Category: Cops
The kid born damaged by a kick grew into Brazil’s most infamous vigilante, hunted monsters across prisons and streets, then chased redemption on YouTube before a ruthless end.
Violence Sells, Even When It Horrifies
Taking human life is an unnatural act. We talk about it all the time. Most every week in this space I endeavor to wax eloquent about something that is, at its heart, quite very horrible. While this undoubtedly objectifies violence, it is also reliably titillating.
For this same reason, stylized depictions of violence form the basis for most television and cinematic drama as well as a great many video games. Leftist actors lecture us until the sun burns out on the evils of firearms, yet gladly accept zillions of dollars to shoot people with firearms in movies. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Alec Baldwin and Mark Ruffalo. In Baldwin’s case, he even shot somebody for real.
Murder, theft, and rape are all adequate to get you locked away in the real world. However, hyper-realistic depictions of exactly the same stuff on screens both large and small are simply discounted as entertainment. It’s all honestly kind of weird if you think about it.
The Psychology That Builds a Psychopath
I’m a writer by trade. While I do love these historical pieces, my real passion is fiction. Track down my website below in the bio for a few examples. If the wind is in my sails, I hope to polish up a novel or two here directly. I can attest from personal experience, it is quite easy to depict violence in the guise of recreation. Actually doing it for real is another thing altogether. However, not everybody possesses that intrinsic sense of restraint.
Those rare souls are the true psychopaths, the stuff of legend in both literature and film. The textbook definition of a psychopath is an individual with a personality disorder characterized by a severe lack of empathy and remorse, superficial charm, impulsivity, manipulativeness, and antisocial behavior. That lack of empathy is the key. The practical psychopath is intellectually incapable of perceiving another person’s pain. Some folks with this lamentable affliction come from the factory that way. Others, like Pedro Rodrigues Filho, are created.
Origins of a Vigilante: How the ‘Monster’ Was Made
Pedro Rodrigues Filho was born on 29 October 1954 in Santa Rita do Sapucai, Minas Gerais, Brazil. In Portuguese, the word “Filho” means “son.” It is a generational suffix much like our own “Junior.” Tragically, Pedro Rodrigues was dealt a pretty sordid hand before he even took his first breath.
Pedro’s dad was a proper beast. He had a falling out with the boy’s severely pregnant mom and kicked her viciously in the belly. He paid for that later, but his attack left the unborn child with head trauma in utero. It has been postulated that this antepartum insult might have been the precipitating factor behind Pedro’s subsequent curious malady. This kid entered the world a cold-blooded killer.
First Blood: A Thirteen Year Old’s Threat
Pedro Rodrigues was never quite right. At age thirteen, he got into a fight with an older cousin. The cousin punched him in the face and knocked him down. Looking up, beaten and battered, Pedro stated flatly, “I’m going to kill you.”
These were just kids. The cousin laughed it off. Soon thereafter, Pedro and his cousin were working around a sugarcane press. When the opportunity arose, Pedro shoved his relative into the machine, very nearly tearing his arm off. With the bully now immobilized, Pedro drew a knife to finish the job. Family members heard the older boy’s screams and arrived in time to prevent the murder. However, this was just the beginning.
Finding His Stride in Blood: Teen Vigilante Emerges
Pedro’s dad was a school security guard, and times were hard. The local deputy mayor falsely accused the senior Rodrigues of stealing food and fired him before having him thrown in jail. When Pedro heard the news, he retrieved his grandfather’s shotgun, tracked down the actual thief, and blew him away. He then confronted the deputy mayor and killed him as well. Pedro was 14 at the time.
With the law on his trail, young Pedro fled to Mogi das Cruzes, Greater São Paulo. However, he didn’t know anyone and had few marketable skills. Facing destitution or worse, Pedro Rodrigues tapped into the one thing he was really good at. To make ends meet, he began hunting drug dealers. These he summarily executed before cleaning out their cash reserves. It was an unconventional profession, but the money was good.
Along the way, he met a woman named Maria Aparecida Olympia. Her nickname was Botinha. Botinha was a widow who had previously been married to a local drug lord. I could not ascertain if Botinha’s better half was one of the scumbags that Pedro had liquidated. Regardless, the two fell madly in love. Pedro subsequently assumed the marital responsibilities of the demised criminal. Botinha became pregnant in short order. As near as I could tell, Pedro should have been all of sixteen at the time.
