My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 377 - Couched In Love

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

This week, Karen and Georgia cover serial killer Pedro Rodrigues Filho, aka the "Brazilian Dexter," and the death of Russia's literary hero, Alexander Pushkin. For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is Justin from The Generation Y, and we're doing a four-part series on unraveling the story of Khalif Browder, a young boy falsely accused of stealing a backpack and held at Rikers Island for three years without trial. This story is about a young life caught in the middle of the justice system. Listen to Generation Y on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello. Hello. And welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstar. Hi, that's Karen Kilgaraff. Hello. Hi. And we're here to tell you some very, very bad things. And we have exciting news about bad things. We have stories of horror, but it's couched in love.

Yep. And every time I have to tell an Uber driver or doctor about what my podcast is, it's awkward. There's a lot of people out there who don't know what podcasts are, or don't follow true crime, and then hear the name, and then they're slowly slide away from you. They hear the name, or you say it's true crime and comedy. And the same thing I do when someone says, where are you from? And I have to say Orange County, but with a bunch of caveats, because I don't like the fact that I'm from Orange County. I have to explain that. We're not making fun of the comedy isn't about the murder, it's about, you know, I just feel like I have to explain myself. You know, that's a piece of life that we all carry, a burden we carry, where we think

some fucking rando deserves our time and our justifications. Yeah, definitely. What's going on? Did you watch Succession last night? Absolutely. I'm caught up on Succession and the fabulousness about everything about it. I want to go to Norway now so badly. Totally. Everything I saw, every person that was on screen, every mountain, every, what are those things called? The vernacular, whatever, like it went up the... The little traveling snow. What are those called? There's a nuclear at the end. Okay. That's all I know. Okay. It's like a Skyway thing, but for snow times. Right. And for obviously high-powered deals and negotiating, apparently. Oh my God,

that's so good, fucking Barry is so good. Like we're in a moment. I'm on the last season of Ozark, which is like heavy. Oh yeah. And so good. That's a great show. Yeah. I have a couple show recommendations for the Good Vibes only commendation list. Great. That wasn't the name of it. Yeah, it's a good name though. It was for, yeah, positive TV shows to watch when you need positivity list. I want to give a name to this segment that then we could go down to HomeGoods and find a sign and then hang it on the wall because that's how original that idea of Good Vibes only is. It's that idea is on sale at HomeGoods right now for $7.99. But this really worked. I was, God, what was going on? I really can't remember. I just know that my friend was

with me. Maybe we were talking about something that was a bummer. I can't remember. And then I remember it and I was like, wait a second, have you seen Kunk on Earth? Oh. And he was like, I haven't seen it. And we turned it on and then just laughed for like 30 minutes straight. She's so hilarious. Filomena Kunk. I know we've talked. Have we talked about it before? I don't think so. I don't think so. Or maybe we mentioned it neither but I said watched it yet. But it is. It is so jam packed with the funniest jokes. She is so good and it is the kind of like it's just being dumb for dumbness sake and it's just pure comedy that's dressed up like a very high budget British nature documentary or history documentary. It's so funny. And she did a thing

once. She was talking about Egypt and then it led up to, she said, mummies of Scooby-Doo fame. That's when I was like, this is my favorite thing I've ever seen. She asked like a scholar if Jesus was the first person to get canceled. She also said it was ironic that Jesus Christ was a carpenter because he was named after the one thing you yell when you hit your thumb with a hammer. It's just like, who are, I want to meet every writer from that show. She was in the show after life, Ricky Gervais's show. And she's so funny in that too. I mean, God, what is that on? Hulu? Something? Netflix. Netflix, cool. Yeah, it almost is like the irritating girl from Ricky Gervais's newspaper got a spin-off show. And it seems like it's really her.

Like that woman who I know is an actress, a comedic actress, and so good at it, but she plays it so real. It's just so perfectly dry. It's so dry and so realistic of what idiots are actually like. And she's just got kind of the big eyes and she just is like a little argumentative in the way of like, she's, she is already thinking about it in this one way. So that's the way she just wants confirmation. She's argumentative in the, in the way that only people who are always wrong are. Yes. You know, you guys have those parents too, right? Right. You've seen it. It's just so enjoyable. It just made us, it put us in the best mood when we were watching it. So that's, it's a great one for that list. Okay. Thank you. I needed it. Well, should we get into it?

Let's get into it. Okay. So here are some highlights from our podcast network, Exactly Right Media. The Banana Boys, Kurt Brunnerler, and Scotty Landis have a live episode of Bananas for You from Portland. So check that out. All the Bananamals from Portland showed up. Also, over on Do You Need a Ride, this week, it's just Chris and me talking about tripping balls in the desert and faking ski injuries, all the topics you love from the two people who know the best. And then there's also a new Must See episode of MFM Animated by Nick Terry available on the Exactly Right YouTube channel. It features the famous hot dog statue from Minnesota 323 on March 20th. So go watch it and catch up if you miss the last one featuring

Stephen's mom visiting Chippendales. We've got it all. Nick Terry doesn't quit. He just like brings the funny. He drops hits. He's the Missy Elliott of MFM Animated production. All hits all the time. Yeah, Exactly Right YouTube channel. Check that out. Oh, and this is very exciting, especially to me. We've restocked my favorite merch item, which is the Here's the Thing Fuck Everyone Raft mug, which was designed by friend of the family, Kat Solin. Kat is the artist who made our very first t-shirts, the ones that look like big book covers. And she illustrated the final moments of Terry Joe Dupreau's amazing survival story that's from episode 28 of my favorite murder. The title of that episode is I 28 his liver with

some fava beans and a nice Q&A back when we were trying to do number puns. Oh, that was so hard. I'm so glad we got out of that. And it's what's so crazy about that story that you did is that it was episode 28. And yet I still remember all the details of it because it was so intense. It was so good. And that, like, I remember reading something more recently of Terry Joe as an adult, being like, for a long time, she did not want to talk about that story. And then she re it, like, was this thing she realized it's like her story and she gets to tell it. And so if you haven't seen the research that I have from that episode is entirely from Terry Joe's own retelling of her story from her episode of I Survived. So incredible.

