This Woman Murdered 30+ Children...

What this episode is about

The content explores the chilling story of Luisa De Jesus, an 18th-century Portuguese woman who murdered over thirty infants to profit from a government incentive designed to care for unwanted babies. Despite her ordinary beginnings and difficult life, her heinous crimes earned her a reputation as a monstrous figure in history, reflecting the dark potential for exploitation within societal support systems.

Key takeaways

• Serial killers have always lurked in the shadows, but society only labeled them since the 1970s.
• Luisa De Jesus turned a foundling wheel into her personal profit machine, exploiting a system meant to protect infants.
• Seemingly normal women can harbor unspeakable horrors; Louisa was the 'Tinker' who strayed far from her humble roots.
• In 1772, adopting a baby was akin to ordering fast food—with death as the grim side dish.
• Portugal's history holds hidden terrors; long before Diago Elves, Luisa's infant crimes painted a chilling portrait of motherhood.

Who speaks in this episode?

• James (Guest) · 12 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Luisa De Jesus, Twisted Minds, University of Lisbon, Manuel Rodriguez
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Luisa De Jesus, Twisted Minds, Hospital de Taldos o Santos
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Luisa De Jesus, Casa de Rada
4. 12:00 – 13:34: Twisted Minds, Isabel de Rojas

Notable quotes from "This Woman Murdered 30+ Children..."

• Holder committing her crimes almost half a century earlier way back in the 18th century welcome or welcome back to Twisted Minds my name is James and today we look at the…

  about Twisted Minds · at 0:36

• It is believed that the device dates back to the Middle Ages before spreading across the world the first one to be installed in Portugal was built into the wall of the hospital…

  about Hospital de Taldos o Santos · at 5:04

• On the 1st of April 1772 after already taking 32 babies from different locations Louisa made an unusual request at Casa de Rada she wanted to take two babies for people she…

  about Casa de Rada · at 6:50

• Killer further she had signed for the child under her own name something she didn't always do Louisa was soon arrested alongside some of her accomplices Margarita Joaquina and…

  about Luisa De Jesus · at 7:40

• Portugal to get the death penalty she did almost lose this record about 40 years later in 1810 when Isabel de rojes also known as Queen pampalona was sentenced to death for…

  about Isabel de Rojas · at 12:01

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Luisa De Jesus — Person · Primary subject (historical criminal case) · 4 mentions · first at 0:46
  Central figure of the episode; discussed as an 18th-century Portuguese woman who adopted infants for payment and murdered them, leading to arrest, trial, and execution.
• Manuel Rodriguez — Person · Referenced family member (parent of primary subject) · 1 mention · first at 1:17
  Identified as Luisa De Jesus's father; provides biographical background about her poverty and upbringing on a farm.
  Later on went on record to say that she had a pretty normal childhood although she grew up extremely poor on a farm in figuera De Laurel which was run by her parents Manuel and…
• Mariana Rodriguez — Person · Referenced family member (parent of primary subject) · 1 mention · first at 1:17
  Identified as Luisa De Jesus's mother; included in the episode's brief early-life background.
  Had a pretty normal childhood although she grew up extremely poor on a farm in figuera De Laurel which was run by her parents Manuel and Mariana Rodriguez after getting married…
• Manuel Gomes — Person · Referenced spouse of primary subject · 1 mention · first at 1:24
  Mentioned as Luisa De Jesus's husband; part of her life context before the crimes described.
  Figuera De Laurel which was run by her parents Manuel and Mariana Rodriguez after getting married to a man named Manuel Gomes Louisa who is nicknamed Tinker by her family began…
• Isabel de Rojas — Person · Referenced historical figure (later death-sentence comparison) · 1 mention · first at 12:05
  Mentioned as a later Portuguese woman sentenced to death (for treason) who escaped, used to contextualize Luisa as the last executed woman in Portugal.
• H.H. Holmes — Person · Referenced comparison (infamous serial killer example) · 1 mention · first at 0:11
  Mentioned briefly as an American example of an infamous serial killer to contextualize the topic historically across countries.
  Killers dating back centuries in fact every country has their own Infamous killer for many years ago from Britain's Jack the Ripper to America's H.H Holmes when it comes to…
• Jack the Ripper — Person · Referenced comparison (infamous serial killer example) · 1 mention · first at 0:11
  Used as a well-known British example to frame the episode's theme that every country has infamous killers.
  Killers dating back centuries in fact every country has their own Infamous killer for many years ago from Britain's Jack the Ripper to America's H.H Holmes when it comes to…

Companies & orgs

• University of Lisbon — Company · Setting · 1 mention · first at 0:29
  The university where the preserved head of Diago elves, a supposed serial killer, is displayed.
  That the first Portuguese serial killer was a man called Diago elves who had his head grimly preserved in a glass jar which is still on display in the University of Lisbon to…

Places & events

• Casa de Rada — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 6:56
  The location where Luisa De Jesus was caught after a baby's body was discovered under an olive tree.
• Hospital de Taldos o Santos — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 5:13
  The hospital where the first foundling wheel in Portugal was installed before it was destroyed by an earthquake.

