Timesuck with Dan Cummins - Short Suck #29 - Luis Garavito: The World's Most Prolific Serial Killer

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was a ruthless, sadistic Colombian rapist and serial killer who became known to the task force searching for him as… The Beast. This sadistic monster would be convicted of sexually torturing and murdering 142 boys. He would confess to 221 murders, and to raping another 200+ children. And after all that, he was nearly released after serving just 22 years in prison. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com

Welcome to another edition of Time Sucks, Short Sucks. I'm Dan Cummins and today I will be sharing the story of La Bestia. Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was a ruthless, sadistic Colombian rapist and serial killer who became known to the task force searching for him as The Beast. Garavito is estimated to have raped a minimum of 200 victims and that was before he raped and murdered an additional 193 confirmed victims, most of them young boys in western Colombia, roughly 400 victims in total. If his confessions are to be believed, he would confess to 223 murders. That would make him the most prolific

serial killer in modern history. Even if his confessions are not to be believed, he was convicted in court of killing 140 victims that would still make him the most prolific serial killer in recorded history. And in 2023, at the age of 66, the beast was almost set free. Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother. I have a dream. I plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with us. Today we will follow the investigation into capturing the beast from beginning to end and learn how Gerovito's childhood and of course his

own terrible personal choices led him down a path to darkness. The only reason we are not doing a full-time suck on this guy and doing a short suck instead is because there's just not quite enough detailed source information for his crimes to build out a longer episode, at least not one in English. Also, rare warning on these short sucks, some section of this episode particularly brutal, as I share graphic details of what this monster did to little kids. On January 27th 1997 skeletal remains were found on the San Juanito ranch a sugarcane plantation outside of Buga a small city of about 125,000 people in the department of Valle del Calca. Instead of

states Columbia has 32 departments. Carlos Hernan Herrera, a key investigator in the future task force to take the beast down, worked at this town for the Technical Investigation Team, CTI, the acronym makes sense in Spanish, that assisted the Bugá District Attorney's Office. In Colombia, the CTI is a division of the Office of the Attorney General. And Herrera, a morphologist, worked criminal cases where dead bodies had been discovered or exhumed. He performed specialized forensic analysis on these bodies to help identify the remains

and also determine how they died. When Herrera and his investigative team arrived at the scene, they saw a section of the sugar cane field that had been burnt, something normally only done to help with the harvest, but it was not harvest time. This was an isolated spot 11 yards wide where the sugarcane, or there was, excuse me, an isolated spot 11 yards wide, where the sugarcane was still intact.

And right next to that area were two sets of skeletal remains. While some of the remains were scattered, about 75 to 80% of the remains were all in one spot. One victim, what was left of this victim anyway, was face down. Their hands had been tied behind their back. Some clothing, a pair of shoes,

and an empty liquor bottle were found near their remains. Herrera analyzed two skulls that still had most of their teeth and determined that the remains belonged to two children, both boys, both between the ages of nine and 12. The first goal of his investigation was to identify these boys. The second was to figure out what the hell had happened to them, including, of course, who had done whatever had been done to them.

Almost immediately, Herrera wondered if one of the bodies was that of a local boy who had gone missing a few months earlier. Back on October 24, 1996, 10-year-old Christian Andres Blandon Toro had left his home in Buga, trying to bring his grandfather some lunch, as he did nearly every day. A very sweet kid, but then this day he never made it back home after he did bring his grandfather lunch. Christian's family searched for him immediately. His mother Patricia reported him missing to the police right away, but they said she had to wait 24 hours for him to be officially labeled as missing.

She was told, quote, Let's see what happens. And I get why this is done from law enforcement's perspective, but also how maddening. The DA's office later publicized Christian's disappearance, but his family was still frustrated by the lack of immediate support. Patricia asked for updates often about her boy, but was consistently told there was just nothing to report. They had no new information. Mauricio R. Ngueren, a Colombian investigative journalist back in the 90s, later told the producers of the 2023 docu-series,

Gero Vito, the serial beast. Buga seemed like a quiet town. But just like the rest of Valle del Cauca, it had to endure a lot of violence. Several cartels were disputing their drug territories. The crime rate was very high. A lot of people had to leave because of the clash between guerrilla and paramilitary forces. In that context, the disappearance of a kid, as surprising as it may sound, went unnoticed.

Not surprising to me. When you have an exceptionally high murder rate thanks to a lot of cartel violence. When the cartels have bought law enforcement officers, judges, other government officials. I'm sure a whole bunch of crimes are going to go unnoticed and not properly investigated. Little Christian's grandfather came to the sugarcane field on that January day. The remains were found and he sadly identified his grandson's remains based on a lunchbox found in the field. What a hell of a day for any grandparent to endure. Investigator Carlos Herrera then officially confirmed the identification by comparing photos

of Christian to the skull and finding numerous points of positive correlation. But there was still the second body and there was nothing for investigators to go on regarding the identification of that set of remains. When looking into the cause of death for each victim over the following days, weeks, and months, Herrera noticed that numerous intercostal bones from each child, the ribs basically, had small cracks in them. In Christian's case, the fifth and sixth intercostal space showed 17 different incision marks, meaning a sharp blade had gone into the body at least 17 times. And Herrera said in the Guerriveto docu-series, this tells us that the child's insides were destroyed. Whoever had killed these little kids had savagely stabbed their torsos over and over and over,

in addition to doing whatever else they did to them. Investigators discovered that the boy's clothing found in the field had also been damaged by a series of cuts in the shape of hooks. Investigators also determined that the shirts had been cut off the kids at some point and that the boys had been tied up. The boys had definitely been murdered, but by whom? There were no witnesses, no suspects, and the case soon went cold. Eighteen months later, in June of 1998, in the municipality of Ganova, two hours from Buga in the

department of Kendiho, more child remains were found. Lebardo Londoño, the veteran police inspector of Ganova, later recalled that it was a holiday weekend. Gone out for drinks, playing a game outside with friends during that game. A man passed by mentioned that his son's friend had recently gone missing on Saturday. Two more boys had gone missing in the area on Friday, bringing the total to three missing child cases in the small town of less than 8,000 people. Where he was sitting as he sat with his friends, Inspector Landoño could see a group of vultures

about 500 feet away circling above the trees. He had a bad feeling in his gut. He drove over to check the area out and found the bodies of two dead children in a ravine. The children were quote, naked, intertwined, one of them missing a head. The fire department discovered a third child's body in the same area that same day. Londonio thought that perhaps guerrilla fighters had taken the children and killed them for unknown reasons. Inspector Londonio called Alvaro Vivas, the district director of forensic research in

Armenia, the capital of the Kandio department, and Hainova needed help with a complex investigation. The city needed help. Vivas and his team traveled 32 miles to Hainova to begin a forensic investigation. Now, what Vivas saw that day was still fresh to Hanova to begin a forensic investigation. Now, what Viva saw that day was still fresh in his mind when he spoke about it for that 2023 docu-series a full quarter of a century later. He said, I'd never seen someone with that many wounds, that broken down, especially a kid. The police now went to the families of these missing children, shared the tragic news of what had happened to their boys. One of these kids was Noy Gabriel. His mother Cecilia Lozano

asked her son to go deliver some arepas, some flatbread made from cornmeal. Sometimes get stuffed with meat cheese or both before 8 a.m. She thought it would be just a quick errand, should have been, but then hours passed he still hadn't come back. Cecilia asked her neighbors if she had seen Noy. One neighbor said that his boy had left with her son and now the two mothers assumed that the boys had just lost track of time playing together, were you know wandering around and would be back soon. But then Cecilia Lozano heard the news about the bodies found in the ravine and she felt sick.

