Out Of The Shadows

In colonial India, travelers befriend strangers on the road, sharing meals and stories, unaware these companions will be.Episode 5 of 15 | Season 36: Serial Killers in History Thug Behram's 40-year reign of terror across colonial India reveals the most prolific serial killer ever documented, whose ritualistic methods would help shape modern criminal investigation.For decades, travelers crossing India's dusty plains vanished without a trace. Merchants carrying goods between cities, pilgrims journeying to sacred sites, families relocating to new villages—all disappeared along the same well-worn trade routes. These weren't random robberies gone wrong. They were calculated murders carried out by the Thuggee cult, a secret brotherhood that moved invisibly through Indian society. Among these killers, none was more prolific than Thug Behram. Over forty years spanning the late 1700s through 1840, he personally strangled 125 victims and witnessed the deaths of hundreds more. The travelers he befriended nev