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Cayetano Santos Godino (October
31, 1896 – November 15, 1944), also known as "Petiso
Orejudo" ("Big Eared Midget"), was an Argentinian serial
killer who terrified Buenos Aires at the age of 16. In
the early 20th century, he was responsible for the
murder of four children, the attempted murder of another
seven children, and the arson of seven buildings
Biography
Godino was born in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, one of eight boys. His father and mother
Fiore Godino and Lucia Ruffo, were alcoholics and
abusive. Godino's father contracted syphilis before
Godino was born, causing Godino to experience serious
childhood health problems.
Early signs of violence
Starting in childhood, Godino killed
cats and birds, and enjoyed playing with fire. His
violent behavior and lack of interest in education
caused him to jump from school to school.
When he was seven years old, Godino beat two-year-old
Miguel de Paoli and threw him into a ditch. A nearby official saw this
and led the children to the police station, where their mothers picked
them up a few hours later.
A year later, Godino beat Ana Neri, a child in his
neighborhood, with a stone. A police officer intervened, and Godino
was released from jail due to his young age.
When he was 10, Godino's parents discovered his
compulsive masturbation. Not knowing what to do with him, his mother
told the police, resulting in a two-month jail term
Crime
spree
On January 17, 1912, Godino set fire
to a warehouse on Corrientes Street. When he was
arrested, he told police, "I like to see firemen working.
It's nice to see how they fall into the fire." On
January 26, 1912, Arturo Laurona, 13, was found dead in
an abandoned house. A few months later, on March 7,
1912, Godino set fire to the dress of Reyna Vainicoff,
5, who did not recover and died some days later.
In late September 1912, he set fire to a railway
station, which was extinguished without extensive damage. On November
8, 1912, he tried to choke 8-year-old Roberto Russo. He was arrested
and charged with attempted murder but was released until the trial. On
November 16, 1912, he hit Carmen Ghittoni, who suffered minor wounds
before a police officer intervened. On November 20, 1912, he kidnapped
two-year-old Carolina Neolener, who cried out and was rescued by a
neighbour. Later in the same month, he set fire to two large sheds
that were extinguished quickly.
On December 3, 1912, Godino saw Jesualdo Giordano
playing outside his house and offered to buy the boy some sweets to
convince him to go with him. Providing a few sweets then offering
more, Godino took Giordano to a country house. When they were inside,
he threw him to floor and unsuccessfully tried to choke him with his
belt. Then he cut his belt and tied his hands and legs. He started
beating him and considered hammering his head. He left the house
looking for a nail and saw Giordano's father, to whom he said he did
not know where the child was. He then re-entered the house with the
nail. He hammered it into the side of Giordano's skull and hid the
corpse. The body was found by the father minutes later. At 8:00 PM,
Godino went to the wake and touched the skull where he had fixed the
nail. At 5:30 a.m. on December 4, 1912, he was arrested by police,
confessing his crimes.
Jail
On 4 January 1913 he entered a
reformatory, where he tried to kill some of the inmates.
Due to medical reports, which declared him insane, the
judge discontinued the case and ordered him to stay in
the reformatory. On 12 November 1915 an appeal was
approved ordering him to be moved to jail on 20 November.
On 28 March 1923 Godino was
transferred to Ushuaia Penitentiary. During the course
of 1933 he spent some time in hospital for a beating he
suffered from inmates due to having killed two cats
which were their pets. From 1935 onwards he was always
ill and received no visitors until he died on 1944 in
strange circumstances.
Sources
Leyenda del petiso orejudo. (book.Spanish)
By Leonel Contreras.ISBN-10: 9879473272 ISBN-13:
9789879473276
Wikipedia.org
Before I begin narrating, I
just want to say that this guy is at the top of my "bizarre" list of
S.K.'s. If there was ever a "Poster Child" for Birth Control, this guy
is it.
My unknown is Cayetano Santos Godino. He was
the first S.K. in Argentina's history. He was born on Halloween 1896,
the last of 10 kids. His parents were Calsbrian immigrants who moved
to Buenos Aires in 1884, escaping poverty. They were also running from
personal tragedy of their first-born 10 month old son's death from
cardiac affection.
Cayetano was doomed before his
parents ever conceived him. His father was an Alcoholic and played the
guitar. One thing led to another until he contracted "sifilis" from
one of his fans. Sifilis is a sexually transmitted disease who's cure
is Penicillin that wasn't even discovered yet. {1929} That didn't stop
Fiore from wanting his "little man" satisfied so Cayetana was made.
