RedHanded - Episode 395 - Wallace Souza: Killing for Ratings

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

They say Brazil is not for amateurs. And that’s certainly true in the crime-stricken city of Manaus, where Wallace Souza – a charismatic TV host and congressman with a flair for the dramatic – built up an army of fans with his hard-hitting news coverage in the early 2000s. But was his bonkers daytime TV show, Canal Livre, just a smokescreen for his own shady criminal empire? And how far would Wallace go to increase his show’s already killer ratings?Grab your bug spray and join us for another exciting filmed full episode, as we strap in for wild ride into the Amazonian urban jungle – and a story packed with samba, gangsters and conspiracy theories galore...Video version will be available Thursday 17th April on our YouTube channel!Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we're analyzing the man who literally changed our minds about everything. The father of psychology, Sigmund Freud. Freud's ideas about sex cause outrage. Is Freud still relevant? Or should we simply give him the slip? Follow Legacy Now wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery+. When a young woman named Desiree vanishes without a trace, the trail leads to Kat Taurus,

a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. But behind the glamorous posts and inspirational quotes, a sinister truth unravels. Binge all episodes of Don't Cross Cat early and ad-free on Wondery+. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Right-Handed. Well this week we're going deep into the jungle. Hmm. Are we? We can definitely see the jungle. Okay, fine. From where we are. Just checking. It's a wild one. We are going to Brazil, Brazil's wild west. I've never been to there.

No, me either. Me either. When I was lucky enough to be traveling around that part of the world, I was really lucky. I went to like quite a few places in like Central and South America, but I just felt Brazil felt too big. Yeah, I know what you mean. It felt too big to tackle as part of like a trip because like Bolivia and stuff, it was beautiful Bolivia. I think it's so underrated. That's like a trip. Because like Bolivia and stuff, it was beautiful. Bolivia, I think is so underrated. But I was like, two weeks, fine, I'll see.

I'll see all the main stuff. I was like, where do we even begin with Brazil? Yeah, I don't know. Too much. I would like to go one day. Yeah, I would like to go. For sure. But no, have not been.

But we are going there in our minds today. And honestly, everyone buckle up for one of the weirdest stories that we have told on their handed. Because this tale is full of gang warfare, political sabotage, hero complexes aplenty, apocalyptic prison massacres and puppets. The story of Wallace Souza, a Brazilian Batman with an epic fall from grace, is so bizarre that it sounds like it should definitely all be made up. But it is, in fact, true. But as we'll find out in the city of Manaus, the truth can be subjective.

Now Manaus, the thing I think of when I hear of that city is of course, 90 Day Fiancé. How? There is a very prominent couple, Karine and Paul, if you watch 90 Day Fiancé, and I'm talking the golden oldies, the classics of Ed and Rose and all of that. and oldies, the classics of Ed and Rose and all of that. Manaus is where weird Paul has to go to meet Karine. And it really does stand to tell you, you know, how far Manaus is, you have to understand how weird Paul is and that the algorithm in the 90 day universe is the weirder the guy, the further he has to go.

To find a woman who will accept him. Yes. Okay. And it is the couple, if you honestly, it's just like the golden highlight moment is he goes there and he's very scared of everything. And she takes him swimming. And to be fair to him, as somebody who is scared of like dark murky water, she takes him swimming in like the sea and it is like brown and like you can't see anything. And

he puts a condom over his flaccid penis to get into the water because he's scared of those fish that swim up men's penises. And he thinks it's going to protect him. That's her face. That's Karina's face. And then she has to take him home and introduce him to her very matro ex-policeman father. And the man's just had a condom on his penis because he scared a fish. It's a whole thing, go watch it. But anyway, that is where we kind of are today. And Wallace Sousa was a wildly popular anchor man. That's what you need to know about him.

He was topping the like rankings of viewership at the time. And he hosted a crime news show that if you have seen clips of it, and I have, I can only describe it as making Nancy Grace look like Trevor McDonald. It was so jaw-droppingly dramatic that it actually did look like it was going to turn around the city's fortunes for a good while because crime was out of control. And people thought, as we'll go on to find out, that because he was so like finger pointy and like calling people out, that it was actually going to change something for the better. But at the center of this sprawling case is one question. Was it all just too good to be true? Was the TV show actually a smokescreen for Solza's own criminal

empire? Was Wallace Solza a folk hero or a cold-blooded villain? Well it all depends on who you ask. Welcome to the jungle. Jumanji 2. To truly get to the bottom of this story first we need to introduce the unique place where it all happened. The city of Manaus is the capital of Amazonas, which is Brazil's largest state. And to be fair to flaccid, floppy penis man, those fish are in the Amazon. They are. They exist. They are. And Manaus really is like, I know we're saying city, it is a city, but it is

in the thick of the jungle. It is in the thick of the Amazon jungle. So absolutely we are entering the jungle today. It's like, yes, there is a city, but surrounded by Amazon. And it is a big state, the biggest one. And I'll put that into context for you. If Amazonas was a country, it would be the 16th biggest in the world. Wow. Yeah. See, Brazil's too big. I was right. I can't remember his name. And I know I always do. There's a Sri Lankan comedian. Romesh? No, no, no. He's got massive hair, wears cowboy boots. Anyway, he talks about Sri Lanka and how colonized a lot and invaded and blah, blah, blah. And he was like, but I hate the Portuguese the most because how are you going to conquer

over half the world and still be kind of poor? They're the peon pigs. He's funny. I'll send him. He's funny. I'll send him. He's very entertaining. Anyway, perched at the edge of the mighty Amazon River and its sprawling rainforest beyond, the city itself is largely only accessible by boat or air. And one might consider it the last seaetacean civilization before it gets really, really jungly. And there is a danger lurking in that jungle. Jaguars in the shadows, venomous spiders in

your boots, something slithering just out of sight to bite you on the vagina through the toilet. For sure. Prime time toilet snake territory. But that's not all to fear. This is shocking. In 2022, a survey ranked Manaus as the 21st most dangerous city on the planet. And if you think crime in London is bad, we've got a murder rate here about 1.5 homicides per 100,000 people. In Manaus, the figure leaps to 48 murders per 100,000 people. That's a lot. Yikes. I did see this has been doing rounds. At the moment, there was an influencer who was in Brazil traveling and she stays in a hostel in the favelas and like makes

this video being like, I just feel really unsafe. And like, yeah, bitch. Yeah. What did you think was going to happen? I don't know. I don't know why you'd be shocked by that. I think I was in Guatemala city. And at the time, I think Guatemala city was like a second or third most dangerous city in the world. And it was the only ever hostel that I have stayed in where the door was locked from the inside, like latched from the inside. And if anybody ever knocked at the door, you had to go get a member of staff to come and open it. You weren't allowed to open it yourself. And I was like, it's good to be safe. So with all of that in mind, and because we're not silly travel influences, Manaus

doesn't really have that much of a tourism population. Not many people moving through there. Nah, just men looking for Brazilian women to marry. But why, other than all of these obvious reasons, is Manaus such a fucking scary place? Why is the crime so high, I guess we should say? Well, Manaus's location on the banks of the Amazon river make it a very strategic transit point for drugs. And this is of course drugs that are flowing in from neighboring countries like Colombia,

