Latest / Crime Night / The Decapitation Killer of Cairo: Sex, Extortion, and the Final Betrayal in Mohandiseen

Transcript

The Decapitation Killer of Cairo: Sex, Extortion, and the Final Betrayal in Mohandiseen · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, imagine this. You step out of the really dense
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: heat of Cairo October nineteen ninety eight. You're going into
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: this cool, silent, pretty upscale apartment building behind d scene, right, Aguza, Yeah.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: An affluent area. Looks safe, quiet, expensive exactly, but something, yeah,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: something's wrong behind one of.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Those locked doors. For days, there's this this smell.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It's not noise the neighbors complain about. It's the stench, heavy,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: sickly sweet. It just gets worse and worse until finally
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: they call the police a welfare check.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So the police arrive, front door locked, normally, no sign
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of a break in, nothing obviously.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Wrong there, right, looks totally ordinary. But the second they open.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: That door, the smell just hits them like a wall.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: It pulls them in deeper into this apartment, the places
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you know, nicely furnished. Looks like someone with status lives there, huh.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But the smell just gets stronger, leads them inevitably towards
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the master bedroom.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: And when they open that door, Yeah, it's not just murder,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: it's something else, savage personal.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: The victims there, a man maybe in his fifties, completely naked, and.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: The violence it's extreme. His hands and feet are bound
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: really tightly with electrical wire.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: That immediately tells you something, doesn't it. The killer knew
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: him was let in, had total control in that space.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And the mutilation, it's shocking. Multiple stab wounds, more than three,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: they said, all clustered around the neck. But the head, yeah,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the head is completely severed from the body. They figure
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: it must have been a big sharp tool like a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: meat cleaver, as a satyr.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: They call it there exactly severing a head like that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: post mortem, it takes effort control. It screams well profound rage,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: a need to degrade the victim, even after death.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: So while this horrific scene is unfolding, the apartment itself
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: is starting to give up its secrets.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Right despite the nice furniture, there's evidence everywhere of a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: pretty heavy drug use, residue on surfaces and this hookah
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in the living room loaded with narcotics.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: So who is this man living this sort of double life.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: He's identified as Hamdian Deal and his background is interesting.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Turns out he used to be a security official, fired
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: years ago from his conduct, but he kept.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Up the act, the illusion of status totally.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: At the time of his death, he claimed to be
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a lawyer, had this consultancy office downtown, which investigators found
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: out pretty quickly had absolutely no clients. It was just
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: a front.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: So he's using his past, yeah, his knowledge of the system.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Precisely, leveraging that old authority, that facade to manipulate people.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And the autopsy it confirmed just how calculated this killing was. No,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: On Hamdy hadn't just been stabbed, he was electrocuted first.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Those wires weren't just for binding, they were.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Live wait, live wires. Yeah. So torture, yeah, prolonged torture
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: before the stabbing even began.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Seems like it. They wanted him to suffer, maybe wake
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: him up, even he was also beaten badly with a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: wooden club and the talk screen. Massive amounts of narcotics
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: in his system.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, but there's more asan that something the medical
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: examiners found.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, there was evidence, clear evidence he'd been sexual assaulted
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: before he died, and the report indicated this wasn't a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: one off. He was routinely engaged in hiris homosexual activity.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, So this incredibly violent death, the drugs, the hidden life,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the investigation must have immediately focused on who.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Was close to him, absolutely and the neighbors confirmed it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: A couple lived there with Hamdy Taher thirty eight and
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: his wife Amal, twenty nine, both unemployed, and they had kids,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: two very young children, one was four, the other just
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: eighteen months old. And crucially, Terror and Amal vanished the
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: moment the body was found. They were gone.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So immediate suspects make sense. What else pointed to them?
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Well, Hamdy's car keys were missing, apartment keys gone, all
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: his cash gone.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: To pretty gamming.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: But the clincher came fast. Within forty eight hours, police
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: discovered Hamdy's apartment and his cars.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Had been sold sold.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: How the ID used in the sale transaction? It had
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to HER's photograph, but the name, the job, the address
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on the ID all fake forged.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So Tara had power of attorney over Handy's assets.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: He did, yeah, but he didn't use it legitimately. He
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: used the forged ID to finalize the sales after Handy
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was dead. This wasn't just panic, it was planned.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Theft, okay, So how did they attrack them.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: The sales contracts? They left a paper trail. Police followed
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: it right out of Cairo down to Marsa Matrue, a
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: coastal town and that's where they arrested Tarror and a Mall.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And once they were caught, they talked.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, they talked, and their confession it opened up this
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: whole other reality. To understand why they did what they did,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: you have to understand the parallel world Hamdy had built
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: inside that apartment.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back then. How did they even end
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: up there?
