Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and in this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m taking you into one of the most complex and controversial cases I’ve ever explored, the story of Pedro Rodrigues Filho, also known as the Brazilian "Dexter". This is not your typical serial killer case. Pedro didn’t just target innocent victims, he claimed to hunt criminals. Murderers. People he believed deserved to die. Over the course of his life, he confessed to dozens of killings, many of them carried out inside prison walls. And somehow, instead of fading into obscurity, he later reemerged as a public figure, sharing his story openly, even building a following online. But here’s the question that sits at the center of this case… Was he a vigilante delivering his own version of justice? Or simply a serial killer rewriting his narrative? In this episode, I walk through his early life, the violence that shaped him, and the psychology behind someone who blurs the line between revenge and murder. As a forensic death investigator, I also look at what cases like this reveal about motive, trauma, and the dangerous territory between justice and personal vengeance. Because when someone decides who deserves to live or die… we have to ask, where does that end? This episode contains discussions of violence, homicide, and moral ambiguity. *Listener discretion is advised.
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00:06
Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I'm your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
00:24
Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Pushing Up Lily's. My name is Julie. Again, I'm your host, and I have my voice back, I think, almost completely.
00:40
I may be still a little bit squeaky, but hopefully you can tolerate me this time. Super excited leaving Friday to go to Beyond the Crime, which is a true crime convention. And it happens April 11th and 12th in Albuquerque.
00:59
And it's going to feature advocacy for families of the missing and also feature several podcasts. While I'm there, I will be part of the podcast Mingle, which is the first night we're there. We're going to get to visit a lot of the guests and the guests will get to meet all the podcasters that are there.
01:20
And we'll be selling our merch at the merch tables. And then on Sunday, I will be doing a live podcast on the podcasting stage. So super exciting. We're really gung-ho on going. We decided to fly. So I'm going to have luggage full of merchandise and I just hope I can get it all in there.
01:40
It'll be fun. We're really excited to go. This is our first event. And so traveling out of state is a really big deal for us. And so I'm looking forward to this and hoping for many more. I'll be attending CrimeCon at the end of May.
01:54
And that's an even bigger event. But I'm excited about this. There will be attention brought to some missing persons cases and some of the keynote speakers. Super interesting. There's over 30 guest speakers, including the mothers of Gabby Petito and also the death row defense attorney for John Wayne Gacy.
02:19
It's going to be interesting. It is ticketed. I'm excited. So I'd like to see who's going. And if you are going, I would love for you to stop by and visit. I want to talk to you this week about the man who killed killers.
02:34
And I don't know if y'all have heard this story before, but a lot of killers become infamous because of the number of people that they kill. But a lot of them become notorious because of how cruel or unpredictable their crimes are.
02:50
Ever so often, a criminal will emerge whose story unsettles people in a different way. And that's not because the violence is random, but because it seems, at least on the surface, intentional and targeted.
03:06
Now, Pedro Rodriguez Filho was one of those men. Over the course of his life, he would kill at least 70 people. Some stories state that there were at least 100, but possibly more than 100. And many of his victims were criminals themselves, drug dealers, rapists, murderers.
03:28
And because of that, some people saw him not as a monster, but as a vigilante. Others believed he was simply a killer who tried to justify his actions with some sort of twisted moral code. But either way, his story would eventually earn him a nickname that echoed around the world as the real life Dexter.
03:50
And many of you know about Dexter. Dexter aired from 2006 to 2013. It was set in Miami and it was centered on Dexter Morgan. And he was a forensic technician who specialized in bloodstain pattern analysis for a fictional police department.
04:08
And he led a secret parallel life as a vigilante serial killer. And he hunted down murderers who really weren't adequately punished by the justice system. So this is the real life Dexter. Now, what makes this story so disturbing is not really just the number of people that he killed, but the way violence kind of shaped every stage of his life.
04:35
From the moment he was born, brutality surrounded him. It was present in his home, in his relationships, in his decisions, and then ultimately in his identity. To understand how Pedro became one of the most feared criminals in Brazil, we have to really begin at the beginning.
