Carlos Manuel Echandi Lahmann (October 20, 1900 – August 23, 1938) was a Costa Rican surgeon murdered by Beltrán Cortés

Beltrán Cortés

Beltrán Dalay Cortés Carvajal was a convicted Costa Rican murderer, mostly known for the killings of Ricardo Moreno Cañas and Carlos Echandi...

. Prior to killing Echandi, Cortés also killed his boss Ricardo Moreno Cañas

Ricardo Moreno Cañas

Ricardo Moreno Cañas was a Costa Rican politician. He was assassinated by Beltrán Cortés....

 and would go on to kill one more person and injure two more while escaping from Echandi's house. The crimes were heavily covered by the Costa Rican media at the time.

Family and education

He was born on October 20, 1900 to José Antonio Echandi González and Margarita Lahmann Carazo. He married Julieta Brenes Hine with whom he had four children: Hilda, Olga (who died at a young age), Carlos Manuel and María Elena.

He graduated from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in New Haven, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 as M.D. in 1925 and that same year joined the University of Costa Rica's

University of Costa Rica

The University of Costa Rica is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro, in the province of San José. It is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious institution of higher learning in...

 Faculty of Medicine.

Career

He joined Hospital San Juan de Dios as an intern in 1926 and in late 1927 was named medical assistant to Dr. Moreno in surgery and orthopedics. On August 25, 1936 he was put on charge of the Doctor Carlos Durán General Service Clinic. As Dr. Moreno's assistant he took part of the surgeries performed on Beltrán Cortés to repair an anterior lesion in his right arm. The procedures did not have the expected results and Cortés would always resent him and Dr. Moreno for having used him, according to him, as a test subject in an experimental procedure. He would even later claim that he had gone to the hospital to get treated for a pain in his leg and that Dr. Moreno took advantage of this to take a graft of bone from his healthy arm for a foreign patient.

He also served as deputy in the Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica

The Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislative branch of the government of Costa Rica. The national congress building is located in the city capital, San José, specifically in El Carmen District in San José Canton.-Composition:...

 from 1932 to 1936.

Death

On the evening of August 23, 1938, Beltrán Cortés went to Dr. Moreno's house and shot him three times. He later headed to Dr. Echandi's house, knocked on the door and was received by the footman. Dr. Echandi was on his way out, as he had heard on the radio the news of Dr. Moreno's death and wanted to go to the crime scene, when Cortés shot him twice from the front gate, although one of them bounced off the door so only one of the shots actually hit him. The bullet perforated his pulmonary artery

Pulmonary artery

The pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. They are the only arteries that carry deoxygenated blood....

, killing him.

Both doctors' funerals were held the next day in the Metropolitan Cathedral

Metropolitan Cathedral of San José

The Metropolitan Cathedral of San José is a cathedral in San José, Costa Rica, located on Calle Central and Avenues 2 and 4. The original cathedral was built in 1802 but was destroyed by an earthquake...

. The ceremony was assisted by several government officials, members of the Costa Rican high society, and many common citizens.

External links

• Muere un hombre, nace un mito, Historia Visual de Costa Rica, La Nación.com.
• Dr. Ricardo Moreno Cañas, Infocostarica Staff.