Luísa de Jesus

Luísa de Jesus (10 December 1748 – 1 July 1772), known as the Foundling Wheel Killer (Portuguese: A Assassina da Roda) and Luiza de Jesus (the way her name was spelled at the time), was a Portuguese delivery worker, baby farmer, fraudster and serial killer who smothered at least 33 infants in Coimbra from the 1760s until 1772. While she confessed to only 28 of these, she was convicted on all counts, sentenced to death and ultimately executed, becoming the last woman to be executed in the country's history. She is considered the deadliest serial killer in Portuguese history. and as an adult, she was married and would sometimes earn money from transporting goods from town to town, transporting parcels from the city of Coimbra to Gavinhos, a village of millers and farmers, or to the entire parish of Figueira do Lorvão.

Luísa de Jesus eventually hatched a money-making criminal scheme involving a foundling wheel in Coimbra: at the time, these devices were used by mothers to abandon their children at local charities, in the hopes that a good samaritan of means would take them instead. The prospective adoptive parents could then be awarded a 600 réis subsidy, a cradle and half a meter of thick cotton fabric for their generosity. rebuked that claim, exclaiming that if she was old enough to commit such atrocious crimes, then she would be judged as an adult. In 2021, a theatric play based on the 2020 book Luiza de Jesus – A Assassina da Roda by Rute de Carvalho Serra premiered in Lisbon, with the eponymous villainess portrayed by actress Maria Henrique.