Media & podcasts

• Twisted Minds — Media · Host · 3 mentions · first at 0:42
  The podcast discussing the case of Luisa De Jesus, a historical serial killer from Portugal.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 although the term serial killer has only been around since the early 1970s there have been hundreds of cases of serial killers dating back centuries in fact every country has their own Infamous killer for many years ago from Britain's Jack the Ripper to America's H.H Holmes when it comes to Portugal many believe that the first Portuguese serial killer was a man called Diago elves who had his head grimly preserved in a glass jar which is still on display in the University of Lisbon to this day in actuality this man wasn't the country's first serial killer with the true title holder committing her crimes almost half a century earlier way back in the 18th century welcome or welcome back to Twisted Minds my name is James and today we look at the disturbing case of Luisa De Jesus a woman who is responsible for the murders of many innocent babies

1:01 not a lot is known about the life of Louisa De Jesus as she was born in 1748 and was just an average working woman with that being said those who knew her later on went on record to say that she had a pretty normal childhood although she grew up extremely poor on a farm in figuera De Laurel which was run by her parents Manuel and Mariana Rodriguez after getting married to a man named Manuel Gomes Louisa who is nicknamed Tinker by her family began working as a carrier transporting goods from town to town at the time this would have been an incredibly low paying job and meant that keeping a roof over her head and food in her belly was very hard after a few years however the woman came up with a wicked plan that would pay a decent wage but at a twisted and truly evil cost once the truth about her sickening crimes came to light a document written in 1772 described her as a monster with such a perverse and corrupt heart that

2:01 there will be no easy example in the present century so how did she get such a reputation well Luisa discovered that those who took in unwanted babies would get a crib .66 meters of wool and 600 Rice which was a large amount back in the 1770s it seemed that the reward for taking in and raising someone else's child was appealing to the woman so the only problem was she had no intention of keeping the babies once the money and goods were given to her obviously nowadays there are many safeguarding systems in place to protect adopted children but back in those days it was much easier to slip through the system once Louisa had made up her mind that she would take in and then kill the babies afterward she began visiting locations that had a thing called a foundling wheel or a baby box these devices were basically post boxes for babies a place for mothers who could not care for their child to place their baby

3:00 inside and spin them so that they were placed inside the building to keep them safe until a nurse or care could find them yep history can be really cruel despite people believing these devices prevented newborn babies from dying an 1813 report claimed that three-quarters of children abandoned on the wheel died at the foundling wheels she would claim to be a woman looking to adopt or had been sent on behalf of a client happy that the baby was supposedly going to a loving home the babies were handed over once the baby was inside the home of Louisa she smothered or strangled them to death before stopping their tiny corpses in clay pots and burying them in her garden these heinous and Unthinkable crimes went on for years with the killer visiting different areas to make sure people didn't get suspicious this way of making money became quite profitable with the sale of cot and wool increasing

3:56 the profit margin for the murders by the age of 22 Louisa had adopted 34 babies all of which never saw a past their first birthday but as we have discovered here on Twisted Minds not all dark secrets stay in the shadows and Luisa De Jesus would pay for her crimes foreign on the 1st of April 1772 Louisa went about the ACT she had done so many times before she went to the location with the foundling wheel and asked for two children to give to the couple who were longing to care for them I mean how was it ever okay to turn up at a place in order two babies like it was a McDonald's drive-through the foundling wheel has a very interesting history created in Italy and later expanded to other European countries as I simply explained before it was a rounded wooden device with shelves to put the babies in before spun around once the baby was handed in there was a bell for the mother's terrain to let the

4:59 nurses or nuns depending on the location of the wheel know they had a new arrival It is believed that the device dates back to the Middle Ages before spreading across the world the first one to be installed in Portugal was built into the wall of the hospital de taldos o Santos until it was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1755. the idea of the device was intended to prevent cases of infanticide where a mother couldn't feed their child so decided to kill it instead the birth of an illegitimate child was another reason a mother would abandon their child as at the time it was considered shameful to have a child out of wedlock as an incentive for other parents to take Anna baby they were offered the money a cot and woe a good-hearted gesture that would Inspire some some seriously disturbing acts in fact on other occasions some single mothers abandon their own children and took in others in order to receive the

5:58 payment of a wet nurse until they hit the age of seven although that was a cruel thing to do at least the women involved weren't killing the children unlike Louisa who ultimately claimed over 20 000 rise overall it's hard to translate how much that would cost in today's money but at the time it was the equivalent of a six-month salary for a cook or a year's salary for a kitchen girl at hospital real descala basically this was a really good wage for those living in poorer parts of Portugal it takes a special kind of evil to take the life of an innocent newborn baby let alone 34 of them but Louise's days were numbered in a fraction of the cruelty she forced on others was about to be done to her foreign on the 1st of April 1772 after already taking 32 babies from different locations Louisa made an unusual request at Casa de Rada she wanted to take two babies for people she knew wanted children the staff