She hoped, obviously, that her son would not be one of those boys, but then she recognized him as soon as the body bag was opened. And again, what a day. What a life-crushing nightmare of a day. The search of the ravine lasted three days. Investigators found a knife, another empty liquor bottle. Actually both the liquor bottles that have been found so far, all the liquor bottles that will be found are brandy.

They found a cap, some clothing, a bag with hair fibers similar to those found on the bodies. Investigator Aldemar Duran gathered evidence of the scene and interviewed some neighbors with Jenova being a small town where everybody seemingly knew everybody. Seemed very unlikely that a stranger could pass through, murder three children, and someone wouldn't notice something. Lead investigator Alvaro Vivas suspected there was a link could pass through, murder three children, and someone wouldn't notice something. Lead investigator Alvaro Vivas suspected there was a link to the remains of those two children found in the sugarcane field the year before, back in January of 1997.

This was brought up to him by investigator Carlos Herrera after Vivas called him about the three bodies found in Jenova. The two investigators had a history of comparing their cases. The victims in Hanova were proven to be 9, 11, and 12 years old. All boys. When Herrera compared the Hanova evidence to the Buga evidence, he realized the type of knife was the same, the type of rope used to bind the kids was the same, and the victim's clothes had been torn in the same hook-like pattern. Even the same kind of liquor found at both scenes,

at a bottle of cheap Colombian brandy. According to Herrera, there were repeated wounds in the abdomen, thorax, glutes, and the victim's throats had been cut. Most disturbing of all, their genitals had been cut off. And they were likely cut off while the children were still alive. A true fucking monster was in their midst, a real-life bogeyman who tortured and murdered children. Alvaro Vivas sent a report to the national director

of the CTI pointing out all the similarities in the cases, but like the Buga case before, they still had no suspects. Zero witnesses. Once again, the case quickly goes cold. On November 9, 1998, in the city of Perea, a larger city with over 700,000 people in its metro area and the capital of the department of Rosaralda, a group of forensic investigators find yet another child's skeleton, this time in an empty lot. The remains are taken to a lab and analyzed by Luis Guillermo Gonzalez, who finds three scapulas aka shoulder blades, which indicated there was more victims in the same dumping area. The forensic team heads back to the scene. They find the bodies of 12 different children in

the lot. Another dozen kids murdered and their bodies dumped in just this one spot. The remains were scattered but exposed. It was not a mass grave where the victims had been buried. The children had been murdered. Their bodies were left exposed to the elements and it had taken months if not years for anyone to find them Most of them were found without clothing Like the other crime scenes investigators found an empty bottle of brandy nearby a cap same type of synthetic rope fibers Then just eight days later on November 17th even more child skeletal remains are found in the middle of Perea behind a small soccer field close to the first crime scene. And in this lot, investigators find an additional 13 children's bodies. Holy shit.

Investigator Carlos Herrón Herrera is now called in to do some forensic work. The investigation that are just doubled in complexity. He focused on comparing these two new crime scenes. Investigators find more rope, more clothing, another brandy bottle, just like they found at the November 8th crime scene. Herrera compared the ropes between the two scenes, found that not only the same type of fibers was used, but they were tied in the same kinds of knots. The killer had a very clear MO. The victims had been tied up with their hands and feet bound behind their backs, rendering them completely immobile,

just completely at the sadist mercy to do whatever this person wanted to them. The director of the CTI called a national meeting to compare the cases and come up with theories as to who might be responsible. For several years people in the city of Perea had heard rumors about satanic rituals that included child sacrifice. But investigators felt these rumors might be nothing more than religious paranoia and superstition. At least some investigators felt that. The existence of an actual satanic cult or any rituals involving human sacrifice had never been confirmed. Another theory was that children were murdered by warring drug trafficking cartels or that the murders were part of some type of organ trafficking ring. But there wasn't

actually any evidence that any organ trafficking had been done. The fourth and interestingly the least popular theory was that the murders were committed by a serial killer. Clearly a lot of authorities in Colombia, at least back in the 90s, were a bit more dramatic and superstitious than American investigators. This is fucking ridiculous. Just seems like this could be the work of a alone deranged highly sexually dysfunctional serial killer, right? Yeah.

Doubt it. Get out of here with that far-fetched shit. Probably Satanist, using these kids to conjure demons. Or someone's probably killing these kids so they can sell their eyeballs on the black child eyeball market. Or maybe these kids got killed because of a drug turf war. But a serial killer? You watch too much TV

Alvaro Vivas was the one who presented the serial killer theory, but he didn't use that specific term He felt like the other investigators didn't take his theory seriously They couldn't wrap their heads around how one man could possibly kill so many children Why not if you can kidnap and kill one child? Well, you can kidnap and kill a lot of kids But at that time the very concept of a serial killer was foreign in Colombia Why not? If you can kidnap and kill one child, well, you can kidnap and kill a lot of kids. But at that time, the very concept of a serial killer was foreign in Colombia. They just didn't think that that kind of murderer could live and kill in the country. All of the investigators did accept that the cases were related, though.

And the national director ordered all departments to work together to find out if there were other similar cases somewhere in Colombia, or elsewhere in Colombia. So now a task force has formed. That same month in November of 1998, ten more boys bodies are found tied to some trees at a farm. They've been rotting outdoors for months without being noticed. And investigators believed based on how these boys have been killed and the kind of rope used to bind them, the type of knots etc. that whoever had killed the other children had killed these children as well. Investigators Carlos Hernan Herrera and Richard Cordoba are put in charge of finding still more cases now. They send out national notices, but don't receive much of a response. So they head out searching themselves. Incredibly, they had to pay all their own travel expenses, right? Had to pay them out of pockets and they did that because they didn't have a travel allowance. That's some exceptional

commitment. They also had to search through physical files to find cases of missing and murdered children and relevant suspects, not combed through computer databases. The city with the most missing and or murdered children cases in the region was Tolua, which is 17 miles from Bugha. 11 children were murdered in this city of around 178,000 people. One high-profile murder there was quote, the case of the coffee kid. The victim was a boy who sold coffee in one of the main city parks. His body was found unlike most of the other victims very soon after he had disappeared back on February 12th, 1994.

