SERIAL KILLER: Luis Alfredo Garavito (PART 1)

This monster is one of the worst serial killers in the world. His body count is a confirmed 138 victims, with an estimate of up to 400! All of them were young children! But, this killer is not as famous or well-known as Richard Ramirez or Ted Bundy. Who is he? 

Luis Alfredo Garavito will run chills down your spine. And, with a nickname like "The Beast", one can only imagine what atrocities this man did!

A CHILDHOOD THAT SHAPED A MONSTER

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was born on 25th January 1957, to parents Manuel and Rosa Garavito. His hometown was Genova, Colombia. Young Luis was not lucky when it came to his parents. 

Father, Manuel, was a womanizing drunk with a penchant for emotional and physical abuse directed towards his whole family. A lot of this was aimed at young Luis, as he was the eldest of the family's seven children. He had six younger brothers and sisters. Name-calling was a common occurrence, with derogatory remarks such as imbecile, bastard and idiot slung at him daily. 

Luis Garavito as a young boy

There is not much information known about his mother. The townsfolk suspected she was working as a prostitute. Rosa used drugs as a form of medicine. The comatose state made her unreactive to her husband's beatings or torture. 

Luis was often forced by his father to watch his mother, Rosa, have intercourse with various clients. Sadly, the young boy would be sexually molested at the same time.

Garavito's relationship with his father was extremely violent and volatile. He recounts that when he was about "six or seven" years of age, his father tied him to a tree and beat him for trying to defend his mother. He also remembers that Manuel would come into his bed and sleep next to him. Garavito was also sexually abused by his father. 

The boy would attend the Simon Bolivar School in Ceilan, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Garavito was described as "bright and interested in learning" by his teachers. His personality was shy, reserved and prone to fits of anger. He was bullied by the other children, and Luis did not like to interact with them. They nicknamed him ''Squiggles'' and made fun of him as he was wearing glasses. 

Manuel's cruelty also extended to forbidding Luis from dating or having friends. When he was 11-years-old, he had to drop out of school. The young boy had to go to work and support his family. 

In his early teens, a local drug seller would brutally abuse Garavito sexually. This man was a close friend of his parents, and he would burn the young victim with a candle, bite him violently and cut him with razor blades. Actions that would continue later in Garavito's own attacks. 

All the sexual, physical and emotional abuse started to affect the teenage Luis badly. He lashed out by killing and dissecting small birds. He soon found he was attracted to young children, especially boys. Once, he was shown heterosexual images during a rape by a neighbor, and it is said that they disgusted him.

Garavito was sexually assaulting and fondling his siblings on a regular basis. They would also have to strip naked for their older brother. 

Luis was repeatedly kicked out of his home by the time he was sixteen-years-old. Manuel would kick his eldest son out for being rebellious, but not for attempting to rape a young 6-years-old boy. His mother did kick him out when he attempted to rape another boy. 

After being evicted once more, Garavito left his birth home permanently. He declared that he "will take revenge on the world''. He started to work a series of odd jobs in his late teens. He was studying marketing, and seemed to have a good chance at life. But, despite all this, Garavito would have serious problems with his co-workers and bosses. Sometimes, the conflicts would turn physically violent. 

In the romance department, he was interested to have relationships with women. Some of his love interests were single mothers. Garavito was a loving boyfriend and treated his partners' children nicely. His friends described him as someone who was kind,  but had a quick temper. 

"THE BEAST" STARTS TAKING SHAPE

During the 1970s and the 1980s, Luis Garavito was battling with internal demons and mental struggles. He was tortured by various mental afflictions including psychosis, paranoia and depression. In the depths of his depression, he would profess that he wanted to have children with his girlfriend du jour. Compounded with mental illness was raging alcoholism. He tried to attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings around 1978. 

Of course, during much of this decade, he would continue to sexually abuse young children. This included both boys and girls. Although, later on, his preference would be exclusively targeted to young boys.  

