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Mahmoud Amin Suleiman: Egypt's Master Thief and Slayer · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine this Piro April sixth, nineteen sixty. There's this nervous
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: energy in the air, almost electric. Posters are going up fast,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: big reward a thousand Egyptian pounds, huge money back then
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: all for any clue, any whisper about this one guy
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  Speaker 1: the whole city's terrified of. Yeah, the assassin of the intellectuals,
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  Speaker 1: they're calling him.
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  Speaker 2: And the fear. You can almost taste it right headlines, screaming,
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  Speaker 2: people whispering exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the really chilling part. This guy, he's not
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: exactly hiding. Picture a taxi pulling over. The passenger just
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  Speaker 1: some ordinary looking man shows the driver of the newspaper
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  Speaker 1: points to the sketch of this wanted assassin and he asks,
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  Speaker 1: cool as anything, do you recognize him? The driver may
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: be tired, maybe scared, just shakes his head. Then the
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  Speaker 1: passenger leans in, maybe a little smile, and says, it's me.
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  Speaker 1: Mahmouda means Suliman.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, just openly admitting it. That's incredibly bold, or maybe
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  Speaker 2: something else entirely.
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  Speaker 1: Right, that's who we're diving into today. Mahmood A means
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  Speaker 1: Suliman considered, you know, one of the smartest definitely one
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  Speaker 1: of the most dangerous criminals in Egypt's history. But what
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  Speaker 1: really grabs you, what's so deeply unsettling, is the transformation.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this guy was on the surface, totally respectable,
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  Speaker 1: a university professor, owned a publishing house.
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  Speaker 2: And moved in very high circles, friends with huge stars
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  Speaker 2: of Bill Halim Hafez, whom called them the poet homage Shocki.
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  Speaker 1: Camille Elschinowe, the journalist, really embedded in the elite, and
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  Speaker 1: then somehow he becomes this incredibly cunning thief and eventually
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  Speaker 1: a killer, a ruthless one.
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  Speaker 2: The staggering shift.
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  Speaker 1: So our mission today really is to try and unpack that.
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  Speaker 1: Who was this man, what pushed him, What was behind
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  Speaker 1: this this descent into becoming the assassin of the intellectuals.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to peel back the layers, look at his origins,
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  Speaker 1: his crimes, the betrayals, the madness as people called it.
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  Speaker 2: That opening image him and the taxi, it really says something,
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  Speaker 2: doesn't it. It's not just a fugitive trying to lay low.
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  Speaker 2: It feels like the performance a performance how so well,
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  Speaker 2: it's this profound need for recognition, maybe notoriety, like he
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  Speaker 2: wants to control how people see him, even as this
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  Speaker 2: infamous figure. It's defiance, almost pathological, taunting everyone.
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  Speaker 1: And that defiance, that need for the spotlight. Maybe it
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  Speaker 1: started young, Yeah, because his story it begins way before Cairo,
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  Speaker 1: in Abutiskina, though he was actually born in Lebanon nineteen twenty.
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  Speaker 1: His dad ran a small shipping business there, right, And
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  Speaker 1: the first documented incident, the first time he crossed the line,
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  Speaker 1: he was just seven years old. Seven, comes home with
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  Speaker 1: four cucumbers. His mom asks where he got them. He
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  Speaker 1: just says, I stole them. Plain his day. And the reaction,
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  Speaker 1: that's the thing, indifference almost like huh, clever kid. No punishment,
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  Speaker 1: no warning, just nothing.
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  Speaker 2: That is critical. That lack of boundary setting, especially so young.
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  Speaker 2: It's like normalizing theft from the get go. If there's
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  Speaker 2: no consequence, no moral pushback. Well you can see how
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  Speaker 2: that might escalate. It chips away at the ethics.
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  Speaker 1: And escalated, did yeah fast by nine years old? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: just nine. He's in a gang in Levit all right. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: He was small, slender, perfect for slipping into houses, and
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  Speaker 1: his crimes got boulder. Get this. He stole rifles from
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  Speaker 1: a British Army.
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  Speaker 2: Camp from the army at nine. That's audition doesn't even
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  Speaker 2: cover it.
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  Speaker 1: The police were apparently baffled. They just took him back
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  Speaker 1: to his dad, who was just stunned. But Mahmood didn't
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  Speaker 1: slow him down. He started his own gang, of course
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  Speaker 1: he did, and they aimed high, really high. Tried to
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  Speaker 1: rob the house of Camille Chamoun, the former Lebanese.
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  Speaker 2: President, a major political figure. That's a huge leap.
