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The Violent Reign of Bentong Kali - Malaysia’s Most Notorious Gangster · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about a name, a name that back
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  in the early nineteen nineties in Malaysia, it really meant
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  fear for a lot of people. P Kalamuthu, or as
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  most people knew him, Benngklli.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Ben Tong Calli. Yeah, that name is still resident.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely So today we're doing a deep dive into his story.
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  It's well, it's astonishing, pretty brutal, and ultimately quite tragic.
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  Speaker 2: It really is.
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  Speaker 1: We've gathered a whole lot of material, articles, research notes,
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  trying to get a full picture, you know, his life,
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  the crimes, how it all ended. And our mission here
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  is to basically pull out the key insights, the really
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  important bits to give you a shortcut to understanding this
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  guy and importantly the world he came from.
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  Speaker 2: And it's crucial to see this as more than just
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  you know, a standard crime story. When you dig into it,
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  you're looking at all these different factors personal, societal that
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  sort of converge to create someone capable of such violence,
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  and maybe even more than that, the ripple effect, the
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  impact that kind of terror has on a whole country.
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  Speaker 1: That's a great point. And you know, one thing that
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  jumps out right away I think is how extreme violence
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  isn't always just about like pure evil, right, Sometimes it
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  grows in the cracks, the gaps.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, gaps in society, lack of opportunity exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So let's start there at the beginning. He was born P.
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  Kalamuth Who's su Percuresami January twenty two, nineteen sixty one,
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  in ben Tong.
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  Speaker 2: Pahong, eighth of eleven kids eleven wow.
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  Speaker 1: A Malaysian Indian Tamil family. And right away you see
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  the pattern poverty, not much parental supervision, probably inevitable.
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  Speaker 2: With that many kids, you'd have to fend for himself.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much. And it shows he dropped out of
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  school really early form one. It's like seventh grade round
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  that age. Yeah, and his first arrest by age fourteen,
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  already on the path. What stands out to you about
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  that early start.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's not just that he got into crime early.
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  It's how he fell in with this Chinese triad gang
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  O four there in Beentong, Okay. And you mentioned the
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  chaos at home. This gang offered him something he was missing,
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  that sense of longing, you know, purpose, even in.
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  Speaker 1: A twisted way, like a dark apprenticeship.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. He wasn't just messing around. He was learning organized
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  crime from the ground up, and he got a reputation fast,
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  hot temper, quick to violence.
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  Speaker 1: And the arrest kept coming.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, April nineteen eighty under the Dangerous Drugs Act.
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  Then he got put under house arrest for two years
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  in Gopang Parak.
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  Speaker 1: Did that slow him down?
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  Speaker 2: Doesn't seem like it. If anything, it just made him
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  more defiant. By November eighty four, he just vanish off
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  the radar.
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  Speaker 1: That idea of belonging is powerful, isn't it finding a community,
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  even a criminal one. So he disappears, but he doesn't
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  stay gone. He pops back up in Qualum Poor. What
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  was that move about?
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  Speaker 2: Ambition? Plain and simple? By nineteen ninety one, he's in
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  kl He joins another group, first Gang eight. Okay, but
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  bent on CALLI wasn't cut out to be, you know,
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  just one of the guys that temper, that drive for power.
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  He wasn't happy being subordinate.
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  Speaker 1: So he strikes out on his own.
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  Speaker 2: He does breaks away, forms his own crew though for
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  Jeelan klang Lama, and that's really when his reign of
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  terror truly begins.
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  Speaker 1: So what did that look like? How did he build
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  this Empire.
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  Speaker 2: Heroin was the big money maker. He was running operations
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  in key areas, brickfields, Sigambut, sunguy Way and Pang big areas.
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  Speaker 1: That's just drugs though, right, No, no.
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  Speaker 2: Protection rackets too, shaking down local businesses and if you
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  didn't pay up, well, the consequences were brutal. He had
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  his signature weapon too, the pistol, Yeah, a German made
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  sig sour p two twenty six came kind of his trademark.
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  And his whole look added to it. The tattoos, oh yeah,
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  covered born to Die on his right hand, tiger head
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  on the left, naked women on his thighs, snake and
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  eagle on his back, plus this big surgical scar on
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  his stomach. It wasn't just ink. It was a statement,
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  you know, don't mess with me.
