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Pedro Rodrigues Filho: The Real-Life Killer Behind the Dexter Comparison · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: March 5th, 2023, Mogi das Cruzes, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It
0:05
Speaker 1: was just after dawn on a quiet Sunday, and a
0:07
Speaker 1: man sat outside his sister's house in a calm residential
0:10
Speaker 1: neighborhood because he was visiting for the weekend. And nothing
0:12
Speaker 1: about the scene really stood out until a car slowed
0:16
Speaker 1: down to a stop along the curb. And inside the
0:18
Speaker 1: car were multiple hooded figures whose faces were hidden and
0:23
Speaker 1: whose weapons were ready. And in seconds, they sprang from
0:26
Speaker 1: the vehicle and opened fire. Gunshots just tore through the
0:30
Speaker 1: morning stillness, hitting the man at close range. Then he
0:33
Speaker 1: would collapse on the pavement, no time to react, just
0:36
Speaker 1: riddled with bullets. But it wasn't over because one attacker
0:40
Speaker 1: would step forward and in a final act of brutality,
0:43
Speaker 1: He would slit the man's throat so deep that police
0:46
Speaker 1: later described it as near decapitation. Police would also describe
0:50
Speaker 1: it as an execution, a professional hit. And given who
0:54
Speaker 1: the victim was, few were surprised at all. Because this
0:58
Speaker 1: man had made enemies in every corner of the underworld.
1:01
Speaker 1: Men with long memories and violent grudges. So some said
1:05
Speaker 1: it was revenge and others said that it was inevitable.
1:08
Speaker 1: Because this wasn't just a murder. This was the final
1:11
Speaker 1: chapter in one of Brazil's darkest legends. And the man
1:14
Speaker 1: laying dead now on the sidewalk was once known as
1:18
Speaker 1: Padrinho Matador. But who really was Padrinho Matador? And why
1:24
Speaker 1: was he killed? Crime! Conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder.
1:29
Speaker 1: All things that I love to consume and I know
1:30
Speaker 1: you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded freak.
1:35
Speaker 1: Today we are doing just that. We are deep diving
1:38
Speaker 1: into one of the most prolific vigilante serial killers in
1:46
Speaker 1: the world. Actually, the most prolific vigilante serial killer ever.
1:50
Speaker 1: in the world. The kill count is insane, and this
1:54
Speaker 1: guy's backstory is even more insane. So without further ado,
1:58
Speaker 1: let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway,
2:01
Speaker 1: slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into
2:04
Speaker 1: this vigilante serial killer together. Pedro Rodriguez Filho was born
2:23
Speaker 1: on June 17th, 1954. And there is some discrepancy on
2:27
Speaker 1: his birth date. So it's either this or October 29th, 1954.
2:31
Speaker 1: But alas, he was born in the rural town of
2:34
Speaker 1: Santa Rita do Supacai, Brazil. And his life would begin
2:38
Speaker 1: in violence. Because while still in the room, Pedro's mother, Manuela,
2:42
Speaker 1: was ki- in the stomach by her husband Pedro Sr.
2:46
Speaker 1: during one of many brutal beatings. And that kick would
2:50
Speaker 1: leave Pedro with a permanently dented skull, just a physical
2:54
Speaker 1: marker of the rage he was born into. And his father,
2:57
Speaker 1: though insane, worked really hard when sober, but alcohol just
3:02
Speaker 1: turned him into a complete monster, prone to explosive rages
3:06
Speaker 1: that terrified the entire household. And Manuela, for her part,
3:09
Speaker 1: ruled the children with an iron fist and a Bible.
3:12
Speaker 1: She was very quick to punish and had no hesitation
3:16
Speaker 1: when it came to beating her sons. So it was
3:18
Speaker 1: kind of like, a domino effect in the household. And
3:21
Speaker 1: Pedro was actually the oldest in what ended up being
3:24
Speaker 1: at least eight siblings. And he took that position very seriously,
3:28
Speaker 1: because family was all that the poor had in Brazil,
3:32
Speaker 1: so it was everything to him. And in a home
3:34
Speaker 1: dominated by fear, he believed it was his responsibility to
3:38
Speaker 1: look out for the smaller siblings. So that sense of
3:41
Speaker 1: duty would become central to his whole identity. And later,
3:45
Speaker 1: his violence. So the family wasn't necessarily starving, but life
3:49
Speaker 1: was really hard because clean water was often diverted to
3:53
Speaker 1: the fields and medical care was very scarce and disease
3:56
Speaker 1: at this point was very rampant and the poor were
3:59
Speaker 1: treated as disposable. And there was only one place that
4:02
Speaker 1: Pedro really felt safe and that was with his maternal grandparents.
4:06
Speaker 1: His grandfather, Joaquim, was a butcher and actually taught Pedro
4:09
Speaker 1: how to hunt fish, plant crops, and slaughter animals with
4:13
Speaker 1: great precision. Some foreshadowing for you. And at the butcher shop,
4:17
Speaker 1: Pedro learned how to bone an ox and how to
4:20
Speaker 1: use a blade and just generally how to kill. Some
4:23
Speaker 1: more foreshadowing for you. But Joaquim also tried to instill
4:27
Speaker 1: in Pedro a sense of morality and what it means
4:31
Speaker 1: to be just. He would go on to say, he
4:33
Speaker 1: also taught me how to be worthy, correct, And Pedro's
4:41
Speaker 1: grandmother had her own beliefs. She told him that drinking
4:45
Speaker 1: ox blood would make him strong, and Pedro believed her.
4:48
Speaker 1: And by the time he was 10, Pedro was actually
4:50
Speaker 1: working at a chicken slaughterhouse, using the very tools and
4:53
Speaker 1: methods that his grandfather had taught him. And he also
4:55
Speaker 1: hunted monkeys for meat and pelts. He fished and helped
4:59
Speaker 1: provide for his family in any way that he could.
5:05
Speaker 1: what was I doing when I was 10 man was
5:07
Speaker 1: I doing just like sniffing markers maybe Yeah, I mean,
5:11
Speaker 1: I was definitely doing that. Don't remember a lot from
5:13
Speaker 1: back then, probably because I was sniffing markers so much. Anyway,
5:16
Speaker 1: but the lessons he learned were clear. Survival was earned
5:19
Speaker 1: and justice wasn't given, it had to be taken. And
5:22
Speaker 1: Pedro as a child was very small, wiry, but very
5:26
Speaker 1: serious as well. He was a bit of an old soul.
5:28
Speaker 1: And what he lacked in size, he made up for
5:31
Speaker 1: with intensity. He was fearless, kind of dangerously so. And
5:35
Speaker 1: he showed early signs of deep sensitivity to injustice. Especially
5:40
Speaker 1: when it involved his family. He was like the ultra
5:44
Speaker 1: final boss empath, if you will. But also not because
5:47
Speaker 1: he ended up killing people. But you know what I mean.
5:49
Speaker 1: But that sensitivity curdled into something much darker in 1967,
5:52
Speaker 1: when Pedro was only 13 years old. He had taken
5:57
Speaker 1: his cousin's horse for a short ride without permission. Just
6:00
Speaker 1: an impulsive act that he really didn't think much of.
6:02
Speaker 1: He didn't think that his cousin would care. But when
6:04
Speaker 1: his cousin found him, the other boy actually had punched
6:07
Speaker 1: Pedro hard across the face. And Pedro, on the ground
6:11
Speaker 1: and completely dazed from getting basically knocked out, looked up
6:14
Speaker 1: at him and said, I'm going to kill you. And
6:17
Speaker 1: his cousin laughed and would just proceed to punch him
6:20
Speaker 1: in the face again. Poke in the bear, if you will.
6:23
Speaker 1: And Pedro... He wasn't laughing and he also didn't forget.