There was evidence of extreme torture and sexual assault. The victim was like many of the others decapitated. He had 15 different wounds on his back, seven more on his chest, six more on his abdomen. What stood out to the task force was the evidence found at the crime scene of a brandy bottle, torn clothing, and multiple cans of Vaseline. Vaseline would actually be found at several body dumping sites. So disturbing. Soon Herrera and Cordova would have enough of these cases that they considered making their own database. The problem was only federal units had access to computers in Colombia at this time.

However, Herrera did have a computer at home. And once again, going above and beyond, doing work he was not getting paid for, he figured out how to create his own database using Excel. This will be one of the first, if not the first, criminal databases in Colombian history. And this database helped create a victim profile. They found some related cases going back as far as 1991. The victims were all boys, all between the ages of 8 and 13. So incredibly young.

Most of these kids were already spending their days out working outside the home. Very tough times for poor families in Columbia then and now. Investigators also determined that the killer was clearly targeting markets and bus stations in small towns. Most of the murders also occurred near the Pan American Highway which links nearly all of the Pacific coastal communities in North and South America. Technically this highway is a it's not one highway it's a network of highways that actually spans from the tippy top of Alaska all the way

down to the southern tip of Argentina. The killer have been particularly busy in between Buga and Perea a distance of 144 kilometers or just under 90 miles. A few months after beginning to build this database in late January of 1999, the task force to catch the beast is focused on three cases, including one case where a victim had survived. Two boys had been murdered back in February and June in 1994 on a farm in Calarca in the department of Condeo. The victims had again been bound, undressed, stabbed.

The survivor, a now 15-year-old boy named Bran Ferney, had been raped by a man at the same farm. Bran Ferney's father worked in the cockfighting industry. Why is it so weird to have that referred to as an industry, by the way? And Bran worked with him. That's what the source said. Industry. What do you do? Oh, nothing exciting. I don't want to bore you. I just work a corporate job. And what industry? Cockfighting. The cockfighting industry. I work in IT. I make sure that everyone organizing the cockfights, you know, that their emails are working like they're supposed to, that the server

hosting the cockfighting website is, you know, humming along, that kind of shit. Sorry, just couldn't move past that. Well, one evening, Bran's cockfighting dad asked him to fetch a cock for him, a rooster. And after he took off to grab that cock, a man with a knife grabbed him. Bran said in his police interview, he told me not to scream, so I let him drag me away. Bran was then taken to the same farm

where those other two boys had been sexually assaulted, killed and killed, and he was attacked. And he described what happened as follows. Every time he hit me me I fell to the ground Then he started going deeper then he cut a piece of cord and tied up my hands He started hitting me and biting me after so many blows so much violence I started to cry and tried to scream and he told me not to scream. He said quiet or I kill you right now He was careless at one point and turned his back. I saw him light a match

I saw light when he did that I managed point and turned his back. I saw him light a match. I saw light. When he did that, I managed to untie the cord. I freed myself. I freed my hands, then my feet. I put on a sweater and pants and I ran down as fast as I could. The man chased after him all the way down to the road, but couldn't catch him. Brand had been assaulted and brutally raped for hours before he escaped. He said he had me there from 10 30 till like three or four in the morning. hours before he escaped, he said he had me there from 1030 till like three or four in the morning. He was hospitalized for over two weeks due to the severity of his injuries. After the attack, he and his dad moved to the city of Armenia.

And then about a year later, his dad sends him out to go grab some lunch. He goes to a restaurant called La Orepa where he encountered his rapist who was working there. And both of them totally shocked to see one another. Brandon ran back to his dad, told him that his rapist was in town working at this restaurant and his dad replied, let's kill him. That is the right answer. He and Brandon went to the restaurant the next morning intending on getting some vengeance but that slippery creep was already gone. Brandon never saw him again but he was now able to provide a very detailed description that would help the police

The suspect was a short man with brown hair and a distinct limp Jumping back to January of 1999 now the CTI task force traveled to the restaurant where the rapist worked But some bad luck here on the 25th Columbia experienced a six point Oh magnitude earthquake that heavily affected the city of Armenia and that earthquake completely destroyed that restaurant It was hard now to track down people who had worked there, you know, worked with the suspect, but the investigators were able to speak to former owner Javier Colorado and he thought he did remember the guy they were looking for. He started to describe a man, everyone at the restaurant called Loco, Spanish for crazy. Loco would threaten people with a knife when he got drunk. Unfortunately Colorado didn't know where Loco would threaten people with a knife when he got drunk. Unfortunately, Colorado didn't know where Loco was, where he'd gone to, you know, after he quit.

Just a week after that earthquake, another child remains, or found after another sugar cane field had caught on fire. This boy had, like the others, been brutally murdered. He'd been beheaded, stabbed multiple times, and his clothing again had been cut off while he was tied up same MO as with the other crime scenes. They were able to determine that this child's throat had been cut in a way that indicated the killer was right-handed. Burnt eyeglasses were found at the scene. They were prescribed for someone with age-related farsightedness to condition common in adults over the age of 40, which pointed to the killer being 40 or older. And the beast was 42 at that time. They still don't have the name of a suspect though, but at least they're now getting close to knowing what he looks like.

A pair of adult loafers were found in the field. Interestingly, the wear on the soles was not symmetrical. One had a hole worn in it, other did not. An investigator, Carlos Herrera, theorized that the owner rotated his foot every time he took a step, which meant he most likely had a pronounced limp. A limp like the one Bran had described his rape as having. Broken lighter was also found amongst the evidence, believed to be the cause of the fire, and Herrera concluded that the killer likely used a candle as part of his sick little torture and murder game, some kind of ritual perhaps. He thought maybe he got drunk, dropped the lighter, and that caused the fuel to leak, you know, this caused the fire to go and spread. He also theorized that the killer was

almost certainly burned by this fire just due to the clothing he left behind because he had ran away and he wondered had anybody seen a naked man in the area? Had anyone treated a man's burns? All the district attorneys in the region were now notified about the suspect possibly on the loose and asked to send relevant case files to the National Task Force if they had them. Just a few days later, the DA's office in the city of Tunja sends a file that matches the search criteria. And this file has a dude's name. They had a suspect from Hanova, Kindeho.

Inside the file are case notes from back in June of 1996, when a boy had left his home on a Saturday night never came back. His mother and aunt were worried sick while everyone else seemed to believe you know he would turn up eventually. Some of the kids he was hanging out with said though he was walking around with the man with crutches at the boulevard square and that the man had taken him to a local arcade. The boys mom and aunt they do their own investigative work now and kudos to them are actually able to figure out this man's identity and where he was staying. His name? Luis Alfredo Guerrevito Cubillos.

