The world is glad to be rid of her

In the news yesterday it was reported that Griselda Blanco has perished as the result of a motorcycle assassin in her native Columbia, a technique credited to her for creating. You may not be familiar with the so called Godmother, but during the 70s and 80s she was the most feared, and possibly successful drug tycoon in the US, leaving a wake of numerous dead bodies. She was largely responsible for the cocaine cowboy slayings that dominated the Miami area.

Supposedly Griselda made her first killing at the age of 11 in the slums of Columbia, but somehow rose to power in Columbia as a drug kingpin. She took her business to Miami, then a sleepy town with little going for it, and helped turn it into the main port of the cocaine trade. Reportedly she made as much as 8 million dollars a month, but for whatever reason money didn't satisfy her, and she ordered the death of over 200 people, including children.

She eventually was caught by the DEA, but after serving a ten years in prison the case against her collapsed on a technicality and she was deported to Columbia in 2004. After years of being free, her crimes finally caught up with her and she paid the ultimate price for being a murdering psychopath.

Now I'm against the death penalty, but when news such as this appears I feel no remorse for someone as despicable as her not being able to breathe. Granted she has a family, most notably a son named Michael Corleone (yeah, you read that right), who made an appearance on Deadliest Warrior, who is no doubt mourning the death of his mother, but still, she was behind some of the most brutal killings this country has ever seen.

She had no conscious, and even ordered the death of children so she could hold on to her power as the queen of the cocaine trade. Anyone who may have crossed her, whether they did or not, faced an ugly death by one of her goons, and even their families weren't safe from her wrath. It was a dark period for Miami and the country as a whole, and her reign of terror was worse than Capone's.

So I question my own morality today, as I stand firm by the fact that again I think it's morally wrong to kill a person against their will, and that is an absolute I have no problem declaring, but when people like this leave the world I'm glad to be rid of them. It's a strange duality, similar to the feelings I had when it was announced that Osama Bin Laden was thankfully taken from us, but I guess I shouldn't dwell on it.

“It's surprising to all of us that she had not been killed sooner because she made a lot of enemies. When you kill so many and hurt so many people like she did, it's only a matter of time before they find you and try to even the score.” - Nelson Andreu

‘Cocaine godmother’ Griselda Blanco gunned down in Colombia: Reports