The mysterious Stoneman killer of Kolkata prowls when the city is fast asleep in the dark. His victims – poor and homeless people sleeping on the pavements and his modus-operandi – Crushing their skulls in a single blow with a heavy concrete slab!

The Stoneman of Kolkata was as brutal and elusive as Jack the Ripper, who terrorized London in 1888 by killing and mutilating women.

The mayhem started in the summer of 1989 on the dark streets of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta), the capital city of West Bengal, the eastern state of India. A homeless person, sleeping on the pavement in Kolkata, was found ruthlessly murdered. His head was crushed with a heavy stone or cement slab.

The identity of the victim could not be established as the killer had disfigured his head beyond recognition. Police could not trace the culprit as there were no witnesses or leads. This would become the first victim of the mysterious Stoneman.

The killer gained notoriety as ‘The Mysterious Stoneman’ because his modus operandi involved murdering the victims by crushing their skulls in a single blow with a heavy stone or concrete slab weighing about 70 pounds (30 kilograms).

The Stoneman’s first victim was a homeless woman who made her living by selling hooch on the street. The second victim became a homeless beggar who was killed exactly one month after the first murder.

Most of the stoneman murders occurred in central Kolkata, adjacent to the Howrah Bridge. The killings continued unabated for the next six months, with 13 persons murdered. All the murders had many similarities. All the victims were killed by crushing their heads with a single heavy stone. Also, all of them were poor homeless people who slept on the pavement at night in dimly lit areas.

The fear of Kolkata unsolved murders grips the nation

The Kolkata unsolved murders gripped Kolkata residents with fear and created a nationwide uproar. The news of the elusive Stoneman was extensively covered in all the leading publications and TV channels.

Initially, the police could not understand that these murders were methodical and could be the work of a single person. It was after the sixth murder that the police began to see a pattern in the killings.

During the first few murders, the police and media were not concerned because all the victims were pavement dwellers, belonged to the lower economic segment, and had no one to claim as their own.

However, police officials had to take notice when a beggar was found murdered in similar circumstances on Old Court House Street, which is just a block away from police headquarters.

After immense pressure from the media and citizens, the police finally launched a massive, two-pronged operation – first, to protect the pavement dwellers, and, second, to apprehend the serial killer.

Police parties patrolled throughout central Calcutta, where all the stoneman murders were taking place. Many suspects were rounded up and taken into custody for interrogation. The undercover agents posed as pavement dwellers and slept under the blankets with their revolvers.

The pavement dwellers of the city also got united to save themselves from the Stoneman’s attacks. They grouped up and started to sleep in shifts. At a given time, some members of the group were awake and vigilant to safeguard against a possible attack from the Stoneman.

The Kolkata Police arrested a few people on the grounds of suspicion; however, they were let off in the absence of incriminating proof or witnesses.

The police could never establish whether the Kolkata unsolved murders were the handiwork of one person or a group of individuals.

These killings stopped by the end of 1989. However, a murder with a resemblance to the Stoneman killing was yet again reported in 2003.

Similar killings were also reported from Mumbai in the late 1960s. A serial killer, Raman Raghav, was convicted of these killings. Raman Raghav was a religious fanatic and had murdered 42 people. He claimed these as ritual murders to please the Sun God. Like the Stoneman of Kolkata, Raman Raghav also targeted only poor street people. The only difference was the murder weapon – Unlike the Stoneman, Raghav used an iron bar to kill his victims.

Kolkata unsolved murders inspire books and movies

The mysterious Stoneman inspired many films and books, notably, the Bollywood film – The Stoneman Murders, directed by Manish Gupta, and starring Kay Kay Menon and Arbaaz Khan.

A Bengali movie, Baishe Srabon too revolved around the same subject. Directed by Srijit Mukherjee, the film starred Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, and Raima Sen.

The mysterious Kolkata stoneman remains elusive and could never be caught even after a detailed police operation. Police could not understand what made the sniffer dogs lose trace of the culprit. The case spread mass hysteria in Kolkata leading to rumors that these murders were the result of some paranormal entity.

To date, no one has been convicted for these haunting murders, turning the Kolkata unsolved murders into one of the prominent urban legends in India.