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Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we like to do the opposite of what big wireless does. They charge you a lot. We charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you.
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I am your Norwegian host, Tomas Roseland Weyborg Thul. As of recording this episode, we have entered December. And thus, Christmas celebrations are soon upon us. It's not just Christians that celebrate holidays in December. Far from it. But since my audience is over 90% from the West, I thought it apt to frame tonight's episode this way.
The story of Christmas takes place in the Middle East. For this reason, I wanted to share a story of a serial killer from what people back in Victorian times called the Orient. It was not easy to find such a tale, but I succeeded in the end.
For the story to fill an entire episode, I also wanted to truly flesh out the setting for you, dear listener, and add some flavorful content of actual history in the mix.
So join me as we travel south, both back in time and away from the cultures of the west. If you feel like imagining yourself on a magic carpet, with the night-time stars shining above and only the flickers of oil-lit lamps below, be my guest. In the ancient city of Marrakesh,
A killer is on the loose. He murders young girls and women, both for pleasure and for monetary gain. At least 36 times he manages to escape justice until he finally faces his execution. This is the tale of none other than the arch-murderer of Marrakech, Hajj Muhammad Mesvevi. Enjoy.
As always, I wanted to publicly thank my elite TSK Producers Club. Their names are... Amy, Andrea, Boo, Brenda, Cassandra, Christy, Cody, Colleen, Connor, Corbin, Fawn, James G, James H, James S, Jared, Jennifer, Johnny, Juliet, Caitlin, Kathy, Kevin, Kylie, Libby, Lisa, Lisbeth,
Marilyn, Meow, Nick, Operation BP, Russell, Sabina, Skortnia, Scott, Shauna, Tim, Tony, Trent, and Val. You are the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast, and without you, there would be no show. You have my deepest gratitude. Thank you.
I am forever grateful for my elite TSK Producers Club, and I want to show you that your patronage is not given in vain. All TSK episodes will be available 100% ad-free to my TSK Producers Club on patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast. No generic ads, no ad reads, no jingles. I promise.
And of course, if you wish to donate $15 a month, that's only $7.50 per episode, you are more than welcome to join the ranks of the TSK Producers Club too. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, the northwestern edge of the great continent of Africa.
Bordering on Algeria to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the south, and the Strait of Gibraltar to the north, lies the country of Morocco. It is a country with a very long history, one of the few African countries whose borders were not drawn by the European colonial powers.
The country's capital city is Rabat, and it, like Tangiers, Casablanca, and Salé, is a coastal city. Morocco, unlike many Mediterranean cities, does not owe its economy historically solely from trade from the sea. In Morocco's interior lies the great desert of Sahara, and with it the ancient trade routes originating as far away as Asia.
and the greatest hub for trade at the northwestern end of the Trans-Saharan trade routes were the great cities of Fez and its main rival, Marrakech. Marrakech today is Morocco's fourth largest city with nearly one million inhabitants.
Back in the very first decade of the 20th century, it was far less modern and very similar to how it had been since it was established by Islamic rulers in 1062 AD. The city was founded by Yusuf ibn Tashfin, leader of the Moroccan Al-Murawid Empire.
He is also considered one of the most prominent leaders of the country, promoting an Islamic system in the whole country. Muslim Spain and the Maghreb, Marrakech, became the capital of the Almoravid Dominion.
A new religious movement from the High Atlas Mountains, a region called Almuhads, seized the city of Marrakech from the Almoravid in 1147, and the Almuhad Caliph Abd al-Mumin refused to enter the city because he claimed the mosques in Marrakech were not correctly oriented. A few years later, Abd al-Mumin commissioned the construction of two mosques,
One is the renowned Kutubia Mosque, which was inspired by Al-Andalus, a.k.a. Andalusian Islamic architecture. This is why it is very similar to the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral. In 1230, Al-Mamun of the new dynasty, the Marinids, captured Marrakech.
