For better or worse, serial killers continue to fascinate us. You can find their stories in a variety of media, from books to television to podcasts. We’ve all seen or heard the horror stories of Bundy, Dahmer and Ridgeway. Yet a name stands out not only because of the scale of his crimes, but also because he has been all but forgotten.
Pedro Lopez, known as the “Monster of the Andes,” went on a killing spree in the late 1970s and eventually confessed to murdering more than 350 girls between the ages of 7 and 13 in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Guinness World Records lists him as the most prolific serial killer of modern times. Check out the history of one of the world’s most ruthless killers you’ve never heard of.
Lopez had an insatiable lust for murder. During his rampage, he was murdering two to three young girls every week, over a span of three years. Always following his familiar routine, sometimes the bodies of his previous victims were still in one of his shallow pits as he lured a new girl to it.
He began hosting what he described as “parties” with the bodies, propping them up in their shallow graves and talking to them.