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: It starts with desperation, pure desperation. Tarror and the Mall
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: were broke, a destitute, really moving constantly trying to support
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: these two little kids. Tara was frantic to find any
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: kind of work.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And someone suggested Hamdy.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, his own mother. She mentions her cousin Hamdy and
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: deal this supposedly influential former official. Maybe he can help.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: So Tara goes to see him at that law office
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the front, the front, and Hamdy apparently takes an immediate
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: liking to Terror offers him a job on the spot,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: personal assistant.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Just like that, Just like that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: But there's a condition. Terror has to bring Amal the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: kids all their belongings and move into Hamdy's big apartment
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: in the handy scene. Right away, he promises them their
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: own room.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And Terror agrees, beleeving Hamby is this respectable figure.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: He buys it completely, sees it as their way out salvation.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: He moves the whole family in.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: How long before things went wrong?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Hours near hours after they move in, Hamdy's out somewhere,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the landline phone in the apartment starts ringing.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Off the hook. Strange calls, very strange.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Men calling, asking for women by various names. Amal picks
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: up one call, and the guy on the other end
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: just launches into this incredibly suggestive crude sexual talk.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, so not a law office.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Cover, not even close. It's clearly some kind of well
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: pimping operation.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And then Handy comes back.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: He comes back and the mask drops almost immediately. He
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: hands Tar her the substance benzocaine. It's a local anesthetic
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: but often used to cut drugs. He tells Tarr mix
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: this into my hookah tobacco. Then tells them all puts
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: them in my tea.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And they just do it. They do.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: They try to rationalize it, you know, maybe it's just
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: his weird personal habit, his private life. They don't want
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: to rock the boat.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: But that's Handy testing them. Isn't it normalizing crime from
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the get go?
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly breaking down their boundaries, and then the guests start arriving,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: first three male friends of Handy's, then three women sex.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Workers, and Handy just lays it out.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Pretty much tells everyone used the rooms, do whatever. Then
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: he turns to Tahr and says his job is to
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: facilitate all the guests male, female, doesn't matter.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Facilitate meaning what exactly.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It gets worse. Handy then orders Tahar into his bedroom.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Tavar's confused, follows him, and Handy drops the bombshell. Oh no,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: he tells Tower he has to engage in homosexual acts
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: with him and amal a Mall has to come into
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the room and watch.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, what do they do?
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: They refuse, obviously horrified. They beg him, let us leave.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: We can't do this.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Well, Hammi's ready for that.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: He was always one step ahead. He just calmly pulls
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: out their real, legitimate personal ideas, their identity cards.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: How did he get those?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: He'd stolen them earlier while they were distracted making his
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: drug tea and hookah. It wasn't impulsive. It was planned insurance,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: using his old security knowledge against them.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And then the threats start.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: The ultimate extortion. He tells them if you leave, I'll
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: frame a mall for prostitution. I'll frame you tower for
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: breaking and entering. You'll rot in jail, and your kids
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I'll make sure they're thrown onto the streets.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: They're trapped, completely trapped by the fear for their children.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Utterly, they feel they have no choice. They stay, and.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: The control just tightens after that. Right financially too.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Immediately after that first awful night, Hamdi pays the three
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: sex workers five hundred Egyptian pounds each, which is decent money.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Then Terror and all he gives them just two hundred
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: egp together as their first salary.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So they're dependent and worth less than the hired.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Help while being forced to participate at a much deeper level,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: and Hamedy doesn't waste time dragging them deeper into his
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: criminal world, howso, he takes Tara to KitKat square introduces
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: him to his drug dealer, the guy disguised as a
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: street vendor. From then on, Terror is responsible for buying
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: all of Hamdy's narcotics.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So now he's a drug runner too. Hamdy's not just
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: an abuser, He's building a criminal organization around.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Them, a sophisticated one. Then i'mal is sexually assaulted by
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Hamdy again. This time they actually managed to flee. They
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: run to her father's house, finally escape for a few hours.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Hamdy tracks them down, shows up at the father's house,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: repeats the threats destroy the family, the kids unless they
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: come back.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Immediately, and the fear works again.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: The fear for the children always worked. They go back defeated.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: This is just relentless, and it leads Terror to make
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a terror choice, doesn't.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It it does. Desperate to get out of Hamdy's sexual
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: demands himself, Terror actually talks to one of the regular
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: sex workers, Zakia. He asks for her advice.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe, and she offers a solution, a horrifying one.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: She says she can provide a replacement for Hamdy for
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: one hundred EGP procession, her own son, who's only seventeen.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: In Terror, he agrees.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: He agrees, sacrificing this teenager, hoping it will spare him
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: from Hamdy's abuse. It's a devastating sign of how broken
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: they've become, how corrupted by this situation.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: But even that doesn't stop Hamdy's depravity.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: No, it gets even worse. He starts forcing Tasher and
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Amal to bring their youngest child, the eighteen month old
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: baby boy, into the room during these forced sexual acts.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Why what possible reasons?