Shortly after, his brother, Abu Yusuf Yagub, forced the Almohads to retreat to the Atlas Mountains, and the Marinids ruled over Marrakech during the following two centuries. During this period, the city was slightly forgotten as the dynasty moved the capital to Fez. The dynasty of the Marinids was replaced by the Wattasids, and these were expelled by the Sharifian families.
The Sharifs are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's cousin Ali and his daughter Fatima. The Alawite dynasty, which comes from the word Ali, is actually the current Moroccan royal family.
The Sardians made Marrakech their capital during the 16th century. The most famous architecture from this period includes the Bab du Kula Mosque, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, built in 1570, and the Sardian tombs. The 19th century saw increasing instability and the progressive encroachment of European powers on Morocco.
The French conquest of neighboring Algeria began in 1830. Moroccan troops were rushed up to defend Tlemcen, which they considered part of their traditional sphere. But the French captured Tlemcen in 1832 and drove the Moroccans out. Sultan Abd al-Ghaman supported the continued guerrilla resistance in Algeria led by Abd al-Qadir al-Jashari.
The French attacked Morocco directly in 1844 and forced a humiliating defeat on Sultan Abd al-Rahman. Abd al-Rahman's successor, Sultan Muhammad IV of Morocco, was confronted immediately by the Spanish War of 1859-60 and yet another humiliating treaty.
While the Sultan was busy dealing with the Spaniards in Ceuta, the Rahmana tribe in the south rebelled and laid a tight siege on the city of Marrakech, which was broken by Muhammad IV as late as 1862.
Muhammad IV and his successors, Hassan I and Abd al-Aziz, moved the court and capital back to Fez, demoting Marrakech once again to a regional capital under a family caliphate. With the arrival of increasing European influence, cultural as well as political, in the Alawite court in Fez, Marrakech assumed its role as an opposition center to westernization.
Until 1867, individual Europeans were not permitted to enter the city unless they acquired special permission from the Sultan. The colonial encroachments had led to a shift in the traditional relationship between the Mohsen, aka the Alawite Sultan's government, and the semi-autonomous rural tribes.
To extract more taxes and troops from them, the Alawite sultan began directly appointing lords known as Qa'ids over the tribes, a process that accelerated in the 1870s with the loss of customs revenues in Moroccan ports to colonial powers after 1860. After the death in May 1900 of the Grand Vizier Ahmed ibn Musa, a.k.a. Ba'a Ahmed,
Morocco's true regent, the young Alawite sultan Abd al-Aziz, tried to handle matters himself. But a teenage sultan who preferred to surround himself with European advisors was unduly susceptible to their influence and soon alienated the population.
The country careened into the throes of anarchy, tribal revolts, and plots of feudal lords, not to mention European intrigues. Unrest mounted with the devastating famine in 1905-1907 and humiliating concessions at the 1906 Algeciras Conference.
The entry of the French troops alarmed other European powers. Spanish troops quickly expanded their territorial enclave in the north, while Germany dispatched a gunboat to Agadir.
At the height of this crisis, the dismissed El Glawi brothers approached German diplomats in Essaouira, offering to detach southern Morocco with Marrakech as its capital and turn it into a separate German protectorate. But the offer was rebuffed, as a French-German accord was about to be signed in November 1911, resolving the Agadir crisis.
The resolution of the Agadir crisis cleared the way for the Treaty of Fes on the 30th of March, 1912, imposing a French protectorate on Morocco, in essence making it a French colony. So it was, dear listener, that in our story, Marrakech is still largely free of European influence and still independent of France.
Its buildings were mostly made of sun-baked clay, what to many Americans are known as adobe buildings. For the most part, these buildings were square with a flat roof. Some were several stories high, but for the most part, buildings seldom reached more than three stories high.
The adobe walls made sure that the scorching desert sun's heat was kept at bay, but it was still quite common for people to sleep on their roofs at night to escape the still rather hot air inside of their houses. The streets were not illuminated by electrical lights. Mostly they stayed dark during the night, especially the alleys.