6:27
Speaker 1: So weeks would pass and the cousin wouldn't apologize. And
6:30
Speaker 1: other relatives heard about the incident and kind of mocked
6:33
Speaker 1: Pedro for being weak. Different times. And inside him, something
6:38
Speaker 1: began to fester. And this wasn't just anger, it turned
6:41
Speaker 1: into an obsession. And the opportunity for revenge came at
6:45
Speaker 1: the sugar cane mill, where Pedro and his cousin were
6:48
Speaker 1: assigned to feed cane stalks into an industrial press. Yeah. Foreshadowing!
6:55
Speaker 1: And the press is basically two giant steel rollers that
6:58
Speaker 1: crush the stocks into a pulp. So Pedro would do
7:03
Speaker 1: his job and also wait for his moment. And then,
7:06
Speaker 1: without any warning, Pedro would shove his cousin into the rollers.
7:11
Speaker 1: And his cousin's arm would get stuck into the press
7:13
Speaker 1: and it would crush it all the way up to
7:16
Speaker 1: his shoulder until the machine just completely jammed out. And Pedro,
7:20
Speaker 1: still not being satisfied with this revenge, would proceed to
7:24
Speaker 1: pick up pruning shears and stab his cousin repeatedly. Just
7:29
Speaker 1: trying to reduce the body enough so it could still
7:33
Speaker 1: push through the press. Just, I mean, foul. terrifying. But
7:41
Speaker 1: the attack would be interrupted by workers who heard the screams.
7:44
Speaker 1: And his grandfather would turn up just in time to
7:46
Speaker 1: actually turn off the machine before his cousin could get
7:49
Speaker 1: fully pulled into this press. So Pedro would naturally be arrested,
7:53
Speaker 1: but only as a minor. And with pressure from his grandfather,
7:56
Speaker 1: he would actually be released within days. So his only
7:59
Speaker 1: punishment was that he was ordered to clean the machine
8:02
Speaker 1: of the blood and flesh, and that would take him
8:05
Speaker 1: about four weeks. That's Punishment. If I said shut up
8:10
Speaker 1: to my mom, I would get more of a punishment
8:12
Speaker 1: than that. What the. And Pedro later in life would
8:15
Speaker 1: retell the story with just pure amusement, laughing as he
8:19
Speaker 1: described the attack. Because he felt no remorse for his
8:22
Speaker 1: cousin because his cousin had wronged him and he was
8:25
Speaker 1: bringing him to justice in his mind. The balance had
8:29
Speaker 1: been restored basically. And with that, Pedro Rodriguez Filho felt
8:33
Speaker 1: his first taste of justice. And of something else too,
8:37
Speaker 1: which was pleasure. And the urge to kill had awakened.
8:41
Speaker 1: So in 1968, Pedro was 14 years old. And this
8:45
Speaker 1: is when his life would take an irreversible turn. Because
8:47
Speaker 1: his father, Pedro Sr., had worked as a night janitor
8:50
Speaker 1: at a local school. But was abruptly fired without severance
8:54
Speaker 1: after being accused of stealing food and supplies during his shift.
8:58
Speaker 1: And though Pedro Sr. denied all allegations, his word was
9:01
Speaker 1: dismissed in favor of a daytime guard who claimed Pedro Sr.
9:06
Speaker 1: was responsible for it. And the consequences were devastating for
9:09
Speaker 1: the family. Because with his father jobless and branded as
9:12
Speaker 1: a thief, the Rodriguez family spiraled into poverty. And Pedro
9:16
Speaker 1: would watch as his siblings just went hungry and his mother, Manuela,
9:20
Speaker 1: cried in silence. And Pedro believed that his father had
9:23
Speaker 1: been wronged because although Pedro Sr. was kind of a
9:26
Speaker 1: piece of shit, he didn't steal. So Pedro believed that
9:29
Speaker 1: the balance once again needed to be restored and someone
9:33
Speaker 1: had to pay. So Pedro would just retreat into the
9:36
Speaker 1: wilderness armed with a 36 caliber rifle, a machete and
9:40
Speaker 1: a green army backpack. And he built a makeshift camp
9:43
Speaker 1: in the forest. He just went full feral mode and
9:46
Speaker 1: he would live here for months, surviving off wild game.
9:50
Speaker 1: He's 14 at this time. He's disappeared and started just
9:54
Speaker 1: living off the land, just planning and waiting. Cause this
9:57
Speaker 1: wasn't a retreat. He was just meticulously planning something. And
10:01
Speaker 1: one night Pedro laid in wait outside the deputy mayor's house.
10:05
Speaker 1: The very man who had authorized his father's dismissal. And
10:09
Speaker 1: when the deputy arrived in the Jeep, Pedro raised his
10:12
Speaker 1: grandfather's rifle and fired. And he would shoot the man
10:15
Speaker 1: and he would die instantly. And that's when Pedro would
10:17
Speaker 1: just flee into the dark. And this would be the
10:20
Speaker 1: first man that Pedro had killed. Because his cousin didn't
10:24
Speaker 1: die in that incident somehow. I don't know how he
10:26
Speaker 1: didn't die, but he didn't. But this would be the
10:29
Speaker 1: first man that he would kill and he would not
10:31
Speaker 1: be the last. But he said when it was done,
10:33
Speaker 1: he felt no remorse, he felt satisfaction, and he felt righteous.
10:38
Speaker 1: But the injustice hadn't been fully avenged at this point.
10:42
Speaker 1: Not yet. Because there was still someone responsible for the
10:45
Speaker 1: pain his family was facing. So he allegedly told himself,
10:48
Speaker 1: moving forward, he would tell the victims why he was
10:51
Speaker 1: going to kill them. Sound like anybody we know? So
10:55
Speaker 1: Pedro would wait for the right time to strike his
10:57
Speaker 1: next victim. And it would be a month later when
10:59
Speaker 1: Pedro returned to the school where his father once worked.
11:02
Speaker 1: And his next target? The day guard. The man he
11:05
Speaker 1: believed had falsely accused Pedro Sr. and ruined his entire
11:09
Speaker 1: family's life. So Pedro would wait outside the storeroom where
11:12
Speaker 1: the guard usually began his shift. So when the man arrived,
11:14
Speaker 1: Pedro would again lift his gun, but he wouldn't shoot
11:17
Speaker 1: just yet. He would actually force the man into a chair.
11:20
Speaker 1: And then he told him exactly why he was going
11:23
Speaker 1: to die, saying, And the guard would just sob and
11:25
Speaker 1: break down and beg for his life. But Pedro wouldn't
11:27
Speaker 1: have it, and he just shot him twice. And then
11:38
Speaker 1: he would pile boxes and furniture over the body and
11:41
Speaker 1: set it all on fire before fleeing the scene once again.
11:44
Speaker 1: Do not wrong this guy. My lord. And he's 14
11:49
Speaker 1: at this point. So with the authorities now closing in,
11:52
Speaker 1: Pedro just went into hiding. And he would completely flee
11:55
Speaker 1: metropolitan Sao Paulo, taking refuge in a home with his godmother.
11:59
Speaker 1: And it would be there that he met a woman
12:01
Speaker 1: that would change his life. And that woman was Botinia.
12:03
Speaker 1: And Botinia was a widowed drug trafficker known for her beauty, influence,
12:08
Speaker 1: and iron fist of control of a local criminal organization.
12:13
Speaker 1: And she would just take Pedro in. And she would
12:15
Speaker 1: actually become his lover. Which I'm not sure of the
12:18
Speaker 1: age of her, but she was definitely a lot older.
12:21
Speaker 1: But she would have a lot of influence over him,
12:23
Speaker 1: and she would actually start to work him in the
12:25
Speaker 1: drug trade. And though Pedro was still a minor, obviously,
12:28
Speaker 1: his relationship with Botinha granted him unusual status and power
12:33
Speaker 1: within the gang. But his rise in this power kind
12:36
Speaker 1: of stirred resentment from older traffickers who saw him as
12:40
Speaker 1: just an upstart. And according to one of the rival's girlfriends,
12:43
Speaker 1: Pedro had been targeted for assassination at this point. And
12:47
Speaker 1: after she told Pedro, he constantly kept one eye open.
