Cyanide and Serial Killing

Serial killing is a vast and dynamic phenomena. If we think the perpetrators of serial killing would follow a known spectrum of killing methods, we would be taken aback to know how distinct their methods are. A serial killers success is in evading police arrest, and for that, the murderer would have to kill without raising any suspicion. This is why they have to develop a method which is so uncommon for the geographical location in which they are active. A mercenary who kills for money, using the most obvious methods of killing anyone can think of, and a serial killer who adopts rather unusual methods are very different in choosing the modus operandi.

In recent times three serial killers have used cyanide poisoning as a method of murdering their victims in India. Three of these cases are reported in the South Indian states Karnataka and Kerala.

Kempamma (43) AKA "Cyanide Mallika" was arrested by the police in Karnataka in December 2007. She murdered six women between 1999 and 2007 in Bangalore. She could be the first lone hunting female serial killer in India in modern times. She would loiter around temples looking for Hindu women devotees from wealthy families frequenting temples. Once she identifies her potential victim, she would approach her, introducing her as a spiritual pious old lady. Kempamma would tell the potential victim that she knows a thing or two about certain special poojas which would solve any problems. The victims hearing this offer would fall for this, and Kempamma would further advise them to wear all the gold ornaments on the day of pooja for maximum benefit. On the day fixed for the ritual, Kempamma would take her victim to a distant temple were she would ask them to drink mixed cyanide water disguised as sacred water. Once the victim falls dead, she would escape from the location with all the ornaments.

Mohan Kumar Also Known As "Cyanide Mohan" was a former school teacher who was arrested in October 2009 from Deralakatta village near Mangalore in Karnataka for the murder of a woman. Later, it was revealed that he committed 20 murders from 2005 to 2009 in Karnataka. Mohan Kumar mostly approached Hindu unmarried women and established a romantic relationship with them. He would offer to marry them without any dowry. He would continue things like that for a while and will plan to meet in a hotel to experience some quality time with them. Once they were in the hotel, he would make the victim to keep the gold ornaments and valuables safe in the locker of the rooms. After having sex, he would take them to public places, mostly bus stands. There he would give them cyanide capsules in the disguise of anti-pregnancy pills. He would advise them to have it inside a washroom since it would result in some allergic responses. When the victims die unnoticed in the washrooms of busy bus stands, he will vacate the hotel rooms with all the valuables. Soon he would identify his next potential victim. Mohan Kumar worked on each victim for months before he kills them.

The third among this list is another female serial killer named Jolly Joseph from Kerala. She has poisoned six members of her family with poison mixed food and drinks. Jolly was arrested by the police in October 2019, accused of killing her first husband, Roy Thomas.  In the following interrogation, it is revealed that Jholly has killed six members of her family in a span of 14 years from 2002 to 2016. As per the popular media, Jholly's motive for committing murders were acquiring property, power, relationship gain, and avoiding capture.

The three serial killers have used methods that were unheard of before for murdering victims in the most unlikely places. If anyone would have met them during those days of the murder span, they would never imagine that they were serial killers. Successful serial killers are masters of choices, chooses precisely what the world wants to see of them, chooses precisely what the others want to think of them. And, when they succeed in it, they merge in the normality of everything surrounding them.

Once, when I told I am a criminologist, a police officer asked me "how to know if a person is an offender by looking at him?". Although I understood its a gift many police officers claim to possess and many others eager to possess, I just chuckled and said, "I don't know". But now when I think of it, 'the ones worth going after is the one who just looks like a million others.'

The article is written by S. A. Deepak, Ph.D. He is an Assistant Professor of Criminology at D.G. Vaishnav College. You can read his books on serial Killers in India in the below link.

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