Infamous America - Introducing "Killer Psyche" from Wondery

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

What causes people to become killers? KILLER PSYCHE is a true crime podcast from Wondery that covers high-profile cases that shocked the world. Host Candice Delong uses her experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI Criminal Profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying criminals in history. In a recent episode, Candice explores the case of Pedro Rodrigues Filho, also known as The Brazilian Dexter. Rodrigues went on to murder, by his count, more than 100 people -- most of them while he was behind bars. To many, he was a hero -- a vigilante seeking justice for victims. But to others, he was just a cold-blooded murderer. This is just a preview of Killer Psyche, but you can listen to the full episode at http://wondery.fm/KP_InfamousAmerica  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone. The story that's at the heart of the preview I'm about to play for you is, without a doubt, one of the craziest things I've ever heard. As I listened to the preview and then did some reading on my own, I just kept saying, this is some of the wildest stuff ever. If you're a fan of the TV show Dexter, you're probably going to be intrigued by this story. The podcast is called Killer Psychie, and it's a true crime podcast from Wondry that explores the most basic yet difficult question with killers and other criminals. Why? Why do they do what they do? What makes their minds tick? Host Candice DeLong uses her five decades of experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI criminal profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history. The most recent episode of Killer Psyche is the one I was just talking about. Candice explores the case of Pedro Rodriguez Filio, also known as Killer Pedi. or the Brazilian Dexter. At age 14, Rodriguez murdered the deputy mayor in his town because the mayor had fired his father.

Rodriguez went on to murder, by his count, more than 100 people, most of them while he was in prison. To many, he was a hero of vigilante seeking justice for victims, but to others, he was just a cold-blooded murderer. Enjoy this preview and listen to Killer Psyche on Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. Or you can listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondry app. From Wondery and Tree Fort, I'm Candace DeLong and this is Killer Psyche. I've spent five decades studying people's minds through my work as an FBI profiler and psychiatric nurse. I've interviewed dozens of murderers, including serial killers, and the question of why they did it is what I get asked time and time again. I want to give you a satisfying answer, so I'm diving

deep into the mindsets of these criminals to give you my best analysis of what made them do what they did. This episode is Pedro Rodriguez-Filio, the Brazilian Dexter. To some, Pedro Rodriguez-Felio, also known as Pedrino Montador, was a hero, an avenging angel. To others, he was simply a murderer, a very prolific one. The victims he sought out were criminals or people that he felt were simply not good people. But that was not always the case. Pedro chose violence as a way of life when he was pretty young. When he was only 13, he tried to kill his older cousin by shoving him through a sugar cane press.

The cousin had punched and kicked him for riding his horse without permission, and Pedro couldn't let that go unpunished. The cousin survived, but was badly injured and lost his arm. In 1968, Brazil was under a stripped military dictatorship. Students all over were protesting the repressive regime in power. Work was hard to secure, but Pedro's father had a good job as a security guard at a local high school, near where the family lived in southern Brazil. This all ended when his father was accused of stealing food from the high school cafeteria

and was fired by the town's deputy mayor. This infuriated Pedro, so he took his grandfather's shotgun and killed the deputy mayor in broad daylight in front of the town's city hall. He didn't even try to hide his crime. In fact, his next murder occurred soon after when he killed the security guard that he believed had actually stolen the food that his father took the blame for.

In Pedro's mind, this was justice. After the murder of the vice mayor, Pedro fled to an area near Sao Paulo. After some time burglarizing houses, he murdered again, this time a drug dealer, and he took over the dealer's business. The drug business was very competitive in Brazil at the time, so he rationalized that he needed to kill some of his competitors.

But life was looking up for Pedro. He met a woman, Maria Olympia, who became pregnant with his child. Tragically, Maria and his unborn child were killed by rival gang members. Pedro barely escaped with his own life. seeking vengeance, Pedro recruited some friends and soldiers and began his own business. They crashed a wedding held by some of the rival gang members, killing seven of them and injuring 16 people. He then proceeded to hunt down the rest of the members who participated in killing Maria. He tortured and killed many others in an effort to find everyone responsible for Maria's

murder and kill them all. By the time he was 18, Pedro had already committed more than 10 murders, and he was just getting started. Months after this killing spree, Pedro tracked down the man who impregnated his favorite cousin and left her, and then he killed him. Pedro was arrested for the first time on May 24, 1973, and then he killed him. Pedro was arrested for the first time on May 24, 1973, and that resulted in him being sentenced to 127 years behind bars. He was transported to prison with another convict, a rapist. When the police opened the doors to let them both out, only Pedro was alive. The cops asked what had happened, and Pedro simply said that he killed him because he was

a rapist and did not deserve to live. While in prison, Pedro went on to kill 47. inmates, which earned him the animosity of other prisoners, and they often tried to take him out, but failed. Pedro reportedly survived five men attacking him at once. He killed three of them and injured the other two. That's James Bond stuff. Pedro liked to call this time in jail his wartime period, and obviously killing a successful killer was very difficult. It was during this time period that Pedro killed his own father in prison. Pedro's reputation for brutality was growing, and he would kill someone because he thought

the crimes they committed were unforgivable. But some of his victims had not done much to earn his ire. He is said to have killed one man because he snored too loudly, and another because he didn't like the man's face. Pedro had become the judge, jury, and executioner for many of the inmates in his prison, and he would dole out his brand of punishment to those he felt were unfit to live. This earned him comparisons to the TV show Dexter, where the main character. kills other killers. These prison murders also earned him an additional 400 years to his 127 years sentence.