A cryptic ending. If you’re wondering how Griselda Blanco really died after she was caught for her involvement in the Miami Drug War, here’s everything to know.
Sofia Vergara stars and is the executive producer of Griselda which follows Blanco’s move to the United States from Colombia as she created one of the most powerful cartels in history and her great involvement in the Miami Drug War or the Cocaine Cowboy Wars. The show also stars Alberto Guerra, Christian Tappan, Martín Rodríguez, Juliana Aidén Martinez, Vanessa Ferlito, and Karol G making her on-screen debut.
In her portrayal of the “Godmother of Cocaine,” Vergara made sure to tell the story with care. “These sort of real-life characters always have to be larger than life and enigmatic, in a way,” she said in a press statement. “If you’re familiar with any other narcos stories, you know that these people would always come up under the guise of helping to build up their communities, and employing a lot of people in need. During Griselda’s time, the idea of a woman being at the head of a cartel — simply due to how ruthless and violent a person that would have to be — was just crazy. No one could believe that she was capable of doing the horrible things that she was doing. Her mixture of femininity and the worst parts of masculinity are compelling to anyone. It’s like a horrible crash on a freeway; we all turn to look.”
Creator and executive producer Eric Newman explained why this portrayal of Blanco is a necessary deviation from others. “We realized that all the stories we had heard about Griselda were written or told by men in the same business as Griselda, or who were trying to catch her,” he said. “We started to recognize a pattern in all the stories about this demon that she had been made out to be. I’d spent a lot of time telling the story of complicated narcotics traffickers who killed people and blew up airplanes, murdered their rivals and allies alike, and there wasn’t the same level of vitriol toward them. There wasn’t the same level of “Oh, that’s a bad woman.” It became an entry point to the story: here’s a woman who actually was beloved by people who worked for her, who inspired a tremendous amount of loyalty.”
So how did Griselda Blanco die read more to find out.
How did Griselda Blanco die?
After her prison release, Blanco was deported back to Medellín, Colombia where she reportedly lived a quiet life. She was killed on September 3, 2012, in the same assassination style that she was often credited with—shot down by two assassins on a motorcycle. “She wasn’t hiding. Not at all,” former Agent Bob Palombo told The Independent. “She was killed at the marketplace, the butcher shop, and according to my sources, she lived a well-respected life in the community. She was supposedly very benevolent to the downtrodden and that may have been a reason that a lot of people didn’t bother with her.”
Griselda Blanco was caught in Irvine, California on February 17, 1985, after she was tracked by DEA agents for about ten years. According to The United States v. Blanco, Blanco gave a false name to the DEA agents who arrested her, and she was found to be carrying false identification papers.
“She was pretty tough and standoffish, a typical Colombian move I would say, nonchalant, not really showing any real emotion, but when we put her in the car, I was in the backseat with her, and the other agent was driving. We drove up to Los Angeles, and when we got close to the courthouse is when she became visibly shaken,” retired Agent Bob Palombo told The Independent. “I mean, visibly shaken, she was shaking, and she grabbed my arm and you could feel her shaking and she turned and she threw up on my shoulder. Not a lot, it was mostly just bile, but she knew the proverbial s*** had hit the fan. And it was time for her to meet her accusers.”
She was released in 2004 due to her health issues, and suffered a heart attack in prison in 2002. She was believed to be responsible for at least 40 killings and up to 200 in total. Griselda is survived by her son, Michael. Her three sons with her first husband, Uber, Osvaldo and Dixon Trujillo, were all killed after getting into the drug trade.
Griselda is now streaming on Netflix.
A profile of bloodthirsty Colombian drug dealer Griselda Blanco, known as the “Black Widow” due to her penchant for killing off her lovers, recounts Blanco’s vicious crime spree
and the ten-year struggle to bring her to justice. Court records and interviews with Drug Enforcement Administration agents, federal attorneys, Miami police and Blanco’s acquaintances flesh out a portrait of a ruthless cocaine wholesaler whose “mules” (couriers) transported drugs in women’s undergarments and shoe heels. Her propensity for violence was legendary: she bragged of murdering her husband and claimed responsibility for Miami’s “Dadeland Massacre,” a shootout in a mall parking lot that disposed of one of Blanco’s creditors.
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