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Psychological torture, trying to completely destroy their sense of normalcy,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: maybe implicate the child, make escape seem utterly impossible, cementing
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: their place in his parallel world.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: In all this time, Hamby's use Tasher for other crimes
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to t yes.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: The forged ideas Handy created. He's using Taker now known
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: as Mohammed Salah el dean high school teacher, in multiple scams,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: especially stealing cars selling them with fake contracts. It's a
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: full blown criminal enterprise, like a mafia boss in his
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: own twisted way. Yes, Van hamt brings home two young
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: boys one day, claims they're his sons. The sons, Tafer
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and them all find out the truth later. Hamdy had
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: been extorting women, forcing them into marriage, stealing their money,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: their property, and now he was trying to actually kidnap
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: their children and claim them as his own. This guy's
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: freach was incredible.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Which leads to the final confrontation. The breaking point.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly Hamdy's drunk, he repeats the demand that Tara just
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: sign over his youngest son to him permanently. Taffer refuses again,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: of course, but Hamdy doubles down. He orders Tarr to
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: get a camera, says he'll record their sexual acts and
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: use the tapes plus the forgeries to steal the child
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: anyway make it look like Tara is unfit involved in
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: illegal activities.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I finally realize there's no compromise. He will never let
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: them or their children go never.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: So they flee the apartment again a third time, but
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: this time is different.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: They're not just running away.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: No, they're planning. They know they have to stop him permanently,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and they need their real ideas back to have any
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: chance of a normal life.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: So Tara actually calls Handy.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: He does, demands their IDs back, and he threatens him,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: tells him he'll kill him if he doesn't return them,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: and Hamdy's reaction surprisingly agreeable but manipulative as always. He says, Okay,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: you can have your ideas back after one last farewell party,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: more drugs, more sex, and.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: They agree to this. Knowing what they plan to do.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: They agree, but their minds are made up. Tacker goes
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: out first. He buys a brand new knife specifically for
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: killing Hamdy, so they go back to the apartment for
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: the party.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: They go back. Hamdy's friendly, almost welcoming. He's even changed
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the locks, maybe as a precaution. He asks a mouth
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: for his usual tea, the drug tea. She goes to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, but this time, instead of the usual one
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: narcotic tablet, she puts in.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Five five, a massive overdose.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: She wants me incapacitated quickly, and it works. Hamdy drinks
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the tea and rapidly loses consciousness. This is it their chance,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: tire season passed out. He knows this is the moment.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: He goes back into the bedroom. Yeah, but he doesn't
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: come out with the knife first, what is he yet?
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Electrical wire back to the wires. It's methodical, it's vengeance.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: He binds the unconscious Hamdy. Then he connects the wire,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: applies the current.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Electrocutes him until until Hamdy screams, wakes up in agony.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: But the screams they could be heard.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly, I'm all panics. She grabs a wooden stick, the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: one Handy had used on himself earlier. Tacker takes it
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: and beats Hamdy over the head again and again until
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: he's silent, again, unconscious, covered in blood, and he's still
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: not dead, Tarr needs to be certain. He takes the
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: new knife, the one he bought, and he stabs Handy
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: repeatedly in the throat until there is absolutely no doubt
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Hamdy is dead.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: The rage doesn't end there, It doesn't know.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: It needs one final act, regradation. Tara goes and gets
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the cleaver, the solider, and with immense effort, he severs
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Hamdy's head from his body.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Just unbelievable violence born from unbelievable abuse.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: After the killing, they shift gears, clean the scene, meticulously
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: retrieve their real ideas, all their belongings. They take Handy's keys.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And the stolen assets, the cars, the apartment.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: They use Hamdy's thumbprint, either while he was unconscious or
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: just after death, it's unclear, to finalize those forged sales contracts.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: They get the money, then they run, execute their escape
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: plan flee to marsa Matrue, where, of course, the paper
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: trail eventually leads the police right to them, and.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: They confess to everything, the abuse, the planning, the murder,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the torture, the desecration.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Full confessions from both of them, detailing everything Hamdy put
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: them through. Based on that and the evidence, they were
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: both indicted and both ultimately sentenced to death.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: It's an incredibly disturbing story. The level of coercion extreme.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: They were undoubtedly victims of horrific abuse, extortion, manipulation. But
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: that's complex, isn't it. They weren't just passive victims.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: You mean their own actions.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, their willingness to get involved in the drug running,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: and that awful decision to or May offering up that
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: seventeen year old boy as a replacement. They crossed lines themselves.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Hammy didn't just control them, He corrupted them, pulled them
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: into his world until survival meant participating in the evil.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: He really was a master manipulator, using his background, that
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: veneer of respectability.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: To build this unique destructive criminal network, praying on the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: most vulnerable and desperate.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: So in the end, Terror and them all their horrific
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: act did stop him. It dismantled his entire operation. But
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: what about them?
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: That's the question, isn't it. They killed the architect of
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: their torment. But were they ever really free or did
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: killing Hammity just trap them permanently in that parallel world
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: of violence and crime he created for them. Something for
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: you to consider