Griselda Blanco's Third Husband Was a Hired Killer Whose Death Was as Violent as His Life
Jan. 23 2024, Published 1:41 p.m. ET
Alberto Guerra as Dario Sepulveda in 'Griselda'
The woman known as the Cocaine Godmother is getting the fictionalized Netflix series treatment in Griselda, starring Modern Family's Sofia Vergara as the former drug lord. The show focuses on her rise as a major drug trafficker in Miami in the late 1970s. We also get a glimpse into her personal life, though Griselda is inspired by real events so take what you learn with a grain of salt (or in this case a gram of cocaine).
Griselda Blanco was married three times, and each husband met a violent death at her request — or her hands. This would earn her another classic nickname: Black Widow. The show primarily focuses on Blanco's last husband, Dario Sepulveda, who would go on to be the father of her youngest son Michael Corleone Sepulveda. Father and son were together when Dario met his end. Here's what we know about Dario Sepulveda's cause of death.
Alberto Guerra as Dario Sepulveda and Sofia Vergara as Griselda Blanco in 'Griselda'
Dario Sepulveda's cause of death made sense given the life he chose.
In the series, Blanco and Sepulveda meet when he is sent to Miami to kill her. Blanco fled from Colombia after murdering her second husband, Alberto Bravo, and his brother was out for revenge, The real story is a little muddy and possibly less dramatic. Sepulveda as a drug trafficker so it stands to reason he and Blanco moved in the same chaotic circles. According to VICE, they were married in 1978 and had their son the same year. They moved to Miami after his birth.
To no one's surprise, their marriage was not perfect which was largely due to the fact that Blanco was constantly suffering from drug-induced paranoia. She was also incredibly jealous, so much so that she once had eight strippers killed because she thought they might have had sex with Sepulveda. The mere idea was enough to set her off.
In 1983, Sepulveda took their son and returned to Colombia. It's unclear what his motivation was. Perhaps he was concerned about Blanco's ever-increasing violent and erratic behavior. The Miami New Times reported that Sepulveda was "killed by men dressed as police officers in Medellín." Two of Blanco's former associates told authorities that Blanco ordered this hit, but that was never confirmed. Sepulveda died in his son's arms, who was with him at the time of his death, per the Mirror.
Griseld Blanco was allegedly responsible for the deaths of her first two husbands.
Blanco's childhood was a blueprint for what her adult life would eventually become. Her mother was a sex worker whose clients subjected Blanco to various forms of physical and sexual abuse, via A&E. By the age of 11, she was working as a sex worker and committing various petty crimes until she allegedly aided in the kidnapping of an 11 year-old boy. Upon learning his parents would not pay her the ransom, she reportedly shot and killed him. A few years after that incident, Blanco met her first husband.
Carlos Trujillo was also no stranger to the seedy underbelly of Medellín where he forged immigration papers. The two wed when Blanco was just a teenager and soon after, they had three sons. The marriage didn't last and many believe she was the one behind Trujillo's death in 1970. Not long after his death Blanco met Alberto Bravo, a seasoned drug trafficker. They quickly moved to New York and cornered the market in the Queens drug-trafficking scene.
In April 1975, authorities caught wind of what was happening so Bravo and Blanco escaped back to Colombia. Later that same year she "suspected Bravo had stolen money out of the business and killed him in a shootout." This is the moment Blanco became known as a Black Widow.
