Mission Killer: "Real Life Dexter" Manny Pardo

If you listen to this show, you probably like hearing the bad guys get punished.

It's usually how we wrap up our stories.

These endings validate our internal sense of justice: the killers behind bars, the mean girls hit by a bus, the jokers punched in the face by Batman.

In that, we have something in common with mission-oriented serial killers.

In their minds, they're punishing the bad guys.

But for this type of killer, making the world a better place requires committing murder.

Criminologist duo Ronald Holmes and Stephen Holmes note that the mission killer isn't psychotic and is often seen as an upstanding member of society before they're caught.

They'll succeed in long-term jobs, start families, even save choking babies with CPR.

But in secret, they target so-called undesirables.

The kills are quick and organized.

With each death, they gain a sense of righteousness.

Today's killer had a personal mission to make the local streets safer for his daughter and children like her.

But Manny Pardo

was no hero.

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Today we're talking about the mission killer.

These are vigilantes who take justice into their own hands and become criminals themselves.

Today's killer, Manny Manny Pardo, was a police officer who didn't think jail was good enough punishment for drug offenders.

He wanted them dead, so he waged his own personal war on drugs, ultimately committing nine murders.

Even as a child, Manny had a natural sense of justice.

When the Pardos found a rodent in the apartment, his father wanted to set up mousetraps, but Manny wouldn't let him, saying the creature had a right to live.

Late at night, he snuck downstairs to feed the mouse crumbs crumbs of cheese.

Later, he nursed a stray dog back to health.

But it wasn't just animals.

Manny wanted to take care of the people around him, too.

He idolized police officers, soldiers, and firefighters, people who enforced peace and order in the community.

His sister noted his love for uniforms.

But really, Manny was drawn to discipline.

He had a distinct moral compass and liked the idea of following and defending a set of rules.

His parents sent him to Catholic school, which meant he got to wear a uniform and follow clear rules like the Ten Commandments.

The religious teachings about sinners and saints probably influenced Manny's developing worldview.

There's evil in the world, and some people choose it.

All of this made him the perfect Boy Scout.

There was little he loved more than donning the uniform shirt with its neatly lined patches and signature red handkerchief.

It embodied everything he cared about.

Order, discipline, justice, and strength.

And when it came time to pick a career, Manny said he wanted to join the Army.

Notably, Manny grew up during the Vietnam War, and the military wasn't exactly popular.

Many Americans were cynical about the war, the government, and if the U.S.

had the right to be a global moral enforcer.

But not Manny.

To him, the U.S.

forces were always right.

So in early 1974, four months after his 17th birthday, Manny dropped out of his Catholic high school and enlisted in the Navy.

But the Navy wasn't just about rules and justice.

It also held opportunities for glory.

Manny received an award for good conduct and was certified as a sharpshooter.

In 1975, he claims to have participated in a hostage rescue mission where 41 Americans died.

However, the mission was deemed a success.

The hostages were rescued and Manny received a National Defense Medal.

He may have walked away with the lesson that death was necessary for the greater good.

In 1978, Manny left the Navy and moved to Miami-Dade County with his new wife.

It was a nice enough area, but Manny took issue with the crime he witnessed, no matter how small.

So he decided to take action, applying for Florida's Highway Patrol.

After training at the Police Academy, he graduated as valedictorian.

He joined the Miami Police and in the summer of 1979, Manny was named the statewide Trooper of the Month.

It seemed Manny was living his childhood dream, but for some reason, this success wasn't enough for him.

He needed to blow his quotas out of the water, so he falsified 100 traffic tickets.

When his supervisors caught on, they launched an internal investigation.

Manny quit before they could fire him.

Within two months, he had a new police officer job in Sweetwater, Florida, about a 25-minute drive from Miami.

Manny's behavior became more concerning in his new job.

Once, he pulled over a driver and hit him in the face with his walkie-talkie.

According to Manny, the driver had insulted him, but the driver said he was beaten up for no reason.

He took Manny to court.

In the end, the charges against Manny were dismissed and he went back to work.

The next year, Manny was sued again.

for shooting a man in the elbow and causing him to fall off of a horse.

Manny claimed he was trying to arrest the man and his companions for cannabis possession, but the man filed a $6 million lawsuit against the city.