04:56
Before his first crime and before his first arrest and even before his first breath. Pedro Rodriguez Filh actually entered the world back in 1954. He was born in Brazil and he was already carrying the scars of violence.
05:12
His skull, and this is crazy, his skull had been injured while he was still in the womb. The cause of the injury was not an accident or any kind of illness. It was the result of his father physically assaulting his pregnant mother.
05:28
That moment would become the first chapter in a life defined by aggression and instability. And in many ways, the violence that followed throughout his life seemed like an extension of the environment into which he was born.
05:45
Growing up, Pedro lived in a household where conflict and tension were very common. Discipline came in the form of physical punishment and anger was a constant presence. Children raised in environments like this many times would learn to cope with fear or sadness, but a lot of them learn something different.
06:09
They learn that violence is a tool. And for Pedro, that lesson appeared to take root very early in his life. He developed a temper that neighbors and family members later described as explosive. We all know those people with explosive tempers.
06:27
He reacted quickly, emotionally, and often aggressively to perceived injustice. Now, as he entered adolescence, those tendencies actually intensified. He became increasingly sensitive to humiliation, sensitive to betrayal, especially when it involved his family.
06:55
Loyalty meant everything to him, and any threat against those he loved felt like a personal attack. And that mindset would soon lead him to commit the act that changed his life forever. Now, in around 1968, Pedro was only 14, and this is when he committed his first killings.
07:19
At that age, most teenagers are just really trying to figure out school, navigating friendships, and trying to figure out who they are. But Pedro was already dealing with anger that seemed far beyond his years.
07:33
So the catalyst for his first crime came when his father lost his job as a school security guard. The father had been accused of stealing food from the school kitchen, and the administration decided to terminate his employment.
07:49
Pedro didn't believe it. He absolutely refused to believe the accusation. And in his mind, his father had been wronged. He felt like that he was unfairly punished. So determined to defend his father's honor, Pedro made a decision that actually would set him on a path of irreversible violence.
08:12
He took his father's shotgun and he walked to the town hall. There he confronted the deputy mayor, and that was the official that he believed responsible for his father being fired. And without any hesitation, he fired the weapon and killed him.
08:29
But the violence didn't end there. Pedro actually turned his attention to another security guard, someone that he suspected had actually stolen the food that his father was accused of stealing. And so he shot and killed that man as well.
08:46
Two murders at 14 years old. Now, in that moment, Pedro crossed a line that few people ever approached. He became a fugitive. And the authorities started searching for him right away. And realizing that he could no longer stay in his hometown, he fled and left behind everything familiar.
09:10
And what awaited him in the next phase of his life was not redemption or reflection, but escalation. After escaping, Pedro relocated to the region of, excuse me for mispronouncing if I do, because I have a Texas accent, but Moji das Cruces in São Paulo, the state of Sao Paulo.
09:37
There he began living on the margins of society. He was surrounded by crime and surrounded by instability. And without supervision or guidance, his violence intensified. He started robbing drug dens and targeting dealers who operated there.
09:57
And these encounters would often end in bloodshed. Pedro would steal money or drugs and then kill the people that he confronted. And each successful attack reinforced his belief that he was justified.
10:12
As the number of killings increased, a lot of local media started reporting on this mysterious young man responsible for the violence. Now, eventually, he did receive a nickname that would follow him the rest of his life, Pedrinho Matador.
10:30
The name captured both his youth and his reputation. So he was still a teenager, yet he had already become a feared figure in the criminal world, which is crazy at the age of 14. Despite notoriety, Pedro experienced something unexpected during this period.
10:53
He fell in love. Now, her name was Maria Olympia, and he called her Botina. Their relationship offered a brief glimpse of stability. They lived together, they shared a lot of their daily routines, and they started planning the future.
11:12
And for the first time in years, Pedro seemed to have something to lose. Maria soon became pregnant and they prepared to start a family. But Pedro's violent past followed him everywhere. Enemies he made along the way had not forgotten him.
