'Robin Hood' serial killer inspired Dexter and even bit out his own father's heart

He was his country's most notorious serial killer - a man whose story would later inspire one of television's most complex anti-heroes.

Pedro Rodrigues Filho, better known as Pedrinho Matador ("Killer Pete"), claimed to have murdered more than 100 people over five decades. Officially convicted of 71 killings, he served more than 40 years in prison, earning a reputation as a "Robin Hood" figure who targeted drug dealers, gang members and other criminals.

Born on October 29, 1954, in a rural Brazilian town, his skull was fractured before he was born after his father kicked his pregnant mother during an argument. By his own accounts, that early violence shaped everything that came after.

At just nine, Pedro ran away from home. He first stayed with relatives before drifting to São Paulo, where he began stealing and living on the streets. By his early teens, he claimed to have killed for the first time - pushing a cousin into a sugarcane press and later attacking him with a machete. Whether that early murder actually happened was never verified, but his pattern of violence soon became real and documented.

By his teenage years, he had already shot and killed a local drug dealer in São Paulo, reportedly taking revenge for a dispute involving his family. Pedro later tracked down and murdered the man's brother and brother-in-law as well. He told journalists that these early killings gave him a "feeling of power" and his targets were always those who had "done wrong."

In his late teens, Pedro moved to the outskirts of São Paulo, and became involved in the neighbouring town's drug trade. He lived with a woman named Botinha, the widow of a trafficker, and took over her late husband's business. When she was later killed by police, Pedro retaliated by hunting down those he blamed for her death.

His spree continued until 1973, when he was arrested at just 18 . At that point, he had already left a trail of bodies - from dealers and gang members to alleged rapists and traitors. He was sentenced to 128 years in prison, though that number would grow dramatically as he continued to kill behind bars.

In prison, Pedrinho Matador became a legend in his own right. He claimed to have murdered dozens of inmates - many of them convicted of assault or sexual violence. "I only kill people who don't deserve to live," he told reporters. On his arm, he tattooed the phrase "I kill for pleasure."

In his twenties, Pedro said he murdered his own father, who had been jailed for killing his mother with 21 stab wounds. Pedro claimed he took revenge by stabbing his father 22 times - and, according to his own words in a television interview, cut out the man's heart, bit into it, and spat it out. "It was vengeance, not hunger," he said.

By the mid-1980s, reports estimated he had killed more than 40 fellow prisoners inside Brazil's highest-security facility. Journalists who met him described him as calm, articulate, and strangely self-assured.

Despite being sentenced to more than 400 years in total, Pedro was released in 2007 due to Brazil's legal limit on prison time. At that point, he had spent 34 years behind bars. Within a few years, he was arrested again for taking part in a prison mutiny but was released once more in 2018.

By then, Pedro Rodrigues Filho was 64, claiming to be a changed man. He announced he had converted to Christianity, describing himself as "reborn through Jesus Christ." He , where he spoke to viewers about the dangers of crime and the need for repentance.

"The crime is not a game," he said in a 2018 interview with Folha de S.Paulo. "Many enter it because they see fame and money. But they don't see the roots - prison and death. It's like the devil: gives with one hand and takes with the other."

His channel quickly gained tens of thousands of followers. In videos, he shared stories from his past, always blending confession with warning. "There is no glory in crime," he told viewers. "Only destruction."

On March 5, 2023, Pedro was ambushed and killed outside a relative's home in Mogi das Cruzes - the same city where he had once ruled the criminal underworld. Two masked men shot him multiple times before slashing his throat with a kitchen knife. He was 68.

Internationally, Pedrinho's story drew comparisons to fictional characters. His moral code - killing only those he believed deserved it - became one of the inspirations for Jeff Lindsay's 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter and its TV adaptation Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall.