Luis Garavito

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. His father Manuel Antonio was described by Garavito as adulterous, drunken, macho, very strict, and often physically and emotionally abusive to Garavito throughout his childhood; he further went on to describe his mother Rosa Delia as a violent woman,[14] and someone who showed him little affection and care as a child. On account of the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia at the time, the family was forced to relocate to Ceilán, Valle del Cauca before Garavito entered primary school.[15]

Due to the instability of his parents' marriage, the household was plagued by years of incessant fighting, domestic violence, and extreme neglect.[15][16] When Garavito was six or seven, he recalled being strapped to a tree and beaten with a tree branch by his father as he attempted to defend his mother, whom Manuel was known to beat even in pregnancy.[15] Evidently, the beatings his father inflicted were so spontaneous and severe that they prompted Garavito and his siblings to hide upon his returning home from work.[17] Sleeping in the same bed as his father, Garavito also alleged he had been fondled on one occasion.[15]

Growing up, Garavito was referred to as an imbecile, a bastard, and other pejoratives by his father, whom he claimed had "never had a good word" for him, only ever bringing Garavito with him for work-related purposes and to run errands. Attending Simón Bolívar School in Ceilán, he was said to be shy and reserved, and often the subject of ridicule by other children in spite of his violent temper. Teachers had found him enthusiastic to learn, but noted his frustration with his inability to understand subjects. Nicknamed "Garabato" (meaning "Squiggle") for his glasses and timid nature by bullies, Garavito was very insecure of his glasses and made few attempts to play with other children due to ostracizing.[15] His teachers made no attempts to stop the bullying, which distressed Garavito.[16]

Around 1968, his father forbade him to finish the fifth grade in favor of 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 brutal 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 him violently during these incidents of molestation.[18]

When Garavito was first abused, his psychological trauma led him to kill and dissect two birds, which prompted him to feel remorse and shame shortly thereafter. After stoning the birds, Garavito would begin to suggest to his younger brothers and sisters that they sleep with him naked in the bed they shared. He then began sexually fondling his younger siblings—which was evidently overlooked by parents Manuel and Rosa—as they slept, often stripping them naked on the family farm.[15][16][n 1] Garavito would also claim to have began abusing a 6-year-old boy.[14] According to those who knew him, Garavito would become very withdrawn, extremely aggressive, and "ready to take revenge on the world."[19]

The abuse by the neighbor ended after the family's relocation to Trujillo in 1971;[20] the physical trauma endured had proven so severe that Garavito would not be able to properly ejaculate, and would sustain an erectile dysfunction problem that would follow him into adulthood.[19] Fearing that his father would not believe him, and perceiving no one would care anyway, Garavito chose to keep his sexual abuse experiences to himself.[15] Soon after arriving in Trujillo, Garavito was shown heterosexual pornography by another neighboring family friend. Because he expressed disgust at what he saw, the neighbor beat him into the undergrowth before raping him.[21][n 2] 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.[22]

Through various alcoholic family members, Garavito was able to access alcoholic drink and developed an addiction.[23][14][n 3] Because of his rebelliousness and sexual inclinations, Garavito would be kicked out on a repeated basis throughout his teens; once by his mother Rosa in 1972 for attempting to rape a 5-year-old boy—in which he first acknowledged his pederast and sadistic tendencies[16]—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 would be 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".[16][15] Throughout his early life, Garavito was described as consistently without friends and never rooted in any particularly stable environment, which was later noted by various experts to be highly contributive to his later development of antisocial personality disorder.[24]

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 would gradually escalate to physical altercations.[25] 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.[26] Working on a coffee plantation as a youth in the early 1970s in Trujillo, he first fell in love with a schoolteacher and single mother named Luz Mary Ocampo Orozco whom he later attended weekly mass services with.[27][15] Many of the women he befriended had children, whom Garavito was known to have treated as if they were his own children, in addition to being a loving boyfriend when sober.[27] Garavito was also known by his friends to be amicable in spite of his violent temper and occasional drunken states, in which he had evidently sworn to murder his father.[15]