Escalation and Loss: The Killings That Changed Him
Pedro’s new job placed him atop a modest criminal empire of his own. In this new role, the teenage psychopath murdered three former coworkers to cement his position in the gang. However, this job had a pretty sucktastic retirement plan. The leader of a rival gang attempted to assassinate the criminal phenom. Pedro narrowly escaped, but Botinha was killed. Pedro did not take this well.
Pedro set his drug-dealing enterprise aside for a bit in favor of full-time bloodletting. Meticulously and over time, he hunted down the gang that killed his woman and murdered them…every single one of them. This earned him the attention of local Law Enforcement.
Prison Turns Him Into a Legend
Rodrigues was arrested for the first time on 24 MAY 1973. It’s not like he made any great secret of whacking all these scumbags. The evidence was incontrovertible.
Once, while incarcerated, Pedro was being transported alongside a second inmate convicted of rape. The two men got into the van together. By the time they arrived at their destination, the rapist was dead. Pedro admitted to killing him, explaining that he did it because he was a rapist. Pedro Rodrigues had a weird code, but he took it really seriously. He earned a total of 126 years behind bars.
Despite the astronomical sentence, there was a rule in Brazil that stated that no one should be imprisoned longer than 30 years. This number was later revised upward to 40 years for just such characters as Pedro Rodrigues. 34 years later, Pedro breathed free air again.
Rodrigues secured a job as a caretaker, but that didn’t last. In September 2011, he was arrested a second time, apparently for murders committed while in prison. He then served a further seven years, getting out on 10 December 2018. Here’s where the story gets really strange.
Rebrand to Influencer: ‘Ex Killer’ on YouTube
After getting out of prison the second time, Pedro Rodrigues announced to the world that he was a reformed vigilante. He hung up his cape and declared himself a new man. To celebrate his fresh persona, Pedro did what any of us might do if we had decided not to be psychopaths anymore. He became a YouTube personality.
Pedro’s YouTube channel was called “Pedrinho EX Matador.” This literally translates to “Little Peter the Former Killer.” Pedro’s videos discussed infamous crimes and denounced gang activity. His recurring theme was encouraging the public not to glorify violence. He asserted that criminality was not something of which to be proud. Portuguese-speaking folks couldn’t get enough. At his apogee, Pedro had more than a quarter million subscribers. His videos have been viewed more than 36 million times. Pedro earned YouTube creator awards for his work.
Throat Cut in Broad Daylight: The Final Hit
Around 10 in the morning on 5 March 2023, three men drove up to Pedro Rodrigues in a car and shot him to pieces. One of the assassins leapt out and cut his throat just to make sure the job was done. In his haste, however, the assailant very nearly chopped Pedro’s head off. Local police later found the vehicle, but the murderers were neither identified nor apprehended. Pedro was 68 years old at the time of his death.
We’ve glossed over a great deal of this tale. Pedro Rodrigues was formally charged with a whopping 71 counts of murder to include that of his own father. More than half of these were committed while in jail. His total body count was suspected of being well over 100. He spent 41 of his 68 years in prison. However, as we discussed previously, he obviously started young.
From Dexter to Pop Culture: The Aftershock
Pedro’s tale did not actually end there. After his first 2003 release from prison, novelist Jeff Lindsay penned a 2004 book series loosely based on his life and exploits titled Dexter. James Manos Jr adapted the book into a popular TV show of the same name in 2006. The series spanned eight seasons and 96 episodes.
I don’t watch much TV myself, but I did knock out the first two episodes while researching this piece. It was bloody, profane, and gruesome, as one might anticipate. The protagonist, Dexter Morgan, is a proper psychopath, a serial killer incapable of empathy who hunts, tortures, and kills violent criminals. Despite my best efforts, I found it quite engaging.
I’ve never really understood society’s aversion to vigilantes. I mean, it’s pretty obvious who the hero is in Batman. In the case of Pedro Rodrigues, this unfortunate broken kid devoted his entire life to cleansing his world of the worst of the worst. We certainly won’t all agree with his approach, and I’d not be too keen on having him as a next-door neighbor. However, by his strange calculus, he was, in a manner of speaking, kind of the good guy. In this case, art really does imitate life.
