Catarina Palse was born into a poor ethnic German family in Transylvania, which at the time was part of the Hungarian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She grew up in a modest village alongside her parents and two brothers. During the brutal Hungarian Revolution of 1848, she suffered an unthinkable trauma—raped by soldiers and forced to witness the slaughter of her entire family. At just 15 years old, she married Peter Palse in a desperate bid to escape her shattered world and dire poverty, but fate dealt another cruel blow—her husband committed suicide mid-journey. By 1857, at the age of 20, she made her way to Porto Alegre, Brazil, seeking a fresh start in a new land. There, in 1863, her path crossed with José Ramos. Captivated by his sophistication—his taste for opera and poetry—they moved into a house on Rua do Arvoredo (near today’s Rua Coronel Fernando Machado),

Between 1863 and 1864, Porto Alegre endured a nightmare. Catarina Palse, alongside José Ramos and butcher Carlos Claussner, targeted mostly German immigrants. She used her charm—and the fact that she didn’t speak Portuguese—to lure victims in public spaces like the opera house. Once chosen, she’d invite them under some pretense to an appointment in the nearby Beco de Ópera (now Rua Uruguai), guiding them straight into the couple’s home. There, José Ramos would rob them, then behead, dismember, and de-skin his targets with terrifying precision. Claussner allegedly advised that the flesh be turned into sausages and sold in his shop, while burning or dissolving the bones to erase any trace of the crime.

By August 1863, disappearances had become too frequent to ignore. Fear spread through the city, and Claussner—fearful he might be implicated—planned to flee to Uruguay. In response, Ramos murdered him and buried his body in the backyard. The pair then took over the butcher’s shop, claiming it had been sold to them, only to fail miserably at running the trade.

The crimes unraveled in 1864, following the disappearance of two visitors—José Ignacio de Souza Ávila, a traveling salesman, and Januário Martins Ramos da Silva, a Portuguese merchant—both last seen at Ramos’s house. Ramos attempted to claim they’d left for São Sebastião do Caí in the morning, but the authorities grew suspicious and ordered a search. Investigators discovered personal items from the missing men—trophies of sorts—along with decomposed remains in the basement (identified as Claussner), and the bodies of Ávila and Silva in the well, alongside the butcher’s dog, its belly torn open. Catarina, already under arrest for unrelated offenses, ultimately confessed to six murders, and her diary was critical in expanding the scope of the investigation. 

At trial, the judge—Dario Rafael Callado, also the police chief—moved the process swiftly, no doubt to avoid political fallout as Ramos had served as his informant. Ramos was sentenced to death by hanging, later commuted to life in prison; he denied involvement until his death in 1893 in a hospital. Catarina was sentenced to 13 years and was released on May 6, 1891, after serving her time.