S36 Ep4: Serial Killers in History – The Foundling Wheel Killer

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[SPEAKER_00]: A thin sliver of moonlight, balls over the olive grows on the outskirts of Quimbra Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It is a cool spring night in seventeen seventy-two.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Angelica Maria, a caretaker from the local family home, walks a narrow path of Montiario, or lantern casting jittery shadows among the trees.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She pauses.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Something on the ground catches her eye.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The earth looks recently disturbed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: With trembling hands, she kneels and brushes aside the topsoil.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It gasped, escapes her lips.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As the lanterns glow, reveals a tiny bundle beneath.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The lifeless body of an infant hastily buried.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bruises more the baby's delicate neck.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Angelica staggers back, heart pounding, or her, washes over her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She realizes this is no lone tragedy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It is the first glimpse into an unfathomable nightmare.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the silent darkness, the foundling home caretaker whispers a prayer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: unaware that her grim discovery is about to unmask a monster hiding in their midst.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hello friend, welcome to foul play.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Shane Waters.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining me for episode four of our series, Serial Killers in History.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In our last episode, we traveled to the Caribbean in seventeen sixty-eight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's seventeen seventy-two, and we've returned to Europe, more precisely, to Portugal, to uncover a tale that defies belief.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight we delve into the story of Louisa de Jesus, a woman whose name will become synonymous with betrayal and blood.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is our fourth case in this series and notably our third female serial killer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But unlike the others, her weapon of choice was not poison.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, Louisa turned an institution of mercy into her hunting ground

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[SPEAKER_00]: How could a caregiver entrusted with society's most vulnerable commit such unspeakable acts under the guise of charity?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Are the end of this episode will confront the dark truth of a killer who prayed on innocence and examined how her crimes forced a nation to rethink how it protects its children.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The year is seventeen seventy-two.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Portugal is in the throes of social upheaval, under King Joseph I, and his influential minister, Marquis of Palm Ball.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Poverty is rampant, and one heartbreaking consequence is a surge in infant and abandonment.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Across cities like Coembro.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Desperate mothers with no means to care for their newborns.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Turned to the Casa da Rota.

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[SPEAKER_00]: the founding wheel system, hoping to save their baby's lives.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The founding wheel was a rotating wooden cylinder, built into orphanage and church walls, where one could anonymously leave an infant by placing them inside and turning the wheel.

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[SPEAKER_00]: a bell which I am, alerting the caretakers on the other side, but a child, known as an ex-posto, or exposed one, now needed their care.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a system born of compassion and desperation intended to curve and fantasize by offering a safe alternative

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[SPEAKER_00]: For each abandoned child taken in, the authorities provided a stipend of about six hundred rays, a cradle and a length of cloth, a support for the caregiver.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In theory, it was a life-saving charity.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In practice, it was overwhelmed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hundreds of infants were left at the Coimbra, Foundling Wheel, each year.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Far more than the understaffed facilities could adequately monitor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This was the world into which our stories protagonist was born.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A world of good intentions in tragic vulnerabilities

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[SPEAKER_02]: The UK's have shocked Portugal, quite like that of Louisa Jittis.

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[SPEAKER_02]: In the eighteenth-century serial killer whose crime still resonate with horror nearly three centuries later, the year was seventeen seventy-two, and Portugal was experiencing a period of significant social transformation under the reign of King Joseph I and his powerful minister, the Marquis of Pumble.

