Kolsum Akbari, 56, reportedly killed 11 of her husbands over a period of 22 years with the deaths having gone undetected for decades due in part to how far away the victims were from one another
A woman dubbed the “black widow” after she poisoned her 11 elderly husbands over the course of two decades now faces the possibility of being put to death in Iran.
Kolsum Akbari, 56, wed elderly men and went on to administer blood pressure medications, diabetes drugs as well as sedatives and industrial alcohol in a bid to inherit their property. Her killings went undetected for 22 years due to her husbands’ health conditions and old ages.
She later confessed to the killings. Families of the victims have asked for her to be executed. It comes after an evil dad kills daughter, 5, for wetting herself and carries body parts around for months.
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Akbari’s killing spree began in 200 and continued until 2023. She ultimately grew sloppy with her last husband, 82-year-old Gholamreza Babaei. His son became suspicious of Akbari after a family friend revealed his own dad was married to a woman with the same name and claimed she had tried to poison him.
Police were alerted and she was arrested. Following interrogation, police obtained a confession from her, although she gave conflicting numbers of victims, reports MailOnline.
She reportedly said: “I don’t know how many I killed. Maybe it was 13 or 15 people. I don’t remember exactly.” Akbari first married in when she was 18 and was wed to a man with mental health problems.
She then married a significantly older man who had children from a prior marriage. Akbari claimed to have been regularly beaten by her husband and stepsons.
In several cases, the victims ended up dying after marrying her. Mirahmad Omrani, 69, was one example and died one month into their marriage in 2013. One man ended up surviving attempted murder in 2020 after he ate tainted soup.
He ended up kicking her out of the home but did not report the incident to police. Akbari has since been charged with 11 counts of premeditated murder as well as one count of attempted murder.
She intially denied charges at the Sari Revolutionary Court on Wednesday but reportedly confessed to the killings.
Her victims lived across Iran, which was explained as a factor as to why it took police so long to connect the cases. Families of the victims asked for her execution, although the court is expected to make its final decision after hearing from all 45 plaintiffs involved in the case.
According to the United Nations, at least 31 women were reportedly executed in Iran in 2024, up from 22 in 2023. Of the total, 19 women were executed for murder, nine being convicted of killing their husbands in cases involving domestic violence or forced child marriages.