Shownotes Transcript
Love this podcast? Support this show through the Acast supporter feature. It's up to you how much you give, and there's no regular commitment. Just click the link in the show description to support now. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we like to do the opposite of what Big Wireless does. They charge you a lot, we charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you.
That's right. We're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Did you know one in two women wear the wrong foundation? Magic foundation is hard, but ill maquillage makes it easy.
Bye.
Just pay shipping. Take the quiz at ilmakiage.com slash quiz. That's I-L-M-A-K-I-A-G-E dot com slash quiz. This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils.
And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say I'm sorry and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee with your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 in order, additional terms apply.
Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how they died.
Episode 217 I am your humble host, Thomas Roseland Weyborg Thun, and tonight we stay in South America. We keep ourselves in or close by the Andes mountain range, as we track La Bestia, the Beast, Luis Garavito, and his monstrous crimes. Notice.
This episode contains graphic descriptions of brutal and extreme violence against children. Consider yourself warned. This episode, like all other sagas told by me, would not be possible without my loyal Patreones.
They are... You are truly the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast. And without you, there would be no show. Thank you.
I am forever grateful for my elite TSK Producers Club, and I want to show you that your patronage is not given in vain. All TSK episodes will be available 100% ad-free to my TSK Producers Club on patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast. No generic ads, no ad reads, no jingles. I promise.
And of course, if you wish to donate $15 a month, that's only $7.50 per episode, you are more than welcome to join the ranks of the TSK Producers Club too. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, the hell is on a young slender boy standing on a dusty street corner in the hot Colombian sun.
the boy is poor and his clothes are ragged and filthy but underneath the grime is a very beautiful child with soft features large eyes and a feminine mouth a very ordinary-looking man comes by and offers the child a job and some candy
The boy, very hungry and very desperate, is grateful for the attention and the prospect of making some money. The sun is glaring down at the pair, and the man, who introduces himself as a priest, suggests they go somewhere with a shade. He knows just the spot. The man smells of alcohol. The boy is used to the smell from all the adults in his life.
But the supposed priest seems very friendly, and the boy willingly follows. Soon they are out of view from prying eyes in the countryside. Only the priest, whose real name is Luis Garavito, knows that only a few meters away lies a mass grave of young children he has personally murdered. He gets the child to talk candidly about his life, especially the parts that are difficult and painful.
After a while, La Bestia is bored of listening to the child and attacks. Brandishing a menacing knife, he binds the child securely with rope he brought with him. After the child is tied up, he cuts away the boy's clothes so that he lies completely naked under the sun, smiling. The serial killer's mask falls away, and he quickly masturbates over the now crying boy.
According to Garavito, he made a quote-unquote pact with the devil, and satanic rituals were also incorporated. The boy and others were apparent blood sacrifices. Temporarily sated from masturbating, Garavito then takes his time with the child. He rolls the boy over and anally rapes him for a while. Then he stabs a screwdriver repeatedly deep into the victim's buttocks. There's blood everywhere.
But Garavito keeps going. He takes a small knife and flays off pieces of the boy's buttocks' skin. The pain for the boy is extreme and unimaginable. When you would think Garavito could not be any more sadistic, the torture just increases. He turns the boy onto his back again and with a knife slices open his stomach.
Then he rapes the boy from the front so brutally that intestines pour out of the child. But la bestia is not done. He pulls out and proceeds to slice off the child's testicles and penis. The boy passes out, but Garavito repeatedly brings him back too. As the child is howling and screaming in utter agony and terror,
The beast jams the genitals into the boy's mouth, using the sexual organs as a gag. Garavito howls in delight and starts to savagely stab the boy in the chest, neck, and face. When there is no more than a weak death rattle coming from the bloody body before him, Garavito carefully slices off the boy's head using his knife.
The beast, a.k.a. the priest, covered in blood, takes the head and sits down under a small tree nearby. There he watches the sunset with the head in his lap, slowly bringing himself back to full erection, using the head for oral sex. He then rapes the headless corpse over and over again until he cannot climax any more. Only then does La Bestia feel a tinge of guilt.
and he buries the boy with the other victims nearby. Okay, dear listener, that was probably the worst description of murder ever described on this podcast. As a father to two boys, it was horrible researching Garavito's modus operandi as what you just heard was, and writing it up in all its terrible detail.