Then, in 1981, Manny was called to testify in a fellow officer's trial, where he lied under oath.

In front of the judge and jury, he said his comrade was innocent.

He then claimed he and the accused officer were actually international agents on an undercover narcotics mission.

Shortly after this, the Sweetwater PD fired Manny.

Being unemployed meant Manny had more time for his interests, like military history.

One military in particular fascinated him.

The Third Reich.

At some point in his 20s, Manny started collecting books on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

He hung a portrait of Hitler in his room, calling him a hero who, quote, rooted out the evil.

Manny even tattooed a swastika on his dog's leg.

Soon after his dismissal from the Sweetwater PD, Manny's brother-in-law introduced him to a 24-year-old auto auto parts repairman named Rolando Garcia.

Manny and Rolando got along immediately.

They went to bars and chatted all night.

Before long, their discussions turned to the flaws they saw in the justice system.

Both men hated the crime they saw in their community.

Manny came to a realization.

Sweetwater had been holding him back.

He couldn't do the work he needed to do within the confines of the law.

According to Holmes and Holmes, a missionary killer's choice of victim usually comes from a negative life experience, an event or series of events that leads them to see certain groups as a problem that needs solving.

If that line of thinking rings bells about the Holocaust, well, Manny did idolize Hitler.

Holmes and Holmes note that Manny made a very conscious decision to annihilate those he saw as the, quote, bad people who made his community unsafe.

And at some point after getting to know Rolando, Manny asked him to be a sidekick.

Manny had a mission and needed help.

The mission?

Remove drug dealers from society permanently.

It's possible that Manny Pardo would never have decided to become a vigilante without the support he received from Rolando, the Robin to his Batman.

Rolando had some valuable contacts in the area, and in return, he may have felt empowered by Manny, who was educated, decorated, and passionate.

The duo decided their first step was to infiltrate the local community of criminals and drug dealers.

According to Holmes and Holmes, this is typical of mission-oriented killers.

They seek out victims in their area where they're comfortable.

It might also stem from their desire to improve their neighborhood.

In late 1985, Manny and Rolando approached a drug kingpin named Ramon Alvero, known as El Negro, and offered their services.

Ramon accepted the two men into his crew.

He likely knew that Manny had been a corrupt cop, and maybe he thought that could come in handy down the line.

For the first few weeks, Manny and Rolando made the rounds for Ramon, buying and selling cocaine.

But eventually, it came time for Manny to enact his plan.

In January 1986, Manny and Rolando went to Mario Almador's home to purchase two kilograms of cocaine from him.

Mario was a civil engineer, but he and his boyfriend, Roberto Alonso, sold cocaine on the side.

The couple had gotten a call from a friend warning them that Manny and Rolando were suspicious.

But when Manny and Rolando arrived, supposedly armed with enough cash to make a deal, Mario and Roberto let them in.

Business was business.

As soon as Mario took out the drugs, Manny took out something too.

a 22-caliber pistol equipped with a silencer.

Manny pointed the gun and pulled the trigger.

Later, Manny said he shot as many times as he felt was necessary.

Quote, I felt good doing it, so if I ran out of bullets, I put another clip in my gun.

With both his victims dead, Manny took out a camera and snapped pictures of the bodies.

Then, he and Rolando confiscated the drugs and left the bodies where they were.

This is also typical of mission killers.

Holmes and Holmes wrote that the intention is simply for the victim to die.

Unlike other types of killers, they don't relish the act or have a sexual interest in their victims' bodies.

They simply want them dead.

These types of killers are more likely to bring their own weapons, like Pardo's gun, and reuse it for multiple crimes.

And Pardo made it clear he intended to kill again.

A few days after his first double homicide, Manny Pardo ran into a problem.

He heard a rumor that the gunsmith he'd purchased silencers from, Michael Millett, aka Frenchie, was actually a federal informant.

True or not, Manny wasn't going to take chances.

At the end of the first month, Manny and Rolando arranged a meeting with Frenchie.

They picked him up in Manny's wife's car and ushered the man into the front seat.

From the back, Manny pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Frenchie in the head.