During his earliest years. he was on the brink of
death several time with Enteritis. This nasty infection is usually
caught by eating or drinking contaminated food or water, Improperly
prepared food, poor hygiene or sanition or close contact with an
infected person or animal, Take your pick as to why he was so sick
with this illness so much.
So here he is still
alive, fragile and with bad genes but fate wasn't done with him yet.
On days when his father got drunk, he used his entire family like
punching bags. When Doctors examined his head at a much later date,
they found 27 scars on his head alone that was created by his father
and older brother.
Now picture a young boy who is
very short for his age, small head, very long arms. and extremely
large ears. Better yet, let's have a peek at what he looks like...Reminds
me of Dumbo, the flying elephant..LOL.
He entered
school at age 5. He had to go to 6 different schools, each one
expelling him for his lack of interest in studing and rebellious
behavior. And in all that time, nobody taught him how to read. But
that gave him more time to roam the streets of his neighborhood
looking for something evil to do. Because of his appearence of being
an "idiot", most grown-ups overlooked him and he had no problem of
gaining trust of "little ones" with the promise of play or candy in
the future.
On Sept. 28. 1804, Cayetano gained the
confidence of Miguel de Pauoli with the promise of candy. He was
almost 2 at the time. They walked to a wasteland before Cayetano threw
the boy on a pile filled with thorny branches. A policeman hear the
cries from near-by and came before he could hurt him anymore. A trip
to the police station while waiting from dear old mom to come and take
him home was the only punishment this time. That was his first attempt
at murder!!!
A year later, he led Ana Neri, 18
months old, into another wasteland and starting wacking the toddler's
head with a rock. Because of the child's cries, this action was
interrupted by a policeman. Cayetano was consider too young and they
thought it was just a fight between two boys, so he was sent back home
with his father.
On March 22, 1906, {Maria?} Rock
Phase went missing. By time they heard about her final hours on this
earth, the parents of this girl had moved back to Italy and a two-story
house was builded on the "suppose" burial site. There was no
corroborating evidence to back up his story. I guess they were too
lazy to dig up the house just to see and since the parent were
immigrants that had gone back to their own country, why brother.
Cayetano wasn't going nowhere and they needed to bring some peace to
the community at the time. Maybe it was for the best at that period in
time.
He did describe taking the hand of a little
girl and leading her to a wasteland. Once there, he tried to strangle
her. When that didn't work, he buried her alive in a ditch filled with
rubbish. Then he just walked away. The missing girl was never found.
Just a few days later, April 5, his father
discovered upon waking, a shoe box filled with the family's pet
canaries, dead and with their eyes gone, laying beside his bed. He
went to the police station and begged them to do something about his
boy. His outrageous behavior towards his family and neighbors and the
threat of injury to all who lived around him was the reasons he gave.
They agreed and took his troubled son off his hand's and mind for two
months. When he returned home , it was "life" as usual with one more
treat he learned as he wandered the streets. Masturbation!!! Several
times a day, he would beat his meat while day-dreaming about the evil
things he could do to his future victims.
On Sept.
9, 1908, he found his another victim playing unattented and got
Severino Gonzalez, aged 2, to go with him with the promise of sweets.
They went to a Warehouse right across the street from the School for
Scared Heart. where he proceeded to drown the little boy in a horse
trough. Zacanas Caviglia, the propreter of this place. heard the
disturbance that the boys were causing. What he found was two boys,
both wet, with one in the large tub. But Cayetano talked his way out
of his crime by telling of following a mysterious "woman in black" and
being there in the nick of time to help the toddler from certain death.
They believed him. He even led the police to the "place" where he
first started following the "evil lady" the next day...
Only six days later, He burned the eyelids of a 22-month old child
named Jolio Botle with a cigarette. The screams of this child brings
the mother running. Cayetano takes off and is gone by time the mother
reaches her child.
Fiore and Lucia had enough of his
"shocking" behavior by now, so they carted his ass to the police once
more. The time the authorities sent him to the Colony of Smaller Peace
for three years. There is no way to discover the physical and
emotional abuse he had to go through. The horrors that he had to
endured. {But maybe I am bringing too much into it. Maybe he didn't
have enough "brain" to feel much while he was there.} He did try to
escape on many occasions through. He got to come home in time for the
Christmas Holiday Season on Dec. 23, 1911. He had just turned 15, two
months before. Do you think it was a Merry Christmas to the Godino's
household that year.