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  Speaker 1: That's quite the image Born to Die. It definitely sends
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  a message. So how much did that physical persona play
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  into his reputation? And then the violence itself really collated,
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  didn't it?
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely did. Between ninety one and ninety three, things
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  went off the rails. We're talking at least seventeen murders
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  linked to him, and the chilling part source to say
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  a lot of it wasn't even strategic. It was just
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  for the joy of killing. As some put it, his
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  temper was a hair trigger dangerous for anyone.
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  Speaker 1: Can you give us some examples? They really notorious ones.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So there was the incident at Caesar's Club in
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  Pedaling Jaya. Shot a bouncer five.
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  Speaker 1: Times, five times. Did he survive.
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  Speaker 2: Miraculously yes, but paralyzed. Then there was a guy m
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  Athanithan murdered near Chloe goone place on jol and klang Lama,
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  probably personal. But the one that really showed his indiscriminate
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  brutality was in Quali, Garing or wrong. He and his
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  lieutenant Escunlana, they called him Billiard. They just walked into
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  a restaurant and just started attacking people machetes, knives, iron rods,
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  random patrons. That's what set him apart. Targeting ordinary civilities.
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  Speaker 1: Attacking people in a restaurant. That's beyond gangsterism. That's pure terror.
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  What is that kind of random violence tell you?
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  Speaker 2: It tells you he crossed the line. This is where
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  a public fear just exploded. He wasn't just a criminal anymore.
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  He was this unpredictable menace bringing violence right into everyday life.
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  Nobody felt safe.
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  Speaker 1: And that leads us to probably the most infamous incident,
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  the one everyone remembers. Flat Taming Jaya right Bala.
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  Speaker 2: Kong, nineteen ninety three. It started over something so incredibly trivial.
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  Speaker 1: What happened?
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  Speaker 2: A resident there, k Muthu, just twenty four apparently told
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  Khali off for urinating near.
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  Speaker 1: His flat and Collie's reactions.
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  Speaker 2: Shot him point blank in the face, killed him instantly,
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  just for that unbelievable. But it didn't stop there. Later
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  he actually went back to the same block there was
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  a birthday party happening. Oh no, he wasn't invited. He
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  and gunaland just showed up an open fire on the
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  party guests. Yeah, killed four people, injured two more. Just
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  a massacre. And his final known murder. June twenty ninth,
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  nineteen ninety three, Abdul Abdulhamid, a sixty five year old
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  stall owner, same reason apparent, told him off for urinating nearby,
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  shot dead.
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  Speaker 1: The sheer arrogance and the trivial reasons, it's mind boggling.
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  The police must have been under immense pressure. How did
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  they even begin to respond to this?
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  Speaker 2: They had to go big. Collie was practically mocking them.
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  He actually called the Federal CID Director's office, challenging them.
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  Speaker 1: He called the Police Chief's.
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  Speaker 2: Office, Yeah, taunting them. That was the final straw. That's
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  when the Royal Malaysia Police launched upspuns it June ninety.
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  Speaker 1: Three, Operation Bunts. It sounds serious.
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  Speaker 2: It was massive. Over two hundred officers pulled in from
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  kl selangor Pahang. They put up a huge bounty RM
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  one hundred thousand for any information. Posters went up everywhere,
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  not just Malaysia, but neighboring countries too, like Thailand. In
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  case he tried to flee, but.
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  Speaker 1: He was slippery.
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  Speaker 2: Incredibly, after the Taming Jaya shooting, police raided his flat,
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  found a drug lab, but he was gone, left his
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  passport behind. Even he was good at changing his looks,
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  staying hidden.
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  Speaker 1: So opspuns it involved a huge number of officers, a big bounty.
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  How tough was it for intelligence to actually pin him down?
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  This guy who's seemed to enjoy the chase.
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  Speaker 2: Extremely tough. You're dealing with someone cunning, someone who changes appearance,
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  someone with networks. It was round the clockwork for police intelligence.
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  A real cat and mouse.