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  Speaker 1: It went wrong, though, badly wrong. A security guard was
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  Speaker 1: killed during the attempt, and that landed Mamod his first
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  Speaker 1: real prison sentence, four years for robbery.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so from petty theft to gang leader to our
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  Speaker 2: robbery involving a death, all before he's even properly an adult.
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  Speaker 2: It shows this like inherent drive for risk, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Consequences just didn't seem to register in the same way.
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  Speaker 2: Prison wasn't a deterrent, Maybe just a learning experience for him.
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  Speaker 1: Seems like it because after prison, his father moved back
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  Speaker 1: to Egypt. My Mood followed soon after. And here's where
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  Speaker 1: he makes this conscious shift. His father dies and moment decides, right,
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  Speaker 1: I'm ditching the past completely, total reinvention, wore reinvention. He
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  Speaker 1: aims to become a society star, moves to Alexandria, then
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  Speaker 1: Cairo starts networking, connects with big names like the journalist
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  Speaker 1: Mustapha Amine Dookichi. Very he crashs this whole new persona
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  Speaker 1: university professor, successful publisher, and he nails it. Integrates perfectly
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  Speaker 1: into these elite circles, friends with celebrities, always the big parties.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of amazing how well he pulled it off.
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  Speaker 2: It's extraordinary. Really, it speaks to a high level of
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, social intelligence, manipulation. He understood what currency
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  Speaker 2: mattered in those circles, intellect, respectability. It gave him access,
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  Speaker 2: deflected suspicion. He weaponized charm and.
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  Speaker 1: He definitely used that access, didn't he It wasn't just
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  Speaker 1: about fitting in.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, His social life was his criminal operation. In
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  Speaker 2: a way, while he's charming everyone at parties, he's casing
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  Speaker 2: the joint layouts, noting routines, figuring out when people are away.
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  Speaker 2: It was reconnaissance, hiding in plain sight, and the.
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  Speaker 1: Targets were huge. I mean, these robberies shocked people. The
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  Speaker 1: Golden Palm given to Ahmed Shaki by the King of
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  Speaker 1: Bahrain gone a priceless artifact. He got into Coltham's villa.
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  Speaker 1: Think about that, the security around her.
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  Speaker 2: The national treasure. Basically.
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  Speaker 1: There were even reports he tried to rob field Marshaal
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  Speaker 1: abdel Hakim Ahmer's place, one of the most powerful men
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  Speaker 1: in the country.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the audacity is just breathtaking.
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  Speaker 1: Over fifty eight robberies in total, mostly in wealthy areas
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  Speaker 1: like Zamalek Mohandesen, tough places to operate, and his method
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  Speaker 1: was slick. Hit Cairo, then straight back to Alexandria. Lilo
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  Speaker 1: is the respectable professor for a few days. Throw everyone
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  Speaker 1: off the set.
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  Speaker 2: It shows incredible planning, choosing difficult targets, the quick escapes,
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  Speaker 2: maintaining that dual identity. It points to a really compartmentalized mind.
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  Speaker 2: He could be the thief, then the academic without it
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  Speaker 2: seems much internal conflict, chillingly effective.
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  Speaker 1: But eventually everyone slips up right, even him. His first
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  Speaker 1: big mistake was trying to rob the palace of a
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  Speaker 1: millionaire named Sabahi in Alexandria.
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  Speaker 2: Well went wrong.
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  Speaker 1: He got inside, but there were just too many servants
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  Speaker 1: awake unexpected activity. He couldn't get out clean. They caught
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  Speaker 1: him outside the palace.
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  Speaker 2: The unpredictable human element exactly.
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  Speaker 1: That got him arrested, sentenced to two years for theft.
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  Speaker 1: And while he's inside, the police start connecting the dots.
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  Speaker 1: Sabay's robbery makes them look again at other big unsolved.
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  Speaker 2: Cases like the Shaki and Umkultham.
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  Speaker 1: Heists precisely, and suddenly the truth comes out. This respected professor,
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  Speaker 1: this charming publisher, friend of the stars, He's the mastermind,
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  Speaker 1: thief behind all these high profile robberies. The shockwaves were immense.
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  Speaker 2: You can imagine the ultimate betrayal of that carefully crafted image.
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  Speaker 2: It's classic Hubris. Maybe he got too confident, one small
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  Speaker 2: variable tripped him up and the whole facade crumbled. And
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  Speaker 2: this exposure, this humiliation, it must have changed something inside him,
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  Speaker 2: set the stage for what came next.
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  Speaker 1: Darker chapter. Yeah, because prison seems to be where he
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  Speaker 1: transforms from this I guess criminal genius into something else,
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  Speaker 1: into the assassin. What triggered that?
