 Despite these changes, his reputation at the Imperial Academy remained unchallenged, and he received its Gold Medal in 1898.In front of the Hotel Central in Piracicaba, Júnior was stabbed to death in 1898 by his cousin José de Almeida Sampaio.Júnior had been having a long-standing affair with Sampaio's wife, Maria Laura do Amaral Gurgel, who had briefly been engaged to Júnior, and Sampaio had just found out about it.