Brazil's most prolific serial killer shot dead at 68 (Killer Peter)

Introduction

He was killed on March 5, 2023. Yesterday and one week ago, I saw 2 topics here on CV about real life crimes, criminals, etc. By no means I glorify these guys, however, I'm kinda fascinated by how they can commit such gruesome acts with ease. Could you kill someone, even under extreme situations? What we deem as "weird", for a serial killer/psychopath/sociopath is "standard" or "normal". Of course, if you're the sensitive type to get shocked easily, just get out of here.

Who was Killer Peter? How he died?

Rodrigues was born in a farm at Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Brazil, on June 17, 1954. He was born with a damaged skull, which was indirectly inflicted by his father when he physically abused his pregnant wife. Rodrigues was also physically abused by his father during his childhood. Rodrigues claimed he first felt the urge to kill at the age of 13 and claimed he attempted to murder his cousin by pushing him into a sugar cane press, but he relented and saved him. When Rodrigues was fourteen years old, his father was accused of stealing food from the high school kitchen where he worked as a security guard, resulting in him losing his job. In vengeance, Rodrigues killed the vice-mayor of Alfenas with a shotgun belonging to his grandfather, as the vice-mayor was the one who fired his father. A month later, he killed another guard at the school whom he believed to be the real thief. After killing them, he took refuge in São Paulo, where he started to burglarize local slums. He also killed a drug dealer during the burglary spree. At São Paulo, Rodrigues met a woman, Maria Aparecida Olympia, who would later become his fiancée. At some point, she was brutally murdered by gang members while pregnant with Rodrigues's child. Angered by this, in a psychotic frenzy Rodrigues committed a massacre during a wedding organized by the gang's leader, where he and some friends brutally killed 7 people and injured 16 others. Months after the massacre, he discovered that the boyfriend of his favorite cousin had impregnated her but refused to marry her; and fatally shot him in revenge. Later, Rodrigues found out that his father was in prison for murdering and dismembering his mother with a machete. Rodrigues visited his father in prison and killed him by stabbing him 22 times. After the murder, he carved his heart out and bit a piece of it.

Rodrigues continued to kill many criminals and was finally arrested on May 24, 1973. After his arrest, Rodrigues was placed in a car with another criminal, a rapist, whom he murdered. During his incarceration, he continued to kill people in prison, claiming the lives of 47 inmates. He sometimes killed inmates because of his past as a killer of criminals, which caused a majority of the prison population to hate him. In one attack by other inmates, Rodrigues was ambushed but he killed 3 of his attackers and injured the other 2. Other inmates were chosen randomly: one of his victims, a cellmate and career criminal, was killed simply because he snored too much next to him (Rodrigues himself claim this one was a fabricated story later in the podcast he went on after his death.) Some of his victims were killed because, according to him, the thrill of killing another criminal was wonderful and satisfying. Rodrigues was almost released from prison in 2003, but the release request was turned down because of his murders inside prison were only increasing and increasing. He was officially released on April 24, 2007, but he was arrested again at his house on September 15, 2011, and convicted of riot and false imprisonment. He admitted that his only motivation to be released was the fact that he had a girlfriend out of prison. He was later sentenced to 128 years in prison for these charges.

Due to Brazilian's repealing of the decree that declares that diagnosed psychopaths can be held indefinitely, and the fact that Brazil's maximum prison sentence is 30 years, Rodrigues was released in 2018. He then started a YouTube channel talking about his experiences. His case was the inspiration for the Dexter novel and subsequent TV series by Jeff Lindsay, about a forensic blood splatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer who preys upon other killers. On March 5, 2023, Rodrigues was shot and killed by 2 masked men (one using doctor mask, one using Joker mask) firing from a car, who then fled in another car. No suspects have been arrested for the crime until the making of this topic (April 9, 2023). And the killers of Killer Peter remains unknown. Not only they shot Rodrigues, they cut his arm and throat after he was already dead. He was holding a baby with other people next to him, then the 2 masked men came and told everyone else to leave and take the baby with them, then they shot Rodrigues.

Modus Operandi

In most cases, Rodrigues targeted various kinds of criminals, finding them by looking up their names and addresses before brutally killing them in a variety of ways, though he stated that his favorite way to murder criminals was stabbing and/or hacking them to death with blades. He was usually spurred to act after hearing a crime was committed. In some instances, he would capture criminals (mostly career criminals and drug dealers) and torture them to death whenever he was motivated by anger instead of thrill. On occasion, he would change his M.O. by adopting the M.O. previously used by his victims during the commission of their own crimes, such as when he killed his father or when he killed 7 people in 1 single day.

