The Misery Machine - Ahmed Suradji: Shaman Responsible for Over 40 Dead

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

This week, Drewby and Yergy travel to the Sumatra region of Indonesia to talk not about the coffee the island nation is known for, but of a very little known murderer with sinister ambitions to become an all powerful shaman. A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Buy Us A Coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/miserymachine Join Our Street Team! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HfRUPQhB6LOqVupZm92OdV5rLDQcIMpHudmUZwt0C24/edit?usp=sharing Levi's Adoption Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/d658a3a7 Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Suradji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukun https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/suradji-ahmad.htm https://www.unreservedmedia.com/the-sorcerers-tale-indonesias-serial-killer-shaman/  

Hi, we're the Misery Machine. I'm Yerke. And I'm Drewby. And this week we're doing a very rare case out of Sumatra Indonesia. And that is the Ahmed Saraji case. Yeah, this was a very strange one that I found when researching a new Asian true crime case that, you know, was a little bit unknown. I'm glad I found it. It's black magic related. Yes, very few of those. It's strange. Not a lot of people have covered this case. Yeah, there's only maybe two things in English that I found. So hopefully we're, we're getting some new information out to you if you're familiar with this case at all. Yeah, it's a weird one. So if you're listening on YouTube, please like and subscribe. This is the best way to help raise our platform and support our channel so that way we can continue getting smaller cases like this out to more people.

Without further ado. Ahmed Saraji, the Black Magic Man. Ahmad Saraji lived in Medan, the capital and largest city of Indonesia's North Sumatra province. He hailed from a small village ironically named Amand Demai, or peace and tranquility as it translates. Saraji worked as a cattle breeder and as a duken, which is a class of shaman reputed to possess supernatural powers. Saraji's clientele were often women seeking his guidance on how to find good fortune or maintain their beauty. Their societal role is that of a traditional healer, spirit medium, custom and traditions experts, and on in Caucasians, sorcerers, and masters of black magic.

Many self-styled duken in Indonesia are simply scammers and criminals, praying on gullible and superstitious people who are raised to believe in the supernatural. So think of your psychic friends network here in the States. Thanks, Dionne Warwick. Right. Many highly prominent and highly educated Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, even those with Western doctorate in master's level degrees, will still consult Dukens and soothsayers.

Even, I believe, some of their politicians do. Yes, I read that as well. Most of the women who had hired Saraji had required him to cast magic spells to ensure the faithfulness of their husbands or boyfriends. Neighbors said that many women sought the sorcerer's help believing they would make themselves richer, healthier, or more sexually attractive to men.

A lot of his clientele, I believe, were prostitutes as well. Saraji was born to a self-proclaimed, sorcerer in the interior of Indonesia. It is no wonder that a young boy growing up in such an environment would be fascinated by the art of black magic. He watched every day while his father, whose name is unknown, earned praise and respect for resolving issues affecting their community. However, this also meant Saraji, whose real name is Naseeb Keloang, was often neglected by his parents. He was also apparently different as a young boy and had trouble making friends, leaving him alone to do his own thing. So this is like anybody, it kind of turns out weird. We're all

different. In this case, it was not the best thing. Lonely and neglected, Saraji didn't do well in school and began a life of crime. He was only 19 when he first went to prison and served 10 years for petty crimes and public violence. But barely two years after he was released, Saraji was back behind bars for cattle theft. Upon his release, he felt he needed to do something to shed his bad reputation. He didn't like the way people looked at him and treated him, so he made the decision to be like his father. It's a good choice.

So on April 24, 1997, 21-year-old Sri Kamala Dewey asked a 15-year-old rickshaw puller. And if you don't know what a rickshaw is, it's one of those wagons with two handles. that you'll see people in the, it's almost like a wheelbarrow, but they're walking it backwards while you sit in a carriage. That's the best way I can describe a rickshaw. Is a rickshaw purely used for pulling other people? No, but I think that's where you classically see it. Anyway, she asked a 15-year-old rickshaw puller named Andreas to take her to d'autuk. She informed him

to keep it a secret and never requested to be picked up. Three days later, Dewey's naked and decomposing body was found in a sugar cane field by a man and was later dug up by a group of people who then called the police. So Andreas reported to the police and Dewey's family that he had dropped her off at Saraji's house three days earlier. And so police visited Saraji for confirmation. Although he denied any links with Dewey's killing, police found Dewey's handbag, dress, and bracelet in his home. He was later arrested on April 30, 1997. During interrogation, Saraji slowly confessed to Dewey's murder, but also revealed that he had killed up to 42 girls in the same fashion. And now an excavation process had to be carried out in the sugar cane field where Dewey's body was located.

