Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi, also called the “Marrakesh Arch-Killer,” was a Moroccan serial killer who murdered at least 36 women.
Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi lived in the narrow streets of Marrakech, the ancient Medina. His reputation was not good in society as everyone knew about him that he killed one or more persons somewhere and somehow he escaped.
In the early 1900s, dozens of women went missing from Mesfewi’s locality, and it was reported that he was behind the sudden and odd disappearances. Later, in 1906, it was discovered that Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi was the mastermind and perpetrator of a series of murders that caused the strange disappearances.
Mesfewi worked as a shoemaker and trader. Supported by a 70-year-old woman named Annah Rahali, he invited women to eat, drugged them, and killed them in their sleep. Annah was captured and put to torture by one of the victim’s families to get a confession.
Annah revealed all the murders that Mesfewi did through the years. 26 corpses mutilated with a dagger were found buried under Mesfewi’s shop, while the other ten were discovered under another property he owned. He robbed many of his victims to enrich himself. Annah died on the same day from public torture.
Mesfewi was found guilty and convicted. His execution on May 2, 1906, was supposed to be done by crucifixion, but since foreign diplomats considered this method too brutal, Mesfewi was walled on June 11, 1906, in Marrakesh. He was crying and screaming and died two days later in the wall. Annah had also died from the public tortures.
This form of punishment is called “Immurement,” which literally means “walling in” in the Latin language, is a form of imprisonment, usually until death, in which a person is placed within an enclosed space with no exits. This includes instances where people have been enclosed in extremely tight confinement, such as within a coffin.
When Immurement used as a means of execution, the prisoner is simply left to die from starvation or dehydration. This form of execution is distinct from being buried alive, in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation.