Understand that he did not do this two or three times, but hundreds. As I have stated several times on this podcast, it is important to understand the true extent of serial killers' brutality, to grasp the facts of how extreme the suffering they inflict upon innocent victims really are.
And Garavito was, perhaps, along with a select few others, the worst serial killer ever to walk the earth. Now, on to how he was finally caught.
Forensic scientists were by now supplied with evidence such as specific nylon threads, alcohol bottles, and a particular methodology that convinced police that the murders were not the work of a team or organization, that they were dealing with one man, a sexual sadist who single-handedly raped and murdered hundreds of Columbia's children.
The Colombian authorities knew that they needed all the help they could get with this case. Colombia had little to no experience managing such cases. So they reached out to their counterparts in the FBI, asking for files on cases similar to the ones they were now investigating.
It was by then February 1999, and yet another mass grave had been unearthed, this time in Palmyra, just 60 kilometers south of Nacaderos. Carlos Herrera joined the task force. Herrera obtained over 13 pieces of evidence from this crime scene, one of which was a pair of shoes that would later help investigators identify an important physical characteristic of the murderer.
the shoes showed extreme wear towards the ends of the soles indicating that the shoes were too big for their wearer furthermore the heel of one shoe was nearly worn through which herrera concluded indicated a limp or a rotating gait from some sort of injury the shoes also helped the investigators predict the man's height
He would have to be somewhere between 163 and 167 centimeters tall. Duran's team decided that if they were to unmask this murderer, they would have to find a way to enter the world he lived in. A handful of Colombia's top detectives went undercover in the country's homeless populace. Each in an area the murderer was most likely to target again.
The theoretical noose around Garavito's neck tightened further. Finally, the authorities were one step closer. The 1999 crime scene was largely what broke this case wide open. Herrera pieced together the remnants from the crime scene evidence to create a criminal profile that the murderer would fit into.
these tiny little pieces of information would add up to a very specific personality and physical body type helping the authorities to create a narrow suspect pool a pair of charred glasses and a specific brand of alcohol were also recovered from the crime scene
The charring was something that none of the tests could account for, but the lenses did reveal a condition usually specific to two age groups, 40 to 45 or 55 to 60. The glasses were also bent at an awkward angle that indicated the wearer probably had widely separated ears.
Aside from age range, hate, a preference for a particular brand of alcohol, and two possible distinguishing characteristics, there was still next to no physical evidence that would identify La Bestia. As such, the investigators began to focus on behavior profiling. The investigators suspected that somehow he was blending in with the crowds of Colombia without raising suspicion.
they decided to look into the victim profile, realizing that, given the suspect's probable age, he could have been active much longer than anyone realized, and that would mean there might be more cases, many more, than they initially thought. The authorities pulled out over ten years of crime records and allocated roughly 5,000 cases to the probable suspect pool.
Based on the already known parameters, they removed all with female victims and were left with over 1500 male perpetrators. They then excluded suspects based on hate and age, and then narrowed the list further by focusing on those who were active in the areas of already known crime scenes. The final list consisted of 25 names.
Duran's icy determination to capture Garavito had earned him the name the Murderous Shadow. He had become so invested in the case that he flew to Bogota to ascertain more information on the case files there. It was there that Duran came across another strong lead. In 1996, there were reports of yet another child who went missing.
reynold delgado was a twelve-year-old boy from the region of tunja bordering the north of bogota delgado's case closely matched that of the current victim pool only unlike the others delgado's case included a suspect a shopkeeper had reported that the boy had last been seen in the company of a man who was not from the region
That man had been identified and brought in for questioning, only to be released due to a lack of concrete evidence. This man's name was Luis Alfredo Garavito, a name that appeared on the list of twenty-five suspects that the investigators had compiled. Duran knew immediately that this was no coincidence.
A careful examination of the file revealed other connections. For example, Caravito's birthplace was registered as Genova, the place where Durand's original three cases had occurred. Furthermore, his place of residence, as per his written statement, was Trujillo, the location of yet another mass grave.
