Dr Lafora’s controversial report on Gregorio “Goyo” Cárdenas, “the strangler of Tacuba”

Introduction. Dr Gonzalo R. Lafora, an internationally renowned Spanish neurologist, psychiatrist, and neuropathologist, took exile in Mexico in 1938 as a result of the Spanish Civil War. He was received with the highest honours and provided a special licence to practice medicine, as well as teaching at various institutions. In the summer of 1942, four women were raped and murdered by a man named Gregorio Cárdenas. The murderer was apprehended and underwent numerous psychiatric assessments, with contradictory diagnoses.

Material and methods. Lafora examined Cárdenas, concluding that he presented “psychic epilepsy” and that the crimes had been committed during crepuscular epileptic episodes, for which reason he could not be held criminally responsible. This article analyses Lafora’ s study, which was published in a specialised criminology journal (Criminalia) and in the mass media (Excelsior newspaper).

Results. Lafora’s diagnosis was based on dogmatic ideas of the time regarding epilepsy. It led to serious conflict with the family of the accused and with the Mexican psychiatric community, due to supposed violation of professional confidentiality and disagreement about the diagnosis and the criminal responsibility of the accused.

Discussion. This study reviews the historical concepts underpinning Lafora’s diagnosis of psychic or disguised epilepsy, a concept abandoned by modern epileptology, which has disappeared from neurology texts but persists in the fields of psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and in the Spanish criminal code.

Criminality, disguised epilepsy, epilepsy, epileptic equivalents, Gregorio Cárdenas, Lafora, psychic epilepsy, violence