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[SPEAKER_02]: During this time, Portugal was struggling with widespread poverty, and a growing crisis of child abandonment.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The streets of major cities, like Kingdomra, were filled with desperate mothers who couldn't care for their infants, and a system of wet nurses and foundling homes, had emerged to address this social crisis.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It was within this troubled system that Louise had to ease us would commit her horrific acts.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What makes this case particularly chilling is not just a number of victims, but the calculated nature of the crimes and the exploitation of societies most vulnerable members.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Luis who have become known as Portugal's first documented female serial killer, and her actions would lead to fundamental changes in how the country handled child welfare.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As we delve into this dark chapter of Portuguese history, we'll explore how one woman's crimes expose the deep flaws and a system meant to protect society's most innocent members.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Though we said to his use was born on December tenth, seventeen forty-eight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In a small village near Coimbra.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The daughter of poor farmers, she grew up with few prospects, in a society divided sharply along class lines.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Little is recorded about her childhood.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Notably, there's no evidence that she herself was ever a foundling.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite the surname, De Hizzouce, commonly given to abandoned children that she used.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Paris' record shows she was baptized and raised by her birth parents, Manuel and Mariana Rodriguez.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As a young adult, Louisa married a man named Emmanuel Gomes, though he would vanish from her story by the time it reached its darkest chapter.

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[SPEAKER_00]: To earn a living, Louisa worked as a recovery raw.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A carrier who transported goods between the city of Quimbra and outlying villages.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This humble job gave her a reason to travel frequently, and mingle with various communities.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Importantly, it brought her into contact with the Quimbra family home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The real Casa dos expotes

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[SPEAKER_00]: through her deliveries and local errands.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisia became a familiar face at the Foundling Wheelhouse.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She often volunteered to help the staff, sometimes acting as a go-between, who could vary infants to wet nurses, or foster families in distant villages.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Great full officials saw her as a godsend.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A compassionate young woman willing to take in or deliver unwanted babies, to those who would care for them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisa's humble background and friendly demeanor, endeared her to the family homes overseers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They never imagined the wolf and sheep's clothing that lurked beneath.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Over time, Louisa learned every detail of the family care system.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She understood the bureaucracy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She knew how the intake ledgers were kept, and how stipends were issued to caregivers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She knew that for each infant entrusted to a caregiver, the state would pay out those six hundred rays.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Along with the cradle and a piece of cloth, no questions asked.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And she knew the system's weaknesses, the desperate abundance of babies, the overworked staff, and the gaps in oversight that spanned across regions

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[SPEAKER_00]: By seventeen seventy-one, Louisa had quietly begun to test the waters of a sinister scheme.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She offered to personally adopt families or to collect them on behalf of supposed rural couples who couldn't make the journey to Queenborough.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Each time she filled out the prerequisite paperwork for the transfer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Documents handled by a seasoned administrator, imposque all the weeds the rear-eyed to Sylvia, and walked away with an infant in the accompanying subsidy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: To the founding home, it was a relief, one less mouth to feed, and a child presumably on the way to a loving home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: To Louisa, it was an opportunity.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Little did anyone suspect that the seemingly kind nurse made, who presented herself as a savior for abandoned infants, was about to exploit their trust in the most horrific way imaginable.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Louise's intimate knowledge of the system's workings, combined with the trust she had built within the community, created the perfect cover for what would become a devastating series of crimes that would shock the entire nation.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Louise's criminal enterprise began to take shape in seventeen seventy-two.

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[SPEAKER_02]: When she discovered she could make a considerable profit by exploiting the foundling care system.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Her method was ruthlessly efficient.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She would travel to different foundling homes across the region, collecting infants under the pretence of providing them with care.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Beech child she took in, she received payment from the authorities, typically enough money to sustain a caregiver for several months.

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[SPEAKER_02]: However, instead of caring for these vulnerable infants, Louise would murder them shortly after a saving payment.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She would then move on to another founding home in a different town, where she wasn't known and repeat the process.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The bureaucratic gaps between different jurisdictions and the poor record keeping of the time allowed her to continue this horrific cycle without detection for many months.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Louisa's preferred method of killing was strangulation, though she occasionally resorted to suffocation as well.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She would typically commit these murders within days of receiving the children, ensuring she could maximize her profits, while minimizing the time and resources spent, while actually caring for the infants.

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[SPEAKER_02]: After each murder she would dispose of the tiny bodies in remote locations, often bearing them in shallow graves or abandoning them in wooded areas.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The precise number of victims has never been definitely established.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But during her eventual confession, we are admitted to murdering thirty-three infants over the course of just under a year.