Peru and Bolivia. And when illicit plantations growing, is it co, cocao? Welcome to What Else Don't I Know with Hannah McGuire. I have never known how to pronounce it and I've been too scared to ask my entire life. I don't know. Cocao, cocao. Let's go with that. Growing cocao. You know what we're talking about. It's obviously the natural leaf that is used as the base for making cocaine. When these sort of illicit plantations started springing up in the Amazon basin from the

1980s onwards, it put Manaus even more firmly on the map as a hotbed of drug trade activity. We've talked about the Darien Gap, which is obviously that section of the jungle that sort of is the only break in that kind of huge Pan-American highway that runs all the way from like the tippity top most of like the Americas all the way down to like Patagonia and that's the only break. And that's because authorities literally cannot get into that jungle to continue the highway because it is so controlled by drugs and by gangs and whatnot. And there was a guy who was going to make a documentary about him crossing the Darien Gap and it was like getting a lot of hype about it. People were like super

excited and then he just quietly cancelled it because he was so passionate. Oh, I thought you were like, and then he was shot. And quietly cancelled. He was like, no, this is- Well, when he realized that it's not a fucking joke and there's a reason no one's done it. It's not going to happen. So yeah, Manaus, very much along the same lines and the city fell under the grip of organized crime groups fighting for control of drug routes, sparking, as you can imagine, pretty bloody turf wars that turned the streets into an absolute battleground.

Widespread police corruption also meant that the authorities often turned a blind eye. And socioeconomic researcher Luiz Antonio Nasinmento, which is just the beginning of how I am butchering several Brazilian Portuguese names today, you are welcome, describes a culture of violence that's woven into the city's very DNA. Moreover, Manaus in the late 20th century was marked by extreme poverty for a large proportion of its citizens. It's a far cry from its glory days between 1870 and 1910 when merchants made their fortunes during the so-called rubber boom and the city of Manaus was actually considered one of the richest in the world at that time. But by the 1990s,

with bullets flying everywhere and any backbones among the local government nowhere to be found, the people of Manaus were holding out for a hero. And then, seemingly, one came along. Wallace Salsa. I believe. Thank you so much. His full name is Francisco Wallace Cavalcante de Salsa. No, G Salsa. What's hard? Dej. Dej. Dej. It looks like Spanish. Yeah. It ain't. Looks like Spanish. It's so difficult to pronounce it. Looks like Spanish sounds like Russian. Well, not even Russian, but like, it sounds very like Eastern European, I think, with Portuguese. I agree. I've heard people say it sounds like Russian before.

Yeah. I'll try again. Francisco Wallace Cavalcunchi G. Salsa. No one's going to tell me I'm wrong because I won't listen. Thank you. He was born with all of them names in Manaus in 1958 into a close-knit family. He was born with all of them names in Manaus in 1958 into a close-knit family. He had a personal score to settle with the drug dealers who were running riot in his hometown.

His brother, Ulises, struggled with addiction and ultimately lost his life to drugs. And Wallace was furious and vowed to avenge his brother one day. Allen Rarig was found dead in a parking lot in Oklahoma. He's partly decomposed. He'd been shot twice, once to the head. It was a baffling tragedy. You'd think his wife would be devastated. But a far more frightening set of circumstances

eventually came to light. She was either the black widow or bad luck. I don't know which. People began to wonder, who was Sandra Bridewell? These guys didn't really see her coming. This is the unbelievable story of a femme fatale with a trail of bodies in her wake and a lifetime of deception

that has never been fully aired until now. If something ever happened to me, then they would know who did it. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is Fatal Beauty, available now on the binge. Search for Fatal Beauty wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. All right, very quick break because I know you are gagging to get back to this particular episode. But we have to tell you a little bit about what's going on on Patreon this week.

Certainly. Well, this week we have Under the Duvet where I explain how hypnosis works badly, but it works. It does work and I will tell you how I came off the pill and now the back knee's back. We also have a little chat about Russell Brand and contemplate the composition of the soul and whether it even fucking matters. And then I do a little review on a throwback dating tv show that I watched on channel four called Perfect Match where I literally couldn't believe a that people were smoking in clubs because it's that old and then all the horrific things that were coming out of people's mouths and you can listen to all of that over on

patreon and you can watch it too under the duvet is every week we release it every Wednesday morning and also on patreon you can get red-handed totally ad- free and we also do monthly bonus episodes and you can find all of that at patreon.com forward slash red handed. With the moral mission of cleaning up the mean streets of Manaus, Wallace joined the military police in 1976. But he was kicked out after eight years for his alleged involvement in a gasoline embezzlement scheme. No further details to be found. No. The only thing I can imagine is that episode of Always Sunny where they just buy loads

of petrol and try and sell it door to door. Genius. I think that's what I'm choosing Billy. Anyway, Wallace was not going to let his crime fighting ambitions die because of one little setback and one little big crime that he did. He became a journalist instead. He started out working on regional radio shows before launching his own regional crime show in 1996. And just like that, Canal Livre, which means free channel, was born. Excellent. I also do just want to clarify for people who are like, you should try harder with your pronunciations.

They are written out phonetically for us. So we're not, we've not not done the work to try hard. It's just quite intimidating to get it right. Yeah. And quite hard. But we're going to continue. How are we saying that? Con-ow livery. Let's go with that. So how can we describe this particular show? Think Crime Watch meets Jerry Springer via Antindex Saturday Night Takeaway or SNL and maybe, just maybe you're halfway there. Now while the show's principal focus was crime coverage, it also featured entertainment. Producer Victor Hugo de Paula admitted

it was a quote totally chaotic and spontaneous show where anything could happen. Segments could vary from dancing girls to warring families tearing each other's hair out over petty disputes in the studio audience. And if you're wondering what on earth we were talking about at the start as to why puppets were involved, well amid the chaos a puppet named Gallarito, a parody of wannabe gangsters wearing gold chains and streetwear, would crack dirty jokes and had a running gag of winding up the stage entertainer. And there is actually footage out there on the internet of a physical fight involving

Galarito the puppet and like people in the audience that was revived and actually spread as a viral meme online in the late noughties and you honestly have to watch it to believe it is it's it's quite the situation Is he the puppet? Where's the puppet? Just a guy doing the bachata. Where is it? Let's get to the fight. Oh my god, oh my god. Well, I think I've seen enough. Somebody is still holding onto the puppet fighting the crowd with it.