They reported him to the police, the police arrested him and he was taken in for question on June 9. Guerrevito was held for several hours and interrogated about the child's disappearance. He told the police that they should be protecting him though from the women who were stalking him. The police report stated he reports he is being accused of kidnapping and one of the women threatened to make him disappear. Garavito ended up being released due to lack of evidence. But then just two days after he is let go the missing boy's aunt receives a call asking her to identify a child's body that had been found in the bushes besides a bicycle. The boy had been sexually tortured and decapitated. It was her nephew, the boy who had been seen with Gervito. So where the fuck was this

guy now? Where was the beast? The CTI task force now made it their primary mission to find Luis Gervito as fast as possible and also learn more about his past while they searched for him. And here's some of what they found out and I will also share some of what they learned after they caught him right after today's mid-show sponsor break. And I'm back and now let's get to know the beast. Luis Alfredo Guerrevito Cubillos born January 25th, 1957. He was the oldest of seven children, and he and his siblings had all been neglected by their parents. His father was described as a womanizer. Luis would say he, quote, had the misfortune of being in a family that spent its time arguing, fighting,

and throwing words of great caliber. Clearly that's not a perfect translation of what he actually said, is it? Who the fuck talks like that, great caliber? Was I abused? Not in the traditional manner. But I suffered the great misfortune. Listened to my parents, told words of one another. Words of a great caliber. Alright, weirdo.

Actually, Louise did claim that his father was physically abusive, and that he and his siblings would often hide to escape his violence. He said his father only interacted with him for work or errands and often verbally berated Luis in addition to hitting him. Luis attended the Simon Bolivar School in Celan where he was bullied by his peers and struggled in school. He was given the nickname of Gerabato, which means scribble, because of his glasses, you know, because he's struggling to see.

So again, glasses fit one of the crime scenes. In 1968, Luis's father pulled him out of the fifth grade to work full-time when he's just 11 years old, and he will not return to school. At some point the next several years after starting to work full-time and realizing he'd be better off alone, he would leave home, travel around the country working odd jobs and raping and killing boys. It seemed like he left victims behind in every city he traveled to. traveled around the country working odd jobs and raping and killing boys. Seemed like he left victims behind in every city he traveled to. In February of 1999 some investigators working with the task force dedicated to catching him

traveled to the city of Trujillo to speak with his sister Esther Garavito Cubillos. She told him she hadn't seen her brother in quite a while and that you know when she had seen him in the past he never stayed long. She said he would normally disappear for long stretches of time when he returned he would do some weird shit Like performing some type of satanic or occult rituals in her home He would do stuff like light a bunch of black candles dance around naked in the middle of the night beating his chest You know not your typical houseguest activity That doesn't letting someone crash your place

Waking up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and finding them dancing naked around a pentagram of black candles. Uh, hey bro, we need to talk about some house rules. She said that when he got drunk he would become exceptionally violent, do things like throw knives at people. That's a wee bit concerning. She told investigators she was afraid of him, that the last time he had visited she had locked him out and hoped he would never return again.

Esther also told investigators that she thought Louise was still in contact with his longtime on-and-off girlfriend, a woman named Luz Mari Ocampo, a single mother who was a school teacher in Trujillo. And she was able to tell them where Luz Mari lived. Luz Mari, once tracked down, told the police she had not seen or heard from Luis in over a year. Damn it! And it was looking like they were about to nab him. In her interview for the Gerovito docu-series over two decades later, Luz Mari recalled how she met Luis, saying, My parents knew his parents. The two families were friends. He'd come and visit my mom a lot, and I'd let him sleep on an extra bed we had. In recent years, she said that Louise helped her financially in exchange for a place to stay.

She thought he worked as a traveling salesman and sometimes, how fucking scary is this, he would take Luzmari's son with him to work. He apparently never raped her son on any of these trips, lucky kid. And that shows that Louise could absolutely control his dark urges and impulses when it suited him. All those fuckers can. Right? If they couldn't, they'd never be able to keep from getting arrested long enough to become serial killers. They would kill Willy Nilly for a few days tops and some kind of psychotic bloodlust of violence before getting locked up. Loosemarie told investigators that after some time away, Louise had returned to Loosemarie in June of 1996.

He told her he had lost his job as an air freshener salesman and he pleaded with her for a place to stay. She agreed, but then he didn't stay long. Also, air freshener salesman? Is that a thing? I mean, I guess so. For some reason, I pictured a door-to-door air freshener salesman, which is weird to me.

Hello, can I help you? Yes, do you need any air fresheners? No, I'm good. House smells fine. Then the air freshener salesman just tosses in a stink bomb. You sure you don't need any air fresheners? August of 1996, Luis suffered a nasty fall, broke his leg, lived with a male roommate for a while after that, but then asked to stay with Luis Mari again.

Luis spent the next two months with Luis Mari, used crutches, wore a neck brace, then a cast. He would beg in the street to pay for his share of the meals. Louise generally got along with Lus Marie and her kids during this stay, unless he was drinking. But after he got into a drunken fight with her 15 year old son over the TV, she kicked him out of the house again. Then on Christmas Day that year she received an angry drunk dial from Louise. She told him to leave her alone, then he showed up the following morning shouting obscenities and threats. He grabbed Luz Mari by the throat. When she was able to get away she

and her kids hid from him at a neighbor's house. Several hours later Luis left an apology note asking Luz Mari for forgiveness. Luz Mari's daughter Maria Helena Ocampo would also speak with investigators. She said Luis was like a member of the family and that yeah, when he got drunk, he could be violent, but never with them. Well, never outside of choking your fucking mom that one time, I guess. Maria Helena also recalled that a boy from her mother's school disappeared and was soon found dead. Luz Mari, who was also present with her daughter when she was speaking with investigators, asked her if she remembered when Luis cut his hand now. with her daughter when she was speaking with investigators, asked her if she remembered when Luis cut his hand now.

Marie Helena realized the connection her mom was making that his hand had been cut when the boy had gone missing and she now pleads with her, don't say that, no. An investigator now tells them both that they believe Luis was killing children, that he had raped and murdered many, many children. And they showed them some of the confidential files they had on them.

And they said they needed Luzmari's help to catch him. Luzmari couldn't make a decision right away. She struggled between handing Louise over to the cops and being loyal to her old boyfriend, who she also was very afraid of. She goes to her church to confess and asks her priest for advice. And her priest tells her that if Louise was involved in evil things and the police were asking for her assistance, she had to help them or she was betraying her faith. So when she comes back home, Luzmari calls the police, tells them she had some documents Esther, Luis's sister, had brought over after she

last kicked her brother out. Esther told Luzmari not to touch the box, warned her that it was tied in a way that she would know if it was ever tampered with. Luzmari had never opened the box out of respect for Esther and I imagine out of some fear. Well, inside the box, investigators find old photos of Luis and his family, his driver's license, his ID card, medical records, which showed that he had once been admitted to a psychiatric institution for over 30 days. A doctor had wrote about Luis, psychiatric evaluation the patient seeks medical care. The patient looks clean, well-dressed,

was admitted of his own free will. He has suicidal tendencies. He is aggressive. He is an alcoholic. Also inside the box is something that strongly points to Luis being the serial killer the task force has been looking for. A stack of newspaper clippings about murdered children,

like many, many clippings, including cases that weren't even yet part of the task force's investigation. Luis had also kept travel tickets showing proof of his movement throughout Colombia. Luis never stayed in one city for more than just a few days in recent years. He'd also traveled to Ecuador and investigators wondered how many boys he'd already tortured and killed there. The task force traveled to all the Colombian cities Luis had records of traveling to now to speak with Luis' associates and try and track him down.

