story gets heavy. The "Vampire of Barcelona" earned her nickname because of what was inside those jars. Police discovered human remains—bones, hair, and grease—stored in containers. Martí wasn't just a kidnapper. She was running a business. She believed, and more importantly, her wealthy clients believed, that the remains of children could cure tuberculosis and other diseases that were ravaging the upper classes.
She was basically a pharmacist for the depraved.
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It’s easy to dismiss this as urban legend, but the court records from the time are quite specific. They found lists of names. Not just any names. We’re talking about the most influential families in Barcelona. This is why the first lady serial killer label sticks to her in a metaphorical way; she was the "first lady" of the criminal underworld who had the "first families" of the city on her payroll.
She used the children for blood, fat, and bone marrow to create ointments and potions. It’s sickening. It’s also a stark reminder of how class privilege can create a vacuum where the poor become nothing more than raw materials for the rich.
Why the Story is Still Controversial
History is rarely as clean as a Netflix documentary. In recent years, some historians, like Elsa Plaza, have started to question the scale of Martí’s crimes. Was she a serial killer, or was she a convenient scapegoat for a corrupt police force?
Think about it. Barcelona was on the verge of a revolution. The police were under fire for failing to protect citizens. Suddenly, they find a "witch" who is responsible for every missing child in the city? It’s almost too perfect. Some researchers argue that while Martí was definitely a kidnapper and likely a procuress for pedophiles in the city’s elite circles, the "vampire" elements might have been exaggerated by the press to distract the public from the political failures of the government.
However, the physical evidence found in her home—those jars and the hidden skeletal remains—is hard to ignore. Whether she killed two children or twenty, she remains one of the most terrifying figures in European history.
The Mystery of Her Death
Martí never made it to trial. That’s another reason the conspiracy theories thrive. In 1913, she was found dead in her prison cell. The official story? She was lynched by her fellow inmates who couldn't stomach her crimes. The unofficial story? She was murdered by the very elites she served. If she had testified, she would have named names. She would have brought down the government and the aristocracy.
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Dead men—and dead vampires—tell no tales.
Common Misconceptions About Female Serial Killers
When people search for terms like first lady serial killer, they’re often looking for a specific type of criminal. We tend to think female killers are "Angels of Death" (nurses who kill patients) or "Black Widows" (women who kill husbands for insurance money).
- They only kill for love or money. Not true. Martí killed for a bizarre form of "entrepreneurship." She saw a market—the desperate health of the wealthy—and she filled it.
- They are less violent than men. The evidence in the Martí case suggests a level of brutality that rivals any male contemporary.
- They always act alone. Martí likely had a network. You don’t move in high society and snatch children off busy streets without some level of protection or cooperation.
The fascination with Enriqueta Martí persists because she represents the ultimate betrayal of the maternal instinct. Society expects women to be nurturers. When they become predators, it breaks our collective brain.
The "First Lady" Label in Modern Context
If you aren't looking for Enriqueta Martí, you might be thinking of someone like Aileen Wuornos, often incorrectly cited as the first female serial killer in America. She wasn't the first, but she was the first to fit the "highway sniper" profile usually reserved for men.
But the "first lady" of all serial killers, in terms of sheer scale and historical notoriety, is usually Countess Elizabeth Báthory. If Martí was the vampire of Barcelona, Báthory was the original. She allegedly killed hundreds of young women in the 16th century to bathe in their blood.
There is a recurring theme here: wealth, power, and the consumption of the young.
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Lessons From the Case of Enriqueta Martí
What can we actually learn from a 114-year-old crime spree?
First, it shows that "fake news" isn't new. The sensationalism of the Spanish press in 1912 created a monster that might have been even bigger than the real woman. We have to look at the intersection of poverty and crime. Martí preyed on the children of the streets because she knew the police wouldn't care until a "respectable" child like Teresita went missing.
Second, it reminds us that the most dangerous people aren't always the ones hiding in the woods. They’re the ones living in plain sight, providing services to the powerful.
How to Research Historical True Crime Without Getting Fooled
If you’re diving into the history of the first lady serial killer or other dark figures, keep these steps in mind:
- Check the primary sources. Look for digitized newspaper archives from the era. In Martí's case, the Spanish archive La Vanguardia has the original 1912 reports.
- Beware of "Modern Folklore." Many true crime YouTubers add details for dramatic effect. If a detail sounds too much like a horror movie (like "she turned into a bat"), it’s probably fake.
- Look for the "Cui Bono" (Who benefits?). In the Martí case, her death in prison benefited the wealthy people she might have implicated. Always ask who gains from a criminal's silence.
- Distinguish between "First" and "Most Famous." History is full of forgotten monsters. Just because someone is labeled the "first" doesn't mean they actually were; it just means they were the first to be recorded or the first to go viral in the media of their day.
The story of Enriqueta Martí is a dark stain on Barcelona's history, a mix of genuine horror and political theatre. Whether she was a solo monster or a tool of the elite, her name remains synonymous with the absolute worst of humanity.
To understand the full scope of this case, one should look into the sociological state of Spain during the "Tragic Week" of 1909, just years before her arrest. This period of violent confrontation between the working class and the army created the exact environment where a woman like Martí could disappear children with impunity. Understanding the chaos of the city is the only way to understand how the "Vampire of Barcelona" could exist in the first place. For those interested in the legal side, researching the Spanish penal code of the early 20th century reveals how gender biases often led to "witchcraft" accusations being used when the legal system didn't know how to handle female violence.