Juan Vallejo Corona

Serial Killer

Juan Vallejo Corona: The Murders of 25 Men in California's Sutter County Orchards

Background

Juan Vallejo Corona was a Mexican-born farm-labor contractor who was convicted of murdering 25 men in and around the agricultural country of Sutter County, California, during the spring of 1971. Born on February 7, 1934, in Autlan, Jalisco, Mexico, Corona eventually settled near Yuba City, where he made his living supplying agricultural workers to local growers. His occupation placed him in regular contact with transient men and seasonal laborers looking for temporary work. Many of the men who became Corona's victims lived itinerant lives, moving from one agricultural community to another and often maintaining little contact with relatives. Corona was in a position to approach these men openly, offer them employment and transport them to farms without arousing suspicion. During his trials, witnesses described several victims accepting work from Corona and getting into his vehicle shortly before disappearing. The resulting crimes became one of the largest serial murder cases known in the United States at the time. Twenty-five bodies were eventually recovered from shallow graves in orchards and river-bottom property near Yuba City and Marysville. Twenty-one of the victims were identified. Four men remained unidentified.

Understanding the Victim Dates

The chronology of the Corona murders requires an important distinction between a victim's actual or probable killing date and the date on which his body was discovered or entered into later records. The surviving California appellate record specifically states that, with the exception of Kenneth Whitacre, investigators could not determine the exact dates on which the victims died. More precise dates can nevertheless be associated with several victims because Corona kept a handwritten ledger containing names and dates. The ledger included entries for Warren Kelley, John Jackson, Mark Shields, Sam Bonafiede, Charles Fleming, Jona Smallwood and Paul Allen. Some of those dates fall within the murder periods charged by prosecutors and provide useful evidence concerning when Corona encountered a particular victim. They cannot automatically be treated as medically established times of death. Several later victim records also contain dates that correspond more closely to the discovery of remains than to the actual killings. For example, some men whose bodies were recovered on May 25 or May 27 have those discovery dates associated with their records even though the criminal charges alleged that they were murdered earlier. Donald Smith and Sam Bonafiede have also appeared in some records with an August 22, 1971 date, but that is impossible as a Corona murder date because both men were among the bodies recovered during the investigation that ended in early June, and Corona had already been arrested on May 26. For accuracy, the list below gives the most defensible murder date or range from the criminal proceedings and notes the more specific ledger or recovery information when it helps narrow the chronology. ...

Confirmed Victims: (25)

Kenneth Whitacre Age: (40), Date of Death: 1971-05-19

Juan Corona