Luis Garavito

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos (born 25 January 1957), also known as ''La Bestia'' ("The Beast") or ''Tribilin'' ("Goofy") is a Colombian serial killer, pederast, rapist, child molester, and necrophile. In October 1999, he confessed to committing the rape, torture, mutilation and murder of 147 minors, predominately young men and boys in the western Colombian region.

Beginning a series of torture-rapes on minors aged 6 to 16 in the autumn of 1980, Garavito was estimated to have raped and tortured a minimum of 200 minors, before committing the rape, torture, mutilation and murder of an additional 189 minors in Colombia from 4 October 1992 to 21 April 1999, and a further 4 murders in Ecuador during the summer of 1998.

Apprehended on 22 April 1999 for the attempted rape of 12-year-old John Iván Sabogal, Garavito was held under suspicion for several months until confession on 28 October 1999. The judicial body ruled that all Garavito's sentences total 1,853 years and 9 days in jail. Between his Colombian and Ecuadorian victims, Garavito is confirmed to have murdered at least 193 minors in total, making him the most prolific serial killer in modern history. If his 2003 confession is to be believed, his murders of 23 minors and 5 adults would raise his murder victim count to 221.

Background

Childhood

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was born in Génova, Quindío, on 25 January 1957 to Manuel Antonio Garavito and Rosa Delia Cubillos. The eldest son of seven siblings, he had three brothers and three sisters. Garavito alleged his father to be adulterous, drunken, macho, very strict, and often physically and emotionally abusive to him throughout his childhood, and further described his mother as a violent woman who showed him little affection and care as a child. Due to the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia at the time, the family relocated to Ceilán, Valle del Cauca before Garavito entered primary school.

As a result of his father's drinking and extramarital affairs and his mother's aggressive temperament, they frequently fought verbally and physically in the presence of their children, whom they largely neglected. When Garavito was a child, he recalled being strapped to a tree and beaten with a machete case by his father after attempting to defend his mother, whom Manuel was known to beat in pregnancy. Because of the spontaneous nature of the physical abuse, his children often hid upon his return home from work. Sleeping in the same bed as his father, Garavito also alleged he had been fondled on one occasion.

Garavito was referred to as an imbecile, a bastard, and other pejoratives by his father, whom he claimed "never had a good word" for him, solely bringing his son with him for work-related purposes and to run errands. Attending Simón Bolívar School in Ceilán, he was reportedly enthusiastic but gradually became shy and reserved, primarily due to frequent ridicule by other children. Garavito's teachers noted his desire to learn conflicted with his extreme frustration with an inability to understand subjects. Nicknamed "Garabato" (meaning "Squiggle") for his glasses and timid nature by peers, Garavito was insecure of his glasses and eventually preferred playing alone at recess, often reacting violently in response to frequent taunting by classmates. His teachers made no attempts to stop the bullying, which distressed Garavito.

Around 1968, he left school in fifth grade due to poor memory and his father's insistence on making money to sustain the family. This dismayed Garavito, who was also forbidden to have friends or a girlfriend by his father. Shortly thereafter in 1969, Garavito was subject to extensive physical and sexual abuse by a local drug-store owner and neighbor on his father's visits to the store for Garavito's vaccinations. The neighbor—who was a close friend of his father's—had allegedly bound Garavito to a bed, before proceeding to burn him with a candle, cut him with a razor blade, and bite his genitals and buttocks on several occasions during these incidents of molestation.

Adolescence

Following the first incident, Garavito allegedly killed and dissected two birds in frustration, which prompted him to feel remorse and shame shortly thereafter. After stoning the birds, Garavito began suggesting to his younger brothers and sisters that they sleep with him naked in their shared bed. He then sexually fondled his younger siblings as they slept on multiple occasions after removing their clothes. Garavito also alleged he molested a 6-year-old boy. According to those who knew him, Garavito became very withdrawn, extremely aggressive, and "ready to take revenge on the world."

The neighbor's sexual abuse—which rendered him sexually impotent and permanently unable to ejaculate properly—ended after the family's relocation to Trujillo in 1971. Believing that his father and family would not feel concern or believe him, Garavito chose to hide his sexual abuse experiences. Soon after arriving in Trujillo, he was shown heterosexual pornography by another neighboring family friend. Because Garavito responded with disgust, the neighbor beat him into the undergrowth before raping him. In 1972, Garavito aggressively and repeatedly attempted to initiate sexual relations with women as a 15-year-old youth, but his advances toward them were consistently rejected.

Through various alcoholic family members, Garavito accessed alcoholic drink and developed an addiction. A rebellious young man, Garavito was briefly evicted in 1972 after being caught by his mother attempting to rape a 5-year-old boy and again in 1973 following an attempted sexual assault on a 6-year-old boy at a train station in Bogotá. The boy screamed, which alerted authorities to arrest Garavito, who stated he only wanted to "lightly" molest the child in response to an attempted rape charge. Following the latter incident, Garavito was reprimanded by his father Manuel for not choosing a woman to sexually assault instead of a young boy. With Garavito's homosexuality causing frequent arguments between him and his father Manuel, he was evicted for the final time for "homosexual behavior".

As a young man, Garavito started working as an assistant at a compensation fund and later in a chain of stores, and studying in marketing. Despite his new-found career, he began to have problems with his co-workers, clients and bosses which gradually escalated to physical altercations. After losing his job, Garavito worked as a street vendor who sold religious icons and a migrant worker, developing primarily platonic relationships with various women over the course of his adulthood. In 1973, he began work on a coffee plantation as a youth in Trujillo, first falling in love with a schoolteacher and single mother named Luz Mary Ocampo Orozco whom he later attended weekly mass services with.

Many of the women he befriended had children, whom Garavito reportedly nurtured as if they were his own children, in addition to being a loving boyfriend when sober. His companions likewise described him to be amicable despite his notably violent temper and occasional drunken states in which he vowed to murder his father. While drunk, Garavito—an increasingly jealous and controlling partner in relationships—was also prone to physically abusing his girlfriends over insignificant problems, if there were any at all. As a result, he often found himself the subject of town gossip and frequent evictions by his female partners in later life.

Adulthood

1970s

Garavito began suffering symptoms of psychosis, paranoia and depression which he attributed to various abuses he claimed enduring in his childhood and adolescence. He then began compulsively molesting both male and female children, developing an almost exclusive preference for pubescent boys. Due to depression and suicidal feelings related to his lack of achievement, he expressed desire to start a family. Insisting on having sexual intercourse with female partners when drunk however, he consistently failed to maintain an erection, prompting an unprovoked emotional rant concerning his hatred for his family.

Garavito gradually fell into alcoholism to cope with his traumatic childhood, and began participating in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1978. Garavito also converted to the Pentecostal

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