Thug Behram (c. 1765 – 1840), also known as Buhram Jamedar and the King of the Thugs, was a leader of the

Thuggee Thuggee (, ) are actions and crimes carried out by Thugs, historically, organised gangs of professional robbers and murderers in India. The English word ''thug'' traces its roots to the Hindi ठग (), which means 'swindler' or 'deceiver'. Rela ...

cult active in Oudh in central India during the late 18th and early 19th century, and is often cited as one of the world's most prolific serial killers. He may have been involved in up to 931 murders by strangulation between 1790 and 1840 performed with a ceremonial

rumāl A rumāl (Punjabi: ਰੁਮਾਲ) is a piece of clothing similar to a handkerchief or bandana. It is worn by men who cut their hair and other guests when they are in a Gurdwara. Covering the head is respectful in Sikhism and if a man is not ...

, a handkerchief-like cloth used by his cult as a

garrote A garrote or garrote vil (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and similar variants''Oxford English Dictionary'', 11th Ed: garrotte is normal British English spelling, with single r alternate. Article title is US English spellin ...

. Only 125 were confirmed.

Biography

While Behram is sometimes suspected of having committed 931 murders, James Paton, an East India Company officer working for the Thuggee and Dacoity Office in the 1830s who wrote a manuscript on

, quotes Behram as saying he had "been present" at 931 cases of murder, and "I may have strangled with my own hands about 125 men, and I may have seen strangled 150 more." The English word 'thug' is in fact borrowed from the Hindi word 'thag' (ठग). The thugs were covert members of a group, and the term 'Thugee' typically referred to an act of deceitful and organised robbery and murder. Buhram used his cummerbund or ''

'', with a large medallion sewn into it, as a

to execute his killing. Through sheer skill, he could cast the ''rumal'' to cause the medallion to land at the

adam's apple The Adam's apple or laryngeal prominence is the protrusion in the human neck formed by the angle of the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx, typically visible in men, less frequently in women. Structure The topographic structure which is e ...

of his victims, adding pressure to the throat when he strangled them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behram, Thug 1765 births 1840 deaths Executed Indian people Executed Indian serial killers Indian gangsters Indian people convicted of murder Male serial killers People executed by British India by hanging Year of birth uncertain People from Jabalpur Criminals from Uttar Pradesh

Biography

See also

References