User:Rich Farmbrough/Pedro Lopez
What is the source for this article?
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/pedro_lopez/1.html?sect=1 seems to be the master web article.
I have looked at the reference, its own bibliography refers to two web-sites that appear to be defunct, and one that has only a tiny article (apparently derived from the Book Of Lists - '90's Edition), which differs in the number of rapists in prison.
I have searched the BBC site to no avail.
The many other references I found on the web are either re-hashes of David Lohr's article (e.g. http://horrorthirst.com/pedroalonzolopez1.php or is one of them the original?), just references or one even a rehash of this (wikipedia) article.
One states "Considering that it is in fact confirmed that Lopez killed as many as he claimed, it's incredible that there have yet to be any books written about his case. We can only find mention of him in random serial killer "encyclopedias"." (Note that it was never confirmed according to any of the sources I have yet seen that he killed anyone, only that he lead the police to a mass grave of about 50 presumed victims.)
There is a reference to http://www.serialhomicide.com/cases.htm which I could not follow up since this rotates daily, but the extensive quote indicates it's the same old text.
This site gives a different MO, http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/streiber/273/lopez_mo.htm
There was an interview with Ron Laytner in the National Examiner Lohr gives the date as Jan 1999 (after the publication of another of his sources The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, by Michael Newton December 1999, Facts on File; ISBN: 081603978X )
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/nicaragua/510/serlopez.html
[...] (The following was taken from the National Examiner/ Jan 12 1999/ Page 6-7) [...] "Now, 1998 the 47 year-old madman has been released from prison even when he has declared that: "He will be happy to kill again"." Ron Laytner, a veteran photo journalist whose work appears in "The Best of Life" and see "Ron Laytner" in google, also took world exclusive photographs of Lopez (only photographs ever taken of the serial killer and only interview ever granted) which appear regularly in magazines and newspapers around the world. See www.editinternational.com [One of Laytner's web sites]
A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Pub 1997) (Pocket Books True Crime) states that he "killed scores of Ecudorean Women" (note: not young girls)
According to the 1992-5 edition of The Encyclopedia Lopez was captured after being followed by the mother of an abducted girl form a market to the edge of town, where native Indians intervened. (According to Lohr et al, market traders persued him.) The reference given is to The Worlds Most Infamous Murders by Boar and Blundell - Octopus London 1983 (I am trying to get a copy)
In summary, shortly after the publication of an edition of The Encyclopedia a somewhat sensational journal publishes a purported interview with Lopez and we have a load of details appearing. There is no guarantee that Lopez, if interviewed, was actually telling the truth, or indeed that he told the truth to the police earlier. This may have been a tale that grew in the telling. Rich Farmbrough 23:48, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I have acquired a copy of Boar and Blundell (unfortunately 1990 edition, not the earlier one). It appears to be a better article than the succeding compilations. However four of the proper names quoted turn up zero google hits apart from derivaties of the article. Rich Farmbrough 11:51, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've turned up a ref on the BBC to his alleged deportation to Columbia. However according to Butler and Boar he should have been released (or deported) in 1996 at the latest - 16 years being the maximum life sentence in Ecuador. Rich Farmbrough 11:56, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've put a request up at the refernce desk, no joy so far.
All ElComercio (on line) has to say is
- PEDRO ALONSO LOPEZ, Colombia. Apodado el "Monstruo de los Andes", sospechoso de haber asesinado al menos a 300 personas en Colombia, Ecuador y Perú. En 1980 fue convicto por 57 cargos.
In an article about Shipman datelined London. Rich Farmbrough 15:54, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
My suspicions of non-canonicity grow. I missed this in the Lohr article "No information is readily available on Pedro’s brief trial, however it is known that sometime in late1980, Pedro Alonso Lopez was convicted on multiple counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison." Rich Farmbrough 16:03, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Report of death.[edit]
http://noticias.ya.com/archivo/mundo2002/0630.htm
noticias > hemeroteca > Mundo 2002 > 30/06/2002 [...] World 2002 > 30/06/2002 [...] 04:40 - Europa Press Muere en la cárcel el "monstruo de los Andes", un guerrillero acusado de asesinar a unos 200 insurgentessss
- ) allegedly.... Rich Farmbrough 19:49, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
This is someone else. Jose Fedor King http://www.caracol.com.co/titular.asp?Id=77614 Rich Farmbrough 20:08, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Guiness Book Of Records/Usenet/New York Times[edit]
A usenet article... quotes this extract from the New York Times.
"The Guinness Book of World Records lists another Colombian, Pedro Armando
Lopez, known here as the "Monster of the Andes," as the largest-scale serial
killer of modern times. He is believed to have killed more than 300 girls and
young women in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru before being captured in Ecuador and
convicted of 57 counts of murder there in 1980.
Lopez served 16 years in an Ecuadorean prison, but because that country does not have a law that permits consecutive sentences, he was released and deported back to Colombia. His present whereabouts are not known, but it is presumed he is living under an assumed identity. "
And implies that Columbia no longer has the death penalty
http://64.78.63.75/samples/04CJ103SiegelCriminology8Ch11.pdf
quotes the same info about Pedro "Armando" Lopez derived from the same article their
153. Larry Rohter, "In The Chaos of Columbia, The makings of a Mass Killer" NYT 1st November 1999.
Oh yes, he's not in UK GBR 1980, 2000 or 2002.
Rich Farmbrough 22:07, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
According to a number of compendia of mass murderers, Pedro Lopez (born 1949) is or was a serial killer in South America, accused with the murder of over 300 victims. The story was orignally published in The Worlds Most Infamous Murders' by Boar and Blundell - Octopus London 1983, subsequent references are derived from this source and an exclusive interview with Ron Laytner in the National Examiner on January 12 1999
The story is as follows:
Born in Tolima, Colombia, Pedro Lopez became notorious as the Monster of the Andes. According to Lopez his prostitute mother kicked him out of their home at age eight for fondling his younger sister. He was then picked up by a pedophile and sodomized against his will. He was taken in by an American family, but later ran away with a teacher from his school. When he was eighteen he was gang-raped in prison and retaliated by killing three of his assailants.
Upon his release he started killing young girls with glee and impunity. By 1978 he claimed to have killed more than 100 girls in Peru. After a brush with an angry village mob he moved his activities to Colombia and Ecuador where his bloodlust averaged about three kills a week. He found killing Ecuadorian girls enjoyable because they were "more gentle and trusting, more innocent." Authorities attributed the rash of disappearing girls to active slavery or prostitution rings in the area.
In 1980 a flash flood uncovered the first of his victims in Ecuador. When he was arrested he told his interrogators the frightening tale of his reign of death. At first authorities were skeptical but all doubts disappeared when he quickly produced more than fifty graves. It is widely believed that three hundred is a low estimate.
According to the BBC: "He was arrested in 1980 but was freed by the government in Ecuador at the end of last year [i.e. 1998] and deported to Colombia. In an exclusive interview in his prison cell with veteran American photo journalist Ron Laytner, he described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behaviour". World's worst killers