Through the study of the crime committed against Rosa Rivas and her five daughters in the rural sector of Nahueltoro, in central-southern Chile, in August of 1960, the article seeks to understand the construction and media transformation of the criminal, carried out by a specific print magazine, the weekly Vea. In its sensationalist tabloid style, it not only referred to the protagonist of the bloody deed as Chacal de Nahueltoro, but also re-contextualized his life and actions through diverse strategies for the presentation of textual and visual contents, and ended up transforming him into a victim of society, an argument that acquired even more sense when he was finally shot to death in April of 1963.