MANUEL BLANCO ROMASANTA: BIOGRAPHY OF THE WEREWOLF OF ALLARIZ - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Manuel Blanco Romasanta (1809-1863) was a Spanish psychopath who admitted to murdering 13 people in the 19th century, becoming the first serial killer on record in the country. Sentenced to the death penalty, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment as the first case of clinical lycanthropy.

Romasanta, after confessing her crimes, said she was not to blame for what she had done. According to him, he was the victim of a curse that turned him into a wolf. For this reason, he was also known as "The Wolf Man of Allariz", the "Sacamantecas" or the "Sack Man", these last two nicknames due to the trade he held.

It all started with some strange disappearances in Allariz, although at first nobody noticed. It turns out that the modus operand of this murderer was based on accompanying women who were leaving town in search of a better life. Romasanta offered herself as a guide because she not only knew the roads but also claimed to be able to find work for these people.

Early years

Manuel Blanco Romasanta was born on November 18, 1809 in the village of Regueiro, located in the province of Orense, a town belonging to the autonomous community of Galicia, where he lived with his parents Miguel Blanco and María Romasanta.

A curiosity in the life of this murderer is that on his birth certificate he appears as Manuela Blanco Romasanta, since at first they believed that she was a girl. In fact, it is said that she was raised as a girl until she was six years old when a doctor discovered her true sex.

Family

There are not too many details about his first years of life. But it is believed that he came from a wealthy family because Romasanta could read and write, a rare ability for the time.

Furthermore, Romasanta appeared to have been raised under Christian values, as according to records, at age 15 he and his two brothers received confirmation in April 1825.

Physical appearance

Romasanta was described as a boy of normal physical appearance, blond and with tender features, according to some historians. However, it is said that his height was shorter than average, being only 1.37m.

As a child he had mental agility and a lot of manual dexterity, something that can be deduced from the many trades he learned. He was a grocer, tailor, peddler, carpenter, among others. It was these skills that in the future became his way of life and those that would open the doors to the terrible path that he undertook.

Wedding

At the age of 21, Romasanta married Francisca Gómez Vázquez. They were married on March 3, 1831, but the happiness did not last long. In March 1834, his wife passed away.

Until this moment, Romasanta had not been released as a murderer, so he had nothing to do with Francisca's death. The fact that she had no children made it easier for Romasanta to leave the place.

Nomadic life

He changed his sedentary life to become a traveling salesman who would initially travel through different areas of the Esgos province, to later cover the entire community of Galicia.

Being a widowed man and only 24 years old, he decided to visit other parts of Spain, even reaching Portugal. Those trips not only allowed him to discover different paths, but also taught him to move with ease through the forests, a place where he would later commit his crimes.

His first crime

Portrait of Manuel Blanco Romasanta. Source: No machine-readable author provided. Peped ~ commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).

The first crime that Romasanta committed occurred in 1843 near the municipality of Ponferrada, located in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It was a local sheriff.

It was said that he went to seize him for a debt of 600 reais that he had with a merchant. After that supposed meeting, the bailiff was found dead. And for that they blamed him for homicide. But before being tried, he fled to Rebordechao (Allariz), a mountainous town located in Galicia.

In the following years, Romasanta began to mix little by little with the local population. Not only was he establishing personal relationships with them, but he even became friends with many women, especially since he became a weaver, a trade almost exclusively for women.

At that time, he seemed a more than exemplary citizen. But it was after he had settled in the town for a while that he began his long chain of murders.

Modus operandi

The first victim was a woman named Manuela García Blanco, who had a six-year-old daughter. In 1846 Manuela decided to look for her future outside of Galicia and planned to go to Santander to find a house to serve.

So Romasanta, known as the itinerant shopkeeper, offered to accompany her to her destination, to show her the way and help her settle in the new place. The woman said goodbye to her sisters and left with her little daughter. A few weeks later, the murderer returned and assured that he had left her well located in the house of a priest.

Other local women, encouraged by the prospect of being able to get a better life like Manuela, decided to seek their direction also in the company of the murderer. The second victim was Manuela's own sister, Benita.

In 1847 the murderer convinced her to go to where her sister was and the woman left with her nine-year-old son. Nothing was ever heard from the sisters or their children again. Until that moment there was no suspicion, because the criminal made sure to write some letters that were supposedly sent by Manuela.

In 1850 Romasanta would attack another victim. It was Antonia Rúa, who also had a small daughter that he hardly carried in his arms. She did so with a couple more women. However, at that point, many began to suspect that something could have happened to the women that the man accompanied to that land that promised wealth and happiness.

