In the spring of 1971, a quiet farming community in Northern California was shaken by a discovery buried beneath the rows of peach trees. What authorities uncovered would reveal one of the deadliest killing sprees in American history.
This is the story of Juan Vallejo Corona — a labor contractor whose name would become permanently linked to one of the most disturbing crime scenes ever found in the United States.
Juan Vallejo Corona was born on February 7th, 1934, in Ayutla, in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
At just 16 years old, in 1950, Corona crossed into the United States through California, following several of his siblings who had already made the journey north in search of work.
Like many migrant laborers at the time, Corona found employment picking crops. His first job was harvesting carrots and melons in the Imperial Valley, before eventually moving north to the fertile farmland of the Sacramento Valley.
In 1953, he settled near the farming communities of Marysville and Yuba City, where he worked on local ranches.
Corona married twice. His first marriage, to Gabriella Hermosillo, took place in Reno in 1953. Later, in 1958, he married Gloria Moreno. Together they had four daughters: Martha, Victoria, Yolanda, and Guadalupe.
To neighbors and employers, Corona appeared to be a hardworking farm laborer building a stable life. But behind that appearance, troubling signs had already begun to emerge.
On May 19th, 1971, a ranch owner walking through his peach orchard noticed something unusual — a patch of freshly disturbed soil. The following day, investigators returned and began digging. Beneath the earth, they discovered the body of a man who had been brutally stabbed and hacked.
As authorities expanded their search along the orchards lining the Feather River in Sutter County, the scale of the crime became clear.
Grave after grave began to appear.
By the time the excavation ended, 25 bodies had been discovered buried among the peach trees.
The victims were transient farm workers — men who had come to the valley looking for seasonal employment.
Investigators soon began uncovering evidence pointing toward a single suspect.
Inside one grave, deputies found meat receipts bearing Corona’s signature.
In others, they discovered crumpled Bank of America deposit slips printed with his name and address.
Witnesses also told police they had last seen several of the missing men riding in Corona’s pickup truck.
On the morning of May 26th, 1971, authorities entered Corona’s home in Yuba City with a search warrant.
Inside, they discovered multiple items linking him to the crimes — including blood-stained knives, a machete, a firearm, and clothing marked with blood.
Perhaps most disturbing of all was a work ledger containing 34 names and dates.
Prosecutors would later refer to it as a “death list.”
They alleged that the dates corresponded to when the victims were killed.
Corona was arrested and charged with the murders of 25 men.
In 1973, a jury convicted him on all counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison.
However, the case was far from over.
In 1978, an appellate court overturned the conviction, ruling that Corona had received inadequate legal representation.
A new trial was ordered.
Four years later, in 1982, a second jury once again found Juan Corona guilty on all counts.
He spent the remainder of his life behind bars at California State Prison Corcoran.
For a time, Juan Corona was considered the most prolific serial killer in American history.
That distinction would later change after the crimes of Dean Corll came to light.
But Corona remains the deadliest known serial killer in the history of California.
Juan Vallejo Corona died on March 4th, 2019, after decades in prison.
Yet the grim discovery in those peach orchards still stands as one of the most chilling chapters in American criminal history.