Saeed Hanaei or Said Hanai (1962 – April 8, 2002) was an Iranian serial killer, arrested in 2001 for the murders of at least 16 women in Mashhad. Hanaei was referred to as the "Spider Killer" for the way he lured his victims, mainly prostitutes, back to his home before strangling them. His arrest caused controversy in Iran at the time, with some religious extremists expressing support for his self-described fight against "moral corruption". He was executed by hanging on April 8, 2002.

Personal life

Hanaei was born in 1962. He had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother, who violently abused him; he later claimed that she frequently scratched him with her fingernails hard enough to draw blood, and attempted to bite off pieces of his flesh. At the time of his murders, he was married and had three children. He was a construction worker by profession, and had served as a volunteer in the Iran–Iraq War.

Crimes

Hanaei targeted female prostitutes in the eastern city of Mashhad, a major religious pilgrimage site where the Imam Reza shrine is located. He often targeted drug addicts. The murders were referred to as the "spider killings" by the Iranian press because Hanaei lured the women to his home and strangled them and dumped their bodies. He killed 16 women between August 2000 and July 2001, when he was apprehended by the police. The murders were the following:

Motives

After his arrest, Hanaei claimed that he was trying to cleanse the city of moral corruption, and that God approved of his "work". He claimed in court that he began killing prostitutes after his wife was mistaken for one.

Reactions

Following Hanaei's arrest, some religious hardliners tried to justify, and even praised, his crimes, arguing that he had tried to "cleanse" Iran of moral corruption. "Who is to be judged?" wrote the conservative newspaper Jomhuri Islami. "Those who look to eradicate the sickness or those who stand at the root of the corruption?" Such sentiments were expressed by the killer's merchant friends at the Mashhad bazaar, one of whom said, "He did the right thing. He should have continued."

Execution

Hanaei was found guilty and hanged at dawn on April 8, 2002, in Mashhad Prison.

In popular culture

The incident was the subject of the 2002 documentary And Along Came a Spider, directed by Maziar Bahari, and includes an interview with Hanaei, along with his wife and son. In 2020, a film called Killer Spider was directed by Ebrahim Irajzad starring Mohsen Tanabandeh as Saeed and Sareh Bayat as Saeed's wife. In 2022, another film about his life, Holy Spider, was released, starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani, and directed by Ali Abbasi. It was filmed in Jordan, and entered the main competition section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.