I... Ah, okay. So The Times calls it a madcap variety show intercut with brutal murders. And I think that's pretty much all you need to know. Basically, it's absolutely about shit fucking crazy. You know the episode of the Simpsons, where they go to Brazil to look for the little lost orphan boy? Oh yeah. And they're just like, everything is like on TV is like hypersexualized and there's fights.

That is what this is. It's accurate. I'm genuinely lost for words. That's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Well, there you go. Anyway, who gives a shit what I think because the locals could not get enough of Can I Leave You? It was a hit. Everybody dropped what they were doing every lunch time to tune into the latest episode. Can I just also say, yes, I was not expecting it to be a midday show. It feels like a 10pm kind of show. Lunchtime? Everyone drops that they're doing it at lunchtime to watch this fucking show. I mean, maybe. Nothing about that scream daytime TV. Jerry

Springer's daytime TV. Do you know what? Fair enough. And to be fair, the first time I ever watched Jerry Springer, I couldn't believe I didn't, I had no way of processing what I was watching. No, I actually did recently watch like a behind the scenes documentary of Jerry Springer and how it came together. And he's actually a really funny guy. Oh, I think Jerry Springer is very smart. He's very smart. He's really talented. He's very funny. And they were like, the show was completely different at the start. And then the producers were the ones who were like, Jerry Springer, he is comedic. Like we can do more with this and then like turned it

into what it is. But yeah, it was genius for its time for sure. And that center stage of this daytime television was not Jerry Springer. Did he ever get governor of California? Oh, I don't think so. He ran for, he definitely ran. Maybe. Anyway, Wallace was center stage. He captivated audiences with his passionate anti-crime rants and shocking coverage of murders, drug raids and arrests around the city.

60 Minutes' Carl Stefanovic described Manaus as a hell for criminals, but heaven for crime reporters chasing the next shocking story. And if Manaus was heaven, Wallace Alza was God. Investigative journalist Paola Litphee remembers that Karna Levera always had the inside scoop. And when she says inside, she quite literally means it. Wallace and his crew didn't just report on crimes from the sidelines. They took their viewers right into the heart of the action. Their cameras captured gruesome uncensored footage of gangland executions often arriving at crime scenes before the police to broadcast all of the gory details. And we're talking quite seriously gory, there's blood flowing into the streets, close-ups of gunshots and stab wounds,

zooming in on dumped bodies who hadn't even been officially identified yet, and even victims still clinging to life before dying on camera. Yeah, I think to us, that is quite shocking. Yeah. But as somebody who spent every summer in India watching the news with her grandparents, can say standard business, standard protocol. Like some of the things I saw on like just the news at 10 and what was being broadcast. It wasn't even like this sort of, you know, mad cap show, just the news at 10. I was like, I cannot believe they're showing

that. Absolutely horrific. There is one that is like seared into my brain and it was, it was awful. It was like this psychiatric hospital, but hospital seems to stretch because it doesn't feel like they were actually trying to help these people. They basically just kept them all chained up because they just like couldn't handle it. Like think that crazy Hungarian or Romanian orphanage situation, basically like that, but with adults and their fire broke out and everyone who was working there just fled and all of these people who had been chained up just burned to death.

And there was all this footage of their burned bodies, burned chained up bodies on the news. And I was just like, how am I seeing this? I like literally can still visualize it in my head. So yeah, I think while it's quite shocking for us and while this definitely wasn't like run of the mill for what was going on in Brazil, the reason everybody was watching it without asking so many questions is like, it just probably wouldn't have been as unbelievable that it was being shown. And also because they live in a city with such high levels of crime, most people are probably seeing horrible crimes all the time. It probably was just refreshing. And I say that with like

a cringe to have a new channel that was just reporting it as it was in many ways. But yeah, it's still hard for us to believe that this stuff made it onto the screen. But like I said, maybe in the national context at the time, not that shocking. Apparently Brazilian TV, especially in the nineties and early 2000s, was notorious for crossing ethical lines when it came to sensational coverage. And we have an example. There is a pretty famous case in Brazil called the Ailoa case which took place in São Paulo in 2008 and it was when a 15 year old girl named Elawa Pimentel was held hostage for a hundred hours by her older ex-boyfriend. The police's bungling hostage negotiations were exacerbated by an absolute media frenzy, with reporters

swarming the scene and even calling the kidnapper in order to rile him up on air. Tragically and probably somewhat predictably, Aloa didn't make it out alive. And Canal Lever wasn't much different. It thrived on airing the most shocking footage it could possibly get its hands on. But even in this landscape at that time in Brazil, Wallace Souza stood out for his bravery and also his bravado. No matter how dangerous the scene, Wallace would be there with his camera crew, facing off the violent criminals and denouncing them on TV. Something that nobody in Manaus had ever dared to do before. With time, people came to see Wallace Ulsa as a hardline crusader against crime. Because Wallace wasn't satisfied with just showing the gang violence,

he wanted to do something about it. And the authorities seemed unable or unwilling to even try. Wallace didn't hide his vitriol towards drug traffickers. He declared that they made him sick and only deserve bullets in the grave. After a while, he brought in his brothers, Carlos and Fausto as co-hosts and the trio were swiftly nicknamed the Courage Brothers and built a reputation of standing up for the public. And you can see why that would be incredibly like alluring for people in Manaus to feel like the authorities are corrupt, they're doing nothing, drug dealers are running our

city, there's nothing we can do. And finally, here is this man or this group of men who are brave enough to name and shame them. Put their faces on the screen, call them out, say that they're destroying our country and destroying our families and destroying people's lives. And you can absolutely see it's not just like this sick fascination with the sensation as crime that he's reporting. It's the fact that he's presenting himself as some sort of vigilante. Yeah. And I think it's important that Manaus is quite isolated. And so it's going to be its own thing. And then not many people are coming and going. So it's going to be a camaraderie

there that places that possibly have a bit more of a transient population that are more coming and going, not staying forever, might be a bit different. And as it turned out, Canal Leveria became a sort of emergency hotline with Wallace as its unofficial sheriff. In many cases, citizens started to call the show with tips about a shooting that they just witnessed rather than involving the authorities, which sounds absolutely mad, but I can understand why. And partially that's because the camera crews would get there faster than the police would, but also probably something to do with people trusting Wallace Salsa more than they trusted the police.

