Benedito Moreira de Carvalho was arrested in 1952 over a series of killings of children and young women in the east and south of the São Paulo metropolitan area. An academic chapter by Osvaldo Evangelista Júnior and Carla Priscila Del Nero lists nine deaths, the first at Christmas 1950 and the last in August 1952. Carvalho confessed to many of the charges against him, which were murder, with other charges. He was never convicted of any of the killings. A jury acquitted him as not criminally responsible, and he was kept in a forensic psychiatric hospital until he died.
The courts had already dealt with him three times. He had been convicted in 1937 and 1946 and sentenced in 1941, each time under article 266 or a related provision, and he left the Penitenciária do Estado on conditional liberty in December 1949, about a year before the first death in the series. The authors of the 2022 chapter argue that the earlier courts treated as a responsible offender a man who was ill, and that this allowed the later crimes. That is their assessment. The 1952 verdict points the same way: the court that judged the series found him not criminally responsible.
Carvalho was born on August 10, 1909, in Tambaú, in the interior of São Paulo state near the border with Minas Gerais. VICE Brasil describes him as the twelfth child of José Moreira de Carvalho and Maria Rufina, who died in childbirth. The Evangelista and Del Nero chapter, which draws on the records of his later examinations, says his mother died the day after his birth. He was raised by his father and, according to VICE, by a sister.
The chapter sets out what Carvalho himself told the examiners about his health and upbringing. At about the age of eight he had influenza. At eleven he fell from a horse and lost consciousness. At fifteen a firecracker exploded in his hands and left a scar. He described his father as nervous and quick-tempered and said the man beat him with sticks and other objects, to the point that he sometimes lost consciousness. One of his brothers was described as hot-tempered and another was born deaf and unable to speak. These are his own statements, recorded by others, and are not independently confirmed.
In 1928 he joined the Força Pública, the state military police, and served as a soldier in its fire brigade, the Corpo de Bombeiros. On August 2, 1930, he married in the Santana district of São Paulo. VICE reports that his wife learned of the series only after he was taken into custody.
His military career ended on December 31, 1936. The chapter gives the reason as "incapacidade moral," moral incapacity. Criminal proceedings against him began in the same period.
The chapter reconstructs three earlier cases from the court record.
He was arrested on November 21, 1936. On September 2, 1937, he was convicted under article 266 of the penal law then in force and sentenced to one year of "prisão celular," confinement in a cell. The Tribunal de Apelação upheld the verdict on December 2, 1937, and rejected a further motion on February 3, 1938. He was released on March 8, 1938, after serving the sentence.
On September 28, 1941, he was arrested in the Vila Carrão district under article 266, paragraph 2, of the Consolidação das Leis Penais. The 1st Vara Criminal of São Paulo sentenced him to two years and eleven months of "reclusão." He never served it, because the sentence was barred by "prescrição," the statute of limitations.
On July 19, 1946, he was arrested again, giving a false first name, "Joaquim." The 6th Vara Criminal sentenced him on November 30, 1946, to six years of "reclusão." On appeal (Apelação Criminal no. 17948) the term was reduced on May 29, 1947, to three years and six months. He served it at the Penitenciária do Estado under the false name and was released on conditional liberty on December 25, 1949.
A monograph on the legal classification of serial offenders, written at the Centro Universitário de Lavras and citing Ilana Casoy's book on Brazilian serial killers, summarizes the same record in less detail: one year, served in full; two years and eleven months; six years, cut to three on appeal, followed by release on parole.
The chapter's table of the series begins at Christmas 1950 in Vila Talarico, in São Paulo, with the death of a child, Antônio, listed as murder, with other charges. In 1951 the chapter records that on August 19 he escaped from custody at Mogi das Cruzes, and that on September 6 he was arrested in flagrante in Itaquera.
The deaths listed for 1952, each as murder, with other charges, are these, with the places as the chapter gives them.
February 26: Tamara, a child, in Vila Diadema.
February 27: Tereza, a child, in the Diadema area, which then belonged to São Bernardo do Campo.
April 7: Gertrudes Duzinger, 29, at Parelheiros, in the south of São Paulo. VICE gives her age as 28.
May 26: Namiko, a child, in Santo André.
July 21: Mercília Oliveira de Souza, 18, at São Miguel Paulista, in São Paulo.
August 2: Maria, a child, at Rudge Ramos, in São Bernardo do Campo.
August 18: Luiza, a child, in Itaquaquecetuba.
August 21: Myoko, a child, in Guarulhos.
The authors of the chapter believe the true number may have been higher.
Two workers, O. F. and D. C., were arrested and named as the culprits in the death of Namiko, and VICE reports that O. F. confessed under torture although he had an alibi.
