Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck

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Raymond Fernandez
Born Died Charge(s) Penalty Status Occupation Children December 17, 1914 Hawaii March 8, 1951 (aged 36) Sing Sing prison Murder Death by electric chair Executed Confidence trickster 4 (previous marriage)

Martha Beck
Born Died Charge(s) Penalty Status Occupation May 6, 1920 Milton, Florida March 8, 1951 (aged 30) Sing Sing prison Murder Death by electric chair Executed Nurse

Raymond Fernandez (December 17, 1914 March 8, 1951) and Martha Beck (May 6, 1920 March 8, 1951) became known as "The Lonely Hearts Killers" after their arrest and trial for serial murder in 1949. Between 1947 and 1949 they are believed to have killed as many as twenty women. The 1970 movie The Honeymoon Killers, the 1996 movie Deep Crimson, the 2006 movie Lonely Hearts, and an episode of the TV series Cold Case were all based on this case.

Contents
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1 Prior to the murders o 1.1 Raymond Martinez Fernandez o 1.2 Martha Beck 2 Murders 3 Trial and executions 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References

[edit] Prior to the murders

[edit] Raymond Martinez Fernandez
Fernandez was born on December 17, 1914 in Hawaii[1] to Spanish parents. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Connecticut. As an adult, he moved to Spain, married, and had four children, all of whom he abandoned later on in life.[2] After serving in Spain's Merchant Marine and then the British Intelligence[3] during World War II, Fernandez decided to seek work. Shortly after boarding a ship bound for America, a steel hatch fell on top of him, fracturing his skull, and injuring his frontal lobe. The damage left by this injury may well have affected his social and sexual behavior.[4] Upon his release from a hospital, Fernandez stole some clothing, and was imprisoned for a year, during which time his cellmate taught him voodoo and black magic. He later claimed black magic gave him irresistible power and charm over women.[2][5] After having served his sentence, Fernandez moved to New York City and began answering personal ads by lonely women. He would wine and dine them, then steal their money and possessions. Most were too embarrassed to report the crimes. In one case, he traveled with a woman to Spain, where he visited his wife and introduced the two women. His female traveling companion then died under suspicious circumstances, and he took possession of her property with a forged will. In 1947, he answered a personal ad placed by Martha Beck.

[edit] Martha Beck

Martha Beck was born Martha Jule Seabrook on May 6, 1920 in Milton, Florida.[6] Due to a glandular problem, she was overweight and went through puberty prematurely. At her trial, she claimed to have been sexually assaulted by her brother. When she told her mother about what happened, her mother beat her, claiming she was responsible.[7] After she finished school, she studied nursing, but had trouble finding a job due to her weight. She initially became an undertaker's assistant and prepared female bodies for burial. She quit her job and moved to California where she worked in an Army hospital as a nurse. She engaged in sexually promiscuous behavior, and eventually became pregnant.

She tried to convince the father to marry her but he refused. Single and pregnant, she returned to Florida.[7] She told people that the father was a serviceman she had married, later claiming that he had been killed in the Pacific Campaign. The town mourned her loss and the story was published in the local newspaper.[7] Shortly after her daughter was born, she became pregnant again by a Pensacola bus driver named Alfred Beck. They married quickly and divorced six months thereafter, and she gave birth to a son.[8] Unemployed and the single mother of two young children, Beck escaped into a fantasy world, buying romance magazines and novels, and seeing romantic movies. In 1946, she found employment at the Pensacola Hospital for Children. She placed a lonely-hearts ad in 1947, which Raymond Fernandez then answered.[8]