Hey Prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news! With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts, included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free, or go to amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts. That's amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.
This back-to-school season, you can count on Whole Foods Market to do the ingredient homework for you. They ban over 300 food ingredients.
like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and more. That's comforting when getting ready for back to school. From snacks to the condiments, their standards are truly best in class. Speaking of, their best in class event is happening now, including an unmatched selection of allergy-friendly options without nuts or dairy. Start the school year off right at Whole Foods Market. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids,
i know first-hand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care but it's good to have some things that are non negotiable for some that could be a night out with the boys chugging beers and having a laugh for others it might be an eating night
For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Everyone needs someone to talk to, even psychopaths, even your humble host. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. The official investigation, however, had taken a different turn. A suspect had been identified in Pereira.
one with a limp and in the same age range, and he was selling honey from the same bottles as those found at the crime scene. His name was Pedro Pachuca. In October 1997, two young boys disappeared from a bus station in Pereira, and Pachuca was a top suspect. The boys were later discovered dead.
Just days later, another young boy identified Pachuca as an attempted rapist. Sure of their target, the investigators scoured the streets for the man they thought was responsible for the hundreds of bodies thrown across Colombia. Within weeks, the investigators caught and arrested Pedro Pachuca. There was only one catch. Pachuca insisted he was innocent.
during his incarceration pachuga continued to plead his innocence which in itself was not unusual but within weeks the murderer had struck again this time in bogota four boys murdered with the exact same motives of randai it became clear that the prosecutors had indeed apprehended the wrong man the authorities were shaken the body count was now well past a hundred and rising
They knew that they needed to take more care in terms of the recovery of evidence, as they could not afford any more mistakes. The Colombian investigation became a meld of every relevant foreign technique they could reasonably replicate, from the British techniques of evidence recovery with color-coded crime scenes to the Russian and American techniques of forensic facial reconstruction.
Soon, four of the victims had been identified by the families. This was another crucial step in the ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, Duran used the case file on Delgado to track down the address left behind by Luis Garavito, and in so doing found Esther Garavito Cubillos, a sister of Luis Garavito.
Esther was found to have a bag of Garavito's personal items. The bag contained documents, travel mementos, and a collection of journals that revealed intimate details about Garavito's childhood and later life.
Durand's team carefully combed through the documents and found a receipt of money wired to a woman in Pereira, where documents revealed he had been implicated as part of the homicide of a minor by a judicial body in that area. The investigators proceeded to track down the location of the woman.
And much to their own surprise, they found yet another suitcase of documents, these dating from 1994 to 1997, in her care. The bag contained synthetic fibers, razors, and lubricants, all of which were consistent with what had been uncovered in previous crime scenes. The evidence in Palmyra pointed to one further thing.
the suspect in question had been burned. Based on the evidence and the crime scene at Palmyra, the investigators came to the conclusion that the suspect would have been wounded and heavily burned as he left in an attempt to distance himself from his latest victim. A man, matching his description, allegedly sought help at a pharmacy in Pereira, only to disappear right after.
this provided yet another physical clue to the suspect's profile he would have had severe burns along the left side of his body by the twenty second of april nineteen ninety nine the search for ivan sobogal had intensified
At 11.15 that evening, the police received a call for help from a junkyard employee reporting a boy who claimed to have escaped an attempted rapist. The police responded immediately and, along with Ivan's mother, went to retrieve the boy. She identified the boy instantly. Ivan had survived.
The boy provided a description and then explained how a homeless man had passed by as the predator attempted to assault him, and how that momentary distraction had allowed Ivan to run away. The predator had chased after him and the homeless man, but after being spotted by a young woman as they ran, he had backed off.
The police were prepared to accept the win they had been handed by recovering Ivan Sabugal, and were driving him and his mother back to the police station when the unexpected happened. Right there, outside their window, walking along the highway, was a man Ivan identified as his assailant. The man identified himself as Bonifacio Moreno Liscado.
That name was not on the list of suspects, but with young Ivan's positive identification, the police brought him in for questioning. Bonifacio's arrest was strange, to say the least. The man did not struggle or protest in any way. He was unnervingly calm as he persistently claimed that he was not the man the police were looking for.
