January 25, 1997 was recorded in Argentine memory as the date of the crime of Joseph Louis Heads. The NEWS photographer had arrived in Pinamar at the beginning of the month, together with the journalist gabriel michi, to cover -as so many other times- the summer season. The ultimate goal that year was to get an in-depth report with Alfredo Yabran. However, in parallel to this search, the team produced more than a dozen articles that, 25 years later, turn out to be a synthesis of the climate of that time.
heads Y michi they had set up their office in the Hotel Victoria, located at 700 Jorge Bunge. In the documentary that the journalist has just presented for the anniversary of the murder, home footage was released that shows the work environment: walks along the beach in search of of characters and car rides making jokes with the complicity of the photographer’s partner, Maria Christina Robledo. Nobody could imagine that, while they were producing the notes, a criminal operation had already been organized.
“They tracked us down and followed us. We learned that later, during the judicial investigation. One day we were going to look for the Pinamar commissioner, Alberto ‘The Hare’ Gomez. We wanted to interview him for a wave of robberies. We didn’t know that ‘Los Horneros’ were following us behind, and they crashed into the car of a girl who later testified in the case. I was driving Gustavo Prellezo and went Hannibal Moon, another of the condemned, the one who warned that we were there. They had marked us”, he recalls. michi.
January 1997: the coverage
Yabran He was the big character of the season. Last summer heads He had taken the emblematic photo of him that became the cover of NEWS -and for which he ended up paying with his life-, but the team intended to delve into the businessman’s new investments on the coast.
For weeks, michi Y heads They stood guard in front of his house and talked with people from the surroundings of Yabran in order to get an interview. In parallel, they produced an article about their latest big project: in the first week of that year, the first 5-star hotel in the resort was inaugurated, Arapacis, an 8,000-square-meter construction with ocean views that was built in just 9 months with more than 300 workers working double shifts. In the article they also narrated the pretentious ambition of Yabran to build a port, a satellite city of Pinamar -which was to be located 1,500 meters to the north-, and the development of the hotel Terrazas al Golf.
The mayor of Pinamar at that time, Blas Altieri, was a great friend of the businessman and who, according to what he told in an interview with NOTICIAS, acted as mediator between Yabran and the sectors that had an interest in the real estate development of the resort. In the report, the team asked him about the suspicions about the origin of the businessman’s fortune: “I don’t like that tale of easy money. Because when you earn easy money nobody discusses the interest. Y Alfredo Yabran discuss everything. And too much! It’s very hard,” was his reply.
Another of the important notes of that season was an interview with Alberto Pierre, who at that time was the president of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation. “It had been a long time since I gave interviews to NOTICIAS because I had a very strong conflict with the magazine. I remember that when José Luis was taking the photos I made a joke and told him that he was going to be the cover character. pierri He got angry because, in general, whoever appeared on the cover did not look good and he threw the chair in which he was posing. I told him it was a joke, but José Luis almost killed me because the interruption was in the middle of a photo shoot”, he recalls. michi.
Summer allows the press to photograph powerful figures in informal settings. In that month, heads managed to capture Eduardo Duhalde in the middle of a football match with other provincial leaders of the stature of Charles Ruckauf. The note was titled “On the whole pitch” and told how the national armed forces that he had in mind for the ’99 elections were like.
January ’97 was the first time that the philosopher mario bunge He stepped on Pinamar, despite being the nephew of the spa’s founder. The camera recorded him by the sea and the image came out with a note in which he declared: “The places that favor creative leisure are those where there is not much social life,” declared the intellectual.
Pinamar, as is still the case today, brings together powerful and influential personalities with figures from the world of entertainment. One of the interviews in the Characters section went to Natalia Graciano, who had just started her career as a model and wanted to venture as a businesswoman in the advertising sector. One issue later, with a photo shoot on a train track, heads portrayed one of the models of the moment: Natalia Rackiewicz, whose fame exploded after starring in a car brand commercial. Grace Borges It was another of the celebrities that that year was captured by the photographer with his brother, Marcelo.
And not only articles were made about characters. In the Adventures section, a photographic series of heads about one of the trends of that season: the challenges with 4×4 trucks in the dunes of northern Pinamar, beyond “La Frotera” and “Romario”.
In the last edition of NOTICIAS before the murder of Cabezas -which went out on the street the same day he was killed- there was a note that michi remember that it was published under the title “Stolen Dreams”. That summer there was a wave of robberies in houses rented by politicians and celebrities. “I remember that we talked about the gangs made up of policemen and criminals, like the one that later killed José Luis. Reviewing the file, I thought about the dreams that were stolen from him, ”says the journalist today.
The saddest images of that summer are, without a doubt, those that portrayed the heads on the businessman’s birthday Oscar Andreani. In the photographs he looks amused and, as usual, with his camera on top. michi he had left the party earlier. The next day it was his birthday and some friends arrived from Buenos Aires. heads He wanted to stay a while longer. Prellezo, when they arrested him, confessed that the situation “got out of hand,” but that if the gang had also found the journalist, the two “would be a ticket.”
Arapacis
Arapacis, one of the developments of Alfredo Yabran in Pinamar, it was inaugurated in the first week of January 1997. It was the first 5-star hotel in the resort.
Blas Altieri
Blas Altieri He was the mayor of Pinamar when the murder of Joseph Louis Heads. As a friend of Yabrán, he was the mediator between the businessman and the groups that had an interest in developing the real estate sector in the resort.
Natalia Graciano
Natalia Graciano She had just started her career as a model and wanted to venture into the advertising sector as a businesswoman.
Alberto Pierre
in that summer, Alberto Pierre He was the president of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
Trending: 4×4 Challenge
The challenges with 4×4 trucks in the dunes of northern Pinamar, beyond “La Frotera” and “Romario” were one of the trends of the summer of ’97.
mario bunge
That was the first time that mario bunge He stepped on Pinamar despite being the nephew of the spa’s founders.
Natalia Rackiewicz
Natalia Rackiewicz She became one of the faces of the summer after starring in a car brand commercial.
Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Duhalde in the middle of a football match. The note was titled “On the whole court” and told what the national assembly he had in mind for ’99 was like.
Grace Borges
Grace Borges pictured with his brother, Marcelo.
José Luis Cabezas, the last photo
Hours before the murder, Joseph Louis Heads was funny photographed at the birthday party of Oscar Andreani.
