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SINALOA CARTEL
1989–Originally a marijuana-smuggling
operation based in northwest
Mexico’s Sinaloa State, this gang
was established by Pedro Avilés
Pérez. Since 1989, under the
leadership of Joaquín Guzmán
Loera, “El Chapo”, it has grown into
one of the most powerful and wide-
reaching crime syndicates in the
world. In addition to marijuana,
the Sinaloa cartel are allegedly
responsible for most of the heroin,
cocaine, methamphetamines, and
MDMA smuggled into the United
States. “El Chapo” has escaped
from prison three times – first, in
2001, after being incarcerated in- He was recaptured in 2014,
but escaped in July 2015. Captured
a third time in January 2016, he
escaped once more in November,
and yet again became one of the
US and Mexico’s most wanted men.
See also: Hells Angels 160–63
■ The Medellín Cartel 166–67
BEVERLEY ALLITT
February–April 1991This child-killer was a nurse on the
children’s ward at Grantham and
Kesteven Hospital, in Lincolnshire,
UK. Allitt used her position to
murder at least four children, and
attempted to kill at least nine more
over a 59-day period in 1991. On
22 April, Allitt was tasked with
watching over 15-month-old Claire
Peck, who had been admitted for
an asthma attack. Peck went into
cardiac arrest and died on Allitt’s
watch. Doctors at the hospital were
suspicious: they had noticed how
often children left alone in Alitt’s
care experienced cardiac arrests.Investigators later discovered that
these were caused by insulin
injections. In May 1993, Allitt was
convicted and received 13
concurrent life sentences.
See also: Elizabeth Báthory
264–65 ■ Harold Shipman 290–91GUY GEORGES
1991–98Dubbed “The Beast of the Bastille”
by the Paris press because he
operated in the vicinity of the
historic prison, Guy Georges raped,
tortured, and murdered seven
women between the ages of 19 and- Since the 1970s, Georges had
indulged his violent tendencies,
strangling, raping, and stabbing
young women. He was already
serving a prison sentence – during
which he was allowed out in the
day for good behaviour – when he
began to commit murders in 1991.
Arrested after a police manhunt in
1998, Georges readily confessed to
his crimes and was diagnosed as a
“narcissistic psychopath”. He was,
however, declared sane and fit to
stand trial, and was sentenced to
life imprisonment in April 2001.
See also: Jack the Ripper 276–83
■ Ted Bundy 266–83
NICK LEESON
1992–95Whizz-kid Leeson was sent to
Singapore in 1992 to run the
derivatives trading desk for Barings
Bank, one of Britain’s oldest
banking names. Lauded as the
company’s star trader, Leeson’s
reputation was left in tatters in
1995, when it was revealed that he
had lost the company £832 million.
Leeson hid his losses in a secretwitchcraft-cum-Catholicism cult of
Santería. Beginning by boiling up
bones from graveyards, he and his
“narco-satanist” followers soon
began to kill their own sacrificial
victims at his desert compound in
Rancho Santa Elena. More than
20 people were killed in the hope
of imbuing Constanzo with dark
magical powers. Constanzo and
his followers fled to Mexico City
after the bodies were discovered.
When police visited his apartment
for an unrelated investigation on
6 May 1989, Constanzo panicked
and opened fire at the police.
Preferring not to be taken alive,
Constanzo ordered follower Alvaro
de Leon to shoot him. With
Constanzo dead, his followers
were arrested and prosecuted for
the murders.
See also: The Manson Family
230–37 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65AILEEN WUORNOS
1989–90This Michigan-born serial killer
began to work as a prostitute on
the highways of Florida in her mid-
teens. She appears to have met all
seven of her victims in the line of
work – the first, Richard Mallory,
picked her up on Interstate 75. All
were shot at close range and, when
captured, Wuornos claimed that
they had tried to rape her. Wuornos
was caught when her victims’
possessions began to appear in
local pawn shops, and the police
used her former lover, Tyria Moore,
to extract a confession from her.
Found guilty of seven murders,
Wuornos was sentenced to death,
and executed by lethal injection in
October 2002.
See also: Phoolan Devi 46–47
■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65DIRECTORY
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