[1] A private in the Mexican army, Castillo Morales was executed on February 17, 1938, for the rape and murder of Olga Camacho Martínez, an 8-year-old girl from Tijuana, Baja California.

In 1938, while stationed in Tijuana, he was accused of the rape and murder of Olga Camacho Martínez, an eight-year-old girl who disappeared on February 13, 1938, and whose decapitated body was found shortly thereafter.

Castillo Morales was shot pursuant to the ley de fugas,[citation needed] which provoked an accused person into fleeing and thus "authorized" the killing of prisoners for attempting to escape custody, but was often used as an excuse for extrajudicial executions.

Residents began reporting strange events associated with Castillo Morales' gravesite shortly after his death, including blood seeping from his grave and ghostly voices.

Juan Soldado, as a humble and nearly anonymous emigrant from the countryside who was allegedly wrongly accused by the authorities, was a fitting symbol of the upheavals that the people of that era and region confronted.