Copyright irishmirror
He was his country's most infamous serial killer - a man whose life would go on to inspire one of television's most complicated anti-heroes. Pedro Rodrigues Filho, better known as Pedrinho Matador ("Killer Pete"), claimed to have killed more than 100 people across five decades. Officially found guilty of 71 murders, he spent more than 40 years behind bars, building a reputation as a "Robin Hood" character who went after drug dealers, gang members and other criminals. Born on 29 October 1954, in a rural Brazilian town, his skull was fractured before birth after his father kicked his pregnant mother during a row. According to his own accounts, that early violence influenced everything that followed. At just nine, Pedro fled home. He initially stayed with relatives before moving to São Paulo, where he started stealing and living rough. By his early teens, he claimed to have committed his first killing - pushing a cousin into a sugarcane press and later attacking him with a machete. Whether that early murder truly occurred was never confirmed, but his pattern of violence soon became genuine and documented, reports the Express . By his teenage years, he had already shot and killed a local drug dealer in São Paulo, reportedly seeking revenge for a dispute involving his family. Pedro later hunted down and murdered the man's brother and brother-in-law as well. He told journalists that these early killings gave him a "feeling of power" and his targets were always those who had "done wrong." In his late teens, Pedro relocated to the outskirts of São Paulo and became embroiled in the local drug trade of a neighbouring town. He cohabited with a woman named Botinha, a trafficker's widow, and assumed control of her late husband's illicit business. When she was subsequently killed by police, Pedro sought revenge by hunting down those he held responsible for her demise. His killing spree lasted until 1973 when he was apprehended at the tender age of 18. By this time, he had already left a trail of corpses - ranging from dealers and gang members to alleged rapists and traitors. He received a prison sentence of 128 years, a figure that would dramatically increase as he continued his murderous rampage behind bars. Inside prison, Pedrinho Matador evolved into a legend in his own right. He professed to have slain dozens of inmates - many convicted of assault or sexual violence. "I only kill people who don't deserve to live," he informed journalists. The chilling phrase "I kill for pleasure" was tattooed on his arm. In his twenties, Pedro confessed to murdering his own father, who had been imprisoned for inflicting 21 stab wounds on his mother. Pedro avenged his mother's death by stabbing his father 22 times and, according to his own account in a television interview, extracted the man's heart, bit into it, and spat it out. "It was vengeance, not hunger," he said. By the mid-1980s, it was reported he had murdered over 40 fellow inmates within Brazil's most secure prison facility. Journalists who encountered him described him as composed, eloquent, and oddly self-confident. Despite receiving sentences totalling over 400 years, Pedro walked free in 2007 owing to Brazil's maximum imprisonment limit. By that stage, he had served 34 years inside. Within a few years, he faced arrest once more for involvement in a prison riot but secured release again in 2018. By then, Pedro Rodrigues Filho was 64, insisting he was a reformed character. He announced his conversion to Christianity, describing himself as "reborn through Jesus Christ." He established a YouTube channel titled "Pedrinho, Former Killer with Jesus", where he addressed viewers about the perils of criminality and the importance of redemption. "The crime is not a game," he said in a 2018 interview with Folha de S.Paulo. "Many enter it because they see fame and money. But they don't see the roots - prison and death. It's like the devil: gives with one hand and takes with the other." His channel rapidly attracted tens of thousands of subscribers. In videos, he recounted tales from his history, consistently combining admission with caution. "There is no glory in crime," he told viewers. "Only destruction." On March 5, 2023, Pedro was ambushed and murdered outside a relative's residence in Mogi das Cruzes - the very city where he had previously dominated the criminal landscape. Two masked assailants shot him numerous times before slitting his throat with a kitchen knife. He was 68. Globally, Pedrinho's tale has been likened to that of fictional characters. His moral code - only killing those he believed deserved it - served as one of the inspirations for Jeff Lindsay's 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter and its television adaptation Dexter, featuring Michael C. Hall .
