João Acácio Pereira da Costa was convicted in São Paulo of four homicides, seven attempted homicides and 77 robberies, all committed during a run of robberies of wealthy homes in 1966 and 1967. The four deaths fell on four separate dates. He was arrested in Curitiba on August 7, 1967. The courts added up his sentences to 351 years, 9 months and 3 days, but Brazilian law limits the time anyone can be held to 30 years, and he was released in 1997. He was killed in his home town of Joinville, in Santa Catarina, on January 5, 1998, less than five months after leaving prison. The man charged over his death was acquitted in 2004 on a plea of self-defense.
João Acácio Pereira da Costa was born in 1942 in Joinville, a city in Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. A 2023 academic case study names Joinville but also places his birth in the interior of São Paulo state in the same passage; the 2018 interview-based article and the Santa Catarina press give Joinville.
His childhood was one of loss. In an interview with the journalist Gonçalo Júnior, published by VICE Brasil in January 2018, the account is that his mother left the family home with his two sisters and his father died of tuberculosis when the boy was six. An uncle, his father's brother, did not want the boys and at times put them out of the house. Around the age of eight or nine he left home for good and lived by petty theft and small scams until he was 22. A 2021 newspaper report on a book about him gives a different picture of the family, describing him as an orphan from the age of four who was raised, with an older brother, by an uncle who made the boys work. The 2023 case study adds that he later told police he had been mistreated in that household, and that after leaving it he lived on the streets of Joinville and began committing small thefts. The 2021 report gives his surname as da Silva; the other accounts give da Costa.
The accounts differ on his move south. The Santa Catarina daily NSC Total says he went to Santos as a teenager and began robbing homes in São Paulo from there. The 2023 case study says he worked in the Baixada Santista, the coastal region around Santos, and made trips to the capital to rob luxury homes. VICE Brasil gives a date: he arrived in the city of São Paulo on November 5, 1964, and lost his documents and savings at a newsstand on his first day. He worked briefly as a cook and in a dry cleaner, but kept returning to crime, selling stolen radios and gold chains in a central square.
In late 1965, according to VICE Brasil, a contact offered him a place in a scheme to steal cars in Rio de Janeiro. Police broke up the group in February 1966 while he was in Rio. After a dispute with his former contact he turned, on March 6, 1966, to robbing the homes of wealthy families in São Paulo, starting with a house in the Jardins district.
The house robberies ran from March 6, 1966, to August 5, 1967, according to VICE Brasil. The article estimates that the jewelry he took was worth about 2.9 million reais at the time, and says a boxer acquaintance handled the sale of the stolen goods. The courts convicted him of 77 robberies. The same article estimates that he robbed about 150 mansions and killed between 10 and 12 people in 1966 and 1967; that figure is an estimate, and VICE Brasil reports that police could not gather enough evidence to open new cases from the further crimes he admitted in the case files.
VICE Brasil lists four killings in São Paulo, each on a separate date. Walter Bedran died on October 6, 1966. José Enéas da Costa, 23, died nine days later. Jean von Christian Szaraspatack died on June 7, 1967. José Fortunato died on July 6, 1967.
Most reports count four homicides among his convictions. A column in Metrópoles describes the same four deaths as two homicides and two robberies causing death, the Brazilian offense known as latrocínio, alongside 77 robberies and seven attempted homicides. The total of four deaths is the same in each.
Reporting in Diário Online of Pará says that he told the authorities he killed only "by accident," meaning when people reacted.
According to VICE Brasil, police arrested him in 1966 for vagrancy. He gave a false name, Roberto da Silva, and his fingerprints were taken under that name. The fingerprints later helped identify the robber. The article says a woman working as a forensic expert made the identification, and that senior officers took the credit. A 2021 newspaper report likewise says police caught him after he left fingerprints at a mansion.
A legal article on the Jus.com.br site says that the investigation lasted six years, that he was arrested in 1967 and that he confessed to all the crimes of which he was accused. A 2021 newspaper report says he confessed to only four crimes but was convicted of four murders, seven attempted homicides and 77 robberies. VICE Brasil reports that he confessed to several crimes in the case files. The accounts do not agree on the extent of the confession.
After the last robbery on August 5, 1967, he left São Paulo by bus for Curitiba, in the neighboring state of Paraná. He was arrested in Curitiba on August 7, 1967, a date given by both VICE Brasil and the 2023 case study, which adds that he was carrying a false identity. VICE Brasil says the father of a young man who had sheltered him recognized him from newspaper coverage and told the police. He was driven back to São Paulo and presented to the press and to the state's public security secretary.
