18 Facts About Juan Corona

Juan Corona Vallejo was a Mexican serial killer who was convicted of the murders of 25 migrant farm workers found buried in peach orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County, California, in 1971.

Juan Corona served a life sentence in California State Prison, Corcoran, and died in 2019.

Juan Corona was born in San Antonio de los Moran, Ayutla, Jalisco, Mexico, on February 7,1934.

Juan Corona picked carrots and melons in the Imperial Valley for three months before moving on north to the Sacramento Valley.

Juan Corona was a Catholic and went to St Isadore's Roman Catholic Church.

In May 1953, Juan Corona moved to the Marysville-Yuba City area at the suggestion of Natividad, finding work on a local ranch.

In 1962, Juan Corona was given a green card and returned to the United States legally, where he was regarded as a hard worker with schizophrenic episodes and a violent temper.

Juan Corona became a licensed labor contractor, in charge of hiring fruit ranch workers.

Juan Corona had been supplying workers to the ranches where the victims were discovered.

All of Juan Corona's victims were middle-aged Caucasian male drifters between the ages of 40 and 64; most of them had criminal records, and all but one were stabbed or slashed with a knife or machete.

Juan Corona was provided legal aid and assigned a public defender, Roy Van den Heuvel, who hired several psychiatrists to perform a psychological evaluation.

Juan Corona was first incarcerated at Vacaville's California Medical Facility, nine miles from Fairfield, because of the heart irregularities.

Juan Corona was transferred to Correctional Training Facility, in Soledad, California.

Juan Corona's defense posited that the real murderer of the ranch workers was most likely his brother, Natividad Juan Corona, a known homosexual who was accused of attacking Romero Raya with a machete-like weapon at his cafe in Marysville and, after losing the lawsuit Raya filed, had fled back to his native Mexico.

Juan Corona was asked only two questions through an interpreter, taking only two minutes.

Juan Corona was again convicted of the crimes on September 23,1982, and returned to prison after the strategy failed to persuade the jury, which deliberated for 54 hours over a two-week period, of his innocence.

In 1992, Juan Corona was transferred from CTF at Soledad to Corcoran State Prison, Corcoran, California, where he served his sentence in the Sensitive Needs Yard because he had dementia.

Juan Corona died on March 4,2019, aged 85, from natural causes.