Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
INSPIRATION BEHIND KILLING EVE
La Tigresa had 500 ways and forms of attracting attention
officers – then killing their colleagues. Carmen said: “A person who’s capable of **** ing one policeman and then killing another has to be so callous and inhuman.”
Riaño was captured in Aix-enProvence, southern France, in 1994, shortly before her 30th birthday.
She was extradited to Spain in 2001 and two years later was sentenced to 2,000 years for murder.
But she was released from prison in 2017 after expressing remorse in a letter to a judge.
She wrote: “I became involved with ETA at a very young age, full of romantic and idealistic ideas, and those who captured me knew straight away how to make me choose, ‘Would you prefer to save a few people as a firefighter or a whole town? We need committed kids like you’.”
INCREDIBLE
But while she has forgiven her, Carmen said: “I don’t believe a word she’s said and I don’t believe the letter was genuine. You’d have to open up her head to see what she thinks.
“Everything about her life is incredible, a clear example of truth being stranger than fiction.” In a book about
ETA, Juan Manuel Soares Gamboa, a former member of the Madrid unit, described Riaño as a “slave of her body and hair”.
He said men were attracted “every time she went outside with her leather jacket and figure-hugging trousers”.
Gamboa said: “When you’re with La Tigresa you’re not travelling with just her but with her 500 ways and forms of attracting attention.”
Describing one attack, he said Riaño jeopardised an ambush plan at the last moment – choosing instead to unload her machine-gun on the three targets. Her volatility matches that of Villanelle, who despatches victims with a cold brutality.
Killing Eve is nearing the conclusion of the third series – with Sandra Oh, 48, in the title role.
Co-star Jodie, 27, has picked up a string of awards for her highly acclaimed performance.
Carmen, meanwhile, is convinced there will be a film inspired by the life of Riaño.
Having renounced ETA, she is now believed to be living under a new identity with a relative in France, close to the Spanish border.
Carmen added: “It’s an area I frequented fairly often before the coronavirus lockdown and it’s feasible I might bump into her one day.
“I really couldn’t tell you how I would react. Angel was the victim, I’m a survivor. But it’s been a very long and difficult path to where I am today in my life.”
KILLER’S SIDEKICK IN TERROR UNIT
Killing Eve is on BBC1 at 9.15pm today