And they had good reason. Brazil's military police force does not have the best track record. A significant portion of gun violence in the country's favelas comes from officers opening fire, often catching innocent civilians in the crossfire. So, with this in mind, it makes sense that the people turned to Wallace as their potential savior. And the Guardian wrote about this case and noted the following.

He seems progressively to have assumed the functions of the government, police, welfare system and judiciary, until he becomes a mix of populist demagogue and vigilante enforcer. Making bold declarations like, Manouse cannot become a lawless land, Wallace appeared to incite the community to rebellion against the fear and complacency that had been the status quo for too long. With Wallace leading this moral crusade, could things really change? It certainly felt that way. With his fearless approach to naming and shaming local drug barons, Wallace wielded real power not just over the public but over the gangs themselves.

According to the show's cameraman, Joseph Nielsen Guerrero, dealers would flee the scene when Wallace and his crew showed up. They may not have been afraid of the police but they were but they were afraid of Wallace Salsa. No wonder he was so power mad. Imagine turning up to like a gangland crime and drug barons are fleeing from your camera. And Canal Lever became more than just a crime show. It offered a beacon of hope amid the bleak reality of life for Manao's poorest citizens. The show ran charity segments where struggling families could appeal for help and received money and food. Solzai even personally paid university tuition fees for members of his crew.

Producer Victor Hugo attributes Canal Levera's success to that social focus. With the government failing to support this remote and deprived region of The use of Victor Hugo attributes can now leave his success to that social focus. With the government failing to support this remote and deprived region of Brazil, Wallace stepped up to fill the void, not just as a journalist, but as a leader and a protector. But with his star on the rise, moving into politics was a natural next step for Wallace. In Brazil, it is definitely pretty common for celebs to transition into politics and keep their former careers still. So we see that in other parts of the world, especially definitely, you know, I can speak to Indians, a lot of actors that transition straight into politics.

And similarly to Brazil, they don't have to give up their initial career in order to be able to do it. So in, for example, the US, if you want to become, apparently, if you want to become more integrated into politics and you are like running this sort of crime show, you would have to give up that crime show because I think there's something along the lines of you can use that show to like campaign for yourself. And also I think if I, if I'm looking at an elected official who was supposed to be serving me, the voter, why aren't you doing that all the time?

Exactly. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. But Wallace here kept his job on the TV show and he ran for politics. And he was actually elected to the state legislative assembly as a congressman in 2000. And to call it a landslide victory would definitely be putting it mildly. Wallace Sousa broke records for each of his three elected terms, becoming proportionally the most voted for politician in Brazil. And he's been dubbed a Brazilian combination of David Attenborough, Sherlock Holmes and Baraka Palmer. And just a little bit of foreshadowing here,

also Jake Gyllenhaal's character from Nightcrawler. So keeping it in the family, as you would, the other Courage brothers were also elected as local officials in various posts including Mayor of Manaus for his brother, Kolos. As a politician, Wallace Salsa continued building his reputation as a champion of the people. He wasn't just calling out drug dealers anymore, he was criticising the government. He showed up, the powers that that be by questioning why they weren't doing more to crack down on notorious organized crime groups like the family of the North, the FDN for short. And he also exposed the mayor of Kowari, an impoverished rural town

rich with oil fields that the community never saw a penny of. And he called out that mayor for embezzling public funds, which he quite obviously was doing. An investigation ended up uncovering that the man in question, Adele Piniero, had also been running a townwide paedophile ring. Yeah, it's things like this, right? I mean, Wallace Solzette, he's like pointing fingers, he's taking names, he's kicking ass, and he's calling out other officials like this mayor, and he's only calling them out for embezzlement, as if that's not bad enough. But then when the people find out he's also running a fucking secret pedophile ring, it is again, further cementing everybody's belief that

all these officials are corrupt and Wallace Solza is the only one to be trusted. It's all a huge conspiracy. They're out to just exploit, exploit, exploit. And this is how, and he's not wrong, but as we go on to zoom, issues. But yeah, it's just every, every finger point is just further cementing him as this hero of the people. And even though he was pulling off

all of these really big ticket policies, he never ever quit his day job. Wallace Sulzer carried on hosting Conner Leverer every day. So, you know, tidy your room. You have the same amount of hours in a day as Wallace Sulzer. Anyway, in a 2005 episode of Conner Leverer, Wallace bravely swapped places with a family held hostage by drug dealers who said that they refused to negotiate with anyone but Wallace Salsa. And as the kidnappers drove off with him, it did look like the congressman was in quite a difficult, sticky, possibly fatal situation, but he walked away totally unharmed because the

gang changed their minds. I think there was some calculation there that they made that killing him is not going to make them particularly popular. Also, it wouldn't be surprising if he just threw some money at them. Yeah, I'm wondering if the whole thing was just a bit madey-up-y, a bit Jerry Springer, a bit produced. Also very possible. And of course it was all caught on camera and aired on Ca'na Levera. And this hostage switcheroo

gave Wallace Sulzer another enormous image boost. People were impressed to see a politician risking his own life to save other people. But for all his popularity, Wallace was all too aware that his work could certainly earn him some powerful enemies. Wallace Sousa, much like Paul from 90 Day Fiance, took to riding around in a bulletproof car. Paul only had a bulletproof vest that everybody laughed at, but given this whole episode, I think, you know, man's got a point. So yeah, Wallace would drive around in this bulletproof car with hired security and describe himself as one of the most threatened men in the state. If the day ever came, a lot of people would be celebrating Wallace Solz's downfall, not least the drug traffickers that he'd help put behind bars by exposing them on TV.

And presumably also all those politicians that he's pointing the finger at and, you know, rocking the boat, rocking the corruption boat. They're gonna be pretty happy if he is eventually offed. And then in 2008, along came a man named Moa. To give him his full name, because apparently I have to, it is Moasir Jorge Pereira and he was simply known thankfully as Moa, which is what I will be calling him moving forward. And he was a former military police officer who'd gone over to the dark side by moonlighting for the organized crime gangs. He was arrested in 2008 as part of a routine investigation into his crimes and was wanted for a whopping nine murders. Now at first, Moa was weirdly calm and he kept confidently claiming that his boss would

sort things out for him. But when that didn't materialise, Moa began to sweat. He knew that a stint in jail would mean almost certain death, since he'd pissed off quite a few people inside. And we don't need to tell you this, but in Brazil, prison gangs are no joke. PCC, a city-wide gang who are the sworn rivals of the FDN in Manaus, were actually originally formed at a high security penitentiary in São Paulo. Being behind bars doesn't do much to curb these guys' murderous ambitions.

