The Machete Murderer: Juan Corona and the 25 Orchard Graves
In the spring of 1971, the peach orchards near Yuba City, California, began giving up their secrets. One by one, the bodies of 25 transient farmworkers were pulled from shallow graves—most hacked to death with a machete.
The man responsible was Juan Vallejo Corona, a quiet labor contractor, husband, and father of four. At the time, it was the largest mass murder case in modern U.S. history.
Host Alexander Lawson tells the full story of the killings, the investigation, the two trials, and the unanswered questions that still linger more than fifty years later.
Content warning: This episode…
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