[edit] Murders
Fernandez visited Beck and stayed for a short time, and she told everyone that they were to be married. He returned to New York while she made preparations in Milton, Florida, where she lived. Abruptly, she was fired from her job, likely because of rumors about her and Fernandez. She then packed up and arrived on his doorstep in New York. Fernandez enjoyed the way she catered to his every whim, and he confessed his criminal enterprises. Beck quickly became a willing participant, and sent her children to the Salvation Army. She posed as Fernandez' sister, giving him an air of respectability. Their victims often stayed with them, or with her. She was extremely jealous and would go to great lengths to make sure he and his "intended" never consummated their relationship. When he did have sex with a woman, both were subjected to Beck's violent temper. In 1949, the pair committed the three murders for which they would later be convicted. Janet Fay, 66, became engaged to Fernandez and went to stay at his Long Island apartment. When Beck saw her and Fernandez in bed together, she smashed Fay's head in with a hammer in a murderous rage, and then Fernandez strangled her. Fay's family became suspicious, and the couple moved on to a new victim. They traveled to Byron Center Road in Wyoming Township, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, to meet Delphine Downing, a young widow with a two-year-old daughter. While they stayed with Downing, she became agitated, and Fernandez gave her sleeping pills. Enraged by Downing's crying daughter, Beck strangled her, though not killing her. Fernandez thought Downing would become suspicious if she saw her bruised daughter, so he shot the unconscious woman. The couple then stayed for several days in Downing's house. Again enraged by the daughter's crying, Beck drowned her in a basin of water. They buried the bodies in the basement, but suspicious neighbors reported the Downings' disappearances, and police arrived at the door on February 28, 1949.

[edit] Trial and executions

Fernandez quickly confessed, with the understanding that they would not be extradited to New York; Michigan had no death penalty, but New York did. They were, however, extradited. They vehemently denied seventeen murders that were attributed to them, and Fernandez tried to retract his confession, saying he only did it to protect Beck. Their trial was sensationalized, with lurid tales of sexual perversity. Beck was so upset about the media's comments about her appearance that she wrote protesting letters to the editors. Fernandez and Beck were convicted of the three murders and sentenced to death. On March 8, 1951, both were executed by electric chair. Despite their tumultuous arguments and relationship problems, they often professed their love to each other, as demonstrated by their official last words: "I wanna shout it out; I love Martha! What do the public know about love?" - Raymond Fernandez.[9] "My story is a love story. But only those tortured by love can know what I mean [...] Imprisonment in the Death House has only strengthened my feeling for Raymond...." Martha Beck

SINOPSIS En los aos 40, Martha Beck (Salma Hayek) y Raymond Fernandez (Jared Leto) formaron la pareja ms buscada de Amrica. Sus objetivos eran viudas de guerra y mujeres adineradas que tenan la mala fortuna de responder a los anuncios en prensa en los que Ray se presentaba como el amante latino ideal. En este juego mortal, Martha se haca pasar por su hermana. Cometieron una veintena de crmenes. El detective Elmer C. Robinson (John Travolta) particip en su captura en 1949. "Corazones solitarios" reconstruye estos hechos reales.

La historia del cine negro americano posee algunas parejas de glamorosos asesinos que poco tienen que ver con la realidad, aunque sus historias sean tomadas de las crnicas policiales como: Bonnie and Clayde o Ray Fernndez y Martha Beck. Tambin existen otras que por ser de ficcin no son menos sanguinarias que las primeras: Mickey y Mallry Knox de Natural borm killers (Asesinos por naturaleza), los Smith de Mr. And Mrs. Smith (El seor y la seora Smith), Mickey y Rose de Shadowboxer, que han aportado su toque sdico a la morbosidad del espectador. Amores asesinos (Lonely Hearts) posee dos lneas de abordaje en la historia que relata, como historias paralelas, por una parte narra la de los criminales cuya relacin pasional se derrumba con siniestras consecuencias. Y por otra cuenta la del detective martirizado por su pasado, y obsesionado por capturar a los depravados homicidas. Es interesante el planteo, pero la falta de unificacin entre ellas rompe por momentos con el clima de agobio que cada uno de los personajes trae consigo.

