[dramatic music playing]
You've seen the title across the screen.
Yiya Murano is free,
and she's here today,
joining us in the studio.
And, of course,
I'm sure some of you might remember Yiya
from those headlines
nearly 17 years ago
that said "Yiya Murano,
The Poisoner of Monserrat."
"YIYA" MURANO,
THE POISONER
THE "POISONER"
THE POISONER'S CRIMES
Yiya's here, telling us she's innocent.
I haven't k*lled anyone.
And I will say that until the day I die.
-You've never k*lled anyone.
-I've never k*lled.
[man 1] When you think about Yiya's story,
it's so unique
that one can only think of it as fiction.
[man 2] No, the reality of it is
even stranger than fiction.
A DANGEROUS FRIEND
Yiya, how do you think people can
actually believe you're innocent
when the justice system
has found you guilty?
You're on parole,
and your own son says you've k*lled
two of your friends and a cousin.
I've told you already
that my son has crucified me.
Martn Murano is the son of Yiya Murano,
who is popularly known as
the "Poisoner of Monserrat."
[Martn] Mm-hmm.
Every single thing I've ever done
in my life
was so I wouldn't be Yiya Murano's son,
but just Martn Murano.
And it never worked out. It never did.
What are the things
that you can't forget?
Being the son of someone
who k*lled people.
[man 1] Yiya wanted to be famous,
and she did it in the most gruesome way.
There's a Yiya Murano who's
part of some type of legend by now.
-[Yiya] Yes.
-Who everyone thinks they know.
And they've made you into "The Poisoner."
SODIUM CYANIDE
MYSTERIOUS PASTRIES
CYANIDE AT TEA TIME
Martn Murano, you've said
some truly awful things about your mother.
I have.
I thought to myself, "Why did he choose
to talk about me in that way?"
I mean, has he forgotten I'm his mother?
That I'm Yiya Murano?
[steady rainfall]
[thunderclap]
[man 3] For me,
it's one of the most unusual cases
in Argentina's criminal history.
[thunder rumbling]
I wanted to put an end to Yiya's story.
What did I do instead?
[woman] Let's welcome Mrs. Yiya Murano.
Come on out. Please, come in.
[Martn] I immortalized her.
-Hello, Mirtha. How are you?
-Good afternoon.
Welcome to our show.
[Yiya] Thank you very much.
-[Mirtha] How have you been?
-[Yiya] Well.
[Mirtha] Well, please take a seat.
YIYA MURANO
DEATH AT TEA TIME
[mysterious music playing]
[Mirtha] How are you all doing?
Good? That's great!
Next Friday,
we will have a very special show for you.
We have invited five mothers,
who, with their love, sacrifice,
and dedication will represent all mothers.
MARCH 24
It will be a show where affection
and care will take center stage.
Today we have a brown linen tablecloth,
decorated with white
Beauvais stitch embroidery.
The napkins, a light chestnut color.
The centerpiece is made
of two-tone croton,
feathery ferns, and yellow chrysanthemums.
And the bouquets are made with roses.
Beautiful and pink.
Stunning. Very well.
Now, let me tell you about my outfit.
Today, I'm wearing a white silk dress
with printed designs in blue.
It's quite beautiful.
An exclusive design by Maril Bragance,
to whom we give special thanks.
The shoes I'm wearing today
are blue sandals,
in the same color as the print
of the dress, as you can see.
Some light makeup.
Hairstyle by Roberto Giordano.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
please, if you would be so kind,
join me in welcoming
our first guest, Mrs. Silvia.
-How are you, my dear?
-[door closes]
[dog barking]
[woman] Mema? Mema!
Mema, are you okay?
What's wrong? Mema, wake up!
Pepe! Help me!
Pepe! Pepe! Pepe!
[man] Have a seat.
I'm Horacio Romeo, retired officer
from the Argentine Federal Police.
I was in the Homicide Division.
I was in charge of the judicial sector.
At the time, I was serving as the judicial
officer when the judge on duty called,
asking me to come to the office.
A new case had come in,
and he wanted to brief me on the details.
NATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIAL COUR[Horacio] It was a suspicious death,
but it had nothing
that was really out of the ordinary.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH
Pepe! Mema!
-[Horacio] Mrs. Venturini felt suffocated.
-I just found her!
-She went outside and lost consciousness.
-Doctor!
-The neighbors intervened.
-Doctor!
-Come here!
-Hurry up!
One of the neighbors, a doctor, even
gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
and a cardiac massage
while they called an ambulance
from a nearby hospital.
-[doctor] Call an ambulance!
-Pepe! Hurry!
It's something quite common
in a sudden death.
-Mema, please, wake up.
-[Horacio] Non-traumatic cardiac arrest.
Wake up, please!
And the autopsy certified
it had been a natural death.
THE AUTOPSY
CONCLUSIONS
ACUTE DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY
ACUTE PULMONARY EDEMA
The truth is that I began an investigation
in the Homicide Division,
but without any actual expectations.
[knocking at door]
[man] Excuse me.
[young Horacio] Please, sit.
[woman] Thank you.
[Horacio] All right. Name, please?
Csar Augusto Caso.
OCCUPATION: DOCTOR
OCCUPATION: SUPER
A NEIGHBOR
I was cooking,
and I heard a horrible noise outside.
And so at one point
[Horacio] Everyone said
it had been something normal.
That she had fallen and hurt herself.
That's when I saw Mema,
who was unconscious.
There was no suspicion of a crime
or anything that might've suggested one.
But the judge asked me
to summon her daughter.
-See what she said.
-Name, please?
Diana Mara Venturini.
To me, my mom is
a key figure in this story.
She's what we could call the driving
force behind the investigation.
MEMA VENTURINI'S GRANDSON
She created the possibility
of bringing everything out in the open.
I was working at the time,
and a neighbor called me,
saying that my mom was unwell
and they had called an ambulance.
What I felt at that moment,
you know, being so young
and seeing all of it happen, was fear.
MEMA VENTURINI'S GRANDDAUGHTER
Because I kept thinking,
"My grandma is still a very young woman."
"She's very strong."
That whole thing about her falling.
That she had fallen down the stairs.
How did that happen?
I think that was the first sign
that something really odd
was actually happening.
[Nlida] Come on, Mema, wake up! Come on!
[mysterious music playing]
[Horacio] And in that exact moment,
a relative of the deceased
arrives at the scene.
Mara de las Mercedes Bernardina
Bolla Ponte de Murano.
"Yiya."
Picture the scene.
Venturini's in the hallway
REPORTER
surrounded by neighbors
who don't know what's going on,
and Yiya comes in carrying some pastries.
A TALL, BLONDE, ELEGANT WOMAN
SHE WAS CARRYING A PACKAGE OF PASTRIES
She had a package of pastries
to eat with the deceased.
Everyone knew her. She visited often.
She had been there the night before.
As soon as she got there,
Yiya asked if she was alive,
if she was going to survive.
-If she had said anything.
-Did she say anything?
Is she dead or alive?
No, they were trying to bring her back.
She wasn't dead.
-[Yiya] You have keys?
-Wake up!
Keys to what?
[Virginia] So Yiya says, "Okay, then.
Let's go into her apartment
to check if there's a notebook with
her daughter Diana's phone number."
So they go.
[Horacio] But in the end,
she doesn't even call her,
because she goes into the apartment,
and instead of looking for
the notebook with the number,
she makes sure to grab a piece of paper.
[Yiya] Make sure to check.
See if that notebook by the phone has
her daughter Diana's number in it.
-[Mirtha] We welcome a special couple
-Diana?
-[Yiya] This is mine. Diana.
-[Mirtha] Please come in!
-Welcome.
-Find anything? Under D?
So then, my mom says,
"How odd was what Yiya did?"
"Going into the apartment.
What was she looking for?"
"Oh, she came for the IOU slips."
[door closes]
That same night,
she went back to the police station
to say that she was very angry,
because her relative took advantage
of the fact that her mother was dying,
and instead of worrying about her, went
to retrieve the IOU slip she'd left her,
just so she wouldn't have to pay her debt.
-Yiya. Her name's Yiya.
-[young Horacio] Last name?
Murano. Yiya Murano.
-She owed my mom lots of money.
-[writing]
Her daughter knew perfectly well that Yiya
owed her mother a large sum of money,
and she was increasingly insisting
that Yiya repay her
because she wanted to buy a house.
Because of that new statement,
they order Yiya to be brought in.
[door closes]
-I don't understand why I'm here.
-[Horacio] How are you, ma'am?
Good afternoon.
[Horacio] What can you tell me
about the death
of Zulema del Giorgio de Venturini?
My cousin Mema.
-She had
-[Horacio] We brought her in.
We interrogated her about it.
She denies it
and says she didn't take any slips.
very close, you know.
I remember the times
we went to Mar del Plata
[Horacio] So we had nothing. We asked
the judge and he said to let her go.
-I would win most of the time--
-[Horacio] Why go into the apartment?
Would you be so kind as to give
me one of your cigarettes?
[dramatic music playing]
But up to that point, people thought, "How
messed up that she's using her condition,
or even her death,
as an excuse not to pay her back?"
But the superintendent
I believe it was him
says she took
a tiny bottle from the house.
A DROPPER BOTTLE
Because Diana goes back
to her mother's building,
and while she's talking
to the superintendent,
he tells her that Yiya took
a dropper bottle and put it in her purse.
-[Mirtha] We welcome a couple
-This is mine.
"THIS IS MINE"
Your cousin just died.
Do you need to go inside
and grab a dropper bottle
from the table because it's yours?
[Horacio] Why do that? What was behind it?
So instead of focusing on the scam,
I choose the dropper bottle.
I go tell the judge what I'm thinking.
"Look, sir, there's something off,
and the body's been handed over."
But he tells me not to worry. Why?
Because in these types of cases,
when the autopsy is performed,
they make sure to preserve the stomach
and any viscera in formaldehyde
STOMACH CONTENTS
since it could be crucial
for any further analysis.
That way, they are available
for any future investigation.
THE PRESENCE OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES
When he got the autopsy report,
the judge concluded that she had
a quantity of cyanide in her body
capable of wiping out a battalion.
LETHAL DOSE
POTASSIUM CYANIDE
SODIUM CYANIDE
[Horacio] He realized
that a crime had been committed,
enough to now initiate
a homicide investigation.
[man] Women have taken part
in many decisive moments
in the life of our country.
5 WEEKS AFTER MEMA'S DEATH
[younger Yiya] We scheduled
a trip to Mar del Plata.