11:30
One gang leader was determined to retaliate and decided to strike at the most vulnerable target, the woman he loved. Maria was murdered while carrying Pedro's child. And of course, to Pedro, that loss was devastating.
11:46
Now, grief quickly, again, transformed into rage, and he became consumed by a desire for revenge. And wouldn't we all? He began tracking down anyone connected to the gang responsible for the murder. And one by one, he captured them, he interrogated them, and he killed them.
12:05
The process was methodical and relentless, and he refused to stop until he eliminated every person involved. And in the end, he succeeded because every member of the gang was dead. This period marked a turning point in his psychology.
12:23
He no longer saw himself as a criminal. He started viewing himself as an enforcer of justice, somebody who really punished wrongdoing when the legal system wouldn't, much like Dexter. That belief would actually guide many of his future actions, even as the violence became more extreme.
12:43
Nonetheless, people in criminal circles started to fear Pedro. Some fled the region entirely, hoping that distance would keep them safe from him. But others hid behind alliances or weapons. But one by one, he found everybody on the list, and each killing reinforced his belief that he was delivering justice.
13:08
Now, not long after revenge, Pedro faced another devastating event. His father, the same man whose job loss had sparked his first killings, committed a brutal act of violence. And what I don't understand is, I mean, his father beat his mother.
13:27
I mean, maybe he didn't know at this point, but when she was pregnant with him. But his father murdered his mother with a machete. And the news hit Pedro like a shockwave. Despite the conflict and violence that had defined their family life, he still loved his mother very deeply.
13:45
Her death felt like a betrayal that demanded punishment. At the funeral, Pedro made a vow that he promised he would avenge her death. The words weren't spoken lightly, and everyone who knew him understood that promises were taken seriously.
14:01
Soon after that, his father was arrested and sent to prison. As fate would have it, though, they were brought together in a way that few people could have imagined. Eventually, Pedro himself was arrested and incarcerated, ironically, in the same prison as his father.
14:21
And so the opportunity for revenge had arrived. Inside the prison walls, Pedro started planning. He studied routines, he watched the guards, and he waited for the right moment. And revenge in his mind required precision.
14:37
When the opportunity finally came, he went into his father's cell and attacked him. He stabbed his father repeatedly until he was dead. Now, reports later indicated that he stabbed him approximately 22 times.
14:52
But the violence didn't stop there. In an act that shocked a lot of the inmates, Pedro mutilated the body and he removed part of his father's heart and actually bit into it. Later, he described the act in chilling detail, explaining that he chewed the piece of the heart and then discarded it on the corpse.
15:14
The brutality of this act became one of the most infamous moments in his criminal history, and it demonstrated not only his capacity for violence, but also the depth of his rage. But for Pedro, the promise made at his mother's coffin had actually been fulfilled.
15:34
Pedro's pattern of targeting criminals continued even after his arrest on May 24th of 1973. Authorities transported him in a police vehicle along with two other prisoners. One of those prisoners was a rapist.
15:49
And during the ride, something happened inside the vehicle that officers couldn't see. And when they eventually opened the door, they discovered that Pedro had killed the rapist. This reinforced his reputation as a man who truly believed he was delivering justice, and he showed no hesitation, even in custody.
16:11
The message was clear that imprisonment would not stop his violence. And in fact, prison would provide him with a new environment filled with individuals that he truly believed deserved punishment. Once inside the prison, Pedro was one of the most feared inmates in the system.
16:30
And over time, he killed at least 47 fellow prisoners. And to me, that's crazy because at some point, you would think he would be completely separated or moved. But 47 people while he was in prison. Many of the victims were serving sentences for violent crimes like murder and sexual assault.
16:50
And in his own minds, these killings were justified. He insisted that he never targeted innocent people and that each person he killed actually deserved it. Other inmates quickly learned to avoid him and avoid conflict with him.
