The Aqueduct Assassin
This hidden gem may differ from the ones you would usually find in The Portugal News, nevertheless I thought that this would make for an interesting story and hope that you might share my morbid curiosity.
The University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine is the proud owner of a severed, yellowish head submerged in a formaldehyde solution in a big glass jar. The head belonged to a man called Diogo Alves. But what did he do to deserve losing his head? And why did someone preserve it?
Diogo Alves is said to be Portugal’s first serial killer. He was born in 1810 in Galicia, Spain, in a peasant family, but moved to Lisbon at the age of 19, following his parent’s orders to find work in the city. He worked a few different jobs, but as a poor young man from out of town there is only so much to choose from and so he became a servant for wealthy people. Sticking to jobs was apparently not one of Diogos strong points and eventually he began to fall into a life of