[man on TV] They had faith,
they believed in peace.
But, yeah, everything, everything.
Just think of all the fun
we would've had this summer.
[TV] They respected their convictions
and made sure others did too.
-Eat it all.
-[Yiya] We thought we were going.
-The country responded.
-[Yiya] We had booked the apartment.
[doorbell rings]
I remember it so vividly.
Ignacia was going to get the door, and
my dad says, "No, no, I'll get the door."
-Should I get that, sir?
-No, no.
-[Yiya] It was
-You expecting someone, Yiya?
-[man on TV] It reaffirmed their faith.
-No, I'll go get it.
-It gave them peace.
-[Yiya] thinking about her
[Martn] "Sir, open the door.
Federal Police."
[husband] Yes?
They immediately handed him
a piece of paper,
which I assume was some kind of warrant,
so they could come search the house.
-[Yiya] To be honest, I
-What's going on?
As my dad was reading it,
the officers just walked in
and started looking
around the house for things.
-[man on TV] The country defended
-[Yiya] I'll call you later.
[husband] What are you looking for?
Just tell me.
[man on TV] Today's woman
knows she has earned her place as
a leading figure in present-day Argentina.
[husband] Sir.
Yiya got very nervous, and
they started searching the entire house.
She followed them everywhere.
-[man on TV] She also knows
-[husband] What are you looking for?
[Martn] "What could I have here?
Why are you opening my closet?"
"Why are you searching our house?
What are you looking for?"
[man on TV] That you reach that place
with effort, integrity,
and a calling for greatness.
That's my husband's medication.
They seized all the medication
they ended up finding in the house,
everything that might
have contained cyanide.
Anything chemical, medications, pills,
in order to make a chemical comparison.
Then they told my dad,
"The lady is coming with us."
[man on TV] That Argentine woman
-[Yiya] Can I grab my purse?
-[officer] No.
-That leading lady
-[officer] Let's go.
[Martn] "Okay, let's go.
I have nothing to hide."
[man on TV] is you.
[Yiya] It's just a mix-up.
[Horacio] Yes, she was summoned
to the station as a detainee.
[Yiya] Antonio, call my brother.
I'll call him. Don't you worry, Yiya.
Everything will be fine.
We'll clear this up soon.
She was put in a cell, and that was it.
And there she stayed.
THUMBS - INDEX FINGERS - MIDDLE FINGERS -
RING FINGERS -PINKIES
[camera shutter clicking]
[rattling]
[door slams]
Yiya's husband
just never believed for a second
that she could ever be capable
of any such thing.
But he was extremely worried, and
you could tell he was visibly upset
because of it all.
The very next day,
he went to the police station
and told me that
they wouldn't let him see her.
She wasn't allowed to see anyone.
KEEP IN PREVENTIVE CUSTODY
[Virginia] She found herself prosecuted
by the criminal justice system
at the height
of the military dictatorship.
She was held in solitary
for five days at least,
because at that time,
the Criminal Procedure Code allowed that.
That would be unthinkable today.
[Yiya] Hail Mary, full of grace
[Virginia] They'd leave them stewing,
so to speak.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is
You know, the police station
is a 100-year-old building.
It's absolutely dismal.
It's the kind of place
The cells are just really horrible.
I thought that would bring her down.
-That it might loosen her up.
-Pray for us
And that it would make her
tell me things more directly.
Because she'd be utterly broken.
That would be the term we use.
But you know, far from that.
She was more exuberant
than when she was brought in.
It seemed like she'd been
injected with joy.
[pop ballad in Spanish playing]
[Martn] If people were
to read the investigation files
as they would a police case,
they would very quickly understand
what was behind
the actions Yiya had carried out.
What they'd never understand
is her personality,
what makes her Yiya Murano.
[Horacio] Every detainee, no exception,
has to be seen by a medical examiner.
EXPERT REPOR[Virginia] Psychiatric report.
She says her name is Mara de las
Mercedes Bolla Aponte de Murano,
and she's 48 years old.
She began working
outside the home at the age of 19.
In 1953, following her marriage,
she decided to step down from the position
to dedicate herself
to her new household responsibilities.
She says that her husband,
a lawyer by profession,
is a man of few words, very accommodating,
and is someone entirely devoted
to his work and its daily demands.
YIYA MURANO'S HUSBAND
Over time, this led to a real breakdown
in communication between the couple,
leaving her with a profound sense
of loneliness and nostalgia.
"VERY LONELY AND NOSTALGIC"
[Horacio] She always claimed
that she was very religious.
She kept mentioning
that she regularly went to Mass.
[younger Yiya] Hail Mary,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
[Horacio] To be honest, I think
that she also did it for show, you know?
To keep up appearances.
Yiya was my grandmother's cousin.
My grandma adored her,
but I couldn't bring myself to like her.
To me, she seemed very manipulative.
She could be charming when it suited her,
but otherwise, she'd be very rude.
[car horns blaring]
[Horacio] The fact is that Yiya was
someone who was extremely domineering.
EXPANSIVE, OVERWHELMING
VERY INSECURE, FEARFUL
I mean, she needed to be liked
EGOCENTRIC AND NARCISSISTIC
and to be treated like a star.
[Mariana] She was very elegant.
SHE LIKED TO DRESS WELL
She wore clothes that you could
definitely tell looked expensive.
SEDUCTIVE AND PSYCHOPATHIC BEHAVIOR
She had a kind of magnetism about her
ALMOST THEATRICAL GESTURES
and acted like a queen
or some sort of diva.
She was the kind of person
who acted as if
other people were her subjects.
Yiya convinced herself that
she actually belonged to high society.
Well, she would
put up a front that wasn't real.
She wasn't fancy, she wasn't high-class.
[Martn] She wasn't cultured.
Not in her speech, nor her knowledge,
nor in the way she carried herself.
Even though her husband was a lawyer
and had his own firm,
it seems more like
they were actually middle-class.
[music continues on speaker]
[Horacio] They only had
a one-bedroom apartment.
In that same apartment
lived the couple, their son,
and their live-in maid.
They all lived there.
[music fades]
[Martn] It was a simple building
in the Monserrat neighborhood.
Across the street,
there were a lot of grocery stores,
right next to each other.
MONSERRACITY OF BUENOS AIRES
[Virginia] Monserrat is
a middle-class neighborhood.
It's a mix of things,
because it's downtown,
but not in the financial district.
It's a lively place during the week,
because of the many office buildings,
and government buildings
like Congress, the Casa Rosada,
and the Central Police Department.
[siren blaring]
[Virginia] Back in Yiya's time,
Avenida de Mayo,
which runs through
the entire neighborhood,
had an incredibly active social life.
It was chock-full of cafs.
It was also very close
to Avenida Corrientes,
which is quite famous for its nightlife.
There are movie theaters,
theaters, and restaurants.
[jazz music playing]
[Virginia] And that vibrant nightlife
was the place where Yiya felt at home.
Where she knew she could shine.
6 WEEKS AFTER MEMA'S DEATH
[Horacio] She was detained
and cut off from communication.
This was standard procedure.
But, you know, it's always customary
and considered protocol
to make inquiries, to investigate.
OFFICER HORACIO ROMEO
[Horacio] I took advantage of the fact
that it was May 1st, a holiday.
I expected people would be at their homes,
so I went over to her building
to investigate.
MXICO 1177
At that time, it was still customary
to have signs over the door,
and I noticed that
one of them was for a doctor.
-I rang the bell.
-[doorbell buzzing]
[Horacio] And, luckily for me,
he knew Mrs. Murano very well,
because his wife happened
to be part of a group of friends
to whom Yiya had approached with
investment proposals
that offered very high interest.
He said he knew that her friends
had invested large sums,
but he didn't like it.
Because of that, he didn't
allow his wife to invest any money.
And at one point in the conversation,
he says to me,
"Poor woman, though,
she had such bad luck,
because those ladies just kept dying."
HE RECALLED TWO OTHER FRIENDS OF HERS
HAD CEASED TO EXISUNDER UNCLEAR CIRCUMSTANCES
He said, "First it was Nilda,
then it was Ayala,
and now Venturini, as well."
Ah! I got goosebumps everywhere!
I completely lost it!
What? I couldn't believe it.
I was anxious
to get out of there immediately
and go look for all these people.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Horacio] First it was Mrs. Ayala.
She had a son who was a cadet
at the Naval Prefecture school.
LELIA FORMISANO DE AYALA'S SON
In that year,
I remember I was studying in Zrate,
at the Argentine Naval Prefecture school.
Then, during my second year of studies at
that school, well, my mother passed away.
She died in the apartment
on Avenida Belgrano.
[muffled voices inside]
4 WEEKS BEFORE MEMA'S DEATH
[Eloy] How did they find out?
Because of the smell of decomposition.
SHE WASN'T ANSWERING THE INTERCOM
THE TV WAS ON
A DISTINCT SMELL
FROM A CORPSE
[man on TV] Well, I hear you,
but there's nothing I can do for you now.
[Eloy] The police intervened.
They entered through
an adjoining apartment that was connected,
and found her dead.
Sitting on the table next to her
were pastries.
THERE WAS A TRAY,
LIKE FROM A BAKERY, WITH PASTRIES
[Virginia] There were leftovers.
From what we know, they were clairs.
SOMEONE RECALLS SEEING AN CLAIR
It's sort of like
a pastry filled with custard or cream.
Yiya had been having tea there,
and she left.
THE LAST TIME SHE WAS SEEN ALIVE,
SHE WAS WITH THE DEFENDANA funeral home doctor had been
involved in signing a death certificate
for myocardial infarction,
which was standard practice.
It seemed her death had been natural.
We held the funeral and
I had two or three days off,
then I went straight back to school.
I called the cadet school.
They brought him to the phone.
And I asked him the usual questions.
"Did anyone owe your mother money?"
"Yes, Yiya Murano owed her money."
"And did she ask her to pay her back?"
"Yes, my mom wanted to go to Europe,
and she had asked Yiya
to give her back the money."
"And she died." [chuckles]
[light, mysterious music playing]
[Horacio] Nilda Gamba, one of
the other investors, was her neighbor.
Yiya's neighbor.
I'm Jorge Arona,
I'm the nephew of Nilda Gamba.
I was there with her
in the very last moments of her life,
because I lived very close by.
THIRD ANNIVERSARY
OF THE NATIONAL REORGANIZATION PROCESS
[man] This is what was happening
before March 24th, 1976.
