The goal of this thesis is to analyze in particular the crime journalism produced by Nelson Rodrigues in the beginning of his career. Collected by Caco Coelho in O baú de Nelson Rodrigues, the texts include both reviews signed by Rodrigues and crime reports published in the newspapers A Manhã, Crítica and O Globo between 1928 and 1935. Though the news items are unsigned, they display telltale marks of his tragic style and his extremely melodramatic language. The study begins with an examination of the style of crime journalism of the 20s, 30s and 40s, underscoring the sensational, feuilleton tone characteristic of the period and comparing it with crime journalism as it is practiced today. Then we focus on Rodrigues s own pieces, showing how the young reporter s prose already contained the obsessions and the language later to be found in the stories of A vida como ela é and throughout his other fiction, crônicas and plays. Finally we analyze the seductiveness of the author s exaggerated tragic tone as an element of the success of one of the greatest innovators of the Brazilian literature.