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The Sorcerer Who Murdered 42 Women · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture this. It is an Indonesian night, and the humidity
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is just completely suffocating, right, It's that heavy, wet heat exactly.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You are standing right in the middle of a vast
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: sugar cane field. The air is so thick it's almost
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: too heavy to breathe, and it carries this rich, metallic
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: scent of wet earth.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: And it's pitch black out there.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Completely dark. The only sound is the wind just rustling
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: through these towering stalks of sugar cane that surround you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: on all sides. It creates this literal wall of shadows.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And down in the earth, surrounded by that cold, dense mud,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: is a woman buried right in the ground. Yeah, she
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is buried waist deep in the soil. But here is
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the truly terrifying part of this scene.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: She isn't screaming, not making a sound.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: No, she isn't fighting to pull herself free at all.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: She is perfectly still. Her eyes are wide with anticipation
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: because she believes with every fiber of her being that
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: this is a sacred ritual.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: She thinks it's a blessing.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: She believes this burial is the exact key to changing
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: her life, that it will bring her love wealth, profound luck.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And then from the darkness of the sugar cane come
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the footsteps, slow, deliberate. You can hear the crunch of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: boots on the damp earth getting closer. You're standing there
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in the dark, and you know what she does it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: You know, this isn't some spiritual awakening.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's a trap.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It's a trap. It is a masterclass in psychological manipulation,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and it's about to snap shut with devastating finality.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: It's just I mean, it is a scene that feels
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: completely engineered for a psychological thriller. Yeah, yet the sheer
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: terror of it comes from the fact that it is
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: documented reality. What you just describe, that's the culmination of
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: immense trust placed in the hands of a predator who
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: is wearing the mask of a spiritual guide.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And that horrifying reality is our focus for you today.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: On this deep dive, we are examining one of the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: most chilling, bizarre true crime cases in history.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We're looking at the story of a mad Seraji. He
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: was an infamous practitioner of dark magic in Indonesia, and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: his crimes basically force an entire country to grapple with
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the darkest corners of human nature.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Well, to really understand how a predator like Saraji operates,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: we have to establish the environment that even allowed him
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: to thrive in the first.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Place, right, the cultural context.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly in this specific cultural backdrop, black magic or sorcery
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: is not treated as just spooky folklore. It functions as
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: a highly integrated system of problem solving.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: People actually rely on it, they do.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: People from all walks of life seek out ducans, those
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: are shamans or sorcerers, and they go to them for
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: tangible solutions to deeply personal issues like what kind of issues,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I mean anything. They might want to secure a marriage,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: maybe heal a stubborn illness, or even gain a competitive
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: edge in their business.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So it's very practical for them.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Highly practical, and this ingrained belief system creates a very
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: unique vulnerability. When an individual believes their spiritual guide literally
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: holds the power to alter reality to manifest their deepest desires,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: their critical thinking is entirely bypassed.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Because the reward is so high.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Right, they will follow instructions no matter how isolating or
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: strange or frightening. Those instructions become the promise of the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: reward completely outweighs their immediate fear, and.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: We see that vulnerability weaponized perfectly in the events that
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: ultimately unraveled Seraji's whole facade.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: It started with a mistake on his part.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It begins with the disappearance of a woman named Kamala.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: She just vanishes without a trace. Her family is as
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: you would expect, frantic. They are navigating that agonizing limbo
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: where they just don't know if she is hurt, lost,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: or worse.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: The worst kind of pain.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so they hold a three day wake in their
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: village to mourn and just pray for answers. And sitting
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: right there in the very center of the grieving family
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: for those three days pouring tea and offering prayers is
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a mad Seraji.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, think about the psychological compartmentalization that takes. He
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: used the family's grief as an active form of.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Camouflage, hiding in plainsight exactly.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: He knew the authorities were beginning to look in his direction,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: so he positioned himself as the absolute pillar of the community.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: He was comforting Kamala's parents, playing the role of the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: benevolent spiritual leader, and they bought it completely. To the family.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: He was a revered figure. The mere suggestion that he
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: could be involved in her disappearance was offensive to their worldview.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It's chilling to think about him drinking their tea, knowing