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  Speaker 2: It really seems rooted in personal betrayal, deeply personal. First,
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  Speaker 2: there was his wife, owatif he discovered she wasn't a
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  Speaker 2: virgin when they married, Okay, and for him, this was
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  Speaker 2: apparently catastrophic, a profound betrayal, a complete loss of trust,
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  Speaker 2: not just in her, but seemingly in all women. It
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  Speaker 2: triggered this huge personal crisis, maybe fueled his paranoia.
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  Speaker 1: Paranoia seems key here, very much so.
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  Speaker 2: And then came the Wall. She's described as his true love,
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  Speaker 2: but also his weakness, the secret of his madness.
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  Speaker 1: How did they meet?
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  Speaker 2: He met her while still playing the part of the
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  Speaker 2: influential publisher, seduced her, charmed her away from her poor
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  Speaker 2: background even an existing engagement, used his status, his money,
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  Speaker 2: his charisma.
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  Speaker 1: But the love was complicated intensely.
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  Speaker 2: He was obsessed but also incredibly jealous, constantly suspecting her.
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  Speaker 2: He'd talk about it with his lawyer, Bater Eldin, who
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  Speaker 2: is his closest friend, his confidant since fifty eight.
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  Speaker 1: Did the lawyer believe him?
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  Speaker 2: Bater el Din apparently saw how extreme Mahmoud's paranoia was getting.
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  Speaker 2: He even urged him to get psychological help, though sometimes
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  Speaker 2: even the lawyer admitted, Noel might have you know, deliberately
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  Speaker 2: provoked his jealousy.
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  Speaker 1: A bit a toxic situation, extremely volatile.
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  Speaker 2: This obsessive love, the intense jealousy, the paranoia feeding on itself.
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  Speaker 2: It created this destructive internal loop and his confidant seeing
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  Speaker 2: the need for professional help. That tells you how bad
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  Speaker 2: it had become.
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  Speaker 1: And this continued right up until he was imprisoned again
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  Speaker 1: after the Sabahi incident.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the fights, the suspicion, it all carried on. Then
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  Speaker 2: in prison, his court cases kept getting delayed. Months dragged on, which.
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  Speaker 1: Must have fueled the paranoi even more exponentially.
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  Speaker 2: He became utterly convinced that Bater Eldn, his lawyer, his
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  Speaker 2: best friend, was intentionally keeping him locked up. Why because
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  Speaker 2: Mahmoud believed bater el Din was having an afair way.
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  Speaker 2: This double betrayal his closest friend, the woman he loved,
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  Speaker 2: It just broke something in him, pushed him completely over
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  Speaker 2: the edge.
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  Speaker 1: And that led to the escape plan, the devilish plan
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  Speaker 1: as it was called. He swallowed handfuls of pins a
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  Speaker 1: huge number, to injure himself internally force a transfer out
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  Speaker 1: of prison.
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  Speaker 2: Extreme self destructive.
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  Speaker 1: It shows utter desperation and a mind completely consumed by
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  Speaker 1: one goal. Escape. It worked. They moved him to Causer
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  Speaker 1: Lane Hospital and just one day later he was gone, escaped,
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  Speaker 1: triggering a nationwide man hunt exactly. The fugitive Mahmoud Sulman
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  Speaker 1: was loose, and his paranoia had solidified into this fixed
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  Speaker 1: delusion about Bader el Din and the Wall. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: just suspicion anymore. It was in his mind, absolute fact,
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  Speaker 1: and he was out for revenge.
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  Speaker 2: The moment he was free, he didn't waste any time.
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  Speaker 2: He went straight back to Alexandria, right to Newall's home.
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  Speaker 1: What happened there, It was horrific.
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  Speaker 2: She was there with her mother, sister, brother in law.
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  Speaker 2: He had a rifle, fired six shots. He killed the
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  Speaker 2: brother in law, then fled.
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  Speaker 1: His first murder. Yeah, directly linked to that perceived betrayal.
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  Speaker 2: His next stop Vader el Din's office. But the lawyer
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  Speaker 2: wasn't there, lucky for him, unlucky for his secretary. Mahmood apparently,
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  Speaker 2: fearing she'd report him, just killed her coldly and vanished again.
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  Speaker 2: That's the horrifying shift right there. No longer about theft,
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  Speaker 2: It's about eliminating perceived threats, perceived betrayers. The secretary was
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  Speaker 2: just collateral damage in his vengeful quest. Any semblance of
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  Speaker 2: a moral compass is just gone.
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  Speaker 1: The city was gripped by panic newspapers full of the
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  Speaker 1: fugitive assassin. The Interior Ministry put up that big reward
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  Speaker 1: March third, nineteen sixty.
