Campo Elías Delgado
Encyclopedia
Campo Elías Delgado was a Colombian
Vietnam War
veteran
who killed 30 people, and wounded 15 more, most of them at a luxurious Bogotá
restaurant called Pozzetto, before apparently being shot dead by police. Since he only had a revolver and a knife and many of the dead were killed by an Uzi, it is alleged that the police were responsible for some of the deaths.
, Colombia
and he studied medicine. In 1970 he reportedly served in the U. S. military in the Vietnam War, even though he was a decade too old to be drafted. Friends reported that his experience in Vietnam had made him antisocial and bitter. A refugee in the streets of New York, after a fight with a thief he returned to Bogotá. Delgado then lived by teaching private English lessons and was taking graduate studies at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was no longer able to develop friendships, for which he blamed his mother, Rita Elisa Morales de Delgado, and his father had committed suicide when Delgado was married in Argentina. As the years went by, he grew more and more resentful of his mother. The capstone of this story of loneliness was the murder of his mother on 4 December 1986, after which he embarked on a horrific killing spree.
He then returned to the apartment he shared with his mother. Delgado packed his briefcase full of ammunition and loaded his pistol. He walked up behind his mother and killed her with a single stab to the back of the neck. He wrapped her corpse in newspapers and set them on fire and ran through the apartment complex screaming "¡Fuego! ¡Fuego!" (Fire! Fire!) luring people into the main hallway, where he killed them one by one. He killed one man with the knife, then took the firearm from the briefcase and opened fire on others, killing five more people.
He then left for the Italian restaurant in the Chapinero
district. He carried a .32 calibre revolver
, five boxes of ammunition
hidden in a briefcase, and a hunting knife
, which he discarded while walking to the restaurant.
Delgado arrived at the restaurant at around 19:30 EST
and ordered an expensive meal (spaghetti
alla bolognese
according to accounts of survivors and Mendoza's book), red wine, and eight vodka tonics. About one hour into the dinner, he opened fire on the diners. A woman quickly called police who arrived ten minutes later. Delgado had shot twenty-one people to death, mostly women, by the time police arrived. His method was to corner his victim and shoot them at point-blank range in the forehead
and then move on to the next victim. A further fifteen were wounded. Delgado promised himself not to kill any children, but he accidentally killed a six-year-old girl sitting at an adjacent table when his pistol misfired. When police arrived Delgado turned his attention to them, holding them off for one minute. He was apparently killed with a shot to the temple by a police officer. There is also a belief that Delgado committed suicide. After some time, police discovered with a comparison of the bullets that Delgado was shot by a police officer, when he was reloading.
Among the wounded were: Victor Mauricio Pérez Serrano, Maribel Arce de Pérez, Juliet Robledo, Jose Darío Martínez, Miriam Ortiz de Parrado, Alfonso Cubillos, Yolanda Garzón de Cubillos, Jhon Cubillos Garzón and Pedro Jose Sarmiento
" into a film (with the same title). The story is framed in a context of urban solitude in the modern world and sheds some light on the motivations and anxieties of Campo Elias Delgado but avoiding explicit or manichean conclusions.
Colombian people
Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
who killed 30 people, and wounded 15 more, most of them at a luxurious Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
restaurant called Pozzetto, before apparently being shot dead by police. Since he only had a revolver and a knife and many of the dead were killed by an Uzi, it is alleged that the police were responsible for some of the deaths.
Life
Delgado was born 14 May 1934, in ChinácotaChinácota
Chinácota is a small town and municipality located in the Department of Norte de Santander in Colombia, South America. This department is located on the North-Eastern region of the country, near the border with Venezuela...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and he studied medicine. In 1970 he reportedly served in the U. S. military in the Vietnam War, even though he was a decade too old to be drafted. Friends reported that his experience in Vietnam had made him antisocial and bitter. A refugee in the streets of New York, after a fight with a thief he returned to Bogotá. Delgado then lived by teaching private English lessons and was taking graduate studies at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was no longer able to develop friendships, for which he blamed his mother, Rita Elisa Morales de Delgado, and his father had committed suicide when Delgado was married in Argentina. As the years went by, he grew more and more resentful of his mother. The capstone of this story of loneliness was the murder of his mother on 4 December 1986, after which he embarked on a horrific killing spree.
The murderer’s path
The murders started in the afternoon of 4 December 1986 in the apartment of one of Delgado’s English students. There he stabbed to death his 15 year old pupil Claudia Rincón and her mother, Nora Becerra de Rincón.He then returned to the apartment he shared with his mother. Delgado packed his briefcase full of ammunition and loaded his pistol. He walked up behind his mother and killed her with a single stab to the back of the neck. He wrapped her corpse in newspapers and set them on fire and ran through the apartment complex screaming "¡Fuego! ¡Fuego!" (Fire! Fire!) luring people into the main hallway, where he killed them one by one. He killed one man with the knife, then took the firearm from the briefcase and opened fire on others, killing five more people.
