Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Jose Luis Calva Zepeda - The Cannibal Poet

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Hi Friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day so far. Today I wanted to talk about Jose Luis Calva Zepeda and his whole… mess. There was a language barrier so, some things were a little unclear. Overall though, very sad story and I hope all of the families are at peace and have their closure. I hope you have a wonderful day today, please be safe out there! Love and appreciate you all so so much. xo Bailey Sarian P.S. Make sure you check out Murder, Mystery & Makeup on my YouTube Channel @BaileySarian !

Hi guys, how are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. If not, you'll get better tomorrow. Today is Monday, which means it's murder mystery and makeup Monday. You know at this point I've been saying I need a theme song blah blah blah blah whatever, but at this point it's like why get a theme song? I'm an amazing singer. I mean, it's so obvious. Anyways, if you are new here, every Monday I sit down, I talk about a true crime case,

and then I do my makeup at the same time. It just keeps me busy. If you're curious or interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would suggest you hit that subscribe button. So today I want to talk about Jose Luis Calva Zepeda. Zeped, Zepeda. I have a really hard time pronouncing English words,

so I'm about to butcher a lot of names. Other than that, I'll shut up and let's get into this true crime story about Jose Luis Calva Zepeda. We're just gonna call him Jose. So Jose was born June 20th, 1969. And when he was younger, when he was only like two years old his father passed away. Unsure as to how he passed away,

but he passed away when Jose was just two years old. So that left him to be raised by his mother. And I think her name is Elia, Elia, E-L-I-A, Elia, Elia. Anyways, his mother, we're just gonna call him mother. His mother raised him and his five siblings. So a really big family. He had three sisters and one brother. I'm sorry, I didn't even mention,

but they were growing up in Mexico City, five siblings. I mean, that's a, I couldn't, ooh, that's a big family, especially to take care of all these kids by yourself. It was said that Jose's mother, she was just really abusive growing up and she had very harsh punishments. So she would be physically abusive towards Jose and his siblings. And when Jose was just six years old,

his mother, I guess she beat him pretty badly, but she also smashed his, like a brand new toy he had just gotten. So he got like this brand new toy truck. And again, he's six, right? You're excited, new toy. Jose had gotten in trouble over something. I don't know what exactly,

but his mother had beat him pretty badly. And then she took the new toy and she smashed it. And this was like really heartbreaking to poor Jose because they never got new toys. They never got anything new, especially because there were so many siblings. It was always like hand-me-downs. Jose then decided at six years old, he decided he was gonna earn some money

and buy a new toy truck to replace the one that his mom just smashed. Jose then started shining shoes to make some money, and he would shine all these shoes and then he would just save all the money he got, and then he saved enough money to buy a new toy truck he was really excited about it he got a new toy takes it home he has it whatever when his mom finds out that he has this new toy and when she saw the toy she went off i guess she then took the toy and she destroyed it. She smashed it in front of Jose and then she beat the crap out of Jose. So then at the age of seven, Jose was sadly,

he was raped by a friend of his brother who was like 16 at the time, the friend was. This was obviously very traumatizing for Jose. It's unclear if the abuse continued on or if it was just a one-time thing. Either way, abuse still has a life changing effect in general, like, yeah, even if it's one time. So, and then at the age of 12, Jose's mother,

she just had enough of him at 12. She was like, you know what? I'm done with you. You need to, you're out, you're out of the house. She kicks him out of the him at 12. She was like, you know what? I'm done with you. You need to, you're out, you're out of the house. She kicks him out of the house at 12. He did end up dropping out of school. He fell into just a really dark depression and he started drinking.

He started drinking heavily. I've mentioned this before previously that a lot of the times I'll see comments that say I am trying to portray the criminal as like the victim when I talk about these backstories and the abuse that usually a lot of them have gone through that I'm siding with bad guy okay now I've mentioned this before I'll mention it again I personally like to get a backstory on people I like to know like what was their upbringing like what did they experience what was their life like versus just going straight to like what was their upbringing like, what did they experience, what was their life like,

versus just going straight to like what they did, you know? They still did horrible things, and they still should be in jail. Like it's okay to think that their upbringing and stuff is sad. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't have to pay for what they did, but it's okay to feel sad for these people.

Anyways, shut up, who cares, get into it. Anyways, back to Jose. So he realized you know I gotta get a job. I gotta make some income because he's not going to school. He has nowhere to live. To make some income Jose he worked as a clown and he was working alongside his brother-in-law who was working as a magician at the time. So this magician got him a job as a clown. And during this time is when Jose became very interested in writing and he became very passionate about books, screenplays, poetry.

He just found like that thing he was passionate about. He also just started writing himself, would write poems. So then in 1996, Jose married a woman named, I think it's Aide, A-I-D-E, but he married this woman. The two of them had two daughters. Very quickly, it was like back to back. The marriage only had lasted like two years. And then they ended up splitting up.

