Mona Fandey

Mona Fandey was a Malaysian pop singer who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album Diana. She also performed in nightclubs and appeared on several TV shows. However, her career did not last long and she turned to practicing witchcraft with her husband, who learned occultism in Indonesia. They claimed to be bomohs (Malaysian shamans) and offered their services to the public, especially to politicians who sought their help for enhancing their careers. In 1993, they murdered Mazlan Idris, a state assemblyman who had paid them a large sum of money for a talisman that would make him invincible. They chopped his body into 18 pieces and buried them in a hole at an unfinished house. They then went on a shopping spree with the money, buying a Mercedes-Benz and a facelift. They were arrested after the police found the body parts and the evidence of their involvement. They were tried by a jury and sentenced to death by hanging. They were executed in 2001 at the age of 45. Mona Fandey gained more notoriety in death than in life, as her case became one of the most sensational and gruesome murders in Malaysian history. She was also the subject of a film called Dukun, which was released in 2018 after being delayed for more than a decade due to censorship issues.