Ahmed Suradji was born on January 10, 1949, in North Sumatra, Indonesia. He worked as a cattle breeder and a "Dukun" (an Indonesian term for a shaman reputed to possess supernatural powers). Suradji was a rebellious and uneasy child who never easily befriended anyone. He ran away from home by the age of 19 and was jailed for 10 years for violent behavior.
Before becoming the infamous sorcerer, he was working as a cattle breeder but was not satisfied with his job. He became restless and started practicing sorcery. He had three wives, and all of them were siblings.
In Indonesia, people frequently hold beliefs in sorcery and the paranormal, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas with low levels of education. There is such a strong belief in black magic that those who are accused of practicing it have been put to death.
Just before starting to kill, Suradji said that his deceased father appeared in his dream and told his son to become a mystic healer to acquire more power. To achieve this, Suradji had to drink the saliva of 70 dead young women.
It was 1987, a time when women in Indonesia believed a dukun could make them more beautiful and bring greater wealth to them. One day, a woman made her way to the local dukun Suradji for help becoming wealthy and beautiful. He told her to walk through the sugarcane field that was near his house.
Suradji said that he must perform rituals in the field. While walking with the woman, he led her toward a hole. He told her to stand in the hole. The hole was deep enough to reach up to her shoulders. Ahmed started filling the hole, rendering her unable to move.
She got nervous and asked him when she would be able to get out of the hole. Sadly, she wouldn't leave the hole alive. Right after trapping her, Suradji strangled her throat with a cable, killing her.
After strangling her, Suradji gathered the saliva that was dripping from her mouth and drank it. He stripped the woman naked and buried her, finishing the heinous act by making sure that her head was facing his house.
The story doesn't end here; this was just the beginning of horrific incidents. Suradji was thirsty for power. He had to kill 69 more women for his evil purpose.
Many prostitutes started visiting him to attract more men, believing it would enhance their wealth. Suradji thought that killing prostitutes would be less dangerous because they were not connected with their families and no one would ask about their disappearance.
According to his twisted beliefs, Suradji needed 70 women to kill. He couldn't kill every woman who came to him. He had to be cautious and selective. But nothing would stop him from achieving his goal.
He started killing one after another, and no one noticed. Women would come to him for advice, and Suradji would lead them to the sugarcane field to perform the ritual. The poor women had no idea that he was digging their graves. After leading them to the hole, the so-called dukun wrapped the cord around their necks and took their lives.
My father did not specifically advise me to kill people. He just told me to collect the saliva of 70 young women. So I was thinking that it would take a long time if I had to wait to get these numbers. I was trying to get to it as fast as possible, so I took my own initiative to kill.
No matter how powerful and cunning a murderer may be, there comes a time when they slip up and they're discovered. Something similar happened to Ahmed Suradji.
He thought that he could continue his attacks with no one noticing. But a man saw the decomposing dead body of a 21-year-old girl while ing through the sugarcane field. She was identified as Sri Kemala Dewi. She left home three days earlier to find bread and butter for her family.
On investigation, a rickshaw driver testified that he dropped Sri Kemala in front of the Suradji's home. Police immediately approached Suradji's house, and after completing an extensive search of it, they found Dewi's handbag, clothes, and bracelet.
Suradji was arrested on April 27, 1997, and charged with the murders of 42 young women. At first, Suradji denied the accusation, but as the investigation intensified, he started confessing.
The experts were unable to establish any sexual foul play, and Ahmed Suradji rejected the accusation of sexual assault against the victims. He said that he just wanted to earn money and power by killing the women.
It was difficult for the investigation team to get the dead bodies of all 42 women, so they brought in bulldozers to hasten the excavation process. The forensic expert Alfred Satio said that it was all bones and skulls except for five bodies.
Among these five bodies was Sri Kemala Dewi, and the other four remained unidentified. Satio told the media that the only way to identify the victims was through the DNA process, but at that time they didn't have enough samples to do so.
Police suspected that the victims may have been too ashamed to inform their families that they had sought the sorcerer's assistance, so their disappearances were not linked to him. Many of the victims were prostitutes.
After discovering the 40 corpses, the police asked residents to report missing female family . About 80 families in the area have reported relatives missing, so it's possible that Ahmad Suradji may have killed even more women.
Ahmed Suradji went to trial in December 1997. On December 11, he faced an irate team of prosecutors who were seeking the death penalty for him.
Since the victims were not identified, the prosecutor's team was having difficulty finding evidence against Suradji. It took seven months to collect the evidence and line up the witnesses.
The trial was mostly affected by social opinion. People had shown strong hatred toward Suradji. People gathered outside the court and shouted: "Let us kill him." On April 27, 1998, following a four-month trial, he was convicted of the killing of 42 women.
Suradji was sentenced to death, along with his wife, Tumini—the court found that she had intentionally helped Suradji in the killings. Later, her sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
On July 10, 2008, Ahmad Suradji was finally executed for his crimes.
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https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Ahmed-Suradji-The-Black-Magic-Serial-Killer
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