6 WEEKS BEFORE MEMA'S DEATH
Disorder, speculation, terrorism.
[Arona] They called me
because she was feeling unwell.
When I got there, I approached her.
The doctor was treating her.
[man on TV] You've lived it.
Remember and compare.
MISS GAMBA WAS FEELING UNWELL
SHE WAS IN PAIN
SEVERE NAUSEA
Someone else was there.
It might've been Yiya, I can't remember.
They lived super close, door to door.
That explains why,
when Nilda started feeling sick,
her friend Yiya was the first person
they called to take care of her.
What the investigation file reports is
that Nilda experienced indigestion
after having eaten fish.
[Nilda] I ate tuna with spaghetti.
[Virginia] She apparently had
some digestive issues,
and her friend Yiya would
come give her herbal teas.
I brought you some digestive tea.
Drink it, and you'll feel much better.
It was like a series of ups and downs.
She would feel much better,
then feel much worse.
Yiya was there, taking care of her.
ACCOMPANIED BY HER NEIGHBOR,
MRS. BOLLA DE MURANO
[Nilda gasping]
[Virginia] And then
[Nilda sighs]
[Virginia] she died.
At that time,
nobody had any theories about it.
They assumed
that she had a glucose spike
or some problem
related to her actual diabetes.
And the circumstances were the same.
Yiya owed her money,
she did not get her money back,
and she died. [chuckles]
[dramatic music playing]
[Horacio] Then I immediately put
all the pieces together.
But you don't always
see the whole picture.
So you want to make sure
you give the judge the information
and see what he decides.
He was calm, told me to relax,
like he did before.
"Relax," because I was too excited.
But this time, he said, "Okay,
we're going to have the bodies exhumed."
"I'll go ahead and give the order,
and we'll see what happens."
[Virginia] Both deaths
were deemed natural.
Their homes had been cleaned,
things thrown out.
They could only piece together
what had happened
by conducting a chemical analysis
of the two women, who were already buried.
[commentator] Unbelievable!
Yiya was in jail then, and the neighbors
started spreading around rumors.
They said my dad had been cheated on,
that she left him
and ran away with a lover.
A little while later,
the doorbell rang
at nine o'clock at night.
-[doorbell rings]
-[Ignacia] Should I get that, sir?
[Antonio] No, no, no. I'll go get it.
Ugh, who could it be at this time?
[Martn] When the reporters arrived,
my dad opened the door.
-[Antonio] Yes?
-[man] Good evening.
What can you tell us
about the accusations against your wife?
[Martn] It was naive of him to do so,
but he had no idea why they were there.
[Antonio] Don't take
pictures of me in my house!
[Martn] When he began listening to them,
his expression and demeanor
began changing,
which is completely understandable,
because he really had no idea.
And then they began telling us
She poisoned her friends.
[Martn] what, to me, seemed like
a very farfetched story.
[Antonio] all the time
[Martn] "There are three women
to whom Mrs. Murano owed money."
[Antonio] This makes no sense.
-"The three of them were found dead."
-[Antonio] Unbelievable.
"And the last person to see them alive,
all three of them,
was your wife."
THE POISONER
SHOCKING REVELATIONS
THE POISONER'S STORY
THE YIYA CASE
[dramatic music playing]
A FRIEND TO DEATH!
m*rder*r AND SCAMMER
[Martn] At that time,
the reporters had nothing.
TEA, FRIENDS AND A MYSTERY
Since they didn't have a single piece of
information from those of us close to her
THERE MAY BE MORE
they'd make up their own story.
NOW SEVEN VICTIMS
NOW EIGHT!
THE POISONER:
TEN HEARSES HIRED
THREE? FIVE? TEN? NONE? HOW MANY?
[Martn] One of them would make something
up, and another one would copy it.
Then a third one would change
just a couple of words, and so on.
DIABOLICAL
WELL-TO-DO AND DIABOLICAL
However you look at it, it's a good story.
And she's not the quiet,
discreet type. She's a dynamo!
[Horacio] And it blew up.
And reporters were constantly
knocking on my door.
YIYA'S HOUSE
YIYA'S TABLE
A TORNADO OF A WOMAN
HOW DIABOLICAL k*ller LIVES
[Martn] And it turned into
an unstoppable snowball
that ended with accusations of witchcraft.
SHE PRACTICED "BLACK MAGIC"
SHE HAD 2 LOVERS
[Martn] They claimed Yiya held gatherings
where they practiced black magic.
POSSESSED BY "BLACK MAGIC"
LOVER OF STRANGE RITUALS
The whole thing began feeling
like it was straight out of a movie.
[chuckles]
ENIGMAS SURROUND THE YIYA CASE
[Martn] The method
of administering the poison
CYANIDE: THE ENIGMA
varied depending
on the source reporting it.
CYANIDE AT TEA TIME
[Martn] The poison was in the tea,
it was in the pastries.
It's common practice worldwide,
no matter where
POISONER
[Martn] for a serial k*ller
to be given a name.
And Yiya was The Poisoner of Monserrat.
THE POISONER OF MONSERRA[woman] Police Commander,
can you share your opinion
on the Murano case?
I'd say it's your typical female homicide.
Because, due to her physical capacities,
a woman cannot commit a violent homicide,
if she's actually inclined
to even commit m*rder.
And so she resorts to this, to poisoning.
SODIUM CYANIDE
Poison is a substance capable
of harming any living being.
TOXICOLOGICAL EXPERCyanide and carbon monoxide,
in particular, are silent poisons,
and because of that,
have long been favored by perpetrators
as their weapon of choice, so to speak,
because the victim often falls into a trap
and consumes them unknowingly,
either in a drink
CYANIDE
KING OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES
or, even more commonly, in food.
When it comes to cyanide, though,
we consistently had
cases of cyanide poisoning,
but those cases were mostly
poisoning due to suicide.
I know that, during moments of subversion,
extremists would carry
a small cyanide capsule
so they had
the option to commit suicide.
That was common knowledge.
There were also criminal cases,
but those were always cases
where the poison was intentionally used
in doses that caused the victims'
sudden and immediate death.
The big problem
in Yiya Murano's case was the cyanide,
which is a fast-acting poison, but
it hadn't k*lled her victims instantly.
I mean, there was, sort of,
delay in each one of their deaths.
It was the exact dose to k*ll them,
but not enough
to poison any of them immediately.
It was completely unprecedented.
It was the first time
that something like that ever happened.
[woman] This is the entrance
for 1177 Mexico,
which is the building that,
for the last 22 years,
has been the home to Mrs. Mara
de las Mercedes Bolla Ponte de Murano.
And here is the restaurant La Mara,
where she would often come for dinner.
What was her favorite food?
Well, her boy always wanted milanesa,
french fries or even fried egg,
but she always told him no.
She wanted him to eat steak and salad.
[woman] Did she ever say why?
Well, yeah.
She didn't want him gaining weight.
[Martn] You know, for me,
it always seemed very strange
to see mothers going
to pick up their kids from school,
and to see them hugging,
and then their kids running to them,
and their moms would
carry their backpacks.
I never had that.
[Mariana] Martn was my age
and we got along well,
but it was quite unsettling to witness
Martn's relationship with his mom.
She treated him poorly.
She looked down on him.
Treated him like he was beneath her.
Like he wasn't smart,
or like he just wasn't capable.
[young Martn] Mom, no.
[Martn] Yiya used to take me to the caf
of a famous hotel on Avenida de Mayo.
Don't eat like an animal, Martn.
Sit up straight.
Can't you see people are looking?
[Martn] To me, it was quite normal
that a woman would go out every morning
to have breakfast
with some family friend, alone.
[Yiya] How are you? [laughs]
[kisses]
[Martn] Keep in mind
that being nine back then
was not the same as being nine today.
-I had no idea what a lover was.
-[Yiya] All here?
[man] I'll bring you
what you asked for tomorrow.
[Martn] I had to keep this a secret.
And anyway, I couldn't have told my dad,
because they spoke in code.
[man] What are we having tonight?
How about dessert?
-[Yiya] Well, yes, we must have dessert.
-[man] Yes.
[Martn] And one of her lovers
-[Yiya] Or it's not fun.
-[man] Right.
[Martn] when I told him something,
like "Oh, yeah, my dad said"
"No," he said.
"Call him Antonio. I'm your dad."
WAITER AT CASTELAR HOTEL
I knew her,
because she was extremely elegant,
so she attracted lots of attention.
And one day,
one of the guys who waited on her
came up and said,
"Look who's sitting over there."
So, everyone looked
and asked, "Wait, where?"
"That lady over there.
That's Juanita Martnez."
ARGENTINE COMIC THEATER COMPANY
[Martn] Many years ago,
there was a comedian named Jos Marrone,
and he was married to Juanita Martnez,
who was an actress,
and she looked a lot like Yiya.
And Yiya would even sign autographs
pretending to be her.
[Juan] She was not Juanita Martnez,
but she looked a lot like her.
She was a regular, for sure.
She'd come in the morning
and she'd have her morning tea.
She loved all the cream-filled pastries,
and the puff pastries.
And she loved the dulce de leche cannolis.
She absolutely had a sweet tooth.
This was some time
before everything happened.
A year or two earlier, I can't remember.
We stopped at a caf, and a man showed up.
-I believe he was called Hctor.
-[Yiya] How are you?
[Mariana] I think I remember him
as being a bald man.
-What have we got here?
-[Mariana] And we had breakfast.
-Yiya, Hctor
-It's all here?
-[Mariana] and me.
-[Hctor] Of course.
When we left, Yiya told me,
"Don't say a word about what happened."
Juanita used to call the man
who was with her "the doctor."
She said he was her husband.
[Virginia] Hctor Cantn was a doctor
who was Yiya's most consistent lover.
He testified that he didn't know
if her husband knew
about his relationship with his wife,
but that he was totally integrated
into Yiya's circle.
She managed to make
those two things successfully coexist.
[Juan] And then later,
when everything happened,
I saw a picture of her with her husband.
And the doctor was not her husband.
That's when I thought,
"Well, something's off." [chuckles]
Then she stopped coming
and we found out later
from a reporter, I remember.
He said, "You know who's in jail?"
"No." "Juanita," he said.
[door closes]
[Horacio] I had her brought in
so then I could take her statement.
At one point, she decided she wanted
to actually tell us what she'd done.
I'm going to tell you everything.
[Horacio] That was called
a spontaneous statement.
EXPRESSES HER DESIRE TO EXPLAIN
[Horacio] Our medical examiner
had said to me,
"You take her statement
for half an hour or 15 minutes, tops."