Go find that because that's really you should listen to tell it. It's incredible, right? And so go to our Instagram at my favorite murder and tag us if you have one of those mugs or any of our merch we'd like to see out in the wild. Just tag us and go to my favorite murder.com to get your mug and stuff today or tomorrow. I'm not in a hurry. No, it's the snow brush. We're heading into the summer season. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast Against the Odds. Each week we share thrilling true stories of survival and put you in the shoes of the heroes who live to tell the tale. In our next season, we take you to a remote corner of Alaska that's home to one of the densest brown bear populations in the world.

But in recent years, the changing climate has caused a shortage of the bears natural food sources. More and more bears are venturing into the town of Haynes, Alaska in search of food, putting residents on edge. Then everyone's worst fears are realized. Three experienced back country skiers unknowingly ski over a den and awaken a mother bear and her cub. She attacks and one of the men is left fighting for his life while his friends desperately wait for help to arrive. Follow Against the Odds wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. I'm first today, right? So before I start, I tell you what I'm covering today, what story I'm covering. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the television show Dexter.

I don't know. Did you ever watch Dexter? No, I didn't. Dexter was, I believe it was on showtime. I could be wrong about that though, but I think it was. Ran for eight seasons, 2006 to 2014 or so. They recently rebooted it. It starred Michael C. Hall, the wonderful actor Michael C. Hall. He plays a Miami blood spatter expert. That's how long ago it was named Dexter Morgan, who is also secretly a serial killer. Right. But because of his very moralistic upbringing, his father caught that he was a sociopath or a psychopath when he was young. And so he abides by a strict code when it comes to killing. He only murders other serial killers. Okay. So part of that show, and go watch it if you never have, because it's pretty great. I know how much you love Miami. So a show taking

place there is probably your favorite. Yeah, top of my list. Right? Lots of linen shirts, lots of convertible Corvettes. But you'll see this on the internet if you are the kind of person who just kind of cold searches true crime stories. There is a serial killer or arguably a mass murderer. They call him the real life Dexter. Okay. I didn't know that. All right. Yes. So today, I'm going to tell you together, we're going to learn about the notorious Brazilian serial killer, Pedro Rodriguez Filo. The main sources used in today's story are an heavily cited episode of Casefile, the great classic true crime podcast that has been around forever award winning, I believe, so good. So well done. And that episode is called Killer Petey. The writer who

researched that episode is a writer named Eileen Ormsby. And she wrote a 2023 medium post called Killer Petey as well. So that was also a source. And then uncredited 2023 article on the Brazilian website G1 titled Who Was Pradrino Matador? And the rest of the sources are in today's show notes. So all of this begins in October of 1954. Pedro Rodriguez Filo is born in southeastern Brazil, the oldest of eight children. His parents struggled to keep food on the table. Pedro's earliest experiences are marked by horrible domestic violence. Pedro's father is described as a violent alcoholic to the degree where Pedro is born with a bruised skull, and presumably a head injury, which is the direct result of his father beating his mother while she was pregnant.

Oh my God. So just horrible that abuse continues throughout Pedro's childhood. And his mother was very strict. So she was also kind of abusive. But hers was like keep it in line. She has eight kids, whereas the father's was horrifying alcoholic. So by the time Pedro's 13, he begins experiencing his own violent impulses. After Pedro borrows his cousin's horse without asking, aka stealing his cousin's horse, his cousin, who's older and stronger than Pedro, punches him in the face. And of course, that's humiliating. It's even more embarrassing when his family finds out and relentlessly tease him about it. And they tease him for being small and weak and unable to defend himself. Pedro will later claim that this is the situation where he first feels the urge

to kill. So he actually spends the next several weeks quietly seething and plotting his revenge. So the next time he sees his cousin, they're at the local mill helping their grandfather juice sugar cane. So if we were watching TV and this scene unfolded, when we saw the juicing machine, we'd be like, Oh no, because it's essentially two huge rollers set on top of each other. And then you send him and his cousin or picking up sugar cane and pushing it through the rollers. And then it gets juiced that way. And as Pedro is feeding sugar cane, standing there feeding the sugar cane into the machine alongside his cousin, he gets an idea. He suddenly pushes his cousin toward the machine. And as his cousin tries to get his footing, he stumbles with his arms out in front of him.

And one arm gets sucked into the machine and gets crushed. Pedro just stands there and watches as his cousin struggles to free himself. Now there are some accounts that say that Pedro used this opportunity to pick up a knife and repeatedly stab his cousin. But there are other reports that claim that Pedro tries to force other parts of his cousin's body into the machine. So either way, it's a bloodbath. It's horrifying. The grandfather quickly intervenes. Pedro's cousin is eventually freed from the machine. His arm is crushed. And Pedro's 13 years old. Holy shit. Yeah. So he spends this next several nights in jail. But ultimately, the charges against him are dropped. And that's not because anyone thinks he's innocent or should be free or anything that

has to do with justice. It's just that he is the oldest boy in his family. And his family will starve if he doesn't work to put food on the table along with his parents. So they know that. And he's freed on one condition. And the condition is they have to go back to the mill and clean the blood out of the sugar cane press. Reportedly, this takes him weeks to finish the job. So Pedro will return to this attack again and again throughout his life. And he has absolutely no remorse about it. He claims to never feel any guilt for what he's done to his cousin. Instead, he brags over and over about how much he enjoyed hurting him. And he also seems to enjoy instilling fear by talking like this to the people around him, especially his cousin,

which is another recurring theme with Pedro. He basically, if he feels he's been mistreated by someone, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge. So his next violent incident takes place a year later when he's 14. And that's when he learns that his dad, who works as a night shift security guard for a local school, has been accused of stealing supplies. Pedro's father's insistent that the thief is actually the daytime guard, but no one believes him and he is fired from his job. So this is devastating for Pedro's family. It means everyone else will have to work doubly hard to make up for the lost income. But Pedro isn't just fearful about how his family will survive. He is incredibly enraged. He believes his father's innocent and has taken the fall.

