The Lisbon Ripper Murders

In late November 2011, 21-year old Joel Guedes appeared on the reality television show Secret Story, where he, along with other contestants, had a secret the others had to guess. Joel’s secret? He claimed his father, 46-year old Jose Pedro Guedes, was the Lisbon Ripper. The investigation opened again and found Guedes had confessed to pieces of the crimes to some online papers, and soon he was arrested (“The Lisbon Ripper”). The arrest didn’t last long – Portuguese Penal Code didn’t allow him to be tried because it had been over 15 years since the terrible crimes he claimed to have committed (Alves). Guedes was arrested for the 2000 murder of Filipa Ferreira and cleared as s suspect in the Ripper murders after DNA analysis and a fingerprint analysis showed he was not a match (“The Lisbon Ripper”).

The Lisbon Ripper murders began with Maria Valentina, 22, found on July 13, 1992. Valentina was found in a large cabin on Povoa de Santo Adriao, less than a mile and a half from Eduardo VII park. She had been strangled to death before being disemboweled and left in a pool of her own blood (“The Lisbon Ripper”). She appeared as if she had been mauled due to the disembowelment, and was surrounded by approximately eight feet of intestines. Her entire colon had been removed and was missing from the crime scene (Alves). When investigators checked into her background, they found evidence that Valentina was a sex worker and possibly suffered from drug addiction. In Portugal, sex work has been legal since 1983, and Lisbon specifically is well known for it (“The Lisbon Ripper”).

On January 27, 1993, another body was found in a cabin in Entrecampos by construction workers. The second victim was Maria Fernanda, 24, also a sex worker in the area. Her remains were found less than two miles from Eduardo VII park (“The Lisbon Ripper”).  Fernanda,  a mother of two, was also known to be addicted to gambling.Just like Valentina, Fernanda had been disemboweled, but there were differences in her murder. Her head had been smashed in, she was fully disemboweled, and her head had been beaten. Lacerations were found near her heart and pelvic organs, including on her uterus.  Her large intestine and colon were both missing from the scene, while the rest of her organs were collected by investigators. She had been gutted from sternum to lower back (Alves).

The final victim, Maria João, 27, was found on March 15, 1993. Her remains were recovered approximately 330 feet from where Valentina’s remains had been recovered João had lived along with her two cats, and was also likely a sex worker. Like Valentina, she had been strangled, cut open and gutted, and had her organs removed in a manner similar to Fernanda’s (“The Lisbon Ripper”)(Alves).

It became clear that this killer seemed to have a type of victim, something many people assume all serial killers have. All of the victims happened to be named Maria, though family and friends called Valentina “Tina,” including João. The victims were all young brunettes, connected in some way to sex work or drugs, and were found near Eduardo VII park (“The Lisbon Ripper”). The victims were also all HIV positive. According to the coroner’s report, the victims were all alive at the time they were gutted, but likely unconscious from blows to their heads. The murders had occurred later at night or extremely early in the morning, and the victim’s faces were kept intact –  there was no attempt to hide their identities (Alves).

The murders all occurred in the early 1990s and then seemed to end. Similar murders did occur in surrounding countries that could possibly have been the same perpetrator, but this has not been proven. The crime scenes were surprisingly clean of evidence. There were no footprints, no hair, and no evidence of gloves being worn. A single fingerprint was lifted from a carton of milk, but otherwise there were no fingerprints (“The Lisbon Ripper”). A psychiatric profile of the crimes suggests that the killer would appear “normal” to others with a discrete social life. He was likely a self-centered caucasian male, 30 to 35 years old, with a deep seeded hatred of women. For all anyone in Lisbon knows, he could have been living next door to them the whole time (Alves).

The case of the Lisbon Ripper, so named as a reference to Jack the Ripper and the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, who both also targeted sex workers, will likely remain unsolved for some time (“The Lisbon Ripper”). With the lack of fingerprints, there is unlikely to be a positive match, and it seems that no one else is coming forward with information that could answer the questions left. Who was the Lisbon Ripper? Why did he kill these women, and why did he stop? We are left with similar questions as with Jack the Ripper – could he have been a medical student or doctor? The implement likely used was a scalpel, or something very similar. Disembowelment suggests at least some knowledge of human anatomy. Whoever he is, even if he comes forward he can’t be tried, leaving the families and friends of the victims unable to get closure.

“The Lisbon Ripper”. True Crime England, 2019, https://truecrimeengland.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/the-lisbon-ripper/.
Alves, Rui. “The Cold-Case Of The ‘Lisbon Ripper’ Who Butchered Sex Workers In The Nineties”. Medium, 2021, https://historyofyesterday.com/the-cold-case-of-the-lisbon-ripper-who-butchered-sex-workers-in-the-nineties-6b6da9ec60bb.