Asghar the Murderer

Asghar Qatel
Born 1893
Borujerd, Iran
Died June 26, 1934 (aged 40–41)
Tehran, Iran
Other names Ashare Qatel (Asghar the Murderer)
Criminal penalty
 Execution
Conviction(s) Murder and Rape
Killings
Victims Confessed to 33
Country Iran and Iraq
Date apprehended
 January, 1934

Ali Asghar Borujerdi (Persian:علی اصغر بروجردی) known in Iran as اصغر قاتل (Asghar-e Ghatel or Asghar Qatel: Asghar the Murderer) (1893 - June 26, 1934) is the first Iranian serial killer and rapist reported in the 20th century. Moving to Iraq as a child with his family, he started assaulting, raping and later murdering adolescent boys in Baghdad since he was fourteen years old. Escaping back to Iran in 1933, he continued his murders in Tehran where he was eventually arrested and executed. Asghar Qatel was convicted for raping and killing 33 young adults eight in Tehran and the rest in Baghdad.[1]

Early life

Ali Asghar Borujerdi was born in 1893 in Borujerd, Western Iran. His father, Ali Mirza, was a famous road thief attacking caravans around Borujerd, Malayer and Persian Iraq - central parts of modern Iran including Qom, Saveh and Arak. His family, including Ali Aghar, his mother, and his siblings left Borujerd to the holy city of Karbala in Iraq when Asghar was eight years old.

Murders in Iraq

Six years later, when Ali Asghar was fourteen, he moved on to Baghdad, where he started to sexually abuse adolescent boys. He learned to kill them in order to get rid of police who were observing him for assaulting and raping young adults. According to his testimony, he killed 25 people in Iraq before escaping back to Iran. In 1933, Ali Asghar was about to be reported to police after he was watched by another boy while he was raping and killing the last Iraqi teenager. Soon he found out that it was unsafe to stay in Baghdad, and as a result he immediately escaped back to Iran.

Murders in Iran

Asghar did not go back to his hometown of Borujerd. Instead he started his new life in the capital city of Tehran, where soon he found it easy to trace and hunt new victims.

References

  1. ↑ Schayegh, C. "Serial Murder in Tehran: Crime, Science, and the Formation of Modern State and Society in Interwar Iran". History Comparative Studies in Society and History, 47(4) October 2005, pp 836-862. Abstract

External links