Did a real-life vigilate serial killer inspire the Dexter Morgan character on Showtime's hit serial killer thriller "Dexter"?
AskMen.com is exploring a theory that ex-Miami cop Manuel Pardo, who was convicted on nine counts of murder and put to death by the state of Florida last week, could have been the basis for the protagonist of Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" novels that grew into Showtime's "Dexter."
There are some vague similarities between Pardo and Michael C. Hall's serial-killer-of-serial-killers. Pardo was a Miami police officer; Dexter is a forensic blood spatter analyst who works for the Miami Metro police department.
Pardo went on a three-week robbery and murder spree in 1986, killing six men and three women. He targeted drug-dealers, and in his final letter before his execution, called himself "a soldier" who was in a "war was against men who were trafficing (sic) in narcotics and no one else!" Dexter has spent seven seasons going after bad guys who fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system, though crossed a line and broke his "code" in Season 7.
Dexter has a young son named Harry and lives a double life as a family man; Pardo had a young daughter named Michi. But perhaps the most obvious smoking gun is the name of Jimmy Smits' murderous Assistant District Attorney character on "Dexter" Season 3: Miguel Prado.
AskMen.come spoke to French serial killer expert Stephane Bourgoin, who analyzed the similarities in the killers' rituals, and noted that Jeff Lindsay was living in Miami during Pardo's murder spree and subsequent trial, which made front-page headlines.
"Dexter Morgan has this ritual where he lays out the photos of bad guys he wants to kill on his computer. Manny Pardo, he would put up pictures of people he wanted to kill in his apartment, and, like Dexter, he would retain these “keepsakes.” While Dexter has his “blood slides,” Pardo would keep the ashes of the cartridges used to kill his victims in an urn, which represented the souls of his victims rotting in hell."
Do you think there's something to this real-life "Dexter" theory? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
