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Pedro Rodrigues Filho, infamously known as Pedrinho Matador ("Killer Pete"), was his country's most notorious serial killer - a man whose chilling tale would later inspire one of television's most complex anti-heroes. Claiming to have murdered over 100 people across five decades, he was officially convicted of 71 killings. He served more than 40 years in prison, earning a reputation as a "Robin Hood" figure who targeted drug dealers, gang members and other criminals. Born on 29 October 1954, in a rural Brazilian town, his skull was fractured before he was born after his father kicked his pregnant mother during an argument. According to his own accounts, this early exposure to violence shaped everything that followed. At the tender age of nine, Pedro fled from home. Initially, he stayed with relatives before drifting to São Paulo, where he began stealing and living on the streets. By his early teens, he claimed to have committed his first murder - pushing a cousin into a sugarcane press and later attacking him with a machete. Whether this early act of violence actually occurred was never verified, but his pattern of violence soon became real and documented, reports the Express . By his teenage years, he had already shot and killed a local drug dealer in São Paulo, reportedly in retaliation 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. He shared a home with Botinha, a widow of a drug dealer, and assumed control of her late husband's illicit business. When she was later killed by police, Pedro sought revenge by hunting down those he held responsible for her death. His killing spree persisted until 1973 when he was apprehended at the tender age of 18. By then, he had already left a trail of victims - ranging from drug dealers and gang members to alleged rapists and traitors. He received a prison sentence of 128 years, a figure that would significantly increase as he continued his murderous activities behind bars. Inside prison, Pedrinho Matador became a legend in his own right. He professed to have slain dozens of inmates - many of whom were 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 killing his mother with 21 stab wounds. Pedro avenged his mother's death by stabbing his father 22 times and, according to his own account in a television interview, removed 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 more than 40 fellow inmates within Brazil's most secure prison. Journalists who encountered him described him as composed, eloquent, and oddly self-confident. Despite receiving sentences totalling more than 400 years, Pedro walked free in 2007 owing to Brazil's maximum imprisonment limit. By that stage, he had served 34 years in jail. A few years later, he was detained again for his involvement in a prison riot but was freed once more in 2018. By then, Pedro Rodrigues Filho was 64, insisting he was a reformed character. He said he had embraced Christianity, describing himself as "reborn through Jesus Christ." He set up a YouTube channel titled "Pedrinho, Former Killer with Jesus", where he discussed with viewers 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 past, consistently mixing admission with caution. "There is no glory in crime," he told viewers. "Only destruction." On March 5, 2023, Pedro was attacked and murdered outside a family member's residence in Mogi das Cruzes - the very city where he had previously dominated the criminal underworld. Two masked assailants shot him several times before slitting his throat with a kitchen knife. He was 68. Pedrinho's tale has drawn international comparisons to fictional characters. His moral code, which involved only killing those he deemed deserving, served as one of the inspirations for Jeff Lindsay's 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter and its television adaptation Dexter, featuring Michael C. Hall.