So his fury builds. And a few days later, he goes to city hall. He asks to speak with the vice mayor of the town. And that's the person who's responsible for hiring and firing local school guards. And when the man comes into the room, Pedro shoots him in the face with a shot off shotgun. Jesus. Then he drives to the school and he tracks down the daytime guard and murders him as well. Wow. So after these murderers, Pedro skips town, he's 15 years old. So he skips town and he goes to hide out in the bustling city of Sao Paulo. He's supposed to blend in. He ends up standing out because he starts selling drugs. He takes part in burglaries. He makes a ton of enemies. And pretty soon he's rubbing elbows with big time drug dealers who actually like him and take a shine to him.

And he quickly climbs the ranks of the city's criminal underworld. He meets his girlfriend, Maria Aparacita Olympia. And we don't know much about her, but they move in together when Pedro's around 17. And within months, she is pregnant with his child. Some people claim Pedro begins his career as a vigilante when he's in Sao Paulo. For example, they say that if he finds out shop owners are cheating customers that he will like he threatens them basically, like to keep everybody honest. And so people aren't getting ripped off. But mostly he's known for being brutal, homicidal, and a ruthless criminal. He also has so many enemies. He gets death threats from other gang members constantly. And also he's squarely in the radar of the police. So he

becomes a deeply paranoid person, but he's one of those paranoid people whose fears are actually very founded or his fears aren't unfounded. When he's 18 years old, he comes home to find Maria, pregnant Maria, dead on the floor, and someone has written on a nearby wall in blood, we will get you. Oh my God. Yeah. You know, this is he's running with the worst people he possibly could be. It's all, you know, horrible nightmarish life of crime. So the death of Maria and their unborn child sets off Pedro's homicidal revenge obsessed rage, of course, probably worse than it ever has been, but he doesn't know who did it. And he has so many enemies at this point, it really could be anyone. So he spends the next year

obsessively trying to find out who killed Maria. He interrogates and harasses and tortures any person he thinks might know something. And eventually he does figure it out. The man who ordered the hit on Maria is a rival drug kingpin who goes by the name China. So Pedro ambushes China at a wedding party, shoots him in the face, killing him instantly, which seems to be his MO, which is very, very disturbing. Yeah. It's just the most horrible way to do it. Violent. Yeah. And then Pedro and his two accomplices kill seven additional men at this party and injure many more. It's like the red wedding, horrifying. Yeah. They spare the women and the children. And that's because by this point, Pedro claims that he's living by a moral code and that he would never kill women or children.

And then he also claims he won't kill decent, honest men. But this idea that they just killed seven dudes at this wedding aside from the one guy that he wanted to kill is like, well, that seems convenient. So this massacre makes Pedro even more notorious in Sao Paulo and it boosts his sympathetic kind of vigilante reputation because everyone knows he was avenging his girlfriend's death. Right. Honorable. Suddenly. Right. Which is that kind of thing where it's like, yes, if it were simply a vigilante. Right. But then you tacked on six more murders. Right. So by the early 1970s, Pedro is at the top of the Sao Paulo criminal underworld. He's known as, quote, Pedro Matador, which translates to little Pedro the killer, which remember in the

Night Stalker documentary that all the women in Boyle Heights that saw him in that store, they started yelling El Matador, El Matador, because it means the killer. Oh my God. So he's living this kind of Scarface lifestyle now. He has a ton of money, multiple girlfriends, power, and it kind of is obsessed with PR, which I think the more I read this kind of story and the way he's lived his life, it's very psychopath kind of traits where it's like everything is I, I, I, me, me, me, and he wants to tell his story and he wants to kind of twist the truth of his story of like, this is why I'm doing it and I'm justified and it's okay that I do it. Right. He works tirelessly to be feared. He starts getting very vocal about his love

of killing and he claims that, and when I say he claims like he was doing press all the time, they were, he was constantly talking to reporters. That's weird. Yeah. He claims his homicidal urges are so intense that he has to kill one person a day and if he doesn't, he basically experiences withdrawals. Jesus. To remove any doubt about his obsession with homicide, Pedro gets a tattoo of Maria's name on his left arm and underneath that are the words, I can kill for love. And then on his right arm, he gets a tattoo that simply says, I love to kill. Chill. Right. Just fun stuff when you're taking off your shirt at the beach. I'd love to see BuzzFeed's like top 25 tattoos about scary stuff.