12:50
Speaker 1: And soon after all this, Pedro would actually be invited
12:53
Speaker 1: to a lagoon, supposedly for a swim, just to smoke
12:56
Speaker 1: with the boys. But as they started walking towards the water,
12:59
Speaker 1: Pedro would slowly become more and more suspicious because the
13:02
Speaker 1: others were acting kind of strangely and they were armed.
13:06
Speaker 1: So Pedro, being Pedro, would pull his gun first and
13:10
Speaker 1: he would order them to disarm themselves. And instead of
13:14
Speaker 1: listening to the child, they ran away and that's when
13:17
Speaker 1: Pedro would just light them up. He would open fire,
13:21
Speaker 1: killing two and hospitalizing a third. And whether it was
13:24
Speaker 1: paranoia or legitimate self-defense, it didn't matter. What mattered was
13:28
Speaker 1: that Pedro survived. And now, he completely ruled through fear.
13:33
Speaker 1: And from that moment on, Pedro's reputation just exploded. He
13:37
Speaker 1: became known as Podrinho Cartucheira, which means cartridge PD, which
13:42
Speaker 1: is a reference to his favorite weapon, a two-shot, sawed-off shotgun.
13:46
Speaker 1: And he would work with a trusted pair of partners,
13:49
Speaker 1: Gausenio and Ze Capeta. And the trio would carry out
13:52
Speaker 1: multiple crimes across cities like Jicarra, even double-crossing rival dealers.
13:57
Speaker 1: And Pedro was just known to live on the edge,
14:00
Speaker 1: not to be with, if you will. But he slept
14:03
Speaker 1: in cars, cemeteries, and churches, and he hid from both
14:07
Speaker 1: police and death squads, who were basically notorious vigilante groups
14:10
Speaker 1: made up of off-duty cops who executed suspected criminals with impunity.
14:15
Speaker 1: So he would be doing his thing, living on the edge,
14:18
Speaker 1: doing crime, and then one day, karma would get him back,
14:21
Speaker 1: and he would. be ambushed. And during this ambush, Botinia
14:25
Speaker 1: would be killed and Pedro would be wounded. So Pedro
14:28
Speaker 1: just shattered and completely in poor health now sought refuge
14:33
Speaker 1: again with his family because he just lost the love
14:35
Speaker 1: of his life. And, you know, the person that introduced
14:38
Speaker 1: him to this whole crime world basically groomed him and
14:41
Speaker 1: he was wounded. So he would seek refuge with his family,
14:44
Speaker 1: but this time his relatives practiced Candomblé Macumba, which is
14:49
Speaker 1: an Afro-Brazilian religion involving spiritual possession and ritual sacrifice, sometimes
14:54
Speaker 1: referred to as black magic. And they put Pedro through
14:58
Speaker 1: a ceremony involving him drinking the blood of a black cat, dancing, drumming,
15:03
Speaker 1: and a ritual burial of the carcass with seeds inside.
15:07
Speaker 1: And a short time later, Pedro would actually go to
15:09
Speaker 1: retrieve the seeds from the buried carcass and wear them
15:12
Speaker 1: as a necklace. And this represented being a spiritual talisman
15:16
Speaker 1: that he believed would make him completely invincible. And he
15:19
Speaker 1: would go on to say, From then on, the cops
15:21
Speaker 1: opened fire, but the bullets didn't hit me. He claimed,
15:25
Speaker 1: Nothing would stop me. So after this, his crimes would escalate,
15:29
Speaker 1: his methods grew bolder, and he would not just be
15:32
Speaker 1: known as Cartridge Petey. He would be called something new,
15:35
Speaker 1: but only after he had committed his most violent offense
15:39
Speaker 1: to date, something that would turn him into the legend
15:41
Speaker 1: he's known as today. So after the bloodshed betrayals and
15:44
Speaker 1: rituals that had defined his early teens, Pedro would find
15:49
Speaker 1: something very unexpected, and that was love. Again. And while
15:53
Speaker 1: living in Campo Grande, a city just west of Rio
15:56
Speaker 1: de Janeiro, Pedro met a young woman named Maria Aparecida Olympia.
16:00
Speaker 1: And for the first time, the boy who had killed
16:03
Speaker 1: his way through the slums of Sao Paulo seemed to
16:05
Speaker 1: have a future beyond just vengeance. And Pedro and Maria
16:09
Speaker 1: fell in love. And soon, Maria would become pregnant. So
16:12
Speaker 1: they moved into a small shack, and Pedro kept supporting
16:16
Speaker 1: them the only way he knew how. By operating outside
16:19
Speaker 1: the law. So he would continue stealing from corrupt traffickers,
16:23
Speaker 1: robbing from businesses who cheated the poor, and reselling stolen
16:27
Speaker 1: goods to dealers he believed were just. So everything he's doing,
16:31
Speaker 1: even though it's against the law, he's like kind of
16:34
Speaker 1: doing it like Robin Hood, like anybody that's bad he
16:37
Speaker 1: would steal from, and then he would give back where
16:40
Speaker 1: he could. So he was like, The good bad guy,
16:43
Speaker 1: if you will, the vigilante. And Pedro saw himself as
16:46
Speaker 1: a vigilante and not a criminal. But in his mind,
16:49
Speaker 1: he was doing moral work. He protected the weak and
16:52
Speaker 1: he punished the wicked. And he provided for the woman
16:54
Speaker 1: he loved and the child they were expecting. But that
16:57
Speaker 1: illusion of peace wouldn't last. Because Pedro, at this point,
17:01
Speaker 1: had made a f * * * load of enemies.
17:04
Speaker 1: Enemies that would not forgive. So one day after... work,
17:08
Speaker 1: Pedro would return back to his shack that he shared
17:11
Speaker 1: with his love and he would find it to be silent.
17:14
Speaker 1: And inside he would find Maria, his pregnant girlfriend, dead.
17:19
Speaker 1: Murdered along with the man Pedro had asked to protect
17:21
Speaker 1: her while he was away. And the scene was horrific
17:25
Speaker 1: because the killer had actually used their blood to write
17:27
Speaker 1: a message for Pedro on the wall saying, We will
17:31
Speaker 1: get you. And at this point, she had been seven
17:33
Speaker 1: months pregnant. And at this point, Pedro's life had already
17:37
Speaker 1: been drenched in blood. And now he was just consumed
17:42
Speaker 1: in rage. Because now it wasn't just justice he needed
17:45
Speaker 1: to serve. It was... personal. So Pedro would set out
17:49
Speaker 1: and he would spend over a year hunting. He would
17:52
Speaker 1: interrogate anyone he thought might have information. He tortured people
17:56
Speaker 1: who didn't give answers fast enough. But for a long time,
17:59
Speaker 1: he would kind of come up with nothing. And he
18:01
Speaker 1: killed so many, wronged so many that he no longer
18:05
Speaker 1: knew where to begin. And then one day at a bar,
18:09
Speaker 1: someone would approach him and it would be a woman.
18:11
Speaker 1: And she said she had actually been looking for him
18:13
Speaker 1: because she was the ex-wife of a man named named Chena.
18:16
Speaker 1: And Chena was a drug trafficker Pedro had betrayed years earlier,
18:20
Speaker 1: stealing his drugs and guns and selling them off to
18:23
Speaker 1: a rival. And Chena had never forgotten this. And according
18:26
Speaker 1: to her, Chena had actually ordered for Maria's murder. And
18:30
Speaker 1: the woman who came up to Pedro in the bar
18:32
Speaker 1: would go on to show him her bruises and scars
18:35
Speaker 1: from Chena. And Pedro believed her. And she would actually
18:38
Speaker 1: tell him something else. And that was that Chena's brother
18:40
Speaker 1: is actually getting married that weekend, and she would tell
18:43
Speaker 1: him exactly where. You guys ever heard of the Red Wedding?
18:46
Speaker 1: It's about to get really bad. So Pedro would call
18:51
Speaker 1: up his old allies, Guachino and Zacapetta, and he would
18:54
Speaker 1: tell them, quote unquote, We're going to a wedding. Every
18:57
Speaker 1: man there gets a bullet. But if you shoot a
18:59
Speaker 1: woman or child, you'll have to answer to me. Which, listen.