"'Crime was quite common, "'but horror of what would occur over a period of a few years "'exceeded the imagination of most everyone. "'It is dusk, and the streets are mostly empty. "'The air is still hot from the daytime sun, and very dry. "'Dust hangs in the air over the footsteps of the young girl, "'walking home from her relative she has helped at the great bazaar. "'She is walking alone.'
something the mullahs in the mosques would frown at had they known. The hijab was at the time not common in Marrakech. Its prominence outside of Arabia would not come for many decades. So the girl's hair is long and flowing free from her head. Her hair is dark, her skin light brown, and her eyes are deep brown, and she is wearing a bright-colored long dress.
She looks happy, as she is walking home in the pleasant evening atmosphere, and perhaps she is humming a song to herself. On her belt is a small pouch, where she keeps the few coins her relative gave her for helping out at the bazaar. Behind her, a man steps out from an alley and starts to follow her. As the girl decides to walk through a dark alley, a shortcut on the way home, the man hits her hard over the head,
from behind with a rock. She immediately passes out and does not notice the man carrying her away. When the girl awakes, she is lying on a dirty rug in a room dimly lit by an oil lamp. A man sits close by watching her. A woman can be seen behind him scurrying back and forth in what appears to be the kitchen. The girl is stiff with fright and confusion.
The man laughs as she asks him to please take her home. Then he starts to undress. As he stands in front of her, completely naked, the other woman behind him comes into the room and picks up his clothes and sternly tells the girl to remove her own clothes. The girl at first refuses, but the woman slaps her hard and tells her again to do as she is told. If not, the woman threatens to kill her, sobbing,
The girl slowly and shyly slips out of her dress and removes her plain undergarments. She is a slender girl, and she tries to cover herself with her hands. But a woman slaps them away and tells her to let the man enjoy her nakedness. The man, who until now has only been chuckling a bit to himself, gruffly tells the woman to leave them.
The woman immediately does as she is told and walks out of the room, closing a curtain behind her. Ryan Reynolds here from Intmobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down.
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids, I know firsthand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care. But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh. For others, it might be an eating night.
For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
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Visit BetterHelp.com slash SerialKiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash SerialKiller. When the woman is gone, the man approaches the girl and forces her onto her back. The girl is panicked and shouts to him that she is a virgin and to please let her go.
The man seems only more aroused by her pleas, and brutally forces her legs apart and forces his large erect penis into her vagina. The pain is extreme, and the girl howls and shrieks as her hymen is ripped open and her dry vaginal canal is torn. Blood spills out and functions as a sort of lube for the man who increases his movements.
The pain is constant, but less extreme than the initial offense. The girl cries, moans, and begs the man to please stop and let her go. After what seems like an eternity, the man ejaculates inside her with a grunt and lies on top of her, coating her in his sweat, which smells a rank. The girl is close to throwing up, but manages to hold it in. She weeps quietly.
The man sits up and wipes himself off with a rag. He leaves the room, and she can hear him tell the woman to fix the girl. After a moment, the woman comes in and drags the girl to the corner. There she chains the girl fast to a ring in the wall. She also tells the girl to be quiet and not to try anything stupid. Then she, too, is gone, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts.
The next day the woman brings the girl a cup of water and some gruel. The girl is almost frantic with thirst, and she gulps it all down, not knowing that would be her only cup of water that day. She is left alone for several hours until dusk, when the man comes home from his work as a cobbler. Dinner is ready for him, made by the woman who the girl has learned is named Anna, and the pair eats in the kitchen.
None of them even looks at the girl. There is a bucket next to her, and the girl, after having got no reply other than a finger pointing at the bucket and asking to use the toilet, relieves herself in it. The smell is rank, and it is obvious that she is not the first one to use the bucket. After dinner, the woman comes into the room and removes the ill-smelling bucket and frees the girl from the wall.