In fact, prisons are pretty much their whole base of operations. So as Moa started panicking, he also started talking. And then came the bombshell. Moa's alleged boss, the man who had hired him to commit those nine murders he was being accused of, was none other than local hero, aka Jake Gyllenhaal from Nightcrawler, Wallace Solza. Moa claimed that Wallace personally ordered him to wreak havoc on the city by committing the murders of multiple notorious drug traffickers, five of which were actually covered, en counter l'ifra, in all of their grisly glory. And that's not even the most mental bit. The motive was to boost the ratings of Calanelifre.

Yeah. So when people ask us, are you scared you're going to run out of cases? No. Wallisouza is obviously in a different position where he's like, he needs like live, he needs like current, it's a news crime, new show. He's like, even in a city where they have 48 murders per 100,000 people, he's like, should we just, you know, speed things along a little bit? I am always interested when that question gets asked of like, you know, are you worried that you're going to run out? How quickly people will jump to a Wallace Salsa situation. Like, but you could do that and then you could cut. I'm like, what? That's not a normal thing

to say, but it's almost always the next step in that conversation. Yeah, we're not going to do it. Or maybe I already have. Anyway. We'd be doing more investigative. If we start doing more investigative, long form pieces, then get suspicious. Because that shit's hard. And the only way I'm doing it is if I literally did it myself and know all of the answers. Cut to this being played back in a court of law.

Anyway, the accusation was that Wallace Salsa calculatedly plotted to satisfy his increasingly bloodthirsty viewer base with the shocking inside scoop that they hungered for. Lead detective Deva Nielsen-Calver-Kinche agreed that this was almost certainly murder for ratings. Yeah. And look, there is a Netflix documentary on this show called Killer Ratings. Very good. Bravo. Bravo. According to Deva Nelson, the simple reason that Carnalivra was always the first at the scene of the crime

was because they knew that they were going to happen because they had ordered the hits themselves. That'll do it. And he called Carnolivra a massive smokescreen for Wallace's criminal enterprise. Wallace was just a jaguar in sheep's clothing and his whole Defender of the People Act was a big fat lie. So as you can imagine the allegations sent shockwaves through Manaus. Public attention returned to a previous clip from Cana Livre which showed the reporter approaching a still burning body in a jungle clearing, remarking that it smelled like a barbecue.

Shocking as the footage was, even more troubling questions now had to be asked in light of the recent allegations against Wallace. Because in the clip, the reporter reels off facts like the sex of the victim, the fact that they were killed in the early hours of the morning and that they had been shot multiple times. But if Wallace had just simply stumbled upon this burning corpse, how on earth could he have known that? It's good questions. And also, how was Wallace there in the first place, long before the police even knew of this crime?

A new and disturbing answer was starting to materialize that maybe Karna Livre knew precisely because they had put the body there. Though I can also see a world in which he's just being framed by the police. a world in which he's just being framed by the police. Or not that that's what happened. That's not what happened. But a world in which people believe that's what's happening, right? Because the prosecution are going after him there. Okay, I see. Moa said, this guy Moa, who we arrested for nine murders, said, you actually paid him

to do these murders. And you know, Wallace Solza, he's there pointing fingers at all these corrupt government officials, including probably, you know, Wallace Salsa, he's there pointing fingers at all these corrupt government officials, including probably, you know, the judiciary system. And I could see a world in which people are like, you're just trying to shut him up. Yeah, I can see, I can see that world. I don't live there. No. But it was a bitter pill for Wallace Salsa's fans to swallow.

After all, he'd done so much to stamp out crime in their community, it couldn't be possible that he was actually a drug trafficking kingpin himself. And naturally, Wallace Selsa denied absolutely everything. He insisted that this was an elaborate smear campaign orchestrated by his political rivals, who saw him as a threat to the corrupt establishment. I mean, it does right itself. That's what I'd say. Yeah. If this is being played in a court. Just trying to make some content here.

And Solza claimed that he'd never even met this Moa character. And that might have worked to take a little bit of the heat off. If it wasn't for the discovery of a photo which was anonymously delivered to the police station that showed Wallace Salsa and Mawa chilling in the pool together at Wallace's house. Oh dear. Wallace. Don't lie about easily provable things. And that photo had some pretty dodgy tan lines in it and even dodgier implications for Wallace Sulzer, who was now flailing like a man in seriously hot water. Left with no choice, he admitted that yes, he did know Moa, but

he only knew him as Jorge, a friend of his eldest son, Rafael. I actually think it's Jorge. Jorge? In Brazilian Portuguese. I don't know. I can't keep up. It's hard. Jorge with a J. And Wallace swore that there was absolutely no business relationship between him and Moa and no criminal orders. But Solza's credibility was completely gone and it left him very vulnerable. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices?

Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So, if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wond Mysteries on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health

insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect he has been identified as Luigi Nicholas mangioni became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history was targeted premeditated in Minnesota terror. I'm Jesse Weber host of Luigi produced by law and crime and twist this is more than a true crime investigation we explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever.

Welcome the people to a true issue. I mean maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our healthcare system. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts. A task force called Operation Centurion was assembled to investigate Wallace and 15 others, including members of the military police. Led by the intelligence secretary for Amazonas, Tomas Vasconcelas, they came down hard on Wallace with a raft of damning allegations. Wiretaps of Wallace's conversations with his close friend, Police Chief Colonel Felipe Arce, revealed the two had a habit of leaking intel

on criminals and investigations, which if nothing else explained how Cana Livre always seemed to have the tea about local crimes. But that was just the tip of the dirty dirty iceberg, because investigators also found evidence suggesting that Wallace, his son Rafaelel and Colonel Arce, had actually plotted to assassinate a local judge. It looked like they had hired a hitman, Louise Pulger, to carry it out and that when Louise had refused and threatened to talk, they had ordered his execution which was carried out in a butcher shop in 2008. And it didn't stop there.

The task force alleged that Wallace wasn't just ordering these hits, he was taking over the very turf of the gangs that he drove out and keeping their operations running under his own control. So this, right, if you are the kind of person that will be like, well, I can get on board with the fact that he's some sort of vigilante, you know, hit order of drug dealers and cartel bosses and whatever, cause you're like cleaning up, clean up those streets. The police aren't doing it. Let's get rid of them.