19:03
Speaker 1: I know this guy is a really bad guy, but
19:06
Speaker 1: a straight up action movie line right there. That, like,
19:10
Speaker 1: pluck that out, put that into a movie. And he's
19:12
Speaker 1: a piece of shit. He kills people. But, you know,
19:14
Speaker 1: like that, that goes hard as a line by itself.
19:17
Speaker 1: So Pedro and his compadres would go to this wedding
19:20
Speaker 1: and the venue was fantastic. And the guests were drinking
19:24
Speaker 1: and dancing and toasting the groom and bride. And Pedro
19:28
Speaker 1: and his men slipped inside completely undetected. And Pedro would
19:32
Speaker 1: approach the doorman claiming to be an honored guest of Gina.
19:36
Speaker 1: And moments later, Pedro spotted Gina and raised his 12
19:40
Speaker 1: gauge sawn off shotgun. And he would fire right into
19:43
Speaker 1: Gina's chest, killing him instantly on his wedding day. And
19:48
Speaker 1: the rest was complete silence. Pedro and his crew opened
19:52
Speaker 1: fired on male guests, sparing only women and children. And
19:56
Speaker 1: seven men would be killed and 16 more would be wounded.
19:59
Speaker 1: And Chena's mother was actually hit. But Pedro would later
20:02
Speaker 1: say that was her own doing as she tried to
20:05
Speaker 1: shield her son. And after the massacre, the trio would
20:07
Speaker 1: just walk out the front door, just calmly and confidently.
20:11
Speaker 1: And they would even go to a nearby bar to
20:14
Speaker 1: get a drink to Selly. And from that day on,
20:17
Speaker 1: he was no longer just a teenage killer. In the streets,
20:20
Speaker 1: he was now known as Padrino Matador, which means Little
20:25
Speaker 1: Petey the Killer. And that name was everywhere. He was
20:29
Speaker 1: like a mythic figure, the boy who avenged his unborn child.
20:34
Speaker 1: It was like movie shit to people. The man who
20:37
Speaker 1: massacred an entire wedding party in the name of justice
20:40
Speaker 1: and who claimed to be guided not by impulse but
20:43
Speaker 1: by a moral code. Sounds like somebody else we know.
20:47
Speaker 1: There were so many lessons in the vaunted code of Harry.
20:50
Speaker 1: So the wedding massacre would send shockwaves through the criminal underworld.
20:55
Speaker 1: Seven men lay dead, 16 wounded, and none of them
20:58
Speaker 1: were innocent in Pedro's eyes. But to law enforcement, it
21:02
Speaker 1: was a complete bloodbath. And after the wedding, Pedro didn't
21:06
Speaker 1: go into hiding. He just leaned into the myth. And
21:08
Speaker 1: he would actually go on to take up a pair
21:11
Speaker 1: of twins in a polyamorous threesome relationship and begin to
21:15
Speaker 1: live like a complete... gangster. Because now he had notoriety, money,
21:20
Speaker 1: and respect. And he even got tattooed across his arms
21:24
Speaker 1: the words, I kill for pleasure. Which, oh my god.
21:29
Speaker 1: Is this guy real? How is this guy real? And
21:32
Speaker 1: on the other, he tattooed the name Maria and beneath it,
21:35
Speaker 1: it says, I can kill for love. Like who wrote
21:38
Speaker 1: this guy's lore? Who? But Pedro claimed that he killed
21:43
Speaker 1: daily and he would say, I would summon the devil.
21:46
Speaker 1: It was a ritual. It was like, this body is yours.
21:49
Speaker 1: This blood is yours. Then he would find a man,
21:52
Speaker 1: someone who'd beaten a woman or prayed on the week
21:56
Speaker 1: and he would, you know, drink their blood. because that's
22:01
Speaker 1: what he grew up thinking he had to do. Just
22:03
Speaker 1: as his grandmother had once told him would make him stronger.
22:07
Speaker 1: But mere months after avenging Maria, another personal grievance would arise.
22:13
Speaker 1: And this time it would involve his cousin. Pedro would
22:15
Speaker 1: discover that his favorite female cousin had become pregnant, but
22:19
Speaker 1: his boyfriend disgracefully refused to marry her. And he would
22:22
Speaker 1: just abandon her and his unborn child. So Pedro, naturally
22:26
Speaker 1: enraged by the mistreatment of his cousin, took it upon
22:29
Speaker 1: himself to retaliate. And he would hunt down the boyfriend
22:33
Speaker 1: and shoot him in the head in cold blood as
22:36
Speaker 1: punishment for dishonoring the family. Don't f * * *
22:39
Speaker 1: with this guy. But in Pedro's eyes, this was just
22:42
Speaker 1: another righteous kill. The man had wronged his flesh and blood,
22:46
Speaker 1: so lethal vengeance was warranted. In Pedro's mind, not mine.
22:50
Speaker 1: And this incident would just add to the growing tally
22:52
Speaker 1: of Pedro's victims, proving that no perceived injustice against his
22:56
Speaker 1: family would go unanswered. even relatively minor domestic ones. So
23:00
Speaker 1: Pedro's reputation would continue to grow and grow, and he
23:03
Speaker 1: was now a fully wanted man, hunted by both the
23:07
Speaker 1: police and the death squads that we talked about before.
23:09
Speaker 1: But even the death squads kind of hesitated around Padrino Matador,
23:13
Speaker 1: because his name carried weight, and his reach extended farther
23:16
Speaker 1: than most knew. But luckily, legend is no shield, and
23:20
Speaker 1: the myth... doesn't protect against betrayal, because Pedro's inner circle
23:24
Speaker 1: began to unravel. His two buddies, the men who stood
23:27
Speaker 1: beside him at the wedding massacre, were both killed, one
23:30
Speaker 1: by police and one by a death squad. And though
23:33
Speaker 1: Pedro had kind of always lived as a loner, paranoia
23:36
Speaker 1: began to set in, and justifiably so, because his twin
23:40
Speaker 1: lover's father owned a bar in Sao Paulo, and Pedro
23:43
Speaker 1: would visit this bar pretty often. And one day, while
23:45
Speaker 1: he sat drinking at the bar, the police would come in,
23:48
Speaker 1: because the twin's father had tipped them off. So Pedro
23:51
Speaker 1: would be ambushed in a very dramatic raid. It was
23:53
Speaker 1: just a hail of bullets and screaming voices, and he
23:57
Speaker 1: was actually very badly wounded in the firefight, collapsing to
24:00
Speaker 1: the ground and starting to bleed out. And he would
24:02
Speaker 1: pass out to the sound of officers yelling for his death.
24:06
Speaker 1: But when he woke, he was actually chained to a
24:08
Speaker 1: hospital bed, surrounded by nurses, police, and television cameras. The
24:12
Speaker 1: vigilante killer was caught. And the myth had been subdued.
24:16
Speaker 1: And Brazil's most feared teenage executioner was about to enter
24:19
Speaker 1: a place even more violent than the streets, which was
24:23
Speaker 1: Brazil's prisons. So Pedro would spend 25 days recovering, shackled
24:28
Speaker 1: in place before being transferred to prison. And the guards
24:32
Speaker 1: gave him a choice, either protective custody or gen pop,
24:35
Speaker 1: general population in the prison, where the friends, brothers, and
24:38
Speaker 1: sons of victims of Pedro's were waiting in wake. But
24:43
Speaker 1: Pedro didn't give a f * * k and he
24:46
Speaker 1: went to gen pop, which is crazy because there's just
24:49
Speaker 1: lines of people waiting to kill Pedro. So he entered
24:52
Speaker 1: a system notorious for its brutality, overcrowding, and corruption, and
24:56
Speaker 1: where guards often handed over power to the inmates and
24:59
Speaker 1: violence ruled, everything. Like, one of the scariest places you
25:03
Speaker 1: can go on earth. And on the ride to prison,
25:06
Speaker 1: Pedro was chained inside the transport truck with another man.
