He is one of Brazil’s most popular YouTubers, but before that, he was one of the nation’s most notorious serial killers.
His name is Pedrinho Matador. He was born Pedro Rodrigues Filho and nicknamed “Killer Petey,” and is considered the most prominent serial killer in Brazil, with over 100 victims — many of them when he was behind bars. Born in Minas Gerais in 1954, Pedrinho had a dysfunctional family, and he felt the rage of his father before he was born. While his mother was pregnant, his father would beat her so badly that Pedrinho was born with a deformed skull!
While growing up, Pedrinho was heavily abused by his father, and his mother’s life was not any easier — she was ultimately killed and dismembered with a machete. Pedrinho promised to avenge her death, and he would fulfill his promise when he was already in prison.
Pedrinho had the urge to kill from a young age. When he was just 13 years old, he pushed a cousin against a sugar cane press. “I pushed him thinking his whole body would go through, but just his arm went through,” he said, according to local paper the the Daily Star. While that attempt at taking a life proved unsuccessful, his first murder would happen scarcely one year later when he killed a deputy mayor using his grandfather’s gun. At 14 years old, he was seeking revenge after the politician fired his father. He also killed the security guard who he believed framed his father.
As he aged, Pedrinho’s body count mounted. By the age of 18, he had already killed dozens of people, most of the drug dealers. The serial killer also created his own moral code and only killed people who violated it. Therefore, international media started to call him “The Brazilian Dexter.” But Pedrinho has a tattoo on his arm that says, “I love to kill.” And during an extensive interview in the book “Serial Killers: Made in Brazil,” he said, “I kill for pleasure.”
Pedrinho was arrested when he was a mere 19 years old and was sentenced to 127 years in prison, but his killing spree did not end there! Behind bars, he kept killing other inmates, and his sentence increased to 400 years. His father, who was responsible for killing Pedrinho’s mother, was among his victims. According to the Toronto Sun, Pedrinho stabbed his father 22 times and ate a piece of his heart. “I just chewed it. I cut the tip of his heart off and chewed it, and I threw it on top of his body,” he said.
Release and YouTube Career
However, despite the centuries-long sentence he was given, Brazil has a bizarre law that states no person can serve more than 30 years in prison for any one crime. And so, in 2007, Pedrinho Matador left prison after 42 years behind bars. Shortly after that, he decided to create a YouTube channel and comment on crimes. In a few months, Pedrinho had 23,000 subscribers, and now he has over 250,00 subscribers. On YouTube, he uses the name “Pedrinho EX Matador,” which means “Pedrinho ex-killer.”
Pedrinho uses YouTube to share his thoughts about crimes that have shocked the country. “These are crimes which outrage us, filled with lies, and put an end to the happiness of a person,” he says. The videos also feature a friend of Pedrinho, and they are planning a documentary about his life. Pedrinho, who is now 67 years old, says he doesn’t plan to kill again. “No. I would only kill again if someone came to take my life or the lives of people I love, who are my family,” he said.
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