Pedrinho Matador (Little Peter the Killer)

**Ben** · 14-04-2012, 18:33

Pedro Rodrigues Filho (born 1954 in Santa Rita do Sapucaí) is a Brazilian serial killer. Nicknamed Pedrinho Matador (Little Peter the Killer) and arrested in 1973, in 2003 he was convicted of murdering at least 71 people and sentenced to 128 years in prison. The maximum prison term that can be served in Brazil is 30 years.

Pedro Rodrigues Filho was born at a farm in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, south of Minas Gerais, with an injured skull, result of beatings his father had struck his mother's womb during a fight. Pedro said his first urge to kill happened at the age of 13. During a fight with an older cousin, he pushed the boy to a Sugar Cane press. The boy almost died.

At the age of 14, he murdered the vice-Mayor of Alfenas, Minas Gerais, because he fired his father, a school guard, at the time accused of stealing the school kitchen's food. Then he murdered another guard, supposedly the real thief.

He took refuge in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, where he began a series of burglaries and murdered a drug dealer. There he also met Maria Aparecida Olympia, a woman he, then, lived with. They lived together until she was killed by some gang members. Pedro escaped. In search of revenge for her death, he murdered and tortured several people, in an attempt to find out the identity of the gangster who killed the woman. Before he was even 18 years old, he had already left a trail of 10 bodies and several injured.

Still in Mogi das Cruzes, he executed his own father at a local prison, after his father butchered his mother with a machete. His revenge was cruel: beside the machete strikes, he also ripped his heart and ate a piece of it.

Pedro was first arrested on May 24, 1973, where he spent most of his adult life. He killed 47 inmates while incarcerated. Some of them wanted to kill him. He later claimed a total of 100 victims. His confirmed victims are 71, including his father. On 2003, sentenced to 126 years in prison, he was almost released; Brazilian law system prohibits anyone to spend more than 30 years behind bars. But due to the crimes he committed inside the prison, his sentence was changed to over 400 years in prison. He was said to only be release by the Justice System on 2017, but after 34 years in prison, he was released on April 24, 2007. Informations from the Brazilian National Security Force Intel indicates that he went to Brazilian north-east, more precisely, to Fortaleza in Ceará. On September 15, 2011, local media from Santa Catarina publised that Pedrinho Matador had been arrested at his home, in the rural area, where he worked as a house-keeper, at Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina coastline. According to a news channel, he will serve time for accusations such as riot and false imprisonment.

Besides the number of killings, Little Peter became notorious in Brazil for promising the murder of other criminals, such as Francisco de Assis Pereira, a.k.a. The Park Maniac, another serial killer.