The Monster of the Andes
The Monster of the Andes is no ordinary monster. It can’t be found in comic books. It’s not of tale of myth or legend passed down through the generations, whispered at campfires to hushed attention. The Monster of the Andes is actually a person. A man to be precise.
A man who killed at least 110 people between 1969 – 1980. The number is thought however to be higher than 300.
The Monster of the Andes – Beginnings
Pedro Alonso López was born 8th of October 1948 to Benilda López De Casteneda in Tolmia, Colombia. Benilda, according to Pedro, was a sex worker. His father, Medardo Reyes, was killed during armed conflict while Benilda was three months pregnant. Reported to be the seventh sibling of thirteen children, Pedro was made to leave the family home at just 8 years old. Why? Some reports say his mother saw him fondling his younger sister, others that he simply ran away from home after being abused by his mothers clientele. Alone in the world, Pedro made his way to Bogota, the capital city of Colombia.
The Monster of the Andes spent most of his childhood on the streets of Bogota as a gamine. A street child. It was here that Pedro started to smoke a cocaine paste known as basuco. Loosely translated it means “dirty trash”. Despite the name, it is highly addictive. More so than crack cocaine.
Eventually taken in by what he thought was a kind stranger, Pedro was led to an abandoned building and raped. This event gave him a resolve. But not a good one. “I decided then to do the same to as many young girls as possible“.
Aged 10, Pedro was given a home by an American immigrant couple and signed up at a school for orphans. Here, according to Pedro, he was molested again.
Jail Time and First Murders
Arrested around the age of 18 for car theft, Pedro is sent to prison for the first time. Not much is known about his time there. Pedro says that while there he was gang raped. He took revenge by slitting the throats of his rapists.
It it not clear if he received extra time on his sentence for these murders. What we do know however, is that by the mid-seventies, he had been released and had relocated to Peru.
Here he began a murder spree that only stopped when he was arrested in March 1980. Primarily he murdered young girls. Pedro claims he had killed over 100 girls by 1978. It was then that he was caught trying to abduct a child from an indigenous tribe. Submitted to tribal law, Pedro was ordered to be executed. By being buried alive.
However, a passing missionary managed to convince the tribal elders to turn Pedro over to the Peruvian police.
The Peruvian police, with no knowledge to the extent of Pedro López’s crimes, wanted nothing to do with him. So they deported him back to Colombia. Where, unbelievably, he faced no consequences.
Ecuador and Capture
Undeterred, Pedro resumed killing. Making his way to Ecuador, he left a trail of destruction. Dozens of girls simply disappeared. Pedro claimed that during this period he killed around three girls every single week.
Finally, in the Ambato region of Ecuador, his luck ran out. Attempting to lure a market traders 10 year old daughter away, he was seen and captured by a group of people.
Unfortunately for Pedro, getting caught happened just 4 days after a river had overflowed nearby. Doing so had washed away soil and revealed the dead bodies of 4 girls. All of them showing signs of having been strangled.
In custody Pedro kept quiet. Refused to co-operate at all.
Pastor Cordova Gudino, an investigator, went undercover as an inmate. Managing to win the confidence of Pedro, he eventually managed to get a confession out him about his crimes, plus the details about where the victims were buried.
Afterwards, Pastor said that he had hardly slept for the last 27 days as he feared being strangled by Pedro.
Police uncovered over 50 bodies. In conjunction with Pedro’s confession, the Monster of the Andes was charged with one hundred and ten murders. He claimed to also be responsible for 200 other murders spread across Peru and Colombia.
1981, July 31st. Pedro López pleads guilty to the murder of 57 girls. He is imprisoned in Ambato for the maximum sentence allowed. Just 16 years. The disgust generated by the Ecuadorian public was so strong, the maximum sentence length is later changed to 25 years.
Window into the Mind of a Killer
I walked among the markets searching for a girl with a certain look on her face. A look of innocence and beauty.
Pedro López to Ron Laytner
1992. The Monster of the Andes is in Prison. Giving an exclusive interview to National Examiner journalist Ron Laytner.
“I followed them. Sometimes for days, waiting for the moment she was alone. I would give her a pretty, shining trinket.” Stalking, waiting. Lurking in the shadows for the right time. It brings to mind a big cat stalking its prey from the long grass. Once the trust was established he would go further. Promising a trinket for their mother, he would lead the girl to the edge of town. Once they were alone, he would lead the girl to where he had prepared a grave. Where they would wait until dawn.
Daylight meant death was near, as Pedro wanted to see into the eyes of his victims. He explains, “At the first sign of light I would get excited. I forced the girl into sex and put my hands around her throat, when the sun rose I would strangle her“. He goes on to make clear that it was only good if he could see her eyes.
“There is a wonderful moment, a divine moment when I have my hand around a young girls throat. I look into her eyes and see a certain light, a spark, suddenly go out. Only those who kill know what I mean“
Pedro describes in the interview how he stayed with each one of them to make sure they were dead. Sometimes using a mirror to see if they were breathing, other times slitting their wrists to see if blood still pumped. If it did, he would strangle them again. He went on remark that they never screamed. They were so innocent, they did not believe anything bad would happen to them.
He also had bizarre tea parties with the bodies. Setting up 3 or 4 dead girls and chatting to them. Soon he would bore of them and want a fresh girl to play with. When asked why he always chose younger girls he gave this answer:
“Why eat old chicken when you can have young chicken?“.
Release and a Return to Colombia
After just 14 years, Pedro is released. Unbelievably, he had 2 years shaved off his sentence for good behaviour.
Major Victor Lascano, Governor of Ambato Jail, where Pedro spent most of his sentence, had this to say on his release:
“God save the children. He is unreformed and totally remorseless”.
Garcia Moreno Prison, where he stayed and was released from, is now a museum. It was shut down in 2014 due to overcrowding.
Deported back to Colombia, The Monster of the Andes faced even more legal trouble. The authorities tried to convict him with a murder from 20 years before. However, rather than being imprisoned, he was declared insane.
Pedro was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Bogota. Then in 1998, Pedro López, prolific killer, is declared sane. And released on a $50 bail.
In 2002 Interpol released an advisory for his re-arrest in relation to a fresh murder. Currently he is wanted by police for questioning.
His whereabouts are unknown but he is thought to be still active. There has been numerous sightings of him, none confirmed to be true. He is thought to have gone into the mountains between Ecuador and Colombia. Let me leave you with a quote from him:
“The moment of death is enthralling and exciting. Someday, when I am released, I will feel that moment again. I will be happy to kill again. It is my mission“