Handkerchief, Coin, And A Reign Of Terror: India's 18th Century Serial Killer Thug Behram Who Killed 931 People

Thug Behram worked with his men when the Thugee cult was at its peak in central India, but his killings scared travellers and Britishers.

Folklores traverse years, decades and beyond generations who rally it to others and so it remains alive for ages. They are myths, stories, and imaginations, but sometimes there are true legends. One such legend speaks of Thug Behram, whom many wished to be a myth.

He had confessed to having killed 931 people, personally strangulating around 125 and witnessed the murder of 956, writes Anirban Bhattacharyya in his book, The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers. Mentioned on the Guinness World Records website as 'Most Prolific Murder', Thug Behram is, undoubtedly, one of the most dreaded killers in the world.

He didn't spill a drop of blood, all he used was a handkerchief and a coin. 

 

How Behrag Jemedar Became Thug Behram

Behram Jemedar was born in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur in 1765. It is said that Behram was very calm and simple in his childhood. At the age of 25, he was introduced to the Thuggee cult by his best friend 'Firangi', Ustad Syed Amir Ali, who was 25 years older than him and was the most dangerous and dreaded thug of that time. 

To show his allegiance to the cult, Behram had to face a crucial test. 

According to Bhattacharyya's book, a man was brought forward and the Ustad gave Behram a handkerchief. He had to kill the pleading man. Initially hesitant, Behram found courage as a group of 40 men chanted around him. He moved forward and tightened his grip around the man's throat using the piece of cloth. As the man lost air in his body, Behram's fierce future grew.

 

Behrag's Thugs And Reign Of Terror

Like any other Thugee cult, stories say, Thug Behram had formed a group of around 200 thugs. They would mercilessly target convoys, and sometimes he would mingle among them and carry out the crime. He would carry out the murder in such a way that the entire convoys would disappear as if they never existed. 

Legends say even soldiers were afraid of going through the route where his thugs were rumoured to be present.  

Behram would disguise himself as a traveller, and accompany the caravans and once they were asleep at night, Behram would call his men using the Ramoshi language (called Thug's language). No one would get a chance to escape as Behram and other thugs would strangulate everyone in the convoy without using knives, or guns and without spilling a drop of blood. They would then dig up and bury them. The entire convoy would vanish in thin air, it appeared.

From 'A Minute To Kill' To '10 Seconds'

When Behram committed the first-ever murder in front of all, he was exhausted. Though he carried out many similar acts and mastered the style, he was not satisfied. One day, Behram unveiled a yellow cummerbund with a concealed coin to Ustad. He looked at his lieutenant and said – "what if I told you that I could kill a person in less than ten seconds?"

"Impossible!! It takes at least a minute to kill… and it takes three of us to hold one person down," Syed said from experience, wrote Bhattacharyya.

And then Behram revealed his small but precise weapon. "I’ve been working on something," Behram said and opened his yellow cummerbund revealing a coing sewn into it.

"That is my weapon!, when you put the rumaal around their necks – the coin presses down on Adam’s apple and makes it easier to block off the air. And it becomes faster to kill!" Behram explained to Ustad, according to the book.

Behram was unstoppable with his new trick at hand. He and his thugs were not selective — they preyed on rich, travellers and the British too. 

Sleeman's Thug Police And Behram's Fall

The British tried to catch Behram but failed on various occasions, until Captain William Henry Sleeman was appointed as the Superintendent of Thug Police in 1835. As people feared thugs, the latter dreaded Sleeman. According to UCLA Social Sciences, Sleeman is said to have played a major role in the battle against the menace of thugs in central India. 

A decade of efforts it took for Sleeman to emerge victorious over Behram. However, it was Firangi who became the reason for Behram's end.

Sleeman, in his hunt, captured Firangi and held his family hostage. He thrashed Firangi and said his family's fate would depend on whether he revealed Behram's whereabouts or not. Firangi told Sleeman about Behram then.

The Final Run

Firangi told Sleeman about the brothel that Behram frequently visited to meet a woman, Mumtaz.

Sepoys reached the place where 75-year-old Behram was with Mumtaz. Seeing the men in uniform, he ran towards the stables where his trusted horse awaited, Bhattacharyya wrote in his book. However, Sleeman caught up with him, Behram's trial continued for about two years and he was hanged in private but his body was displayed publicly in Katni.

Sleeman was applauded for his years of hard work to end the run of thugees. There is a village in Madhya Pradesh, Sleemanabad, named after Sleeman. The official website of the Katni district says that his descendants still come to visit the village.