The Beast

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos (born 25 January 1957), also known as La Bestia ("The Beast") or Tribilin ("Goofy") is a Colombian serial killer, sex offender, pedophile, and necrophile. In October 1999, he confessed to committing the rape, torture, mutilation and murder of 147 minors, predominantly 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 four 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 he confessed on 28 October 1999. The court ruled that Garavito should serve sentences totalling 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.

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 sexually assaulting him and 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. Following the first incident of this abuse, Garavito allegedly killed and dissected two birds in frustration, which prompted him to feel remorse and shame shortly thereafter.

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.

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".

Starting in 1988, Garavito began documenting his crimes, keeping trophies from his victims in black cloth suitcases at several females' residences.

Between 1980 and 1992, Garavito was estimated to have raped and tortured a minimum of 200 youths, a period during which he had actively spent five years under psychiatric care, having attempted suicide several times. Wherever Garavito had resided during this time, reports of child molestation in said areas increased dramatically.

While operating a ouija board, Garavito alleged that he entered a state of psychosis in which the devil had asked whether he would like to serve him. Answering that he would, the devil responded, saying, "Kill, that with killing many things may come." Attempting to commit his first murder on 1 October 1992 Garavito sought a young boy who had been selling sweets and cigars to passersby. In a "state of drunkenness," he lured the youth—who he planned on bringing to a wooded lot—to the Melia hotel sector in Bolivar, Colombia before being interrupted and beaten by local police, one of whom hit him over the head with a revolver. As Garavito bled, they then stole 100,000 pesos, a watch, and a ring from him before letting him go from a police station. Garavito then resolved to commit murder three days later.

Committing his first murder of a boy named Juan Carlos on 4 October 1992, Garavito began wearing various disguises in order to evade identification and arrest. Known locally as "Goofy," a generous man who gave to children in Trujillo, locals went out of their way to keep documents for Garavito. For years, Garavito documented his crimes by tickets, receipts, clothes, and identity cards of victims in a black cloth suitcase; Garavito left the suitcase with his sister Esther before giving it to Luz Mary. He also collected their amputated toes, before disposing of them for fear that the Colombian National Police's scent dog team may trace them to him. In June 1996, Garavito complained to Luz Mary of losing his temporary job as a salesman for air fresheners, begging for a place to stay in exchange for food and financial relief. Wary of Garavito for his alcoholism and temper, she took him in briefly with hesitance; Garavito then suffered a hard fall in the Guacamayas neighborhood of Bogotá, breaking his leg in August 1996. Stricken with pain, he resided temporarily with a man before begging his girlfriend Luz Mary to let him stay at her residence again. Restricted by having to use crutches, wear a neck brace, and a cast, Garavito resorted to begging on the street for the two months he resided with her.