He then left for the Italian restaurant in the Chapinero
Chapinero
Chapinero is the second locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is located in northeastern Bogotá. It is among the more affluent of localities in the city, and is home to several important commercial and dining areas. It comprises three major residential areas: Chicó, El Lago, and Chapinero...
district. He carried a .32 calibre revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
, five boxes of ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
hidden in a briefcase, and a hunting knife
Hunting knife
A hunting knife is a knife used during hunting for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning the animal and cutting up the meat. It is different from the Hunting dagger which was traditionally used to kill wild game....
, which he discarded while walking to the restaurant.
Delgado arrived at the restaurant at around 19:30 EST
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
and ordered an expensive meal (spaghetti
Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. Spaghetti is made of semolina or flour and water. Italian dried spaghetti is made from durum wheat semolina, but outside of Italy it may be made with other kinds of flour...
alla bolognese
Bolognese sauce
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. It is traditionally used to dress tagliatelle and is one of the two sauces used to prepare "lasagne alla Bolognese"...
according to accounts of survivors and Mendoza's book), red wine, and eight vodka tonics. About one hour into the dinner, he opened fire on the diners. A woman quickly called police who arrived ten minutes later. Delgado had shot twenty-one people to death, mostly women, by the time police arrived. His method was to corner his victim and shoot them at point-blank range in the forehead
Forehead
For the Arsenal striker see GervinhoIn human anatomy, the forehead is the fore part of the head. It is, formally, an area of the head bounded by three features, two of the skull and one of the scalp. The top of the forehead is marked by the hairline, the edge of the area where hair on the scalp...
and then move on to the next victim. A further fifteen were wounded. Delgado promised himself not to kill any children, but he accidentally killed a six-year-old girl sitting at an adjacent table when his pistol misfired. When police arrived Delgado turned his attention to them, holding them off for one minute. He was apparently killed with a shot to the temple by a police officer. There is also a belief that Delgado committed suicide. After some time, police discovered with a comparison of the bullets that Delgado was shot by a police officer, when he was reloading.
Victims
Those killed by Delgado were:
|
Revista Cromos Revista Cromos is a Colombian varieties and photojournalism magazine, known for widely covering the Miss Colombia pageant on editions called Mini Cromos. It was founded in 1916 by Miguel Santiago Valencia and Abelardo Arboleda, both from the Colombian city of Popayán... New Liberalism (Colombia) Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galán founded the Nuevo Liberalismo in 1979, as a dissident force of the Colombian Liberal Party.Running against both the conservatives and the mainstream party, Galán lost the elections in 1982... in Valle Valle del Cauca Department Valle del Cauca is a department of Colombia. It is in the western side of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean, and it is considered one of the most important departments in the Republic of Colombia. Its capital is Santiago de Cali... |
Military of Colombia The Military Forces of Colombia are the armed forces of the Republic of Colombia.-Services:The Military of Colombia consists of:* National Army of Colombia * Colombian National Armada - Marines, Navy and Coast Guard attached* Colombian Air Force... |
Among the wounded were: Victor Mauricio Pérez Serrano, Maribel Arce de Pérez, Juliet Robledo, Jose Darío Martínez, Miriam Ortiz de Parrado, Alfonso Cubillos, Yolanda Garzón de Cubillos, Jhon Cubillos Garzón and Pedro Jose Sarmiento
The novel
In 2002, Colombian writer Mario Mendoza Zambrano published “Satanás” (Satan), a novel that analyzes the case of Delgado. The book was very successful and received several international awards. Mendoza Zambrano met Delgado at the university in Bogotá when he was a literature student, and he actually talked to Delgado just a couple of days before the massacre.The film
In 2006, Colombian film makers Rodrigo Guerrero (Producer) and Andi Baíz (Director), adapted "SatanásSatanás (film)
Satanás is a 2007 Colombian film directed by Andi Baiz. It is adapted from the novel of the same title by Mario Mendoza Zambrano...
" into a film (with the same title). The story is framed in a context of urban solitude in the modern world and sheds some light on the motivations and anxieties of Campo Elias Delgado but avoiding explicit or manichean conclusions.
External links
- (Spanish article with an extraordinay account of a survivor in the restaurant)
- Spree Killer Scores (Delgado is ranked highest)
- Colombia's New Urban Realists (article about Mario Mendoza)
- Website in English of the 2007 Colombian film “Satanás”
- A review in English of Satanas - the film
- Spanish article with pictures of the crime scene
- One-man rampage leaves 26 shot dead, Wilmington Morning Star (December 6, 1986)
- Colombian who killed 28 ignored pleas for mercy, Wilmington Morning Star (December 7, 1986)
- Sicópata mata a 22 personas, El Tiempo (December 5, 1986) (p. 1)
- Nadie quiere reclamar cadáver del sicópata, El Tiempo (December 7, 1986) (p. 7B)
- Campo Elías: un superespía!, El Tiempo (December 8, 1986) (p. 1)
- Crónica de Campo Elías Delgado