The four Valenzuela sisters – Delfina, María del Carmen, María Luisa, and María de Jesús – came from a troubled home in Jalisco, Mexico. By the mid-1940s, they left behind poverty and abuse to start fresh in San Francisco del Rincón.
With no education or skills, they turned to prostitution. Their first brothel, Rancho El Ángel, became a thriving business. But soon, ambition took them down a darker path.
They lured young women through false job ads promising “maids with good wages.” Instead, the girls were enslaved, drugged, and forced into sex work. Expansion followed. The sisters even hired mercenaries to kidnap women, including virgins reserved for “special customers.”
Inside their empire of brothels, cruelty was routine. Anyone who became sick, tried to escape, or displeased customers was killed. Pregnant women were brutally mistreated, and some wealthy patrons were murdered for their money. Victims often faced starvation or violent deaths.
By the early 1960s, the truth emerged. Police raids uncovered over 90 bodies, and investigators believed the real number was 150–200 victims. The media named them “Las Poquianchis,” and they entered the Guinness World Records as history’s most prolific murder partnership.
In 1964, the sisters were sentenced to 40 years in prison. Their crimes remain one of Mexico’s darkest and most chilling stories, and a stark reminder of the horrors of human trafficking.