She is led to the dirty carpet again as the man enters. The girl whimpers and again starts to plead for mercy. None is forthcoming. Again she is brutally raped. Again she bleeds and the pain and humiliation is bringing the girl close to insanity. But she thinks of her family and she holds on. Then she feels a sharp pain in her breast.
It is worse than the pain from the rape, and she screams when she sees the knife sticking out of her breast. The man cuts more into the breast than it splits open, gushing blood onto the dirty carpet. She screams and screams, and the man is grinning. He is raping her from behind, so she falls down as she tries to defend herself. Her head is pushed into her own blood on the carpet, and she can see the woman is now holding her arms in front of her.
It looks almost as if the girl is now kneeling in prayer. If it wasn't for her bleeding breast and the naked man with a knife raping her from behind. As the man climaxes, he jams the knife into her neck from the side. Shock and adrenaline racks the girl's body, and with it extreme amounts of pain and fear.
The man starts to saw her neck, and her screams turn to gurgles as he slashes through her esophagus. Blood flows down into her lungs, causing her to choke. When the knife reaches her spinal column, the man jimes the knife through, and all is darkness. I have, dear listener, tried to learn the names of the victims of this killer. Sadly,
They are not available in any of the sources I have found. Only the name of the killer and his woman is known, Hajj Muhammad Mesfavi, and his elderly accomplice, Anna. All of Mesfavi's victims were mutilated with dagger cuts in order to stimulate his own fetishes. He also killed for money, even though most of it were trifling sums.
We also know when the pair were finally stopped, in June of 1906. The newspaper, the Times and Democrats, received on the 28th of June that year a cablegram from one of their foreign correspondents detailing how Mesfavi had been executed. It was this Mesfavi who was to have been crucified for his serial killings.
Thirty-six times he had abducted women and girls, either by assaulting them in the dark streets or by holding them by force as they visited his cobbler's shop or when visiting him in his capacity as a public letter writer. The woman Anna, who lived with him and assisted him in all manners, was seventy years old when police finally came to their door.
The police tortured Anna, as was customary in 1906 Morocco, until she gave a detailed confession. She told of how girls had come to dictate letters, were treated to drugged wine, and then beheaded by a knife. Twenty decapitated bodies were found in a deep pit under the shop, and sixteen more buried in the gardens.
Anna was exposed to such extreme torture that she died from her injuries. Faced with similar torture and overwhelming evidence, Mesfavi confessed to his crimes. The newspaper wrote how, and I quote, by ancient Moorish custom he was to be executed by crucifixion.
What the American newspaper referred to was, of course, Sharia law, which dictates the following from the Quran, Surah 533, and I quote,
End quote. This surah has then been interpreted by Islamic scholars and jurors.
One of the most prominent of these is Ibn Rushd. He was a judge, medical doctor and scientist. He mostly lived in Spain until his death in 1198. Spain was mostly ruled by Islam from the 8th century until the 15th. His two-volume book, The Distinguished Jurist's Primer, took over 20 years to write.
Ibn Rushd provides a foundation in Islamic law for judges and legal scholars throughout the Islamic world, where it is still used to this day. Ibn Rushd says that the punishment in Surah 533 are applied as follows. 1. If the criminals commit murder, they are to be put to death, either by execution or crucifixion.
2. If the criminals stole property but did not murder, then the penalty is exile. But the judge has the discretionary authority to execute, crucify, or amputate the alternate hand and foot. 3. The least punishment for criminals is flogging and exile, depending on the circumstances.
So, crucifixion was rarely used in late 19th, early 20th century Marrakech, but it was not unheard of. But by 1906, foreign powers, and by that I mean the European colonial powers, had a strong presence in Morocco. Mesfèvi's crucifixion was set for the 2nd of May 1906,
but was abandoned because of interference from foreign powers being outraged by the usage of such a method of execution. Instead, it was announced that Mesfewi would be beheaded. This would prove to be a ruse by the Moroccan authorities, and they instead decided to execute Mesfewi by immurement.
