Latest / Crime Night / The Cairo Butcher: Slaughter and Sorcery in Monufia—The Brutal Revenge Against Egypt's Infamous Mystic Sisters

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The Cairo Butcher: Slaughter and Sorcery in Monufia—The Brutal Revenge Against Egypt's Infamous Mystic Sisters · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture this Manufia, Egypt, two thousand and three. The air
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: itself feels different, thick, with this mix of fear, maybe desperation,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and weirdly promise.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And right at the center of it you have this house,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Cawthar and Sadilla's house.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Exactly if you needed something, a blessing, a cure, maybe
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: even the ruin of an enemy, you got in line
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: this long, almost fearful queue outside their place.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: These weren't just any mystics. They were notorious, known across
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the whole region for well, let's call it high stake sorcery.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: A dark business they ran.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a business. You mentioned something about digital, like really
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: dark stuff they hinted at right.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Sources suggest they invoked these really potent, terrifying concepts. Whether
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: they actually did anything supernatural is you know, beside the point.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: My point was control, absolute financial control. They tapped into
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: these deep seated fears, religious, social and weaponized them. It
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: wasn't a magic It was frankly ruthless exploitation.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: That que. It was basically people lining up up, paying
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to be manipulated. And inside the house.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was compartmentalized, chillingly organized, really simple requests blessings
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: in one area.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And the heavier stuff the lower magic.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Separate room, more secretive, and of course a higher price
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: tag for everything. That's how they built.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Their wealth and the fear they generated. Right, it was palpable, right, Yeah,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Like even neighbors kept their distance.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely avoided the fence line, wouldn't make eye contact. They
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: seemed completely untouchable.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Until they weren't until that one morning when everything just shattered.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the villagers woke up and the scene was just horrific.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Cathar and Sadia dead right in the entrance. All the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: description was slaughtered and drowning in blood.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: But the detail that sticks, the truly disturbing part.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Their hands completely severed and the fingers scattered.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: It's gruesome.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Immediately your mind jumps, right, ritual occult revenge given their
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: line of work.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Sure, that's the sensational thought. But the police arriving on scene,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: they're looking at it differently.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: They're thinking, what kind of professional violence? What kind of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: person creates a scene that's both this meticulous and this brutal.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: It seems contradictory, And that's the core question we're diving into.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Our goal here is to piece together what happened, what
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: led up to this execution? And who was this phantom killer?
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Someone who got in, did this and got out clean.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Clean is the word, because the initial sweep found what.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: No forced entry, doors, locked windows intact. Whoever did this
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: was let in or had.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: A key, so not a random break in, definitely.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Not, And the timing likely happened fast, maybe an hour
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: or two before they were discovered, probably around two am
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: activity last heard.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the circle Titans immediately it's someone they knew,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: someone within that supposedly trusted client.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Base, or someone they thought they could trust.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And the medical examiner's findings just add another layer of well, strangeness.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Fascinating is one word for it. Shocking is an o.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: The Emmy reported that the throat cuts and the severing
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of the hands done with extreme professionalism, meaning a very
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: sharp knife, single direction cuts, aimed for instant death. This
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: wasn't like a rage fueled hacking. It was practiced exactly
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: someone who knew the mechanics of slaughter, which brings us
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: back to the hands.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Why. Okay, so the police have this skilled killer, no
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: forced entry, what's the working theory?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Well, the most obvious thing was the gold right There
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: were a lot of jewels, tons of it, gold bangles, rings,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: very conspicuous. Their hands were apparently quite noticeable because of it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: So theory one robbery cutting off the hands was just faster,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a grim shortcut to get the loot.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: That became the primary police theory. Yeah, quickest way to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: get the gold off.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: They pretty much dismissed the local chatter, you know, the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: talk of satanic rituals or spells gone wrong.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: They wanted hard evidence, tangible stuff. But the crime scene
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: itself was a nightmare for forensics, wasn't it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, completely, think about a constant stream of clients for years,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: fingerprints everywhere, hundreds maybe thousands of different prints. Finding the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: killer's prince in that mess almost impossible.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And these clients weren't just local villagers, No.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: They'd built this reputation over six years. People came from
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: surrounding areas, even other provinces. They owned property, clearly making
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: good money. The pool of potential known visitors was huge,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: So how do you even start narrowing that down, especially
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: if the killer was careful?