Psychological Profile

Rodrigues was described by psychiatrists as "the perfect psychopath", though others preferred to classify him as a sociopath instead. A psychological report diagnosed Rodrigues with paranoid and antisocial traits. Criminologist and writer Ilana Casoy suggested that Rodrigues was an "avenger/vigilante"-type serial killer with great intelligence and an almost photographic memory who built all of his identity over his murders, and could also tell each of his murders with precise details. Rodrigues once claimed that his body count exceeded 100 victims, though this claim was never confirmed by authorities. He has only a total of 71 confirmed killed victims.

Killing the Killer

According to the police, he was found around 10 am in the Ponte Grande neighborhood. According to the serial killer's aunt, he was on the sidewalk with a child in his arms when a black car drove by shooting. The child was not hit. Then, the PM was called to the occurrence and learned that the black car had been abandoned. Police officers began searching for this vehicle, which was later found. Still according to the PM, whoever shot him changed cars and continued the escape in a white vehicle.

He was already dead when the police arrived at the scene. Forensics completed the work and the body was removed from the scene. At the same time, the crime attracts curiosity from hundreds of people who circulate the place. Nobody was arrested. One of his quotes he says: "I'm doing good for society, cleaning the world of cowards", he said, he was in favor of the death penalty too (a big taboo in Brazil: no death penalty neither life imprisonment.) In 1996, in an exclusive interview shown on T.V. 3 years before being released and confessing that he would continue to kill when he got out of prison, Peter said that he killed for pleasure and revenge. He was killed with more than 6 shots and had his neck cut, says the police report. According to the police report, the case was registered as qualified homicide. So far, no one has been arrested.

.....The fuck?.....

I just read the whole thing, and this guy's brain should be analyzed right now that he is gone.

Serial killers are still a big enigma, Jack the Ripper and Zodiac Killer is still unknown, etc.

I think he's kinda unique. He didn't hurt innocent people, just criminals and scumbags. RIP

Still terrible to take human life though,

His dad messed up his life. If Pedro Filho had been brought up in a family environment where he was cared for properly then I doubt that he would've been a serial killer.

Actually, forget what I said. Maybe Pedro would've been a serial killer regardless of how much love was shown to him, but his dad is a messed up person anyway.

Good riddance

Now we wait for some streaming service to do a documentary about him, sadly.

R.I.P. Brazilian Dexter

I already saw that guy being talked about him on a podcast... it was 3 years ago. And now he's gone.

I found him to be fascinating.

"He was arrested in 1973 (when he turned 18) and ended up sentenced to 128 years in prison. In jail, he killed 47 prisoners, including his own father, who was serving a prison sentence in the same prison for having, with 21 stab wounds, killed Pedrinho's mother (what a story!). Driven by revenge, Pedrinho executed his father with 22 stab wounds, having cut a piece of his heart, chewed it up and spit it out."

Could you imagine carving someone's heart, then biting it. Eww.

But that's the life of crime. A bottomless pit that is not worth it.

@arranvid: They had to kill the guy when he was old and 68 years old, why didn't they have the courage to confront him while he was young... lmao

@goldpool: Except that deputy mayor and that guard before he was locked up.

@ted-bundy: This was pretty interesting although it could use a spell and grammar check.

Is this going to be a regular thing or was this a one off.

The deputy mayor had fired his father from a job... And the guard probably tried to stop him when he has on a mission to kill his father... Again, he is one of the most prolific S.K. in terms of victims but Petey is extremely underrated... I'd have to go back and watch his entire "Cometa Podcast" then translate the parts to see if it was really the case!

Facts... interesting af ...

@ted-bundy: If you gon do another one... just throwing suggestions...

Albert fish, Issei nagawa, jeffrey dahmer, john wayne gacy, Frank muller (the dude who somehow escaped Alcatraz), the Louisiana vampire, Ed kemper, dennis rader, David berkowitz, Samuel little

God forgives, but the world of crime does not. RIP.

Just a correction OP:~They didn't actually cut his neck. They gave up of the idea after people started to scream after he was shot. They tried, but gave up of the idea after the neighborhood went desperate.

Hard to know who did it for real. Dude had many enemies.

Guy's life was surrounded by tragedies. His unfortunate death was also tragic. I don't think his death was good as most people will say it is. He did more job killing criminals than brazilian police itself.

71 or 100 death toll is absolutely insane for this one. This is insanity. Rest in peace tho.

Pedrinho Matador was a fucking beast.

For the sole fact that he killed guys with pistols armed with nothing but a shank and a knife speaks a lot.

The vast majority of psychopaths will happily destroy the lives of other people, but it’s always for their own personal gain: money, status, prestige. Hurting others is simply a necessary step to get what they want (i.e. ‘it’s a dog eat dog world’). They may have philosophies like: vulnerable or weak people deserve no consideration, people are just tools to be used, if someone has a weakness it deserves to be exploited. If you have nothing to offer them, by way of money, connections, looks, or other valuable assets, they simply won’t connect with you at all. It would be as if you didn’t exist. When ever a psychopath has targeted someone who has something of value, once they’re all used up, the psychopath will treat them like a used up shoe, and discard them in the trash and then move on to the next person who has something to offer.