Garavito would be plagued with symptoms of psychosis, paranoia and depression as a result of the extreme abuses he had faced as a child and adolescent. For the majority of the 1970s and the 1980s, he would sexually molest children of both sexes as he spiraled into mental illness; his attraction would gradually turn pederast however. Suffering from depression and suicidal tendencies, he expressed a desire to start a family.[15] Insisting on having sexual intercourse with female partners when drunk, he would consistently fail to maintain an erection, prompting an unprovoked emotional rant concerning his hatred for his family.[16]

Garavito gradually fell into alcoholism to cope with his traumatic childhood, and began to participate in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1978.[15] Garavito also converted to the Pentecostal faith and began working as a store clerk, where he had coincidentally reconnected briefly with his first girlfriend Luz Mary.[27] Drifting from his family, he was only close to his older sister, Esther, who avoided him due to his alcoholism.[28] Relocating to the town of Armenia, Garavito acquired a day job at a bakery before being fired as a result of provoking a fight with his co-workers; he subsequently attempted suicide.

Following this failed attempt, Garavito sought psychiatric care at the San Juan de Dios hospital and was repeatedly hospitalized throughout the spring of 1980, where he expressed a desire to die on account of his feelings of worthlessness.[15] He was primarily treated for his diagnosed depression in spite of his evident psychosis and bulimia;[23] he was prescribed medication for psychosis.[16] Intent on being truthful with the psychiatrist, Garavito stated that he wanted to have children, before misdirecting this statement into implying he wanted to start a family. Fearful of consequences, Garavito chose not to inform the psychiatrist of his pedophilia or his sexual impotence with female partners. Following his attendance of local church services in which he would remorsefully beat his chest during prayer, Garavito would subsequently attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and occasionally visit psychiatrists before ending his day by frequenting Valencia Park, a known hotspot for child prostitution.[15]

Garavito obtained employment at a supermarket in Armenia, being given 2-hour lunch breaks on Thursday and Sunday noons; he then began a relationship with a single mother named Claudia in 1980, a beautician whom he described as being the first woman whose company he enjoyed. This relationship would be short-lived however, as Garavito apparently could not sustain Claudia's spending habits.[15] Satiating his sexual desires by binding and raping children during his lunch breaks in neighboring Quimbaya and Calarcá, Garavito did not engage in intercourse with Claudia.[16] Later that year, Garavito would escalate his habit of molesting children at least once a month to torturing the children with methods used on himself as a child by his abusers.

He would then write the name of the molested child in a blue notebook and pray for them while pacing his room, fervently beating his chest while naked in a ritual-like fashion. He also began compulsively reading the Bible each night, attempting to find an explanation[20]—particularly in the Book of Psalms—for his molestation and torture of youths. Suffering from bouts of depression and guilt from his crimes, Garavito would find himself suffering from nightmares about the children, waking up in tears before entering fits of hysterical laughter as he remembered the pleasure received from their pain.[15] Despite this, Garavito developed an interest in esoteric study, tarot readings and Satanism.[17] He would visit palm readers and other occultic practitioners before deciding that they were just as clueless as he was regarding the occult.[15]

Discovering Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, Garavito also became fond of Hitler upon discovering similarities in their early lives, homosexual experiences, and years spent in vagrancy.[17] This fondness would turn into idolization, expressing admiration for Hitler, mass graves of the Holocaust, and stating that he "liked the concentration camps". On 25 January 1984, Garavito would be housed under psychiatric care for 33 days following a mental breakdown; he was prescribed antipsychotic medication and referred to psychotherapy for his depression. After obtaining a permit to leave on 28 February 1984, Garavito fled to Pereira where he immediately lured, bound, molested, and tortured two children in the sector of Getsemani. He then began storing scalpels, candles, and razor blades in plastic bags for future victims. Having molested and tortured more than a hundred children by this period, Garavito was briefly detained for stealing jewelry from a friend.[15]

