Wallace Souza, Brazilian TV Crime Show Host, Accused Of Ordering Murders To Boost Ratings

Wallace Souza, left, host of a Brazilian crime show called Canal Livre, is being investigated under suspicion of conspiring to commit murder for his show which is famous for being first on the scene to provide graphic footage of murder victims, which seems suspicious...because it is. Souza's son Rafael was also arrested under suspicion that he helped his dad with the murder plots. The elder Souza, also a state legislator whose pet project is proving that Brazil's Amazon region is full of crime, (some of which may have been committed by him), remains free under legislative immunity even though he and his son are also suspected of being drug traffickers and allegedly killing mostly other drug traffickers. And television moves ever closer to The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger. State police held a press conference today in which they stated:

The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police. We believe that they organized a kind of death squad to execute rivals who disputed with them the drug trafficking business. Souza would eliminate his rival and use the killing as a news story for his program.

In a television world where the line between reality and fiction are increasingly blurred, it was inevitable that some unscrupulous TV host was going to resort to crime. Souza ran the show from Manaus, the capital of one of Brazil's Amazon states. Souza claims he had people in the morgue who would tell him about newly found bodies. He also says had people in the local police stations that would feed info to him about murders as well as police scanners that were constantly monitored by his staff. [caption id="attachment_62259" align="alignright" width="265" caption="Rafael Souza was arrested at his home for transporting illegal weapons in his private car. Investigators also seized some $175,000 dollars, illegal firearms and ammunition from a safe in Souza\'s home."][/caption] But the police think he orchestrated at least 5 of these murders. The clip below features one of the show's reporters standing over the still smoking corpse of a victim. He is covering his nose and saying "It smells like barbecue." The victim, identified by the reporter as a male, is one of the five Souza is accused of having killed.

Warning: This video is extremely graphic.