According to a number of compendia of mass murderers and various web sites, Pedro Lopez is, or was, a serial killer in South America, accused of the murder of over 300 victims. The story was originally published in The Worlds Most Infamous Murders by Boar and Blundell - Octopus London 1983, subsequent references are derived from this source and an alleged interview with Ron Laytner of the National Examiner published on January 12, 1999. Despite the lack of any corroborating evidence for his existence, Lopez is mentioned by many authoritative sources such as the BBC and national papers including the New York Times and Pravda. Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... St Stevens Tower - The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London (see also alternative names) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed in 1927 by means of a royal charter. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

A basic version of the story is as follows:

Born in Tolima, Colombia, in 1949 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 was sodomized. 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. Tolima is a department of Colombia. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Pedophilia (American English) or pædophilia/paedophilia (British English) is the condition of being sexually attracted primarily to prepubescent children. ... Sodomy is a term of religious origin to characterise certain sexual non-procreative acts. ...

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 then 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. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Look up Slavery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Slavery is a condition of control over a person against their will, enforced by violence or other forms of coercion. ...

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. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... A flash flood (also a freshet, considered archaic) is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas, rivers and streams that is caused by the intense rainfall associated with a thunderstorm, or multiple training thunderstorms. ...

According to the BBC: "He was arrested in 1980 but was freed by the government in Ecuador at the end of 1998 and deported to Colombia. In an interview from his prison cell, he described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behaviour". World's worst killers 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...