Pretty Scary with Clair Buckley
Aug 21, 2026 · 28 min · 17 segments
A crime reporter who became a national hero, a television show that always seemed to arrive before the police, and a question that would eventually shake an entire country: how did he know where the…
Clair BuckleyHost
[suspenseful music] A crime reporter who became a national hero, a television show that always seemed to do more than the police, and a question that would eventually shake an entire country.
How did he know what he knew, and at what cost? The city of Manaus in Brazil is located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, right along the Amazon River.
And unlike its beautiful surroundings of tropical trees and exotic animals, this city is one of the most crime-riddled cities in the world.
From muggings, carjackings, and drug gangs, all the way to shootings and stabbings, this place is known for serious violence.
Every day, there was a new case of someone being murdered for simply walking down the wrong street, saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, and it seemed like the police had absolutely no control over it, and it was becoming a serious problem for the people who lived there.
Normal people, families, were often terrified to go out, scared of being targeted by some sort of gang, scared of doing something that would end up getting them killed.
But in 1989, a former police officer who had grown up, worked, and still lived in Manaus, decided that it was time to do something about the way people lived in the city.
And the best way to start to make a change, he thought, was to show the rest of Brazil what was going on there.
His name was Wallace Souza, and he created a TV show called Canal Livre, where he would report on the murders and the crime going on in Manaus.
but-Canal Livre was the first of its kind where nothing was censored, and this was done on purpose.
He knew that if change was gonna happen, the wider country had to know about the problem first, and by watching his show, they absolutely did.
Wallace Souza would often be on scene shortly after the police had arrived, making his way through the crowds of people, most of whom were family members of the victim, crying and screaming, and all this was caught on camera.
He would also instruct his cameraman to zoom in on the victims, and often show the gory wounds after being shot or stabbed, and the audience saw everything.
It shocked people, even the people who lived in the city, who knew these terrible things were happening, but had never actually had a front row seat to it.
Because, I mean, there's a difference between hearing about how someone was murdered and actually seeing the footage of a dead body on TV.
Soon, Canal Livre became very popular, and Wallace Souza was thrust into the limelight.
Not only did he shine a light on the very violent issues in this city, but on his show, he also helped out families, people who were in need of support.
He would raise money for them, have them in the studio for filmed parts of the show, and give them gifts, some of which were life-changing amounts of money for these people that would help them immensely.
It was often people with disabled or sick children who couldn't afford the medical help that they required, or children and young adults who'd lost their parents to either violence or illness and didn't have the means to support themselves.
And so, with this, Wallace Souza became a household name, and a good one at that.
[suspenseful music] A crime reporter who became a national hero, a television show that always seemed to do more than the police, and a question that would eventually shake an entire country.
How did he know what he knew, and at what cost? The city of Manaus in Brazil is located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, right along the Amazon River.
And unlike its beautiful surroundings of tropical trees and exotic animals, this city is one of the most crime-riddled cities in the world.
From muggings, carjackings, and drug gangs, all the way to shootings and stabbings, this place is known for serious violence.
Every day, there was a new case of someone being murdered for simply walking down the wrong street, saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, and it seemed like the police had absolutely no control over it, and it was becoming a serious problem for the people who lived there.
Normal people, families, were often terrified to go out, scared of being targeted by some sort of gang, scared of doing something that would end up getting them killed.
But in 1989, a former police officer who had grown up, worked, and still lived in Manaus, decided that it was time to do something about the way people lived in the city.
And the best way to start to make a change, he thought, was to show the rest of Brazil what was going on there.
His name was Wallace Souza, and he created a TV show called Canal Livre, where he would report on the murders and the crime going on in Manaus.
but-Canal Livre was the first of its kind where nothing was censored, and this was done on purpose.
He knew that if change was gonna happen, the wider country had to know about the problem first, and by watching his show, they absolutely did.
Wallace Souza would often be on scene shortly after the police had arrived, making his way through the crowds of people, most of whom were family members of the victim, crying and screaming, and all this was caught on camera.
He would also instruct his cameraman to zoom in on the victims, and often show the gory wounds after being shot or stabbed, and the audience saw everything.
It shocked people, even the people who lived in the city, who knew these terrible things were happening, but had never actually had a front row seat to it.
Because, I mean, there's a difference between hearing about how someone was murdered and actually seeing the footage of a dead body on TV.
Soon, Canal Livre became very popular, and Wallace Souza was thrust into the limelight.
Not only did he shine a light on the very violent issues in this city, but on his show, he also helped out families, people who were in need of support.
He would raise money for them, have them in the studio for filmed parts of the show, and give them gifts, some of which were life-changing amounts of money for these people that would help them immensely.
It was often people with disabled or sick children who couldn't afford the medical help that they required, or children and young adults who'd lost their parents to either violence or illness and didn't have the means to support themselves.
And so, with this, Wallace Souza became a household name, and a good one at that.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.