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[SPEAKER_02]: This makes her one of history's most prolific infant killers.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The systematic nature of her crimes was unprecedented.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She treated the murder of these children as a business, carefully selecting her victims and maintaining a routine that allowed her to avoid detection.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What made her crimes particularly shocking was the calculated way she exploited a system designed to protect society's most vulnerable members.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She took advantage of both the financial support offered by the state, and the trust placed in her as a caregiver.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The Foundling homes, desperate to find placements for the overwhelming number of abandoned infants, were easy targets for her scheme.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For months, Luis de Jesus carried on her murderous fraud, without anyone suspecting a thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She was careful, spacing out her visits to the founding wheel, so that no obvious pattern would raise alarm.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Each time she arrived, the staff handed over another infant, and another payment, gratefully recording a fake name of some distant adopter that Luis had invented

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[SPEAKER_00]: No follow-up inquiries were made.

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[SPEAKER_00]: After all, once a child left with a caregiver, it was assumed they were in good hands.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But the illusion of safety could not last forever.

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[SPEAKER_00]: April first, seventeen, seventy-two.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The early spring morning, when Angelica Maria stumbled upon that shallow grave, a Monte Arroyo, and uncovered a tiny, strangled corpse

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[SPEAKER_00]: As a word of the grim discovery spread, local authorities descended upon the area.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Shovels struck dirt, and soon, two more infant bodies were unearthed from the cold ground.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Each one, a newborn, recently entrusted to the foundling home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now dead, with bruises and circling, it's neck.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The community was a guest.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Who could commit such an atrocity?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators quickly retrace the fate of these babies and found a common thread.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The last person seen with them was a woman matching, Louisa de Jesus' description.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The caretaker Angelica, horrified by what she had uncovered, told officials, that Louisa had just taken her two infants from the founding home, days prior.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Suspicion fell immediately on the twenty-three-year-old woman who had once been considered a benefactor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisa was promptly detained for questioning.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At first she maintained a steely calm and swore her innocence, insisting that the infants and her care had simply taken ill and died of natural causes

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a thin lie, and it unraveled almost immediately.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators confronted her with the evidence from Monte Eroyo in the founding homes records.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There were no signs of these children being delivered to any of the families, Luis had listed, and the paperwork

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[SPEAKER_00]: pressed harder, Luis's facade began to crack.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Within hours of interrogation, some accounts say by April VI.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She offered a chilling, partial confession, admitting that she had killed the three infants, bound on the hillside.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yet a shocking as that admission was, it was only the beginning.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities sensed at a far larger horror, lay below the surface, and they were right.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Under magistrate orders, a team of soldiers were dispatched to Luis a small cottage on the outskirts of town, while they discovered there, with seared itself into Portuguese history.

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[SPEAKER_00]: buried in the dirt floor of our home was an unthinkable cache of human remains.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The searchers uncovered a large clay pot, hidden beneath a few loose boards.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Inside were decomposed body parts of infants, a foul stench escaping from the container.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Counting by tiny skulls, they realized multiple children had been dumped together in that pot,

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[SPEAKER_00]: nearby, under a pile of straw, lay four more infant skulls.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Their delicate bones nod by decay.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Even the most hardened officers, wretched at the sight, and still there was more.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Digging further, authorities found tin small skull caps, buried in a corner of the hut's earth and floor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Evidence of infants who have been completely deboned, or dismembered earlier, in Luis's killing spree.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was as if they had stumbled into a charnelhouse.

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[SPEAKER_00]: All together, the investigators recovered the remains of eighteen children from Luis's home alone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Combined with the bodies exhumed, a Monterario, which eventually totaled fifteen

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[SPEAKER_00]: The count of victims found reached a staggering thirty-three infants.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisia de Jesus, confronted with this mountain of daming evidence, finally broke.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Over the course of several days, she confessed in detail to twenty-eight murders, one by one, in a disturbingly matter-of-fact manner.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She recounted how she would tie a strip of cloth tightly around each baby's neck.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The very strips found carelessly discarded in her home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And strangled them shortly after leaving the city.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She described carrying the tiny corpses up the hill to Monte Eroyo, undercover of darkness, or hiding them under her floorboards until she could dispose of them

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[SPEAKER_00]: At times, she even admitted to dismembering the bodies of her earliest victims, perhaps too better conceal several remains in one burial spot.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout these confessions, investigators noted with revulsion that Louisa showed little to no remorse.