In addition to his fascination with Hitler, Garavito developed an obsession with Colombian spree killer Campo Elías Delgado in December 1986,[15] immediately admiring his mass murder at a Bogotá restaurant, the attention it received, and wanting to emulate him as he and others noted it on television at a bar.[29] From this point on, Garavito would harbour fantasies of acquiring a machine gun and—starting with his father—annihilating his family before committing suicide.[22] Admiring mass murders akin to that of Delgado's, Garavito felt that committing suicide following a mass murder would be an ideal way to die for him.[10]

After being seen drunk in the company of various pubescent youths of "humble" appearance by his friends Jairo Toro and Ancizar Valencia, Garavito's companions became aware of their friend's pederasty. Despite this, the issue was never brought up to Garavito, and most of his acquaintances did not suspect any odd sexual deviation. In addition, his various girlfriends were also oblivious to Garavito's predilections; starting in 1988, Garavito began documenting his crimes, keeping them in black cloth suitcases at various females' residences.[7] In the late 1980s, Garavito found another girlfriend named Graciela Zabaleta, a single mother who he provided for and lived with in exchange for necessities.[15][27] Like Luz Mary, Garavito also would later claim to have loved Zabaleta.[10]

Between 1980 and 1992, Garavito was estimated to have raped and tortured a minimum of 200 youths,[10] a period during which he had actively spent five years under psychiatric care,[30] having attempted suicide several times.[23] Wherever Garavito had resided during this time, reports of child molestation in said areas increased dramatically.[15]

While operating an 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."[17][15] 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 taking a revolver and hitting Garavito over the head with it. As Garavito bled, they then stole 100,000 pesos, a watch, and a ring from him before letting him go from a police station.[31] Merely three days thereafter, Garavito sought again to commit murder.

Committing his first murder of a boy named Juan Carlos on 4 October 1992,[29] Garavito began to wear various disguises in order to evade identification and arrest. Known locally as "Goofy," a generous man who gave to children in Trujillo, the locals had gone out of their way to keep documents for Garavito.[7] For years, Garavito had been documenting 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.[32] 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.[15] In June 1996, Garavito would complain to Luz Mary of losing his temporary job as a salesman for air fresheners, and beg for a place to stay in exchange for food and financial relief. Luz Mary was weary of Garavito for his alcoholism and temper, but took him in briefly; Garavito would then suffer from a hard fall in the Guacamayas neighborhood of Bogotá, and subsequently break 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;[6] 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.[27]

Garavito provided for the household by paying for meals and other means, such as bringing a television. Despite this, Garavito was still hostile and entered a fight with his girlfriend's 15-year-old son for wanting to watch the local news. Luz Mary subsequently evicted Garavito, who derided her son as disrespectful and rude, and had also damaged a gold chain she had gifted to him. Later that year on Christmas Day, Luz Mary would receive a gift from a visiting friend, which prompted an angry, drunken phone call from Garavito in which he stated that he "didn't like those faggots" visiting as he feared they would steal her generosity from Garavito. After being informed that he was no longer welcome, Garavito appeared the next morning shouting obscenities and threats, and grabbing at Luz Mary's throat; Luz Mary and her family hid at a neighbor's house in response for the time being. After several hours, Garavito left an apology note asking for her forgiveness, and noting his "damage" to their household.[27] Nicknamed "Conflict" by locals,[23] Garavito was frequently seen drunk and would drift from town to town as he outwore his welcome, often due to his domestic disputes with co-workers, abuse of his girlfriends, and general inability to behave normally. His erratic behavior had left him unable to develop meaningful relationships, despite living with two different women in Pereira at the time of his arrest.[25]

Toward the end of Garavito's crime spree, he would roam the west Colombian region as a homeless drifter. Weary of murdering minors who he felt were much too easy to lure, Garavito developed plans to eventually commit a mass murder in which he would kidnap several adults and murder them as he attracted the attention of journalists, possibly dying in the frenzy.[10] Nevertheless, before he could carry his plan out, Garavito would be detained for the attempted sexual assault of 12-year-old John Iván Sabogal on 22 April 1999.

