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In the world of black magic, it was said that one could attain immortality after you have taken nine lives. To many of us, this may sound ludicrous. Yet, there are people who believed in it, some even went a step too far to prove it.
The first story in my Horror Wedding Series, The Pond, began with an obsessive witch who preserved her soul inside a pond while she waited for the chance to resurrect from the dead again. The inspiration for the character came from a real-life story of a witchdoctor in Malaysia - the grizzly, true narrative of Mona Fandey. In case you wondered if witches still exist in this modern world, the answer is undeniably YES.
Born in 1956, Mona Fandey's real name was Maznah Ismail. She emerged on the public stage as a young water ballet dancer, before she became a singer and adopted the stage name Mona Fandey, in an attempt to boost her flailing popularity. The only album she ever released, called Diana, was paid for out of her own pocket, and it did not make her into a pop star. Fandey’s failed music career gave her a public face through several nationally televised interviews. Leveraging this visibility, Fandey shifted her career trajectory. She turned to witchcraft.
Specifically, Fandey became a bomoh, a Malayan shaman or witchdoctor. With her existing connections, Fandey was able to build up a significant client base, providing spiritual guidance to well-known Malaysian politicians and socialites for significant fees. Fandey married Mohamad Abdul, who also moved in spiritualist circles. Together with their young assistant, Juraimi Hassan (Chan 2020), they set up a spiritualist consulting business. Though unconfirmed, Fandey maintained that she provided talismans to multiple members of the leading political party at the time, the United Malay National Organization (UMNO). Given the notoriety of the events that would follow, it’s hardly surprising that few people were willing to come forward publicly to admit to having paid to receive spiritual advice and aid from Fandey. What is certain is that at least one UMNO party member and state assembly representative found Fandey’s skills compelling.
Mazlan Idris, an extremely ambitious
politician, came to the by-now widely known bomoh for help with his
political career. Fandey promised Idris she could help him, and they met
repeatedly. She sold him a set of sbatmi headgear and a cane she claimed
had been owned by a former Indonesian president. Fandey told Idris that, as
long as he wore these talismans, he would be invincible. She must have been
convincing since Idris paid her the equivalent of over $500K for the talismans
with a combination of cash and land deeds (Ng 2018).
Knowing that Idris was worried over the upcoming elections, Fandey claimed she could provide the political
invincibility he wanted, in the form of cleansing rituals. They scheduled a day at one of Idris' bungalows which was deep in the suburbs. An eager
Idris arrived at the appointed time, being greeted with Fandey’s wide,
photogenic smile before being ushered inside. Fandey advised Idris to strip naked and lie inside a deep trench which Fandey and gang had prepared in advance. The unsuspecting Idris did as he was told, while Fandey placed flowers on his body. Fandey told Idris to close his eyes
and wait for money to “fall from the sky” (Ng 2018). It was the last thing he
ever did.
Fandey’s assistant, Hassan, beheaded Idris
with an axe as he lay in the trench. It took him three swings to sever the head
completely. Together, the three partially skinned his corpse and cut it into 18
separate pieces, before burying them. So much for
invincibility. Less than a month after Idris vanished, the police questioned
Hassan regarding some unrelated drug charges. Hassan, high at the time, spilled
the details of the murder and led the police to the body. What the police found
were the pieces of Idris’ body buried beneath poured cement. Based on Hassan’s
testimony and Idris’ withdrawal of significant savings shortly before his
disappearance, the police arrested Fandey, Abdul, and Hassan (Yusran 2019).
The three were sentenced to death by
hanging in one of the most highly publicized murder trials in the country’s
history. Ironically, it was one of the
last cases tried by a jury in Malaysia. The jury of seven required less than an
hour and a half to return the unanimous guilty verdict. With its sensational
facts and visibility, the case gained international notoriety and sparked
several death-penalty protests and calls for outlawing witchcraft in Malaysia
(Amnesty 2001). Over the course of the next few months following the initial
verdict, the federal courts upheld the ruling when Fandey’s lawyers submitted
an appeal, and a later pardon request was denied.