Unfortunately, most people would not talk out of loyalty to Luis or out of fear, but Detective Aldeamar Duran locates another relative of his in the city of Soacha. This anonymous relative will speak about Luis in a 2022 interview saying, He kept bad company. Friends from other places, not from home. He'd get drunk, very drunk. He drank too much.

When he was drunk, I saw him come home yelling and screaming non-stop. He'd bang on the gates. Yeah, but that's it. Well, but that wasn't it. Because this relative also said Louise got, quote, too close to children. So they knew he was a creep. During the 1999 investigation, this relative told the police that Luis had visited him about three months earlier, but he didn't know when he would be back. So now what does the task force do?

Because he had been to Suacha, the police knew there would probably be more victims between there and southern Bogota, and they started talking to more police departments and looking through more files. Five additional cases were quickly identified in south Bogota. Based on the MO, the police felt sure that Luis was the perpetrator. But they still don't know where this monster is. Until they do. On April 22, 1999, Luis Garavito is finally arrested but not by

the task force but by officers who have no idea they've just caught the beast. He gets arrested for the attempted rape of a 12 year old boy John Ivan Sabagal in La Esperanza. Officer Pedro Julio Babavita received a call from dispatch informing him that there was a 909, maybe even a 906 in progress near a car dealership. A 909 in Columbia is an abusive act and a 906 is a violent rape. Officer Babavita went to the car dealership where the manager was with the victim. The boy told him that he was selling lottery tickets at a nearby park when a man approached him, promised to buy all of his tickets if he would go

with him to an undeveloped area near the dealership. Yeah. Once there this man forced him into a sewer tunnel at Knife Point, tied him up, started to undress him, also started to yell at him over and over, am I a sadist? Am I a sadist? And then he began to masturbate over him once he was tied up. Luckily there just so happened to be a young man, I love this, drop an acid nearby, who started now shouting at the rapist and throwing rocks at him. The would-be rapist then fled the area. The young man was able to untie the boy, walk with him to the closest road to get help before he started to, I don't know, fucking peek on the acid I guess.

What if that guy even realized he'd saved this kid later? Or if he thought it was just part of his acid trip? That's fucking wild. When a police officer was talking to the victim, a girl came into the car dealership and said, the man you're looking for ran past our house. A special backup unit is now called in. And the police also ask local taxi drivers for help. Officer Bob Aveda gets into a cab with the victim

and the girl gets into a taxi with another officer. They drive around town hunting down this suspect. After five or ten minutes they get lucky. He emerged from a field and the girl spots him. Luis Garavito is finally apprehended but the work of putting an end to the beast's rampage not done. The suspect, still unidentified at this point, is arrested and brought to the police station in La Esperanza, a town of about 11,000 people. Luis is described as being relaxed, cold and calculating when officers interrogate him.

Right? Why should he worry? This wasn't his first rodeo. He'd been picked up by the police before and they'd never held him for long. He said they had the wrong guy, which is a big misunderstanding. He even looked at the boy. He had tried to rape and said, son, you know, it wasn't me, right? He claimed he was, uh, Bonifacio, He claimed he was Bonifacio Morea Lizcano,

some traveling salesman who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luis was fingerprinted, photographed without a shirt. He did have some burn marks on his body, just like task force investigators assumed the killer would have. And soon back in the city of Perea, task force leader

Alvaro Vivas showed the team a photo of Luis, of Bonifacio Marea Liscano, to compare to the ID card photo they had gotten from his girlfriend, a picture taken when he was 18. And investigator Carlos Herrera concludes, this is the same fucking guy. They've got their man. Also Luis's prints have been taken during his 1996 detainment in the city of Tunja. Those prints are now compared to the most recent set from this booking. Perfect match. Right? They totally have him now, right? Well, not quite.

Because sometimes the fucking law is insane. Luis is still insisting he is someone else. And for some reason, the fact that they had his fingerprints was not enough to legally prove that the guy pretending to be Bonifacio Morea-Lezcano is actually Luis Garavito, which makes zero sense to me. Seems pretty fucking clear-cut, but apparently not in Colombia in the 90s for some reason. And now this maybe but maybe not Luis, but definitely Luis, is being held without charges because they still hadn't charged him with attempted rape and Colombian law requires prosecutors to press charges within three months or let a suspect go.

Time was running out because it was Luis's word against the young child's and the witness to his crimes, that dude dropping acid, well he disappeared because he didn't want to get involved in a police investigation. Okay, fair. The task force now pleads with the local DA not to release Luis because they knew he would continue killing if he got out. In August of 1999, prosecutors asked psychologist Dr. Oscar Diaz to perform an evaluation and try and get Luis to talk. They didn't want Diaz to reveal that they already knew who he was. They wanted him to tell the doctor who he really was. Luis is brought to the city of Villa Vicencio for his interrogation. Dr. Diaz later says about his first encounter with Luis,

When I find myself face to face with Luis Alfredo, what do I find? He seemed like a normal man, a thin man, around five feet, six inches tall, long nose, moustache. I thought he'd be much bigger, more muscular, nothing like the man I had before me. And you wonder, this is the man that's done all this? I saw that he was a person of limited means. He had the ability to be likable and communicate well with other people. When I asked him his name, he seemed nervous and sweaty. He said, Bonifacio Morea Lizcano.

However, after saying that, Luis thankfully fucks up. He looks the psychologist right in the eyes, reveals his true identity. However, after saying that, Luis thankfully fucks up. He looks the psychologist right in the eyes, reveals his true identity. Dr. Diaz acted surprised by the revelation, then waited for more info. Luis said, I changed my name. My name is Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubias. The two now start talking about everything that had happened, and Luis says, Jesus had to bear a heavy cross, us or I bear a terrible cross.

