Is there any canon-based information on whether Tom Marvolo Riddle (a.k.a. Lord Voldemort) is the only wizard in history (after Salazar Slytherin, of course) who opened the Chamber of Secrets and controlled the basilisk?

It occurred to me that there are many Parselmouths who lived after Salazar Slytherin (and most of them are related to him) which implies there might have been some other wizards who opened the Chamber of Secrets before Riddle did.

  • Tom Riddle wasn't the heir of Slytherin. – Valorum Jul 1 '16 at 21:39
  • Your question title and question body seem to be asking two different questions.  Also, the question body seems a bit garbled: "[is] Tom Marvolo Riddle the only wizard in history (after Salazar Slytherin, before Tom Marvolo Riddle) who …?" – Peregrine Rook Jul 2 '16 at 2:59

He was not the only one who knew of the Chamber...

It is true that the Chamber was not easy to find, and that Riddle, an extraordinary individual, had difficulty finding it:


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

However, for many centuries the Heirs of Slytherin knew of the Chamber:


Nor was he the only one who opened it

As nobody else could hear the creature sliding beneath floorboards or, latterly, through the plumbing....

This implies that previous generations of Gaunts had let the basilisk out, but had been unwilling to take the final step of committing murder with it.

Further, Rowling states it explicitly:


In other words, given that the plumbing in Hogwarts is superior to what Muggles had at the time it was built, and given that wizards are technologically behind Muggles, at some point the Chamber entrance must have been modified, which (according to WoG) implies that Heirs wanted continued access to the Chamber.

But he was the only one who used the basilisk

From Pottermore:


If no one believed the stories told by the Gaunts until Riddle unleashed the basilisk, this is a definite implication that this was the first time the basilisk was used as Slytherin had intended—to kill Muggle-borns. The word "dared" also implied that Riddle was the first.

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