Mesvevi was kept in the Marrakech jail until foreign attention was drawn elsewhere. On the 15th of May, his public torture would commence. Every day he was led by his jailers to the bazaar, the central marketplace, and stretched across a wooden chopping block. His jailers held his arms outstretched while the city executioner started the punishment.
He was flogged with branches of the thorny acacia, more commonly known as the gum arabic tree. Ten lashes were given each day, and each stroke drew blood. The number of strokes was kept down because Mesfavi was by then an old man, and the people of Marrakech was not about to let him die easily.
After each flogging, Misfervi's back was toughened and anointed with vinegar and oil so that he might be fit for the next day's ordeal. So the daily whippings went on, and when it was seen that despite all care Misfervi was falling into unconsciousness from the lashings, it was decided to carry out the supreme sentence. This was
that he be walled up alive in the middle of the bazaar. Such a severe sentence demanded the signature of the Sultan, which had been given. The officials of Marrakech knew the sentence would not be interfered with.
The day of the execution was set for Monday, the 11th of June, 1906. The news of the execution had been spread, and the marketplace was thronged with thousands of Moroccans who squatted in the blazing sunlight and waited for the show to commence. A death by walling up alive had not been seen in Marrakech for several years.
But there were those who told others that victims had been known sometimes to live for a whole week before dying. Just outside the jail where Misfavi was confined stood the main bazaar. It has thick walls, and in one of these, facing the market, two masons dug a hole six feet high, two feet wide, and two feet deep.
Mepheve was very thin, and these dimensions gave the doomed man some room to move and some air to breathe. Again, the idea was that his suffering were to be as drawn out as possible. About three feet in the back wall, two staples with chains were fixed in the back of the recess in the wall, and two more staples with chains were attached.
The purpose of these was to keep the victim erect, so that he might not huddle down out of sight of the crowd. Misfervi had not been told of his fate, and when he was brought out of the prison on Monday morning, he thought he was being led forth to his daily whipping. As soon as he saw the expectant thousands, however, and heard their howls of hate, he knew that his day had come.
Then he saw the hole dug in the wall, and he immediately knew what that meant. He had taken his whippings with fatalistic fortitude, hoping he might die under the thorns, but when he was dragged toward the upright tomb, he struggled with his jailers and screamed for mercy. Screaming, he was thrust into the recess in the thick wall, and, still screaming, he was chained up.
There he was left for a while, for there was plenty of time. The masons stood aside, and the crowd struggled and fought to get in the front ranks. They scoffed in derision at the screaming man and pelted him with the filth and awful of the marketplace. Then the masons again came forward and very deliberately laid on the first courses of the masonry.
The stones and mortar rose to Misfervi's knees, and then the chief jailer came forward and gave him bread and water. The masons again stood aside, and again the crowds jeered and threw off all at Misfervi. So it went on, course by course, stone by stone, water and bread, until only Misfervi's screaming head was seen.
The last stones were thrust in place, and his living tomb was completed. The crowd was not satisfied, and a throng pressed forward and kept quiet to hear the muffled screams for mercy that came out of the wall. Every time Miss Favie screamed, the crowd cheered. Nighttime came. Brassiers were lit. Coffee was made, and still Miss Favie screamed, and the crowds cheered.
Tuesday, the 12th of June, came, and the bazaar was as crowded as ever. Misfévi was still screaming for mercy. So it went on all day and all night. When Wednesday broke, those close up to the wall reported that the man inside was only moaning. Finally, the moaning stopped, and the crowd cursed Misfévi for dying so soon. Then the delayed business of the bazaar was resumed.
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And thus, we come to the end of The Archmurderer of Marrakech, H. Mohamed Mesfevi. I hoped you enjoyed listening to me telling the story to you. Next episode, number 162 in number, will feature a brand new serial killer expo say. So as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening to
If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillarpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you. Good night, and good luck.