25:09
Speaker 1: And this man was a serial grapist, just the lowest
25:13
Speaker 1: of the low. By the time they got there, only
25:15
Speaker 1: one man was left alive in the back of the van.
25:18
Speaker 1: So from the moment he arrived, Pedro sent a message.
25:22
Speaker 1: He would not be intimidated. And within days, five men
25:26
Speaker 1: tried to ambush Pedro in the yard. But when it
25:29
Speaker 1: was over, three were dead and two ran off bleeding.
25:32
Speaker 1: And Pedro, he walked away basically unharmed. Pedro had quite
25:36
Speaker 1: literally entered one of the most violent prison systems in
25:39
Speaker 1: the world. And he just mated his bitch. Because he
25:42
Speaker 1: would just turn anything into a weapon. Spoons, wires, shivs,
25:47
Speaker 1: just bare hands. And when he couldn't find a blade,
25:49
Speaker 1: he just relied on his fists. Or... his specialty, breaking necks.
25:54
Speaker 1: How is breaking necks a specialty? That's a very hard
25:57
Speaker 1: thing to do. They make it look so easy in
25:59
Speaker 1: movies and stuff. They just go, that's a really hard
26:01
Speaker 1: thing to do. Not that I would know. I just
26:03
Speaker 1: know because I'm not going to talk about it. Nevermind.
26:06
Speaker 1: I've literally asked doctors because I was curious. I'm like,
26:08
Speaker 1: everybody makes it so easy like to break necks in movies.
26:11
Speaker 1: And they're like, no, it's really hard. You need brute
26:13
Speaker 1: force to do that shit. Anyway, I'm digging a hole
26:15
Speaker 1: right now. But to maintain this type of strength, you know,
26:18
Speaker 1: to be a break necking specialist, he would maintain his
26:21
Speaker 1: his strength daily, punching the concrete cell walls until they
26:25
Speaker 1: were slick with his blood. Also building his pain resistance
26:29
Speaker 1: like armor. And he would learn martial arts in prison
26:32
Speaker 1: and he would lift homemade weights made from water bottles
26:35
Speaker 1: and broomsticks. But Pedro wasn't impulsive. Sometimes he would even
26:40
Speaker 1: befriend his victims, gain their trust, eat meals with them,
26:44
Speaker 1: even hug them, only to kill them months later once
26:49
Speaker 1: they were comfortable. He was just like a meticulous planner. Like, unfortunately,
26:55
Speaker 1: he was very smart. Reminds me a lot of Ed
26:59
Speaker 1: Kemper in a and he learned, but Ed Kemper's just
27:04
Speaker 1: like a whole other, he was not a vigilante, he's
27:06
Speaker 1: just a f * * * ing monster. If you
27:07
Speaker 1: want to know more about that one, you go to
27:08
Speaker 1: this video over here. But anyway, Pedro stood on a
27:12
Speaker 1: pedestal of... up morals, basically. But he believed in execution
27:18
Speaker 1: and not emotion. He didn't have regret after he killed somebody,
27:21
Speaker 1: and he didn't hesitate when he did kill someone. And
27:23
Speaker 1: in time, Pedro became the boogeyman behind bars. Other inmates
27:28
Speaker 1: feared him, guards learned to stay the f * *
27:30
Speaker 1: * out of his way, and still, he kept... killing.
27:34
Speaker 1: So Pedro would just thrive in this environment, and he
27:38
Speaker 1: did so through murder. Bad guy. I cannot say enough.
27:42
Speaker 1: This is a bad guy, okay? I know I'm saying
27:44
Speaker 1: this like he's like, dude, look at, well, this is
27:46
Speaker 1: crazy what he did. I mean, it is. It's f
27:48
Speaker 1: * * * ing crazy. This whole story sounds like
27:50
Speaker 1: it's straight out of a movie. It's not. He's killing people.
27:52
Speaker 1: He's bad. He's a piece of shit. Are these bad
27:54
Speaker 1: people that he's killing? Maybe. Maybe. Do they deserve to live?
27:57
Speaker 1: Probably not, but that's not for me to say, okay?
28:00
Speaker 1: And that's not for a human that has no just
28:03
Speaker 1: or right to kill someone to decide, you know? So
28:06
Speaker 1: I'm just putting that out there. I'm just telling a story.
28:08
Speaker 1: A real story that's f * * * ing insane.
28:10
Speaker 1: But anyway, back in prison, not all of his killings
28:13
Speaker 1: were actually driven by revenge. And in one case, that
28:16
Speaker 1: became folklore in the Brazilian press. Pedro claimed to have
28:19
Speaker 1: killed a cellmate simply because the man snored too loudly. Just,
28:23
Speaker 1: that's like, you can't get on this guy's nerves, I swear,
28:26
Speaker 1: oh my god. But later, he would clarify that the
28:28
Speaker 1: truth was much darker. Because during a hospital transfer, Pedro
28:32
Speaker 1: had shared a room with a prisoner who watched him
28:35
Speaker 1: too intently while he was being intimate with his girlfriend
28:38
Speaker 1: during a visit. And Pedro would say that he disrespected me.
28:42
Speaker 1: He stared. That's why I killed him. And he would
28:45
Speaker 1: slit the snoring man's throat. It probably also was a
28:49
Speaker 1: little bit because he was snoring. It was probably like
28:51
Speaker 1: twofer for Pedro because he's crazy. And then there's Claudio,
28:56
Speaker 1: the traitor. He was actually a former friend of Pedro,
28:59
Speaker 1: who Pedro had actually protected on the inside. And Claudio
29:02
Speaker 1: was eventually released and welcomed into Pedro's family. And he
29:05
Speaker 1: would even begin a relationship with Pedro's sister. Good luck, dude.
29:09
Speaker 1: What the? Don't do that. But after an altercation with
29:12
Speaker 1: Pedro's brother, Claudio shot and killed Pedro's sister, Silvana. Run!
29:18
Speaker 1: actually don't run i mean you're a piece of shit
29:19
Speaker 1: you killed you killed an innocent person so you should
29:21
Speaker 1: go back to jail but also run so when claudio
29:24
Speaker 1: would naturally return to prison for killing pedro's sister he
29:28
Speaker 1: expected some serious vengeance for pedro because he's been around
29:33
Speaker 1: the block so day by day would go by and
29:36
Speaker 1: he would just be looking over his shoulder waiting for
29:38
Speaker 1: pedro to get his vengeance. Oh, one day he did.
29:41
Speaker 1: Because while Claudio was studying in his cell, Pedro would
29:45
Speaker 1: waltz in and he would grab him by the hair
29:48
Speaker 1: and cut through his throat with a knife. Completely decapitating him.
29:54
Speaker 1: Pedro would go on to say, he was my friend,
29:56
Speaker 1: but I just had to kill him. I'm justified. Which like,
30:00
Speaker 1: he killed his sister, which again, he, no, killing his
30:03
Speaker 1: Killing is really bad, but what? You poked the bear
30:06
Speaker 1: of bears. So as his infamy grew, Pedro began receiving
30:10
Speaker 1: letters from people on the outside begging him to kill
30:13
Speaker 1: specific inmates. He was becoming like a bounty hunter within jail.
30:19
Speaker 1: Anyone from grapist to child essayers or extortionists, men who
30:25
Speaker 1: had harmed the innocent. scum of the earth basically and
30:29
Speaker 1: sometimes pedro would oblige but he did refuse to kill
30:33
Speaker 1: for money so technically he wasn't like a bounty hunter
30:36
Speaker 1: he was like a pro bono bounty hunter i guess
30:39
Speaker 1: but he evaluated each case meticulously to make sure that
30:43
Speaker 1: it was justified to do so he was like a
30:46
Speaker 1: kind of a responsible killer the morals are kind of
30:49
Speaker 1: all over the place it's really hard he's a bad
30:51
Speaker 1: guy but so are grapists, you know? But in his
30:54
Speaker 1: own mind, if he deemed the man guilty enough, he
30:57
Speaker 1: would strike. Similar to Dexter. And sometimes he would beat
31:01
Speaker 1: them to death. Sometimes he would stab them to death.