Quickly, the pair ditched Frenchie's body on an isolated dirt road about a quarter mile north of the Dade-Broward County line in Miramar, Florida.

Manny and Rolando mopped up as much blood as possible from the car, then drove it to an auto upholstery shop.

The car was cleaned and re-upholstered, and returned to Manny's driveway.

Manny might have been concerned Frenchie would rat on him, but he was certainly confident he could get away with murder.

Using his wife's car was a bold move.

There'd be records of the reupholstering.

But Manny seemed to like having records.

He filled journals with details about the murders, he recorded his personal account, took took photos, and followed investigations closely.

Manny didn't try to stay under the radar.

It didn't take long for the Miramar police to find and identify Frenchie's body.

As part of their investigation, they searched his home.

There, officers found eight guns, including one belonging to Manny Pardo.

He'd apparently left it there at some point when buying weapons from Frenchie.

But the Miramar officers didn't find Manny suspicious.

Not when they found the gun, not when Manny came into into the station to reclaim it, and not even when Manny applied for a job at that police station.

He was practically begging them to give him a closer look.

Around this time, he began wearing his military fatigues around town and bragging about the murders.

One of his most trusted confidants was 23-year-old Carlos Ribera.

Manny and Rolando told him about each kill and even showed him pictures.

Carlos kept quiet, but it wasn't because he agreed with what they were doing.

He was just scared to get on their bad side.

And Carlos wasn't the only one having second thoughts.

Ramon Alvero, the drug dealer they were working for, didn't like what he'd been hearing about their murders.

Not only did it call attention to his business, but he worried they would turn on him.

Ramon tried to avoid the pair as much as possible, but continued giving them work buying and selling cocaine.

So it was just a matter of time before Manny killed again.

A month after Frenchie's murder, in February 1986, Manny and Rolando went to buy some cocaine at the home of Luis Roblero and Olpiano Ledo.

It was a false pretense.

Once inside, Manny excused himself to go to the bathroom.

He took his.22-caliber pistol from his pocket and attached a silencer.

After a deep breath, Manny burst out of the bathroom.

He fired a series of bullets at Luis and Olpiano, killing the two men instantly.

Then, Manny and Rolando went through Luis's wallet and grabbed his credit cards, and Manny took a photo of the bodies.

But this time, he decided to take some precautions.

Perhaps to make it seem like Luis was still alive, Manny used Luis's credit cards to buy a tape recorder, a car radio, and speakers.

Now there was a paper trail connected to his financial accounts.

But it wasn't enough for Manny and Rolando.

They asked two friends, Farrah Kintero and Sarah Musa, to buy some some VCRs, and Rolando gave the women one of Luis's cards to pay for the electronics.

However, Farah was annoyed with Rolando.

He owed her $50 and refused to pay her back.

Now, here he was, asking for yet another favor.

Farah and Sarah complained to a mutual friend and skipped buying the VCRs.

Word traveled back to Rolando, who took the insult to heart.

That April, Manny and Rolando knocked on the door of Sarah and Farah's house.

The couple let them in.

Manny went to the bathroom.

Locked inside, he took a deep breath and reached into his pocket for his.22-caliber gun.

Then he attached a silencer.

Manny charged out of the bathroom, pointing his gun at Sarah and firing repeatedly.

When Sarah fell to the ground, Manny aimed at Farah.

But the gun jammed.

So Manny lunged at Farah.

He slammed his gun into her skull until the impact unjammed the weapon.

Then Manny shot her to death.

After killing seven people, Manny's victim type was clearly evolving.

Sarah and Farah weren't drug dealers or criminals.

Manny just decided they were bad people and he wanted them gone.

He was not purely a vigilante, but a violent serial killer.

And he wasn't done killing.

The day after Manny Pardo killed Sarah Musa and Farah Quintero, Sarah's mother stopped by the house.

She found the two women's bullet-ridden bodies and contacted the police.

While the cops looked for answers, Manny and his sidekick Rolando ran into another problem.

Ramon was avoiding them.

Ramon was the drug kingpin they'd been working for.

They're in into the community Manny hoped to destroy.

But when he bailed on yet another meeting, Manny realized that the drug dealer might not be useful anymore.

Plus, he was a criminal.

A kingpin.