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  Speaker 2: And how did Mahmoud react to being the most wanted
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  Speaker 2: man in Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed to almost enjoy it. Yeah, in this really
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  Speaker 1: twisted way. I remember the taxi story that started right
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  Speaker 1: after the reward was announced, riding around Alexandria asking drivers
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  Speaker 1: if they recognized his picture, then probably saying that's me.
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  Speaker 2: It's that performance aspect again, trying to sow confusion. Appear
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: everywhere at once, seems like it.
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  Speaker 1: He'd pop up in Alexandria, then Bulak and Cairo. He
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  Speaker 1: was even seen taking drugs openly just told defiance.
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  Speaker 2: It's like he detached from reality, prioritizing this personal drama,
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  Speaker 2: this warped sense of fame over everything else.
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  Speaker 1: Even called the famous actress ta Heya Karioka, threatened her,
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  Speaker 1: said he was coming to her house for money, would
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  Speaker 1: hurt her if she refused.
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  Speaker 2: Just terrorizing people randomly.
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  Speaker 1: She called the police immediately. Of course, he never showed up,
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  Speaker 1: but imagine the.
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  Speaker 2: Fear, unbelievable audacity, a mind completely unhinged.
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  Speaker 1: But his time was running out. He headed south towards
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Upper Egypt, hitchhike to Binni's Hoof, got in a taxi.
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  Speaker 1: The driver noticed something, a scarf tied around the mood's
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  Speaker 1: right hand. Maybe saw his face properly recognized him from
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  Speaker 1: the papers.
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  Speaker 2: What did the driver do?
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  Speaker 1: Quick thinking? At a police checkpoint, he left the car running,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: jumped out, ran to an officer and whispered, he's in
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  Speaker 1: my car, the assassin.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, brave man.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Mamod reacted instantly, fired shots at the checkpoint, grabbed the
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  Speaker 1: wheel of the still running taxi and just floored it
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  Speaker 1: vanished again.
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  Speaker 2: Always reacting, always trying to stay one step ahead.
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  Speaker 1: They found the car later a bandon near Butterchine. He'd
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: changed clothes, crossed the Nile towards hell One, but the
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  Speaker 1: police dogs. They were on his trail.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: The net was closing in.
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  Speaker 1: They tracked him relentlessly, led the police straight to a
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  Speaker 1: cave hidden away in the hell.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: On mountains, cornered his final stand.
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  Speaker 1: It was four pm. The standoff start. He's inside, refuses
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  Speaker 1: to surrender.
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  Speaker 2: Did he make demand?
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  Speaker 1: One final chilling demand? He said he'd only come out
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  Speaker 1: if they brought no wall to him.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: For revenge, even at the very end, obsessed with her,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: with that betrayal.
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  Speaker 1: They negotiated for hours, but he wouldn't budge. It ended
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  Speaker 1: violently April ninth, nineteen sixty, just three days after the
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  Speaker 1: reward was announced, seventeen bullets. Mamood to mean Suliman.
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  Speaker 2: Was dead, with a brutal end to a brutal saga,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: that final demand. It really highlights how intertwined his violence
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: his madness was with that obsessive love and perceived betrayal.
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  Speaker 2: It consumed him utterly.
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  Speaker 1: So looking back at this whole story, what do we
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  Speaker 1: make of it? Mamouda means Sulmai. It's such a complex picture,
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  Speaker 1: a man from a decent background who maybe felt rejected somehow,
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  Speaker 1: driven by this intense need for distinction, self assertion.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: It seems that way, first through audacious crime, then through
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: this destructive obsession and violence. His madness, as people saw it,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't random. It felt directed, fueled by specific grievances.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And his story just gripped Egypt instantly. They give him
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: a Foos. The great novelist wrote The Thief and the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Dogs less than a year later, directly inspired by him,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: cemented his place in well criminal history.
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  Speaker 2: It's a powerful cautionary tale, isn't it About how intelligence capability,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: when they aren't anchored by ethics, when they're twisted by
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: deep personal wounds and ego, how destructive they can become.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: It's a stark reminder of vulnerability, betrayal, and where that
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  Speaker 2: dark path can lead.
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  Speaker 1: It really is, which leaves us with a question, maybe
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: for you to think about how much of his path
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: was set early on, thatildhood, audacity never checked. How much
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: was it the later spiral, the love, the intense jealousy,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the crushing sense of betrayal. What is the story of
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Moudim means? Suliman tell us about that terrifyingly thin line
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: between genius and madness, especially when human emotion in its
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: rawest form gets thrown into the mix.