“Everything we are living is a dream, a dream about a night mare. Nothing else. And when that dream comes to an end, we will be ashes”
M.D.Villegas.
The origin of the project is based on a series of drawings that Manuel Delgado Villegas, called “el Arropiero” (1943-1998), made between 1970 and 1980 during his confinement in the psychiatric penitentiary of Carabanchel, Madrid. Manuel Delgado Villegas is known as “the greatest serial killer of Spanish history”. After being arrested in 1971, he declared himself the author of more than 40 homicides. He was imprisoned for 28 years, until his death, caused by COPD. He is the prisoner that has spent the longest time in pretrial detention (six years and a half), and the first one known as carrier of the so called back then “the superman gene”, or double Y chromosome. After being declared non imputable prisoner, his judicial file was lost and he was never judged. Of all the crimes he confessed, the police only found evidence of his participation in seven of them, and were predominantly basing their investigations his statements.
Due to personal reasons and proximity, his drawings became a constitutive part of the visual imagery in the artist’s childhood and bio- graphical story:
The artist’s father worked as prison officer in the psychiatric penitentiary of Carabanchel from 1973 to the final closure of the center in 1985. Noticing the interest of “el Arropiero” had towards visual creation, the officer, who was also sensitive to art, began to give him, in a gradual and clandestine way, some fine arts materials. As a result of that relationship and exchange of interests, Manuel Delgado Villegas gave him as a present a notebook with 17 drawings and a piece of sculpture. These art- works have been, since then until now, in the living room of the family’s house.
Manuel Delgado Villegas’ case is a milestone in the Spanish criminological history. Documentaries, programs, interviews and extensive studies have been motivated by him and his case. However, the existence and content of the sket- chbook that serves as a base for this project, have been unpublished.
