The Intriguing True Story of ‘Griselda’s June Hawkins

The Big Picture

• June Hawkins was pivotal in catching Griselda Blanco, showing true tenacity and dedication in her work.
• Details about Hawkins’ life and career add depth to the series, providing a strong narrative.
• While some dramatic license was taken, Hawkins’ impact in the investigation remains significant.

Netflix’s miniseries Griseldais a fascinating look at the life of drug tycoon and cartel leader Griselda Blanco, portrayed by Sofia Vergara. The well-received series doesn’t hold back on Blanco’s violent life, and offers insight into how Blanco succeeded in a male-dominated industry through her business acumen and utter ruthlessness. It also details the events that led to her arrest by detective June Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez), who first joined the Miami PD in 1975 as an intelligence analyst.

Hawkins wasn’t even in the series initially, but as show co-creator Doug Miro dug deeper into the story, he came to realize how integral Hawkins was in pursuing, and eventually catching, Blanco. Discovering Hawkins’ role in the investigation gave the writers a storytelling gift they wouldn’t have used otherwise. Like Blanco, Hawkins was a recently divorced single mother, who moved to Miami to make a better life for her children, and also was a female fighting for a place in a male-dominated career, giving Griselda a story of two women who share circumstances, but came out on different sides of the law. But how accurate is Hawkins’ story in Griselda?

June Hawkins Helped Craft Netflix’s ‘Griselda’

June Hawkins, now in her 70s, came aboard Griselda as a consultant, and her input proved invaluable. She was able to provide details of her early career, look over the series’ scripts, and was available to Juliana Aidén Martinez through pre-production and filming. The things she shared were fascinating, so much so that the original plan was to include a more extensive story for Hawkins over ten episodes, but had to scale back when the series fell to six episodes. Things like communicating with her family back in Cuba as a child, using code to explain how to get out of the country, starting her career as an intelligence analyst because women didn’t work in the field as officers, as well as being the only analyst who could speak Spanish, translating for white male detectives who were unable to understand what witnesses were saying.

Of course, even if Griselda was a ten-episode series, not all of Hawkins’ stories would have fit within the framework of the overall story. Hawkins’ ascent through the Miami-Dade Police Department is a heavily detailed story which Doug Miro noted to Vanity Fair. While there is some necessary artistic license taken, Griselda doesn’t get into the early details of Hawkins’ story, but when we are introduced to her in the second episode, she is seen interviewing a witness in her language about Eddie’s (Alberto Mateo) murder, a casual introduction to the role Hawkins used to fill regularly.

What ‘Griselda’ Gets Right About Hawkins

One of the key facts about June Hawkins is that she did discover Blanco was in Miami, pieced together the size of Blanco’s operation, and knew what was happening. Juliana Martinez describes her role best: “… at every turn, she [Hawkins] knew what to do. Because she was born in Miami—her family is from Cuba—she understood the Latino culture more than the men, [and] also understood how a mother thinks more than the men did. She proved her value, and her point of view was what needed to be heard.” What is also true is the lack of respect shown to Hawkins at work, including her detailed reports that kept track of criminals being thrown on the floor or never read, and the degradation by her male colleagues as shown in the miniseries.

A scene in the last episode, where Hawkins is having a panic attack in the back of the police car, did happen (Al Singleton was there at the time and confirms the story). A real-life interaction with a pregnant witness made it into the series, as did the retrieval of Amilcar’s (José Zúñiga) fingerprints off a car. In “Paradise Lost”, the fifth episode, Hawkins and Raúl Díaz (Gabriel Sloyer) head to Washington, DC, to make a presentation to Congress, in an effort to secure more resources in the fight against Blanco’s cocaine empire, given that Blanco has everything under her control, including members of the Miami PD.

What ‘Griselda’ Gets Wrong About June Hawkins

While it’s true that Hawkins played an integral role in the apprehension of Griselda Blanco, her efforts and actual involvement in the details of the case are somewhat exaggerated. That has much to do with the aforementioned story line angle that came with the unveiling of Hawkins’ contributions to the investigation. It may make up for the karmic injustice of Hawkins not receiving enough credit, but DEA agents Robert Palumbo and Al Singleton were the ones most actively involved, with Palumbo being the one to slap the cuffs on Blanco. There’s really only one scene in Griselda that is 100% fabricated: the meeting of Blanco and Hawkins.

Producer Eric Newman confesses that an emotional scene where Blanco and Hawkins meet, with Hawkins telling Blanco about the deaths of her sons, was a “manufactured moment” designed to lean into their aforementioned theme of womanhood. In truth, Hawkins only saw Blanco one time, despite her involvement with the investigation. We know, of course, how Blanco’s story ended, and it’s not surprising that Hawkins’ story is still the polar opposite of Blanco’s. It’s still being written, for starters, with Hawkins very much alive, but involves falling in love and marrying her partner in the infamous case, Al Singleton, a decade later.

Griselda is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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