Okay. Luis proceeded to explain that he was raped as a child. He told Dr. Diaz that a friend of his father came to his family farm and got drunk and in the middle of the night he woke up young Luis, told him he lost his wallet in a field, needed the boys help to find it. And then once he had Luis alone in this field, he attacked and raped him. Luis said he tried to tell his mother what had happened, that his mother then told his father, but his father didn't believe him, and his father never confronted his rapist. Dr. Diaz now had Luis take some psychological tests. The results indicated that he had a schizoid, antisocial personality, and he had a history

of committing sexual abuse. The task force now brings in a DA named Maria Lily Naranjo to lead the next phase of the investigation. They wanted her to interrogate Luis and see if she could elicit a detailed confession from him. She asked for help from Dr. Diaz and Detective Aldemar Duran. Her interrogation began on October 28, 1999 and it would lead to closing over 100 cases of murdered children from the past eight years.

Fucking crazy number. Horrific number. First, Luis was asked what he knew about the missing children in Hanoi. He said, I heard that some kids showed up dead and people were very alarmed. He was asked about cases in other cities. He often asked the prosecutor to repeat herself so he could buy himself time to, you know, form a response. He was vague. He seemed to have an alibi for every situation, but she knew he was lying. After eight hours, the DA decides to end the question because she still hadn't broken him.

But then Detective Aldemar asked for just a few minutes alone with Luis. He sat down face to face with him and said, first of all, you're a good man. You're a good neighbor, good to your family. Your friend tells us that you're very, very good people. You give others what you don't have for yourself. If you have to spend all your money, you do it.

Louise responded, of course I'm good. I have good qualities. Aldeimah then told him they knew about his childhood issues and his struggles with alcohol. And he suggested to Louise that the alcohol influenced the terrible crimes against children. That it wasn't his fault. It was the alcohol's fault if anything he too was a victim And that was it. That's all it took for this fucker Louise now broke down saying I did it. I want to talk on the man you're looking for and he added how fucked up is this

I may be wrong, but it was pleasurable He said yes, I walked around looking for a child and I killed him. Louise then told the prosecutor, I'm not who you think, I'm much worse. I'm scum, but let me do something. And then he asked to pray. Louise was captured on video sobbing dramatically and crying out, it wasn't my fault, it was my destiny. Damn, damn, my father to hell. Why? Why? Always the fucking same with these clowns. It's never their fault. They had the real victim. After he gathered his composure, he continued his confession.

Louise would now claim that everything started way back in 1969 when he was just 12 years old, during a routine vaccination visit. It's always the vaccine's fault. He said he was molested by the pharmacist phlebotomist, this religious man who was one of his family's neighbors. This man allegedly bit, burned, and cut Louise during this incident. And after this first incident, Louise said he started to kill and dissect birds. Okay.

He also began to fondle his siblings and he would claim he molested a six-year-old boy that same year. Is that true? Maybe. It's a very different story than the one he told a psychologist about the friend of his dad's, you know, having him search for the wallet in the middle of the night. He now said his family noticed that he was withdrawn, aggressive, and quote, ready to

take revenge on the world. In 1971 when he was 14 he said his family moved to Trujillo in the department of Valle de Calca, or Del Calca. He said that soon after moving a neighbor showed him some porn and mocked him for acting like it disgusted him and then that same neighbor sexually assaulted him. And Luis said he did not tell his family because he feared they wouldn't believe him. Luis claimed he began drinking alcohol around this time. Then in 1972 at the age of 15, Luis said he tried to have sex with some local women who rejected his advances and that angered and humiliated him. He said that same year his mom then kicked him out of the house for attempting to rape a five-year-old boy.

But soon thereafter she let him come back. But a short time later he was kicked out again and for the final time after attempting to assault a six-year-old boy at a train station in Bogota. The boy screamed for help. Louis said he was detained. When he was told he would be charged with attempted rape he said he only wanted to lightly molest the boy. What the fuck? No, what? I wasn't gonna rape him. I mean, yeah, I was gonna put a finger in his butt, but that's it.

I promise. Pinky swear. Uh, Louise claims his father reprimanded him now for not choosing to assault a woman before he disowned him. And I hope that's not true. The fuck are you doing, Louise? Have I taught you nothing? If you're gonna rape somebody, you rape a hot chick.

Okay, like I would. Not some boy like a fucking pedo homo. Is that something any father's ever said? I mean, sadly it probably is. Now on his own, Luis told investigators he worked various jobs and attempted to study marketing but he struggled to keep employment because he would get drunk, get into physical altercations with clients, coworkers, and bosses. He said he moved around the country often, spending periods of time working as a street because he would get drunk, get into physical altercations with clients, co-workers, and bosses.

He said he moved around the country often, spending periods of time working as a street vendor, others as a migrant worker. Throughout the 70s, Luis said he suffered from psychosis, paranoia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. If only he had killed himself. He felt he hadn't achieved much in life, wanted to start a family. Luis said he struggled with erectile dysfunction, especially when he was drunk, which made him furious and embarrassed. Luis said he was still in contact with his older sister Esther, but she avoided him because of his drinking. And he added that he disliked his other siblings because he believed his father had favored them. 1978, Luis said he

began attending AA meetings, also converted to Pentecostal Christianity, was working as a clerk at a store for a time when he met his first real girlfriend, Luz Mari Ocampo, who he met. She thought he spent all his time attending church, AA meetings, work, sometimes visiting psychiatrists, but Louise was living a double life. He claimed that he continually assaulted both male and female children throughout the 70s. He adds female here, but I do want to add no records of female victims. I feel like that was his dad getting in his head. I guess somehow you know made

him less gay to admit that he also you know assaulted women or girls. No, always boys. And that he said that at night he would go to local parks and pay child sex workers to perform sexual acts on him. In 1980, Lewis said he lost a job at a bakery he really liked for fighting with his co-workers and he was so upset about being fired he attempted suicide and then sought psychiatric care at a hospital. He told investigators he was repeatedly hospitalized throughout the spring of 1980. He expressed he wanted to die because he believed his life was worth nothing. Well, I don't normally say this but you are you were right. You actually were right

to believe that. I would say that your life was worth less than nothing and you definitely should have killed yourself because you would have saved a lot of people a lot of trauma. When further explaining why he was suicidal, Luis first said he wanted children, then he rephrased, said he wanted to start a family. Maybe he slipped a little bit there and talking about how he desired children sexually. Later that year Luis got a job at a supermarket in the city of Armenia. Around this time he started dating a single mom named Claudia but she left him because he couldn't support the lifestyle she wanted according to him. After this

breakup instead of spending his lunch breaks with Claudia now he is assaulting children when he's not at work. In the fall of 1980 Luis said he started carrying razor blades candles and lighters with him to torture his child victims. Fuck. He also removed one of his own teeth, he said, in order to be able to bite his victims more effectively. That's a new one. Now after committing a crime, Luis would write the victims name in a blue notebook and then pray for them in a ritualistic manner, pacing his room naked and beating his chest.