17:08
And guards were also very familiar with the danger that he posed. Despite the increased supervision, his violence continued. So fights would break out, weapons were improvised, tension remained constant, and the prison environment became a battleground where Pedro maintained control through fear.
17:30
During that period, he got a tattoo, which means I kill for pleasure. And he often claimed that pleasure was not his motivation, but instead he said his actions were driven by anger and revenge. Whether the distinction mattered was a question that people that were observing would debate for decades.
17:51
Initially, Pedro received a prison sentence of 128 years. And as the number of killings increased, the sentence grew, as you can only imagine, eventually reaching 400 years. On paper, that punishment seemed very severe, but I found this interesting.
18:09
Brazilian law at that time placed a limit on how long any individual could remain incarcerated. So regardless of the number of crimes committed, the maximum sentence was only 30 years. Could you imagine?
18:24
I mean, how many people you'd already killed while in prison, but at that point, hey, you're already in prison. You already got 128 years. What's another few when you know you're only going to have to serve 30?
18:35
So the legal restriction really meant that someone responsible for dozens of murders could not be imprisoned indefinitely. So for Pedro, the law created an unexpected path to freedom. So after decades behind bars, he got to the end of that maximum sentence.
18:55
And a lot of people, of course, questioned whether or not releasing him was a wise decision, but others argued that it was the legal system and those were the rules and the rules needed to be followed regardless of how the public felt.
19:08
In 2007, after serving 34 years, Pedro was released from prison. And that movement marked a dramatic transition. For most of his life, he'd lived behind bars and he was surrounded by violence, surrounded by conflict.
19:23
Now he faced the challenge of reintegrating into society, which we've heard many times is not easy. He found work as a night watchman, and that was a job that allowed him to earn income and also maintain distance from crowds.
19:40
His routine was very quiet and very structured. And for a while, it seemed like the violence may have been a part of his past. However, the stigma of his crimes actually followed him everywhere. So people recognized him and feared him, and some were fascinated by him.
19:58
But in 2011, Pedro encountered legal trouble again. So this time the charges didn't involve murder, but authorities accused him of threatening individuals, possessing illegal weapons, and participating in riots.
20:16
The incidents demonstrated that his temper and behavior had not completely disappeared. So he was sentenced to additional time in prison, but he eventually earned release for good behavior, y'all. Like he had murdered so many people while he was in prison.
20:32
Then he was released on good behavior in 2018. And that second release marked another turning point. By then, he was older and he was tired. He was physically worn down and a little reflective about his past.
20:47
Now, after regaining his freedom, Pedro made a decision that kind of surprised everybody. He entered the world of social media, which is crazy. He created a YouTube channel where he spoke openly about his crimes.
21:01
Instead of glorifying violence, he used his story as a warning because he told his viewers about the consequences of crime and the pain of loss and the years that he spent behind bars. And for many observers, the transformation seemed very unusual, that a man once known for killing criminals was now encouraging people to avoid that path.
21:26
Some believed that he was genuine, but others were skeptical and said that his past actions could really never be separated from his present message. And regardless of public opinion, his channel attracted a lot of attention and people watched his videos mainly because they were curious and fascinating and just really were in disbelief.
21:49
So the man once feared as a ruthless killer had now become a storyteller. On March 5th, 2023, Pedro's story finally came to a violent end. He was 68 years old, and that day he stood outside a relative's home in Sao Paulo where a black car approached and the occupants actually exited the vehicle and attacked him.
22:14
His throat was slashed and he was also shot multiple times. Now the attackers fled immediately and left the scene before the police got there. And later authorities discovered that abandoned the vehicle along with ammunition.
22:31
Despite the investigation, those assailants remained unknown. Now, some speculated that the act was revenge, but a lot of people believed that it was connected to past enemies or conflicts that were unresolved.
22:48
The outcome was clear. The man who spent decades delivering violence ultimately died by violence himself. Now, the story of Pedro actually leaves behind a lot of very complicated questions. Was he a vigilante who targeted criminals or was he just a serial killer who justified his actions?