"Then you leave,
go have a coffee, and come back."
And I asked him, "Why?"
I was a young officer then,
full of energy.
I was used to dealing with criminals,
I thought, "That's"
I didn't listen to him.
Some time ago,
I had to undergo a surgical intervention
due to a condition I was suffering from.
[Horacio] And I continued
taking her statement.
SURGERY FOR HEMORRHOIDS UNSUCCESSFUL
[Horacio] The doctor was right.
She steered the entire conversation.
What truly matters to me
are my loved ones, of course.
That's why I vowed to Our Lady of Lourdes,
to whom I've been profoundly
devoted for all my life,
that I would renounce
every one of my worldly possessions.
SHE WOULDN'T WEAR ANY OTHER JEWELRY
[Yiya] I decided that I would give them
to all of my dearest friends
and my loved ones.
GAVE AWAY PERSONAL ITEMS
[Horacio] She was manipulative,
managed timing her perfectly
OTTER-SKIN COABLACK FAUX-FUR COAand controlled people very skillfully.
[Yiya] Because to me,
what really matters the most
[Horacio] She managed
to steer the conversation
whichever way she wanted to.
and is always with me.
That's when I remembered
the advice and said, "Wait!"
I left for coffee, came back, and
said to her, "All right, where were we?"
So that way, I'd interrupt her
control of the narrative.
[Virginia] The only time
that she seemed a bit nervous
was when they began asking her
over and over and over again
where she'd get the money
to pay them back.
That's when her faade cracked.
And she then said, "From my friends.
I've told you, like, 40 times."
FROM "CERTAIN FRIENDS"
FROM "MALE FRIENDS"
"WELL-TO-DO GENTLEMEN"
[man] There we go.
[Horacio] Because she said her lovers
supported her financially.
400 OR 500 DOLLARS EACH TIME
And if she ever asked
them for money to pay something back,
they'd lend it to her.
Her lovers later testified
that they had indeed paid for her coffee
and occasionally gave her some money,
but it was never a big enough sum
for her to live on.
But she wanted to use that to justify
how she sustained the lifestyle she had.
FUR COATS
[Horacio] With what money?
GOLD COINS
Yiya's case is tied to an era of time
when the pursuit
of easy money was deeply ingrained.
[jazz music playing]
EXCHANGE
DOLLAR
GOLD
[Candelaria] In Argentina
at the end of the '70s,
there was a shift
in the way wealth was accumulated.
The country moved
from a model based on industry
to one focused on financial valorization,
where wealth was increasingly generated
within the financial system itself.
And it wasn't just
a change in economic policy
but a transformation of the entire regime
that had been imposed by a dictatorship.
This national reorganization process
LT. GEN. JORGE R. VIDELA
DE FACTO PRESIDENwill demand time and effort.
With that goal,
we will all fight tirelessly
against subversive crime
until its total annihilation.
The government of the Armed Forces
MINISTER OF ECONOMY 1976-1981
hasn't only eradicated
t*rror1st subversion,
but has also now injected morality
to our economic life.
[dramatic jazz music playing]
[thunder crashes]
[Candelaria] The dictatorship could never
get inflation under control,
and, in that kind of economic situation,
you have to keep your money moving,
or you'll lose purchasing power.
BILLS
DOLLAR - BUY
Back then, as it's always the case,
if you had the capital,
you had to find ways
to make it yield a bit more,
to be slightly better off.
There was a major shift
in people's mindsets.
Before, people were in a system where
you had to work in order to earn money.
Then, we moved to a system where
you needed money to make money.
Why? Because money began
working on its own.
This gamble was a weekly thing.
You could put your money in for three,
two, five days, however long you wanted.
And the interest rates were
[Jorge] I'd get paid, put the money in
the bank, then I'd take out the interest.
I lived off the interest. When
I'd get paid again, I'd put it back in.
These are the survival tactics
of Argentina, right?
We're all economists.
[Yiya] Give me large bills, please.
[Candelaria] And the whole concept
of easy money
was as if the money
somehow kept multiplying by itself.
So, it was a time when
many money pools were booming.
People would put in their money to make
it grow through financial instruments.
Sometimes they were legal, sometimes not.
Sometimes they were based
on actual financial tools,
and other times, they were outright scams.
Yiya saw a window of opportunity
at the time,
and made use of what she had.
There's also the reality that,
in a patriarchal society,
which was far more so than today,
I am not sure that Yiya
could have convinced any men
to entrust their money to a woman
to invest it in a money pool.
She saw an opportunity there,
with her friends,
who probably wouldn't have had access
to those men's investment circles.
[gentle jazz music playing]
Listen, ladies, I've got an acquaintance.
Well, actually, he's a good friend,
-He has a money pool that's very big.
-[Nilda] Really?
[Virginia] Well actually,
what Yiya did in the '70s
was very much like a pyramid scheme.
-I've got something to tell you.
-[Nilda] Yiya!
No, but I'm not gonna tell you.
I better not.
[Virginia] She'd take
a bit of money from them,
then pay them a lot of interest.
[Yiya] No one can know about it.
[Virginia] And then she got them
to give her more money.
[Yiya] It seems that next month,
the interest rate is going to triple.
[Arona] My aunt Nilda had
some money set aside.
so it's possible that when faced with the
chance of making higher profit margins,
she might've made some sort of investment.
We've all invested in something
at some point.
-Nilda, tell the ladies how you did.
-Does it really triple?
-[Nilda] Very well. Very well, ladies.
-What do you mean?
-[Nilda] Twenty percent.
-Tell us!
-Want me to order sandwiches?
-[Mema] Twenty?
[Virginia] She always pampered them.
She paid for them at the caf,
she invited them to the theater.
So they all felt that they
could absolutely trust her
when it came to her financial abilities
and her economic stability.
-They trusted Yiya.
-[Mema] The interest is crazy.
Well, you should believe it,
but for that, you need trust.
-[Mariana] My grandma was not gullible.
-You have to trust.
I believe my grandmother loved Yiya
because she talked about her a lot.
I think she kind of admired her.
Yiya always had more things.
More clothes, more coats, more
as if she knew more about life.
Something like that.
Like she had it all figured out.
This isn't just for anyone,
only a trusted few.
If it makes you anxious,
it might not be for you.
If you want to make a profit,
you have to wait for the right time.
[Martn] Back in the day,
the phones came with plugs.
Well, Yiya had two phone plugs.
One of them in the living room
and one in the bedroom.
But only one phone.
-So she'd take the phone.
-[Yiya] Ten million.
[Martn] And I was a kid
and I was curious.
-"What is she saying that's so secretive?"
-Yes, look. Ten million. 25%.
[Martn] And I heard words
I didn't know the meaning of.
Exactly. Hold on a minute.
[Martn] "What on Earth is a money pool?
Is it a pool where you swim in money?"
She'd hook them with the interest rates.
They were high.
Then she would persuade them to reinvest.
Put more money in,
and then make even more money off it.
And they would keep bringing
her more money, each time.
[Virginia] What's not clear to me is
whether she ever invested that money.
Or perhaps it was the same money
she used to treat them,
buy herself nice clothes,
or keep the scam running.
My dad knew she was doing shady business.
But then,
my dad was just blinded by love.
Her husband said,
"We lived with just enough."
I mean, he never said, "Oh, yes,
I actually asked Yiya
where she bought that coat,
or when, or how she even got it."
He seemed very naive to me.
And people would also say, "Well, how
do you think she sustains that lifestyle?"
"Because she knows about
these financial operations."
She scammed people to make a living.
Because she wanted to give,
she wanted to entertain,
but she needed money,
and that's how she got it.
She needed the money to maintain
the aspirational consumption
expected at the time.
It reflects a truth
about Argentina's middle class,
the desire to belong
in circles where they really don't.
We know that step two was to ask for more
money, and that's where it got tricky.
There were many excuses. The money
would be available by, let's say November.
But it wasn't.
"Well, now it's actually only going
to be by the end of December."
-Yes, yes, but that's in November.
-Yes, Yiya, I understand, but I
[Eloy] My mom had started
to pay for a trip to Europe.
She was very excited.
She even got a passport.
She had some money set aside
that she hoped
to increase a bit to afford the trip.
And that's why she handed
her money over for investments
that promised more
than what a bank could offer.
My mom told me, I knew.
She kept a notebook where she wrote down
how much money she gave her.
It was just a personal log.
"Today, November 11th,
I gave Yiya Murano 200,000 pesos."
In January
[Eloy] "She'll pay me back
on December 11th."
DOUBLE
"Interest is 20,000." Something like that.
-It doubles.
-[Lelia] It doubles?
It doubles.
I gave it to them as evidence one time.
DECEMBER 25%
[Eloy] It turned a profit
a couple of times.
Until she stopped paying it back.
[chuckles]
Oh, the things you'll be able
to do in Europe, Chicha. So much.
[foreboding music playing]
YIYA: PAID IN CYANIDE
The judge calls me
and he tells me I was right.
THE POISONER: FORENSIC EXAMINATION
OF 2 EXHUMED CORPSES
The conclusion came
from the examination of the corpses,
as autopsies could no longer be performed.
But they did a technical study
that finally determined
that both had died from cyanide.
THREE POISONINGS PROVEN
CYANIDE INVOLVED!
When the bodies were exhumed, the issue
was that the levels were very low.
Small traces of cyanide
were detected in a victim
who had been buried for quite a long time.
CORPSE - POTASSIUM CYANIDE
But, based on the tests
that were carried out,
we never had any doubt that she had
used cyanide on all three victims.
THE POISONER: IS THE END NEAR?
FORENSIC REPORTS TO DETERMINE
GUILT OF WELL-OFF k*ller
[Horacio] Three or four years had passed.
There were many appeals
and constant back-and-forth.
But those are the normal timeframes
the justice system requires
for the investigation,
and for finding evidence before
being able to reach a final resolution.
And once the investigation was over,
and they considered that
there was nothing else to do,
and all necessary evidence was gathered,
they took it to the sentencing judge.
THE LADY BEFORE THE JUDGE
[dramatic music playing]
[Virginia] There were no
oral arguments in her case,
so everything had to be written.
In the written proceedings,
the case moved to the plenary stage.
The defense took part,
and, as expected in that moment
DEFENSE PREPARES TO FIGHT BACK
submitted its arguments.
[woman] I'm going to ask you a question
as her defense attorney.
How does she seem to you?
YIYA MURANO'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY
She seems fine.