It'd be like killing the queen bee to take out the hive.

The following day, Manny and Rolando went to Ramon's home and forced him and his girlfriend, Daisy Ricard, into Ramon's car.

The four drove to an isolated area.

Ramon likely guessed what might be in store, but he had no way out.

Eventually, Manny pulled the car over.

He forced the couple out.

pointing his.22-caliber gun directly at Ramon.

He fired several times, killing Ramon instantly.

Then he turned his gun on Daisy.

She wasn't a criminal, but she was with Ramon.

To Manny, that made her complacent.

He pulled the trigger, but again, the gun jammed.

Manny slammed the gun on Daisy's head just like he had the last time.

The gun immediately unjammed and fired directly into Manny's ankle.

He'd shot himself.

But that didn't stop him from attacking Daisy.

He shot her to death even as he bled from his own gunshot wound.

Manny and Rolando dropped Daisy's body in a field and left Ramon's remains in a landfill.

Bleeding and in pain, Manny couldn't think straight.

He knew he had to get to a hospital.

He also knew he had to get as far away from the murders as possible.

So he purchased plane tickets to New York.

He and Rolando wrapped his wound as best they could, found a wheelchair, and drove to the airport.

On the plane, the stewardess asked what happened.

Manny snapped that he'd been in a car accident.

Once they landed, Manny went to a New York hospital.

He told medics he and Rolando were walking along Broadway when someone randomly shot him.

The doctors got to work immediately and called the NYPD.

The Metro Homicide Division was surprised when they got the call.

They hadn't heard anything about gunshots in the area.

Investigators looked into it and didn't turn anything up.

That led authorities to wonder if Manny was lying about where he'd been shot.

The officers looked into recent flight arrivals into New York City and discovered that two men bought last-minute plane tickets from Florida to New York.

And one of the passengers had the same first name as the man in the hospital, Manuel.

When flight attendants were interviewed about the last-minute passengers, one remembered Manny, and she said he'd been injured in an apparent car accident.

Clearly, Manny and his accomplice were lying about something.

When doctors removed a.22-caliber bullet from Manny's ankle, the NYPD looped in Florida officials.

If there were any violent crimes in the last few days using.22-caliber bullets, they wanted to know about them.

And there were.

Within hours of their deaths, Daisy Ricard and Ramon Alvero's bodies had been found.

And investigators had removed.22-caliber bullets from their bodies.

The timing, the bullets, the strange car crash story, it all added up.

It's not clear if the Florida police told the NYPD about the other double homicides using.22 caliber bullets recently.

The deaths of Sarah and Feyra, Luis and Ulpiano, and Mario and Roberto.

But it's likely they saw a possible connection.

Because after speaking with New York investigators, a few Florida detectives flew in to take a look at the bullet.

Then, they got the biggest lead of all.

Remember Carlos Ribera, who listened to Manny brag about the murders and even saw pictures?

He heard the vigilante duo might be in trouble, and he worried if he didn't speak up, they'd kill him to cover their tracks.

So Carlos told the police everything he knew about Manny and Rolando.

At one point, he said, Manny Pardo has always been, you know, a freak, a killer.

He has to kill somebody weakly or do something weakly or explode something weakly.

He always takes a camera, a Polaroid camera.

He takes the pictures.

He used to have them on his wall.

It was enough to justify a search warrant for Manny's apartment.

Inside Manny's room, detectives found a calendar that marked the dates of each attack, newspaper clippings about the investigations, tally marks representing victims, and even Manny's journal containing details about the murders.

A prosecutor later said that Manny had to, quote, record everything for posterity.

But most importantly, investigators found bullet casings that matched the.22-caliber bullets bullets they'd found inside their victims.

Manny was apparently so convinced of his righteousness, he hadn't bothered with the simplest of cover-ups.

Holmes and Holmes write that this is typical of a mission-oriented killer.

Once the victim is dead, they leave the crime scene unaltered.

But the evidence gave the Florida police more than enough to link Manny to each of his nine victims.

four double homicides and Frenchie the weapons dealer.

Authorities arrested Manny and remanded him to Florida for his trial.

There, Manny's family rallied around him.

His parents and sister insisted he was innocent and could never hurt anyone.

