| ā | I don't even like to talk about that devil. He only killed innocent people...poor women. | ā |
ā Rodrigues about Francisco de Assis Pereira
| ||
Pedro Rodrigues Filho, a.k.a. "Killer Petey", was a prolific Brazilian serial killer, robber, vigilante, one-time mass murderer, and one-time cannibal.
Background[]
Rodrigues was born in a farm at Santa Rita do SapucaĆ, 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.
Murders, Arrest, and Incarceration[]
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 SĆ£o Paulo, where he started to burglarize local slums. He also killed a drug dealer during the burglary spree. At SĆ£o Paulo, Rodrigues met a woman, Maria Aparecida Olympia, who would later become his fiancĆ©e. At some point, she was brutally murdered by gang members while pregnant with Rodrigues's child. Angered by this, Rodrigues committed a massacre during a wedding organized by the gang's leader, where he and some friends brutally killed seven people and injured sixteen 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, around 1973.
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 three of his attackers and injured the other two. Other inmates were chosen randomly: one of his victims, a cellmate and career criminal, was killed simply because he snored too much. 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. 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 two men firing from a car, who then fled in another car. No suspects have been arrested for the crime.
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 seven people in one single day.
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.
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified date in 1967: An unnamed cousin (possibly; attempted to push into a sugar cane press, but relented)
- Unspecified dates in 1968:
- The unnamed vice-mayor of Alfenas (shot with a shotgun)
- Unnamed school guard (shot with a shotgun like the previous victim)
- Unspecified dates from 1969 to 1973:
- Unnamed man (a drug dealer; killed by unknown causes)
- The wedding massacre (all with his unnamed accomplices):
- "China" (Rival gang leader, shot in the chest with a shotgun)
- Six unnamed people (all gang members; all shot)
- Sixteen unnamed people (all gang members; attempted, but survived; all were non-fatally shot)
- Pedro Rodrigues Filho Sr (his father, and his mother's murderer; stabbed 22 times; ripped out his heart and bit a piece of it postmortem)
- The unnamed man who impregnated his cousin (shot)
- At least eleven unnamed criminals (all killed by various causes)
- May 24, 1973: Unnamed man (a rapist; killed by unknown causes)
- Unspecified dates from 1973 to 2003:
- Francisco de Assis Pereira (a serial killer and rapist; intended)
- JoĆ£o AcĆ”sio da Costa (a serial killer and robber; bludgeoned with an unspecified object; survived)
- Hosmany Ramos (a murderer and bank robber; attempted)
- Unnamed inmate (a murderer; decapitated with a knife)
- Two unnamed cellmates (killed by unknown causes)
- Unnamed Inmate (killed by unknown causes)
- Attacked the following during an attempt on his own life:
- Three unnamed inmates (all killed by unknown causes)
- Two unnamed inmates (attempted, but survived; both were injured)
- At least 40 unnamed inmates (all killed by various causes)
- Note: 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.
On Criminal Minds[]
While Rodrigues was never directly mentioned or referenced on the show, he appears to have been an inspiration for the following unsubs:
- Season One
- Vincent Perotta ("Natural Born Killer") - Both were prolific serial killers and robbers who were abused alongside their mothers by their fathers during childhood, committed crimes in their youths, had at least one attempted victim prior to their killings, and killed their first victims as teenagers. They primarily targeted men, killed them through various means (primarily with bladed weaponry), would capture and torture some of their victims before killing them, mutilated some of their victims, were involved in organized crime in some way (Rodrigues was a gang member, while Perotta was a hitman hired by mobs), both killed their own fathers, had several dozen confirmed victims (with kill counts suspected of being over 100), and were profiled as paranoid and intelligent psychopaths with antisocial traits.
- Season Three
- Jonny McHale ("True Night") - Both were serial killers, one-time mass murderers, and vigilantes whose pregnant fiancƩs were murdered by gangs, they violently killed the gang members in retaliation (including the gang's leader), both killed their victims with bladed weapons (though Rodrigues's M.O. was various), were both shot by criminals (though McHale survived), in one instance they murdered seven victims in a single day, at least one of their victims was captured and tortured before their deaths, and their crimes garnered great media attention. Also, McHale being a famous comic book writer could be a slight nod to his crimes being a basis for the Dexter series.
- Season Five
- Connor O'Brien ("Public Enemy") - Both were serial killers who were abused as children by their fathers, their fathers later murdered their mothers and were sent to prison, both killed their victims with bladed weaponry (though Rodrigues used other means), committed an attack at a religious ceremony (O'Brien killed a man during a mass, while Rodrigues and accomplices killed several people at a wedding), and finally both avenged their mothers' deaths by stabbing their fathers to death in prison.
- Season Nine
- Clifford Walsh ("The Road Home") - Both were vigilante spree killers who were born in June, lost two loved ones to murder (Walsh's wife and son, Rodrigues's mother and fiancƩ, respectively), went on killing sprees against victims with criminal records, targeted their families' killers out of revenge (though only Rodrigues was successful), killed their victims by shooting (though both used other means), targeted the family and friends of their families' murderers, committed a massacre in a location where gang members were gathered (Walsh shot the friend of his family's murderer and other dealers in a drug den, while Rodrigues committed a massacre with accomplices at a wedding organized by a gang that killed his fiancƩ), and died by gunshot (Rodrigues was murdered, while Walsh committed suicide).
References[]
- ā Portuguese for 'Killer Petey'