“At the beginning of the 1920s, an anonymous dweller of the Favela hill and shanty town – now known as Morro da Providência – carried out an unusual mugging during a gala funeral. The quantity and the quality of the objects stolen in this action resulted in a nickname, by which in no time he would be known in the whole city of Rio de Janeiro: Seven Crowns. His audacious robberies made his trajectory leave the policial records and earn headlines in the crime pages of journalists, theatre stages and enter the work of writers and composers of popular music.”
Read the full article, in Portuguese, that Romulo Costa Mattos kindly provided for the project – A Construção da memória sobre Sete Coroas, o “criminoso” mais famoso da Primeira República.