A man has reportedly confessed to Brazilian police that he was a serial killer and hit man responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, the BBC reported.
Sailson Jose Das Gracas, 26, was arrested on Wednesday after he allegedly stabbed a woman to death. During his videotaped interrogation, Das Gracas confessed to killing another 37 women, three men and a 2-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro over the past nine years, police said.
Das Gracas, who is black, reportedly said he preferred to kill white women by strangulation, the Daily Mail reported, and that he was "addicted to murder."
Das Gracas said he would go out 'hunting' -- stalking his victims to learn their movements -- and then killed them for the adrenaline rush.
"I observed them, I studied them. I waited for a month, sometimes a week, depending on the place. I tried to ascertain where they lived, what their families were like. I kept watch on their houses and then after a while went there at dawn, waited for my chance and entered," broadcaster Globo's G1 news portal quoted Gracas as saying.
He also apparently killed for money. According to Das Gracas, he was hired to murder his three alleged male victims.
In an interview with reporters at the police station in Nova Iguacu, Gracas said he enjoyed seeing the female victims die.
"I got pleasure from them fighting, screaming and scratching me. I thought that I was crazy, sometimes normal," he said, as quoted by The Telegraph.
Rio police chief Marcelo Machado said Das Gracas also masturbated after the victims were dead.
Police apprehended Das Gracas soon after his alleged slaying of 26-year-old Fatima Miranda, who was found dead in her home.
Das Gracas reportedly began his life of crime when he was just a teenager. At 15, he began stealing handbags. But only two years later, he allegedly killed his first victim, The Globe And Mail reported.
"I started to steal small things, do small robberies. And as I grew up I started having other thoughts. My thinking started to change, understand? From robbing, I started to think about killing," Das Gracas said.
Authorities are in the process of verifying Das Gracas' claims, but they say they believe his account. In the past 48 hours, they've already matched four crimes, Reuters reported.
According to Agence France-Presse, the maximum prison term under Brazilian law that Das Gracas could face is 30 years.
"I don't feel remorse -- if I go to jail for 10, 15, 20 years, then as soon as I get out I'll do the same thing all over again," Gracas said.
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