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Entertainment August 15, 2017
If the bullet fits...
Photo by @ReportUK via TwitterThe question, “Who killed Pablo Escobar?” can’t be answered with a quick google search. Trust us. We’ve tried.
Many people associate Pablo Escobar with lots of money. And they’re right to do so. The man did not make it onto Forbes’ list of international billionaires seven years in a row because he had a nice smile. However, Notorious B.I.G. was definitely onto something when he said, “More money, more problems.”
The more powerful Escobar had plenty of people praying and actively plotting his downfall. The more people that did this, the more he became paranoid and brutal. And due to this continuous bloody cycle and escalation, Pablo ended up fighting a war on five fronts: the Cali cartel, Los PEPES, his family (i.e. brothers and mother), the Colombian government and the American government.
It took all five entities working together to take down the Godfather of cocaine, but who made the final shot? Well, that depends on who you ask.
Due to the highly publicized photos of Pablo’s dead body, many assume the men behind his corpse were his killers. These men include Search Bloc, special Colombian officers. It’s not a secret why both governments hated Pablo Escobar.
The Colombian government targeted Escobar for multiple criminal charges. He murdered a presidential candidate, a secretary of justice, a newspaper editor that spoke against cartels and 110 innocent people in an airplane. He also provided an illegal drug to American and European residents.
Then, Pablo made things worse when he escaped from the Cathedral when they tried to relocate him to a real prison. Not to mention, America hated the way Pablo’s cocaine was ravaging the inner cities.
Therefore, he had a target on his back and neither of the governments planned to back down until he was caught.
Proponents of this theory believe the Search Bloc made the kill because they said so. Although Stephen Murphy wasn’t there when Pablo got shot, he told an entertainment news source that he believed them when they said they took the final shot.
“They were the guys that we worked with who would keep us alive and they’re the ones who told us what happened. We have no reason to disbelieve them,” Murphy said.
And probably the most compelling evidence for this theory comes from the biological evidence on Pablo’s body. Of course, Stephen Murphy was the first person on the scene. He “saw Pablo up close” before the press got there.
He went on to say that Pablo couldn’t have committed suicide because “when a gun is held close to any part of your body and a bullet is fired, little pieces of gun powder come out. They only travel a short distance, a few feet, but it strikes the body and leaves what’s called powder burns. [He] saw the bullet hole in the side of Pablo’s head, [but he] saw no signs whatsoever of the powder burns on his face.”
This theory has been composed by others who weren’t at the fatal shooting on December 2, 1993. However, it does contain a lot of valid support.
Although, the creator of Los PEPES, Fidel Castaño, claimed in an interview with a Colombian magazine, that the “operation in which Escobar died was made exclusively by the police, as is public knowledge.” The wording seems a bit odd, doesn’t it? The words, “as is public knowledge,” makes it seem like he’s simply repeating what the people know. It doesn’t necessitate the truth.
Paramilitary leader, Diego Fernando Murillo (Don Berna), tells a different story in his 2014 book, “This Is How We Killed the Boss.”
He asserts that his brother, Rodolfo (Semilla), shot Escobar in the head. He used a 5.56 caliber M-16 rifle to make the kill shot as Pablo ran across a neighbors’ rooftop. Los PEPES couldn’t stay for the picture because they technically weren’t supposed to be working with the government.
It would seem a bit hypocritical to work with men who function outside of the law to catch a man who functions outside of the law, no?
Moreover, in Mark Bowden’s book, “Killing Pablo,” he stated that Los PEPES acted as “some extra-legal muscle … who didn’t mind crossing the lines of legality and morality that Pablo so blithely ignored.”
Additionally, he used DEA documents to support his assumptions that the Cali cartel funded their endeavors. A fact that Jorge Salcedo, the man who claims he was one of the leaders in Cali cartel’s pursuit of the Pablo Escobar, also supports. He said that the Cali cartel told him that Escobar was “a bandit… a criminal… [and] a crazy guy” who threatened their families and loved ones, so they wanted him dead.
Fidel Castaño’s Los PEPES literally stands for People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar. And in his interview with the Colombian magazine, he does not hide his distaste of the Medellin kingpin. In answering the question of why he created Los PEPES, he said that the Medellin cartel killed and abducted “innocent people as never seen before.”
He added, “Therefore, we had to respond vigorously and with the same weapons, or else we would’ve lost. I think that the disappearance of the head of many monsters [lets the people] breathe better throughout the country.”
This theory comes straight from Pablo Escobar’s son. It’s important to note that the lethal wound that took down the kingpin was a bullet hole that went straight through his ear. Although Pablo got shot in the shoulder and the leg, the head shot is what ended his life upon impact.
Sebastián told AFP in a 2014 interview to promote his book, “Pablo Escobar: My Father,” that he has “no doubt” his father committed suicide on that rooftop.
He outlined the evidence for his claim in his book. First, he described how Pablo would constantly tell him that he would rather shoot himself than be caught alive. This would especially be the case if his capture might lead to his extradition to the U.S. – Pablo had a well-known fear of extradition.
Additionally, Sebastián cites how images that the press took of Pablo’s corpse on the rooftop show a Sig Sauer pistol. Apparently, this was the pistol that Pablo said he would use to shoot himself if necessary. What’s more? His Glock was still snug on its holster.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the shootout lasted a heated 20 minutes with just Pablo and his bodyguard on the roof as dozens of people, including specially trained Colombian officials and zealous Los PEPES members, shot at the two.
In 2006, roughly 13 years after his death, more information surfaced in a video of Pablo Escobar’s wife, Maria Victoria Henao, exhuming his body. After Hermilda de los Dolores Gaviria (Pablo’s mother) died, she needed to make sure Pablo was still in his casket before she buried her next to him. She wanted to honor Pablo’s wish to be buried next to his family.
When they scrutinized the body to ensure it was indeed Pablo, they noticed the bullet wound in his head. According to El Tiempo, they also got a good look at the bullet the gun Pablo would have used to shoot himself.
What do you all think: who killed Pablo Escobar? Do you believe the Colombian police officials, Los PEPES members or Pablo Escobar’s son did it?
Share your thoughts and possible theories in the comments section below or tweet us at @entity_mag.