If you are a person who can vibe with that. And I'm not completely unsympathetic to that point of view, although obviously extra digital killing is problematic just to have this on tape, it is the fact that he doesn't then shut down the drugs operations. Yeah. He's like, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. I'll take that. Yeah. I think it's, Robin Hood is one thing, but you ain't taking from the rich and giving

to the poor. No. He's is like, kill you, I take. Kill you and you can keep all your drugs and please put them back on the streets. Yeah. Here is some cash. Exactly. Things were not looking good for Wallace Solza, but in Manaus legal processes are rarely smooth sailing. The task force's investigation was dogged by contradicting statements from Moa, whose wife began claiming that he had been tortured

by goons from Amazonas intelligence services and forced to lie, but she would say that wouldn't she? It's worth saying. And it's also worth saying that the torture story emerged after an explosion tore through the police station where Moa was being held in solitary confinement. A lot of people believed that explosion to be a targeted attack on Moa's life, and he managed to scrape through unscathed but only just. So was Mrs. Moa telling the truth about him being tortured or was this a family

under pressure from reprisal attempts from Wallace Solz's gang? Both. All of it. Things can be two things. Everything. In this story is probably everything because everyone is up to corruption. Yeah and ultimately Moa wasn't a credible witness. But that didn't really matter to the task force. After obtaining a warrant for the Solza family home, police officers discovered an absolute gold mine of evidence in a safe kept in Raphael's room. Containing an equivalent of $15,000 US dollars, an insane amount of firearms and ammunition, and a handwritten list of names that appeared to show the hierarchy of Wallace's criminal

organization. Why? Why have you got that? I always find the word that that kind of chart is very funny. It's like an organogram. Organogram is that? I've never heard that in my life. Yeah, so it's called an organogram and it is basically when you have this little chart of like Wallace Sousa at the top. Oh, I see.

And it's like the hierarchy. And I remember when I was at my old job and we got Slack for the first time. And like usually, you know, if you work in like a big company or like a company with more than like 10 people, you have an organogram on Slack. It suggests that you do so that new people when they join, you can like see who's more senior than who. But it was just made me laugh. Okay. Well, I did not know that.

Thank you for enlightening me. Wallace Salsa for some reason has got his organogram handwritten and buried in a safe under his son's fucking floorboards. Why would you ever need that? Don't know. Just why do you need to keep track of that? Now Raphael actually claimed that he'd drawn it up with his lawyer to illustrate the accusations they were facing, but investigators took it as proof. So he's saying, oh, I just doodled it with my lawyer to get clear in my head

what we're being accused of, what we're being accused of, like, uh, doing in our criminal organization, who they're saying is in the hierarchy. But it's just, it was just a thought activity. That I put in a safe. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Which is where I keep all of my doodles. That I put in a safe? Yes, yes, yes, yes, which is where I keep all of my doodles. And in a eureka moment, more discoveries were made.

Specifically, spent shell casings were found in the safe that allegedly matched the crime scene of a murder from January 2007 of the gangster known as Bebechineo, nicknamed because he was the son of a major kingpin named Bebeto. Now Bebeteno's bloody corpse had actually featured on Ca'na Livre, slumped over the steering wheel of his car just moments after his execution. The seemingly incontrovertible evidence found in the Solza home Cemented Wallace's guilt in the task force's eyes Ken, why are you fucking saying that? He just doesn't really seem to be trying but I think like as in trying to get away with it But I think he has evidently

well It would appear that he has been getting away with this for quite some time So I think he he just didn't think they were ever going to catch him. And I honestly think if you hadn't been pointing the finger at the police being corrupt and all sorts, if you'd just been killing drug dealers and then filming it, it would have got away with it. Don't point the finger at the police because that's when they're going to come get you. And a police officer at the scene said Wallace appeared physically crushed

when they made these discoveries, while still insisting that one day he'd become the secretary of security himself and prove the truth. The net was closing in on Wallace Sosa, who was still valiantly fighting to clear his name. And as an elected congressman, he had legislative immunity. For now. What the fuck? That seems like that's not fine.

I feel like that needs to be reviewed. Oh my god. At first, his colleagues in the Legislative Assembly pledged their support for Wallace-Sulzer. But the more the evidence stacked up, the more difficult it was to do that and the more public and private confidence in Wallace-Sulzer began to crumble. In a passionate speech he delivered to his elected colleagues, Wallace-Sulzer insisted that he was being framed in the greatest political persecution ever seen in this state. He argued that his obvious ambitions to become the Amazonian Secretary of Security ultimately made him too big

of a threat and meant that his political rivals would do anything to discredit him. Despite this last ditched attempt, Wallace Sousa was ultimately impeached by an ethics committee in October 2009. And that impeachment meant that he was stripped of his legislative immunity and immediately slapped with multiple charges, including ordering the murder of five drug dealers and criminals between 2007 and 2009, involvement in drug trafficking and the formation of a criminal gang. Following his impeachment Wallace went on the run for several days, during which time the state borders were shut and roadblocks were set up around the city of Manaus. After a few days of hiding out his ex-wife's house, Wallace ultimately handed himself in to face the music with a massive security motorcade.

It's going down, going down with a big bang. Yeah, you have to. Now we have to understand that Wallace Solza, for him, prison would have been an absolutely terrifying prospect. After all, he was probably the one indirectly responsible for putting half of those inmates behind those bars. I hadn't thought of that. And they probably weren't best placed about it. Mmm.

But Daniel Bogota, director of the Killer Ratings Netflix documentary that we talked about, believes the death of Wallace's reputation was even more of a devastating consequence for him than the idea of being beaten to death in prison. Oh, I completely agree with that. Daniel actually describes Wallace Solza as, quote, a man who clearly wanted to be loved. I think that is true. I think he does scream of a man who is possibly feeling quite empty. There's a lot of like self aggrandizement.

I'm the most persecuted man. I'm the most persecuted man. I'm the most threatened man I have to be. And I'm not saying he wasn't all of those things. I'm sure there was a lot of people out there who were very pissed off at him, but it's constantly him putting himself at the top level of whether it is success or persecution. And I think he absolutely loved all of the attention that he was getting, because once he got elected into the legislative assembly, if he really just

cared about standing down on crime, he could have stepped away from the show and just dedicate all of his time to doing that, but he doesn't. He's got to keep the show going. And I also think this idea of this scandal turning him from a hero into absolutely a global laughing stock, because outside of Brazil, I don't think Wallace Solza's name was particularly well known, but after he was arrested, it's too compelling a story for it not to spread everywhere else. And suddenly now he's not this God and this hero and this savior of the people.

