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This case has held my interest for a while now, not so much the crimes themselves but the outcome, as you will see. Unfortunately, there isn’t much information about these historic murders, but it’s an interesting read about the possible connection between head injuries and murder.
Diogo Alves was born in 1810 in a small town called Galicia, Spain, into a peasant family. As a child, he earned the name Pancada (Blow) after falling from a horse and hitting his head (friendly, sympathetic family there). He moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and worked as a servant for wealthy families. However, he soon realised that crime paid better. He took a job in a home on the Aqueduto das Aguas Livres (The Aqueduct of the Free Waters); the aqueduct was less than half a mile long and allowed people to travel into Lisbon. Travellers mainly consisted of farmers wishing to sell their produce in the city. Not long after starting this job, Alves began drinking & gambling and started sleeping with a local innkeeper, Maria ‘Parreirinha’ Gertrudes.
Alves had started stealing keys and having them copied. He managed to acquire one for the Reservatorio de Agua Aguas das Amoreiras, a reservoir built to receive and distribute the water carried by the aqueduct. Using this key, he could reach the waters where traders would travel. At night time, he would pick his prey. Innocent travellers would be robbed by Alves and blindfolded before being dragged to the top of the aqueduct and viciously thrown off, falling nearly 60 meters to their deaths.
There was a substantial economic and political crisis after the Liberal Revolution of 1820 (a political revolution to establish a shared power between a monarch and a government). The people of Lisbon were struggling financially and emotionally; jobs were lost, and families were struggling to afford even the basics such as food. This, sadly, resulted in an increase in suicides. When authorities started finding the bodies at the aqueduct, they assumed they resulted from suicides. Alves was likely aware of this crisis and exploited the situation to hide his terrible crimes.
However, people did start to become suspicious about the large number of bodies being found and actively started avoiding the landmark. Eventually, the aqueduct was closed in 1853 and wouldn’t be open again for decades. This was an issue for Alves, who had now lost access to his favourite killing site. Instead of robbing people and throwing them from the aqueduct, he formed a gang that would terrorise local families, breaking into houses, stealing them, and then mercilessly killing those inside. The gang consisted of people nicknamed Split Lips, Dancer, Digger and Feeler (if The Beano did gang names – they are some of the least threatening names I have ever heard). Alves’ gang name was Hitter, and Maria Getrudes was known as ‘Parreirinha’.
Alves was finally caught after killing four people in the home of a local doctor. I read that he was partially convicted on the testimony of his lover’s daughter, an 11-year-old. Maria Gertrudes was sent to exile in the Portuguese African Colonies for her part in gang activities, and Alves received the death sentence. He was never convicted of The Aqueduct Murders, but it is believed he killed 70 people. He was hanged in February 1841 and was one of the last people to die via the death sentence before it was outlawed in 1852 for political crimes, in 1867 for all crimes apart from military, and in 1911 for all crimes. Diogo Alves was considered Portugal’s first serial killer and still is by many. However, in 1722, a woman named Luisa de Jesus admitted to killing 28 children with poison; she was whipped, hanged, and set fire to in the streets and is quite possibly the country’s first serial killer (and if I can find more information on her I will let you know!).
In 1796, an idea had been developed by Franz Joseph Gall known as phrenology. Phrenology was the study of the shape of the cranium, claiming that the shape, size, and various bumps could determine character and ability – including if the person would be prone to criminal activities (thankfully, phrenology has long since been debunked). It was pretty popular when Alves died, and researchers were eager to examine him to see if they could figure out what had turned him into a murderous monster via phrenology. His head was removed from his corpse and examined, although I couldn’t find any recorded results. Strangely, his head was placed in a jar and preserved in a formaldehyde solution (as you do). This is still seen at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine and is creepily in near-perfect condition.
So why did he kill so many innocent people? Was it sheer greed? Was it for the thrill? Or was it more complex than that? As I wrote, it had been reported that he had suffered head trauma as a child, as did many other serial killers, including Fred West, Edmund Kemper, John Wayne Gacy, Henry Lee Lucas, and Richard Ramirez. Look at the article 10 Serial Killers with Head Injuries for more insight. Thank you for reading, take care of yourselves, and I will see you soon.
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