She moved to America and she took the children with her. And this infuriated Jose. It sent him into a really deep depression. He really heavily started to abuse alcohol and drugs as well. So shortly after his ex-wife left, Jose, he met this lady named Lydia Sanchez Valdes. Now Lydia would go on, this is later on down the road

when she was interviewed about Jose, but she would go on and say that Jose was very interested in witchcraft and she remembered him doing some funky shit using herbs and cow tongues to practice his witchcraft. He was trying to put curses on people, especially like his ex-wife. It made her really uncomfortable how obsessive he was about the people who did him wrong. Lydia would also say that Jose, it sounds like he was OCD, but he was obsessed with cleaning, washing his hands and anytime they had sex,

he would have to wash his lower regions before and after having sex. He just had to clean and he had to constantly wash himself. Lydia also would say that Jose was very abusive, not physically, but verbally and mentally. He was very jealous, he was very abusive, not physically, but verbally and mentally. He was very jealous, he was very controlling, and if Lydia told Jose, like I wanna get out of this relationship, or something like I wanna break up with you,

Jose would turn it around and tell Lydia that he was gonna kill himself if she did so. It was just a very emotionally manipulative relationship. Side note, if you were in a relationship where your partner is telling you that they're gonna kill themselves if you break up with them, get the F out. That is so toxic.

Luckily for Lydia, she was able to get out of this relationship and she was able to get away from his abuse. She would later testify against him in court and that's where this information all came from. Jose would spend a lot of his time writing poetry, novels, and even plays, screenwriting. And he took great pride in his writing and he wanted to pursue a career with this he would staple booklets together of his poetry and different stories and create like little books and he will give them out to people on the street just to kind of like try and get his work out

there i mean you never know who you could be giving it to you could be giving it to someone who is a big wig you know for jose writing, it never really took off for him, but he really enjoyed it. And he would brag all the time about his writing. And he would tell people that he was a famous writer and he was one of the best in the world. He had a very big ego. While passing out booklets of his poems on the street,

Jose met a woman named Alejandra. Alejandra? Help me. The two of them had got to talk in and she found him so charming. I mean, he's handing out like his poetry and she thought his poetry was just so lovely. I mean, he was a charmer. Seemed very sweet, passionate about what he was doing. And she just really liked his work as well.

So they got to talking, Jose asked her like, "'What do you do for a living?' Alejandra tells Jose that she works at a pharmacy. This piqued Jose's interest." A pharmacy, you say? You see Jose over here, he loved himself some drugs, okay? He was a big fan and a big user of clonazepam, I believe it's how you pronounce it, clonazepam.

And this medication is used to treat seizures and treat certain types of anxiety disorders. Now this drug itself is said to be one of the most dangerous and difficult drugs to be addicted to. I mean there are many others as well, but this one is definitely up there. It's very similar to like Xanax or Valium. A lot of people abuse it and Jose was a big fan of it. So Jose was like, oh shit you work at a pharmacy, awesome.

And he didn't tell her this, but he was like, I'm just gonna use you so I can get my drugs. So the two of them began to hang out, Jose and Alejandra. And Alejandra introduced Jose to her mother. Alejandra's mother really didn't like Jose. Alejandra's mother asked Jose like what he did for a living. He would go on to say that he was a writer and that he made about $200 a day selling his written works.

And this included his poetry, went on to say that he was a playwright, a director and also a singer. So he just did it all. And this was a red flag to Alejandra's mother because she knew he was lying based on the clothing he wore. You see, like if you're making a lot of money, you would probably have maybe just nicer clothes.

He always seemed to be in just really like worn, holy, beat up looking clothing. So she knew that he was just lying. Like he didn't have money she would also say that she hated with jose everything was me me me me me me me me me you know like he was just very selfish it was all about him he would just talk and talk and talk about himself i mean if you've ever been around one of those people you know how that goes it's like they come up to you just to talk about themselves and then they go away and

you're like okay cool as time went on alejandra started to see the real jose he was jealous he was controlling lying about a lot of things not sure if she ever found out that he wasn't really like a famous writer and stuff because there wasn't much said about it but she did just see the jealous and controlling side of him and she wanted out of the relationship. So she got offered a job in Northern Mexico City, which meant that she would have to move. She was like, I'm taking this job.

Because at this time, Alejandra, she was 32 years old and I failed to mention, but she had two children. They were not fathered by Jose, it was a different father. She had to do what was best for her and her two kids as well. She needed out of this relationship, she wanted out of this relationship, and this job offer was going to bring more income, help her get away, and yeah, she could just take care of her kids, and she would be good. So, October 5th, 2007, Alejandra, why am I laughing?