Amores asesinos toma como base los hechos de una historia real. La narracin centra su accin en dos asesinos seriales que explot la soledad de decenas de mujeres ricas necesitadas de afecto y compaa para estafarlas, robar su dinero o joyas... y asesinarlas. Lo curioso de esta produccin es que entrelaza dos historias verdaderas, por una parte la de los homicidas y por otra la del abuelo del realizador, un detective del departamento de polica del Condado de Nasesau, Elmer C. Robinson, que atrap a los delincuentes y fue testigo de su ejecucin. El director y guionista Todd Robinson logra disear Amores asesinos con efectiva verosimilitud al ser poseedor de informacin de primera mano, por la historia familiar que lo precede. Sin duda, el punto de vista del espectador lo centr en la cruda historia de un polica que tras el suicidio inexplicable e impactante de su esposa, debe enfrentar su da a da, luchando contra la depresin y los recuerdos. Elmer C. Robinson para escapar de su angustia se involucra tanto en la persecucin de Martha Beck y Raymond Fernndez que transforma a la misma en causa superlativa. Tras detener a la pareja de asesinos se plantea un cambio de vida reformulndose la relacin con su nueva compaera sentimental y con su hijo, de gran importancia para l. Existen tres pelculas que toman la misma situacin: The Honeymoon Killers (Los asesinos de la luna de miel), clsico de culto y nica pelcula de Leonard Kastle, Profundo carmes, de Arturo Ripstein (que traslada la historia a Mxico sin cambiar casi nada) y, muy tangencialmente, la magnfica Badlands, de Terrence Malick, que se inspira en la historia de dos itinerantes asesinos. Las tres pelculas reflejan, con mayor o menor acierto, el inaudito caso de estos amantes homicidas. El problema de esta nueva versin hollywoodense es que prefiere dar a travs de Salma Hayek un toque ms ertico y sensual a la figura femenina, respecto a la verdadera Martha que pesaba 115 kilogramos. Esta eleccin no refleja la verdadera contradiccin para la pasin incomprensible de la pareja (algo que s Ripstein comprendi irreprochablemente en su versin). Al principio de la pelcula el espectador conoce a Ray Martin (Jared Leto), un cnico estafador con un "modus operandi", perfectamente definido: contesta anuncios clasificados de mujeres solitarias, inicia relaciones sentimentales con ellas y huye con los ahorros de sus frgiles vctimas (compromiso puesto en excelente grupo de actrices secundarias). Viudas jvenes y maduras de la Segunda Guerra Mundial que buscaban rehacer su vida, muchas veces colocando anuncios en las secciones de corazones solitarios. Los cheques que el gobierno les entregaba y su calidad de propietarias nicas, las transforma en presa codiciada, pero tambin las volva vulnerables a un hombre galante que las seduca con su afecto. Pero todo cambia cuando Ray conoce a Martha Beck (Salma Hayek), quien de vctima del embaucador, pasa a ser su verdugo. Los celos (no soporta ver a su hermano en brazos de otras mujeres) y la inestabilidad emocional hacen que la simple estafa se convierta en asesinato. Su relacin entonces se transforma en psictica simbiosis. Como homenaje al cine noir, Amores asesinos no logra alcanzar la meta de excelente. Sin embargo, hay que reconocerle que es la mejor adaptacin realizada del clebre caso de la pareja conocida como los Lonely Hearts Killers, formada por el vividor Raymond Fernndez y la obesa y poco sugestiva enfermera Martha Beck, a quienes se atribuye haber ejecutado alrededor de 17 mujeres, a fines de los cuarenta. Con un comienzo que prometa por su progreso narrativo en su lnea de accin y el crecimiento trgico de los personajes, un resultado excepcional Amores asesinos se desbarranca hacia una pelcula rutinaria cuyo mayor xito es la magistral atmsfera de algunas escenas que recrean el mejor cine negro de los 50 en el que las gabardinas, el humo y los sombreros de ala ancha aparecen como leiv motiv.

John Travolta y James Gandolfini hacen una excelente pareja de detectives que va en pos de los culpables. Travolta interpreta con acierto a un hombre al que su pasado, como pesada carga, se cuelga a sus espaldas, y el guin obliga a transitar por escenas redundantes y en ocasiones exageradas. Gandolfini como buen actor de soporte remata con soltura los hilos que Travolta deja sueltos. Laura Dern tiene un mnimo rol como retrada pareja afectiva de Travolta, pera a pesar de ello logra sacar partido de sus escasas apariciones. Amores Asesinos no es un convencional thriller sino ms bien un estudio psicolgico que intenta profundizar (en la medida de lo posible) en las complicadas relaciones entre los personajes, en la intencionalidad de sus mentes y los vaivenes de una sociedad recin salida de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Es una consistente pelcula sin mayor trascendencia, pero que combina entretenimiento, buenas actuaciones y una fotografa espectacular. (Beatriz Iacoviello). control psicolgico que Martha Beck tena sobre Raymond Fernndez. l ejecutaba los estallidos de violencia de ella.