Netflix’s Mexican series The Dead Girls (Las Muertas), created by Luis Estrada, is based on the Mexican novel by Jorge Ibargüengoitia that goes by the same name. The 1977 novel was inspired by the true story of the notorious González Valenzuela sisters, who not only ran a sex trafficking ring but were also cold-blooded murderers. You get the idea that the sisters (in the series they are the Baladro sisters) were vicious, but the series, with a mix of drama and dark comedy, chooses to also shed light on the circumstances, both political and personal, that resulted in the deaths of the sex workers. In this article, we take a close look at the most intriguing events that unfolded in the course of the six-episode series.
Spoiler Alert
What led to the downfall of the Baladro sisters?
It was debatable how Arcangela, the eldest of the three Baladro sisters, came to own the first brothel. Some said she inherited it from her father, who was a shady man, but Eulalia (the slightly more honest of the three sisters) begged to differ. She stated that her father was a gentleman, and it was Arcangela who started the brothel. She took over the estate their father had left them and gradually became a loan shark, and later, when one of her clients failed to clear his debts, he offered her the keys to his bar. She reopened the bar at first, but she soon realized that pimping the waitresses brought her more money, so gradually the bar transformed into a brothel. She kept politicians and cops on her payroll to ensure that her business remained untouched.
Arcangela eventually decided to expand, and that was when the youngest of the three sisters, Serafina, joined her business, and she was responsible for running Casa Del Molino. As the business kept getting better, Serafina suggested that they open another brothel at Concepcion de Ruiz, an area outside the red-light district that was close to the barracks, so that men who hesitated from going to Casa Del Molino and Mexico Lindo could finally find what they were looking for at a more sophisticated establishment. Politicians supported the efforts of the sisters, and soon their third brothel, Casino Del Danzon, was inaugurated with a grand celebration. The private secretary of Governor Cabanas, Carlos Sanabria, was also invited to the party. After he got too drunk, Carlos was seen asking a man for a kiss, and the entire incident left him humiliated, and he was determined to permanently close the doors of the casino.
Carlos, along with his supporters, urged the governor to take action against the establishment. Now Cabanas, the governor of Plan De Abajo, had failed to live up to the grand promises he’d made to his people; he’d used all the government money on elaborate projects, which resulted in a tax increase, and the common people were not happy with him. He needed to do something that would immediately whitewash his image, so he decided to impose a morality law to prove to his supporters that he was dedicated to putting an end to immoral activities. According to the law, all brothels had to shut down, and Casino Del Danzon was no exception.
Arcangela and Serafina were left with only one establishment, Mexico Lindo, and they decided to run it economically to ensure that they made some profit. They sold some of the sex workers, while the rest were asked to adjust and adapt. They were also warned not to refuse any client. The sisters were relieved when they saw a huge crowd had gathered outside their brothel. But the tough days had only begun. Arcangela’s son, Beto, returned from Los Angeles and got into heroin trafficking. The Mexican government had been closely watching his operations. Agent Demetrio Guillomar, a federal cop working on the heroin case, allowed Beto 48 hours to leave Mezcala before he got arrested in exchange for cash. But Beto ended up not leaving his country because he’d fallen in love with a local girl, Conchita. When he professed his love for her, her brothers shot him. Beto somehow managed to make it to Mexico Lindo, but he succumbed to the bullet wounds. The establishment was under the government’s radar, and soon the sisters were sent a notice to shut down the brothel. They only had 24 hours to leave Mexico Lindo, so Serafina came up with the plan of moving into Casino Del Danzon until they figured something out. Since the property was seized by the government, they built a door through the neighbor’s wall to access the casino and paid the neighbor a monthly fee. With no source of income, the sisters soon started to run dry, and it ultimately resulted in more chaos.
How did Simon get involved with the Baladro sisters?
Serafina had been head over heels in love with Simon. He was a baker who didn’t approve of Serafina’s lifestyle, and that resulted in their separation thrice. But whenever they crossed paths, they ended up getting back together; it was almost an irresistible temptation. It had been three years since Serafina and Simon had separated when, one night out of nowhere, Serafina arrived with three men at the bakery Simon worked at and attempted to shoot him. They burned down the place before leaving, but luckily Simon survived. When the cops asked for his testimony, he explained his relationship with Serafina, and he went on to eagerly add that there was something he knew about her that could keep her behind bars for long. Though he didn’t think his proposal through because immediately after narrating his story, he was sentenced to prison for six years for assisting the Baladro sisters in committing a crime. Simon explained how he’d helped the Baladro sisters get rid of the body of one of the sex workers at their establishment. Most either didn’t remember her name, or men like Simon thought she was Ernestina/Helda/Elena, but her actual name was Maria.
