Pedro Alonzo Lopez: Serial Killer

Pedro Alonzo Lopez

The serial killer that I chose is Pedro Alonzo Lopez. “He was born October 8, 1948 in Tolima, Colombia.” (Wikipedia, 2015). His childhood had a great factor to why he became a serial killer. “His mother was a prostitute and he was forced to grow up in a single room with twelve brothers and sisters. He was kicked out of their house when he was eight for being accused of touching his sister inappropriately.” (Andre, 2015). He then was picked up by a child molester and raped repeatedly in an isolated area, while he was starving to death. Once he turned twelve an American couple took him in as their own and sent him to an orphan school where he accused a teacher of molesting him there. When he was young he would steal less

profitable items to survive to get food. “When he became an adult he moved back to Colombia and began to steal cars and sell them to the local chop shops.” (Andre, 2015). Stealing the cars and selling them put Pedro in prison at the age of eighteen for motor vehicle theft. The acts of killing started while he was in prison after he was again raped repeatedly. During the attacks Lopez vowed, “he would do the same to as many little girls that he could.” (Andre, 2015). Once he was out, “Through revenge and hate for the rape he later killed three of the four men responsible for the crime against him (rape). While he was locked up, he also thought about his mother, which made him become monstrous. He also took care of his sexual needs by viewing through pornographic magazines, it gave Pedro the thought of a woman as hatred.” (Andre, 2015).
“According to Laytner’s story, Lopez became known as the ‘Monster of the Andes’ in 1980 when he led police to the graves of fifty-nine victims in Ecuador, all girls between the age of nine and twelve years old. Pedro made a statement that a twenty-six year old woman wasn’t

attractive to him, that the younger ones were the most attractive.” (Laytner, 2015).

The number of victims Pedro murdered includes, “One hundred and ten young girls in Ecuador and confessed to more than two hundred and forty murders of missing girls in neighbouring Peru and Colombia.” the total would include three hundred plus victims all happening to be young women (Wikipedia, 2015). Even when the authorities were informed about the missing girls they concluded that they were either kidnapped or sold as sex slaves. Sex slave rings in South America were growing rapidly through this time. The motivation for his killings is unknown, but some research includes it was due to his childhood life and sexual desire that provoked his actions he later took when he was an adult. “After his move to Colombia and then later to Ecuador he began killing almost three girls every week, every month, every year over a three year long murder rampage. Pedro explained to the police, “I like the girls in Ecuador, they are more gentle and trusting, more innocent.” (Wikipedia, 2015). In fact, “he confessed to the police about his three hundred murders. The police only believed him when a flash flood uncovered a mass grave containing many of his victims. The police couldn’t get Lopez to cooperate so they enlisted a local priest and dressed him as a prisoner, Lopez quickly shared his brutal crimes with him. He confessed to doing his crimes at sunrise so he could satisfy his sexual needs by watching their eyes fade as they died. Also he told of having tea parties and playing games with the dead children. He would prop them up in their graves and talk to them to give them company. Once he became bored, he would go out and find another victim.” (Wikipedia,

2015).
“Pedro was released after twenty years because the country that was holding him had no

death penalties.” (Laytner, 2015). “His release date was in 1998 from a psychiatric hospital on good behavior after initially being found insane with a fifty dollar bail.” (Laytner, 2015). When he
was being interviewed by Ron Laytner he stated, “He never showed regret for his crimes, that he would gladly return to killing young children if he gets out of prison and looks forward for the next
time to wrap his hands around the neck of his next child.” (Laytner, 2015). He was convicted of motor vehicle theft, rape, and murder. The preferred method of killing was through rape and strangling them to satisfy his sexual desire. “Many believe that Pedro is either dead with many bounties offered for his death or that he has to mend his ways and stop doing what he did before prison.” (Hell Horror, 2015).
I believe that Pedro Lopez is dead even though it isn’t known to the public. If he wasn’t then he would still be killing and raping young children. He even stated in an interview that he couldn’t wait to attack again once he was out. I also feel like he committed those crimes due to the fact that he was raped throughout his child life, early adulthood, and in prison. His childhood with his mother as a prostitute could have been another factor of it all. Especially if he never had a father figure at home to show him discipline. His sexual desire for the young girls as he strangles them to death became an obsession he enjoyed watching them die. He viewed women through hatred and believed they could be just be thrown away. Pedro, in my opinion, should have had life in prison or put to death. He showed mental illness and should have been avoided from the public as an unsafe human being. In conclusion, Pedro Alonzo Lopez was a very dangerous man towards young women all throughout Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador in the years “1969-1980 and 2002.” (Wikipedia, 2015).