31:04
Speaker 1: And sometimes he would throw you down an elevator shaft.
31:06
Speaker 1: You never knew what was coming with Pedro. Kind of
31:08
Speaker 1: a surprise guy. And he even described luring his victims
31:11
Speaker 1: into false friendships. Kind of like we talked about before.
31:14
Speaker 1: Sharing food, talking kindly before striking with absolute ruthlessness. I
31:19
Speaker 1: can't imagine just being like best buds with Pedro and
31:22
Speaker 1: just like skipping through the halls of prison and eating
31:26
Speaker 1: food only to get like Sam would shove down my
31:30
Speaker 1: throat along with a fist. And Pedro would even go
31:32
Speaker 1: on to later tell a TV reporter about the day
31:34
Speaker 1: that he set a personal record of PR. 16 people
31:40
Speaker 1: killed in one day. But the story is kind of
31:44
Speaker 1: murky and unconfirmed by public records. Low-key, Believe it. After
31:48
Speaker 1: everything I've heard about him so far. But Pedro claimed
31:51
Speaker 1: that a prisoner spread a rumor that led to the
31:53
Speaker 1: death of Pedro's friend. And in retaliation, he said he
31:57
Speaker 1: entered their ward and went on a stabbing spree, claiming
32:00
Speaker 1: afterward that he actually couldn't hear for three days from
32:03
Speaker 1: all the screaming. So whether true or mythologized, it fit
32:07
Speaker 1: the image Pedro had cultivated. A relentless executioner who claimed
32:11
Speaker 1: to purge prison of those he deemed unworthy of life.
32:15
Speaker 1: Guy was the grim reaper of prison. And his official
32:18
Speaker 1: body count was 71. confirmed kills at this point. But
32:22
Speaker 1: he insisted the number was much higher. And again, low-key,
32:25
Speaker 1: believe him. So the state had given him a cell
32:27
Speaker 1: and Pedro turned it into his killing fields. But it's
32:30
Speaker 1: just crazy to me that they didn't separate him from
32:34
Speaker 1: Genpop after he killed, I don't know, one person? Maybe two?
32:39
Speaker 1: They were like, hey, maybe we should put this guy
32:41
Speaker 1: in his own place. Maybe we should put this guy
32:43
Speaker 1: in solitary confinement and not with other people because he
32:46
Speaker 1: tends to Kill everyone that wrongs him. And in prison,
32:50
Speaker 1: that happens a lot. So I don't know. Brazil prisons
32:52
Speaker 1: are just like, just otherworldly insane. So I don't know
32:56
Speaker 1: how you fix that. But anyway, they didn't. And he
32:58
Speaker 1: killed a lot of people. But none of the murders
33:00
Speaker 1: Pedro committed in prison would compare to the one that
33:02
Speaker 1: hit Brazil. closest to home. Because one day the guards
33:05
Speaker 1: called him to the warden's office and he was just
33:08
Speaker 1: surrounded by officers with drawn rifles as they delivered the
33:12
Speaker 1: news to him. Which was that, I get chills even
33:15
Speaker 1: saying it because I'm scared for everyone involved, but that
33:18
Speaker 1: his mother, Manuela, was murdered. And that she had been
33:21
Speaker 1: stabbed 21 times. And that her body was ripped apart
33:28
Speaker 1: with a machete. And the killer was her own husband.
33:32
Speaker 1: Pedro's I have so many chills saying this right now
33:37
Speaker 1: because I know what's gonna happen next and I'm still scared.
33:40
Speaker 1: So Pedro's father was arrested and was now in custody
33:45
Speaker 1: at the same prison where Pedro was serving time. And
33:49
Speaker 1: when Pedro was given the news, he was completely silent.
33:53
Speaker 1: And he would actually ask to attend the morgue viewing.
33:56
Speaker 1: And the guards, watching him carefully, did allow it. And
33:59
Speaker 1: standing over his mother's mutilated body, he would make a
34:03
Speaker 1: promise to her. And that promise would be that he
34:06
Speaker 1: would kill his father and he would eat his heart.
34:10
Speaker 1: And that chance, came not long after, because Pedro would
34:15
Speaker 1: fake an illness. And by doing so, he would lure
34:17
Speaker 1: a guard into his cell, overpower him, and steal his
34:21
Speaker 1: gun and his keys. Pedro was just seeing red. after
34:26
Speaker 1: he got that news and he would continue to see
34:29
Speaker 1: red during this whole ordeal so he'd move on to
34:32
Speaker 1: other guards lock them up and then walk to the
34:35
Speaker 1: wing where his father was being held and when he
34:38
Speaker 1: entered that wing all the inmates fled because they knew
34:43
Speaker 1: what was about to happen but the only person who
34:45
Speaker 1: didn't flee was pedro senior who was just standing there
34:49
Speaker 1: completely still and he allegedly said to pedro you are
34:54
Speaker 1: right my son. But Pedro didn't reply. Pedro would just
34:58
Speaker 1: lunge forward and plunge a knife into his father and
35:03
Speaker 1: begin counting the stabs that he plunged into his father
35:07
Speaker 1: out loud. One, two, three. And he would go on
35:11
Speaker 1: to count 22 times. One more than the amount of
35:15
Speaker 1: times that his father stabbed his mother. Pedro had now
35:19
Speaker 1: delivered the justice he felt the system never could. And
35:23
Speaker 1: for the Brazilian justice system, Pedro Rodriguez Filho was an anomaly.
35:28
Speaker 1: A man who broke the system simply by surviving it.
35:31
Speaker 1: He had been convicted at this point of 71 murders
35:34
Speaker 1: with unofficial estimates claiming more. And for those deaths, both
35:38
Speaker 1: on the streets and inside the prison walls, Pedro was
35:41
Speaker 1: sentenced to nearly 400 years behind bars. His initial conviction
35:46
Speaker 1: alone was 126 years. And additionally, killing inside prison pushed
35:51
Speaker 1: his sentence to well over three centuries. But in Brazil,
35:54
Speaker 1: sentencing wasn't so simple. Under the law at the time,
35:57
Speaker 1: no individual could actually be imprisoned for more than 30 years,
36:01
Speaker 1: no matter how many crimes they committed, which is... beyond up.
36:08
Speaker 1: So the rule meant that even a man who killed
36:10
Speaker 1: dozens could, in theory, just walk free after 30 years.
36:15
Speaker 1: So by 2003, Pedro had reached his 30 year mark.
36:20
Speaker 1: So he had technically served his time. And the authorities
36:23
Speaker 1: just rattled by his infamy and the public outcry scrambled
36:27
Speaker 1: for ways to delay his release. And through legal maneuvering,
36:30
Speaker 1: they extended his imprisonment for four additional years, citing his
36:34
Speaker 1: continued violence and danger to society. But they could not
36:37
Speaker 1: hold him forever, because there were now whispers of using
36:40
Speaker 1: a now-repealed public security decree. One that allowed indefinite psychiatric
36:46
Speaker 1: confinement for those deemed mentally unfit. And Pedro had, after all,
36:50
Speaker 1: been diagnosed by multiple psychiatrists as a psychopath, which... And
36:56
Speaker 1: he was incapable of remorse and driven by violent self-affirmation.
37:00
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, that loophole was gone. And by law, even
37:03
Speaker 1: Brazil's most prolific serial killers could be set free. And
37:07
Speaker 1: on April 24th, 2007, after 34 years in prison, Pedro
37:09
Speaker 1: Rodrigues Filho walked. Strolled and danced out of prison because
37:18
Speaker 1: the system had done all it could and it still
37:21
Speaker 1: wasn't enough. But the world Pedro had stepped into was unrecognizable.