He also said he read the Bible every night trying to find an explanation for his dark thoughts. He said he was interested in Christianity, but also studied astrology, tarot readings, and Satanism. In the early 80s, Louisa also became a fan of Hitler. Fair enough for this guy. I don't doubt it after he read Mein Kampf and he felt like they had several factors in common. Such as traumatic childhoods, homosexual experiences, and spending years as vagrants. I don't think that Hitler wrote about having homosexual experiences. I'll be honest, I haven't read Mein Kampf, but I've read about it and read about Hitler's other writings. Pretty sure there was no mention of him getting blowjobs or, you know, getting

his butthole plundered, just to see what the fuss was about. It's almost like Luis is un poco loco. Started on his 27th birthday on January 25th, 1904, Luis was housed in a psychiatric center for 33 days after he suffered a mental breakdown. He was prescribed antipsychotics and was referred to therapy for his depression. He was granted leave February 28th, fled to Perea and the department of Rizalralda where he almost immediately molested two children, two children, photographed the victims, then left those photos in his older sister's home. Luis said he fled the city after he was publicly identified as being a pedophile there.

He claimed that by that point he had already sexually abused or raped over a hundred kids. He made no mention of killing them though up until this point. Luis's next idol was domestic terrorist Campo Elias Delgado, a man who had murdered his mom and then later opened fire and killed over two dozen others at a restaurant in Bogota in December of 1986. He liked how much attention Delgado got for doing what he did and he wanted to emulate him. Luis now fantasized about getting a machine gun,

killing his entire family, then killing himself. He said he believed that committing suicide after a mass murder was the ideal way to die. But he stuck around I guess because it was just too much fun to keep attacking children. In the late 80s Luis started dating a single mom named Graciela Zabaleta who lived near one of the psychiatric centers where he was committed. The very first time they met he suggested she be his girlfriend and she was charmed, allowed him to live with her in Perea as long as he cooked and helped out with the bills, but then their relationship quickly fizzled because of Graciela's concerns over his alcoholism. Another

little monkey wrench in that relationship was some of Luis's friends in town seeing him with very young boys at local motels. They apparently did not confront him about what he was doing though, because, I don't know, they were huge cowards or pieces of shit. Can you imagine seeing a friend of yours taking some little kid into a motel room and not bringing that up? Like seeing them take multiple kids on different occasions into seedy motel rooms and just be like, nah, none of my business.

Not my place to judge. Yes, it is. It is definitely your place to judge. Yes, it is. It is definitely your place to judge. Started in 1988, Luis began keeping trophies from his rape victims in a suitcase he kept at his older sister's house. Luis would also claim that he began using a Ouija board to enter into some kind of trance state around this time. And during one of these Ouija board sessions, he said the devil asked him if he would like to serve him. Then when Luis answered yes, the devil said kill that with killing many things may come. Totally, totally. Yeah, the devil made you do it buddy.

Louise said he attempted to commit murder for the first time October 1st 1992. He claimed he sought out a young boy who was selling candy and cigars on the street. He lured the youth first to the Malia Hotel in Bolivar, Colombia. He then planned on taking him to a wooded lot to torture and kill him, but he got caught by two officers. He said one of the officers hit him over the head with a revolver and that they stole a thousand pesos from him, his watch and a ring he was wearing before they let him go. Luis's first known murder victim was 13-year-old Juan Carlos, who he killed just three days after that failed attempt on October 4th 1992 in the town of Valle del Calca. Luis claimed he saw Juan Carlos walking near a bazaar where he was drinking. He said that the reflection

of the moon on the river invoked a strange force in him that reminded him of his childhood and made him feel enraged. So now he followed the child stopping to buy some rope and a knife. Then he approached and offered Juan Carlos a job. Juan Carlos then followed him to a remote area near a railroad for this supposed work he was offered. The boy's dead body was later found in a horrifically mutilated state. His front teeth had been completely bashed out, his genitals had been cut off of his body, and his throat had been slashed. Right from the beginning his murders were ferociously sadistic. The boys were often molested and tortured simultaneously

for prolonged periods of time. Some victims were stabbed with a screwdriver in their ass, hands, feet. Sometimes their ass would be flayed with broken blades, Garavito placed between his fingers like razor blades. Jesus! While these poor kids were still alive, Garavito would frequently sever their genitals and

then place them in the kids mouth. They were extensively beaten, burned, trampled, stabbed, sliced, sliced in the back, stomach and throat. In some cases, and this is especially graphic, they were sexually abused while their intestines were hanging out of their stomachs. Sometimes the beast impaled them with foreign objects through their anus. Sometimes he would stab them over a hundred times and he would typically climax while he decapitated them or while he sliced their throat. And then he frequently would have sex again with

their corpse. Ghetto Vito could only achieve a proper orgasm, I guess, by beating, biting, or stabbing victims during intercourse. And many of the children's bodies showed signs of, quote, extensive sodomy. This guy was fucking literally as brutal as they come. Luis claimed he blacked out during his first murder and that he cried when he found blood in his clothes the following morning. Bullshit. Nice little lie to tell himself there.

Six days later, on October 10th, 1992, Luis said he traveled to visit his sister, Esther. He said he drank to try to subdue his murderous impulses, but he killed 12-year-old Joan Alexander Penaranda anyway on the way to Esther's house in Tolua. Starting to worry about getting caught now and wanting to continue killing without detection, Luis now starts to experiment with wearing different disguises. He poses as a priest on a few occasions. wearing different disguises. He poses as a priest on a few occasions. Uh, not sure that was the best disguise choice for a grown man sexually interested in young boys. It's kind of like a guy putting on a ski mask, walking around with a shotgun in the bag full of cash

so no one will suspect him of being a bank robber. But that's what he did. On at least one occasion he posed as a physically disabled person in need of help to gain a victim's trust. Took a page out of Ted Bundy's playbook there. He even pretended to be the representative of a foundation for the elderly or a foundation for young people which would get him admission into schools as a speaker for fuck's sake. After each brutal killing he said he continued his habit of keeping small personal items from each victim in his black suitcases, little trophies. At one point he started keeping victims' toes as a trophy.