7:06 working at the orphanage and workhouse accepted the request after all more than 200 boys and girls were left there every year with half of them dying during their short stay at the institution shortly after a charity worker and staff member of Casa Dorada accidentally stumbled across a shallow grave under an olive tree which was nearby the orphanage the tiny body had strangulation marks all around its neck after an investigation the baby was identified as one of the babies taken away by Luisa de Jesus to damn the killer further she had signed for the child under her own name something she didn't always do Louisa was soon arrested alongside some of her accomplices Margarita Joaquina and Leo Katia Maria dakonsukeo the charge against them was equivalent to criminal negligence in today's law system as they believed that the Casa Dorada staff member should have been monitoring the children's fate after being given to

8:06 Louisa when placed in front of a judge Louisa confessed to having killed the two children she had recently taken after the second body was found near the first the investigators then contacted all the people that Louisa had located a baby for only to discover that they were all made up identities the records Clerk Pasco Luis Ferreira Da Silva stated that there had been 34 false certificates issued to Louisa under the olive trees were the two latest victims had been found 13 more baby were discovered some had simply been strangled While others showed marks of being violently garretted on April 18th Louisa confessed to killing just nine of the children eventually 15 bodies were dug up at the location with the killer claiming that four of them were not done by her this was either a lie or she had just lost count of how many innocent lives she had buried in that location soon after the judge ordered Louise's house to be

9:07 searched in it several pieces of rotting corpses were found in a clay pot in fact the Decay was so bad that the only way to determine the number of victims was by counting the three skulls inside under a bit of straw four more skulls were found with the flesh completely missing except for one decaying body that was still complete Louisa was questioned again on May 12th and admitted to six more killings days later the investigators found more bodies buried in the ground in all all Louisa confessed to strangling 28 babies despite 33 bodies being discovered in total out of all of Louise's victims who were strangled and dismembered only one when unaccounted for despite all the evidence found Louisa always claimed that she was only responsible for 28 murders did she think that denying six murders after admitting to 28 would make her look better or save her from the death penalty one cannot find such a perverse and corrupt heart

10:13 one of which there is no other example in this Century although Louisa De Jesus was 23 years old when she went to trial the sentencing document gave her ages 22. this is because her lawyer knew that if she was 22 she would be judged as a minor and thus would get a lesser sentence this plan failed and the judge ruled that she was of competent age to be punished according to the gravity of her crimes on July 1st Louisa was sentenced to a punishment that was as fitting and equally barbaric as her crimes in fact he said that he would impose penalties on the defendant that had some proportion to the cruelty of such atrocious crime and the scandals that resulted from them and that he certainly did condemning the young woman to murder but not before being tortured on July 3rd the sentence was confirmed and the Portuguese law required Louisa to pay 50 000 rise for the court costs can you imagine sentencing someone to

11:15 death and then forcing them to pay the young woman was forced to walk the streets tied up with rope while her crimes were announced to the gathered public to make things even more torturous for the woman she was hit with red hot tongues that seared her skin after the public humiliation and torture she was taken to the Gallows where her hands were chopped off the plan was then to hang her but she had bled out before she could be placed afterward the judge ordered Louise's body to be burnt to ashes so that there will never be a memory of such a Monster again in many ways the words of the judge were true as Louisa is believed to be the only female serial killer in in Portugal even to this day she was also the last woman in Portugal to get the death penalty she did almost lose this record about 40 years later in 1810 when Isabel de rojes also known as Queen pampalona was sentenced to death for treason but

12:14 managed to escape before being hanged almost a century after the death of Louisa in 1867 Portugal became the first modern state in Europe to abolish capital punishment during the first world war the death penalty was reinstated for war crimes but was eventually reinstated in 1976 to prevent the death penalty in all crimes the idea of having people like this who have easy access to newborn babies is sickening especially considering that Society trusts them to take care of innocent children women like Louisa are truly every parent's worst nightmare killing any other innocent human being is truly evil but to kill a babe who can't even hold up its own own head is truly despicable cowardly and vile statistically there are far fewer female serial killers compared to male ones with it being a 15 to 85 percent ratio with that being said it doesn't mean that some of the crimes committed by females haven't been as evil and

13:15 sickening as some of those committed by men the case of Louisa De Jesus is just one prime example of this thanks for tuning in to Twisted Minds that was the case of Louisa De Jesus and why don't you go ahead and click on one of the two videos on your screen for another one of our videos

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "This Woman Murdered 30+ Children..."?

James (Guest).

What is "This Woman Murdered 30+ Children..." about?

The content explores the chilling story of Luisa De Jesus, an 18th-century Portuguese woman who murdered over thirty infants to profit from a government incentive designed to care for unwanted babies. Despite her ordinary beginnings and difficult life, her heinous crimes earned her a reputation as a monstrous figure in history, reflecting the dark potential for exploitation within societal…

What is mentioned in this Twisted Minds episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Luisa De Jesus, Twisted Minds, Casa de Rada, Hospital de Taldos o Santos, University of Lisbon, Manuel Rodriguez. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "This Woman Murdered 30+ Children..."?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 2,247 words in 14 timestamped sections.

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