José María Jarabo was born in Madrid, Spain, on 28 April 1923. As a child, he moved with his family to the United States, settling in Miami, Florida. He reportedly disliked living in America, where he later committed his first crime, human trafficking, for which he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. Following his sentence, Jarabo was held in a psychiatric hospital in Springfield, Florida, before returning to Spain in the 1940s.

Back in Madrid, Jarabo tried to reinvent himself. He mingled with Spain’s wealthy elite and lived extravagantly off the money his mother sent him from Puerto Rico. He called himself a professional gambler, but those who knew him said he was a terrible one. He lost huge amounts of money playing poker and blackjack, and as his addiction to gambling deepened, so did his reliance on alcohol and drugs. His lifestyle became unsustainable, especially after his mother stopped supporting him financially.

By the 1950s, Jarabo was spiraling. His financial woes and drug use worsened, and his desperation intensified. He was dating a British woman named Beryl Martin, who gave him a ring to sell. Jarabo sold the ring to two businessmen, Emilio Fernández and Félix López, for a small amount of money. Months later, when Beryl asked him to retrieve the ring, Jarabo chose murder over repayment.

Between 19 and 21 July 1958, José María Jarabo carried out a gruesome series of murders in Madrid, killing four adults and an unborn baby over the course of three days.

On 19 July, Jarabo went to Emilio Fernández's house, pretending to be a police inspector. A servant woman let him in. While waiting for Fernández, Jarabo decided to kill the servant to eliminate witnesses. He struck her on the head with a clothes iron, and when she tried to defend herself, he stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife. Later that day, Fernández arrived home, and Jarabo shot him in the head. He searched the house for the ring but couldn’t find it.

Soon after, Amparo Alonso, a pregnant woman, arrived and spotted Jarabo. When she tried to flee, he shot and killed her, also ending the life of her unborn baby. Instead of leaving, Jarabo slept in the house overnight, leaving the bodies behind. The next morning, he casually returned to his hotel.

Two days later, on 21 July, he hunted down the second businessman, Félix López, at his workplace. Jarabo waited for him to arrive and then shot him in the head, killing him instantly.

His arrest came just one day later, on 22 July 1958, when he foolishly took a blood-stained suit to the dry cleaners. The cleaners contacted the police, who quickly apprehended him.

Jarabo confessed to the crimes and was convicted of five murders. He was sentenced to death by garrote vil, a method still used in Spain at the time. His execution took place on 4 July 1959, just under a year after his violent spree.