37:26
Speaker 1: His technology had changed, cities had changed, and even the
37:30
Speaker 1: people looked different. Pedro didn't know how to ride a bus,
37:33
Speaker 1: use a cell phone, or operate modern farm equipment. So
37:36
Speaker 1: the man who once ruled the prison yards had to
37:39
Speaker 1: ask strangers how to navigate everyday life. So Pedro would
37:42
Speaker 1: move into a small pink cottage surrounded by trees, reportedly
37:46
Speaker 1: located in Fortaleza in Ceará. And he would take a
37:50
Speaker 1: job as a farm caretaker. And he would acquire a
37:52
Speaker 1: laborer and begin attending church regularly, attempting to reshape himself
37:56
Speaker 1: into something new, something more peaceful, trying to turn a
38:00
Speaker 1: new leaf. you know, from killing nearly 100 people, you know,
38:05
Speaker 1: as you do. So at this point, there were no
38:07
Speaker 1: signs of violence and there were no signs of bloodshed.
38:09
Speaker 1: But yet, even here, he wasn't entirely safe because enemies
38:14
Speaker 1: from the past caught wind of his release. And one
38:17
Speaker 1: day in Santa Catarina, a group of men would recognize
38:20
Speaker 1: him in public. And they went to gather reinforcements, because
38:23
Speaker 1: they knew they couldn't take this guy on one-on-one, or
38:26
Speaker 1: even 5v1, as we know from the prison yards. But
38:29
Speaker 1: Pedro would escape just in time, and he would flee
38:32
Speaker 1: to his sister's house before they would return. But this time,
38:35
Speaker 1: he didn't seek revenge. At least, that's what he said, so.
38:39
Speaker 1: But patterns be patterns, and the peace wouldn't last. And
38:43
Speaker 1: on September 15th, 2011, at around 11 a.m., a police
38:45
Speaker 1: raid at a farmhouse in Camborio acting on an anonymous tip.
38:51
Speaker 1: And Pedro just happened to be there and he offered
38:54
Speaker 1: no resistance. And officers would find a loaded 38 caliber
38:57
Speaker 1: revolver and a legal weapon and took him into custody.
39:00
Speaker 1: But this time the charges were different. He was accused
39:03
Speaker 1: of involvement in six prison riots during his earlier incarceration
39:07
Speaker 1: and for the unlawful imprisonment of a guard during one
39:11
Speaker 1: of them. And a possession of a revolver just added
39:13
Speaker 1: another charge to that list. And as reporters swarmed around
39:16
Speaker 1: the station, Pedro stood before the press and he was
39:19
Speaker 1: calm and measured and very soft-spoken. And a reporter would
39:22
Speaker 1: ask him, do you think you've paid for your crimes?
39:26
Speaker 1: And Pedro would nod slowly and say, I've paid for
39:29
Speaker 1: my crimes. So he would hand his Labrador over to
39:32
Speaker 1: his neighbor, and he would return to the one place
39:34
Speaker 1: that had shaped him more than any other, and that
39:38
Speaker 1: was prison, but this time he was sentenced to eight years.
39:41
Speaker 1: So on December 6th, 2017, Pedro, once known as the
39:46
Speaker 1: Pendrinho Matador, Brazil's most feared killer, was released from prison
39:51
Speaker 1: a final time, and he was 64 years old, but
39:54
Speaker 1: still looked younger than his years. Because a lifetime of
39:57
Speaker 1: prison workouts beginning at 4am every morning had kept his
40:01
Speaker 1: body lean and strong. So the legend had aged, but
40:04
Speaker 1: the presence remained what seemed unchanged. And this time, Pedro
40:07
Speaker 1: had claimed he was really different. He said that he
40:10
Speaker 1: no longer killed That he did want peace and that
40:13
Speaker 1: he just wanted to spend time with family. His family
40:15
Speaker 1: being his sister Clarice, his niece Jacqueline, and her husband.
40:19
Speaker 1: And he would go to church, he preached about forgiveness,
40:22
Speaker 1: and he talked about a future that didn't involve violence.
40:25
Speaker 1: But he also admitted in interviews that the urge still
40:28
Speaker 1: flickered within him. And he was allegedly asked if he
40:31
Speaker 1: still felt that temptation to kill. Where he responded, Yes, but...
40:35
Speaker 1: it fades away. And he said that the last time
40:37
Speaker 1: he killed was around five years earlier between his first
40:40
Speaker 1: and second release, but he wouldn't elaborate and he claimed
40:43
Speaker 1: that it was complicated. And with Pedro no longer killing, allegedly,
40:48
Speaker 1: he had found another outlet, a similar one to what
40:51
Speaker 1: I found, which is f * * * ing weird,
40:53
Speaker 1: and that is YouTube. I didn't kill anyone though, so
40:57
Speaker 1: a little bit of a difference there. The channel was
40:59
Speaker 1: called Pendrinho X Matador, Little Petey the X Killer. Just
41:05
Speaker 1: a Great username. And Pedro uploaded often, sometimes even several
41:11
Speaker 1: times a day, with the help of a younger producer
41:13
Speaker 1: named Pablo Silva. And his videos were kind of a
41:16
Speaker 1: mix of anti-crime commentary, personal stories, culinary tutorials, guy was
41:21
Speaker 1: a chef, motivational talks, footage of him getting tattoos, cooking,
41:25
Speaker 1: or getting haircuts, and even warned kids about drugs, lying
41:29
Speaker 1: to their parents, and even vandalism. Saying all of it
41:31
Speaker 1: was against his moral code. And he tried to just
41:34
Speaker 1: brand himself as a reformed man, telling people that crime
41:39
Speaker 1: does not pay. And his audience kind of grew. People
41:42
Speaker 1: recognized him in the streets, and fans asked for selfies,
41:45
Speaker 1: and even police officers shook his hand. And Pedro had
41:48
Speaker 1: became something previously unthinkable, which was a social media star.
41:53
Speaker 1: He really did turn a new leaf. And as his
41:55
Speaker 1: online presence just exploded, so did public fascination. And people
42:00
Speaker 1: drew comparisons between Pedro and, you guessed it, Dexter Morgan,
42:04
Speaker 1: a fictional serial killer from American television who hunted other murderers,
42:08
Speaker 1: or other people who committed terrible crimes. And Pedro just
42:11
Speaker 1: kind of leaned into that comparison, and he reportedly said,
42:13
Speaker 1: And he continued to give interviews, and he even released
42:24
Speaker 1: an autobiography. And he would start collaborating with filmmakers and musicians,
42:28
Speaker 1: even appearing in a rap song about his life. But
42:31
Speaker 1: as he attempted to rebrand himself as a man of peace...
42:35
Speaker 1: he also covered up his past, like literally. Because he
42:38
Speaker 1: began replacing his old tattoos. Like, you know, I kill
42:42
Speaker 1: for pleasure became a scorpion and revenge became love. And
42:47
Speaker 1: a crude devil tattoo became a tribal symbol and an
42:50
Speaker 1: odd cross on his back. transformed into Jesus and cherubs.
42:55
Speaker 1: And even Maria's name was covered with a feather. So
42:58
Speaker 1: he was literally trying to erase his past, but at
43:01
Speaker 1: the same time, owning up to it with all of
43:03
Speaker 1: his videos. And he would even go on to list
43:05
Speaker 1: himself as single. on Facebook. And in the comments, women
43:09
Speaker 1: filled his posts with hearts, roses, and marriage proposals. So Pedro,
43:14
Speaker 1: once the terror of Brazil's prisons, had become a brand.
