At the age of 14, Pedro Rodrigues Filho became a murderer for the first time. By the time he was 19, he had killed over 70 people – acts of vigilantism, he claims. Now Brazil’s most notorious serial killer is dying a violent death himself.
A former Brazilian serial killer who used vigilantism and claims to have killed more than 100 mostly criminals has been shot dead. Pedro Rodrigues Filho was shot dead in the city of Mogi das Cruzes on Sunday, the Sao Paulo State Public Security Agency said. The perpetrators were therefore able to escape.
Rodrigues – dubbed “Killer Petey” – had served 42 years in prison for murder before being released in 2018. He killed the first human when he was 14. A little later he rose to become the leader of a street gang. When his pregnant girlfriend was killed by a rival gang, he retaliated by murdering all of the members. He was first jailed at 19, where he would spend most of his adult life. Overall, he was convicted of 71 murders, he himself spoke of more than a hundred acts.
The 68-year-old rose to fame after a series of interviews in Brazilian media, in which he claimed he killed his victims because of their criminal past. He counted drug dealers, rapists, thieves and other criminals among his victims. His actions earned him the reputation of the “greatest serial killer” in Brazilian history.
After his release, Rodrigues began a new life as a YouTube and Tiktok star, captivating hundreds of thousands of followers with stories from his life, commenting on spectacular crimes and warning young people not to slip into crime. Criminologist Ilana Casoy described him as charismatic and intelligent. He has cast a spell over people in Brazil – a country in which only ten percent of murders are actually punished, she told the newspaper “Folha de São Paulo”.
