Pedro Rodrigues Filho

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Rodrigues was born on a farm in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, south of Minas Gerais. His skull had been bruised as a result of his father kicking his very pregnant mother's belly during a fight. He claimed he felt the urge to kill for the first time at age 13—when in a fight with an older cousin, he was punched in the face. As Pedro laid there on the ground, he looked up at his cousin and said, 'I'm going to kill you'; later, he pushed the young man into a sugar cane press, almost ripping his whole arm off, and pulled a knife on him. At age 14, Rodrigues shot the deputy mayor of Santa Rita do Sapucaí in front of the city hall for having fired his father, a school guard, over accusations of stealing food, before shooting the security guard whom he suspected as the actual thief, using his grandfather's shotgun for both. On the run, he took refuge in Mogi das Cruzes, Greater São Paulo, where he began robbing drug dens and killing drug traffickers, making him a celebrity in the news media as the vigilante 'Pedrinho Matador' (Little Pedro the Killer). Rodrigues soon met Maria Aparecida Olympia, nicknamed Botinha, and they began living together. He took on the duties of her deceased husband, a local drug lord, and was soon 'forced' to eliminate some rivals, killing three ex-cronies. Botinha became pregnant but was murdered shortly thereafter by a rival gang leader. Still underage, Rodrigues escaped, going on a revenge-killing spree by tracking down and killing every member of the rival gang. Rodrigues once claimed to have killed his own father inside prison at age 20 by stabbing him twenty two times and chewing a part of his heart, supposedly in retaliation for his father having killed his mother by stabbing her twenty one times: 'He stabbed my mother twenty one times, so I stabbed him twenty two', said Rodrigues. However, according to criminal biographer and journalist Ullisses Campbell, this is not a true account; Rodrigues's father died years later in prison due to respiratory disease.

Reader's Guide

Rodrigues's significance lies in his dual legacy as a real-life vigilante killer and as the principal inspiration for the fictional character Dexter Morgan, the antihero of Jeff Lindsay's novel series and the subsequent television adaptation. Following his initial planned 2003 release, Lindsay began publishing the Dexter series, and the success of the books, the 2006 TV show, and its 2021 revival brought widespread retrospective media attention to Rodrigues, who became internationally known as the 'Brazilian Dexter' and the 'South American Punisher.' After his second release from prison in 2018, Rodrigues declared himself reformed and became a YouTuber on the channel 'Pedrinho EX Matador' ('Ex-Killer Petey'), commenting on modern crimes while educating the public that criminal acts are not something of which to be proud. On 24 May 1973, at age 18, Rodrigues was arrested for the first time, and lived in prison most of his adult years. Police records show he was once transported in a vehicle with another prisoner; during transport, Rodrigues killed the other inmate without the police noticing, saying he did it because the man was a rapist. Although sentenced to 126 years, he was released on 24 April 2007 after 34 years. On 15 September 2011, he was arrested again and sentenced to eight years for riot and deprivation of liberty, released on 10 December 2018 after seven years on good behavior. At about 10 a.m. on 5 March 2023 in Mogi das Cruzes, Rodrigues was shot by three unidentified men firing from a black car, after which one of the assailants came over and finished him off with a knife to the throat, in a near decapitation. According to a witness, he was on a sidewalk carrying a child on his arms at the moment of the assault, but the child was not harmed. No suspects have been identified or arrested.

Did You Know?

• Rodrigues was officially sentenced for 71 murders but claimed to have killed over 100 people.
• He committed most of his crimes as a teenager, between ages 14 and 19.
• At age 14, he shot the deputy mayor of Santa Rita do Sapucaí in front of city hall using his grandfather's shotgun.
• Rodrigues once claimed to have stabbed his father 22 times in prison, chewing part of his heart, but biographer Ullisses Campbell says his father actually died years later from respiratory disease.
• He was killed in a drive-by shooting and stabbing on 5 March 2023 while carrying a child on his arms; the child was not harmed.