The chapter dates the arrest to the early hours of August 29, 1952, at Guaiaúna, as it spells the district, now part of Guaianases, and says he gave himself up without resistance. VICE Brasil dates it to September 5, 1952. Both place it in the Guaianases district.
According to the chapter, he first confessed to ten offenses, then to three more in a second statement, and eventually indicated thirteen in all. VICE gives a different tally: seven killings and three further charges. It reports that he told the police, "Quero que o senhor saiba que eu sou um doente" ("I want you to know that I am a sick man"), and that in October he told the newspaper Diário da Noite that he did not want other people to pay for his crimes. VICE names two investigators, Antônio Deodato and Adalberto Kurt.
On October 23, 1952, he was identified again while held on preventive detention under an order of the Juízo de Direito de Mogi das Cruzes. The charges listed for him there, in the chapter's wording, ran to several counts of homicide combined with other charges.
The chapter quotes a 1952 forensic report by E. de Aguiar Whitaker. It describes an "estado psíquico intermitente, caracterizado por um entendimento falho" (an intermittent psychic state, marked by faulty understanding) and considered him "inimputável," not criminally responsible, at the time of the crimes.
The court and year of the jury trial are not on record. The judiciary ordered his internment in a "manicômio judiciário" when the series was judged. VICE Brasil reports that a jury ("júri popular") acquitted him "por ser considerado inimputável, portador de psicose," that is, as not criminally responsible and a person with psychosis. The Lavras monograph words the outcome as "foi absolvido de seus crimes em razão da inimputabilidade," acquitted of his crimes by reason of inimputability. The monograph adds that the reports on him up to his death concluded that he "sofria de psicose e/ou pseudopsicopatia por lesão cerebral" (suffered from psychosis and/or pseudopsychopathy from brain injury) and was an "indivíduo de alta periculosidade," a person of high dangerousness.
None of this is a conviction. Carvalho stands as a man charged with the killings, who confessed to many of the charges, and whom a jury acquitted as not criminally responsible. No sentence for the 1952 charges is on record, and none was served.
He was placed in a "manicômio judiciário," the forensic psychiatric hospital system of São Paulo state, and remained there for the rest of his life. VICE Brasil places him at Franco da Rocha, the town north of São Paulo where the state's main psychiatric institutions stood. The Lavras monograph, citing Casoy, names the Manicômio Judiciário de São Paulo. VICE and the monograph both say he died of a heart attack in 1976. The chapter gives the cause of death in the same terms but states his age at death as 54 and no year.
Number of deaths. The chapter's table lists nine; his confession is reported as ten, then thirteen charges (chapter) or seven killings and three further charges (VICE). None of these is a court finding about the number of killings.
Date of arrest. August 29, 1952 (chapter) against September 5, 1952 (VICE).
Year of death. 1976 (VICE, monograph) against an age of 54 at death in the chapter, which would not fit a 1976 date for a man born in 1909.
Spellings and ages. The chapter writes Duzinger and VICE Dunzinger; the chapter gives 29 and VICE 28 for the same woman.
Earlier years. VICE refers to events in 1949 and 1951; the chapter's table has no 1949 entry.
Motive. The forensic wording quoted earlier is the only account of his state of mind; the cause of the crimes is not established.
Gaps. The court and year of the jury trial, the counts on which the jury ruled, and the date of his transfer to the hospital are not on record.
August 10, 1909: Born in Tambaú, São Paulo state.
1928: Joins the Força Pública and serves in its fire brigade.
August 2, 1930: Marries in São Paulo.
November 21, 1936: Arrested.
December 31, 1936: Discharged for "incapacidade moral."
September 2, 1937: Convicted under article 266, one year; appeal rejected December 2, 1937; released March 8, 1938.
September 28, 1941: Arrested in Vila Carrão; later sentenced to two years and eleven months, barred by the statute of limitations.
July 19, 1946: Arrested; sentenced November 30, 1946, to six years.
May 29, 1947: Sentence reduced on appeal to three years and six months.
December 25, 1949: Released on conditional liberty.
December 1950: First death listed in the series.
August 19, 1951: Escapes from custody at Mogi das Cruzes; arrested in flagrante in Itaquera on September 6.
February to August 1952: Eight further deaths listed.
August 29 or September 5, 1952: Arrested in Guaianases and confesses.
October 23, 1952: Identified again on a Mogi das Cruzes detention order; charges listed.
1952: Forensic report finds him "inimputável."
Date not on record: Jury acquits him as not criminally responsible; interned.
1976: Dies of a heart attack in the hospital (the year is disputed).