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This article analyzes the history of Carletto, considered one of the most famous criminals in the history First Republic in Brazil. Before his trial, he underwent a meticulous psychiatric examination. We take the story of Carletto as a gateway to understand the psychiatric-forensic practice in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the period. We conclude that the construction of the figure of Carletto as a dangerous criminal and not an irresponsible mental patient relates, on the one hand, to the interweaving of the psychiatric discourses with the images of Carletto in the popular imaginary, and, on the other, with the limits and ambiguities of the degeneracionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]