Case File Snapshot: Pedro Rodrigues Filho
| Not a Firearm Review | Specs not applicable; archival true crime feature |
|---|---|
| Birth | 29 October 1954 |
| First Arrest | 24 MAY 1973 |
| Charges | 71 counts of murder |
| Alleged Total Kills | Well over 100 |
| Years Imprisoned | 41 |
| Death | 5 March 2023 |
Pros and Cons of This Wild True Crime Ride
- Pros: Unflinching history, gripping pacing, sharp character study, pop culture tie-in to Dexter, high stakes from first scene to last.
- Cons: Graphic content, moral ambiguity, bleak subject matter, zero neat endings.
In an effort to curb cycle-jacking assaults with automatic rifles, the mayor of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, has made it illegal for passengers to ride motorcycles except in sidesaddle position.
Hijacking of motorcycles has become epidemic in Cambodia’s capitol in recent years. In most cases, the straddling passenger on a motorcycle fires on the driver of another cycle as the two parallel on the road. The purpose of the new law is to make it harder for the hijacker-shooter to keep his balance while holding a rifle.
A second portion of the same law makes it unlawful for more than two people to ride on one motorcycle. We presume this is meant to discourage the use of crew-served weapons. You can hardly handle an M-60 while riding sidesaddle unless you’ve got an assistant gunner and ammo-bearer.
Too Heavy For A Lift
They took the time for a lengthy surveillance. Then they took the time to get a search warrant. Too bad they didn’t take the time to read the “Maximum Capacity” notice on the elevator wall.
In London, nine heavily-armored bobbies on a narcotics raid jammed into a small elevator, apparently paying no heed to the posted warning stating the elevator was designed for a total of eight presumably normally-laden citizens.
After the door closed and they had punched the up button, they were treated to a brief, halting, jolting ride until the lift groaned to a halt, trapping them inside.
Approximately 45 minutes passed until a resident of the Coventry apartment building heard their pleas for help.
“I told them I would get the police,” said Eddie Laidle. “And they shouted ‘We are the bloody police — get the fire brigade!”
When the red-faced bobbies were finally freed, their quarry was — surprise, surprise! — long gone.
Chamber Check
We’re not at all sure how anybody with an IQ superior to broccoli could fail to notice this kind of weapon is loaded, but we don’t mess around much with medieval mayhem-makers, anyway.
Shannon King, of Henrietta, N.Y., launched a bolt into his head while cleaning his crossbow. Yes, he survived, and we don’t know if he owns any firearms.
Rocket Scientist
The police in Homosassa Springs, Fla., still don’t know if David Lee McCumsey walked into the local hardware store looking for work or cruising for trouble. But they know if he was looking for work, he shouldn’t have developed sticky fingers, and if he was looking for trouble. He should have brought some brains with him.
The 18-year-old left hurriedly after asking about a job, and employees immediately noticed two handguns and a watch missing from the counter where he’d been standing. Fortunately, they also noticed McCumsey had left his job application on top of the same gun counter neatly and accurately filled in.
He’s charged with two counts of grand theft and one of petty theft, and somewhat assured of steady employment making license plates.
D-Cup Body Armor
Jeff Cooper might use this incident to comment on the wimpy performance of the venerable .38 Special, but we suspect the results had more to do with simple spent-energy physics.
A 16-year-old girl in Holland, Mich., was hit in the center of the chest with a ricocheting .38 slug during a gang fight, but didn’t let it ruin the rest of her night. She was treated for a bruised sternum. The slug was stopped by the metal clasp on the front of her bra.
The 10 Ring is written by Commander Gilmore, a retired San Diego police officer who bases his humor, like Mark did, on actual occurrences. All the incidents described by the Commander are true.
You’re out on the street or in a parking lot, minding your own business, maybe heading to dinner with a family member, picking something up from the store or meeting someone for a first date, when suddenly an armed group of thugs walk up to rob or attack you. You’re scared. This is not what you planned and it’s a situation, even the most badass among us don’t want to find themselves in. But there’s nowhere to run. You have no choice but to defend yourself. You are legally carrying your own firearm.
So, even with a gun pointed at you and shots being fired your direction, you may have even been hit, you manage to get your own gun out and return fire. Thankfully, your shots find their mark. The shooter crumples as the other attackers flee.
Now another onslaught occurs. Police and prosecutors come at you with questions. What happened? Why did you have a gun? Why did you feel you had to use it? Did you instigate the situation? Did you need to shoot? Why didn’t you just call police?
Even with the physical threat removed, you now face a very real legal threat, one that can land you in jail if you were wrong in your actions or have a bad lawyer. Even if you avoid jail, it’s a situation that can potentially leave you financially crushed trying to defend yourself.