Yeah. About, oh my God, let's get out of here. Yeah. Okay. So in May 1973, Pedro is now 19 years old. Yeah. Like he isn't, he can't legally get a beer in America. He has already killed so many people. Jesus. He's finally arrested and charged with 18 counts of murder. After he's arrested, he makes sure that everyone knows he's actually killed over a hundred men. We don't know if that's true or an exaggeration, but that was, you know, that's his tendency. It's exaggeration. And it's like, this is my story. You should fear me. He's ultimately convicted of 14 murders and he's sentenced to 126 years in prison, although he won't spend that entire time behind bars. I mean, obviously, but Brazil's penal code maxes out basically at 30 years. So regardless of formal sentencing,

he's going to spend 30 years in jail. And which is surprising to probably to American listeners, but it's very common in a lot of other countries like to max out those, those years. And the United States is harsh when it comes to sentencing compared to other countries. So in the 1970s, and he's facing 30 years in a Brazilian prison, that could be a death sentence for a lot of people. Right. At the time, this Brazil's justice system, especially their prisons had a dismal reputation. They were known for having awful sanitary conditions, corrupt guards, serious overcrowding, disease and violence or rampant. Many prisoners die before they serve out their full sentences. Unfortunately, this bleak and brutal environment actually makes Pedro a more prolific murderer.

Sure. He gets into jail and pulls one of those, I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me moves and just starts murdering other people in jail. So when Pedro is being transferred to prison after his conviction, he's put into a police van. So it starts immediately. He's put into a police van with other inmates. And before the van arrives at its destination, Pedro has killed another passenger. Oh my God. This man was a convicted rapist. So, you know, this goes along with his story of like it's this noble, noble serial killing. In prison, he uses smuggled weapons, homemade shives and his own bare hands to continue killing based on his so-called moral code. Many of his victims are

convicted sex offenders, pedophiles and men who've harmed women and children. When articles or podcasts point out his similarities to Dexter, they often only focus on those killings. But the truth is that Pedro kills whoever he wants to kill. In one case, he says he murdered his cellmate because he was a loud snorer. In another, he claims to have killed a prisoner because he didn't like his face. And in one of Pedro's most horrific acts of violence, he actually finds out that there's like, there's a cell block where transgender prisoners are being kept. And under the pretenses of looking for and killing one prisoner, he says this prisoner is responsible for his friend's death. He gets into this cell block and massacres 16 people in the transgender

cell block. Oh my God. Horrifying. Pedro's most infamous murder happens about a year after he's incarcerated. He learns that his mother has been murdered by his abusive father and his father gets sent to the same prison he's in. Uh-oh. Yeah. So one day, Pedro ambushes a prison guard, takes his gun, corrals the other guards into a prison cell, locks them inside, and then once they're out of the way, he tracks down his father in a different cell block and stabs him over 20 times. Holy shit. This guy has free reign over the prison, it seems like. Yeah, it seems like he has that, you know, that psychopath, like he's up above everyone else and kind of like seeing this big picture where he's not afraid of other people and people can smell that like, oh, there's something

wrong with that guy vibe. Like it's real. He's the real deal. Like some people trying to act, you know, hard ass. And it's like this guy invented it and has been doing it since he was a prepubescent, basically. Shit. It's so insane. Oh, sorry. I was trying to talk about that, so I wouldn't have to finish this part of the story. Pedro then rips his father's heart out, takes a bite of it, and spits it back down onto his dead body. What's that, dad? So, can you imagine you just like, you stole a car and then you're just in this prison being like, holy fucking shit. Oh my God, you're walking by and then like, oh, okay. It's just fucking nightmare. I mean, this is like it's flipping over into just pure horror movie. Yes. Details.

And also it's, you know, Pedro never shows remorse for any of these murders during his interviews with journalists. He justifies the murders, claiming his victims deserve their fates. He even tells one reporter, quote, the things I do are good for society, in my opinion, and Brazil's justice system just does not know what to do with him. He's transferred to nine different facilities, but he just keeps killing other prisoners. So by the early 1990s, he's moved into a psychiatric facility where he's diagnosed with psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder, which I did at the beginning of this podcast. I didn't wait for actual doctors. I saw this coming because of the danger he poses to others. He is placed in solitary

confinement for almost 10 years. Because it's just like, well, what else are you going to do? Totally, totally. But it's horrifying. And what a nightmare. During those 10 years, the only other people the Pedro sees or speaks with are prison guards. Then in 2002, when he's getting close to his release date, he's moved back into Gen Pop. Wow. It's crazy to think that we're going into like 2000s that he's still, because I'm like, okay, it's from the 70s, it's fine. But suddenly we're like, yeah. He has dedicated his entire life to murder. Yeah, please don't. You can't let him out. You can't let him out. Well, tell me. During his bloody prison sentence,

the number of people Pedro has murdered balloons up to 71 victims. Oh my God. Meanwhile, his formal sentence has been bumped up to 400 years. But he only winds up serving an additional four years because he's already served 30 and 10 of which in isolation. So basically in 2007, he has served 34 years behind bars. So 53 year old Pedro is released back into the world. Oh, there had to be a loophole. We could have held hands together and jumped through, please. They get to it. They get to it. I mean, it couldn't have felt great that they were just like, well, I guess this is the next option. Basically after he gets out his day to day seems mostly quiet.

He hasn't killed anyone since the late 80s. Because he's been in solitary fucking confinement. Yes, exactly. Because they had to just keep going to bigger and bigger extremes. There's nobody to kill. Some suspected Brazilian police are eager to rearrest Pedro, which I think is a good suspicion and very likely in 2011, he sent back to prison on charges for participating in a prison riot while he was serving his first prison sentence. So they were absolutely looking for anything.

Yeah. And also a possession of an illegal firearm. But by all accounts, Pedro is a model prisoner this time. So he's released in 2018 on good behavior. Oh, my God. Like they tried to get him, you know, like this guy can't be out in the world. And he was just like, it's fine. I won't do anything. And he doesn't. So now he's 64 years old. It seems like his days of murder are behind him.

