part of the stolen cash some days later, all suspicions fell on him. Sometime after this incident, McCracken's body was found hanging from a tree; it was never established whether this was suicide or murder, but once again all fingers pointed to Banks. After McCracken's demise, his family travelled back to Britain, leaving the ranch to be exploited by Matthew Banks as leeseholder. He later bought "La Buena Suerte" and a nearby farm, "El Trébol". There were two more suspicious deaths by firearm at "La Buena Suerte"; the first, a visitor from Buenos Aires, shot dead in the course of a hunting trip in the ranch, and the second, one of Matthew's brothers. After the second shooting, Matthew advised his problematic son to move to San Luis Province, in western Argentine. Once there, though the facts regarding locations and dates are scarce, it is known that Mateo got a job as manager of a ranch, and his financial situation improved dramatically. The historians claim that Mateo Banks returned to Azul in 1912, after the rural state where he worked was robbed, and all its inhabitants killed by unknown assailants, exception made of Banks. While living in San Luis, he married Máxima Gainza, the daughter of a rich Basque landowner from Olavarría, a town some miles away from Azul. Mateo's high-society environment detached him from the austere life of his brothers, who married women of Irish descent. Murders On 18 April 1922 at dawn, Mateo Banks departed from Azul by train to Parish, accompanied by a young woman, María Josefa Gaitán, who had been hired as a maid by Banks unmarried sister, María Anna. María Josefa was the elder daughter of Juan Gaitán, one of his brother Dionisio's employees. At 9:00 o'clock, Banks and the young woman arrived in "El Trébol". He met a wirer and his brother who were working on a fence at "Los Pinos", the Banks farm adjacent to "El Trébol". They drunk mate with Banks, who shortly after paid a visit to his brothers Miguel and Dionisio at "El Trébol" and "La Buena Suerte", where they lived with their families. While staying with them he attempted to poison his relatives at lunchtime with strychnine in their puchero, but the bad smell and flavour resulted in the food being discarded. On the afternoon, when Banks realized that his plans of poisoning his family had failed, he traveled by