Chapter 3
After sharpening two butcher knives at the early‑morning market, Pedro and Pablo Vicario wait in Clotilde Armenta’s shop, drinking rum and confirming their intent to kill Santiago Nasar. They later move to the square, positioning themselves near the back door of Plácida Linero’s house, which Santiago habitually uses. As Santiago walks toward the dock, the twins confront him; Pedro lunges first, stabbing him repeatedly with a ten‑inch quartering knife, while Pablo follows with a smaller, curved blade. Santiago collapses amid a spray of blood, his body draped across the cobblestones, while startled onlookers—including Victoria Guzmán, the mayor’s aide Leandro Pornoy, and Colonel Lázaro Aponte—react with confusion and a frantic, uncoordinated attempt to intervene. Father Amador arrives shortly after, finding the twins on the ground, the knives still slick with blood, and the priest declares their act “open yet innocent” before the brothers surrender their weapons to the church.
The next day the townspeople gather, and a lawyer presents a defense argument that the murder was a legitimate act of defending family honor. The court, accepting the cultural context, convicts the brothers of homicide but reduces the charge to “legitimate defense of honor.” The Vicario twins, unrepentant, proclaim at the sentencing that they would repeat the deed a thousand times for the same reason. The judge orders the repair of the main door of Plácida Linero’s house, which had been riddled with knife thrusts; municipal funds are allocated for the reconstruction.
While awaiting trial, the twins spend three years in a Riohacha penitentiary, where older inmates note their sociable demeanor but observe no sign of remorse. After serving their sentence, they are released, still insisting the killing was justified. The chapter closes with the town’s uneasy reconciliation of the murder, the lingering memory of the blood‑stained doors, and the Vicario brothers’ continued assertion that honor demanded their action.