A case that gripped Tehran in 1934
Historian Cyrus Schayegh's study of the case describes Tehran in 1934 as consumed by news about Ali Asghar Borujerdi. Borujerdi, born in Borujerd in 1893, had spent part of his youth and adulthood in Iraq before returning to Iran. According to the historical record summarized by Schayegh, he confessed that he had sexually assaulted and then killed adolescent boys.
The case is significant not only because of its scale but because it became part of a broader public debate in interwar Iran about crime, policing, medicine and modern state authority. That context also explains why later retellings sometimes mix documented proceedings with sensational details. This file uses the confession and adjudication as its factual core.
From Baghdad back to Tehran
Schayegh's research records Borujerdi's account that he had begun offending against boys in Baghdad and later escalated to murder. The same scholarship describes his return to Iran in 1933, after which he settled in Tehran and continued killing.
Later summaries commonly divide the 33 confession-based killings into 25 in Iraq and eight in Iran. Because the figure originates primarily from Borujerdi's own admissions and historical reconstruction, Crime by Region does not present all 33 as if each had been independently identified through a modern forensic file.
Discovery and arrest
Accounts of the investigation describe bodies being discovered around southern Tehran in late 1933 and early 1934. Police attention increasingly focused on Borujerdi, and he was ultimately detained and questioned. The 1934 confession turned the investigation from a series of frightening discoveries into a prosecution of a named offender.
The victims were largely adolescents and young people living with significant social vulnerability. Historical reporting sometimes treated them dismissively. This archive does not reproduce that language and does not treat their marginalization as part of the spectacle of the case.
Trial, judgment and execution
Borujerdi was tried in Tehran in 1934 and received a capital sentence. Academic and historical sources agree that he was executed by hanging in Tehran later that year. Sources differ on the precise execution date, so this page records the uncontested year and outcome rather than selecting a day that the reviewed record does not consistently support.
The adjudication and execution distinguish this case from unresolved serial-murder legends. At the same time, the age of the surviving record requires care: the total of 33 is best described as the number he confessed to, not as a laboratory-confirmed victim count assembled decades later.
Timeline
1893: Ali Asghar Borujerdi is born in Borujerd, Iran.
Early life: his family relocates to Iraq; later historical accounts place his early offending in Baghdad.
1933: Borujerdi returns to Iran and settles in Tehran.
Late 1933–1934: discoveries in the Tehran area lead to an intensive investigation.
1934: Borujerdi confesses to killing 33 adolescent boys across Iraq and Iran.
1934: he is prosecuted, sentenced to death and executed by hanging in Tehran.
Current status
The Ali Asghar Borujerdi case is Solved / Adjudicated in the sense that Borujerdi confessed, was prosecuted and was executed in 1934. The historical victim total should remain qualified as confession-based, especially because the offenses span two countries and predate modern forensic documentation.