Crime of Fuencarral street

On the morning of 2 July, the neighbors of number 109 of Fuencarral Street alerted the police of a strong smell of oil and burnt flesh coming from the second floor, on the left side of the building. The police broke down the door of the small apartment and found the lifeless body of Luciana Borcino, widow of Vázquez-Varela (known around the neighborhood as the widow Varela) lying face up on her bed and covered with rags doused in lamp oil that had previously been burned inside the closed room. The widow Varela, originally from Vigo and a resident of Madrid for many years, was a wealthy woman, known around the city for her charity works. She had been stabbed three times, one of them through the heart, which caused her death. The preliminary investigation showed no evidence that robbery was the motive. He was a suspicious character, a bohemian who lived a disorderly life and who had a bad reputation due to the company he kept. Neighbors claimed they often heard violent arguments between him and the widow Varela because she refused to give him money. However, he had spent the evening before the crime in the Cárcel Modelo prison due to having stolen a cloak. since she sold lottery tickets on the corner of Alcalá and Sevilla streets. Despite Varela being in prison at the time of Luciana's murder, the housemaid Higinia insisted on her account of the facts. According to her, Pollo Varela had threatened and coerced her with force, even offering her money, and thus she had gone to buy the oil, had cleaned up the blood after the murder, burnt the body, and closed the door after her. She claimed that she had fainted after the crime due to the psychological stress she had been under. Higinia's illogical and changing statements would soon raise the suspicions of the police about her and her environment. During the statements, another name was mentioned as potentially being involved, that of Lola la Billetera who, apart from being Pollo Varela's lover, was a close friend of Higinia. Other sources, such as Pérez-Galdós himself and various journalists and historians, have referred to her by the name Dolores Ávila. ==Impact on Madrid and Spanish society==

From the very beginning, Madrid's El Liberal and other newspapers rushed to inform Spanish society about the crime. Por primera vez hay un juicio paralelo, en el que la prensa se alimenta de la calle y la calle de la prensa, explains María Jesús Ruiz, a professor and researcher at the University of Cádiz. It had elements that soon aroused the morbid curiosity of Madrid inhabitants: a presumably wealthy and somewhat rude victim, a son with legal troubles, and a housemaid who had been working at her mistress's house for the last six months only. Madrid society discussed the incident around the city's coffeehouses—such as Café Gijón and Café de las Salesas—and tertulias, and two opposing sides started to appear. On one side, the Higinistas, who defended the housemaid and opposed Varela, considering him the suspect; on the other, the Varelistas, supporters of Varela who considered Higinia Balaguer Ostalé the suspect instead. For the coffeehouse habitués, the housemaid Higinia represented the helplessness of the proletariat; while José Vázquez Varela was the image of a "young gentleman of leisure," spoiled, "characteristic of the bourgeoisie." The long process—which started on 26 March 1889 and ended on 25 May of that same year—{{cite magazine ==The trial==

'', 30 March 1889). Engraving based on a life drawing by . The trial started on 26 March 1889 with the first session of the oral and public proceedings at the Palace of the Supreme Court in Madrid, eight months and 25 days after the crime was perpetrated.), who had a bar in front of the Cárcel Modelo. José Millán Astray was the father of José Millán-Astray y Terreros (el glorioso mutilado), who would go on to found the Spanish Legion. Higinia had previously worked for Millán-Astray and he had even recommended her to Luciana to work as her housemaid. ==The court ruling==

The court gave its ruling on 25 May, sentencing Higinia to the death penalty: (...) condenamos a la procesada Higinia de Balaguer Ostalé, por delito complejo de robo y homicidio, a la pena de muerte (...). The ruling sentenced her friend Dolores Ávila as an accomplice to 18 years in prison, and acquitted defendants José Vázquez-Varela Borcino and José Millán Astray, as well as María Ávila Palacios. Higinia was executed by garrote vil on Saturday 19 July 1890. She was 30 years old. Around 20,000 people were present at the execution. In the moments before her death, Higinia yelled ¡Dolores, catorce mil duros! There are those who maintain that the sentence was really the result of a certain social resentment by the bourgeoisie against a housemaid than of a true will to shed light on the facts, and that Varela escaped punishment for his actions. ==Galdós's version==

Based on volumes VI and VII of Cronicón (1886-1890), Obras Inéditas de Benito Pérez Galdós published by Argentine writer in 1923, Spanish novelist Rafael Reig prefaced the 2002 edition of El crimen de la calle Fuencarral from the collection of chronicles sent by Pérez Galdós to Argentine newspaper La Prensa. According to Reig, these were comparable to the style of Dashiell Hammett and showed how Galdós led the way for the detective genre that had barely been explored in Spanish literature up until then: ==In popular culture==

• In 1946, Edgar Neville wrote and directed El crimen de la calle de Bordadores (The Crime of Bordadores Street) and he based the screenplay on this case. • In 1985, an adaptation was made for television titled El crimen de la calle Fuencarral, directed by Angelino Fons, produced by , and scripted by , which aired as an episode of the series La huella del crimen. The role of Higinia was played by Carmen Maura. ==See also==