Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast · Shane L. Waters, Wendy Cee, Gemma Hoskins

Marrakesh: The Shoemaker's 36 Graves

December 23, 2025·26 min·1 clip

Authorities find 26 victims under Mesfoui's workshop floor and 10 more at another property.

1. Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast covers the Marrakech case of Hajj Mohamed Mesfoui and the 36 women buried in and around his shop. 2. Alex Kantrowitz is not the host here; the episode is narrated as part of Foul Play, and the script frames Mesfoui as the central figure whose crimes matter because they were hidden in plain sight. 3. The episode asks what let a respected shoemaker in Marrakech's Medina kill women for four years without being caught. 4. The narration opens in spring 1906 with Marrakech, the Medina, the souks, the tanneries, and the muezzin's call setting the scene. 5. Morocco is described as one of the last independent nations in northern Africa, while diplomats gather in Algeciras, Spain, to discuss its future. 6. The script explains that women moved through the Medina to visit hammams, shop in the souks, and seek out craftsmen and scribes for help. 7. Literacy is described as limited, especially among women, which made public scribes a normal and necessary service. 8. Mesfoui's shop near a main hammam gave him regular access to women who came for shoe repair or letter-writing help. 9. The episode says Mesfoui cultivated a respectable image through mosque attendance, charitable donations, fair prices, and a marriage into a well-regarded family. 10. The investigation began when women in the Medina noticed disappearances linked to visits to Mesfoui's shop and one young woman, Fatima, reported that tea in the shop made her dizzy. 11. Another key development was the revelation from Mesfoui's assistant, Anna, after she was captured and tortured by a victim's family. 12. When authorities searched the workshop in April 1906, they found 26 bodies under the floor and 10 more at another property. 13. The remains were described as buried under quicklime and mutilated with a dagger, and many could not be identified because forensic science in 1906 Morocco was rudimentary. 14. The narration emphasizes that the victims were mostly working-class women who likely carried only small sums of money or modest belongings. 15. The episode says the record does not show sexual assault, so robbery and opportunity remain the most likely explanations for the murders. 16. It also notes that the community had reported missing women over several years, but authorities treated the disappearances as isolated cases. 17. The tone is documentary and grim, with long scene-setting passages and direct explanatory narration. 18. The format mixes historical reconstruction, forensic description, and commentary on colonial politics and Moroccan justice. 19. Listeners interested in historical true crime, Morocco, and colonial-era justice will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a light, fast-moving, or non-violent story may skip it.

As heard by us

A shoemaker's workshop in 1906 Marrakesh becomes the center of a grim, carefully told true-crime case.

The episode traces a grim 1906 Marrakesh case from a shoemaker's workshop to the bodies found under the floor, and it does the most useful thing a true-crime story can do: it keeps the human scale in view.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a 1906 Marrakesh murder case built from trust, burial, and missed warnings.

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