Griselda Blanco: 5 Real Disturbing Details About Sofia Vergara's Netflix Character
The truth is often stranger and more brutal than fiction, and Netflix's true crime limited series "Griselda," which follows the life of real-life crime lord Griselda Blanco (Sofía Vergara, best known for playing Gloria on "Modern Family"), is no different.
Still, the six-episode dramatization of Blanco's rise as a drug queenpin has been well received by both critics and fans, with plenty on both sides of the aisle commending Vergara's performance in particular.
However, as is the case with many takes on true crime stories, being that this isn't a docuseries, viewers may be wondering how much of the story presented on "Griselda" is true and what was invented for the screen. With that in mind, take this as confirmation that many of the awful things that Griselda is responsible for on the miniseries are absolutely true to life.
Griselda was a murderer from a very young age
When Griselda Blanco was just 11 years old, she and some friends kidnapped the 10-year-old son of a rich family from a nearby village in her native Colombia. The plan was to get the boy's family to pay a ransom for his safe return, but unfortunately, the family couldn't or wouldn't pay.
While kidnappers are sometimes bluffing with demands like these, Blanco and her co-conspirators were deadly serious, and they proved it in a shocking fashion. Blanco, at an age when most kids would still be in elementary school, took a gun and shot the boy in the head, showing early signs of the vicious and brutal acts of violence that she later became capable of.
Of course, this was only the beginning for the drug lord who would eventually be known as "the Godmother."
Griselda invented a special drug-smuggling underwear
While drug lords and their underlings have been known to get creative when it comes to smuggling drugs into other countries, Griselda Blanco took this idea to a whole other level when she invented a line of bras and girdles with hidden pockets sewn into them, allowing her drug mules to store the cocaine that her operation was smuggling into the United States in a place where few customs or air security personnel would dare look.
The revolutionary strategy was so successful that the crime maven opened up her own facility in Colombia just to manufacture these undergarments. It was good for business too. Though the special underwear is obviously not wholly responsible for this, by the late 1970s, Blanco was clearing around $80 million per month from her base of operations in Miami.
Griselda tried to kidnap John F. Kennedy Jr.
You can't beat this kind of circular storytelling. While it might sound a bit far-fetched, when Griselda Blanco's back was against the wall after the DEA finally shut her down and put her behind bars, she concocted a plan to kidnap John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the former president, and then negotiate her freedom in exchange for his safe return.
In the end, the planned kidnapping never took place, but to even come up with an idea like this speaks to Blanco's audacious nature. After all, who better to abduct than the First Son in order to get the public to demand that law enforcement and government forces give in to her terms?
Though JFK Jr. ultimately died an early death, we can at least take some comfort in the fact that he never fell into Blanco's clutches, especially considering what happened to the first boy she kidnapped for ransom.
Griselda is alleged to have killed each of her three husbands
Griselda Blanco was married three times, and all three of her husbands died violent deaths. Her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, was a petty criminal whom she met at the age of 13. The two later divorced, and it has been reported that she ordered his death in the wake of their falling out.
The death of Blanco's second husband, Alberto Bravo, was even more explosive. After concluding that he was ripping her off in their criminal empire, she confronted him at a Bogotá nightclub, and the two ended up locked in a gunfight in the parking lot. Blanco walked away with a single gunshot wound, leaving seven bodies in her wake, including Bravo's.
After Blanco and her third husband, Darío Sepúlveda, split, he abducted their son, Michael, during a custody dispute. As a result, Blanco had Sepúlveda murdered, and her son was ultimately returned to her.
Griselda is believed to be responsible for over 200 murders
Given that Griselda Blanco had the authority to order other people to kill for her, it's tough to determine how many deaths she was responsible for. While conservative estimates put the number as low as 40, which is still a lot, others suggest that the drug lord was responsible for as many as 240 deaths, most commonly by way of a drive-by shooting on a motorcycle.
In a bitter twist of irony, this is how Blanco herself died. Although the criminal is said to have become a Christian in later life, that wasn't enough to save her. At the age of 69, she and one of her daughters-in-law were exiting a butcher shop in Medellín, Colombia, when a gunman pulled up on a motorcycle and shot her, putting an end to her complex life once and for all.