Benedito Moreira de Carvalho
Brazilian serial killer and rapist
About Benedito Moreira de Carvalho
Lived 1910 – 1976 (aged 65–66).
Benedito Moreira de Carvalho (August 10, 1909 – October 8, 1977), known as The Monster of Guaianases (Portuguese: Monstro de Guaianases), was a Brazilian serial killer and child rapist who killed eleven girls in Greater São Paulo from 1937 to 1952. Ruled unfit to stand trial, he was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital until his death in 1977.
Early life Benedito Moreira de Carvalho was born on August 10, 1910, in Tambaú. His mother died at childbirth, due to which he and his eleven other brothers had to be raised by their father. Moreira would later claim that his father punished him for the smallest infractions so harshly that he got dizzy.
He married Marina Reis de Almeida in 1930, with whom he had a son and daughter. Neighbors considered Moreira a good husband and an educated, respectful man who would make interesting conversations. He would later claim that they had no effect, and since he could not satisfy his desires with his wife as she suffered from an illness, he went out searching for strangers. The very first of these was the molestation of a minor, for which he was imprisoned for a year in jail.
In 1951, while awaiting trial on charges of seducing a minor, Moreira managed to escape a jail in Mogi das Cruzes and fled to Itaquera, where he attempted to accost several women. He was caught attempting to molest Japanese national Dioneko Tanagushi, and later returned to the hospital.
Murders After being released the following year, Moreira moved a house in São Paulo's Guaiaúna neighborhood. Shortly afterwards, he resumed his sexual attacks, but this time started killing his victims.
His modus operandi consisted of moving between various neighborhoods and nearby cities, where he attacked victims on isolated roads and streets in sparsely populated areas. At the time, Greater São Paulo's low population density and abundance of scrubland and farms allowed for many potential hiding places for the criminal.
Double attack. "JPT" survived, but Nishigawa did not. Moreira's only known male victim.
Investigation, arrest, and detention Due to the increasing number of attacks and murders in the region, a team of investigators was formed to catch the perpetrator. While interviewing one of the surviving victims and some witnesses, investigators were puzzled when some of them said that he was very similar to one of their investigators, Adalberto Kurt.
Looking further into him, investigators learned that he worked at various sawmills around the city as a temporary worker and had absences coinciding with the dates of certain crimes. Since he had given a fake address to his employers, the authorities tracked down his actual address and installed a bell to alarm them when he would return. On August 29, Moreira was apprehended without incident.
An inspection of his home revealed a list containing the numbers and locations relating to the attacks, in addition to stolen school bags (one of which had the small rope) and newspaper clippings about the crimes. The arrest caused a stir in the city due to the unusually high number of victims for the era. Due to this, the police reinvestigated similar cases from the past that resulted in the exoneration of several men serving prison sentences for attacks that were confirmed to be Moreira's doing.
In the immediate aftermath of his arrest, Moreira admitted responsibility for attacks involving children, but claimed that he was not interested in adult women and was not involved in the attack on Lidia da Silva. Not long after his arrest, Moreira underwent a psychiatric evaluation that determined he was incapable of standing trial due to his mental abnormalities. Because of this, he was interned at the Franco da Rocha Psychiatric Hospital, where he remained until his death in 1977.
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Important facts
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Benedito Moreira de Carvalho's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Benedito Moreira de Carvalho?
Brazilian serial killer and rapist
When was Benedito Moreira de Carvalho born?
Benedito Moreira de Carvalho was born on 10 August 1910 in Brazil, São Paulo (state), Tambaú.
When did Benedito Moreira de Carvalho die?
Benedito Moreira de Carvalho died in 1976 in Brazil, Franco da Rocha, São Paulo (state).
Sources & further reading
· Wikipedia: Benedito Moreira de Carvalho
· DBpedia: Benedito Moreira de Carvalho
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Benedito Moreira de Carvalho. https://biography.guide/benedito-moreira-de-carvalho/
MLA: "Benedito Moreira de Carvalho." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/benedito-moreira-de-carvalho/.
Chicago: "Benedito Moreira de Carvalho." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/benedito-moreira-de-carvalho/.
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