Stoneman: The 1980s Serial Killer Who Killed A Dozen Homeless People In Kolkata

In the summer of 1989, Kolkata was gripped by fear as a mysterious serial killer haunted the streets. Between June 1989 and February 1990, at least 12 homeless people were brutally murdered while they slept on the pavement. The murder weapon? A heavy stone. The M.O.? A crushing blow to the skull. The killer? Never identified. Even after decades, the 'Stoneman Murders' remain one of India's most perplexing unsolved crimes and Kolkata Police's most significant cold case.

It all began on the morning of June 4, 1989. The on-duty officer at Hare Street Police Station received an alarming phone call — the kind all police officers dread. A body had been found on the southwest corner of B.B.D Bagh — the administrative, financial, and commercial centre of Kolkata — a stone's throw from Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, also known as the Scotland Yard of the East.

The victim was a homeless woman named Aleya Bibi. Thirty years old and three months pregnant at the time of death, she had no other wounds except the one that killed her: a catastrophic wound on the right side of her head. She must have died instantly. According to the forensic medical examiner: ‘death was due to the effects of injuries, antemortem and homicidal in nature’. In other words: murder.

The murder weapon — a large stone weighing approximately 9 kg — was found next to her body. The killer had smashed the stone down on her head from extremely close quarters. The only questions were: who? — and most importantly, why?

These questions would haunt Kolkata Police for the next few months that would spiral into a year, then years, and finally decades. One and a half month later, on the night of July 19, 1989, two more bodies would be found: a forty-something man in the Taltala Police Station area, near the north gate of the Geological Survey of India, almost at the entrance to Park Street Metro station; and a teenager in the Muchipara Police Station area, near the Sealdah railway station subway. Both on the pavement, both killed by blows to the head, both struck with large stones. There was no denying it anymore: these were the works of a serial killer.

In the following weeks, more victims surfaced — each killed in the same brutal fashion. All were homeless pavement dwellers, attacked in their sleep, left with their skulls shattered. The murder weapon was always a massive stone or concrete slab, often over 10 kilograms. No witnesses. No apparent motive. No clear pattern beyond the method of execution. The killings took place in Central Kolkata — in areas like Park Street, Camac Street, and Maidan. The city, already chaotic and divided by economic disparity, now had a silent, more sinister force at work. Between June 4 and September 11, 1989, the killer — by then named 'The Stoneman' by Kolkata's newspapers — committed 7 sensational murders within one hundred days, eluding all efforts of Kolkata Police to apprehend them.

As the body count rose, Kolkata police launched an intensive investigation. They scoured crime scenes, interviewed street dwellers, detained suspects, yet they found nothing. The killer left behind no fingerprints, no forensic evidence, and no way to find them. Since most of the murders took place in central Calcutta, adjoining the Howrah Bridge connecting Kolkata and Howrah, some speculated that the killer may have been travelling to the city by train to commit the murders; and because the murderer killed victims by dropping a heavy stone or concrete slab, the police initially assumed that the assailant was probably a tall, well-built male. However, in the absence of any eyewitness description, no confirmed physical description ever became available. Similarities with the modus operandi of a serial killer who prowled the streets of Mumbai between 1985 and 1988 led many to theorise it may have been the work of the same person; while others believed the murders were committed by copy cats or perhaps even a cult as human sacrifices.

The final murders took place in the early months of 1990. The tenth murder took place on 29 January 1990, after a brief hiatus of two months. The eleventh, three weeks later on 20 February. This time, finally, the Stoneman left footprints: three of the left foot and nine of the right. Expert analysis of the prints revealed that the stoneman was indeed a man, that he was probably of medium build, not very tall or broad, and that he had an exceptionally long big toe on his right foot.

Armed with this profile, Kolkata Police redoubled their efforts to capture the man. But before their efforts could bear fruit, the twelfth murder took place only five days after number eleven, on 26 February. Once again near the Sealdah subway — the scene of murders number three and nine — in Muchipara PS area. It is unusual for serial killers to return to the same location multiple times, but there was nothing usual about the Stoneman. The victim was once again a doomed youngster, a boy of 15 or 16; once again a beggar on the station premises, killed a little after midnight.

And then: nothing. As abruptly as the Stoneman had began killing homeless people in Kolkata nine months ago, he stopped. Nine months, a dozen murders, and zero leads (except the footprints) later, the Stoneman proved that there is such a thing as a perfect crime.

To learn more about the Stoneman murders and other sensational post-Independence cases of Kolkata Police, read Supratim Sarkar's 'The Detective Diaries: Eleven Sensational Cases of Kolkata Police'.

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