I get the impression she's innocent.
That's why I'm involved in this case.
DEFENSE
BOLLA APONTE DE MURANO
DEFENSE ATTORNEY:
MARIO R. SOAJE PINTO
DEFENDANT SYSTEMATICALLY
DENIED COMMITTING HOMICIDE
[woman] Mr. Miguel Botello, what is your
personal opinion on Mrs. Murano's case?
In this specific poisoning case,
it's not only necessary
to find traces of the poison,
if there was any
NO ALKALINE CYANIDE WAS SEIZED
but also to find a way to prove
that the defendant was actually
the one who poisoned the victim.
UNKNOWN HOW CYANIDE INGESTION
COULD HAVE OCCURRED
Besides, there are practically
no witnesses to this crime,
so the court will have to rely
on circumstantial evidence.
Tell me, Mr. Kepsely, is it possible
to make any kind of judgment
about the defendant?
The fact that a person is found
with poison in their viscera
is not enough information
to claim in any way
that the person being prosecuted
is responsible for those deaths.
THE PRESENCE OF CYANIDE DOES NOT MEAN
THE SUBJECT DIED
FROM INGESTION OF ALKALINE CYANIDE
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
REITERATES INNOCENCE
The defense said two things regarding
the cyanide. These women were smokers.
And some studies have suggested
that certain substances in cigarettes
decompose in the body, producing cyanide.
TRACES OF HYDROCYANIC ACID
FOUND IN SMOKERS
Alternatively,
the natural process of decomposition
may cause the body
to release chemical substances
VERY ABUNDANT LAYERS OF BACTERIA
that can be interpreted
as decomposition of cyanide.
DETECTED IN POSTMORTEM TISSUES
MICROQUANTITIES OF ALKALINE CYANIDE
MURANO WAITS ALONE IN EZEIZA
29 MONTHS AFTER TRIPLE POISONING:
SENTENCING
That doubt about the cyanide prevailed,
a point the defense had
skillfully introduced.
What the judges said was in dubio pro reo,
meaning that doubt works
in favor of the accused.
The justice system follows
the principle that it's better
for a criminal to go free than
for an innocent to be imprisoned.
[Kepsely] Because, otherwise,
reversing the burden of proof
could truly endanger our entire
justice system, nationally.
YIYA: IMMINENT JUDICIAL DECISION
THE PEOPLE ASK FOR HER FREEDOM!
[Horacio] The sentencing judge
considered that there
was not enough evidence,
and acquitted her.
MARA DE LAS MERCEDES BOLLA APONTE
DE MURANO ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES
YIYA IS FREE
[man] We're witnessing the moment
when one of the ships
bringing back to the continent
the Argentine soldiers
who fought for our sovereignty in
the Malvinas Islands approaches the port.
3 YEARS AFTER MEMA'S DEATH
[Martn] She had spent
three years in jail by then.
I was 16 years old.
-A total of 472 troops
-[Martn] I was smoking.
-have arrived in the southern Patagonian
-Eat it all, okay?
-[Martn] I was going out.
-[TV] transporting soldiers
-[Martn] She got home.
-[door closes]
-And said, "Aren't you giving me a hug?"
-[TV] back after so long.
-[Yiya] I'm going out. Back later.
-[Martn] I said, "What happened?"
-"Did you escape or something?"
-[Yiya] Did you put cheese in it?
-[Ignacia] Yes.
-[Martn] "The truth came out."
-Thanks.
-[Martn] "I didn't k*ll them."
I said, "What terrible luck you had."
"I mean, three women you owed money to
all died in the same month?"
[Antonio] Will you be back late?
-I have to meet my lawyer, make calls.
-[Martn] "You never loved me."
-"You were always a bad son."
-[Yiya] Don't be a pain.
[Martn] "Of course
you'd say something like that."
What did I think?
"God damn it. Here we go again."
Because Yiya started doing
the same things.
She was on the phone again.
She was seeing Cantn
more and more frequently.
[jazz music playing]
[Martn] Yiya did not change
in the slightest.
What I remember from that time is that
someone from the police was furious.
He'd carried out a thorough investigation,
gathered plenty of evidence,
and he was angry about it.
I was angry because they weren't being
completely honest about some things,
and I knew very well that she had done it,
yet she'd been acquitted.
I was feeling scared.
But, above all,
I was scared for my mother.
[doorbell buzzes]
[Mariana] I was afraid
she might show up at my house,
or that she'd poison my mother
without us even realizing it.
And that it was crucial she be locked up,
because she was dangerous.
GUILTY OR INNOCENT?
THE POISONER WALKS FREE
FREE NOW, BUT THE CASE REMAINS OPEN
The prosecutor was forced to appeal. The
case was sent to a higher jurisdiction.
THE POISONER: BACK IN FRONT OF THE JUDGE
-[producer] There you go. Okay.
-All right. I think we should hide this.
Yiya Murano had been acquitted
in the first trial.
It had been proven that she asked
to borrow money from her friends.
FORMER JUDGE
When the time came to pay them back,
she'd invite them for tea
and they died shortly after.
That was clear.
But we had to prove there was poison.
Because if there wasn't any poison,
then it was an invitation to tea.
Finding the poison was my mission.
Which basically consisted of proving
that what had been found in the bodies
HYDROCYANIC ACID
was the final stage in a chain
of several transformations
VISCERAL MATERIAL - DISTILLATION
CYANIDE SEPARATED
RESIDUES: CONVERSION TO THIOCYANATE
originating from the poison.
There were chemical compounds that could
only result from the poison's degradation.
CYANIDE
THIOCYANATE
How did she manage to get it
into the victims' bodies?
Well
everything indicates
that it was through a liquid medium.
Today, I'm going to teach you
how to prepare a lovely tea
so you get to delight your friends.
First, we'll get the teacup.
We're now going to put one teaspoon
per person inside the teapot.
We'll pour it into the teacup
using a strainer.
And the final touch.
SODIUM CYANIDE
Three drops.
Four.
-[Yiya] How do you feel?
-Not well at all.
My stomach is really hurting.
[Yiya] What did you eat yesterday?
In Nilda's case,
she could've given it to her in the tea,
because Nilda was feeling unwell,
and she was taking care of her.
She couldn't drink anything but tea,
so maybe
-Drink it, Nilda.
-[Nilda] Yes.
Since Nilda was diabetic and had been
hospitalized and sick some time earlier,
her illness and subsequent death
were not really that surprising.
DECEMBER 1978
SHE FELT FAIN[Horacio] Nilda had recently suffered
a pretty severe health breakdown
three months earlier
HOSPITALIZED IN A CLINIC
which did not cause her death.
AFTER REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS,
PATIENT SAID
SHE HAD HAD TWO DRINKS
WITH HER FRIEND "YIYA"
It was discovered
that Mrs. Gamba had a prior incident,
a possible earlier poisoning.
MRS. MURANO TOLD HER TO TAKE
It might have been an attempt
to test the dosage.
It failed, because
it only caused her minor harm.
A TABLET OR A PILL
And her family took her to Punta del Este,
because it was the summer at that time.
She recovered perfectly well.
She came back sun-soaked
and in great health.
FEBRUARY 11
She meets with Yiya
SUFFERS NEW DISCOMFORasks for her money back, and dies.
And when she came back
to Buenos Aires,
well, that nice lady found the right dose.
Of course,
Yiya knew perfectly well that cyanide
caused sudden and immediate death.
She couldn't administer it the way
that they said she did administer it.
If so, Nilda would've died with her there.
She was well aware
that she needed to find her dead.
After all your debts,
all the problems you've had.
-And now you're spending all this money.
-[man] You shouldn't worry about this
[Virginia] In Ayala's case,
Yiya had been having tea with her.
MRS. BOLLA DE MURANO
WAS WITH THE DECEASED
Once she leaves
THAT SAME DAY
she sets up an obviously staged plan
to go to the theater,
involving three people
who didn't know each other.
Before going to the theater,
she made sure she would have an alibi
by going to Ayala's house,
ringing her doorbell,
and acting surprised in front of everyone,
saying, "She's not answering. How weird."
"She didn't come. That's odd."
So that way, if they were to testify,
they'd say that she seemed surprised
by her friend's absence,
though she knew perfectly well that
she was dying, or was already dead.
LEFTOVER FISH AND PASTRIES
On the table, there were still leftovers
from the pastries
that they both had eaten.
Later on, the story got out,
and people began saying
that she poisoned them with pastries.
Yes, I went there afterward,
to pick up some of my mom's things.
And people laugh about this,
but there were pastries in the fridge,
and I think I had one.
And
-[producer] Yiya's pastries?
-Yeah.
Well, listen,
when I went to her apartment,
it was shortly after my mother's death.
Nobody had a clue
my mom had been poisoned.
Like in many criminal cases, there's
this one thing the public obsesses over.
Here, they never let go
of this story about the pastries.
But the truth is, we don't know for sure
if the poison was in the pastries.
In fact, we believe that it wasn't.
But of course,
because they saw the pastries
and the truth was never told.
The truth wasn't revealed
about how Yiya poisoned people.
We could say that the pastries
were a means she'd use
so that they would just keep eating,
and overindulge,
so they would then need
to drink something to feel better.
We're talking about people
in their sixties.
So, you know, eating too many pastries
doesn't usually agree with them.
So she'd say to them,
"If you're feeling unwell,
I have a special herbal tincture
that's really great for digestion."
"You should take it,
it'll make you feel better."
It was just like now,
when you visit a friend and they say,
"You know, I've been taking
this oregano oil, and"
It's something we all do.
"Drink it, it's good for you."
Her modus operandi was
to make sure to fill them up
with things that wouldn't agree with them
so they'd feel sick
and then, they'd ingest
her herbal tincture alone, at night.
Go back there,
and retrieve the IOU slip she had signed,
so she wouldn't have to pay any debt.
-Mema.
-And nothing happened here.
That would explain why,
in Venturini's case,
she needed to go into her apartment
to retrieve the dropper bottle.
-[Mirtha] And now we're going to welcome
-This is mine.
[Horacio] She didn't know
if she'd find her dead.
She'd been there
and had given her pastries,
but she had more with her,
just in case it hadn't worked.
It was a criminal plan that wasn't
as simple as "Eat this pastry and die."
No, not at all. No, because
that way, they'd incriminate her.
Yiya had such an inflated ego
that she thought she'd get away with it.
She thought she was smarter
than the judges.
