Hoshang Amini

Hoshang Amini (; 1936 – December 1963), known as The Ghost of the Qanat Wells , was an Iranian serial killer and rapist who murdered 67 people in the city of Varamin from 1954 to 1962, sometimes aided by accomplices. He earned his nickname for decapitating his victims post-mortem and then dumping their bodies into wells.

After his arrest, he confessed to the full scope of his crimes, expressing no remorse for what he had done. He was tried, convicted and executed a few months after his arrest.

He is the most prolific known serial killer in Iran's history, surpassing Asghar the Murderer.

Early life Relatively little is known about Amini's personal life. Born in 1936 in Varamin, he was part of a large family which his father had abandoned at some point in time. Hoshang grew up in poverty, and was physically abused by other family members.

As an adult, he remained single and was unemployed, but nonetheless enjoyed the compositions of Parviz Yahaghi and poems from Hafez. At some point, he developed an obsession with "ridding the world of corruption", and would claim in later interviews that he was inspired by Asghar the Murderer to start killing people. At the time of the crimes, he was studying to become an apprentice truck driver and was known to extort traders in Varamin.

Murders Amini's modus operandi consisted of picking out predominantly vulnerable young boys (although he also killed adult men and women) from the streets of Varamin, whom he abducted or lured to isolated areas. Once away from prying eyes, he would tie up the victim's hands and proceeded to rape and torture them before ultimately strangling them. Afterwards, he would decapitate the victim with a knife and usually dump the body in a nearby well.

His first known victim was sometime in March 1954, after which the headless body was found in an aqueduct in Nematabad. Only a month later, the decapitated body of a young woman was also found in similar circumstances in Dowlatabad. Such gruesome crimes continued to occur in and around Varamin for several years, with similar reported killings being uncovered in other areas as well. Police were unable to gather any clues, from which numerous theories about the murder appeared, with some claiming that he had possibly been hypnotized. Soon afterwards, rumours started to spread that a child-eating cannibal had appeared in the city, leading most of the population to panic due to the increasing frequency of young boys disappearing. Some of the victims were never found.

Execution In December 1963, Amini was publicly hanged in Toopkhaneh, alongside another murderer, Safar Ali Rahimi. The event was attended by numerous onlookers from Varamin and even Tehran. Before his execution, he was allowed to sing a poem from Hafez, and in the final minutes before the trap door was sprung, he told two journalists the following: "Killing me will not solve anything. Go find the cause. You have so many doctors. There are 3,000 people like me in Tehran. I am not afraid."

After the execution, as per his wishes, his body was handed to an older brother, who then buried it in an undisclosed location.

In the media and culture In 2015, famous actor and film director Zakaria Hashemi released a book titled "The Last Execution" (Persian: آخرین اعدام), a partially-fictionalized account of Amini's crimes. Hashemi got the inspiration to write about the case after being gifted a cassette tape featuring an interview with Amini.