But he later disposed of them because he got afraid that police dogs would pick up their horrific scent. 1993, Luis claimed he lured a group of eight children from a local school to a wooded area in the municipality of La Victoria and raped and killed them all, due to a legit evil monster. He said he murdered two more children in the Meissen neighborhood of Bogota before traveling to Tuluá, Perea,

Cumbaya, and then back to Tuluá where he murdered still more children. In early 1994, Luis said he lured a 12 year old boy off of a bus to a secluded ravine where he gave the boy brandy, then stripped and bound the child. Luis claimed he let go of the boy when he noticed a foul odor in the area, which ended up being a mass grave. Upon being freed, the child seized the knife, ended up severing some tendons in Luis's left hand, and then Luis overpowered and murdered him. On February 4th, 1994, Luis lured 13-year-old

Jaime Andres Gonzalez from Bolivar Square to a sugar cane field after he was kicked out of a bar. Luis assaulted and murdered the boy. He claimed he then saw a large crucifix and entered a brief psychotic state where he heard a voice berating him. He then buried his knife and prayed for forgiveness and then dug it back up and returned to his hotel room to chant the scripture of Psalm 57 for several hours until dawn. Have mercy on me my God, have mercy on me. For in you I me for in you I take refuge I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster is past Apparently eventually he felt satisfied that God did show him mercy and he went right back to statistically sexually torturing raping and murdering young boys

Towards the end of his crime spree Luis said he was homeless and a drifter He was also before his arrest planning to commit a mass murder where he would kidnap several adults and execute them. Luis explained how he got away with what he did for so long telling investigators, when I kidnapped a child I didn't know his name or who he was because I never did it to friends kids. They were all strangers whom I talked to and got to walk away with me. As the investigators presented him with more and more cases of missing and or murdered boys, Luis initially admitted to a 140 line tally of named victims. When asked specifically about his motive, he said,

The reason? There could be one. Maybe the pleasure that I felt. That could be it. Why would I have to decapitate? Behead kids? I mean, commit a series of acts that I want to forget? But then he said, I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't want to do it. There was some kind of force inside me, greater than my will not to do harm. I was good too. Oh, yeah, totally. He's a great guy. It's just the fucking devil got him and you know, the devil made him do things he didn't want to do. He's the biggest victim. Luis spent the entire night once he started confessing, sharing every single detail he could remember. Then the following day, October 29th, 1999, Chief Prosecutor Alfonso Gomez-Mendez

ordered a press conference where he revealed to the public, quote, There is no precedent for this in Colombia. Luis Alfredo Guerriero has admitted to the murders of about 140 children. Of those, we so far have found 114 skeletons. We are still investigating the disappearances of other children. Over the following months, investigators acting on Garavito's information will find additional bodies on the outskirts of more than 60 different towns and 11 different districts. The next phase of the investigation will focus on eliciting still more confessions and securing his assistance in finding even more bodies.

Luis will now admit to 26 additional murders, including several in Ecuador. He spoke to forensic anthropologist Helga Cuevedo. By the end of his interviews with her, he was able to recall detailed descriptions of additional victims, including in many cases names, dates, and times, even though he said he didn't remember the names, and he helped her create detailed maps of where he left these bodies. Some of the dumping grounds were near rivers. The victims there were likely washed away in many cases. Others were empty lots that had been built over, but in some places they did find more victims. One of the victims who was now found was Jose Alberto Gomez, who went missing in Buga back on November 26, 1994. Jose went to school that day, planned

on spending his upcoming school break with his grandparents, but then disappeared from a market. Luis Garavito accepted a plea deal with prosecutors after all this shit. He was sentenced to 1,853 years in prison, which sounds like so much. But Colombian law does not allow consecutive sentences for the same type of crime. It also prohibits life sentences. And that meant that Luis was really sentenced to 40 years in prison Which was the maximum sentence at that time But because he you know had helped locate so many bodies that sentence was reduced to 22 years

22 fucking years after Decapitating brutally like the most brutal sexual torture you can possibly commit on another human being He did that to about 200 fucking kids raped about another 200 others torture them as well and he gets 22 years total in 2002 It's fucking ridiculous investigative reporter Mauricio Aaron Gurin met up with Louise in prison because he wanted to write a book about his victims. Aranguren was appalled that Luis was living, quote, fat and happy in a big warehouse, not suffering in a small cell like the other inmates.

The journalists had read all 5,000 pages of Luis's previous confession, but now he changed his story. Said it wasn't him. He tried to convince him that somebody else killed all his kids. He'd been framed. His confession was coerced. You know, he was innocent He's a great guy and Then when uh, Oren Gurren wants a photo with Louise for his book Louise wants him to pay him for it

And when the journalist refuses Louise takes a fucking rock out from under his bed and says I have a rock here to defend Myself from people who mock me How is that psycho allowed to have a fucking rock with him? Oren Gurren takes off goes on on to publish his book, 192 Murdered Children, which included the only press interview Luis ever gave, and it included additional murders Luis confessed to in 2003, which brought his total to 192 victims, not counting all the kids he had raped and tortured but did not kill. That total would later increase to 193 victims. He would eventually confess to even more. The public is outraged by how cushy Luis's life is in prison and R. N. Gurren believes his book led to Luis being transferred

now to a maximum security prison where he didn't have all the same perks. In November of 2021 now there's a lot of outrage amongst the general public in Colombia over a proposal to grant Luis early release for good behavior. Un-fucking-real. Luis told a senator that if he were to be released he was going to enter politics. Sounds right. He was going to run for a seat in congress, also become a Christian pastor, and get married. And he maybe start a family. Oh, and he expressed a desire to work with and help abuse children. What a great idea. Listen kid, I know it sucks that your dad has hit you, but you know what? It could be a lot worse.

Like I know of some kids who were sexually tortured and raped for hours before they had their, you know, their cock and balls cut off and their heads cut off. I mean, uh, I saw it happen, you know, because it was it was me. I did that to a lot of kids. I mean like a lot of kids. So again, it could be worse. You know, let's take a little break. How about you and me go for a little hike in the woods? You know, just two of us. A judge blocked his release, which was set for 2020-23. Oh my god, 2023. But only on the grounds that he had still not paid a $41,500 fine to his victims. The only reason that motherfucker didn't get out was because of that technicality.

Instead of getting released in 2023, Louise got himself some eye cancer and leukemia, so finally some good fucking news in this story! Couldn't happen to a better guy. By the time he died on October 12th of 2023, at the age of 66, he was blind, physically weak, and required daily blood transfusions that they shouldn't have given him. He spent his final months making handcuffs, earrings, and necklaces in the prison's medical unit, and because of public backlash over how close he came to being released in 2023, despite sexually torturing and raping almost 400 fucking kids. Also killing around 200 of them, Colombia changed their maximum sentencing laws

and raised the maximum sentence from 40 to 60 years. Still not life without the possibility of parole, but step in the right direction. And that is the insanely grisly tale of the most prolific serial killer we currently know of. The story of Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos La Bestia. A man worse than a beast. Truly a real life monster.

And that is it for this edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. If you enjoyed that horrific story on some level, in a macabre way, check out the rest of the Bad Magic catalog. Beefier episodes of Time Suck every Monday at noon Pacific time. New episodes of the now long running paranormal podcast Scared to Death every Tuesday at midnight with two episodes of Nightmare Fuel, fictional horror thrown into the mix each month. If that story you just heard made you erect, please throw yourself in front of a fucking train immediately. Find the fastest train in your area and step in front of it right fucking now. But don't do that unless, only do that if it really turned you on. Otherwise, you know, I hope you got some entertainment out of it I guess.

Thanks to Olivia Lee for the initial research and thanks to Logan Keith polishing up the sound of today's episode. Please go to BadMagicproductions.com for all your bad magic needs and have yourself a great weekend. Add Magic Productions