The body of evidence, which was
extensive, precise, and compelling,
left no doubt whatsoever
regarding the fact
that the acts of poisoning
committed by Yiya had indeed occurred.
The code says, "Poisoning, life sentence."
So we sentenced her to life in prison.
MAX SENTENCE
LIFE IMPRISONMENT - OPINION UPHELD
LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR "YIYA"
"YIYA" GOES TO JAIL
Due to some judicial technicalities,
she was released at some point,
but then, the truth prevailed.
YIYA IS IN JAIL
[Martn] Then they told her,
"Yiya, it's over."
"Go inside, lock the door and
don't make plans for the next 15 years."
[dramatic music playing]
[Massoni] One day I went to that prison
for another reason.
and I found out that she was
the boss of an entire cell block.
All the prisoners were fascinated by her.
Especially because of all that
she'd gotten them once she got out.
"IF I'M CONVICTED,
I'M NOT GOING TO sh**t MYSELF"
"EVEN IF A HUNDRED YEARS GO BY,
I'LL COME OUT WITH MY HEAD HIGH"
"I SWEAR ON JESUS CHRIST"
[Massoni] She was
an extraordinary character.
She could convince anyone of anything.
-A complete psychopath.
-[Yiya] Sweetie!
Yes, you. Come here now.
-[Massoni] And with no morals whatsoever.
-[Yiya] Come.
Come here, come closer.
[melancholy music playing]
[Martn] One day, my dad told me,
in a voice barely over a whisper,
"She was convicted."
"She was sentenced to life in prison."
"What are we gonna do now, son?"
"MY MOTHER WAS CONVICTED
IN A STRANGE WAY"
[Martn] I had to lie.
"MY MOTHER CAN'T EVEN COOK A STEAK"
I said that I believed in Yiya's innocence
to soothe my dad.
He passed away
still maintaining that Yiya was innocent.
It k*lled my father.
My father has influenced
my life immensely.
When I was eight years old,
he took me to see a movie
with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
The movie was called Animal.
And at the same time, he took on
the role of his own stunt double.
[funky music playing]
[Martn] And, in one scene,
I saw him jumping out of a helicopter
and I asked,
"Dad, is that a camera trick?"
"No, the person doing it
is a stunt double."
[crew cheering]
"They are the ones who do the scenes
that involve risks for an actor,
so that the actor doesn't take risks."
"Besides, they don't know how to."
No!
[Martn] I became obsessed. I was hooked.
You know the classic question
in elementary school?
"What do you want to be
when you grow up?"
And I'd say, "Stunt double,"
and they'd laugh at me.
Who's laughing now?
-[tires squeal]
-[Martn] Go ahead and laugh now.
I've got more than a thousand hours
of work on TV as a stunt double.
I've also worked on movies abroad.
I was the first stunt double in Argentina
to set myself on fire from head to toe
on television,
with my face uncovered
and without protection.
[camera shutter clicking]
In fact, right here,
while we were sh**ting this,
I met someone who I used to work with
at Channel 9, more than 30 years ago.
[producer] Take a seat.
Eyes on the board.
Well, I worked with
Martn Murano at Channel 9
FILM CREW MEMBER
in the '90s,
on some of Channel 9's scripted shows.
No, he'd introduce himself
as Martn Murano.
He carried that name with him.
I mean, everyone knew
he was Martn Murano.
Yeah, he was a stunt double,
and he was a fight choreographer
and stuff like that.
He was good at his job. In fact,
I took some pictures of him working.
He didn't know. I've got 'em somewhere.
This is a scene at Channel 9,
and here's Martn Murano
teaching an actress how to kick.
[blow landing sound effect]
[Martn] For me, TV is my life.
Today, despite being here,
retelling a very sad story,
having that little machine there
right in front of me
brings me back to life.
Okay, okay, see you later.
[Martn] Yiya, during that time,
would be watching TV,
and when she saw
that the credits of the show said,
"Guest appearance, Martn Murano"
Sweetie!
Look, he's my son!
-[Martn] She'd call the other inmates.
-[Yiya] He's friends with Romay.
[Martn] She'd tell them, "That's my son."
Never.
[Martn] And she'd exaggerate.
She'd say to them,
"He's a top executive at Channel 9."
-[woman] Really?
-[Martn] "When I get out"
[Yiya] He's on the right.
[Martn] "He's going to help me,
and I'll be able to get you
all sorts of things."
"You'll see."
[Yiya] Yes, he's very well known.
No, I don't know about Yiya or Martn.
I didn't follow the case.
But when we were working
and would bump into each other,
he would comment
that he was writing a book.
While we were sh**ting,
I'd just sit in the car and start writing.
"What are you writing?"
I'd reply,
"You won't believe me if I tell you."
[woman] It's so silent until I get there.
I'm here with Mr. Martn Murano.
-Hi, Martn.
-Nice to meet you.
-It's a pleasure. How are you?
-[Martn] I'm good.
[woman] He'll tell us about his mom
and the book he's about to publish.
Martn, you're so young, 27 years old.
So, you were a kid when all this happened.
[Martn] Yes, I was 12, almost 13.
[woman] Up to that moment, how was your
relationship with your mother, Martn?
It may be shocking for me to say this,
but we've never had a good relationship,
honestly, not even when I was a kid.
Well, it's like
I say in the book, you know?
Sometimes it's interesting,
the things you get used to.
[man] What made you write the book?
Every time I said my name,
the inevitable question was,
"Are you related to Yiya Murano?"
Every time I left the house,
there were journalists at the door.
Many malicious comments.
And even if
you accept them,
you never get used to them.
It's upsetting.
-Yes, but you also might think--
-[Martn] That's it.
People will soon forget.
In a country with no memory like this one,
you're probably reminding people
of who Yiya Murano is,
which many might have forgotten.
You know how sometimes you want
to do something good for someone
and you end up doing the opposite?
I thought I'd put an end
to the story with the book,
but, in fact, I turned her into a legend.
MY MOTHER, YIYA MURANO
[dramatic music playing]
[keys jingling]
THE POISONER
WILL BE RELEASED
[Martn] The first thing was
that her sentence was reduced.
And shortly after that
COMMUTING SENTENCES
whoever was president at the time
gave her a presidential pardon.
YIYA MURANO RELEASED
[camera shutter clicking]
16 YEARS AFTER MEMA'S DEATH
[Martn] She got work
as soon as she was out.
She began selling interviews to the press.
She reappeared, she was pardoned,
and she went after the media.
And she was charging them money
for telling her story.
[applause]
Good afternoon. How are you, Mirtha?
-Good. How are you?
-You look gorgeous.
Thank you so much.
Come in. Are you nervous?
-A little bit.
-You are?
TV adopted Yiya as a character,
just like it adopts any monster as one.
REPORTER AND AUTHOR
Anyone who steps out of line
is someone worthy of coverage.
They complemented each other perfectly.
TV to Yiya, and vice versa.
How are you? Should I call you Yiya,
or Mara de las Mercedes?
Mara de las Mercedes.
The appeal basically came from
the mystery that Yiya Murano represented.
REPORTER
Because Yiya Murano was
and still is an enigma,
one I suppose
you are now attempting to decipher.
So, tell me,
you knew all three victims, right?
[Yiya] Of course I did.
Two were my friends, one was a relative,
a second cousin of mine.
I knew all three of them.
No, she wasn't scary.
You didn't get the feeling
that you were with a sinister figure,
even if you knew she was a m*rder*r.
And when she started talking,
she would become very nice,
and even charming.
That's when you understood
how she could deceive people.
-You've always maintained your innocence.
-I am innocent, I'm telling you.
And I will repeat that
until the day I die.
I've never k*lled anyone.
I'm not a m*rder*r.
I don't think she ever knew
if everything she did was true or false.
She was completely caught up
in her own lie.
She was not an easy character.
Interviewing a m*rder*r is
neither easy nor pleasant.
REPORTER
They're not pleasant people
you want to talk to.
And they also constantly keep
denying what they did.
So, I found myself across from
a very severe, strong woman,
with lots of character, and
determined not to budge from her story.
We know your story through the written
press at the time of the three deaths.
-We also know it through your son's book.
-Yes.
We know that version,
which I don't think matches yours.
It's completely different.
I don't want to talk about my son,
because a mother can't badmouth her son.
As I told you, I've forgiven him.
I don't know what happened to that boy,
I don't know
if he's lost his mind or something.
I feel that Yiya went on TV
to overshadow Martn.
To come out and tell a different story,
and bury his story,
which is about her being a social climber.
-This book is harsh. Have you read it?
-I've read it.
And on the day I did, I don't know
how God kept me standing, you know?
Yes, I've read it.
I thought she was going to refute
what was written in the book,
not that she would attack me directly.
So I always wonder, what happened?
What did he want?
To become a writer like Borges?
I don't know, what did he really want?
[Martn] For me, TV is my home.
She picked a fight in my home.
I don't fall into those discussions of,
"They said this about you,
so I'll say that."
I just went there to tell the truth,
which is no more, no less
than what's in the book.
So, when you talked to her, did
did she confess any of this to you?
I say it in the book.
-Oh, it's in the We have to buy the book!
-[laughs]
Martn relates something in his book
that, when you read it, it seems like
REPORTER
like it's something
out of an action movie.
She'd been free for three years already.
They released her for lack of evidence,
until the court convicted her in 1985,
and she has to go to jail, it's done.
And and she escapes.
[woman] Your son said you tried to escape.
Escape from whom?
-Escape your sentence, leave the country.
-Never in a million years!
Come on! I've never escaped.
I've always showed up in court.
She escaped before the
the second conviction, right?
-No.
-Or she didn't show up. What was it?
She didn't show up
after she was convicted.
But did you go
looking for her or something?
I went to talk to her,
not to look for her.
She confessed to some things
about her life.
-And the things that had happened.
-Like what, for example?
That she had k*lled those three women.
-She confessed to it?
-Yes.
It was quite funny, really.
It's described in the book.
No one believes me when I tell it.
It sounds like a movie.
[woman] Mark.
[man] We're on two, and action.
[folk music playing]
[Antonio] Where will she go?
And for how long?
[Hctor] As long as she has to.
[Antonio] What's
this woman going to live on?
-We'll figure it out.
-[Martn] I got home.
[Antonio] No, no, no. I'll go
[Martn] And inside my house,
everyone was talking at once,
asserting their opinions.
And when I heard
one of the people there,
of course, who was Cantn,
he was practically part of the family,
as the official lover
-He said, "Well, yes"
-She will have to go by herself.