Alleging Manny was set up, his father said, he's a very valiant man.

Many people envy him for that reason.

He's got a lot of enemies in the police department because he enforces the law.

And while he may have had enemies, the evidence suggests Manny was very guilty.

Manny's lawyers knew it would be a tough case and planned an insanity plea.

But Manny had other ideas.

He took the witness stand against the wishes of his counsel.

He admitted to murdering all nine victims and said he wasn't insane at all.

On the stand, Manny insisted he was doing society a favor by killing drug dealers.

At his sentencing, Manny said, quote, I'm not a criminal.

I'm a soldier.

As a soldier, I ask to be given the death penalty.

I accomplished my mission and I humbly ask you to give me the glory of ending my life and not send me to spend the rest of my days in state prison.

In 1988, Manny got his wish and was sentenced to lethal execution.

His accomplice, Rolando, was convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to death as well.

But Rolando eventually appealed the charge.

Manny even testified at his friend's trial, declaring that Rolando never killed anyone or plotted the murders.

Manny was loyal to Rolando, but perhaps he also wanted to be a martyr and save the people he believed were worth saving, so-called good guys.

Either way, it worked.

Rolando's sentence was reduced to 25 years in prison, and he was released early in 2002.

But Manny wasn't going anywhere because he didn't seem to think he'd done anything wrong.

Even after his arrest, he called the streets his war zone and said he believed his wife and daughter would be proud of him.

He thought they'd see him as a veteran, a hero.

Even a death sentence didn't change his mind.

Mission-oriented killers rarely change their views on right and wrong, which makes them incredibly difficult to rehabilitate, according to Homes and Homes.

These kinds of killers will constantly seek positions of authority to enforce their worldview on others.

They may not be capable of a change, but there are some ways to prevent them from gaining a position of power.

A series of studies done at the University of Illinois, published in 2022, led to the creation of a tool tool called the Vigilante Identity Scale, designed to screen potential applicants to law enforcement and the military for traits that could lead to dangerous vigilante behavior.

In the future, this kind of screening could help prevent criminals like Manny Pardo from gaining positions of authority and access to weapons, though it's important to note that not all mission killers try to join the military or law enforcement.

Holmes and Holmes give the example of Biora Simmons, who killed women he saw on the streets late at night.

He said he killed them because he believed they were sex workers.

They also include the Unabomber, who said he killed to save humanity from dangerous technological advancement.

Then there's Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who killed people of color, Jewish people, and interracial couples.

Holmes and Holmes even suggest Jack the Ripper might have been a mission-oriented killer because his victims lived on the streets.

The most famous mission-oriented serial killer might be in fiction, Dexter, from the Darkly Dreaming Dexter book series and its TV adaptation.

But some people believe Dexter was actually inspired by Manny Pardo.

The book's author, Jeff Lindsay, lived in the Miami area around the same time Pardo was caught and tried.

And Dexter follows a Miami cop who murders people he deems criminals.

Dexter's double life even includes a family and child.

Like Dexter, Manny was a misguided vigilante.

With his absolutist thinking, he killed drug dealers to make the world a better place.

Criminals.

That's all they were to him.

But really, those were regular people, working as engineers, secretaries, and parking lot attendants.

They were sons and daughters, partners, and friends.

When Manny removed them from the world, he wasn't making society a better place.

In fact, by striking fear and grief around Miami, he made it worse.

Manny thought he was a hero, a soldier, but by trying to act like one, he turned himself into the thing he hated most.

A villain.

Thank you for listening to Serial Killers.

We're here with a new episode every Monday.

Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast.

And if you're listening on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts.

For more information on Manny Pardo, amongst the many sources we used, we found contemporary coverage by the Miami Herald extremely helpful to our research.

Stay safe out there.

This episode was written by Kit Fitzgerald, edited by Maggie Admire, Ben Caro, and Kate Murdoch, researched by Chelsea Wood and Brian Petrus, fact-checked by Katherine Barner, and sound designed by Alex Button.

I'm your host, Janice Morgan.

Do you want to hear something spooky?

Tom's monster.

It reminded me of Bigfoot.

Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal.

One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession.

Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water.

Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes.

Somehow I had lost eight whole hours.

Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.