But he still really does enjoy being in the spotlight site, which is a psychopath trait. Yeah. So he now has a YouTube page. He amasses hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views on his channel, where he posts about his unusual life story. He comments on high profile cases, and he warns young people against the life of crime. Okay. So when you go check out that Nick Terry video, hop on over afterwards.

It's you can get some advice. This is where his story ends, and it ends as violently as the rest of his life that he led. No surprise. In early of March, 2023, this just happened last month. Oh, my God. Pedro is sitting outside of his house in Sao Paulo, chilling. A black car pulls up, a group of masked men jump out, open fire. They shoot him four times, and then somebody slits his throat. Oh.

And as of this recording, the police have not identified the killers or the motive. He was 69 years old. So Pedro's life from start to finish was filled with bloodshed, abuse, and terror. And although he was a victim of violence himself, his self-aggrandizing, arguably psychopathic belief that he was some sort of noble vigilante, killing only those who deserved it does stretch the bounds of logic after 71 murders.

Yeah. And that is the story of the so-called real-life dexter Pedro Rodriguez-Filo. I'm sweating now. I'm so sorry. That was one of those ones where like, because I'd seen that headline on a bunch of, you know, like websites and stuff, and you're like, oh, my God, you, I think I really love the idea of a person who has like, there is a moral code,

even though I am a moral inherently. But that's like from a book. And the truth of it is, is like, sure, that you can be stating moral reasons while you're doing this horrible thing. It doesn't make it any less horrible. It just doesn't. Yeah. At what point are you just playing God?

And what you think is immoral to other people isn't. So you kind of, you're not the chooser of immorality. You're not the chooser. And I think that is, you know, Marin pointed out in her research, she's like, this is the slippery slope of vigilanteism, where if you believe that you're on the side of right, then you can justify doing kind of anything.

And like the worst it gets where it's like, well, that's fine. That's a real argument and a real kind of like, huh, I'm going to ponder this. When it's say those stories we know about mothers that go and murder their children's molester, we know about a lot of those stories and you're like, huh, no, it is wrong, but then again, and you can understand it. In this case, though, it's just like, sir, we're going to have to ask you. Stop killing people. We, you must stop.

This is like, it can't be this way. Oh my God. It's just so out of control. Yeah. Wow. Great job. Great story. Never heard it before.

Yeah. Crazy one, right? Fucked up. Yeah, we're going to Russia today, Karen. Oh, I'd love a change of pace. Yeah, we're going to change pace. I'm going to take you over to Russia. Great.

This is basically like picture it happening at the same time as like Bridgerton, you know? Oh. It's got some Bridgerton overlapping. Kind of like the dress like the Empire Waste Dresses type of stuff. Yeah. And like it's got romance. It's got dueling. It's got like.

Excuse me. What is it? It has dueling. Oh, dueling. Dueling. It's got it all because I'm going to tell you the story of an infamous 19th century scandal featuring the most famous poet in Russian history. This is the story of the death of Alexander Sergevich Pushkin.

Pushkin. Pushkin. Pushkin. Pushkin. The sources I'm using in today's episode include an encyclopedia Britannica Entry by Dimitri Dimitrovich. Dimitri Dimitrovich. Dimitri Dimitrovich Blagoj.

An article by Michael Phillips for the British Library Board. An article by George Steiner for The Observer. And a Newsweek article by Anna Nemsova. And the rest could be found in our show notes. So before Karen, we get to the juicy and tragic details of its death. Obviously, I'm going to give you some background and I'm going to give you some context as to why Alexander Pushkin is so important. Simply put, he's the father of modern Russian literature.

His writing is part of school and college curriculums around the globe. Some of the famous works include the poem The Bronze Horseman, the novel Eugene O'Negan, and the short play Mozart and Salieri, which would later inspire Peter Schaefer's play and movie Amadeus. Amadeus. The best. Amadeus. One of the wishes I have in life is to be able to go get into a time machine and see

the original stage play of Amadeus. Oh, really? That was fucking insane. Yeah. And you've been to Russia, right? I've been bursting at the seams to tell you once again for the milling of time that, yes, I have been to Russia. And the reason I was saying Pushkin like that is because we had a tour guide on one of our buses.

And it's one of the only things I can remember clearly is she was talking like this into a microphone in the front of the bus. And she just kept saying things like, this was the way she spoke the entire time. And then she would go, Pushkin. And it was new. Like, we were supposed to be paying attention, but I was so distracted by just, I was like, I just want her to have the inflection go up a little bit or way down or something. But it was just this, and then Pushkin, Pushkin was born here.

I think they were driving us around like, I don't know where he was born or something. But anyway, I'll just, I'll fill in that. Kind of amazing color commentary as you go. That'd be great. Tell me about the weather. Okay. So he's a playwright, a poet and a novelist whose work touches on themes of Russian identity, history and politics, which is what made him so huge.

He's born on June 6, 1799 in Moscow. Pushkin is one of three siblings. They're born into a famous noble family. He's the great grandson of a famous Russian military general. And he's raised mostly by his grandmother outside of Moscow, where he becomes a voracious reader and spends his days wandering the countryside, talking to local peasants and learning all he can. He hears Russian folktales and stories of his ancestors.

He develops a really solid political understanding, not only of the Russian noble class, but also of the greater Russian people. So he really connects to them. When he begins his formal studies at a school for aristocratic boys, he starts to write. He publishes his first poems at age 14. So like we're talking about two completely different lives, your guy and my guy.

Oh my God, like they were living the inverse of each other. Whereas it's like, imagine if Pedro could have just gone to the country and walked around in a field and maybe written some poems. Yeah, made some observations and wrote them down. Just had to fucking a little bit of quiet and a little less rage. And so he first poems at 14 gets a lot of positive attention for his literary work. Then he graduates in 1817 and he throws himself into the high society world of St. Petersburg. Which sounds fun.

