Juan Corona Loses Parole Bid, Says He Doesn’t Recall Murders

A stony-faced Juan Corona, in prison for murdering 25 farm laborers, lost his third bid for freedom in a parole hearing Wednesday and returned to his prison routine with the motive for the mass murders two decades ago still a mystery.

The Board of Prison Terms deliberated only half an hour before finding that Corona, 56, remains a danger to society. Ron Koenig, chairman of the three-member panel, recalled details of what remains the worst proven case of multiple murder in California and told how the one-time farm labor contractor hacked his victims after luring them “to their death by a promise of work.”

Corona’s bid for parole attracted an unusual amount of interest because his lawyer, Don Condren, had claimed in recent interviews that Corona would discuss the case for the first time. In anticipation, more than 40 reporters and television crew members showed up at this sprawling prison in Monterey County.

As it turned out, the hearing lasted slightly less than an hour and Corona, speaking through an interpreter, gave only brief and vague answers to the board members’ questions. Although he claimed he did not recall any aspect of the crimes, he said he was sorry. But he did not say what he was sorry for.

When Koenig asked him whether he had killed 25 people, Corona said, “I don’t remember.” He described himself as feeling “very bad” that he is in prison for the crimes and maintained that he “didn’t know the victims.”

After the hearing, Condren could not explain why Corona refused to speak, except to suggest that Koenig’s questions were too blunt. Condren refused to discuss what Corona had told him, saying that he “clammed up in the hearing.”

Corona was arrested May 26, 1971, and sentenced to 25 life terms in 1973.

A state appellate court overturned his first conviction, but he was retried and convicted again in 1982.