During The Dead Girls’ ending, we get a glimpse of Maria before she was stabbed to death by her client. When her client called her Ernestina/Helda/Elena, she reminded him that she was Maria, oblivious of the tragedy that awaited her. Now let’s get back to Simon’s role in getting rid of the corpse. Simon crossed paths with Serafina a third time in 1960 in Pajares. Even though their relationship had ended on a bitter note, they knew that they were still in love the moment they saw each other. They decided to spend the night together and relive their happy days. The next morning, Simon offered to drive Serafina to San Pedro, and she gladly accepted it. He had no intention of meeting Arcangela, so he suggested dropping Serafina at her sister’s place and leaving immediately. But she insisted he have lunch at her sister’s house, and he ultimately couldn’t turn down her request. Arcangela welcomed him with open arms and offered him the best tequila she had in her house. She locked him in the dining room and took Serafina aside. Serafina returned an hour later and told Simon that they had a problem to deal with. Simon soon discovered that one of the girls had been stabbed to death, and the sisters needed his help to get rid of the body. They were afraid that the brothel would be shut down if the officials at the Public Ministry learned about the murder. Simon was in love, so he considered helping Serafina.
They tossed the corpse off the side of the road while driving to Mezcala. Later, Arcangela handed him 500 pesos in return for his silence. He never thought running into his ex-girlfriend could cause him so much trouble. Simon and Serafina stayed together for the next six months in Pedrones, but he wasn’t content with his life there. When she learned that Simon had decided to leave, she got Captain Zarate involved and asked him to arrest Simon. She was the reason why he was tortured at the barracks because she wanted to make sure that he was destroyed and would not dare to leave her. Her plan worked, and when Simon returned, he was a changed man. When they traveled to Veracruz, Simon told Serafina that he intended to marry her. She was so smitten that she decided to come clean and confessed that she was the one who got him arrested. She didn’t realize that her honesty would backfire. That night, Simon abandoned Serafina in Veracruz.
What led to the sisters’ arrest?
Three years later, when Serafina traveled to Pajares with her new lover and partner-in-crime, Captain Bedoya, she was reminded of Simon. When she told the captain that she couldn’t live with the fact that Simon went unpunished even after abandoning her, the captain suggested they teach him a lesson. And that was why Serafina showed up at the bakery three years after the Veracruz incident and attempted to kill Simon. The cops had been searching for the Baladro sisters after the shootout, and Cueto, one of the detectives working on the case, knew that they were hiding at the ranch. Arcangela offered him cash to ensure that Serafina was left unharmed. The detective thought it was a little odd for Arcangela to offer them 10,000 pesos up front even though she knew that they would’ve kept her request even if she’d paid them a little less. He suspected that the sisters were trying to cover up something even worse. He decided to inspect the casino, and that was when he and his men discovered the bodies of the dead girls buried on the property. By the time they drove to the ranch, the sisters were gone. They found a few of the girls there, who informed the cops that they overheard them saying that they would take a train to Nogales. The information turned out to be correct, and in the final episode of The Dead Girls, Arcangela and Serfina were finally arrested.
Why did the sex workers turn their backs on the Baladro sisters?
Blanca was a child when she was sold off to the Baladro sisters, and she soon became their favorite. She’d come from such poverty that a shelter above her head and regular meals were all that she desired. So even though her job was demanding, she never complained. Blanca hated her crooked teeth, so one day she decided to have them fixed. She didn’t have the money to get the dental prosthesis done, so she borrowed money from Arcangela. She flaunted her gold teeth, further impressing one of her regular clients, Mr. Mariano. Just when Blanca thought she had finally achieved perfection, her life fell apart. She was four months pregnant, so she had to undergo an illegal surgery that left her paralyzed. Blanca was admitted to a hospital, but the sister didn’t have the money to continue with her treatment. She was brought to the casino, and Skeleton, the right-hand assistant of the sisters, performed a ritual using a clothing iron that instantly resulted in her death. Her body was first buried within the walls of the compound, but when the vultures started to show up, the sisters decided to burn the corpse. Arcangela had tried to remove the golden caps from the corpse, and she was furious when she discovered that someone had stolen them. Soon two more girls died after they got into a messy fight over the golden caps and ended up falling from a height and dying on the spot. Their bodies too were buried.