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: It seemed like an impasse until one tiny detail surface
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: during routine interviews almost missed it.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: What was it?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Just a casual mention someone talking about who hadn't been
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: seen around lately. They mentioned a guy named Shaban.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: El Sayed Okay, and who is Shaban?
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: He was a butcher from Cairo, the Sharabeya area specifically,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: but he was married to a local woman in the village.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Ah, so he had a connection, right.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: He visited often, usually stayed a few days, but recently
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: he'd vanished. No one had seen him, and the invest
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: gators here butcher exactly, and suddenly it clicks. The professionalism
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: of the slaughter, the dismemberment. It aligns perfectly with the
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: skill set of while a butcher, someone practiced with knives.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: With carcasses in a small village. That kind of detail,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that job title, it stands out.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: It became the crucial link. They ran a background check.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Immediately were they find on cheb on the butcher.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Turns out he used to be pretty successful, had his
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: own shop doing well, but recently not so much. Financial problems,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: massive debt, struggling badly.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, So that strengthens the robbery motive again, doesn't it. Yeah,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: desperate man knows the sisters have wealth, maybe gold.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely it fit the initial police narrative perfectly desperation, opportunity,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and the unique skill set to carry out that specific.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Kind of violence. So they track him down.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: They moved fast, found him in Cairo at his butcher
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: shop and arrested him.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: What was his reaction? Did he confess?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. He played it cool, had an
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: alibi ready, claimed he had hadn't been near the village
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: for a whole week, said he had witnesses in Cairo
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: who could back him up. Seemed pretty air tight initially.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: But the police must have suspected he was lying. How
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: did they break the alibi?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: They went back to the village and back to Cairo
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and started digging deeper into his supposed movements, and the
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: alibi started to crumble.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: What did they find?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Two key things. First, a witness in Cairo saw Schabon
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: leaving his home very early on the morning of the murders,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: like four am, highly unusual for him.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's suspicious timing, very.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: And Second, they found multiple witnesses down at the public
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: transport station, people who specifically remembered seeing him Shaban the
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: butcher getting onto a vehicle heading towards Menufia that same morning.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Ah, So his Cairo alibi was blown. He did travel
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: completely blown.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: When the police confronted him with that evidence that witnesses
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: placed him traveling to the village.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: He knew it was over and he confessed.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: He broke, admitted everything, killing both sisters. But he insisted,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: absolutely insisted it wasn't just about the money.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: There was more to it, much more.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: He claimed. The motive was deeper, darker, It was about revenge,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: personal destruction.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so what was the real story? According to Shabat,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: this goes beyond robbery.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Now right, This is where it gets really disturbing psychologically.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: He painted this picture six years ago. He said he
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: was happy, successful, butcher stable life. Then he moves his
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: wife as local to.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: The village and she starts visiting the sisters frequently.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: He notices this, and soon after he starts experiencing well problems,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: strange symptoms, things going wrong in his life, maybe issues
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: with his wife, impotence. Even he becomes convinced he's.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Cursed, cursed by the sisters at his wife's request.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: That's what he believed. He got obsessed with this idea
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: of Sir al Robot binding magic. He thought his wife
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: had paid the sisters to cast it on him. So
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: he couldn't leave her, couldn't succeed independently.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Wow, so a deep paranoia takes.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Root, exactly, and it's rooted in relationship control, hitting all
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: his insecurities. So what does he do. He confronts the sisters.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: And what do they say? Deny it?
