Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Famous TV Host Who KIlled For Ratings - The Wallace Souza Story

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Wallace Souza was a former police officer turned TV host in Manaus who rose to fame in 1996 with his crime show Canal Livre, a sensational program that often arrived at murder scenes faster than law enforcement. As his popularity grew, he leveraged his tough-on-crime persona into political power, winning a seat as a state legislator. But in 2009, investigators uncovered evidence suggesting that Souza and his inner circle were operating a criminal organization that not only trafficked drugs but allegedly ordered murders so his TV crew could film exclusive footage for higher ratings.

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Now the guy's name is Wallace and Wallace is 38 when this story starts and he's living in Brazil. And Wallace, he's an interesting guy. He's a former police officer in one of Brazil's most crime-ridden cities and he's the kind of guy who seems to be obsessed with getting attention and gaining power from it. So one day in 1996, he gets this idea. He wants to co-create a TV show called Canal Libre for a local TV station. And the show, it's kind of gruesome, like it reports on a lot of the crime happening in the city, and it includes raw footage of arrests and big drug busts and dead bodies, while Wallace is back in the studio commenting on all the crimes.

So he creates this show, and this little local show actually blows the fuck up. and it becomes a hit. Turns out, people actually want to tune in and see gritty footage of all these crazy crimes being committed. In fact, this show is so popular that sometimes when a regional soccer game is supposed to air at the same time as Canal Levere, they will choose not to show the soccer game.

So basically, this show is more popular in this region of Brazil than soccer, which is crazy. Anyway, over the next two years, the episodes get wild. They start featuring musical acts, and there are segments with dancing women and segments with puppets. And remember, this is a crime show that will regularly show dead bodies. But whatever, this all just makes the whole thing even more popular in the region.

Not only that, but in an attempt to increase the drama of this show, Wallace and his crew eventually start following police to crime scenes. And they'll like film shootouts that are happening, and yeah, sometimes they'll film murder victims whose bodies haven't been identified yet. And then he'll air these segments back in the studio in front of his live studio audience. Yes, his brutal crime murder show is shot in front of a live studio audience.

But this, in turn, makes it all even more popular. And Wallace gets super popular. And now that he's a minor celebrity, in 1998, Wallace decides to get into politics, and he runs for state deputy. which in the U.S. would be like the equivalent of a state senator. And wouldn't you know it, he wins and he becomes state deputy. Now, along with this new government position, Wallace continues to host Canal LeVray.

Now, at this point in the story, the show is huge. Plus, he's got this other government job. So he hosts the show, but he doesn't have time to personally rush out to every crime scene. So now they have a team of reporters doing it in his stead. Now, despite the fact that this show is already getting crazy good ratings, at some point Wallace decides it's just not good enough. He wants more. And he and his team noticed that any time they show graphic footage of a newly murdered dead body, their ratings spike significantly. So Wallace starts thinking, how could we get more dead bodies? And this is where he comes up with this insane strategy to get. his ratings higher than they've ever been before. He decides to start orchestrating some of the crimes. That way he can get lots of dramatic crime content.

And his field reporters will always be first on the scene and they can like film the dead bodies and stuff before they're covered up. And he will literally hire a hitman to assassinate someone, usually a suspected drug trafficker or some other criminal. And then he will tell his reporter crew exactly where the crime scene is going to be. And when that reporter crew shows up, they can film the dead body before the police get there. And this actually works. And the audience love seeing this stuff.

So the show's ratings stay high. A lot of times Wallace's TV crew will show up to the crime scene before the police themselves show up. So it's all very exciting TV. And so Wallace keeps going. And he organizes more crime for his reporters to capture. And at one point, his team gets to a crime scene. before police show up and a victim had been killed and afterwards the body had been burned and in fact the body is still burning when police get there.

So these local police start talking to Wallace's reporter and Wallace's reporter somehow knows the victim's gender already. Plus he knows that the victim hasn't been shot and he also knows that the victim had been set on fire using gasoline. All things a reporter shouldn't know while the body is. still burning. And so over time, police start to get suspicious. How could Wallace's team constantly beat them to the crime scene? And how did Wallace's reporter know all those details about that burning body? But whatever, all this drama continues to make good TV. And Canal Livre just keeps

getting more and more popular. And Wallace continues to get more and more popular. In fact, during this time, he runs for state deputy again twice. And he wins both times, so he keeps his seat because the locals just love this guy. So it seems like he's just going to keep having people assassinated in order to boost the ratings of his TV show and no one is ever going to catch him. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org.

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Who is this guy? Well, his name is DeCosta. And DeCosta is a former military police officer, and he's sometimes Wallace's personal bodyguard. Well, police arrest him, and they accuse him of being involved in nine different murders. And so, they question him, and DeCosta, he doesn't want to go to prison, because he's as a former cop, it's not safe for him in there. He put a lot of those guys away, so he'll probably get murdered if he goes to prison. So, Dacosta starts to crack immediately.

And in exchange for police, keeping him away from all the other prisoners once he's locked up, he confesses everything. He tells them that his boss is Wallace and that he murdered people at his boss's orders, and that at least one of those murders had later been featured on the TV show, Canal Libre. Plus, that the reason Wallace's team of reporters could show up at a crime scene faster than police is because Wallace had orchestrated those crimes, and he would then direct his reporters where to go. And so, of course, police are like, I knew it!

Because they had been suspicious for a long time. But then, word of this gets out. And Wallace, he's still a beloved TV host and politician, so suddenly this is a huge news story. It's on the news everywhere and the public is shocked. And from what I read, the public during this time doesn't actually seem to believe it's true. Regardless, Wallace has to do damage control. And he has to hold a public press conference and he denies ever being involved in any murders. He also denies even knowing DeCosta.

He's like, I don't even know who that guy is. The problem with that excuse is there are already public photos of them together. Like, here's Wallace and DeCosta. chilling at a pool. And so police get a warrant to search Wallace's home and they bust in and they raid the place and they find a list of names of men who have already been executed at Wallace's orders. So at this point, Wallace knows he's fucked. And so he decides to just flee and go on the run. And he ends up hiding out in some places in the countryside and also in a farmhouse near the jungle. But only four days later, police find him and

And bam, they arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot of him, but here is a picture of him in real life. And unfortunately, he never actually makes it to trial because he dies in jail of liver failure before he can be tried and sentenced.