It is beautiful. I'll tell you all about it. I just can't help but picture Bridgerton. That's all I'm picturing is like promenades through the park in like layers upon layers of clothes sweating. So fancy. I mean, we saw everything from a bus window. So this is, I'm absolutely exaggerating in every way, shape and form.

But we did get to go to Peter the Great's summer palace. And it was one of, I can still remember all of it. It was one of the most breathtaking places I've ever seen. Oh, amazing. And he starts getting even more attention. But this time it's less positive. He's kind of a prolific partier as a poet in high society. He hooks up with ladies, he drinks and carouses all over town.

And he gets kind of a reputation for it. He's known to have a temper and threatened duels all the time. So it's like getting in a fight instead is like, let's go outside and fight. It's like, let's go outside and duel. Yeah. You know, I don't know why I have to say it like that, but I do. It's fun. I love it. It is.

At the same time, he's getting a lot of attention socially. Pushkin is also writing poetry that's highly political. He gets into trouble for it. He's critical of what he sees as an oppressive government and advocates for constitutional reform, which the Russian government does not like at all, of course, what government does. Right.

And so in 1820, he's exiled to southern Russia for three years due to these outspoken political beliefs. Exiled without a trial is not unusual at this time in Russia. And I feel like it still isn't probably. If you did something to upset the emperor, he could just send you away. So Pushkin turns his exile into a kind of a road trip during the Caucasus and Crimea. And using the context of his travels to inspire further writing.

And he's also partying. It's like a road trip movie. He's just like partying all over. Right. I mean, it seems like he's kind of figured out how to live, which is just like jot down your thoughts. Have a drink. Have a diary.

Have a drink. Meet some people. Do your thing. Look at women's ankles and, you know. Scandalize their older brothers or whatever. And then, you know it, dual. Then dual. So he's also falling in love, falling in love all over town.

He's writing love poems mostly for married women and shaking up this like quiet high society of every town he visits. So sounds fun. Wait, he's writing love poems to married women or about or for them to read. To them for them. Yeah. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Having some fun. Even though the Russian emperor of the time ultimately welcomes him back to Russian society in 1823, Pushkin's life is marked by political scandal and romantic drama. Because he is so outspoken in his political views and never stops advocating for individual freedom and self-determination, he has a target on his back for the rest of his life.

Letters he writes are intercepted and his publications are sometimes censored. And his romantic exploits also make him a target of rage at times. It's rumored that he has had sex with over 100 women over the course of his life. Pushkin. Which is like, no shame. Yeah.

Do your thing. He's a slut. It's fine. We're proud. But this does upset a lot of people because you're not supposed to be that blatantly, you know. Free. Free.

And so he does end up in a lot of duels because of this. One account reports that he was involved in 26 duels throughout his life. Oh my God. Yeah, it's a lot. But duels are really popular at this point in Russian history, but they're also illegal. And 26 is considered by historians to be more duels than average. Yeah.

You know. Imagine that like how many, 26 times he went out at sunup. Right. And had someone shoot at him from like 10 bases. Totally. And most of them are canceled before weapons can be drawn, it says. But it is worth noting that he's a good, very good marksman.

So I think a lot of people cancel before, you know, he can shoot at them. Got it. Smart. So around 1828, Pushkin meets Natalia Gancharova at a fancy ball. She's only 16 years old at the time and is already considered one of the most beautiful girls in Moscow. Here we have Bridgerton again. If not one of the most beautiful women in all of Russia.

So drop dead, gorgeous. In most paintings or drawings, she's wearing a white dress, has this gorgeous brunette updo and is pictured with really dainty facial features. You know, not any of this. What's wrong with a big moon face? I always ask. Look, my teeth are accentuate my face. Okay.

So what of it? My Irish heritage makes my face cover as much ground as possible. It's a survival technique. You can't all be dainty. It's deadly. That's right. And who wants to be? So her family is poor, but because she's so freaking gorgeous,

she's really popular among Russian nobility. And she also has a playful personality. So she sounds pretty rad. Pushkin falls for her immediately and courts her over a period of two years writing countless poems about her. It's hard to tell how she feels about him. He has money and is a well-known writer by now,

but she's hesitant to marry him because of that hundred women reputation that he's got. And also like he's been exiled before. She's like, this guy doesn't seem totally stable, but Natalia is a favorite of the emperor himself due to her good looks. And so he assures her that the government won't exile Pushkin again if she marries him. Nice.

So yeah. So they get married on March 2nd, 1831 in Moscow. So he fucking picks up the biggest hottie in Russia. I mean, I'm proud. And also it makes a lot of sense for this guy. Sure. So over the course of their marriage, they have four children together.

By now Pushkin is even more famous across Russia for his poetry and prose, but is still disliked by the court for his politics. It's only being married to Natalia that keeps him even remotely close to being in the emperor's good graces. So she brings, she brings a lot to him too. But he's still writing profusely despite the social drama. And Pushkin is totally in love with Natalia.

She's his muse, his idol, his everything. He doodles pictures of her in the margins of his notebooks. He calls her his quote Madonna and writes long, sweet letters to her, even years into their marriage when he's away. It's like, oh my God. Nice. In one letter, Pushkin tells Natalia that quote,

without you, I would have been unhappy all my life. Oh, I'll say it. Oh, but Pushkin is not Natalia's only devoted admirer. Men continually make advances towards her despite her being a married woman. And one such man is Georges Dantes. Or just Georges. His name is Georges.

Georges. He's Georges. His name is Georges. It's Georges to you. It's Georges to them. Yeah. My name is Georges. So I feel like I get to pick how I want to say it.