It's not funny. I'm laughing at myself because Alejandra. Anyways, so Alejandra's mother gets a call that her daughter failed to show up for work. And they were asking like, do you know where she is? What's going on? Like she always shows up. And her mother would say like immediately

she got that gut feeling that something wasn't right. But her first thought was Jose. She knew that Jose knew where she was, that something had to happen. And she just knew Jose, okay. Her first thought was maybe that like he tied her up somewhere so she couldn't leave him because Alejandra, she told her mother that

she wanted out of this relationship, that Jose was controlling and just really jealous and didn't want her to leave. So she told her mom this, so she's thinking Jose probably tied her up so she just couldn't leave him. The next day Jose's neighbor told Alejandra's mother they had seen a woman who looked just like Alejandra going into Jose's apartment on the same day that she had disappeared. With that little tip Alejandra's mother she had called police as soon as she received that information to let them know like hey the neighbor saw her at Jose's house so go down there and find her. October 7th, which was like the next day, police, they head over to Jose's apartment, knock on a door.

Jose, he answers the door and to police, it looks like, oh, he's just sitting there. He was like eating dinner. He had like his little table set, a played out, a little napkin bib going on. Then the investigators explain why they were there, that they're searching for Alejandra, that there was a sighting,

that that was the last location somebody saw her at. So they were going to search the home, X, Y, Z. I'm not sure if in Mexico City you need to have like a warrant. I'm assuming you do, but I'm not fully sure. Anyways, but they start searching the home, looking for any clues or any signs of where Alejandra may be. Was she here?

Is she there? Maybe she's tied up. Unfortunately though, and sadly, fuck, they find more than just a clue. So they ended up going into the house and they search, they start in like Jose's bedroom and stuff. And they're just kind of looking around. No sign of Alejandra.

They open up the bedroom closet. So they're looking in the closet and they see a dismembered body. First, they think it's like, it looks fake. It's not. I don't know why people always think like it's fake. Well, I guess, cause it's just kind of hard to believe. I like look closer and they realize that it's indeed Alejandra.

It's her body. And they're looking at her body and they see that her right forearm and part of her right leg were missing. Okay, like where did that go, buddy? So then they searched the rest of the home. They're looking for her missing body parts. Like, where are they?

They have to be here somewhere, right? Anyway, so they open up Jose's refrigerator. What do they find? They find Alejandra's missing body parts, just sitting in the fridge chilling. They also find a box of corn flakes. I know, suspish. Corn flakes? Who the fuck eats corn flakes? So then they look inside. I don't know what leads them to look inside the box of corn flakes, but they look inside the box of corn flakes. And guess what's inside this goddamn box of corn flakes. They find what looks to be fried bones inside,

like deep fried, but not chicken bones or anything. They are human bones. What are you doing? Oh, I would love to be an investigator for these things. God, I'd be like, so, corn flakes, huh? So then when investigators first got there, they saw, well, Jose answers the door and he had like the napkin all tucked in, right?

And he was eating dinner. He had a plate on the table or whatever. And like his chair was, he was obviously sitting eating dinner, okay? The investigators actually look like, what was he actually eating? Well, it wasn't just a normal ass dinner. He was eating part of the fried meat. It was on this plate and it looked like

he was eating it for dinner, right? So then on the stove top, they see a frying pan and there were chunks of flesh and fat that were just cooked. And so there was like some cut up lemons on the side as well. I guess he was squeezing the lemon on top of the cooked meat for some flavor.

I mean, to investigators, it's just obvious that he was cooking this meat and he was eating it. Jose was immediately arrested and when questioned what happened Jose told authorities that he choked her to death on accident. You know because we've all been there when you trip and you fall and you accidentally choke someone to death. Happens all the time, an accident, my ass, Jose, but okay. Jose also stood by the fact that he did not eat any of her body, and his plan was to slowly dispose of her corpse by feeding cooked meat to the stray dogs

that were in the neighborhood. Like that makes it any better, I guess, I don't know. Anyways, upon a further inspection, authorities concluded that Alejandra had been strangled by a sneaker shoelace that had been left on the floor of his apartment. So the accidental strangulation, that wasn't gonna fly because there was proof.

She had the markings on her neck and the shoelace was, you know, so yeah. So then police also found a manuscript that Jose was working on, and the title was called Cannibal Instincts. The cover of the novel in progress was a picture of Hannibal Lecter, which had been skewed to look like Jose. He was getting a little crafty and like making Hannibal look like him. Once Jose realized that he had been caught in these lies,

he either tried to escape or commit suicide. Now this wasn't fully clear to authorities which one exactly it was because Jose had jumped from a balcony and again they don't know if he jumped because he was trying to commit suicide or they don't know if he jumped because he was trying to commit suicide or they don't know if he jumped because he was trying to make a run for it. So it was one of those.