Garavito was also said to have operated in Ecuador during the summer of 1998, when he murdered 14-year-old Abel Gustavo Loor Vélez, a local shoe-shiner and paper boy on 20 July 1998 and 12-year-old Jimmy Leonardo Palacios Anchundia in Chone, Ecuador. Both boys were from poor families, and disappeared at noon. Garavito was subsequently spotted at an all-girls' school in Santo Domingo, Ecuador before fleeing Ecuadorian authorities who had been setting up an operation to catch him.[6] There they found two corpses, one of whom was a young girl who had been raped, tortured, murdered, and discarded in similar fashion to that of Garavito's modus operandi.[11] Marked for his thick Colombian accent, locals spotted a foreign drifter begging for money in July and August of that year. In addition, Garavito also stated that he had allegedly committed murder in Venezuela.[6]

In 1979, Garavito, wielding a machete, seized victim 9-year-old William Trujillo Mora (who was interviewed and featured on the Colombian television program Los Informantes) in the Valle del Cauca region as he was about to join other playing children, hugging him and threatening to kill him if he screamed. Mora obliged, and he was escorted by Garavito to an abandoned building where he was sexually molested and tortured for 12 hours. When Garavito sensed that someone was near the house, he urged the child to remain silent.[34] When Garavito lost consciousness from drinking, Mora exited the building.

In 1988, Garavito lured an unidentified victim who he had sexually assaulted near a restaurant called El Arepazo in the Alto del Río sector, in Quindío's Calarcá, a location where several bodies were later found within a 20-metre proximity of one another. Following an earthquake on 25 January 1999 authorities found the owner of the restaurant—which was reduced to rubble—who pointed them to Garavito, whom he had known for many years and avoided due to his drinking problem and aggressive tendencies.[7]

In the early 1990s, Garavito would approach 10-year-old Carlos Alberto in the Circasia sector of Quindío. Offering him gifts and 200 pesos in exchange for work, Garavito led Alberto to the Alto de la Taza where he amicably spoke with the child. Upon reaching a secluded hill spot, Garavito placed a knife at Alberto's throat before proceeding to bind, rape, and torture him. After doing so, Garavito asked Alberto whether he enjoyed it. Humiliated and fearful of Garavito, Alberto stated that he liked it, prompting Garavito to leave after stating, "See you next week. That's how I like it, that you [also] like it."[7]

Brand Ferney Bernal Álvarez was a 16-year-old youth who worked with his father in the rooster fighting business in the 1990s. While Álvarez tended to roosters in the cockpit, Garavito took him to a secluded spot by threatening him with a knife. He then proceeded to bind, sexually assault and torture Álvarez, with methods ranging from stabbing Álvarez seven times with a screwdriver as he raped him, to beating the youth until weak. Álvarez broke free from his restraints and fled from Garavito.[35][10]

Garavito was picked up by the local police just a few days later on an unrelated charge of attempted rape against 12-year-old John Iván Sabogal. On 22 April 1999, Garavito was drinking brandy in the evening when he encountered Sabogal selling lottery tickets in the city of Villavicencio. Introducing himself as Bonifacio Morera Lizcano, a local politician,[41] Garavito proceeded to seize the child with a knife before threatening the child into silence. Pretending to hug Sabogal, Garavito escorted him into a taxi before forcing him to climb a barbed wire fence that lead to a secluded hillside. At this location, Garavito proceeded to bind Sabogal while repeatedly screaming, "Am I a sadist?"[22] He then taunted the child with a knife, shouting various obscenities as he masturbated over him.[42]

