Brazil killer admits to 42 murders

A serial killer in Brazil has confessed to killing 42 people for fun over the past decade, making him one of the country’s most prolific murderers.

Brazilian authorities arrested Sailson Jose das Gracas in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, where he told reporters he killed for pleasure and the accompanying adrenaline rush.

Das Gracas, 26, said he started killing at 17 years old, usually strangling his victims, which included 38 women, 3 men and a 3 year-old child.

He said he would study his victims, sometimes for months, before making his attack.

“I killed just for the pleasure of it. I’d kill and then leave. I’d kill, stay there for a bit and then leave,” das Gracas admitted, adding he would also operate as a killer for hire.

Police said they are cross-referencing his confessions with past crime reports, having already linked four cases to das Gracas so far.

Brazil has been the scene for murders committed by some of the most notorious serial killers in recent history.

In October, Brazilian media presented self-confessed killer and former security guard, Tiago Rocha, who has admitted to murdering at least 39 people since 2013.

His victims were primarily women, but also included homeless people and possibly transgender women and gay men.

Pedro Rodrigues Filho, Brazil’s most prolific killer, was convicted in 2003 of killing 71 people. He claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates.

In 2000, nursing assistant Edson Isidoro Guimaraes was convicted of killing four people in hospital, though as many as 131 murders were linked to him.