Only a rare group of psychopaths will hurt others when there is no clear benefit for themselves. They may even hurt others even when it is at their own expense. There are 2 types of psychopaths that fall into this special category:

1. The Malevolent Psychopath - this type feels a lot of anger due to perceived abuse when younger. They feel a need to hurt others as a form of revenge for this. The victim may not need to be related to the abuser at all. They may simply remind them of someone whom they feel mistreated them in the past, or they may be collateral damage in the abuser’s desire to reassert his dominance if he feels weak. Real life examples: Ted Bundy (murderer), Eric Harris (terrorist), Liezyl Margallo (child abuser). Fictional examples: 1) Brett from ‘‘Eden Lake’’ - note his intense anger, desire for retribution, and complete absence of emotion, even when his own friends are killed. 2) The Gangster from ‘’Gangster No 1′’ - he uses his victims as an opportunity to unleash a load of rage he has inside him.
2. The Tyrannical Sadist - this type naturally gets off on hurting others. It is pleasurable to them. They have a naturally low baseline of positive emotions, and only by hurting others do they feel better. Think of it like an alcoholic who can only feel better when they’ve had a drink. When you read about murders which occurred after a prolonged period of imprisonment and torture, I guarantee you the perpetrators were all tyrannical sadists. Real life examples: John Wayne Gacy (popular business man and S&M murderer), James Patterson Smith (serial domestic abuser and child murderer), and several group murders ( the murders of Furuta Junko, Jennifer Daugherty, and Suzanne Capper). Fictional examples: 1) Le Tenia from ‘’Irreversible’’ - he notices some random woman on the street while abusing another woman, turns his attention to her, and then proceeds to humiliate, torture and then beat her almost to death, right there and then. 2) The mountain men from ‘’Deliverance’’ - as soon as they notice the victims, they assess that they are easy targets, use an excuse that they were offended by some remark, then proceeded to abduct, rape and humiliate them.

It is really hard to differentiate between the 2. They are similar in a lot of ways. They have no conscience, they take pleasure directly from inflicting harm on others, they target random victims, and persistence in this behaviour on an indefinite basis.

What differentiates them is where the desire to hurt others is rooted. In malevolent psychopaths, at their core is a feeling of anger and resentment over their mistreatment and position in life. By hurting others, they feel like ‘justice is done’, even if the people they target are complete strangers, or if their motives are for the most trivial reasons.

The diary of Eric Harris is the perfect glimpse into the rational of a malevolent psychopath. He mentions that he would love to hurt as many people as possible, but juxtaposes this with statements like ‘’I am really pissed’’, ‘’ultimate revenge here’’, and rarely with the admission that ‘’i rip on others because i practically have no self-esteem’’. Liezyl Margallo is a Filipino woman who participated in the abuse of children on an infamous dark-web video called Daisy’s Destruction. The director was anotherpsychopathcalled Peter Scully. However, it was Margallo who was directly involved in the torture and abuse of the children in the videos. After her arrest, authorities said they she has Sadistic Personality Disorder, and she said her motivation for doing this was because of abuse she received from her mother as a child, and harming the kids made her feel powerful again.

With tyrannical sadists, it is in their very nature to hurt. To them, hurting others is like going to the bar or enjoying a tasty meal for the the rest of us. They will justify it using any excuse they can. For example, with the murder of Suzanne Capper, they said it was because they thought she gave them pubic lice and stole a coat. What also makes the tyrannical sadist unique is that they are particularly drawn to people who are passive and don’t fight back. Normally, when someone is lashing out at you, it is reactive aggression (defense to a perceived threat) and by backing off, that person will cool off and leave you alone. With tyrannical sadists, it’s the opposite. If the victim is submissive or passive, the sadist will get even more aggressive and harmful. This is because the victim has shown to be an easy target, so the sadist can happily use this victim as a pin cushion with minimal resistance. If the victim were to fight back or react aggressively, the sadist will likely back off, because the target just isn’t worth that much effort.

RIP the legendary Killer Peter.

Rip the serial killer's killer.

yeah, his story was fucked up.

and so was his death. rest in peace.

I'm only now with the awareness that on brazil there's no death penalty or life imprisonment.

meanwhile if we go to wikipedia...

Don't know him but isn't that a good thing? Ironic that a murderer got murdered.

No. Why would this be a good thing??

Yes. why wouldn't a serial killer of other people(criminals or not) getting murdered not be a good thing? Says he killed tons of other criminals but 1. What if they didn't do something bad enough to get murdered and 2. Who made this guy judge, jury and executioner? Like I said ironic how he got killed but also poetic. Killing in general is bad unless it's self defense or protecting someone else....