[Martn] "The best thing
is for her to leave."
-[Hctor] Because it's easier that way.
-[Antonio] No, it's not easier.
[Martn] I grabbed my pack of cigarettes.
-I turned around and left.
-[door slams]
I came back
and Yiya was gone.
[ringing]
[Martn] That night, the phone rang.
I picked up.
-Hello?
-I was hearing a woman panting.
They said,
"I'm really having a great time."
-Who's this?
-"This is how much fun Marcela "
-That was my girlfriend's name
-Who is this?
"is going to have
when my friends get her."
All right, why don't you go f*ck yourself?
A while later, someone else called.
-[man on TV] I know that you haven't come
-[ringing]
to show support only for a government
-What the f*ck do you want?
-[man] Listen, kid.
-What?
-Your dad's a very old man.
-He could have a heart attack any moment.
-[TV] Democracy!
[man] Tell us where your mom is.
-Or you might regret it.
-[motorbike pulls away]
[man on TV] The united people
also tells them
that democracy is order.
-Dictatorship is chaos.
-[telephone ringing]
"Dad, where is Yiya?"
"I don't even know,
because the first person
they were going to interrogate was me."
[Antonio] Yes, she's doing what she can.
What's happening to her is very unfair.
-[Martn] Unfair!
-[car horns blaring]
[Martn] She deserves it all.
So, how did you find her?
Well, I went to ask someone
I thought would know.
He's gone now, but there's no point
in mentioning his name.
I asked that person where she was,
he told me, and I went to see her.
"She's at the house of a certain person,
in the province of Formosa."
I went to the airport, and the first
person on my mind was my dad.
[dramatic music playing]
Listen, he'd get upset
because I spoke badly about Yiya.
If he'd known I was going to turn her in
When I bought the ticket,
there were two guys
in suits and black glasses.
They were staring at me.
And then they sat two rows
behind me on the plane.
We got off, I asked someone
where that neighborhood was
[birdsong]
[suspenseful music playing]
And it felt like a comedy act.
I walked a few meters, I'd stop,
and the guys also stopped.
I said, "Get ready to walk,
it's a good 20 blocks still,
and you'll be sweating like crazy
in those jackets."
They just ignored me.
The humidity was high,
and the sun was blazing.
At that time, as far as I know, that stuff
about men in black following you
is a bit like something
you see in a movie.
It sounds like they were
intelligence services.
The why isn't explained
but it's not unreasonable to think
that in the search for a fugitive,
there might be a surveillance operation
targeting their circle.
[chicken clucks]
[rooster crows]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Martn] I got there, where Yiya was.
And she said, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for you."
"You've got nothing left to lose."
"Why don't you try telling the truth for
once in your life and see how it feels?"
-Tell me, how did you do it?
-[Yiya] Do what?
k*ll them.
Where was the poison?
Why does it even matter?
Martn
[producer] How did she admit that?
"Yes, I k*lled them."
Because she had never
owned up to it before.
Exactly how you're telling me.
[chuckling]
Well what Martn says
is a complete fantasy.
She denied it her entire life,
and it was deeply ingrained in her
that she had not done it.
If I could peek inside her brain,
I'd say, "Oh, it wasn't her."
Because she truly was convinced
she had nothing to do with it.
She couldn't confess to something
she didn't believe she did.
If she'd wanted to put him at ease,
she would've said,
"I'm innocent. I'm incapable of k*lling."
If she'd wanted to t*rture him,
she'd tell him all her crimes.
Thinking about the way that mother
operated, wanting to destroy her son
And to make matters even worse,
he ends up being a snitch.
He turns his mother in.
Maybe, it could be
that Yiya, to be vengeful,
ended up telling him everything.
I've never confessed
to my son or anyone else.
-I will swear on my son's life.
-[woman] I see.
Who I deeply love,
although he has tarnished me.
I've never confessed anything.
She told truths mixed with lies.
And with some half-truths.
Because she had nothing left to lose.
And all this circus, all this sh*t,
it's not good for me or my dad.
He's not your dad.
What? You're surprised?
Didn't you want to know?
Antonio's not your father.
I suspected that he wasn't my dad,
but, you know, I never cared.
I never cared.
The question of his father's identity
eventually wore Martn down.
That's why I believe Martn was,
in a way, her very first victim.
Personally, I don't believe that she had
confessed to her son about her crimes.
But if she wanted to hurt him,
she probably told him about his father.
Because telling him
about his father does hurt him.
Martn said that you would say
that your husband was infertile.
-How could I say that?
-And that you didn't want to have a child.
Oh, please, that's awful. Good Lord.
Anyway.
-Was your husband fertile?
-Please. He's Antonio Murano's son.
He's built like Antonio Murano,
but he's got my face.
I apologize for that,
because I'm not very attractive.
In that sense, yes.
He looks a lot like me.
Her son is a separate chapter
in this story,
because he's very similar to his mother.
I mean, he's not a m*rder*r.
I think he has the advantage
of not being an evil person.
But he once spread the rumor
that he was dead.
I called him, he answered.
I said, "Weren't you dead?"
"No, I spread the rumor myself."
I mean, like mother, like son, you know?
It's very clear that Martn also inherited
some of that desire
for fame and attention she had.
His mom wanted to be famous,
and he saw an open door to make it happen.
It's better to inherit that,
than k*lling his friends.
It must be very difficult
to be Yiya Murano's son.
I think it must be extremely hard
to stand in front of society
and say, "I'm the son of a m*rder*r."
I'm glad to know
that you were able to rebuild your life
after something so so hard,
so so sinister, like your experience.
-Thank you.
-You've done quite a few dangerous jobs.
Well, they included
jumping off of a balcony,
doing car scenes, car crashes
-I see.
-Fire, stuff like that.
Look, I'm not a psychologist, so I'm not
going to call that your suicidal side.
[muffled voices]
[Martn] This is a robbery!
Everybody freeze!
[all gasping]
Give me the bag.
[screaming]
Against the wall, come on.
Against the wall!
[woman] Please, no. Please!
Beyond what we know how to do,
we know nothing else.
CHANNEL 9 SALE
TO AUSTRALIAN NETWORK CONFIRMED
When Channel 9 closed
ARGENTINE ASSOCIATION OF ACTORS
there were thousands
of us actors out of work.
WE WANT TO WORK
And the only thing I can do,
modestly speaking,
I'm not even sure I really know how,
but I could try to,
is something to do with media.
I didn't know what to do.
VACAN[Martn] And one of the producers
had a couple of taxis.
And he told me, "You're going through
a hard time right now, aren't you?"
"Well, here's what we're gonna do.
I'll give you a taxi for two weeks."
"No need to pay me."
He'd give me the taxi at night.
The night is not only different
because of the visual clarity
and darkness of the lights,
but also in the clarity
and darkness within people, spiritually.
[wistful music playing]
[Martn] I would eat
two hard-boiled eggs a day.
The market vendor gave them to me.
And that's when I realized that
that I had no friends.
That I had no family.
Okay, "Yiya's son,
merciless Martn Murano."
"As a child, I began to feel
repulsion toward my mother."
Have you seen your son again, Yiya?
Mirtha, my son called me a year ago.
He said, "Mother, I do understand"
No, he didn't say Mother, he said Yiya.
"I understand," he said,
"that I've done you great harm."
And he admitted he'd been wrong.
-I believe we'll patch things up soon.
-[Mirtha] Really?
I mean, I had lost my
my dignity, my self-esteem.
I looked at the pictures in my kitchen,
jumping off buildings and stuff,
and I said, "That's so long ago,
it seems like it wasn't me."
Let's now welcome Mr. Martn Murano,
who's the son of Mrs. Yiya Murano.
-[applause]
-Come on in, Martn. How are you?
[Martn] Well, we went on that famous
TV show where guests would have lunch.
And the host came in saying
that we were there that day to celebrate
-Are you going to say hi to your mother?
-Yes.
our mother-son reconciliation.
[Mirtha] Where have you been?
You disappeared.
-[laughs]
-We called the boarding house.
They told us you weren't there anymore.
It was very hard to find you,
Martn, very hard.
I want to thank my crew,
who spent over a week looking for you.
Well, actually, I'd rather
we talked about a reunion today.
-If that's okay.
-[Mirtha] With your son?
-Yes, it really is something, isn't it?
-[Yiya] Oh, yes.
-It sure is something.
-[Mirtha] You were on bad terms, right?
Mirtha, let's say we were neither
on bad terms nor on good terms.
We didn't see each other for seven years.
[Mirtha] So how did you
make up with your mom?
[Martn] I never had
a relationship with Yiya Murano.
So you can't fix something
that just never existed.
We can debate all we want,
we can talk for hours,
but you still are what you are
a m*rder*r.
I I don't know if
if we can talk about making up.
I think the ideal thing would be to
leave things behind sometimes, right?
And try to start over from scratch,
to to see what can be done
moving forward, right?
And she said, "My son and I are deciding
whether to write a book
telling the truth."
[Yiya] I've almost finished the book
at this point.
-[Mirtha] Really?
-Yes.
So, I'm going to ask my son
if I should publish it or not.
[Martn] Obviously, I made a face like,
"What are you talking about?"
Out of respect for the show,
for the TV host,
and for myself,
I didn't answer
what I should have answered.
But I really had a bad time on that show.
Your mother's in front of you, Martn.
Do you want to say something to her?
-No? Nothing in particular?
-No, no, no.
[Martn] That's when I said to myself,
"Who do you think you were?"
"Did you think you were someone
important on TV? You're not."
"And whatever you do,
you'll always be Yiya Murano's son."
"You'll never have a life of your own."
And that's true. He ended up
perpetuating what he wanted to k*ll,
which was his mother's memory.
Because he wrote the book as catharsis.
It may have been catharsis,
but he also summoned the monster.
What's going on in your life, Yiya?
You've k*lled a lot of people, Yiya.
Did you poison them?
Is that it? What did you do, Yiya?
I swear to God and on the Bible
that I didn't k*ll anyone.
She also started creating
her own character.
She gave interviews
and said she was innocent,
but her constant attitude
was that of a guilty person.
Because she liked to play with that.
You could t*rture me
and I'd still swear it's true,
I've never k*lled anyone.
-[man] Swear on your life?
-I swear on my son's life.
-[man] Don't joke about that.
-I'm--
[man] Are you being serious?
It was all because
of her ego and her narcissism.
It was just more powerful
than anything else.
I remember she was
on one of those shows late at night.
They hired her to just talk about life.