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: full well he's the reason they are crying. But while
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: he was doing that, the police were taking a very
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: different approach.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: They weren't blinded by his reputation.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: No, they ignored his social standing completely. They focused entirely
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: on the timeline of Kamala's last known movements, and several
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: witnesses came forward with a crucial, undeniable piece of information,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the turning point. Yes before Kamala vanished, she told them
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: she was heading to Saragi's house to request a magical favor.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: That specific detail is what transformed Seraji from a prominent
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: community member into the prime suspect. She went to him
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: seeking his supposed supernatural abilities.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: It was a direct link right.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: The investigators suddenly realized his role as a sorcerer wasn't
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: just his job, it was his modus operandi. They had
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: a causal link between his spiritual practice and her disappearance.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: So the police bring him in for questioning. You can
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: imagine the tension in that interrogation room. It must have
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: been palpable.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Investigators are pressing him on the witness statements, breaking down
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the timeline, cornering him with the fact that Kamala's final
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: destination was his doorstep, And under that intense pressure, the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: respected sorcerer finally cracks, but.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Not the way they expected, not at all.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The confession he offers leaves the investigators staring into an
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: abyss they were entirely unprepared for. He doesn't just confess
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to the murder of Kamala.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: No, he details a sprawling, multi year campaign of violence.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: He confesses to killing more than forty two women, ranging
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: in age from seventeen to fifty, all within that single
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: village's surround.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: A forty two women. It's staggering.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: These seasoned investigators thought they were untangling a single tragic homicide.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Suddenly they find themselves sitting across from one of the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: most prolific serial killers in the region's history.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: And that confession immediately triggered a logistical and forensic nightmare.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Pieces of where he put them.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly, Saraji admitted to burying his victims out in the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: local sugar cane fields. Law enforcement had to descend on
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: these vast muddy agricultural lands. They spent an entire month
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: systematically digging through heavy wet earth.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: A whole month of digging.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Day after day, dozens of officers pulling over forty two
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: bodies and skeletal remains from the mud, all while working
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: through brutal monsoon conditions.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I mean the environment alone would have been catastrophic for
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: preserving any kind of evidence.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It was the highly acidic mud and the constant moisture
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: severely degraded the physical remains. Gathering standard forensic data like
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: time of death or specific trauma became nearly impossible for
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: many of the older victims.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And then there's the issue of figuring out who they.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: All were right. Compounding the forensic challenge was the issue
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: of identification. Because Saraji's reputation as a powerful sorcerer had
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: spread far beyond his local village, women traveled from neighboring
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: provinces to seek his.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Help, which means local police reports are totally useless.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Precisely, they couldn't just check the immediate areas missing person's
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: log without a centralized digital database. In rural nineteen nineties Indonesia,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: investigators had to cast a massive.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Net so they are doing all of this manually.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Pure manual labor, sweeping cross references of missing women across
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  Speaker 2: multiple regions, trying to match dental records and personal effects
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: pulled from the mud to families hundreds of miles away.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: It was a staggering undertaking.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: That sheer volume of victims forty two women really forces
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: us to look backward, because a killing spree of that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: magnitude doesn't just happen overnight. It requires an inciting incident.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: There's always a trigger always.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: For Saraji, that incident'supposedly happened in nineteen eighty eight, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: it ties directly back to his father. Saraji inherited his
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: profession from his father, who was a famous and highly sought.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: After sorcerer big shoes to fill.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Very big. Saraji took over the practice, but according to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: his own confession, he felt overshadowed. Then in nineteen eighty eight,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: he claimed the ghost of his dead father appeared to
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: him with a set of instructions.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: The vision he described represents a dark, dark descent into
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: delusion and pathological ambition.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: What did the ghost tell him?
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: The ghost allegedly told him that to become the most
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: powerful sorcerer in Indonesia. To possess the ultimate ability to
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: command the devil to grant his magical requests, he had
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: to fulfill a specific demonic quota. A quota. Yes, the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: instructions demanded that Saraji murdered more than seventy women and
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: consume their saliva.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Consuming the saliva is just such a specific, visceral horrific
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: detail it is.
