Sumith Prasad
After arriving in Miami from Colombia, Griselda Blanco marries Darío Sepúlveda in Netflix’s biographical series ‘Griselda.’ Darío kills Fernando Bravo, the brother of Griselda’s second husband Alberto, to protect her. Soon, they form a marital relationship and welcome Michael Corleone Blanco as her fourth child. Griselda, however, eventually turns against Darío when the latter disappears from Miami with Michael to protect his son from the crimes of the latter’s mother. To regain Michael, Griselda orders a hit on Darío, who gets killed in Colombia. The reality behind Dario’s death is not drastically different from the show’s depiction of it!
The Mystery Behind Darío Sepúlveda’s Murder
Towards the end of 1983, the relationship between Griselda and Darío worsened. Darío wanted to send their son Michael Corleone Blanco to school but Griselda couldn’t agree to it since she wanted her child with her always. “She [Griselda] and Sepulveda were in a custody fight for the son, Miguel Corleone Sepulveda, who was so important to Blanco that it was rumored she had a man killed for being twenty minutes late picking him up at Miami International Airport,” Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen wrote in ‘Kings of Cocaine: Inside the Medellín Cartel – An Astonishing True Story of Murder, Money and International Corruption.’
As per Max Mermelstein, Darío was seeing another woman during the same time. Mermelstein was a drug smuggler who worked for Rafael Cardona Salazar, one of Griselda’s rival drug dealers-turned-associates, and the Medellín Cartel. “I witnessed the fight that broke them [Griselda and Darío] up. It took place in my living room in Davie. Dario had been running around with a topless dancer in Fort Lauderdale and Griselda found out,” Mermelstein told the Sun Sentinel. When Darío realized that he could not send Michael to school, he flew to Colombia to ensure better living conditions for his child. “Dario said the hell with it, that he was taking the kid to Colombia,” Max added.
According to Max, Griselda wasn’t ready to forget Michael and let Darío take care of him. While Darío was traveling with Michael in Colombia in a car, a group dressed as police officers stopped him. When he tried to escape, they shot him. “The cops asked Dario to get out of the car. He got out and they handcuffed him, but he started to run. The cops opened fire and shot Dario right in front of the kid. Little Michael was screaming and ran over to embrace his father, but by the time he got there Dario was dead,” Max said in the same Sun Sentinel interview. He believed that Griselda ordered the hit. “The execution was done on the orders of Michael’s mother,” Max added.
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After Darío’s murder, his brother Miguel “Paco” Sepulveda, who previously served as the chief hitman of Griselda, wanted revenge. “The death of Dario Sepulveda brought Blanco into direct conflict with her onetime chief enforcer, Dado’s brother, Paco. Rafa sided with the Sepulveda faction against Blanco, and Mermelstein immediately moved from the house Blanco had visited to a house at 500 N. Island Drive in Golden Beach,” reads ‘Kings of Cocaine.’ Although Paco didn’t succeed in avenging his brother, Griselda reportedly moved from one place to another, fearing an attack on her, with her son Michael.
As far as Max is concerned, Griselda killed not only Darío but two of her former husbands, Carlos Trujillo and Alberto Bravo. “She [Griselda] had them all killed — all her husbands and lovers – until she became top dog. She bragged to me that she had personally killed her lover, Alberto Bravo. She told me that she was standing at the open window of Bravo’s parked car and he said something that made her mad. So she reached over, stuck the muzzle of her gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Just like that. And I believe her,” Max told the Sun Sentinel. Although Griselda was never convicted of killing her husbands, it is widely believed that she did murder them, which earned her the name, “The Black Widow.”
Michael, who is presently a businessman, wanted to honor his father Darío’s life by creating a series and book about him. However, there haven’t been any announcements regarding the projects from Michael as of yet. Cristian Rios, Michael’s confidante, denied that Griselda had anything to do with Darío’s murder, as per an interview given to Francisco Alvarado of the Miami New Times.
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