Nothing he said or did would make anyone think that this was a man who had murdered hundreds of children across the Colombian countryside. Once they reached the police station, Prosecutor Aya visited the suspect in custody and straight away noticed the physical similarities between Bonifacio and Luis Alfredo Garavito.
He also noticed something the other officers had not. On each of the documents that the detainee had signed as Bonifacio, his signature varied. Aya took his suspicions and a photograph of Bonifacio to a meeting being held with prosecutors from all over the country regarding the murders.
It was here that Aya showed Duran and his team the photograph of the man they had in custody. Duran and his team identified him immediately. The man in the picture was Luis Alfredo Garavito. Finally, all the puzzle pieces all fell into place. The scourge of Colombia was finally behind Bajar's.
by the end of this final meeting authorities were left with little doubt that the man in custody was indeed luis alfredo garavito he was forty-two years old and one hundred and sixty-seven centimeters tall he wore glasses and had scars and burns along the left side of his body
he was born in genova and raised in a dysfunctional family and had suffered abuse at the hands of familial figures before the age of sixteen everything about him fit the suspect profile they were looking for unfortunately
Everything was also completely circumstantial, meaning that without Garavito's confession, the Colombian authorities could prove little or nothing in a court of law, or at least not enough to build a solid case. The authorities desperately needed to establish concrete links between the crime scene evidence and Garavito himself.
Once again, the investigators started to hunt for evidence to link Garavito to the crimes. Detective Duran, who had now been studying Garavito's profile for years, suggested that there was a possibility that there were more mementos of the victims that Garavito would have saved over the years. They just needed to figure out where they were.
It was with this aim in mind that the investigators hunted down Mrs. Umbar Toro, one of Garavito's best friends, and coaxed her into visiting Garavito in jail. The investigators were hoping that Garavito's need to forge a connection would make him open up to his old friend. Sure enough, Garavito confessed to Umbar Toro that there was indeed another bag of documents, which he had left with another inmate's wife.
The contents of this final bag were even more incriminating than those of the first two. The bag contained regional newspaper clippings, paper documents, and even pictures of some of the victims. The bag also contained paper with weird markings on it. It was later discovered that the markings were a personal tally of his victims. Despite all of the evidence, Garavito still refused to confess.
and the investigators realized that it was unlikely he ever would. Without a confession, the prosecutors would need an airtight case if they wanted to put Garavito behind bars. Nothing could be left to chance. It was clear that now was the time to establish a concrete link between the evidence collected and Garavito himself.
First and foremost, the prosecution would need to establish a DNA link between Garavito and the DNA recovered from the crime scenes. Then there was the matter of the glasses that had been recovered. They needed to be able to determine Garavito's eye condition without tipping him off and thereby giving him the chance to lie about it. To avoid any disruption on Garavito's part, the entire prison was subjected to an eye exam.
and it was during this exam that Garavito's cell was searched for traces of DNA to run against the crime scene samples obtained of the liquor bottles and the bodies. The prescription for the charred glasses came back as a match, and yet the prosecution still did not think they had enough evidence to seal his fate.
The Colombian authorities decided to use Link, a Dutch software that cross-references events, coincidences and probabilities. They input the software with hotel reports, witness testimonies and evidence. Link's report placed Garavito at every single crime scene location at the time of the event, stacking huge weight behind the prosecution's case,
that Garavito was the only possible perpetrator. They decided that with this software they had enough to secure a conviction. But as a final attempt to make the case as airtight as possible, they decided it was time to take another shot at Luis Garavito himself. Garavito went through an eight-hour interrogation with no crack in his demeanor.
Garavito remained calm and stable, maintaining the entire time that not only was he innocent, but that all the evidence and witness testimony merely pointed to a flawed investigation. At this point, Lili Naranjo, the head of Garavito's investigation, decided to end the interrogation, recognizing that Garavito was far too composed to crack under the pressure they were applying.
They knew that they needed a different approach if they were going to destabilize him enough to get a confession. They were going to need someone who knew Garavito better than Garavito himself. Prosecutor Narahno authorized a private meeting between Garavito and Detective Duran, the only man who knew the cases well enough to go toe-to-toe with Garavito.