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  Speaker 1: Game, constantly looking over their shoulder.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but you know, persistence pays off. Eventually Intel tracked
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  him down. They found his hideout.
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  Speaker 1: Where was it?
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  Speaker 2: A double story house in Madanda Mansara, Kuala Lumpur Posh neighborhood.
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  Actually he was holed up there with Gunnelan and another associate, T.
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  Gunesegaran known as Rob Guna.
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  Speaker 1: And that's at the stage for the end.
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  Speaker 2: That was it, the final showdown. June twenty ninth, nineteen
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  ninety three, same day he killed the stall owner.
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  Speaker 1: Interestingly, Wow, what happened at the house?
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  Speaker 2: Don raid? Elite police team, the Special Actions Unit surrounded
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  the place, very carefully planned. Sniper is in position, Federal
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  officers covering all angles, and they went in. They moved in,
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  but Collie and his guys weren't going quietly. They opened fire.
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  A fierce shootout erupted.
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  Speaker 1: Did you try to escape?
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  Speaker 2: He did, tried to get out via the roof, but
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  a police sniper had him sighted, one shot to the head.
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  That was the end of Benton.
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  Speaker 1: Colly right there on the roof. What about the others?
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  Speaker 2: Go Nolan and Gunnesegarin were killed in the firefight too.
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  It was all over right, there in that house, Benton
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  Colly's reign was finished.
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  Speaker 1: What was the feeling in Malaysia right after that? Relief?
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  Speaker 2: Huge relief. Absolutely. His body was laid to rest a
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  few days later July second, people could finally breathe again
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  in a way. But the fear he caused that lasted.
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  It left a scar on the nation's memory, you know,
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  a reminder of how chaotic things got.
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  Speaker 1: So stepping back from the timeline, Yeah, what are the
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  big takeaways here? It's such a chilling story. The violence,
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  the ambition, the sheer defiance.
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  Speaker 2: It really is.
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  Speaker 1: But it's also tangled up with poverty, wasn't it? Lack
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  of opportunity, that thirst for power. And there's that weird
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  contradiction too, the ruthless killer who was apparently generous to
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  his own people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that duality is fascinating to the public. He was
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  this absolute monster, a supervillain, but reports say to his relatives,
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  his gang members, he could be generous, helped the poor,
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  sometimes provided food. Apparently if he gave his word, he
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  kept it, earned loyalty that way. Strange contrast it is,
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  and it speaks to the complexities journalists Shuganthi Supermanium documented
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  how his life was really shaped by that poverty, the
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  lack of options in Malaysia that was developing.
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  Speaker 1: Fast but on easy.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, look at the stats from that time. The Indian
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  community about seven percent of the population, but reportedly accounted
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  for something like seventy percent of those involved in banks rism.
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  Speaker 1: Then seventy percent, that's staggering.
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  Speaker 2: It is many guys like Collie started as sort of
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  foot soldiers for established Chinese triads, learned the ropes, then
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  broke off to form their own Indian gangs. It fueled
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  a whole cycle, and.
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  Speaker 1: The system struggled to cope. You mentioned earlier arrests.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the fact he was arrested multiple times but often
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  released for insufficient evidence that points to real challenges for
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  law enforcement back then, systemic issues that kind of let
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  him slip through the cracks for too long.
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  Speaker 1: So his name just lives on now in folklore pretty much.
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  Speaker 2: Benton Collie mentioned alongside other infamous names like botoc Chin.
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  He represents this really dark, violent chapter in Malaysia's history.
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  Speaker 1: It's an incredible story, a chilly mix of well, extreme violence, ambition, defiance,
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  but also, like you said, reflecting a specific time in Malaysia.
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  Rapid change, unequal growth, and that contrast between the monster
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  and the man who was apparently sometimes generous. It's hard to.
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  Speaker 2: Wrap your head around, it really is, and it leads
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  you with a big question, doesn't it when you look
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  at someone like Benton Klli. How much is it about
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  the choices he made his individual path right and how
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  much is it a reflection of the society he came from?
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  Those cracks, those pressures. What stands out more to you
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  when you try to balance those two sides.
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  Speaker 1: That's the question to ponder, isn't it that line between
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  desperation and destruction and how one person's violent life can
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  echo through a whole society.