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[SPEAKER_00]: According to a contemporary reports, she answered questions possessed of ambition and ferocity, with her profits and indifferent to the suffering she caused.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her chilling lack of emotion, as if she were discussing the slaughter of chickens, rather than babies, left even seasoned magistrates, pale and shaken.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As Luis is spoke, officials cross-checked her statements with the fouling homes ledgers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The pattern became clear.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Over the past year, thirty-four children in total have been entrusted to Luis the de Jesus' care.

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[SPEAKER_00]: of those, thirty-three bodies had now been found, either at Monte Arroyo or in her house.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Only one infant, the thirty-fourth, remained unaccounted for, its fate unknown.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisa refused to divulge what happened to that missing child, an eerie mystery that hung over the case and fueled public outrage even more.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was evident to the authorities that Louisa and methodically lied on official documents, creating fictitious names and addresses so that no real foster family would come forward asking where a child was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: shockingly, the administrator, Pasquawal Silvia, had signed off on all of these false records, essentially rubber stamping, Luis's kidnapping and murder spray, out of negligence or worse.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He, along with two women, who operated the family wheel, the Rodeera, and an internal wet nurse, were arrested as accomplices for their failure to oversee the process properly

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[SPEAKER_00]: The public now learning of these developments was furious, not only at Louisa, but at the entire system that had allowed her crimes to go undetected.

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[SPEAKER_00]: By late April, seventeen seventy-two, the investigation had late bare the full scope of Luis's atrocities.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the official summary by the magistrates, they concluded grimly.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thirty-four children had left the fouling wheel.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thirty-three were found dead.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it is evident, a Luis de Jesus dispatched them all in the same cruel manner, robbing not only their lives, but the kingdom of their future citizens.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There was never any doubt about the outcome of this case.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Portugal had never seen a murderer, like Luis de Jesus, the deadliest serial killer, in its history.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And there was an overwhelming cry for justice.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As investigators pieced together the timeline of her crimes, they were struck by the systematic nature of her operation.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She had maintained detailed records of payments received, and had even kept track of burial locations, which aided in the recovery of many of her victims.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The investigation ultimately confirmed the deaths of thirty-three infants.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Though some historians believe the actual number might be higher,

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[SPEAKER_02]: The trial of Louise had to ease us, began in the summer of seventeen seventy-three, during unprecedented attention from across Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The court proceedings held in Kingborough became a sensation that touched every level of Portuguese society.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The details revealed during the trial, painted a picture of calculated cruelty that left the nation stunned.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The prosecution presented overwhelming evidence, including Louise's own meticulous records and a testimony of numerous family home workers.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What particularly shocked the courtroom was her apparent lack of remorse.

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[SPEAKER_02]: When questioned about her motives, she spoke only of the financial benefits, treating the deaths of thirty-three infants as mere business transactions.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The defense attempted to argue that Louise's own background, as an abandoned child, had damaged her psyche.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But this argument gained little traction with either the judges or the public.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The sentiment on the street of Quimbra was unanimously against her, with crowds gathering daily outside the courthouse demanding justice.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The verdict came swiftly.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The court-fanned Louise had to ease us, guilty of all charges and sentenced her to death by hanging.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But her punishment didn't end there.

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[SPEAKER_02]: In a particularly severe judgment, the court ordered that her body be burned and her ashes scattered to the winds.

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[SPEAKER_02]: A punishment typically reserved the most heinous of crimes.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The case sparked intense debate about the fumbling home systems throughout Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Questions arose about how such systematic murder could go undetected for so long.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The public's trust in these institutions was severely shaken, leading to calls for reform in how abandoned children were handled and monitored.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louis said that his use his sentence was as unprecedented and fierce as her crimes.