A homeless 16-year-old had been close enough to hear the struggle between Garavito and the child. The teen began to curse and throw stones at Garavito. Garavito stabbed the teenager with a dagger. Both the boy and the teen fled to the Rosa Blanca farmhouse located on La Coralina Road in Villavicencio,[43][9] where they were met a 12-year-old girl. Garavito later reached the farmhouse, aggressively asking the girl for directions. She directed Garavito into the woods, where he became lost. The police were contacted, resulting in a search. Authorities found Garavito walking out of the woods at approximately 7:00 p.m. as they urged angry locals not to get involved in the search. He gave them a false ID and claimed to be the politician Lizcano. Despite this, they suspected the man to be Garavito anyway.[43] On 4 July 1999, their suspicion was confirmed.[41]

For Colombia's Justice Department, Garavito's confession was not enough. Garavito had an eye condition that was rare and only found in men in a particular age group. His glasses were specifically designed for his unique condition. These particular glasses were found at a crime scene. Garavito also left behind bottles of brandy, his underwear and his shoes. DNA was found on the victims, along with the other items left behind. Police scheduled the entire jail where Garavito was being detained to get an eye exam, the outcome of which would help police pair the glasses to Garavito. By making it mandatory for all the prisoners, it reduced Garavito's suspicion and kept him from lying about his eyesight.[24] His height of 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) and limp were also crucial in connecting him to the investigators' findings.

While Garavito was out of his cell, detectives took DNA samples from his pillow and living area. The DNA found on the victims was a match to the DNA found in Garavito's cell. Garavito confessed to murdering about 140 children and was charged with killing 172 altogether throughout Colombia.[44] He was found guilty on 138 of the 172 accounts; the others are ongoing. Garavito was sentenced to 1,853 years and 9 days in prison, the lengthiest sentence in Colombian history.[45] However, Colombian law limits imprisonment to 40 years, and, because Garavito helped police find the victims' bodies, his sentence was further reduced to 22 years.[46]

Garavito is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Valledupar in the department of El Cesar in Colombia.[47] He is held separately from all other prisoners because it is feared that he would be killed immediately. He will become eligible for parole in 2023[48] when he has served three quarters of his sentence.[48]

Garavito remains hopeful, having expressed to Colombian senator Carlos Moreno de Caro apparent plans to enter Colombian congress, enter the ministry as a Pentecostal pastor, and marry a woman (in rejection of his self-admitted homosexuality) in the hopes that he will be able to help abused children upon his release.[49] Garavito suffers from severe eye cancer which leaves him weak and fatigued, requiring daily blood transfusions. He spends most of his time making handcuffs, earrings and necklaces in the medical unit of Valledupar's prison.[18]

Many Colombians criticized the possibility of Garavito's early release. In recent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that Garavito's sentence was not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Some have argued he deserves either life in prison or the death penalty, neither of which exist in Colombia. Colombian law had no provision or method to impose a sentence longer than what Garavito received, which was seen as a deficiency in the law caused by the failure to address the possibility of a serial killer in Colombian society. The law has since increased the maximum penalty for such crimes to 60 years in prison.[50]

Journalist Guillermo Prieto "Pirry" La Rotta interviewed Garavito for a show which was broadcast on 11 June 2006. Pirry mentioned that, during the interview, Garavito tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children. Pirry also described Garavito's conditions in prison and commented that due to good behavior, he could probably apply for early release within three years.

• "172 niños víctimas de Luis Alfredo Garavito" (in Spanish). Fiscalía General de la Nación. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
• "Man admits killing 140 children in Colombia". CNN. 30 October 1999. Archived from the original on 7 September 2005.
• "Pirry entrevista a Luis Alfredo Garavito". Universia (in Spanish). 7 June 2006. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
• Cañas, Juan José; Tapias, Ángela (2012). En los laberintos mentales de Garavito (in Spanish). Editorial El Libro Total. ISBN 978-958-708-627-0.