But then the district attorney announces, after thorough investigation, there will be no charges. What is most likely the most traumatizing situation you will hopefully ever experience is behind you now. Or is it? You forget civil court. And in the United States, it seems no matter what the case, no matter who is really right or wrong, someone always sues.
And that’s exactly what is happening in New Mexico in the self-defense case of New Mexico State University basketball player Mike Peake, who shot and killed Brandon Travis after Travis and two other men attacked Peake in a University of New Mexico parking lot in 2022.
No charges were filed against Peake after a lengthy investigation by police, but Travis’s family want someone to pay. Even though their son instigated the matter as an act of revenge against Peake, which was proven in court and by video of the event, they feel they’ve been wronged.
But in an odd twist, they aren’t coming after Peake. He is or was, after all, just another broke college student. No, they are going after a place that has money, and who dollars to donuts, their attorney is sure will ultimately agree to a settlement that will get everyone paid. They are going after New Mexico State University and Peake’s former basketball coaches, Greg Heiar and Dominique Taylor.
“The Travis family seeks to hold NMSU accountable for its institutional failures, including the toxic, violent culture condoned by its administrators, that led to Brandon’s preventable and tragic passing,” one of the family’s attorneys told KOAT, a local ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Shooting
The deadly encounter between Mike Peake and Brandon Travis was the culmination of escalating tensions that had been brewing for weeks according to a detailed report by Las Cruces Sun News. The following details of what played out come largely from that report. The animosity between the two groups began on October 15, 2022, during a brawl at the NMSU-UNM football game. This altercation, which involved Peake and other NMSU basketball players beating on Brandon Travis, set the stage for the later confrontation, and ultimately, the filing of the civil lawsuit against the university and coaches.
On the night of November 18, 2022, the NMSU basketball team was in Albuquerque for a game against the University of New Mexico. Peake was lured away from his team’s hotel by 17-year-old Mya Hill, who had been in contact with him under the guise of a romantic rendezvous. Unbeknownst to Peake, Hill was part of a setup orchestrated by Brandon Travis and two other UNM students, Jonathan Smith and Eli’sha Upshaw.
Around 3:14 a.m. on November 19, Peake met Hill outside the Coronado Complex on the UNM campus. As they walked together, Travis, Smith, and Upshaw approached from behind. Travis, armed with a gun, pointed it at Peake’s face, while another assailant struck Peake in the leg with a baseball bat. Despite being injured and outnumbered, Peake managed to draw his own firearm and return fire. He shot Travis four times, killing him. The other two attackers fled the scene. Peake was also shot in the leg.
The Investigation
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, law enforcement launched a comprehensive investigation into the incident. Surveillance footage, witness statements and physical evidence were all meticulously reviewed. Peake was taken to the hospital, and his actions were scrutinized to determine whether his use of deadly force was justified.
The investigation revealed that Peake had acted in self-defense. The Bernalillo District Attorney’s Office conducted a thorough review of the case and, on May 22, 2023, announced that no charges would be filed against Peake. The decision was based on the evidence that clearly showed Peake was the victim of an unprovoked attack and had responded to protect his own life.
The Lawsuit
While Peake may have been cleared of criminal charges, the legal battle is are far from over. The family of Brandon Travis has filed a civil lawsuit, not against Peake, but against New Mexico State University and its former basketball coaches, Greg Heiar and Dominique Taylor. According to reports by KOAT, the lawsuit alleges that NMSU and its administrators fostered a “toxic, violent culture” that contributed to Travis’s death.
The Travis family is seeking monetary damages, arguing that the university’s environment played a significant role in the tragic events. Their attorney has claimed that NMSU’s failure to address and control the behavior of its athletes created the conditions that led to the confrontation.
KOAT’s legal expert John Day highlighted the challenges the Travis family faces in proving their case.
“They’ve got to establish in a court of law that New Mexico State was somehow responsible for this situation,” Day noted. The lawsuit underscores the complexities of self-defense cases in the United States, where even a justified shooting can lead to prolonged legal battles in civil court.
This ongoing lawsuit serves as a stark reminder that in the aftermath of a defensive shooting, the fight isn’t over once the criminal charges are dropped and can even reach further than those directly involved. The civil courts present another battleground not often discussed in self-defense cases where the stakes are still high, and the financial and emotional toll can be just as severe as the initial confrontation.
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