Yeah, just make this story your own. So Georges is dashing. He's a handsome Frenchman who signed up for the Russian army as a way to advance his career. His plan worked. So now he's a fixture in the Russian noble circles. He's well connected. And around 1834, Georges and Natalia meet at an event

and he's totally smitten with her. Which is like, get in line, dude. Pushkin is away a lot during this time. He's off riding in the countryside while his wife is in the city, participating in the court life, eating tiny food on silver trays, probably, you know, drinking. Gossiping.

Gossiping. Georges and Natalia start to spend a lot of time together and rumors start to circulate. And Georges and Natalia later say they both insist nothing ever happened between them. But it doesn't matter. People think something inappropriate is happening. Yeah.

So months turn into years and now it's well known around town that Georges is aggressively pursuing Natalia. And because Natalia has a charismatic, flirtatious nature that has gotten her super far in life, just, you know, she came from nothing. People are quick to believe this alleged affair. She's obviously in a difficult position for a woman

of her background and station. At the time, she needs to flirt and she needs to get along with everyone, right? But like, at what point this fucking guy over here thinks you're interested in him. So she's kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't, you know? Right. It's like her goal is supposed to be at the top of the social scene.

But then to be at the top of the social scene, it's like then you're creating fodder for people to gossip about you. Right. So they can knock you off the top of the social scene. Exactly. And it seems like this guy is just kind of getting in the way of that. In the fall of 1836, Pushkin receives an anonymous letter.

And the letter is, it's like this cruel satire making fun of him and pointing out and kind of talking about this alleged affair between his wife and this dude, claiming that Pushkin has been elected as the quote grandmaster of the order of cuckolds, which is a huge insult at the time. To this very day, it's an insult. To this day.

On all the threads and social media platforms. That's right. That's right. That's a real forbid. Tisk, tisk, tisk. It's never revealed who wrote this letter. It's thought to be someone in George's inner circle, but it infuriates Pushkin.

And he's heard the rumors about his wife as well. And after receiving this letter, Pushkin to the edge. Uh-oh. I know. And he promptly challenges George to a. A duel. A duel. A duel.

A duel. A duel. So that's set for November 4th, 1836. Hotheads. Got to solve it with murder. Got to. So George is encouraged by his friends and supporters to smooth things over because again,

this Pushkin's famous and also a great marksman. So he pulls out all his stops to try and cancel this duel. He knows also that because dueling is illegal. And he's from France. He might get kicked out of Russia if he survives it. So he taps all his elite social connections, which ends up being a good plan because the effort of his allies to stop this duel actually have some effect on Pushkin.

So it's delayed for two weeks, then it's canceled. But then on November 17th, less than two weeks after the original duel challenge, George asks Natalia's sister, Ekaterina, to marry him. Oh. So he goes for the sis instead. Interesting. And they're married less than a month later.

But a lot of people will see this intention to smooth things over and save everyone's reputation. It actually generates more attention on the situation leading to even more gossip and dishonor for everyone involved because everyone thinks it's just a ploy. It looks like a cover up. Wow, you cannot win in the Russian court. Truly.

This is like episode six in Bridgerton when like there's a foible and like so-and-so is in love with so-and-so, but actually, you know. And secret, like secret bitchy letters. That's such a funny, it's real. It's based on something historical. And like kind of less hot sisters and like it's just the whole thing. And still George is publicly spending time with Natalia as well, which makes this marriage to Ekaterina.

That's poor fucking woman. Look like a sham. The whole thing makes it much worse. Pushkin is furious. The duel is back on. So the rules of a Russian duel. Let me, I know you know them, but let me refresh your memory. Just refresh it.

Okay. There are two duelists, obviously. Then there is what's known as their seconds, who is like their bro that shows up to make sure that their friend gets the fair shot, etc. And that everything goes according to protocol. And finally, there's usually a doctor on hand. And everyone shows up at the agreed upon location.

Typically, as you said, early in the morning. And once everyone arrives, last minute negotiations can happen. So duels are often canceled. But if not, then guns are loaded and the terms are set. So on January 27th, 1837, Pushkin and George meet on the banks of the Black River, just outside of St. Petersburg. Wow. It's early in the morning near a snowy field.

It's very cold outside. Each man has their bro, their second there, to make sure the duel proceeds as it should. And their sleigh drivers are present, but it seems like they couldn't find a doctor to come on the scene. So there's no doctor there. Seems important. It does seem like a big deal.

Take the time. Yeah, yeah. And no efforts made to negotiate or cancel the duel. So the terms are set. They are going to have a, what's called a barrier duel. Meaning they will be facing each other. So it's not back to back. They're facing each other at about a distance of about 20 to 30 feet.

And then they start walking towards each other, closing the distance until about 10 feet. And in this kind of duel, the duelists don't fire at the same time. Either one of them can fire first at any time they want. So it's like a surprise duel. Shit. But surprise face-to-face duel, that's the case. Yeah, yeah.

So they could hit the target, they could miss. But if they miss, or even if they hit, then the other duelist has the option to fire back if they're able. So it's like, you can't let off a bunch of shots. You have to aim and fire and get one shot. Yeah. And these kinds of duels are often deadly unless someone misses on purpose because their fire at close range, as we said.

Pushkin and Georges stand about 20 feet away from each other, facing each other. At the command of one of the spectators, they both start taking slow, deliberate steps towards each other. And no one, including the duelist, knows who's going to fire first and what's going to happen next. And after about 10 steps, Georges suddenly fires first. In all his history of dueling, Pushkin has never fired first.