The distrust was increased when they discovered that the grocer had sold some clothes of the people he had supposedly accompanied. Rumors also began to spread that Romasanta was selling ointment made from human fat. Everything that was said reached the ears of the murderer, who then decided to flee Galicia carrying a false passport.

Arrest and confession of their murders

Romasanta began to be known by the locals as the man of the grease. The word spread quickly and authorities began to link the crimes. As a suspect in the murders, a search was launched to find his whereabouts. Thus, while in the town of Nombela, Toledo, he was recognized by some people and was arrested in 1852.

After his arrest, Manuel Blanco Romasanta confessed to twelve murders. However, in his statement he assured that they were committed not in human form but as a wolf.

According to the murderer, he had a family curse that caused an irresistible force to dominate him, which made him turn into a wolf. Upon losing the human form, it was when he attacked his victims to devour them and feed on their flesh.

Supposed transformation

He said that the first time he was transformed, he did it in the mountain of Couso. He fell to the ground and began to have convulsions. When everything stopped, he had turned into a wolf. He assured that he was about five days prowling the place with two more wolves that he had found.

Later, when he recovered his body, the other two animals did too. Supposedly they were Valencians whom he called Antonio and Don Genaro. These, who also had the same curse, became his companions in misdeeds. He claimed to have gone out with them on multiple occasions to devour people.

However, after all those confessions, Romasanta claimed that she did not suffer from a curse but from a disease. He also stated that once he regained his human form, he could remember what had happened. This information was decisive for his sentence, which arrived on April 6, 1856.

Judgment

Although his first statements certainly seemed the invention of a madman, the killer was examined by several doctors who certified his legal sanity. After the trial it was concluded that he was not mad, that he did not suffer from any mental illness.

Furthermore, his guilt had been determined beyond his confession. It was shown that he had sold the belongings of the disappeared persons, and also gave key information that led the authorities to the human remains of some of his victims. He was sentenced to death and to pay a fine of 1,000 reais for each victim.

Sentence reduction

However, the case received so much media attention that a French hypnotist who had been following the case decided to send a letter to the Minister of Grace and Justice. In this communication the specialist expressed his doubts about the murderer's condition, regarding whether or not he suffered from lycanthropy.

The man claimed that he had cured other people with hypnosis and asked to be allowed to hypnotize him before he was executed. The hypnotist also sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth II requesting her intervention. In the end he convinced her and the Queen later signed an order reducing the death penalty's sentence to life imprisonment.

Not much is known about his death. Some locate it on December 14, 1863 in Ceuta. However, it is also said that he died in 1854 in Allariz prison, two years after being locked up. The problem seems to be that there are no records. Although it is established that he entered said prison, there is nothing to confirm his departure, dead or alive.

On the other hand, in 2009, in a documentary by TVG Europe, the possibility that the murderer had died in the castle of San Antón (La Coruña) was pointed out.

Romasanta's psychological profile

According to investigations by the Center for Research and Analysis of Violent and Sexual Crime (CIAC) on Romasanta, this story is an archetypal case of a serial psychopath.

The murderer planned the moment when he would commit the crime and made sure not to be seen. He was in charge of hiding the bodies to avoid being discovered and even forged letters to cover his tracks. He also profited from his victims' belongings by selling them.

This behavior indicated to the experts that the murderer had enough sanity to devise strategies that would make him avoid justice. In addition, it is suspected that the criminal probably used some type of weapon to subdue his victims.

This is because according to the records, the man was no more than 1.37 meters tall. Which means that it was difficult for him to subdue the victims with too much force, especially some men, who according to his confession, he even killed.

With all these elements, the specialists assured that Romasanta fit perfectly into the psychopath classification.

Movies inspired by Romasanta

The case of Manuel Blanco Romasanta, more than a real life story, seems more like a story taken from a film script. So much so that in fact the crimes of this psychopath reached the big screen with two films: "The Wolf Forest" and "Romasanta. The hunt for the beast ”.

"El Bosque del Lobo" is a Spanish drama film released in 1971. Written and directed by Pedro Olea and Juan Antonio Porto. The film was based on the novel titled “El bosque de Ancines” written by Carlos Martínez-Barbeitoestá, which focuses on the case of Manuel Blanco Romasanta and the myth that he was a lycanthrope.

"Romasanta. The hunt for the beast ”is a horror film of Spanish-Italian and British origin. It was released in 2004 and directed by Paco Plaza. This film is also based on a novel, but in this case it is that of Alfredo Conde. The plot of this work is also based on the real story of Manuel Blanco Romasanta.