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  Speaker 2: It taps into very old occult tropes of consuming a
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: victim's life essence, but paired with his specific psychological probes file,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it reveals a profound insecurity because of his father right,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: he was burdened by the generational legacy of a legendary father.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: He wanted ultimate power in the underworld to validate his
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: status in the living world. By taking these lives and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: consuming their essence, he literally believed he was physically leveling
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: up his spiritual authority.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: It is a stark example of how a deeply held
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: delusion can entirely overwrite a person's humanity. He turned human
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: lives into mere stepping stones.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: For power, just fuel for his own ambition.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Now, the timeline of these murders shows this wasn't a sudden,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: frantic spree. It was a sustained, calculated campaign that spanned years.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: But interestingly, there was a period where he.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Paused, He took a break from the killings he did.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: He stopped for a while, but then, he claimed he
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: started to feel his magical influence waning. He felt his
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: power slipping away. So to renew his supernatural authority, he
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: decided to resume the hunt. Only this time he required assistance.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: He couldn't do it alone anymore.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Right, he brought it in accomplices.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: He enlisted his two wives.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: They both lived with them in the same house. The
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: mechanics of bringing your spouses into a mass murder operation
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it requires a deep dive into the anatomy of complicity.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: It functions very much like a microcosm of a cult.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: How do you normalize that kind of abnormal behavior in
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a home?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: According to the investigation, Saraji utilized a potent combination of
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: psychological dominance, fear of his supposed magic, and sheer financial dependency.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Because he was the sole provider, he.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Was making significant money from his sorcery practice. He sat
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: his wives down, explained the ghost's prophecy, and warned them
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: his fading powers threatened their livelihood and their status in
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the community.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: So he made it their problem too, Exactly.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Over time, through isolation and manipulation, he eroded their moral boundaries.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: They transitioned from wives to active recruiters. They used their
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: position as women to build trust with desperate, vulnerable clients,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: eventually luring them right into Saraji's home.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: They literally became the bait. Yes, And as this horrifying
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: family business scaled up, Saraji's methods evolved. Digging forty two
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: graves in dense, muddy soil is grueling physical labor. Prioritizing
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: his own convenience, Saraji decided the process of killing someone
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and then burying their lifeless dead weight was just too exhausting.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: It's sickening how practical he was about.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: It, It really is. He innovated a new method which
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: brings us all the way back to that terrifying scene
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in the sugarcane field we talked about at the start.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: His solution is a profound demonstration of psychological control. He
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: used his authority as a spiritual guide to convince his
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: victims that the magic ritual they were paying for explicitly
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: required them to be buried waist deep in the sugar
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: cane field at night.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: He told them it was a rule for the spell.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: He framed it as a necessary trial, a test of
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: their faith and commitment to the spells they were seeking.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: So the victims were effectively digging their own partial graves,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: or at least willingly standing in them, while the earth
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: was packed around.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Their legs, volunteering to be trapped.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: The psychology of those final moments is just chilling. The
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: victim is standing in the dark, immobilized in the dirt.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: She is entirely helpless, but she feels safe.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: She thinks she's doing the right thing.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: She believes she is on the precipice of a miracle
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that will fix her life. Saraji approaches her, operating under
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the guise of completing the sacred ritual. While she's trapped
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: looking to him for spiritual salvation.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: He strangles her just an absolute betrayal of trust.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: He consumes her saliva to fulfill his father's quota, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: because she is already waist deep, he merely has to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: push the remaining soil over her. It was a calculated efficiency,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: designed entirely to minimize his physical exertion, and.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: During the excavation of those bodies, police uncovered a ritualistic
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: detail that further highlighted his total submission to this delusion.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just random placement, not at all.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: As they cleared the mud, they noticed a strict spatial pattern.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Every single victim's face had been deliberately positioned by Saraji
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: to point directly toward.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: His house, pacing his home.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, this was a rigid obedience to the rules laid
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: out by his dead father. Even in the active disposal,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: he was forcing his victims to eternally face the source
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of his supposed power, treating them as permanent conduits for
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: his magic.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: With the bodies finally recovered and a full confession in hand,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you would think the legal proceedings would be completely straightforward,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: slam dunk. You would hope so, But the initial trial
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: resulted in a massive frustration for the prosecution. We have
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to look back at the condition of those sugarcane fields.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: The degraded evidence played a pivotal role in the courtroom.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: The wet earth had destroyed so much of the forensic data.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Establishing the precise cause of death for the older remains