When he hit the streets again, his mind had grown cold and hard.
Although his father had found him a job, it didn't last long {three
months} before he lost it and was trolling the streets again. This
time his neighborhood expanded to reach the seedy parts of the town.
It was there that he learned how to drink alcohol. Real hard "task" to
do, if you know what I mean. With drinking came extreme headaches
where the urges to kill was great. Maybe it was the "Spirits" talking
to his head.
During the same time-line, he
discovered another little secret pleasure. It's name was fire. Two
houses, a brick factory. a station filled with street cars and a
stockyard filled with materials, felt his passion as he hides while
flames are growing higher. While the firemen are arriving and the
crowd is growing thicker by the minute, he comes out of hiding to
watched all of the excitement of seeing the firemen fighting back the
flames of pain that are threatening these men with death. When asked
about his obession with fire later on, he said "I like to see work to
the firemen...is pretty to see as they falling the fire.
On Jan 21, 1912, the body of 13 yr. old boy named Arturo Laurora was
found dead in a vacated house. Beaten, half naked and with a cord tied
around his neck, the police had no clue where to go and search for
this child murderer. It wasn't until the killer's confession later on
in the future that they realized how evil this "idiot" really was. He
claimed to have taken this boy to an empty house and covered his mouth
with a handkerchief after tieing him up. He proceeding whipping him
with a branch from a fig tree. When he grew tired off that game, he
strangle him and then left to go wandering the streets again. Nobody
saw!!!
March the 7th of the same year. Pretty Reyna
Vainicoff, 5 years old, was admiring shoes in a store-front when she
started screaming from pain and for attention. Someone had set her
pretty little dress on fire. Her grandfather heard her cries of
desparation from across the street and started running to save her. He
never got the chance as he was stuck by a car and died right there in
the street. A Policeman near by threw the little girl to the ground
and try to killed the fire with his own body. She was sent to the
hospital where she died 16 days later. Cayetano was there in the crowd
watching his handiwork explore into action.
{Let's
not forget about his cruelty toward animals. On Sept. 24, he creeped
into a stable and killed a mare with a knife.}
Nov.
8, he tries to killed another small victim named Russo Roberts, aged
2, by promising him candy . He takes him to a Warehouse where he ties
the feet of this poor child with a rope used as a belt from around his
trousers. But death was not there that day as he is interrupted by a
Laborer who worked near by. As the police arrived , they hear his tale
of yet another child saved by the large-ear boy. Since they didn't
have any concrete evidence, they had to let him go. { I ever think he
got money for all his troubles when he returned the child to his
mother.
He failed twice more to get what he desired
after his encounter with the police. The last intended victim, a
little girl, started stuggling with him on their way to his future
site of dark pleasures. His fury got the best of him that time as he
began beating her right there in the middle of the street. A man
looking out his window saw the entire thing and was that little girl's
savior that day. Both times, he was able to get away before the crowd
could catch him.
I think Cayetano was a lot smarter
than the public gave him credit for and he used that to his advanage.
Because of his great knowledge of the city, he knew all the locations
of deserted land and buildings so he knew where to take all of his
victims before he ever got his hands on them.
To me,
I would have been scared shitless at nearly being caught, but to
Cayetano, the thought never crossed his mind. To his eyes, it was a
great big smorgasbord of children playing and having fun. All he had
to do is wait and watch for the youngest child that was unattended by
older folks. He was very focus on his task at hand and to that I say,"Bravo
Big Ears!!!
The police were keeping a "eye" on him
now. Since they knew all about his past history, they grew very
suspicious at being called to "possible" crime scenes and his
explanations about how he was there at the exact moment when the "kids"
in question needed his help. Because of each child's age, they
couldn't get the real story. All they could do was sit and watch. They
would all be happy soon.
The police finally caught
their "moran" when on the morning of Dec. 3, 1912, Mrs. Maria Giordano,
a neighbor of the Godino's, looked out her front door and peer at the
clouds that had been there since she had rolled out of bed. Then she
looked at her "pride and joy" and decided that it would be alright to
sent him out to play. She needed to do some houehold chores so she
reached for the red ball lying next to the front door and told him
that if he would stay on the path, that he could play outdoors. Little
did she know that she was sending him out to death's highway. This was
the last time she would see her "baby boy" alive and beaming with joy.
Poor, Poor woman. I can feel her pain as it is ripping through my soul.
Her son was named Gerald {Jesual} and he was 3
years old.