He's like a super villain who's laughed at, barely even a super villain, a villain who's laughed at. And I think that's something that was possibly quite difficult for him to bear. I think that is something that was possibly quite difficult for him to bear. I think that is his worst nightmare. 100%. And the adulation that he was getting from the crowds now turned to jeers because as the tide of public opinion turned on Wallace, people would actually lie in the streets and scream, jail Wallace the bastard and throw him in a cage.

He had definitely gone from the people's champion to their enemy. And he was slowly marching towards a more hostile audience than he'd ever faced. And I think people are so pissed off with him because he set himself up to be the opposite of all these corrupt self enriching people who were in power. And they all obviously felt incredibly exploit. I don't think they're particularly sad that he was murdering drug dealers, but I think it's obviously the lies and that he kept all those operations running for himself. A waiting trial, Wallace Salsa was placed quite sensibly in a solitary cell for his

own protection. And the close knit crew from Carnivore went to visit him all the time in a show of solidarity. But when they went to visit him, they were met with a broken man who begged his former crewmates not to give up on proving his innocence. Didn't work. No. No. The first charge pursued by the court was the 2007 murder of a notorious drug trafficker named Kakuula, who Moa claimed he was hired to bump off by Sosa and his son. Interestingly, the motive in this case was revenge and not ratings. And that's because Kauk'u'u was the drug dealer who allegedly got Wallace's beloved brother Ulysses hooked on drugs in the first place. And after that deed was done, Moa claims that Afael reported back to his dad that he had avenged his uncle's death,

to which Wallace smiled. That's my boy. Uh oh. And a new witness was now adding credence to the prosecution's claims. Giselle Vaz, a former reporter from Carni-Livere, was the one loose link in the team who wasn't insisting Wallace was some sort of wrongly accused Patsy. Instead, Giselle revealed some shocking details of what life was apparently really like behind the scenes of the show. She claimed that she had witnessed multiple fake drugs bust setups where drugs were planted at scenes as well as people being tortured into making confessions through a method

referred to ominously as the bag. Oh no, I don't like that at all. And it's basically exactly what it says on the tin. They put a plastic bag on the person's head until they couldn't breathe anymore and eventually made a confession. And on at least one occasion, Giselle says Wallace euphemistically said, somebody had gone to the bag and died this way. Giselle also confirmed that Mower was indeed Wallace's personal security guard, who always

went with him on his operations. As you can imagine, Giselle's testimony blew a massive hole in Wallace's case, and he now faced a mountain of evidence and had little to defend himself with a trial. Does she host the show now? Possibly. Wallace Solzah, however, never made it that far. He had had chronic health problems for years, suffering from the rare liver condition, Budhicherry syndrome, where the hepatic veins are obstructed, which causes fluid buildup. And he doesn't look like a well man, does he? He was so unwell that on medical grounds he was excused from attending his own trial,

and his health continued to deteriorate. He was flown to Sao Paulo in 2010 for specialist treatment. Mysterious billboards were erected around Manaus by his supporters showing photographs of a frail and emaciated Wallace Sousa asking, how much is a life worth? Fucking hell. Wallace Sousa died on the 27th of July 2010, age 51. His lawyer Francisco Bolero said that this was an assassination. It was the investigation, not his dodgy liver, that killed Wallace Sulzano. Wallace's body was flown back to Manaus for a funeral with over 5,000 grief-stricken admirers. And in death, he became kind of a martyr, which is probably what he would always want to,

but he's dead so he doesn't know that. There would never be a legal closure to his case. All criminal charges against him were dropped when he died. But the investigations into others implicated in Wallace's alleged crime ring did continue. And fair warning, the Brazilian legal system is incredibly confusing. Cases seem to drag on for years and years and years with countless interruptions and things getting overturned before they're reviewed again later like, surprise bitch, like it's very very very confusing. But in terms of outcomes for the major players on Team Wallace. This is what we do know. His producer at Kana-Livre, a woman named Vanessa Lima was targeted by the task force after she publicly accused the head of this task force of witness

intimidation and torture. And the thing is, I can believe that she's lying. I can also believe that that happened. This is the problem with this case that everyone is so corrupt and everyone is lying all the time, that it's kind of like a choose your own adventure if you want to believe and you're kind of right, whatever you do. Now, Vanessa was actually imprisoned for several months before ultimately being acquitted in 2019.

Now Wallace's brothers, Carlos and Falster were also eventually acquitted of their charges for drug trafficking in 2021, after what they described as 12 years of intense suffering. The judge ruled that the evidence was not robust enough to convict them, as it was largely based on wiretap conversations and hearsay rather than solid proof. But Wallace's son, Raphael, was not quite so lucky. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for a host of charges including drug trafficking, illegal firearms possession, and masterminding the 2007 murder of Kajula,

which bizarrely Moa was acquitted for, despite being the one who allegedly pulled the trigger. Rafael actually went on to serve 15 years in prison before his eventual release just last year in 2024. He also faced several charges for the murder of Luis Pulga, the would-be assassin from the alleged plot to kill the judge in 2008, and also the 2007 murder of the gangster Bementino. But these have all been overturned more times than we've changed our fucking socks this week. So who the hell knows if Raphael will ever actually be convicted of those.

And if you're feeling confused listener, me too. It's a nightmare to unpick all of this, it's so complicated. But what about Moa, the whistleblower who started it all? His story was brought to a close seven years after Wallace Sultz's death, in possibly the most fucked up part of this entire saga. In the early hours of New Year's Day 2017, Anisio Chobim, penitentiary complex, turned into an unexpected rave. The family of the North, or the FDN, organized crime group, had taken over the prison, paying for the spectacular fireworks to light up the skies above Manaus, whilst over a thousand inmates danced to Brazilian funk music with their loved ones inside the walls. And just a few hours later, absolute carnage began.