Court proceedings against him ran from 1967 to 1975, according to VICE Brasil. The 2023 case study reports that he was convicted in 88 cases: 77 robberies, four homicides and seven attempted homicides. After the sentences were combined, the total was 351 years, 9 months and 3 days of imprisonment in closed regime. The 2021 newspaper report gives the same figure, and several other outlets give 351 years.
Brazilian law limits the time a person can be held in custody to 30 years, whatever the total of the sentences, as the case study and the Jus.com.br article both note.
The defense argued that he was insane and should be committed to a psychiatric institution, and the courts rejected the claim, VICE Brasil reports. The Jus.com.br article says medical reports found a personality disorder and classified him as semi-imputable, a category in Brazilian law for people with reduced responsibility, but that the jury convicted him as an ordinary, fully responsible offender.
He was held in prison from 1967. According to the 2023 case study, he was moved between the Carandiru penitentiary in São Paulo and the custody and treatment house in Taubaté, and was hospitalized after psychotic episodes. The Metrópoles column says he served 30 years, the last seven of them in a psychiatric facility.
In 1997, as the 30-year limit came up, state prosecutors sought an injunction to block his release. According to VICE Brasil, appeals judge Amador da Cunha Bueno Neto issued an injunction to keep him in prison, then lifted it on August 26, 1997, after reviewing medical reports that found him fit for release. The case study gives a slightly different sequence: that he was transferred to Taubaté on August 23, 1997, and that three days later a release was ordered despite severe psychiatric problems. Prosecutors in Santa Catarina later asked for psychiatric confinement, the case study adds, and the courts recognized him as semi-imputable, which led to his placement in a custody house. The date of that step is not on record.
According to VICE Brasil, he left prison in 1997 as a public figure, signing autographs and going out in São Paulo. He moved to Curitiba to live with his older brother, but the stay ended after disputes. He went to Joinville to live with his uncle and fell out with him too. He then worked at a bar owned by a local fisherman, N.P., and later moved into the fisherman's home. NSC Total says he had been living in the home for about two months.
He was killed in Joinville on the night of January 5, 1998, at about 10 p.m., according to NSC Total, which says the dispute began with an accusation made by the fisherman's brother. VICE Brasil, NSC Total and Gazeta do Povo agree on the date and the town. NSC Total says he had been out of prison for about four months; VICE Brasil puts his time in freedom at less than five months.
NSC Total reports that the fisherman was charged with qualified homicide (homicídio qualificado) in 2004, six years after the death, and was acquitted after arguing self-defense (legítima defesa). The Metrópoles column and a second NSC Total report give the same outcome. The date of the trial is not on record.
A 1968 feature film by Rogério Sganzerla, made while the press coverage was fresh, carried the case well beyond São Paulo. VICE Brasil says it was inspired by sensational coverage in the tabloid Notícias Populares, and that victims dislike it because they feel it glamorized him. The journalist Gonçalo Júnior was writing a biography of him in 2018, and a second book, by Yuri Marrocos, was scheduled for release in September 2021, according to O Povo.
The number of killings. The courts convicted him of four homicides. The estimate of 10 to 12 deaths is not a court finding, and no charges for further deaths are on record.
The kind of offense. One report describes the four deaths as two homicides and two robberies causing death; most others say four homicides. The count of four deaths is the same.
The extent of his confession. Reports vary: a confession to everything charged, an admission of four crimes only, or admissions of several crimes with no new cases opened.
His mental state. A jury convicted him as fully responsible, while medical reports found reduced responsibility. After his release, the courts recognized him as semi-imputable when Santa Catarina prosecutors sought psychiatric confinement.
The place of birth. Joinville in most accounts, the interior of São Paulo state in one.
1942: Born in Joinville, Santa Catarina.
November 5, 1964: Arrives in the city of São Paulo.
March 6, 1966: First robbery of a wealthy home in São Paulo.
October 6, 1966: Walter Bedran dies.
October 15, 1966: José Enéas da Costa, 23, dies, nine days later.
June 7, 1967: Jean von Christian Szaraspatack dies.
July 6, 1967: José Fortunato dies.
August 5, 1967: Last robbery of the series.
August 7, 1967: Arrested in Curitiba.
1967 to 1975: Court proceedings; combined sentence of 351 years, 9 months and 3 days.
August 26, 1997: Injunction against his release lifted.
1997: Released after 30 years.
January 5, 1998: Killed in Joinville.
2004: The man charged with qualified homicide is acquitted on a plea of self-defense.