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In the narrow streets of teh Marrakech ancient Medina, there was a killer, a serial killer that is. In the 1900s, it was reported that he was behind the sudden and odd disappearance of dozens of women. Later, in 1906, it was discovered that the city’s shoemaker and public writer Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi was the mastermind and perpetrator of a series of murders.
Nicknamed the Marrakech Arch Killer, Mesfewi was an old man who lived in the city and worked as a cobbler and public writer for people who came in to dictate their letters. Alongside a 70-year-old woman called Annah, he successfully dragged young women to his shop, stole their belongings, killed them and buried their headless bodies under his shop and in his house’s garden.
Mesfewi and Annah’s plots remained a secret, until April 1906, when the inhabitants of the city realized that several young women had mysteriously gone missing. «Many girls of the city disappeared in the last of April and the parents of one young woman traced her to the cobbler’s shop», read an article published on South Carolina newspaper The Times and Democrat on June 28, 1906.
Escaping cruifixion
The detailed story, which quotes a cablegram from Tangier, revealed that Mesfewi’s right hand woman was captured and put to torture by one of the families to get a confession. Annah said that the girls who came to Mesfewi’s shop to dictate letters were given drugged wine and then «beheaded».
Her words led to the arrest of the shoemaker, who also confessed to his crimes. However, unlike Annah who died from the torture, Mesfewi spent a tremendously longer amount of time being tortured. The authorities in Marrakech quickly discovered the serial killer’s wrongdoings.
«Twenty decapitated bodies were found in a deep pit under the shop and sixteen more in the garden», read the same article. Days after his crimes were unveiled; the old man’s fate was decided. Mesfewi was condemned to crucifixion, a common punishment in Morocco at the time.
The punishment, however, was not well received by the resident foreign officials in Morocco. They considered crucifixion a cruel and inhumane punishment. Mesfewi was not crucified yet he faced a horribly merciful execution.
Horribly merciful execution
After his arrest, Hadj was taken to the city’s jail and the means to his execution were decided. The authorities planned to torture him for the longest time possible and then wall him up alive. «The order of the execution had the Sultan’s own signature, and the fact that the sentence was carried out in the great square of the city and in full view of the populace shows that the officials of Marrakeh knew the awful programme would not be interfered with», The Times and Democrat wrote.
Indeed, Mesfewi’s sentence included daily trips to the Marrakech market. His torture started on May 15, according to the same source, which recalls that «he was whipped with switches of thorny acacia».
«The cobbler was stripped to the waist and while two assistants held the victim’s arms outstretched (…) Ten strokes were given, each day and each stroke drew blood. The number of strokes was kept down because Mesfewi was an old man and the people of Marrakech had no idea of letting him die too early».
The torture sessions of the serial killer were entertaining to passersby. They came every day to see Mesfewi get whipped and hear him scream and beg for mercy. In order to make sure he would last longer and not die too early, the man’s jailers used to put vinegar and oil on his wounds after whipping him.
Walled alive
But the crown was asking for more, a grand finale. On June 11, Mesfewi was brought to the square for the final execution. It was a Monday, wrote the American newspaper, explaining that thousands came to attend the execution.
«A death by walling-up alive had not been seen in Marrakech for many years, but there was those who told others that victims had been known sometimes to live for a whole week, and so the good news spread, and the people brought their provision and the caravansaries were crowded».
Mesfewi, on the other hand, had no clue that he was about to be walled alive on that day. When he approached the square he realized that the crowds were there to see him die slowly but surely. «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», read the same article.
Mesfewi’s jailers dug a hole in the wall and put him inside. While bricks were hiding his skinny figure on the wall, the crowds screamed and started «pelting him with the frightful filth and offal of the market place». The chief jailer gave Mesfewi water and bread before he was completely covered. Walled alive, the serial killer screamed for mercy from behind that wall for days.
«Night came and still Mesfewi screamed and the crowds yelled. Tuesday, June 12 came in, and the market place was as crowded as ever and Mesfewi was still screaming», it recalled. By Wednesday, the old man was just moaning and hours later, he stopped. The market resumed its activities but the crowds were not satisfied as Mesfewi had «died too soon».