FDN members declared war on their rival gang, the PCC, and butchered them with smuggled knives and guns as well. Decapitated bodies piled high in scenes that Daniel Bregardo described as apocalyptic. And that is how it sounds. 56 inmates were massacred. But the FDN members had a separate bone to pick with Moa, who they considered to be the biggest rat of all. They couldn't behead him and dismember him because he was in an isolated cell, so instead they reached through the bars and set fire considered to be the biggest rat of all. They couldn't behead him and dismember him because he was in an isolated cell, so instead they reached through the bars and set fire to his mattress, burning him alive. And Moa's gruesome death marked the final chapter in the Wallace

Solzah affair. That is mad. Yeah. Everything just feels like it's going to kick off any second from any angle and you don't know which one. Yes. I think that sums up everything you need to know about those kicks. And still, the case today sparks intense debate in Amazonas. Jud Merza Telma-Kunha, who presided over his short-lived trial, insists there is no doubt of Wallace's souls as guilt. But many in the community still hold onto the belief that Wallace was indeed framed.

His longtime friend and Canna Livre producer Victor Hugo calls the whole thing a political farce, arguing that Wallace was made a scapegoat for crossing the wrong people in power. And Wallace's youngest son, confusingly also named Wallace, agrees. Willis. Oh, Willis. Sorry. If at least just changed one letter. Willis.

According to Willis, his dad was persecuted by a well-connected coward who hid in the shadows and used dirty tricks to smear his father's reputation, rather than fighting him face to face. And all fingers point at none other than Tomas Vasconcelos, who was of course the head of the task force that brought Wallace Salsler down. And look, if I didn't know more about this case, and just from like an outsider's glimpse, either of those plot lines makes a great story. The point here is I think is both of those plot lines.

Yes, I agree. I do genuinely think, I don't think anyone in the Brazilian military police or any of like his political enemies who are trying to bring him down were doing so because they thought Wallace Sousa was wrong for what he was doing. I totally agree. Everyone in this story is just out for themselves. And because he's dead and nothing's going to happen, there will be no consequence. Like it doesn't really matter. And I can understand why you would spin that narrative.

Absolutely. To his haters, Wallace Salsa was a ruthless criminal. To his fans, he was a good man who paid the price for doing the right thing. he was a good man who paid the price for doing the right thing. Documentary maker Daniel Bergado says that he tried to show both contradicting sides of this story, but even he isn't sure on which side he stands. While Killing for Ratings does sound like pure madness, Bergado struggles to believe that corruption alone could explain absolutely everything. Because if it was just corruption, it would require a massive multi-layered conspiracy. One so deep and so widespread that it is just as unbelievable as the alternative. Yeah, I think that's what makes this story so compelling, right? That if Wallace Sosa really was killing for ratings, that is unbelievably shocking.

But also the idea that this entire task force, all of the Brazilian military police, all of these politicians, everyone was in on bringing down the Brazilian Nancy Grace. It also just seems so bad shit. Yeah. And I honestly don't know which it is. I think he was doing it. I think he was doing it. I think I, yeah. But yeah. It's a good story however you cut it. Certainly. It's possible that Wallace ordered the killings but for good reasons rather than

ratings. I don't believe that's true. Because if that was true, he would be trying to get the drugs off the streets. I don't believe that's true because if that was true, he would be trying to get the drugs off the streets. Wasn't he? And look, even if you were like his brother died of a drugs overdose, he's got this beef with drugs, he's taking down these drug dealers and he's also using it for some ratings. I'm not saying it's okay, but I'm saying that is a much more sympathetic narrative than he's like, oh, but why are we shutting down these incredibly lucrative drug factories in the jungle? Let's just keep those going. Exactly. It really does a twist to that vigilante hero narrative. And maybe, and this is very kind and I'm going to immediately retract it as soon as I finish

the sentence, but like perhaps maybe Wallace's intense hatred of drug traffickers. Maybe that's how it started. And then he realized that playing God is really, really fun. And it went from there. Maybe. I could believe that. I could believe that that's his like origin story into becoming the villain that he possibly was. Mm-hmm. The Times in particular have said that cleaning up the streets of Manaus may have been a warped justification for Wallace Salsa to himself. But when you consider that Wallace Salsa's own gang, essentially, took over the business of the gangsters that they ousted, that's pretty telling, I think.

Yeah. And you can't ignore the irony of it but I just don't think that it's untrue. That's the most damning bit for me. I believe all of it but that is the nail in the coffin for his immortal soul in my opinion. But whether we believe it or not, stranger things have happened and they will happen again and they might even be shown on Ca' Na Livre. Because following in his father's footsteps, Willis Sousa revived the show in 2021 under the new name, Sina Livre, which means free signal. With episodes available right now on YouTube if you have

some time on your hands. The creepy puppet, Galarito, even made a return. And Willis has vowed to pursue a much lighter note with far less blood than his predecessor. Well, YouTube will demonetize you in a fucking heartbeat, so I'm not surprised. Yeah, I think, you know, for Willis and Raphael, they make it clear that they really, really, really want to clear up their father's legacy because it's their legacy as well. I'm sure that's what Willis will be doing his best to do on this show. Would you like to guess how many subscribers they have on YouTube? Is it, it's either loads or none. That's how numbers work. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, it could be a standard number. It could be middling. I'm going to say, cause that camera says 4K. Is it 4K?

No. Which is it? 7.28. Thousand. Oh, there you go. Well, not 7.28 people, is it? But yeah. A billion. You know what? Not so bad. That is not so bad. So good luck. I don't know. I feel very confused by the end of this episode. Like, everyone's bad. And the people of Manaus are the ones who suffer the most because their town is just being ignored. Because you're right, it is a very isolated town. And we know that a lot of those Brazilian towns that are on the outskirts, particularly

if there's a large like native population, they are just kind of ignored by their like federal powers. And so absolutely can see Manaus being ignored in that way. And then it's just, it's this town that went into decline, right, from that rubber boom to nothing. And then it's just being descended upon by all of these drugs traffickers and becoming this port drug haven for all of these neighboring countries. It's just the people who are being stamped on and every time they turn to

believe in somebody, they also bat. Yeah. Yeah. That's depressing. It is depressing. Um, but yeah, Wallace Salsa. Go check out the Netflix documentary. It is really good killer ratings.

And like Daniel Bogota says, he doesn't really say which happens like one or the other. I think it's because you can't. There's just so much contradictory evidence. You can't. And also because, as you said, like both, both eventualities, both stories, both alternatives are both completely unbelievable. So it's so hard to try and put together any of it that makes sense because it is so difficult to get your head around that

any of it happened at all. Completely unbelievable and also yet completely believable. So that's the problem. So that is it guys. That is our episode on Wallace Solza, a man who potentially, possibly, killed for ratings, but that's not quite as snappy as that. And we butchered a bunch of Brazilian names, but we did try. We tried very hard. And we'll see you next week for another episode of Red-Handed. Goodbye! You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctors'

offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. stumped even the best doctors.