Murder

Death is a common thing that happens to everyone but murder is an unnatural way for death to come. Murder is, unfortunately, more prevalent than society would hope. But how common was it a century ago? The Egyptian Gazette is my only way of finding any information on murders that occurred throughout the year of 1905. Surprisingly enough there weren’t many murders reported in the paper throughout the year. I was only able to find 10 murders and an attempted murder that was successfully thwarted. Aside from one murder in July, the rest of the murders occurred in the first four months of the year. I can’t be sure but the lack of reported murders throughout the rest of the year could have something to do with my classmates not finishing their xml files. Regardless there was still some interesting information about the murders that did occur. A pattern I saw was that there were periods of time where murders were not recorded but then there were times when multiple murders were reported in a span of a few days. An example of this is how 3 murders were recorded in January 4, the most murders in a single day, and the next time various murders occurred was when two occurred in February 7th and then another just two days later. The next time murders occurred so close to each other was when a murder occurred on April 14th and then another on the 15th. There were a few murders spread out between those 3, multiple murder, days. There was also one more murder after April 15th and that one occurred on July 28th. A consensus about these murders is that the culprits were all either caught or there was already a suspect in custody. The newspaper was not used to try and find a culprit or to advertise some info on the whereabouts of a suspect. I can see that part of the reason for that is that the police want to have a good reputation when it comes to solving crimes. If all the reported murders have been solved, then there will be faith in the system and potential murderers will doubt their chances of not getting caught. Unfortunately, though, there’s a high probability that there’s corruption within the police. Of course the odds of there not being corruption, especially a century ago when cops could get away with more than they do now, was slim but the newspaper proved my suspicions correct. On February 7th, a resident of Cairo wrote that he or she had just learned about an Armenian that was brutally beat by three natives and finally succumbed to his wounds after a week in the hospital. Apparently, nothing was done to apprehend or charge the assailants. In fact, a sergeant had been bribed to let them go and throw the case under the rug. Of course this came from an anonymous person and can’t be seen as legitimate but it does raise suspicions because someone wouldn’t go through all that trouble over some unreliable information. The person that supplied the information must have been reliable but not able to do anything because going against the police is a dangerous thing to do. I do wonder if it was ever looked into because calling the police department like that must have been seen as defiance. No update came out on the issue so maybe it was successfully thrown under the rug. This raises some big questions on how much is being covered up by police and even the newspaper. We don’t know if the police filter anything regarding themselves to make sure it’s all positive. The fact everything regarding them is positive, except the inquiry request I mentioned recently, says everything because no matter how good the police is, there will be unsolved murders. Especially since there wasn’t as much technology back then like the important fingerprint identifier. Out of the other murders, a consensus is just how petty people can be. People killed for more insignificant things back then than they do now. An example of this is from January 13th. A rich man had reported his 5-year-old daughter missing after she never returned home when she left to go play with other kids her age. The poor girl was found dead in a pit. The police found the alleged killer, who was a servant named Hamad, even though she accused her husband of the murder. The ridiculous motive for the murder was a pair of earrings. An innocent 5 year old girl was unnecessarily killed for a pair of earrings. People back then were ruthless because there was no need to kill the girl after taking her earrings. This is the one murder that outraged many and the paper specifically states that it enraged many. It was probably the little girl’s age and motive for murder that had all those people enraged. Another petty murder occurred on January 4th. The murderer had lent a sum of money, P.T. 50 (I don’t know how much that is), to his uncle but every time he asked for the money back, his uncle would ask for more time. He couldn’t take it anymore and went to his uncle’s house and used a knife to kill his uncle. Maybe because of adrenaline or rage or because she was just there as an accomplice to the lack of payment but the murderer also killed his uncle’s wife. He ended up confessing and it shows that he knew what he was doing but just felt the need to kill his uncle and aunt. Was there any way to make people pay back then like bringing the law into it. Maybe he did it for family and had no legal way to make his uncle pay. Regardless, that was one of the two double murders recorded in the newspaper for the year. There was a murder that occurred on July 28 th. The sheikh of the ghaffirs met a young man who had just stolen a sheep. He was suspicious of the young man so he asked where the man got the animal. The thief’s father came by to threaten to shoot the sheikh if he did not leave his son alone. Even with bystanders, he got his gun and fired, point blank, at the sheikh and instantly killed him. His son had stolen something and him killing someone suspecting that is excessive. He lost his life because he’s going to be stuck in jail and his son was caught for stealing. Another murder that occurred wasn’t as petty as the previous two but was actually caused by love. A man loved a woman and met up with two other men at a bar on January 4th. One of those men was the brother of the woman he loved while the other man was actually the brother and potential lover for her. Seems like incest might have actually been more casual than it is now. The three men got into a discussion and the murderer took out and knife and killed one of the two brothers with one stab. The other brother rushed to the first brother’s aid and was stabbed twice. After being in the hospital all night he ended up dying. The murderer was willing to go to jail and was only 20 years old. He lost his chance at life because of love, sort of like how Romeo lost his. Another reoccurring theme of murders is politics. On February 9th, the court appearance to sentence a poet to jail was in session. He was a Cretan and the guy he killed a few months back was a Cretan lawyer. He confessed that it was a political assassination because the lawyer betrayed the cause of the sultans. The other political murder occurred on February 7th. A man disguised himself as an officer and somehow managed to pass off as one to the point where he actually got near the procurator of the Senate, Mr. Johnson. He then killed him and even injured the procurator’s son. Mr. Johnson was not popular since he was a pronounced pro-Russian but being assassinated. The one time someone was murdered and the best that the police had was a suspicion was on February 2nd. An Armenian was viciously murdered with multiple entry wounds. He died in the hospital and there wasn’t much to go on so that’s why there’s only suspicion. What usually happens is a confession so it’s unusual to only see suspicion as the motive for arrest. Another murder actually showed what the punishment is when you kill someone. On April 14th, Abou el Ella was sentenced to hard labor for life after murdering someone. Nowadays It’s just prison for life but back then there was more productivity for society by having those criminals do the hard labor none of us want to do. Even if you didn’t murder someone but you tried to murder then you get 5 years of hard labor. This was proven on April 15th after Mohamed Hassan el Faleh was given that sentence for the attempted murder of a native of the behera. This was eye opening about the way justice was served in 1905 and the petty reasons people would kill others for.