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| Bright building with a dark past. |
Contrary to
popular belief, every now and again we don't mind spending a little more than the norm of our hard-earned Colombian pesos here. This is especially so if it seems worth it.
That happened to be the case
when the opportunity arose to dine in one of Bogotá’s most famous – well, infamous really – restaurants. Quality Italian food in a fairly luxurious
setting (for us anyway) with a dark history was just too good an offer to turn
down.
Plus, we couldn’t let our departing Irish friend, from the UK part of the
island albeit (no offence intended, Colin), feast on his own for his 'last
supper' in Colombia.
Now, using
such phrases as we have in that last sentence is moving into quite unsettling
territory considering the place we’re referring to: Pozzetto restaurant.
Why? Well, firstly we must say we were ignorant of its truly
shocking past until we were invited to go there. For those of you in a similar
position, here’s a brief account of one of the craziest days, and people, Bogotá
has witnessed – and that’s saying something.
To start, a
necessary background briefing on the man this all revolves around – Colombian
native Campo Elías Delgado. A quick Google search will tell you that he,
reputedly, served in Vietnam with the US army, after which he lived as a
refugee in New York before returning to Bogotá, finding work there as an
English teacher.
His experiences in Vietnam were said to have made him
antisocial and resentful, while he also blamed his mother for many of the
problems he had in his life. His descent into what can only be described as
utter madness reached its nadir on 04 December 1986.
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| Mass murderer — Campo Elías Delgado. |
His day of
carnage started by stabbing to death one of his teenage students along with her
mother in their apartment. From there he returned to the apartment he shared
with his mother, arming himself for his next round of slaughter.
That started by killing his mother with a single stab to the back of the
neck. He then set her body alight, went out to the apartment complex corridor
and alerted other residents to the fire. As his neighbours emerged he killed
them one by one – one man with his knife, another five by gunshot.
Still blood
thirsty – and seemingly hungry – Delgado headed to the aforementioned,
exclusive Pozzetto restaurant.
On arrival, he ordered spaghetti bolognese along
with red wine and eight vodka tonics. He tucked into that for about an hour
before beginning the final part of the slaying, opening fire on his fellow
diners.
Although one woman managed to quickly call the police, Delgado still had
time to slaughter 21 people before they arrived. His method was to coldly
corner his victims, shoot them in the forehead, then move on to the next.
When the
police eventually landed Delgado held them off for about a minute before finally
being shot dead himself.
In total he
ended the lives of 30 people that day, the majority of them at Pozzetto.
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| Fine dining — the stylish interior of Pozzetto. |
As far as
our experience at the same restaurant went, well needless to say, and thankfully,
it was nothing like the above.
Indeed it’s hard to imagine that such a
slaughter could have happened in such salubrious surroundings.
The only
shots taken were those from our camera, the majority coming courtesy of our
enthusiastic but far-from-clinical waiter. If only Delgado had had such a
hopeless aim.
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*For those in Bogotá interested in checking out Pozzetto, it's located in the Chapinero district, Carrera 7 # 61-24.