And Georges probably knows that. So his bullet hits Pushkin in the stomach. Pushkin falls to the ground. He's horribly wounded. Back then, it's like one shot and you're fucked, you know? Yeah. But he still manages to fire back at Georges, grazing his hand. And even with his injured hand,

Georges helps the injured Pushkin into his sleigh with the help of the few spectators. The lead bullet has entered Pushkin's stomach near the hip, damaging the lower half of his body considerably and making it impossible to walk. I feel like those bullets back then probably exploded, you know? They were like, yeah. And big.

I don't even know what is a super ball set, a piece of lead, probably. Yeah. Yeah. He's losing a lot of blood and they're in a very remote place without a doctor around. So it seems like Georges, his immediate reaction based on that, is that he didn't mean to shoot Pushkin in the stomach.

Well, he, yeah. Some believe he just meant to shoot him in the lower leg to hurt him, not kill him. So he seems like he's freaking out a little bit at the fact that he might have just mortally wounded this like great poet, you know? Yeah. Because he was flirting with his wife.

It's like kind of sucks. Yeah. So Pushkin is loaded into the sleigh and makes the hour and a half long journey home, which had to suck every fucking minute. And he's bleeding out as he rides. When Pushkin arrives at his house, he's conscious but actively dying.

His first request is that someone tell his wife that his wound isn't serious. Even though it's clear to him and everyone around that it is, he doesn't want to alarm her. He's moved indoors, set up on a sofa in his office, and even though he receives medical treatment, it's too late. According to witnesses, he's stoic and remains calm

throughout this extremely painful process. Natalia is beside him when he's not with the doctors. She's clearly distraught, but she's holding it together for him. He's trying to hold it together for her. It's very sweet. And he tries to downplay his pain. In one report, when a doctor encourages him to like moan out loud, like that sometimes helps relieve pain.

You know, when you're in a lot of pain, you just want to be like, fuck, it helps. He refuses to because he doesn't want to scare his wife. Wow. I know. So this is what's so fucking crazy to me. It takes him two days to die. No.

I know. Like back then it was just like, yeah, you're definitely dying, but it's going to take a while. Just you're just going to keep on bleeding, and then there'll be a bit of an infection. Yeah. And then goodbye. He's only 37 years old when he dies.

Oh, no. However, it does seem like the mortality rate is pretty close to that in general. So he maybe lived a long, happy life, we could say. Maybe. Maybe. A full life for sure. Definitely have fun. But what does it say, I'm not here for a long time.

I'm here for a good time. Yeah. The people of Russia enter into a state of public mourning as news spreads of Pushkin's death. He's very popular with the greater public, and their grief turns into anger at the death of their literary champion. And in the years that follow his death, Pushkin remains a symbol of resistance to an impressive regime.

After the duel, Georges is arrested and imprisoned because dueling is illegal and he killed someone. But he's pardoned by the emperor, but he's banned from living in Russia. He moves back to France with his wife, Natalia's sister, and he lives a long, happy life surrounded by children and grandchildren in France, and he dies in 1895. Wow.

So he's the victor of this story. Natalia is heartbroken about the murder of her husband. She quickly becomes a villain of his story for the greater Russian public. Of course. Of course she does. The nasty gossip about her part in the duel only increases after Pushkin's death.

She's financially provided for by the emperor because he pays off all of Pushkin's debts and provides a regular stipend for Natalia and her four kids. But the rest of her life is marked by attacks on her character and blame for her husband's death. Yeah. Because, of course, she tries to live a quiet life. She remarries seven years after the duel in 1843

and has three more kids. Oh. And she dies at the age of 51 on November 16th, 1863, which Sarah does point out is basically a little old lady in terms of, like, how long you survive. Yeah. For over a century, Natalia is maligned. Pushkin admirers think of Natalia as, quote, an empty spot in his life.

Just chill. Also, it's factually incorrect. Yeah. That's if everything he did was about her and for her. Totally. Then they're acting against his wishes, basically. She was his muse, yeah. But scholars today, thankfully, have a soft review of Natalia

because she saved all his letters to her and allowed them to be published. She has provided an invaluable resource for researchers and devotees to Pushkin's work. She is no longer considered, by most, to be the villain of Pushkin's story, just a wife and a mother doing her best. Alexander Pushkin is remembered as a champion of Russian literature

who captured the values, dreams, and identity of the people in his huge body of work that is still revered today. And that is the story of Alexander Pushkin, literary hero of Russia, and the scandalous circumstances that led to his early death. In a duel. In a duel.

In a duel. Can't do. That was, like, an amazing history lesson. And also, I could see, like, the movie Amadeus, the movie Dangerous Liaisons, was very similar to that. A lot of jewels in that movie. And kind of same thing of, like, oh, that was amazing. Thank you.

It was a real left turn of fun. That was fun for me, because I didn't go to college, so I really didn't know much about Pushkin. Yeah, I flunked out of college, and I went to Russia, and I don't know anything about Pushkin, and that lady tried to tell me about Pushkin. I wouldn't listen to her about Pushkin, now I know. About who?

Pushkin. Thank you. Any Pushkin arenas out there? Let us know in our Instagram notes. Hi, guys. I got my master's degree in Russian literature. Are you a scholar? Oh.

Are you a duel scholar or a duel expert? Any duelists out there that still shoot to this day that still threaten people in bars and try to shoot them at dawn? We'd love to hear from you as well. We want to hear your hometown story. Email us at my favorite murderage email. That was a good show. That had a real variety to it.

Yeah, lots going on. It's kind of the beautiful tableau of the human experience which is presented in an hour and 11 minutes. This is what we promise you as the audience of this podcast. We are all podcasts combined, history, gossip, literature, jewels. But we don't have to explain ourselves to you. We sure fucking don't. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered.

Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris. Our researchers are Maren McClashen and Sarah Blair Jenkins. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com.

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