It happened on a quiet Sunday morning in Mogi das Cruzes. On March 5, 2023, the man known across South America as "Pedrinho Matador" was standing in front of his sister's house. He was 68 years old. He wasn't hiding in the shadows or running from the law anymore. Honestly, he was basically a celebrity by then, a YouTuber who spent his days warning kids away from crime.
Then a black car pulled up.
A few masked men jumped out. They didn't just shoot him—though they did that too, several times. One of them walked up to his prone body and used a kitchen knife to slit his throat. It was a brutal, personal end for a man who spent 42 years behind bars for doing the exact same thing to others. When Pedro Rodrigues Filho died, it wasn't just a news headline; it was the final chapter of a story so violent and bizarre that most people outside of Brazil think it’s urban legend. It isn't.
The Morning Pedro Rodrigues Filho Died in Mogi das Cruzes
The details of that morning are still kinda chilling to look back on. Around 10:00 a.m., Pedro was sitting on a chair on the sidewalk. Some witnesses say he was holding a child—a niece or a godchild—and that he actually handed the kid to someone else before the gunmen opened fire. That part has never been 100% confirmed by the Mogi das Cruzes police, but it fits the weird, protective "vigilante" persona he had built over decades.
The attackers fled in a different car, leaving the black vehicle behind. When the cops showed up, they found the car, but the killers were gone. It’s been years now, and while there’s plenty of talk about gang retaliation or "paying the debt" for his past crimes, no one has been officially brought to justice for his murder.
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You’ve got to realize how surreal this was for Brazilians. Imagine if Dexter Morgan from the TV show was a real person, spent half his life in prison, got out, became a TikTok star, and then got taken out in a drive-by shooting. That’s essentially what happened.
Who Was the Man Behind the "Pedrinho Matador" Name?
Before he was a victim, he was the ultimate predator. Pedro didn't just wake up one day and decide to be a killer. His life started with violence. He was born with a malformed skull because his father had kicked his mother in the belly while she was pregnant. Talk about a bad start.
By 14, he’d already committed his first murder. He killed the deputy mayor of his town because the guy fired Pedro's father. Then he killed the man who actually stole the food his father was accused of stealing. He was a kid, basically a middle-schooler, and he was already hunting people.
The "Moral" Code of a Serial Killer
This is where it gets complicated. Pedro claimed he only killed "bad" people. We're talking rapists, pedophiles, and other murderers.
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- The Prison Count: While he was officially convicted of 71 murders, he bragged about killing over 100.
- The Cellmate Incidents: He once killed a cellmate because the guy snored too loud. On another occasion, he killed a guy just because they were being moved in a police van together and the other guy was a rapist.
- The Patricide: Perhaps his most famous (and gruesome) crime was killing his own father in prison. His father had murdered his mother with a machete. Pedro allegedly stabbed him 22 times and, in a detail that still haunts the Brazilian public, claimed to have chewed on a piece of his father's heart.
Life After 42 Years in a Cell
In Brazil, you can’t stay in prison forever. The law used to cap sentences at 30 years (it's 40 now). Because of this, Pedro was released in 2007, then went back in for a bit, and was finally freed for good in 2018.
You’d think a man with 100 bodies on his conscience would disappear. Nope. He started a YouTube channel called Pedrinho EX Matador. He’d sit there in front of a camera, looking like any other Brazilian grandpa, and talk about the "old days." He’d give advice to young people: "Don't follow my path. It’s not worth it."
He even wrote a book called I'm Not a Monster. People loved him. Or they were fascinated by him. He’d walk through the streets and people would ask for selfies. It was a bizarre kind of fame that only exists in our current social media era.
Why the World is Still Obsessed with His Death
There’s a reason people still search for "pedro rodrigues filho died" even now. It’s the "Punisher" trope. We have this weird psychological itch for vigilante justice. Even though he was a monster by any legal definition, a lot of people saw him as a necessary evil in a country where the justice system often feels broken.
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But his death proves that "blood washes blood," a phrase often used in the Brazilian underworld. You can’t kill 100 people—even "bad" ones—and expect to die of old age in a rocking chair. The street always comes for its debt.
What We Can Learn from the Pedrinho Saga
If you're looking for a takeaway, it's not about the gore. It’s about the cycle of violence. Pedro was a victim of domestic abuse before he was even born. He spent his life "cleaning" the world of criminals, only to become the most famous criminal of them all.
Next Steps for True Crime Enthusiasts:
If you want to understand the full scope of his impact on Brazilian culture, you should look into the documentary The World of Pedrinho Matador or read the investigative work by journalist Ullisses Campbell, who spent years tracking Pedro's psychological profile. He often notes that while Pedro claimed to be "reformed," the nature of his death suggests he was never truly out of the life he started at 14.
The investigation into his murder remains technically open, but in the neighborhoods of Mogi das Cruzes, most people know better than to ask too many questions. When a man like Pedro Rodrigues Filho dies, the silence that follows is usually intentional.