43:19
Speaker 1: To some, he was a completely redeemed man, but to others,
43:22
Speaker 1: he was kind of a walking contradiction. And to many,
43:24
Speaker 1: he was something even stranger, which was... an icon. But
43:28
Speaker 1: then March 5th, 2023 would come. And it was a
43:32
Speaker 1: quiet Sunday morning in Magidas Cruces, a suburb on the
43:36
Speaker 1: eastern edge of Sao Paulo. And the sun had already
43:38
Speaker 1: begun to rise, burning off the morning fog that hung
43:41
Speaker 1: over the streets like a breath on a glass. And
43:44
Speaker 1: it was warm, humid, the kind of heavy air that
43:47
Speaker 1: sticks to your skin before noon. And Pedro Rodriguez Filio
43:51
Speaker 1: was now 68 years old. His wild youth was long
43:54
Speaker 1: behind him. And these days, he was known more for
43:57
Speaker 1: cooking videos and crime commentary on YouTube than the trail
44:00
Speaker 1: of bodies he'd left behind. And that morning, he was
44:03
Speaker 1: visiting his sister at her home. And to neighbors, he
44:05
Speaker 1: was just a quiet old man who helped with chores
44:08
Speaker 1: and made strange rambling videos online. But on that day,
44:11
Speaker 1: Pedro would walk out of his sister's house, possibly to
44:14
Speaker 1: get some air and just enjoy the day. Maybe he
44:17
Speaker 1: was reflecting on the strangeness of the still being alive
44:20
Speaker 1: after everything. And maybe he felt untouchable having escaped countless ambushes, shootouts,
44:26
Speaker 1: and betrayals. And maybe he didn't feel anything at all.
44:29
Speaker 1: But what happened next only took seconds. A car would
44:32
Speaker 1: pull up to the curb, Windows tinted, engine low, and
44:35
Speaker 1: inside were at least three men, faces hidden under hoods.
44:39
Speaker 1: And then the doors would fling open and the gunmen
44:42
Speaker 1: burst from the vehicle. And before Pedro could speak at all, move,
44:46
Speaker 1: or even raise a hand, the bullets would fly. and
44:49
Speaker 1: the men would shoot Pedro in quick succession, close range,
44:52
Speaker 1: deliberate and coordinated. And then Pedro would collapse on the sidewalk,
44:56
Speaker 1: bleeding out in the open air, just steps from his
44:59
Speaker 1: family's doorstep. But one of the killers wasn't finished and
45:02
Speaker 1: would step forward, kneel over Pedro's twitching body and with
45:06
Speaker 1: a knife, slash his throat so deep that police would
45:09
Speaker 1: later say that it was tantamount to beheading and the
45:13
Speaker 1: message was unmistakable this was an execution and the assailants
45:17
Speaker 1: would flee in the same vehicle and tires would screech
45:20
Speaker 1: as they vanished into the narrow maze of city streets
45:23
Speaker 1: And Pedro's neighbors, hearing the gunfire, rushed outside. And what
45:26
Speaker 1: they found was completely grotesque. A man just laid there,
45:30
Speaker 1: riddled with bullets, and his neck nearly completely severed. And
45:33
Speaker 1: his blood was just pooling in the gutter beneath him.
45:36
Speaker 1: By the time the paramedics arrived, Pedro was already dead.
45:39
Speaker 1: And in his final seconds lying in the sun, lungs
45:42
Speaker 1: collapsing and heart slowing, it's hard to know what Pedro
45:45
Speaker 1: might have felt. Maybe shock. rage, recognition, or perhaps nothing.
45:50
Speaker 1: And perhaps, like he always said, death didn't scare him.
45:53
Speaker 1: It was just the cost of the code he had
45:56
Speaker 1: to live by. A killer who once claimed to kill
45:58
Speaker 1: only those that deserved it had been killed by the
46:01
Speaker 1: same fashion. Clean, cold, and without mercy. And the murder
46:05
Speaker 1: bore all the hallmarks of a professional hit. and police
46:08
Speaker 1: immediately suspected revenge. Some speculated that it was retaliation from
46:12
Speaker 1: an old drug ring that Pedro had wronged decades ago,
46:15
Speaker 1: and others believed it came from one of the many
46:17
Speaker 1: families he'd shattered through his brutal brand of justice. But
46:21
Speaker 1: by mid-2023, three suspects had been identified, but no arrests
46:26
Speaker 1: had been made, and the killers had disappeared into the
46:28
Speaker 1: same criminal underworld Pager once ruled. And so, after surviving
46:32
Speaker 1: decades in the most violent prisons, escaping death squads, and
46:36
Speaker 1: outliving his enemies, the man who once declared himself invincible
46:40
Speaker 1: was gunned down on the street. Like so many of
46:43
Speaker 1: the men, he had executed himself. So his story had
46:45
Speaker 1: came full circle. The vigilante killer had become the target
46:50
Speaker 1: of vigilante style killing. Some say it was poetic and
46:53
Speaker 1: some say it was irony. But Pedro Rodriguez Filho will
46:57
Speaker 1: forever be remembered for the sheer number of people that
47:00
Speaker 1: he killed. By official records, he was convicted of 71
47:03
Speaker 1: murders between the years 1968 and 2023. But according to
47:05
Speaker 1: Pedro himself, that number was conservative. He claimed the true
47:10
Speaker 1: count was well over 100. And 47 of his confirmed
47:14
Speaker 1: victims were inmates. And most of them were convicted murderers, grapists,
47:20
Speaker 1: and thieves. And the rest included drug traffickers, gang members,
47:24
Speaker 1: and individuals he executed during his teenage vigilante years. And
47:28
Speaker 1: a handful, as we know, were personal. And at the
47:31
Speaker 1: end of the day, Pedro was diagnosed as a textbook psychopath.
47:35
Speaker 1: He was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, exhibited paranoid delusions,
47:39
Speaker 1: and possessed a chilling absence of empathy or remorse. And
47:43
Speaker 1: Brazilian psychiatrists even labeled him as the perfect psychopath. He
47:47
Speaker 1: could be calm, intelligent, and even charming. But underneath that
47:51
Speaker 1: surface was a man who had normalized murder as a
47:54
Speaker 1: way of life. And criminologist Ilana Casoy even called him
47:57
Speaker 1: a rare Avenger-type serial killer. Someone who built his entire
48:01
Speaker 1: identity around eliminating evil with pride in the precision of
48:06
Speaker 1: his kills. And Pedro's sharp memory and strategic cunning made
48:09
Speaker 1: him even More than just violent, he was calculated. And
48:13
Speaker 1: his background also played a role. He was born with
48:15
Speaker 1: that skull deformity caused by abuse in the womb. He
48:18
Speaker 1: was raised in a household full of chronic violence, learning
48:21
Speaker 1: to kill animals for food by age of 10. And
48:23
Speaker 1: experts believe the combination of head trauma and early exposure
48:27
Speaker 1: to brutality kind of shaped a brain that was simply
48:30
Speaker 1: wired together. kill. So nature and nurture were clearly at play.
48:34
Speaker 1: And when debates arise over the ethics of vigilante justice,
48:38
Speaker 1: Pedro is cited as the most extreme example of what
48:41
Speaker 1: happens when one man decides he knows who deserves to
48:45
Speaker 1: live or die. So was he a hero? Was he
48:48
Speaker 1: a monster? Was he a symbol of justice or a
48:51
Speaker 1: warning of what happens when morality becomes personal? And the
48:55
Speaker 1: answer obviously depends on your perspective. But one thing is certain.
49:00
Speaker 1: Pedro Rodriguez Filho didn't just kill people. He forced a country,
49:03
Speaker 1: and eventually the world, to confront how thin the line
49:07
Speaker 1: is between justice and murder. Especially when fiction and reality
49:11
Speaker 1: look so much alike. And that concludes today's video. I
49:16
Speaker 1: know it was a longer one, but my goodness, it
49:20
Speaker 1: was pretty crazy. I'd love to hear what y'all think
49:24
Speaker 1: down below. I'm very curious. I know it's just a
49:27
Speaker 1: all over the place case. I had not heard about him. previously.
49:32
Speaker 1: And in reading about him, I'm just mind blown about
49:36
Speaker 1: it all. But anyway, I appreciate you being here and
49:39
Speaker 1: I appreciate the support and I hope y'all stay safe
49:43
Speaker 1: and let me know what else you guys want to
49:44
Speaker 1: see down in the comments below. I do love reading
49:46
Speaker 1: your comments. Until next time, I will see you beautiful face. Okay. Bye.