Still, you might say, the politician Idris
was only one man, if a foolish one. What about his sad end so ensnared the
public and turned the tale into a sensation, even the stuff of nightmares? In a
word, it was Fandey herself. More than expressing no regret or remorse, to
celebrate Idris’ death, Fandey bought herself a Mercedes-Benz and plastic
surgery as part of a shopping spree with her husband in Kuala Lumpur. From
arrest to execution, she maintained an odd, even creepy cheerfulness and huge
smile.
Always one to seek the spotlight, she wore
bright, colorful dresses and routinely posed for press photographers. These
pictures are some of the most chilling evidence of Fandey’s black magic
practice and crime. More than anything, she appears to have genuinely reveled
in the attention, even as she was escorted from the courtroom by armed guards.
Fandey spoke of her “many fans” throughout
the trial and in the days that followed before her execution. In fact, both she
and her husband were reported to be eerily calm throughout the ordeal. Persistent
rumors circulated that Fandey was able to transport herself out of her cell
during the night, voluntarily returning in the morning, though the prison
guards vehemently denied this. She was said to “float” around her cell,
muttering spells under her breath. When she demonstrated an ability to simple
remove her handcuffs, she was assigned no fewer than three guards at all times
(Vengadesan, 2020).
Combined with the crime she committed,
Fandey’s execution seems ripped from old accounts of witch trials. On November
2, 2001, eight years after Mazlan’s murder, Fandey and her accomplices were hanged
(BBC 2001). Fandey’s final words, spoken with a smile, translate to “I will
never die” (Chan 2020).
The implications of this statement are, if possible, even more horrific. “The Witch Killer” and her husband appear to have believed that they had achieved the highest level of witchcraft and become immortal. This would certainly explain her eerie cheerfulness in the face of execution. Though no more bodies were ever definitively tied to Fandey, multiple unsolved murders came to light in the following years and we can only speculate as to whether Fandey achieved her immortality.
Mona Fandey was 45 years old when she died, with
several living children, at least one of whom claimed to have seen their mother
several years after her death (Vengadesan 2020). In the decade after her
execution, multiple eyewitnesses reported seeing Fandey in the prison cell
where she had been held for years and even in her old house. Rather than
ghostly hauntings, these people claim to have seen Fandey as a flesh-and-blood
being (Vengadesan 2020).
It’s little wonder this modern day bomoh
shaman became a subject of intense interest to multiple creative artists. Several
films recreated Fandey’s life as a black magic practitioner, including Mona and
Dukun, the latter a particularly graphic addition to the horror genre (Ng 2018). Her story planted the seed that would germinate in my mind and,
eventually, grow into the terrifying countenance of a character whose chill
smile you may recognize in The Horror Wedding Series.
References
Amnesty International. (2001, April 28). Malaysia:
Imminent execution. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa28/004/2001/en/
BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Malaysia hangs
three for witchcraft murder. (2001, November 2).
BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1634584.stm
Chan, D. (2020, July 29). NST175: The
gruesome tale of Mona Fandey. NST Online.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/07/610905/nst175-gruesome-tale-mona-fandey
Ng, E. (2018, April 14). Face to face
with Mona Fandey. The Star.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/04/15/face-to-face-with-mona-fandey-watching-dukun-23-years-after-the-bomohs-conviction-transported-the-wr/
Vengadesan, M., & S. (2020). Malaysian
Murders and Mysteries: A Century of Shocking Cases That Gripped the Nation.
Marshall Cavendish International (Asia).
Yusran, M. F. (2019, January). Forensic Archaeology in Malaysia: Defining Its Current Level Through Its Applications. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/38467125/Forensic_Archaeology_in_Malaysia_Defining_Its_Current_Level_Through_Its_Applications
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