He jumps, okay, he gets hurt pretty badly. He was taken to the hospital immediately and he ended up recovering. So soon after Jose's arrest, authorities linked the 2004 murder of Veronica. Okay, this last name is really hard, Casa Rubia, they linked her murder to Jose. Poor Veronica had been beheaded

and her head and body had been put in like cardboard boxes and then dumped in the town next door. When Veronica's body was originally found, they really had no leads. It didn't really go anywhere. So it just kind of was turning into a cold case. But when Jose was under investigation, it turns out Jose and Veronica, they were actually dating for a bit. They believed that he was responsible for her murder. Jose denied this, but all signs were pointing to him. There was also another murder of a sex worker

known as La Jarocha, because her full name was never identified. That was her sex worker name, I guess, but she was really well known in the area. Her body was found and it was dismembered, put in a suitcase, and it was found near Jose's apartment. But originally when her body was found, there were no suspects at the time

and it just never led anywhere. I've mentioned this before in like the Toy Box Killer case that when sex workers and stuff go missing, it's sad because a lot of the times it's not taken seriously or looked at seriously by police. So it was kind of the case with that. Jose then gives authorities another person who was responsible for killing Veronica.

So Jose gives authorities the name Juan Carlos Perez. Jose says that Juan Carlos was responsible for killing Veronica, not him. So investigators go and they question Juan Carlos. Juan lets authorities know him and Jose were actually in a romantic relationship for quite some time. Jose told authorities that Juan was a coworker of Veronica

and that he wanted her dead. The motive, there wasn't one. He just wanted her dead because they were coworkers. You see, Jose was just trying to put Veronica's death on somebody else. Police do end up arresting Juan Carlos. Juan said that him and Jose were indeed in a relationship, but Jose was the one who killed Veronica

and that Veronica was single. was a mother just like Alejandra and she had three kids of her own Juan also said that Jose was the one that cut her into pieces not him Juan's only involvement would be that he knew that this happened and did nothing about it Juan was also abusing drugs as well. So it seems like Juan and Jose, like the relationship was mainly using drugs together and then a sexual relationship as well. So during the investigation, it's brought to light that Jose was heavily addicted

to the drug we mentioned earlier, clinozepam. I'm having a hard time. But he was also addicted to cocaine and alcohol, like heavily. And apparently the mixture of these substances can cause you to do some just very crazy and violent stuff of course when they go to court they're going to use that as their defense so investigators kind of put together this idea that jose purposely went for women that were single mothers because he saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of these women.

They were in a vulnerable spot, they were looking for love, and their jobs were usually low-income jobs, so he knew he could take advantage of these women, control them, have them be dependent on him, so they couldn't leave. While in jail, Jose refused to make a guilty or not guilty plea. His defense attorney claimed that Jose killed Alejandra because he was high and he wasn't in the right state of mind.

Quote, he didn't eat her, he just cut her body up, end quote. That was a defense. They were fighting hard that he did not eat her. He just cut her up, come on. So then in 2007, before reaching a conviction, Jose was found dead in his prison cell, hanging by a belt. They also found a book he had been writing about himself while in jail, and it was called The Cannibal Poet,

which is an odd title for somebody who didn't eat his victim. But when they first found Jose, it looked like a suicide. However, he hadn't expressed any suicidal ideation. It seemed like he was really excited about writing his new book about himself, because he was a self-absorbed asshat. So suicide was a little suspish. Plus, how did he get a belt? It was reported that Jose was receiving threats from fellow inmates, and had been placed in a cell by himself, and he had constant supervision.

He was suspected that he was killed by fellow inmates, and this caused an investigation within the prison system of the officials supervising inmates. Also, when Jose's body was examined, there were signs that he was tortured and he was raped before he was hanged. So it's widely believed that he was killed, he didn't commit suicide, and nothing really came from that investigation that happened inside the prison system or the prison itself.

Jose stood by the fact that he did not eat anybody and that he just simply chopped them up and he stood by that. But the book or the screenplay that he was writing that they found, it was based off of his story. In that story, it said that he ate this victim that they were talking about in the book. Seems to be that he did indeed eat Alejandra.

It's believed that there are up to 10 victims that are linked to Jose, but because he died or committed suicide or whatever, suspish, it's just unclear. They will never know, which is so frustrating, especially for the families. I would love to hear your thoughts on this case down below. I mean, is there really much you can say about this

other than probably better that he's dead, which is sad, but it's kind of true. Anyways, I hope that you have a really good day today. You make good choices. Please, please, please be safe out there. Let me know down below who you want me to talk about of true anyways i hope that you have a really good day today you make good choices please please please be safe out there let me know down below who you want me to talk about next week but other than that i love and appreciate you guys so much have a wonderful day and i'll be seeing you guys later bye