The sisters couldn’t afford to feed the sex workers or provide them with fresh clothes, so naturally that resulted in discontentment. Whenever the girls protested, the sisters resorted to severe punishments and had even sent four of the girls to a ranch they’d recently bought in the hopes of starting a new business. When the girls tried to escape, Arcangela’s brother-in-law, Teofilo, who was in charge of the ranch, shot two of the girls. Both died as a result, and once again they had to bury the dead girls. Another sex worker died because of fever. The more the Baladro sisters tried to cover up, the more girls died in one way or another. They started to think that God had abandoned them and that was why death continued to follow them wherever they went.
The sisters failed to realize how inhumanely they had been treating the girls. They were not allowed to leave the casino, they lacked basic hygiene, they were mostly starving, and as days passed, their primitive instincts started to kick in, and it had all come down to survival. They no longer cared how well their madam had treated them during their good days because there was no denying that the girls were always exploited. No matter how many men they slept with, they had to pay a massive cut to the sisters, so they were always in debt and barely made enough to ever leave the brothel and build a life of their own. So, when the sisters were arrested, the girls didn’t hesitate to blame them for crimes that they didn’t even commit. They wanted the Baladro sisters to suffer, and they didn’t care about being morally right. Moreover, the government provided the victims/witnesses with clothing, food, and even a proper bed to sleep on. Although some of the girls initially chose to be loyal to their ‘madams,’ they ultimately realized that speaking against them would help them stay out of prison and rebuild their lives as well.
Were the Baladro sisters sentenced to prison?
The testimony of the girls who worked for the sisters, along with the dead bodies that the cops had discovered on their property, was enough evidence to suggest that the Baladro sisters were pure evil. On top of that, the media sensationalized the story, resulting in public outrage. Even though Serafina and Arcangela tried to explain that they were not directly responsible for most of the deaths, no one believed them. Their immoral business and their inhumane treatment towards the girls were reason enough for the court to believe that they deserved to be punished, even though not all the witness testimony against them was true; some were clearly false allegations. Teofilo tried to wash his hands of the crime he committed by blaming it on Serafina and Arcangela. Even the defense counsel publicly stated that he believed that the sisters should face the firing squad. On their worst days only Captain Bedoya, Ticho, and Skeleton stood by the sisters.
The corrupt system allowed Serafina and Arcangela to thrive, and when they ran out of money to offer the higher-ups, the system finally decided it was time to punish them. On 5th March, 1964, Captain Bedoya was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Juana Cornejo, aka Skeleton, was put behind bars for 20 years on first-degree murder charges, illegal abortions, and extreme criminal negligence in Blanca’s death. Teofilo was sentenced to 20 years, and his wife, Eulalia, was imprisoned for 15 years. Ticho received a 12-year sentence for violation of human burial laws and for his complicity in various crimes committed by the sisters. Serafina and Arcangela were found guilty on all charges and were sentenced to 35 years in prison with no parole. The sisters happened to be the perfect villains, and by putting them behind bars, the government proved their efficiency without being held accountable.
What happened to the girls?
The Dead Girls’ ending revealed that after serving his sentence, Simon returned to his hometown and opened a bakery and lived happily. Ticho worked as a loader in a warehouse after his release, and he continued to visit the Baladro sisters during their time in prison. Eulalia had set up a stall outside the Pajares prison and sold cookies and candies. Captain Bedoya managed to influence and discipline the prison inmates and guards, and he was feared and respected. Arcangela and Serafina were still in prison, but they’d successfully set up multiple businesses inside prison. They had apparently become moneylenders and continued pimping even within the walls of the prison. The victims were compensated. Although, according to the investigative reporter who tried to work on a follow-up article on the case, he never managed to track down the girls. Just like Maria, their names were forgotten. Perhaps they became invisible faces in the working force, or they went back to their old profession because they didn’t know any better.
