Francisco de Marco

Francisco de Marco (1922 – after October 31, 1984), known as The Monster of Rio Claro (Portuguese: Monstro de Rio Claro), was a Brazilian serial killer and pedophile who killed a total of seven children in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais from 1953 to 1984, most of them committed after being released or escaping from prison. For the final crime, he was sentenced to 70 years imprisonment, but his date of death is unclear.

Early life and first murder Little is known about Francisco de Marco's background. Born in 1922, he was convicted for unspecified sexual crimes as an adult, for which he served three years imprisonment. Released either during the late 1940s or early 1950s, he settled in Marília, where he married and had three children. According to neighbors, none of whom were aware of his previous convictions, he was considered a humble and peaceful man who made an honest living as a glazier.

De Marco's first recorded murder occurred on March 1, 1953, when he lured 7-year-old Iracema Rubino dos Santos, the daughter of a neighbor, to a cornfield under the guise of helping him with the harvest.

Later murders By 1961, de Marco had moved to the municipality of Ponte Nova in Minas Gerais and worked under the alias 'Darci Nogueira', where he would commit two additional murders. When they were alone, he would proceed to sexually violate and asphyxiate his victims, emasculating them if they were male.

On October 22, 1982, de Marco killed and emasculated 11-year-old shoeshiner Alberto Antônio Antonelli and then dumped his body at the Edmundo Navarro de Andrade State Forest. From the remainder of 1982 until early 1984, he killed three additional victims in this way (9-year-old José Nogueira Neto; 9-year-old Maria Márcia de Lima Carvalho and 11-year-old Moacir de Silva), leaving their bodies in sugarcane fields.