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Oh no, that's the twist. They were, as we said,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: professional scammers. They saw an opportunity. They confirmed his fear.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: They told him he was cursed.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, they told him the magic was powerful, deeply embedded.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: But conveniently they could help him break it for a price, of.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Course, and thus began the exploitation.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Precisely, they started demanding money, endless tasks, special items he
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: had to procure, always one last step, one final payment
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: needed for the cure, bleeding him dry totally. He poured
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: all his savings into it, went into massive debt chasing
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: this cure that never came because the curse itself was
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: likely just his own paranoia fed by them. It drove
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: him to a complete psychological breaking point.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: So the investigators thought they had a simple robbery.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Murder, and instead they found a man who genuinely believed
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: he was trapped in a supernatural battle. He wasn't just
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: trying to get his money back, though maybe that was
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: part of it.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: He thought killing them was the only way out, the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: only way to break the spell.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: That's what he He was convinced, killing the source of
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the magic, the sisters themselves, was the only way to
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: free himself from this curse that had ruined his life.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: The violence, in his twisted logic became a necessary act,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: almost therapeutic, That is chilling.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: The level of manipulation on their part and the depth
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of his.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Breakdown absolutely, and his planning reflected that desperation, that single
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: minded focus.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: He planned it meticulously, didn't he, despite being in this state?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he confessed the whole plan. Aimed to be
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: in and out in under fifteen minutes. Chose the early morning,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: around six am when he arrived, figuring people would be asleep,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: fewer witnesses.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: How did he get in? We know there was no
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: forced entry.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: He just knocked. When Cathar answered, he used the perfect deception,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: told her he was there with the final requests, the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: last items needed for the cure.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: So she led him in willingly, trusted him, even at.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: That hour, seems so, And as soon as she turned
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: her back, he attacked.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: How did he describe it?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: He said, he'sifacated her first, Then he pulled out the knife.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: He'd hidden it inside his clothes. Apparently he wore two robes,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: one over the other specifically for this.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Smart to hide the weapon and maybe deal with blood later.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly, he pulled the knife and slaughtered her. His description
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: was brutal. He said he saw her flapping on the
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: ground like a slaughtered.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Animal, and the other sister see idea.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: The noise woke her up. She came out and he
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: killed her next same way, quick, brutal.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And then the hands, Yeah, that came after they were
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: both dead.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's when the gold became a factor again, but
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: in a different way. He tried to pull the rings
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: and bangles.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Off quickly, but they were tight stuck.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Apparently he realized it would take too long, longer than
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: his planned fifteen minute window. Getting stuck fiddling with jewelry
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: could ruin his escape.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: So, reverting to his professional skill.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: He decided cutting off the hands and fingers was faster,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: more efficient get the gold, stay on schedule. Grim but
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: ruthlessly logical in his state.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Then what grabbed the cast?
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, stole cash he found in the bedroom. Then the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: final part of the plan, shed the evidence.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: The outer robe, the bloody.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: One exactly, took off the blood soaked outer robe, dumped
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: it in a nearby sanitary drain like a sewer drain,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: leaving him relatively clean in the robe.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Underneath, and then straight back to Cairo.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Immediately got back as quickly as possible and made sure
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: to be seen. Spent the day very visibly in his
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: local area, interacting with people, establishing that false alibi that
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: he hadn't laugh.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Incredible planning, but obviously not perfect, not perfect enough.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: The witnesses who saw him travel, the timing, it all
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: caught up with him. He was convicted and sentenced to death.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: What a spiral. It's like two destructive forces colliding.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: That's a good way to put it. You have the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: sister's relentless greed and deception on one side, pure exploitation, and.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: On the other Chabon's deep psychological vulnerability, his maybe lack
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of critical thinking or faith, allowing him to fall into
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: that trap. Right.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: The sources kind of suggest that the end the sisters
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: met was almost a logical consequence of the life they chose,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: a life built on fraud, preying on desperation. It's a
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: horrible outcome, but perhaps predictable given their.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Methods and Shaban His actions were monstrous, criminal, but driven
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: by this immense pressure cooker of fear and paranoia that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: they stoked.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly he was pushed to the edge, convinced that this
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: extreme violence was his only possible path to freedom. Killer
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: and victims entangled in this web of fear and lies.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: It really makes you think, doesn't it. Even today, with
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: science and information.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Everywhere, people are still susceptible, still driven to extremes by
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: deeply ingrained beliefs, by desperation for easy answers by skilled manipulators.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: What kind of pressure, what kind of fear, could push
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: any of us towards abandoning rational thought like that. It's unsettling.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: It really is a dark reminder of how fragile reason
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: can be when fear takes hold.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: A truly haunting end to this deep dive, Thank you
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: for joining us.