Pedro Rodrigues Filho
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| “ | God has already punished me a lot, I've been very bad in the past, but people were mean to me. | „ |
| ~ Pedro remembers sadly. |
Pedro Rodrigues Filho (June 17th, 1954 - March 5, 2023) also known as Pedrinho Matador was a Brazilian serial killer who killed innocent people and other criminals. He was also known as the Brazilian Dexter due to his similarities to the titular character from the television series Dexter.
Filho has killed 71 people in total, but his true victim count could be up in the 100's.
History edit
Filho was born on a farm in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, south of Minas Gerais, with his skull bruised as a result of his father kicking his mother's belly during a fight. He claimed he wanted to kill for the first time at age 13 - in a fight with an older cousin, he pushed the young man into a sugar cane press, almost killing him.
At 14, he killed the deputy mayor of Santa Rita do Sapucaí by shooting him in front of the city hall, for having fired his father, a school guard, then accused of stealing school lunch. He then killed a security guard, who was suspected of being the actual thief. Filho took refuge in Mogi das Cruzes, Greater São Paulo, where he began robbing drug dens and killing traffickers. He met with a traffic leader's widow, nicknamed Botinha, and they began living together. Filho took on the duties of the deceased and was soon "forced" to eliminate some rivals, killing three ex-cronies. He lived there until Botinha was executed by the police. Filho escaped. He regrouped soldiers and set up his own business.
Later, in search of revenge for the murder of his pregnant companion and unborn child, he tortured and killed several people, trying to find out who was responsible. The client, a former rival who had been betrayed by his ex-wife, received a visit from Filho and four friends during a wedding party. They left a trail of seven dead and sixteen wounded. At that time, Filho was not even 18 years old yet.
Still in Mogi, he executed his father in a city jail for killing his mother with 21 machete blows. His revenge was cruel: in addition to 22 stab wounds, he ripped out his father's heart, chewed a part and spat it out, according to a TV interview with journalist Marcelo Rezende.
Filho was arrested for the first time on May 24, 1973, and has lived in prison most of his adult years. It is said in the police records that he was once put on a muffler to be transported by the PM together with another prisoner, both handcuffed, and that when they went to open the back of the car, the other prisoner was already dead. Filho took responsibility for the crime, justifying it by claiming that his companion was a rapist. In 2003, although he was sentenced to 126 years imprisonment, he was to be released, because Brazilian law prohibits anyone from spending more than 30 years behind bars - although there was a 1934 decree, signed by then-president Getúlio Vargas, which allowed psychopaths to be maintained indefinitely in psychiatric establishments for treatment. Also, because of crimes committed inside the prisons, which increased his sentences for almost 400 years, their stay in prison was extended by the Justice until 2017. Filho had the freedom to remake his life with his girlfriend, a former prisoner whose name he did not reveal, whom he had met by exchanging letters. After serving 12 years for theft, the woman was released and visited Filho in the Taubaté prison.
According to fellow prisoners, Filho is a phenomenon of survival in the harsh prison regime, as a prisoner could hardly survive that long. He killed and wounded dozens of fellow criminals in order to survive. Once, he was attacked by five prisoners, killing three of them and chasing away the other two. Filho also killed a cell mate because he "snored too much" and another because he "did not like his face". To leave no doubt about his willingness to kill, he tattooed on his left arm: "I kill for pleasure", recently covered by another tattoo.
Filho could be described, according to psychiatrists, as a psychopath - someone with no remorse and no compassion for others. However, psychopaths do not develop affection; there are chances that he was developing some for his mother and ex-girlfriend, describing him instead as a sociopath, for wanting to avenge their deaths. Psychiatrists who analyzed him in 1982 for an expert's report, wrote that the greatest motivation of his life was "the violent affirmation of oneself." They diagnosed him as a "paranoid and antisocial" character.
After staying in prison for 34 years, he was released on April 24, 2007. Intelligence information from the National Security Force indicated that he had moved to the Northeast, more precisely to Fortaleza in Ceará. On September 15, 2011, local media reported that Filho was arrested at his home in a rural area, where he worked as a caretaker in Balneário Camboriú, the Santa Catarina coast. According to news reports from RBS news, he will have to serve eight years on charges such as riot and deprivation of liberty, committed while he was detained in São Paulo.
In present day, Filho is at liberty after spending long years behind bars. He says he is sorry for his bad ways and that he has converted to Christianity, that he is writing an autobiography and that he has a YouTube channel, where he gives advice to young people. He lives a completely different life and spends all his time trying to get young people away from crime.