WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. For years, Luis Alfredo Garavito lived a secret and shadowy life, raping and killing vulnerable children on a scale never seen before. And he took sick measures to cause even more pain to his victims.
There have been some truly diabolical serial killers over the years, but there is one monster so depraved that many consider him the worst killer of all time.
Luis Alfredo Garavito, known to many as “The Beast”, died on October 12, 2023, at the age of 66, but his grim legacy continues to haunt all those who remember his vile reign of terror.
For years, the pedophile operated in the shadows, posing as a street vendor, charity worker or priest to torture, mutilate and sexually abuse children, whom he would then slaughter with a callousness beyond anything the country had seen before.
Born in the Colombian department of Quindío in 1957, Garavito was the eldest of seven children who grew up in a dysfunctional family, headed by a physically abusive father. He also suffered torture and rape at the hands of a neighbor, who was also a family friend.
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From a young age, the disturbed Garavito displayed extremely disturbing behavior and, at the age of 15, cornered and sexually assaulted another boy. Garavito’s crimes would become increasingly harrowing and by the early 1980s he was carrying out horrifically violent attacks on the young and vulnerable he preyed on.
During the interrogation, according to the publication. weekGaravito revealed: “He would take a minor and suddenly not only would he feel pleasure in caressing and raping her, but he would also carry razor blades, candles and lighters.” One survivor would later recall the horror of Garavito shouting “I’m a sadist! I’m a sadist! I’m a sadist!” while carrying out his brutal attack.
Although pangs of guilt sometimes led him to seek wisdom in the Bible, Garavito did not stop and ended up raping some 200 children between 1980 and 1992. Although he kept lists of his victims’ names, along with photographs and sickly trophies, the seemingly respectable man with his elegant briefcase did not attract suspicion at the time. Then, in 1992, the killings began.
Garavito toured 11 departments in the country and targeted children from low-income families, luring them with promises of money and gifts, but savagely abusing and murdering them. Part of the torture he inflicted on his victims included biting, and Garavito later admitted that he had removed one of his own upper right teeth, replacing one his father had removed, to inflict more effective bite marks.
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Beginning in 1994, the bodies of 114 children were discovered dumped in 59 Colombian towns, some of them still tied with nylon ropes, with liquor bottles lying nearby. the guardian information. Local investigators initially believed this to be a satanic cult, not realizing at first that this was a killer on an unimaginable scale, who grew bolder the longer he went undetected.
Over time, authorities investigating the mysterious disappearances of young people in Pereira, Armenia and Tunja began to notice patterns and turned their eyes to Garavito.
In April 1999, Garavito was arrested for attempted rape, and it was at that moment that his dark and hidden life became evident. When an investigating judge asked him if he was the murderer of the 114 children, Garavito confessed and asked for forgiveness. He continued to admit to more murders, totaling more than 190.
At a court hearing that same year, Garavito issued a chilling apology to the victims’ families, stating: “I want to apologize for everything I did, and I am going to confess. Yes, I killed them and not just those, I killed others.”
Horrifyingly, it is feared that Garavito may have killed many more children than the official figure, as many disappearances of impoverished children sadly go unnoticed. Unfortunately, we may never know the truth, and Garavito will take the remaining secrets to the grave.
If you have been a victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources through www.rapecrisis.org.uk or by calling the national helpline at 0808 802 9999
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
