Right, who actually killed Griselda Blanco in a drive-by shooting in Medellin?

Griselda has had everyone in a chokehold since the show dropped on Netflix. The story of drug lord Griselda Blanco – commonly known as “The Godmother” – starring Sofia Vergara and set in the ’70s and ’80s? Like, of course it’s going to be filled with drama and death: including (spoiler) Griselda’s own.

In the final episode of Netflix’s series, a title card says Griselda was shot in Medellin, Columbia, in 2012 when she was 69-years-old. However, it’s not specified who did it. Griselda was killed while leaving a butcher’s shop by two mystery men on motorbikes – a style of killing officials said Griselda regularly used to take down her competitors. She died on the way to hospital with a bible in her hand.

Although Griselda’s assassins have remained unidentified for the 12 years since her death, there are some running theories about who finally took down the one woman even Pablo Escobar was scared of:

An old adversary killed her as revenge for a murder she’d ordered during her career

🔴Así fueron los crímenes y la historia de vida de la viuda negra Griselda Blanco ⬇️https://t.co/tZGGhyE3Oj pic.twitter.com/RrVPAEy9E7

— EL TIEMPO (@ELTIEMPO) January 19, 2024

When Griselda was assassinated in Colombia, the reaction was not one of sympathy. “It’s some kind of poetic justice that she met an end that she delivered to so many others,” said Professor Bruce Bagley, author of Drug Trafficking in the Americas and head of the University of Miami’s department of international studies to The Guardian.

“Here is a woman who made a lot of enemies on her rise and was responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of people,” he said. “She might have retired to Colombia and wasn’t anything like the kind of player she was in her early days, but she had lingering enemies almost everywhere you look. What goes around comes around.”

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It took an enemy with a vendetta eight years just to catch up with her and take her out

Credit: Netflix

Many think the only reason Griselda wasn’t killed the moment she left prison was because it took her old enemies some time to find her. This is the theory with the most holes as officials involved in her trial pointed out her sons were tracked down and shot the moment it was announced The Godmother would be leaving prison. So, the time line of her death remains suspicious.

A competitor, former associate, or scorned lover had her murdered

Credit: Netflix

Theorists have been keen to point out it’s not just broken-hearted relatives and friends of the people Griselda killed who could have been plotting to kill her. Some suggest rival cartels planned the attack to get rid of a powerful competitor as her death changed the economy considerably. Others think someone she worked with, who she betrayed, may have been behind the assassination. While others posit the hit could have been ordered by someone much more personally connected to Griselda – like a scorned lover. Her prison ex-boyfriend has previously claimed she tried to have him killed.

Somebody wanted Griselda gone because they thought she was an informant

Credit: Netflix

The most interesting theory about Griselda’s death comes from Bob Palombo, the Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent who was in charge of her 1985 arrest. Palombo suggested to The Independent the reason Griselda wasn’t killed instantly was because her assassination was ordered by somebody in Medellin’s criminal world after they began to suspect her of being an informant.

“She wasn’t hiding. Not at all,” he told the publication. “She was killed at the marketplace, the butcher shop, and according to my sources, she lived a well-respected life in the community. She was supposedly very benevolent to the downtrodden and that may have been a reason that a lot of people didn’t bother with her,” he said. “There’s nothing worse as far as the criminal community as when somebody turns into an informant.”

Griselda is buried in Jardines Montesacro cemetery south of Medellín, alongside Pablo Escobar.

Griselda is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

∙ Fake teeth, prosthetics and wigs: Inside Sofia Vergara’s transformation into Griselda Blanco

∙ The real Cocaine Godmother’s family are suing Sofia Vergara and Netflix over new show

∙ Inside Mutiny: The real life nightclub from Griselda you can still visit today