In this time, Garavito met a woman called Claudia. She was said to be the first woman that he felt like wanting to engage in sexual relations with. But, this relationship like all the others, was short-lived because of his mental illnesses and rage. 

Garavito was estranged from his whole family, except for sister, Rosa. He kept in touch with her occasionally.

The 1980s was a turning point for Garavito. He turned from just molesting children to also torturing them. He used the same methods that were used on him as a young child: burning, biting, and slashing with razors. He was in the habit of writing the names of all the kids he assaulted in a blue notebook, and then praying for them while beating his chest. 

Garavito at the time of his arrest 

Luis Garavito started to develop an interest in the occult, spiritualism, and Satanism. He visited palm readers and other spiritualists. He built a strong fascination with Adolf Hitler. He idolized him, saying that he ''liked concentration camps'', and the way that the victims of the Holocaust were buried in mass graves. 

In 1995, Luis had an accident that broke his leg. This fall resulted in him having a life-long limp, and that helped with his identification before the capture. 

CRIME SPREE

The murderous rampage of ''La Bestia'' started in 1992, with the murder of a young boy called Juan Carlos, on October 2. After this killing, Garavito started wearing disguises to avoid capture and recognition. 

After drinking in a bazaar, he spotted his young male victim. He started following him, and approached him with a work offer. The boy was unaware that Garavito bought a rope and a butcher knife just before coming over. 

The victim was discovered with his front teeth knocked out, severe mutilation of his rectum and his genitals were cut off. Garavito said he felt compelled that night to kill, it was like a ''strange force'' that took over him. 

A week later, Luis went to visit his sister, Esther. On the way to the meet up in Tulua, he murdered another pre-pubescent boy. He attempted to drink brandy as a way of self-control, but it clearly did not help!  

These two murders were the start to Garavito's life of killing, torturing and raping many more young victims. Usually, his victims' profile were boys between the ages of six to thirteen years old. They were from a poor background. The main targets were usually street children. These boys were not missed by loved ones, or had family worry for their safety. He liked to choose those with lighter-eyed and lighter-skinned features.

His modus operandi was to approach these young kids, and offer them some kind of gift or bribe. Then,  he would lure them away from the hustle and bustle of town. Garavito would pretend to be some kind of trustworthy figure to make these kids trust him. 

The roles he would play would be a street vendor, a drug dealer, or a priest. These guises would often rotate so that police could not detect him. He would often walk with the children for hours, to make sure that they were exhausted and wouldn't offer much resistance. 

Garavito was a master of disguises, often changing them to avoid capture 

Victims would become isolated, tired, scared and suspicious. After this, Garavito would start his disgusting ritual. He would bind the hands of the victim and strip them naked. Then, he would brutally assault and rape them. The monster would mutilate their bodies, even while they were still alive. Sometimes he would decapitate the victim when he was done. As Garavito worshiped Satan, a Satanic ritual was also part of this sick activity. 

"La Bestia" would use things like screwdrivers to stab the kids. He would cut their genitals and put them in their mouth sometimes. Necrophilia was often part of his ritual. All the bodies were found with bite marks, the torture marks mentioned above, a lubricant container and a cheap bottle of brandy. 

There was only five adult victims amongst all the murders attributed to Garavito. It was believed that the victims were killed to be silenced and to protect Garavito's identity. As he liked children, it did not make sense that he would kill full grown adults for sexual gratification. 

Garavito would bury his victims in mass grave sites. This was similar to what the Third Reich used to do with Holocaust victims. When these graves were found, police first attributed them to Satanic cults or drug cartels. 

However, the victims were so severely tortured and mutilated, that even the cartels and drug gangs in Colombia didn't quite fit the bill. Some other monster or syndicate was part of this, and police were determined to find out who!

In Part 2  of this series, we will have a look at how the police finally put a stop to this monster's murderous spree using pioneering forensic techniques and months of investigations.