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[SPEAKER_00]: On July first, seventeenth seventy-two, the day of execution, thousands of people flooded into Coyneboro's main square to witness the finale of this horrific saga.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities meant to make an example of her, and so they staged a ghastly public spectacle in the tradition of the time

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[SPEAKER_00]: Luisa, Anne's bound, was paraded through the streets, with a coarse rope slung around her neck, while the town cryer walked beside her, loudly reading out her catalog of crimes for all to hear.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As she passed by, the crowd cheered and pressed in.

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[SPEAKER_00]: some throughout food.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Others simply stood in stunned silence at the sight of this slight unremarkable looking woman, who had murdered with a ruthless efficiency that defied comprehension.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Upon reaching the scaffold, the punishment grew even more brutal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The executioner produced a red hot iron pincers, and, following the sentences instructions, clamped it onto Luis's flesh, burning her as she screamed in agony.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Next, in a single stroke, her hands were cut off, the very hands that had accepted money for innocent lives, and carried infants to their death.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, as the crowd held its breath, Louis said to his zoos what's garauded.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The iron collar, tightening around her neck until life left her body.

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[SPEAKER_00]: To ensure she could never receive the dignity of a grave, the court had decreed a further humiliation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her corpse was to be burned to ashes and scattered to the wind.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the chilling words of the seventeen-seventy-two judgment,

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[SPEAKER_01]: Translation, taken to the place of execution.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Their her hands shall be cut off.

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[SPEAKER_01]: After that, she shall die by the carot,

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[SPEAKER_00]: Once that is done, let her body be burned and reduced to ashes so that no memory remains of such a monster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When the smoke cleared that afternoon, Louisa de Jesus was dead, and with her died any notion that a woman could not be as cool or calculating as a man.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, her infamy would be sealed in the history books

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[SPEAKER_00]: Louisa was the last woman ever executed in Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her case marked a turning point on the cobbled streets of Kowindra.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Many cheered that justice had been served to this monster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But others, in enlightened circles, murmured uneasyly of the barbarity of the punishment.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was the age of enlightenment, after all, and debates about crime and punishment were in the air.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Some asked, had the spectacle, been justice, or just another horror?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, few truly mourned Luis de De Jesus, the overwhelming public sentiment remained, one of anger and relief.

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[SPEAKER_00]: anger at the system that allowed her to pray on the innocent.

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[SPEAKER_00]: in the wake of Luis's execution.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Portugal was forced to take a hard look at the failings of its child welfare system.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that a woman could murder thirty-three babies under the guise of charity, and nearly get away with it, sent shockwaves through every founding home in the country.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Investigations were launched into the Casa de Rota of Coimbra and beyond

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[SPEAKER_00]: The two Kowimbride employees who had handed over infants to Luisa, the wheel caretaker, Margarita, or Queena, and the nurse, Locchiata, De Conte-Sound, were publicly shamed for what one historian would call criminal negligence, in failing to verify the destinations of those children.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They were released from jail in October, seventeen seventy-two, having been chastened, but ultimately not prosecuted, as killers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The scandal provoked intense debates among officials in the public.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How could the founding system be reformed to prevent such an atrocity from ever happening again?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Newspapers and pamphlets of the time questioned how the bureaucracy had become so lacks that a single person could adopt dozens of infants without raising alarm.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in the charitable institutions was badly shaken

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[SPEAKER_00]: In response, the authorities moved swiftly to Titan oversight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: New regulations were drafted for founding homes across Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Air givers taking in infants, now face stricter monitoring.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Local officials are required to conduct regular check-ins at least monthly, to confirm the welfare of each child placed in private care.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Detailed logs became mandatory, recording where each baby was sent, and scheduled follow-up visits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A rudimentary central registry was proposed, so that a record existed of every transfer, preventing any one person from collecting multiple stipends under false pretenses as Louisa had.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The government of Prime Minister Pumball, known for his reforms, supported harsher penalties for any official who failed to report irregularities in the system.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Within a decade, these efforts culminated in a sweeping reform.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In seventeen eighty-three under the patronage of Queen Maria I.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Portugal expanded the founding wheel system to all towns, but with far greater supervision and funding.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Local municipalities were ordered to find its founding care, and were threatened with punishment if they neglected their duties.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a direct attempt to ensure that the tragedy of Kowimbra would not be repeated.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Louisa de Jesus' case also changed public attitudes