Hello, friends,
I'm here with you once again,
like I am every Wednesday at this time,
to try to solve the problems
and all the questions
that you keep sending me
by letter or by phone,
and that I receive daily.
It reinforced that character
that keeps us talking
about Yiya even today,
and that will endure for years.
Oh, that I did.
Sorry, I k*lled two people.
My mother and my husband first.
They died of sadness
due to what happened to me.
I met her in one of the most bizarre ways.
I had written a story about Yiya
in a column called "Crime Stories,"
and I wrote about Yiya Murano.
POISON AT TEA TIME
[Rodolfo] I was in the newsroom
on the ninth floor,
and when I went downstairs,
I saw Yiya in a coat,
sitting in the lobby.
And she said to me, "Rodolfo,
you naughty boy, you wrote about me."
"I want the right to respond," she said.
She was wearing makeup, glasses,
perfectly put together.
"I came from Mar del Plata,
that's 404 kilometers."
"The taxi's waiting outside."
"If you pay for the round trip
and the interview, I'll do it."
"Sorry, that's impossible," I told her.
"I came all this way just for this. Who's
going to pay for the round trip now?"
The photographer and I
went out to spy on her.
And she just walked away.
There was no taxi.
[man whistles]
Yiya was someone
who showed up in newsrooms.
I remember seeing her there
with her little handbag,
and she wanted money to give interviews.
The truth is, interviews are not paid for,
so she would leave kind of bewildered.
[ringing tone]
[Rodolfo] She called the next day,
and said, "Let's do the interview."
"I'm not going to charge you,
but you'll invite me out to lunch
somewhere or to have tea."
So we met her at Las Violetas.
She ordered pastries,
she ordered some specialty cookies,
and little finger sandwiches.
She had tea, she had coffee.
She had a voracious appetite.
"THIS COUNTRY IS A FACTORY OF MURDERERS"
Yiya wanted to be famous.
Once she saw the cameras on her,
she said, "I'm not leaving."
And television allowed it,
and society allowed it too.
Well, she put on that costume
of already being a crime legend
[romantic music playing]
[Rodolfo] and went for it.
She faced her destiny.
[woman] Mirtha Legrand.
[Rodolfo] Maybe that's where
she found who she was.
[woman] Mrs. Yiya Murano.
She was in jail,
accused of poisoning her friends.
[Rodolfo] It didn't matter
that on that show,
they introduced her that way.
"For lunch, joining Mirtha Legrand,
Yiya Murano, the Poisoner."
She didn't care about that.
I think it had to do with
her own perversion.
She actually enjoyed being
"The Poisoner of Monserrat."
It's like a role, or like a job, you know?
That's very odd.
I haven't seen that in any other case.
[Mirtha] Does it bother you
when they call you
I'll cover up because I'm embarrassed.
"The Poisoner of Monserrat."
-It doesn't bother me.
-[Mirtha] Does it?
Because I know what I did
and what I didn't do.
So today I can tell you, Mirtha.
-It doesn't bother me at all.
-[Mirtha] It doesn't.
Over time, Yiya became a phenomenon,
culturally,
and even in the entertainment world.
When she goes to Mirtha Legrand's
show and brings pastries,
she becomes something else.
What did you bring? You brought pastries?
I brought pastries on one condition.
-That you have one.
-[Mirtha] Did you touch them?
-[laughter]
-No.
-I didn't even Look. Hands up.
-[man] Should we call the DA?
-I'll have a pastry.
-[woman] Not me.
I'm going to have one of these pastries.
Now, if I don't come back tomorrow
[La] I think she probably
was a great admirer of Mirtha,
because Mirtha was a beautiful woman.
She was the ultimate star.
And everyone watched her show.
You see them together at that moment,
and you'd think they connected.
Yiya was in her element,
and so was Mirtha.
In a way, Mirtha let her play,
but Mirtha is a very smart woman.
If she let her play,
it was because it suited her.
If not, she wouldn't have.
[Mirtha] This will be the one.
You're my witnesses, okay?
[guests laughing]
[woman] She liked it.
See? And you liked it.
-I liked it. If I don't call you tomorrow
[Yiya] I'm glad.
You know why. Tomorrow's breaking news!
[Yiya laughs]
We'll be back after the break.
I'm glad we can laugh about it.
I think Yiya was the biggest
pop criminal in Argentina.
Like, Andy Warhol would've
done those things of Yiya.
She's an iconic image.
She became an iconic image
of evil and, at the same time,
of something kitsch, of something comedic.
There's something very weird
about accepting these monsters,
without going through
a process of repentance,
or recognition, or forgiveness.
That part seems to be missing.
She's a fascinating character. I think
that that's what defines her, fascination.
Fascination isn't necessarily moral.
I remember asking her once, "Yiya,
how would you like to be remembered?"
"With a smile," she said.
-[laughter]
-[soft jazz playing]
[Ozvaldo] When we came up with
the idea of doing the musical,
I was interested in the process
of figuring out
how a monstrous person
turns into a figure that's picturesque.
Anyone in the room
wanna try my cream puffs?
[laughter]
Oh, you have no idea.
They're delicious. They're to die for.
[Rodolfo] It's weird. Everything about it.
-The main character's a m*rder*r.
-They are k*ller!
A musical
But it kind of symbolizes
what this case was.
It was crazy when we found out
that she used to come
to the exact same theater
where we were doing the play.
Knowing that people walked
on the same sidewalk where she had stood,
that they might sit
in the same seat she had sat in,
it was magical, like a full circle moment.
That's exactly what Yiya would've wanted.
[producer] Did you like the musical?
I saw it ten times.
I don't know if that
answers your question.
UP FOR AUCTION: THE TEA SEYIYA MURANO USED TO POISON HER FRIENDS
She signed autographs, took photos,
let people take photos of her.
They made a doll of her.
YIYA MURANO
THE POISONER OF MONSERRAThey made T-shirts of her,
with her quotes, with the pastries.
BLACK T-SHIRHAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY!
I'LL MISS YOU
It started to be widely used
in popular culture.
You saw a tray of pastries,
you'd say, "These are Yiya's."
She became part of the popular humor.
A SPOT OF TEA FOR FRIENDSHIP DAY
[Rodolfo] The jokes are still
making rounds to this day.
"Oh, this was brought by Yiya Murano!"
Or "Yiya sent it to you."
I've heard it everywhere.
HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY
Sometimes my colleagues,
who know I worked the case,
send me pictures of Yiya with pastries.
ON SWEETNESS WEEK, HERE ARE
SOME PASTRIES I MADE FOR YOU WITH LOVE
Yeah, I've heard it. In fact, even I can
joke about it with you. [chuckles]
"Here, have some tea, it's poison-free."
Sometimes it bothers me,
and other times, I can see the humor,
because I'm able
to step outside the story.
If you're on the outside, it's funny.
If you're on the inside, it's not.
Mmm
I don't find it funny,
I think it's outrageous.
We have this ability in Argentina
to turn any tragedy into a joke,
something to laugh about.
And mixed in with all of that, sometimes
these things, these issues come up.
Turning someone into a funny character,
when when you think about it,
if you remembered them the way you should,
you'd say "Hey, this was very wrong,"
not, "Oh, wow, that's hilarious."
Yiya's seen as a form of entertainment.
So people think,
"Ha! Look at what she did.
Can you believe it?"
"What a b*tch." That's it.
No one thinks about the victims.
[poignant music playing]
Sorry, I get a bit emotional,
but my grandma was lots of things.
And to see her reduced to nothing
more than Yiya's last victim,
it's just too much.
This is my grandma with my mom, as a baby.
Because my grandma
was a beautiful person.
This is my grandma with my mom
Strong, very loved, who did so much good.
To be reduced to that is terrible.
Here, where my finger is, that's my mom.
It was '77, she died in '79.
It was two years before she died.
Nilda's here, that's her.
Here's my daughter, and this is my son.
It was my daughter's first birthday,
a few months before she passed.
[Mariana] And then,
if on top of everything,
you add the fact
that the m*rder*r became a public figure,
that really makes me feel
justice was not done.
If the memory of these people is revived,
then yes, I think justice is done.
Because they matter more than Yiya.
I'd like to tell you
that I was just thinking
about the families of these people
who passed away, supposedly,
well, because of
the actions taken by Yiya Murano.
Because, let's be realistic,
she was convicted for three deaths.
So I put myself
in the shoes of these families.
And I want to ask them
not to take it the wrong way,
the fact that we had fun with it
or laughed about it a little.
It was a very difficult
subject to deal with,
so I thought about this on the break.
Because if I were related
to any of the people who passed,
I think I would be upset.
So, I want to apologize.
[suspenseful music playing]
I think she just couldn't accept
not being in the spotlight.
Or being forgotten.
That's why she gave interviews
practically until the end of her days.
No, I won't stir it.
If you give fifty pesos to that lady
laughing, I will. She came with me.
If not, no.
[Rodolfo] That was the beginning
of the end for Yiya Murano.
She was confined to a nursing home,
which is a prison no one gets out of.
A nursing home is the end.
Boyfriends?
[man] How many?
Last time, I counted up to 136.
Honestly, if you ask me today,
"Were you in love with any of them?"
I can tell you honestly, no.
But something led me to it.
First, the flattery.
The way they flattered me.
The way they treated me, you know?
I felt that I was better
than everyone else.
They say that, in her last years,
Yiya didn't remember who she was.
And it's kind of paradoxical, right?
I mean, her worst punishment
wasn't going to jail,
but forgetting who she was.
Okay, guys, thanks for everything.
-You're a very good man.
-[man] Thank you. You're very kind.
[Ozvaldo] I believe she disappears
the way myths do.
It's good that it happened that way.
But she left the stage,
okay, she's gone. Now we can talk.
Close the door, please.
You know that for there to be life,
there has to be death,
just like for there to be light,
there first has to be darkness.
Well, today,
I've died as Yiya Murano's son.
And I'm reborn as Martn Murano.
Am I clear?
When I related
the most painful thing in my life,
that's when I finished
burying Yiya Murano's son.
[poignant music playing]
[producer] I'll show you something. Maybe
you've seen it. It's a picture we found.
Have you seen it before?
No.
[Martn] If this picture could talk,
do you know what Yiya Murano would say?
"Hurry up and take it already,
he's heavy."
Where'd you get this?
["Si fuera como ayer" by Tormenta playing]
[lyrics in Spanish]
[song fades]
[suspenseful music playing]
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Yiya Murano: Death at Tea Time (2026)
Moderators: Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341