Lisbon Ripper

Lisbon Ripper
Killings
Victims 3-9
Span of killings
 1992–1993 (possibly 1988–2000)
Country Portugal (possibly also the USA, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Belgium)

The Lisbon Ripper (Portuguese: O Estripador de Lisboa) was a serial killer who, between 1992 and 1993 murdered three prostitutes in Lisbon, Portugal.

Crimes

The first victim was Maria Valentina, nicknamed "Tina", age 22, who was found on 31 July 1992 in a large cabin in Póvoa de Santo Adrião. She was strangled, disemboweled, and some of her internal organs were removed.[1][2][3]

The second victim, Maria Fernanda, age 24, was found on 27 January 1993 in a large cabin in Entrecampos. She was also disemboweled, and some internal organs were removed.[1][2][3]

The third and last victim was Maria João, age 27, found on 15 March 1993, near the location of the first victim. Like the previous victims, she was disemboweled, but this time almost all her organs were removed.[1][2][3]

All the victims were young brunettes named Maria, allegedly prostitutes and drug addicts, and were disemboweled with a sharp object that was not a knife.[1][2][3]

Investigation

There was little or no evidence found on the crime scene: no blood (except from the victims'), hair, footprints, fingerprints, or glove material. The police had some suspects, but no evidence against them.[4]

Suspects

In late 2011, nineteen years after the murders, one suspect, José Pedro Guedes, aged 46, had his name put forward by his son Joel, aged 21, who had applied to appear on the Secret Story - A Casa dos Segredos 2 reality show. On the show, contestants are kept locked away for 10 weeks in a house, and each contestant has to conceal a secret while everyone else has to try and discover it; the secret Joel applied with was "I am the son of the Lisbon Ripper". This information aroused the Polícia Judiciária's suspicions. Before his arrest, José Guedes confessed details of the murders to the online edition of the Sol newspaper.[5]

José Guedes is currently under arrest, although he cannot be tried for the Lisbon Ripper murders as they had prescribed in 2008. However, he can still be convicted for murders that, allegedly, he had committed in Germany, where he immigrated, and in Aveiro, in 2000.[6]

Other crimes

There were two other alleged prostitutes found dead.[1][3][4] There were also four similar murders in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Belgium.[7] There was a lead that the Lisbon Ripper may have been a serial killer active in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1988,[7][8] known as the New Bedford Highway Killer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 (Portuguese) http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1300953
  2. 1 2 3 4 Últimas - Sapo Notícias
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 (Portuguese) http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/07/31/cidades/primeiro_crime_estripador_lisboa_pre.html
  4. 1 2 (Portuguese) http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=252306&idselect=10&idCanal=10&p=200
  5. ↑ "Alegado "estripador de Lisboa" terá sido revelado devido à "Casa dos Segredos"" (in Portuguese). A Bola. 2 December 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "Alegado "estripador de Lisboa" denunciado por filho que queria entrar na Casa dos Segredos" (in Portuguese). Público. 2 December 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  7. 1 2 Unsolved Serial Killings; Portugal, Libson
  8. ↑ Unsolved Serial Killings; Massachusetts, New Bedford
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