He was like anyone in the millions of middle-class men going about their business in the busy metropolis of Mumbai.
Holding an umbrella to guard against the unpredictable Mumbai rains, well-groomed in a simple sort of way, hair neatly combed and the faint fragrance of coconut oil coming from his body, he also appeared a bit fastidious, carrying a mirror that he would look into every few minutes.
Except he wasn’t an ordinary man. He was actually India’s own version of “Jack the Ripper.”
Calling Raman Raghav India’s most notorious serial killer would be an understatement. He was the killer who put a busy metropolis on edge, casting a spell of fear and paranoia across the city. In just three years in the 1960s, Raman’s killing spree forced the complete shutdown of a city, with people preferring to stay indoors rather than being bludgeoned to death by him.
And his favorite victims were the poor people, the slum dwellers, and the pavement dwellers who slept in the open. He used a regular steel rod to mercilessly break skulls and faces.
In two phases between 1965 and 1968, Raman is believed to have killed at least 40 people at various locations in the city. The fear he created assumed such mammoth proportions that rumors started spreading that the killer possessed supernatural powers and could kill “at will.”
