After being hanged in 1841 for throwing 70 people off of an aqueduct in Lisbon, Diogo Alves' preserved head has been in a jar in a university lab.
Ripley ’s Believe It Or NotThe spookily well preserved head of serial killer Diogo Alves .
For years , Diogo Alves terrorise the people of Lisbon , Portugal as a thief and a dusty - blooded murderer .
Indeed , he ’s considered the city ’s first real in series killer . But although he was executed for these crimes in 1841 , his bequest has persist — because his pass was keep in a glass shock at the University of Lisbon ’s Faculty of Medicine .
Ripley’s Believe It Or NotThe eerily well preserved head of serial killer Diogo Alves.
But why ?
The Horrifying Crimes Of Diogo Alves
brook in Galicia in 1810 , Diogo Alves jaunt to Lisbon as a young tike to form as a handmaiden in the affluent homes of the capital urban center .
But it was n’t long before young Alves realized that a life of crime was better for turn a profits , and in 1836 , he had himself transferred to work in a home located on theAqueduto das Águas Livres , the Aqueduct of the Free Waters .
Less than a half a mile long , the watercourse allowed suburbanites and rural farmers to traverse the rural landscape from above , making their way into the city of Lisbon . It was along this path that many of these unsuspecting commuter met Diogo Alves .
Wikimedia CommonsA sketch of Diogo Alves.
Despite the fact that many of the actor who traveled long and far to reach the city were no more than humble farmers entering Lisbon to sell off their harvests , Alves targeted them . Awaiting their return home , he met them by evenfall along the Aqueduct , where he would rob them of their profit .
later , Alves wouldthrow them over the edgeof the 213 - foot magniloquent body structure , sending them falling to their deaths . Between 1836 and 1839 , he repeated this process some 70 times .
Local police initially assign the deaths to ape suicides , which pass to a temporary closure of the bridge . While the killing on the Aqueduct may have come to a stop , time out - ins set out sprouting up among private mansion house after Alves formed a gang of murderous robbers to target the affluent house physician of the metropolis .
Though not usually available for public display, the head of Diogo Alves is still seen by students and the deeply curious.
The group was trance while killing four masses inside the house of a local doctor , and Alves was arrested and condemn to destruction by hang .
An End To His Crime Spree, The Start Of A Bizarre Saga
Wikimedia CommonsA sketch of Diogo Alves .
Many regard Alves as the nation ’s first serial sea wolf , and the last person to die by hanging , but this simply is n’t the case . A cleaning lady namedLuisa de Jesus , who admitted to poisoning 28 children , is the first recorded serial killer in Portugal . She was blister for her crimes , hanged , and burned in the street of Lisbon in 1772 .
Alves , who was hanged to death in February of 1841 , may have been among the last mass to die as a event of majuscule penalisation before the nation did off with the praxis in 1867 , but he was n’t the last — around half a dozen people follow him .
Still , what was it about Alves that compel scientists to preserve his head in a glass jarful ? For the most part , it was all about trend and timing .
At the clip of Alves ’ execution , the pseudoscience ofphrenology — the impression that certain mental or character trait were determined by the flesh of one ’s skull — was pick out off .
While the “ Torah ” undergird the discipline have since been debunked , investigator at the sentence were all too mad by the opening that they might be able to understand what could make a mortal like Alves so undeniably evil .
As such , his head was removed from his already exanimate body and moved into the glass jarful where it can still be find in today , perfectly preserved for all to see .
Diogo Alves’ Head Today
Though not usually available for public display , the head of Diogo Alves is still insure by students and the deep curious .
Not much is know about the result of the bailiwick on Alves , as little recorded evidence , if there ever was any , remains .
But a second skull , which belonged to Francisco Mattos Lobo , who remove a home of four before throwing their pawl out of a windowpane , was examine just one twelvemonth after Alves ’ death , in April of 1842 .
His head can be found in its own looking glass jar , housed mightily down the student residence from that of Diogo Alves . Both heads can be visited at the University of Lisbon , even today .
Alves ’ head afterwards inspired a comic leger , a fictionalized life story and novel , “ The Crimes of Diogo Alves , ” further cement his legacy .
After this look at the head of Diogo Alves , see out some of the preserved remains on presentation at theMütter Museum . Then , take aboutÖtzi the Iceman , the oldest preserved murder dupe in story .