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[SPEAKER_00]: What had once been a quietly pitted corner of society, abandoned infants and the women who cared for them, now became a high profile concern.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Churches and charities saw a surge of interest from wealthy patrons spurred by the horror of the murders.

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[SPEAKER_00]: philanthropists donated money to improve conditions and orphanages and some even established new charitable foundations dedicated to protecting unwanted children.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There was a new found recognition that these babies often born out of wedlock or extreme poverty needed better protection from exploitation

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[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the reforms Portugal implemented in the late seventeenth seventies and seventeenth eighties were considered among the most progressive child welfare measures in Europe at the time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For instance, authorities began performing background checks in a rudimentary eighteenth century form on prospective wet nurses or caregivers rather than accepting any volunteer at face value.

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[SPEAKER_00]: severe penalties were put in place for those who abused or neglected children entrusted to them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A direct response to the realization that without accountability the most vulnerable could be preyed upon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In short, out of the ashes of Luis's crimes, a stronger oversight system was born.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It did not happen overnight, and it certainly did not bring back the lives of those thirty-three innocents.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But it marked a turning point.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The founding wheel continued to turn in Portugal for decades to come.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But now everyone understood that simply abandoning a child to charity wasn't enough.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Society had to remain vigilant about who picked that child up on the other side.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Modern interpretations of the case are focused on its broader social implications.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Historians and criminologists point to Louise or De Jesus as a prime example of how systematic failures in social institutions can enable serial killers to operate undetected.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The case is often cited in discussions about the importance of oversight and child welfare systems and the potential consequences of inadequate monitoring.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The story of Louise had to ease us, continues to influence Portuguese culture and law enforcement training.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Police Academy used the case to teach the importance of thorough recalkeeping and regular monitoring of vulnerable populations.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Social workers study it as a cautionary tale about the critical need for vigilance in child protection services.

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[SPEAKER_02]: In recent years, scholars have also examined the case through the lens of gender and social class, noting how Louise's position as a poor woman allowed her to exploit a system that paid little attention to those on society's margins.

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[SPEAKER_02]: This analysis is contributed to ongoing discussions about social inequality and its relationship to crime and justice.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The case of Louisa De Jesus stands as a chilling reminder of how vulnerable members of society, particularly children, control victim to systematic failures and individual malice.

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[SPEAKER_02]: While her crimes were horrific, they ultimately served as a catalyst for profound and necessary change in child welfare systems, not just in Portugal, but across Europe.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The consequences of her actions extended far beyond the immediate tragedy of the murdered infants.

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[SPEAKER_02]: A case forced society to confront uncomfortable truths about the treatment of abandoned children and the desperate circumstances that could drive someone to commit such heinous acts.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The reforms have followed her execution, created a foundation for modern child protection services, demonstrating how even the darkest chapters in history can lead to positive social change.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As we reflect on this historical case, we're reminded that vigilance in protecting society's most vulnerable members remains as crucial today as it was in eighteenth century Portugal.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The story of Louisa de Jesus continues to serve as a powerful warning about the importance of robust oversight through documentation, and the need to look beyond surface appearances when protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us, for this sobering journey into the past.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is Fowl Plague, and I'm Shane Waters.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't chase monsters.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We uncover the damage they leave behind.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The ashes of Luisah de Jesus were scattered to the winds and the attempt to erase her from memory.

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[SPEAKER_00]: but her dark legacy endured, etched in the quiet graves of her victims, and in the laws that rose to protect the innocent after her reign of terror.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Her story reminds us that sometimes the worst monsters hide in plain sight, wearing the guise of a savior.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, stay vigilant, and take care of one another