Cayetano had spend his morning being
yelled at by his father. He had been "antic" every since his last
failed attempt and this yelling was reaching beyond his control. As he
plunged out the door into the cloudy day, he saw his perfect "angel"
playing ball with the other kids from around the neighborhood. Just
waiting to get plunk off the street.
He knew the
routine of getting little ones to follow him.. Separate and promise.
So he blended in with the other kids on the block without raising
mistrust from anyone. It was so easy. For the price of 2 cents, he
would live out his evil fantasy once more.
So off
they go, hand in hand, each happy in their minds but for different
reasons. They stop at the general store for the promised sweets.
Cayetano even gives the boy a little piece with the promise of more to
eat when they reach their final destination. But as they approach the
entrence to the building called Fifth Colored Person,{what a name for
a building.} the little boy is frighten and all he wants is his
mommy's arms around him. This angel starts stuggling with Cayetano's
hand, trying to run away. But the "big-eared" boy is stronger, so he
picks up the small boy and carried him through the gateway to hell. My
mind can feel the terror of this child. His screams for mommy as this
demon is taking him to the place of his coming death.
So he carries the boy inside and plops him next to the big furance. He
is eager to begin his morbid brand of entertainment. To keep the child
in place, he put his knee across the child's chest while reaching for
some discarded rope that the workers in the building have toss to the
side. Maybe he had gone in before that day and gather the rope himself
and put it there in anticipation. Who knows?
He
wraps the wicked thing around that poor baby's throat 13 times before
attempting to strangle him. The child fought for it's life as he tried
to stand up. Cayetano was smart as a whip and to eliminate that
problem, he quickly tied the child's hands and feet so he could go on
and end this child's life. The child's soul wanted to stay as
Cayetano's hands tired with so much effort so he gave up this form of
torture and went outside to find another weapon.
As
he surveyed the outshirts of the yard besides the building, he could
hear the distance thunder. As he started to look at the sky, his eyes
crossed the perfect items. A piece of broken brick and a rusty nail.
His "Gods" must be smiling on him today. He felt eccentric with a
strange enery as he hurried across the yard to receive his prize...
As he reached down to get his prized possessions, he heard someone
call out to him. As he turned around, he recognized this older man
coming toward him. Please not again!!! But his Gods were with him that
day, as they whispered the perfect solution to his problem.
The man that Cayetano knew was the little boy's
father. Mr. Giordano was frantic with worry as he hurried along
looking for his missing child. Where could he be? He was so young and
innocent and now he had a very bad feeling in his heart.
His wife had sent one of the boys to fetch him at work and he had
asked all the young boys around the block about their morning."Yes,
yes he was here when we started playing ball". But the excitement of
the game was too much for them and now his "angel" was gone.
Please, don't let him come to any harm, he prayed when he saw that
wacko neighbor boy. He was always wandering around the neighborhood,
maybe he had seen his little boy.
"Oh, you are a
smart boy, not dumb like all the bigger boys say," he thought as this
man was coming his way.. He would show them. He would show the whole
damn town just how smart he was.
So they met at the
edge of that junkyard. At least it looked like one with all the
scattered shit all around. It's worker's a thing of the past. The
building"s soul had been dead for a while. All the hope that this
desperate man had in him as he looked at this strange boy, would be
dash in a few minutes and the boy would be known as he truly was
throughout the world.
" I don't know anything about
your son, Mister. I would go to the police if I was you", he said. "Go
now! Hurry.The police will help you find."
So with
his big plans already in motion, he gathers up his weapons of
convenience and runs back the way that he had come.
As he reaches the entrance, he looks back to see if he is truly alone
and he hears a big "BOOM" of thurder as the clouds look darker by now.
He feels "eccentric" with dark thought's about how to make this murder
a one of a kind too.
As he kneels down, he could
still see the little boy struggling for breath although this child
seem asleep. He did try to wake him for a second or two and was
satisified because it would make the final step go that much quicker.
So he lifted his "rock" as a hammer and drove the nail through the
forehead of this dying boy. He looked at his handiworked for just a
moment and covered his final victim with a piece of tin before running
home.
He had to see the action unfolded because
this time he had choosen a kid near to where he lived.
When Mr. Giordano expressed his despairing concern for his little boy,
there was a witness this time to help his father and the police to put
their fears and suspicious on one boy. This witness was the woman who
had been working in the store when Cayetano and Gerald came by, hand
in hand, to buy the promised candy. When she described the features of
the strange boy with big ears and long, long arms with his son. his
Spirit cried out in torment as he knew where his baby was possibly at.