23:08
Did his later efforts to warn others about crime actually mean that he was genuinely remorseful or were they just an attempt to reshape his legacy? We'll never know. There are no simple answers. His life was really defined by contradiction, justice and revenge, punishment and cruelty, notoriety and reflection.
23:31
What remains undeniable is the scale of violence that followed him from birth to death. In the end, the man known as the real-life dexter actually became a symbol of how deeply violence can shape human life and how difficult it is to escape the consequences.
23:50
Once you're exposed to that kind of life, especially pretty much from day one, I mean, his mom was beat by his father, caused him to have a skull fracture, an injury, when he wasn't even born yet. And so it's hard to believe that he defended his father when his father was fired.
24:09
And then yet when his dad killed his mother, because he was continuously violent, he in turn killed his dad. So what are your thoughts? Is he a vigilante? It's kind of interesting because he is a lot like Dexter.
24:25
I don't know how many of you watch Dexter, but nobody that he killed was a good guy. I mean, the guys that were in prison were there for rape and murder, as was he, but I mean, he didn't rape anybody that I know of.
24:39
Couldn't find any stories about rape in his background, but he killed the bad guys, which is exactly what Dexter did. And we all loved that show. We all love Dexter because he did what should have been done by the justice system and wasn't.
24:55
So he was the man who killed killers. That's pretty much how he got his name. So could you imagine like being born into a life of violence and then killing two people at the age of 14? And he wasn't scared.
25:12
I mean, once this guy got to prison, he kept killing while he was there because he knew in Brazil, like you can't get more than 30 years. I mean, he spent 34 and he ended up going back. I mean, he lived until 2023.
25:27
So this all started back in 68 when he was 14. It's just kind of a crazy story to me because, I mean, the story of Dexter is kind of interesting. I never continuously watched the entire series, but I'd still like to.
25:44
I'd still like to go back and watch some of those episodes because, you know, you can relate to wanting to hurt people who hurt people. I guess it's human nature. Most of us think to ourselves, you know, I wish something bad would happen, but we don't like pull the trigger and do it ourselves because we don't want to suffer the consequences.
26:05
But Pedro didn't care. And he knew, I mean, in Brazil, what a better place to commit a crime when you know that you can't get more than 30 years. So anyway, this is kind of an interesting story. And I'm trying to decide what my podcast is going to be about on stage this weekend.
26:23
It's kind of crazy that I haven't already decided. But sometimes, you know, you're trying to be different than everybody else and not just tell stories of people who killed and people who were killed.
26:33
But to actually have a background in death investigation, to actually stand where murders occurred and talk to family members of murderers and family members of people who were murdered was always very interesting.
26:48
And so I had that background that's a little bit different from a lot of podcasters. And so I think I'm going to focus more on that. And one reason I say that is because there will be victims of crime there.
27:00
It's a sensitive topic and I never ever want to be viewed as being disrespectful. But again, I'm so looking forward. It will not be aired live, but I will be able to record it. I will be on the live podcast stage at 1.40 on Sunday, and that will actually be recorded for me.
27:23
And so I will air that on the podcast. That podcast will be my episode for next week. I may actually have it on video too. And so we may video that and do audio and video next week. We'll see. I don't know if they're doing camera and audio or just audio.
27:43
So anyway, I hope you'll have an amazing week, I can say. And to all those haters who don't like me talking about the weather, the weather in Texas right now is beautiful. And we are going up to North Dakota, I believe, in July.
27:58
And it's going to be beautiful then too. So super excited about that. Super excited about CrimeCon at the end of May. And as I'm getting my merch, it's just becoming real. You know, whenever we had the meet and greet and people showed up in my t-shirts, I was just like beside myself.
28:17
I couldn't believe that. So I so appreciate listeners. Please follow and please download. That helps me more than you know. And I look forward so much to talking to y'all next week and I hope you have a great week.
28:30
Thanks, y'all. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies. If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple Podcast.
28:43
This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public. Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at pushinguplies.com for merchandise and past episodes.