The Deadly Deeds of Brazil's Vampire Killer

In the city of Amarante, Brazil, people lived in fear during the late 1960s. A soulless murderer was on the loose, brutally killing and drinking the blood of victims, mostly young women and children. This monster was Anisio Ferreira de Sousa, a man who became known as the "Vampire Killer."

Anisio's childhood was marked by hardship and violence. He was born in 1938 to a poor family of farmers and endured abuse and hunger from a very young age. As a boy, he witnessed horrible acts by his alcoholic father that deeply disturbed his mind. Anisio grew up angry and unstable.

In his late 20s, Anisio began acting on his darkest urges. He committed his first known murder in 1966, when he killed a young woman named Lisia Jorge Wanderley. But this was just the start of his terrifying crime spree. Over the next few years, Anisio stalked the streets and preyed on defenseless people.

His method was pure evil. Anisio would lure victims from poor areas with promises of food or work. Once they were isolated, he would viciously beat them over the head with a rock or club. As his unfortunate victims lay dying, Anisio took a final sick pleasure - he used a sharp instrument to slice open veins and arteries to drink their flowing blood. To Anisio, the taste of human blood was like a drug that fueled his frenzy of violence.

One by one, the bodies began turning up discarded in fields, forests, and ravines surrounding Amarante. Some were children as young as 6 years old. The city was gripped by panic as the "Vampire Killer" racked up more and more victims, the death toll climbing higher with no apparent end in sight. Parents kept their kids locked inside, afraid to allow them outside to play.

Police worked relentlessly to try and stop the elusive and depraved killer. But Anisio was a slippery criminal who covered his tracks. He constantly moved between cities, living as a vagrant to stay off the grid. When he was in Amarante, he hid out in secluded shacks and shanties.

The cat-and-mouse pursuit between law enforcement and Anisio heated up in 1969 when suspicion began falling on him as a prime suspect. Police nearly caught their man on multiple occasions, but the cunning killer narrowly eluded capture each time. In one daring escape after being cornered by armed officers, Anisio scaled a hospital wall while completely naked to get away.

In the end, it was good old-fashioned detective work that finally brought Anisio's murderous rampage to an end in June 1970. After canvassing door-to-door, law enforcement garnered enough eyewitness accounts of his suspicious behavior to obtain an arrest warrant. He was captured without incident while camping out in a farmer's shack just outside of Amarante.

When the full extent of Anisio's crimes were compiled, the details proved just as shocking as the body count. Over a span of three and a half years, he had claimed at least 16 victims that could be officially confirmed, with other estimates ranging as high as 47 total murders. Police were able to apprehend him only after recovering evidence like the blood-stained knife he used to mutilate bodies and open veins.

Even in police custody, Anisio's depravity and lack of remorse were unnerving to those around him. He openly confessed to the murders with cavalier nonchalance, even requesting to be taken to crime scenes so he could recreate the gruesome acts for police. When asked for his motivations, he coldly explained his compulsion to bloodlust and quench an unquenchable thirst through drinking blood.

His grisly crimes and obvious severe mental illness ignited a divisive debate around what punishment was appropriate. Defense lawyers argued treating his clear psychological problems would be more ethical than execution. But the devastated community in Amarante saw an inhuman monster deserving of society's ultimate punishment. In the end, the public outcry won and Anisio Ferreira de Sousa was sentenced to death.

He was executed by firing squad in November 1971 at the age of 33. In his final moments, Anisio acted casually indifferent, waving to guards like he didn't have a care in the world moments before the fatal shots rang out. Perhaps appropriately for such a remorseless killer, the death photo showed his drained, lifeless body left slumped over almost like one of his own discarded victims.

While Anisio met an overdue demise, the carnage he inflicted left a deep scar on Brazil. His ruthless killing binge and twisted blood-drinking habits turned him into a real-life boogeyman figure for an entire generation in Amarante. The terrible ordeals families endured made it so the "Vampire Killer" name carried a particularly harrowing weight in describing the evil he wrought on an entire city paralyzed with fear.