He led the police back to the building where he had spoken eariler
with Cayetano. And it was he that found his son still with the cord
around his tiny neck and the nail coming out of his forehead.
The Police set up outposts around the victim's
house that night, waiting and watching to see who came by that night.
The Women of this community had laid out Gerald's poor little body on
a table in one of the rooms in the house. There were so many who that
came by to paid their sorrowful regrets about these parent's loss that
night and to wait with them as one by one went to weep at this sight.
So young and innocent and brutally murdered by some "Unknown Monster ,
who was snatching their young right off the streets of their community
without any trace...
But Cayetano was used to
blending in with the Adult crowd as he stole away and went inside to
see with his "angel" right before the eyes of the police. Nobody
noticed inside either as he went up to where they had laid the child
and stared at it for awhile. Then he went closer and with his hand,
pulled the face to when he could see to whether they had left the nail
in his victim's head.
He became very upset to see it
gone. Everyones looked at him as he made a "odd"comment and went
running out into the night
Someone also reported
seeing Cayetano around the crowd when the Police started their grusome
work into this case. Since the murder happened so early in the day,
the newspaper, the Press of Buenos Aires, published the titled news "Murder
of a boy of three years: A Wild fact." In this article, they also
raised the possibility of a sinister criminal organization like "The
Black Mono', dedicated to kidnapping young boys.
But
the Police had all the knowledge to connect all the crimes they knew
of to the boy and their two witnesses. Early the next morning, with
the Peire Assistant Paymaster and the Main Ricardo Bassetti leading
the group, surrounded the house and arrested Cayetano without any
problems at all. In fact Cayetano talked for many hours telling all
that he had done in the past. They also found the newspaper article in
his pocket although the boy could not read. He had brought the
newspaper yesterday and cutted the article out so he could look at it
whenever he wanted. His sister told about the blood she had found on
his clothes when he arrived home after the crime had been commiited.
He was finally charged for 3 murders and 11 aggressions. The public
wanted blood this time, so they cried out for Capital punishment but
because Cayetano Godino was only 15 at the time, the two judges
decided to sent him to a Mental Hospital of Merceds where he sented
for the next two years.
While he was in the wacko
hospital, the most important men of Criminal Psychiatry came to
examined him and to get many interviews with this strange creature.
They conclusions were this: His degeneration came from lack of
affection, the limitation of intelligence, his destructive impulse and
the problem that his father had before he was even born. Their ending
thoughts was that he was predestined to his crimes. The Head of the
hospital named Cayetano "Stupid Idiot one" and "Moral Crazy One".
While in this hospital, he assault and injured two inmates, one in a
wheelchair and other confined to his bed.He had made so mant atempts
of escape that the Court finally revolted the decided and he was sent
to the National Penitentiary in Ushuaia.
There he
got wrote up 13 times for his bizarrre behavior.
He
was a loner and was very mistreated by the other inmates and was raped
continuously. He also never recieved any vistors or letters from his
family. He was never remorseful about anything that he had done on the
outside or in the prison.
They pinned back his ears
in 1927 in an operation, hoping that this was the "cause" for all of
his "badness" but in did nothing to improve his behavior.
In 1933, he strangled a cat and tossed the corspe on the fire. The
other inmates were so outraged because the cat was the prison masot,
that they beated him so bad that he had to spend 20 days in the
hospital.
After the cat incidence, a journalist and
writer Jose Holy Maria Maria Soza Reilly, came to do a interview with
Cayetano. It was published in a magazine called "Expensive and Masks".
In 1936, he reguested his freedom and was denied because the Doctors
reported that he was a "stupid idiot" and still extremely dangerous
for whoever he was around.
He was found dead in his
cell on Nov. 15, 1944. The offical cause was reported as a internal
bleeding caused by a gastrities outbreak, but who knows It could have
been a pissed off inmate that put something in his food or beated him
so bad that it cause the internal bleeding to begin.
The prison was closed down in 1947. As they dug up the graves of all
the dead inmates, they found the bones of Cayetano missing. It was
later learned that someone had maded a paperweight with one of his
bones inside it and had given the "odd" gift to the last director of
the prison.
The only good thing about his life is
that he learned to read, write and do simple math.
The prison is now a museum with waxed figures of all the famous
inmates that it ever had. Cayetano Godino is included in these.