Drag queen 'Little Old Lady Killer' terrorises Mexico City

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's capital, long used to kidnappers and drug hitmen, is now in fear of another menace: a serial killer in women's clothes who strangles old ladies in their homes.

Police believe a single murderer is responsible for the unusual killings of four women this year and may have committed some of 37 others since 2003.

Three of the victims had prints of the Boy in Red Waistcoat by 18th century artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze on their walls, but police say that might be coincidence.

The murderer, dubbed Mataviejitas, or Little Old Lady Killer, is either a tall, powerfully built woman or a man who dresses in women's clothes.

The murderer talks their way into the victims' houses and kills them with household objects. The killer then takes trophies from the crime scenes.

"It is a criminal acting alone, who is very careful, is brilliantly clever and acts with a lot of skill, winning the confidence of old people," the city's chief prosecutor Bernardo Batiz said.

"The killer take totemic items, such as a ring or a religious statue, from the victims' homes as a trophy," said criminologist Miguel Ontiveros.

In the four cases, the victims were strangled by tights, a curtain cord or a phone cable. Police think the killer may have posed as a doctor or nurse.

Investigators suspect the killer might have murdered up to 15 old women but a lack of clues and a slow-moving justice system in the huge city of tens of millions has made it difficult to link the murders.

Batiz said the hunt was akin to "looking for a needle in a giant haystack".

The killer may be getting careless and police believe they now have his or her fingerprints.

Witnesses spotted a large woman in a red blouse, or a man dressed as a woman, leaving the flat of widow Guadalupe Oliveira, 85, around the time she was strangled and beaten to death in the Tlatelolco neighbourhood in September

Criminologist Ontiveros said the killer may have a disturbed family history and kills as a warped way of taking revenge on a mother or grandmother.

A Government body that aids the elderly is distributing 500,000 leaflets to warn of the danger.

A spokeswoman for the National Institute for the Elderly said old people "need to be more cautious and not open their doors to people they don't know". She warned them against strangers who approach them "in the market or outside the church offering to take them home or help them".

- REUTERS