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: was incredibly difficult, and the defense capitalized on this lack
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of ironclad physical proof.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: They used the mud to their advantage.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: They did. As a result, the court felt they could
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: not hand down the death penalty immediately. They sentenced Saraji
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and his wives to twenty five years in prison, which is.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Just a slap in the face given the scale of
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: the crimes. The reaction from the village was explosive, and
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: it is crucial to understand why.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just standard outrage.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: No, this wasn't just public anger over a lenient sentence.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: This was an existential ontological shock. These villagers had respected him,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: They had sought his counsel, They had dined with him,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and mourned alongside him at wakes for the very women
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: he had slaughtered.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: The betrayal cut to the core of their spiritual belief
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: system exactly.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: The village absolutely refused to accept the court's decision. They
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: marched on his property, the very house those victims had
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: been forced to face, and they burned to the ground.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: They took matters into their own hands.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: They were attempting to purge his influence from their community completely.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: The case sparked a massive public outcry across all of Indonesia.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: It exposed the dark underbelly of unregulated spiritual practices and
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: left a wound that the public refused to let heal
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: without a definitive resolution, And the.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Justice system did eventually respond to that pressure, though it
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: took a.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Grou ten years a decade of waiting.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: During that decade, investigators did not stop. They continued to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: build the case, finding new ways to solidify the evidence
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: against him. Finally, in two thousand and eight, a retrial was.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Held and things went differently.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Armed with tighter legal arguments and a comprehensive presentation of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: his sustained, calculated methods, the prosecution finally secured the ultimate punishment.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Amadsaraji was sentenced to death.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: The execution itself carried a heavy symbolic weight. How so,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: he was not put to death quietly behind prison walls.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: He was executed by a firing squad in a public square.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: He had to stand there facing the very society he
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: had manipulated and terrorized.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: A cinematic end, and the consequences extended far beyond his execution.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Even in death, he couldn't escape it.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: When a person dies, there is usually a family waiting
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to claim them, a community willing to offer a final
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: resting place. But for Saraji, the rejection was absolute. His
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: own family refused to take his body.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: They disowned him entirely.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: The village, the same community that once revered him as
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a powerful leader, banned his remains from their soil forever.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: They successfully petitioned to ensure he could not be buried
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: anywhere near them. He had to be transported over fifty
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: kilometers away and buried in an unmarked grave in total isolation.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: A man who murdered dozens of women in a quest
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: for eternal recognition and power ended up entirely erased by
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: his own people.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It is a fitting end for someone who viewed human
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: life as expendable currency. Absolutely, it brings a definitive close
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to the timeline of Saraji's crimes, But the case leaves
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: behind a psychological paradox that we want you to consider.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: This is the part that really stays with you.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: It really does. Throughout his confessions, his interrogations, and his trials,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Saraji maintained one very specific claim. He insisted that his
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: magic actually grew stronger with every murder he committed. He
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: genuinely believed the demonic quota was working.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: But here is the unsettling part. The villagers agreed with
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: his assessment.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, before they knew he was a serial killer. During
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the very years he was actively burying women in the
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: sugarcane fields, the locals swore his spells were working flawlessly.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: People who went to him for love, for wealth, for luck,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: they reported getting exactly what they asked for.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: His reputation as a miracle worker piqued at the exact
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: same time as killing spree was at its most prolific.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: It forces us to ask a deeply uncomfortable question about
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the mechanics of belief. Was his growing power and the
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: reported success of his spells simply a massive placebo.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Effect, a self fulfilling prophecy.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Right Was it fueled by his own surging dark confidence,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: which made his clients believe more strongly in their own outcomes,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: thereby manifesting those outcomes through their own renewed actions.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Or does absolute unquestioning belief, no matter how horrifically the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: foundation of that belief is built, somehow alter the fabric
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: of reality for the people involved.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: The terrifying thought.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Did human psychology do all the heavy lifting creating a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: shared illusion of power? Or is there a darker current
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: running underneath that unquestioning faith. It's a question that lingers
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: long after the sugarcane fields were emptied and the firing
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: squad lowered their weapons. Keep that in mind the next
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: time you wonder what kind of shadows hide behind closed doors,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: or what terrible things people will justify when they believe
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: they hold the power to control fate itself.