Throughout the process, sure enough, 42 bodies were found with some being so decomposed to the point where they were completely unidentifiable, even with dental records. Several missing persons reports by villagers later revealed that over 80 female villagers had gone missing. However, there was no way to know if they were all murdered by Saraji after the prosecution was finding it hard to pin Saraji down for the murders he had initially even admitted to committing. The military and the police worked together with the locals to unearth all of the other bodies. There were four bodies that which could not be identified and had to be cremated without anyone claiming them as a local. it was impossible to recognize the rest as they had been reduced to a pile of skulls and bones. Investigators noted that there was a possibility

that more than 42 bodies were buried in the sugar cane fields and that considering the extent of decomposition of the bodies, it was difficult to tell if sexual assault had happened at all. So they don't believe that he was doing this for any sort of sexual motivation. We'll get to a little bit more his motivation that he states a little bit further in on the episode. But what police feel is that he was doing this just to rip them off. A lot of women that were coming to him,

he was charging somewhere between $200 and $400 for services. And these were the services of trying to make them prettier, more attractive, and have faithful boyfriends and husbands, just like his father did. Right. in which his father's ghost directed him to drink the saliva of 70 dead young women so that he could become a mystic healer himself. Saraji thought it would take him too long to encounter 70 dead women on his own, so he took up the initiative to speed up the process by killing them. As a duken, women came to him for spiritual advice for things like making themselves more beautiful or richer, or so Saraji could cast a spell on the their spouses, unknowingly, so they'll never have an affair. He would later take these women

into a sugarcane field and buried them up to their waste, claiming it was part of the ritual. And these women would go along with it. They would actually dig their own graves. They didn't know it was their graves, but they dug their own graves. Once they were buried, he would strangle them until they were dead, and then proceeded to drink their saliva. Afterwards, he would strip the clothes from their bodies to accelerate decomposition and bury them back into the ground with their heads pointing towards his house. Supposedly for good luck in his mind. Siraji stated the following to police, and I quote, my father did not specifically advise me to kill people. So I was thinking, it would take ages if I have to wait to get 70 women. I was trying to get to it as fast as possible. I took

my own initiative to kill, end quote. His three wives, all who were sisters, were also arrested for assisting in the murders and helping him hide the bodies. One of his wives, named Tumini, was tried as his accomplice and was sentenced to death before it was reduced to life imprisonment. Saraji, however, was sentenced to death by firing squad and executed on July 10, 2008, despite a last-minute appeal from the Human Rights Group Amnesty International. Bonaventura Nain Golan And I hope I said that correct Who's a spokesman for the Attorney General's office

In Indonesia said Quote He appeared resigned to his fate His final wish was to see his wife We fulfilled this End quote He also added quote He pretended to be a shaman

Who could heal any kind of disease If someone asked to be healed Both their possessions And their lives were taken End quote And he was charging $200 to $400 for these services before he was killing people. Yeah.

And taking any other valuables that were on them, as well as killing them, just to allegedly drink their saliva. Did he make that up? I don't know. I'd like to think that he actually believed that. But... My goodness. That's crazy.

It's kind of like when we covered Mona Fandy, who was stylizing herself as a witch. And she was from Malaysia, though. Yeah, she was Malaysia. This is Indonesia. Yeah, it's the same idea. It does have very similar ideas of Mona Fandy because these crazy spiritual beliefs that both of them had led them to do really, really ridiculous things in the name of it. And she actually was a person that was seeing politicians as well.

I believe the person that she killed was a high-ranking political figure. Yeah, he was a higher-ranking political figure. And she had very much less reason to do this because she was already, getting plenty of money. She had great clientele. She was somewhat famous, basically. Well, she was a singer. She was a singer.

That's the thing. I could understand if someone doing something like this from a poverty standpoint, if they're going to run some sort of scam. Yeah. Where, you know, he was in a smaller village. He was a farmer, and he was doing this to gain money.

And $200 to $400 is a lot of money in some places. But she didn't need to do that. She was a singer. Well, she was kind of a failed singer, but I think she still had money. She still had some money from it, but she was getting so much money from seeing these clients. He's really rich clients. So she really, truly, was just so perverted by her belief. And for lack of a better term, the occult, it's these spiritual practices that I am not familiar with.

And while we could assume that Saraji's motives were partially, to get out of poverty, it seemed like he really did believe that if he fulfilled... This strange prophecy that came to him in a dream supposedly, allegedly. He could be just like his father, who is apparently this revered figure who we can't find any names of... I know you guys wanted more Asian cases, but we got to tell you, you know, when we do these cases, there's going to be big pieces missing because a lot of things aren't documented very well. or there's not a whole lot in English.

But this was still incredibly interesting. There was only two things in English on YouTube. And I couldn't find any podcast episodes about this. It's a very interesting case. And I'm surprised it's not as known as it is, considering how many people he killed and for how long he operated. He operated for 11 years before he was caught. So he kept doing this.

And some women he would kill. Some women he did not kill. and he would just do his rituals, not the killing rituals, but would tell their fortunes. Yeah, prior to when he had the vision that he should kill the, well, that's interesting.

His vision didn't actually tell him to kill the women. He thought that he should kill the women in order to get their saliva. But yeah, that's basically the case, really interesting, obscure case, but I'm glad we covered it. I think one of the more fun aspects of doing this podcast is finding these cases

that I never would have heard of. otherwise. It's just really interesting. I love when there is some sort of element of black magic attached to it. Yeah, you would think there'd be more cases involving black magic out there, but it's hard to find. I know growing up in the satanic panic era, everybody thought murders were happening due to black magic, but they were wrong. Let's make it a point to try to find more black magic murders, just to, you know, all those older barbolas that told us we were going to get snatched up by people in vans and sacrificed to Satan. Let's actually appease those and find the three that actually happened. Right. So if you're listening on YouTube and you appreciate this episode, please hit like and subscribe. This is the best way to help our channel grow. If you're listening on the other platforms, hitting subscribe on there, goes a long way as well. Again, we're not just a YouTube channel.

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