What followed would go down forever in the history books as the end of Louis Garavito. Duren decided to approach the only part of Garavito that was not capable of staying detached, namely his fantasy realm. In order to do so, he verbally recounted every one of the murders in intricate detail.
He carefully crafted the monologue, taking Garavito back to each of the fantasies he ached to relive. But the fantasies were not as Garavito remembered them. Dern used explicit detail to build such a vivid mental image of the horrors that Garavito had inflicted that after eighteen hours, Luis Alfredo Garavito, the world's deadliest serial killer, perhaps,
cried out for Detective Duran to stop. Duran held the murderer in his arms as Garavito, now sobbing, confessed to his crimes by pointing to pictures and explaining in detail what he had done to each of the children and how he had done it.
Garavito defended himself by claiming that he had been possessed by evil spirits before each of the kills, theories he attempted to support by referencing his journals. Each of his journals was color-coded blue or red. The blue ones, which he claimed were his own, consisted of Bible verses and other pure thoughts. The red ones contained detailed descriptions of his kills.
In December, Garavito was finally tried and convicted on two counts. The first was for a murder in Tunha, the central province of Boyacá, where 14-year-old Silvino Rodríguez's dismembered and tortured body had been discovered in June 1996.
The second count was for the attempted rape of Ivan Sabogal, the 12-year-old boy from Western Via Vicencio, on account of whom he was finally apprehended in April 1999. Caravito had in fact confessed to the murders of over 190 young boys, although experts believe the actual total to be closer to 300.
A lack of conclusive evidence, however, prevented Garavito's conviction on the other counts. The death penalty does not exist in the Colombian legal system, and they had long ago declared that the longest a man could be imprisoned was 60 years. Based on these two counts, Garavito was given this maximum sentence. However, things changed soon after, in 2000.
when the Colombian Penal Code underwent modification, now stating that no individual can be imprisoned for more than 40 years. Garavito had been described as a model prisoner. He has been studying through his incarceration and has issued a public apology to the people of Colombia.
Garavito served his sentence in a maximum security prison in Valle do Par, in the department of El Quesar in Colombia. He was held separately from all other prisoners because it was feared that he would be killed immediately if he went into the general population. He could have become eligible for parole in 2023 when he had served three-fifths of his sentence.
In 2021, a judge blocked a request to release Garavito early for good behavior on grounds that he had not paid his fines to his victims' families.
Garavito remained 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 would be able to help abused children upon his release.
Garavito suffered from severe eye cancer and leukemia, which left him blind, weak, and fatigued, requiring daily blood transfusions. He spent most of his time making bracelets, earrings, and necklaces in the medical unit of Valle de Par's prison. Psychiatrists diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder. In other words, Garavito was diagnosed as being a psychopath.
Garavito died at a hospital in Valle de Par on the 12th of October 2023 at the age of 66. This back-to-school season, you can count on Whole Foods Market to do the ingredient homework for you. They ban over 300 food ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and more. That's comforting when getting ready for back-to-school. From snacks to the condiments, their standards are truly best in class.
Speaking of, their best-in-class event is happening now, including an unmatched selection of allergy-friendly options without nuts or dairy. Start the school year off right at Whole Foods Market. Need new glasses or want a fresh new style? Warby Parker has you covered. Glasses start at just $95, including anti-reflective, scratch-resistant prescription lenses that block 100% of UV rays.
Every frame's designed in-house with a huge selection of styles for every face shape. And with Warby Parker's free home try-on program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. Shipping is free both ways, too. Go to warbyparker.com slash covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free. warbyparker.com slash covered.
Welcome to Omaha, where work and play meet. Where productivity meets the after party. Where downtown convention space and hotels are within walking distance of 90 restaurants, pubs, and unique shops. Where locally made morning lattes meet 5 o'clock craft cocktails. And where colleagues meet to explore the waterfront views in our 72-acre downtown urban oasis. And where in 2027, a modern streetcar will take you to even more entertainment options.
Go to visitomaha.com slash meetings to learn more. And with that, we come to the end of this short series covering La Bestia, The Beast, Luis Garavito. Next episode will feature a fresh Serial Killer Expo say, so as they say in the land of radio. Stay tuned.