Iranian Woman Confesses Poisoning 11 Husbands Over Two Decades

Kolsum Akbari, a 56-year-old Iranian woman, is facing execution after confessing to poisoning and killing 11 elderly husbands over a 22-year period from 2000 to 2023, with suspicions that the total number of victims could be higher. She systematically married wealthy, lonely older men, often gaining access through their daughters, and used a combination of diabetes drugs, blood pressure medications, sedatives, and industrial alcohol to fatally poison them, sometimes resorting to suffocation. Akbari would arrange dowries and inheritance to be transferred to her or her daughter before the deaths, which initially went undetected because the victims' advanced age and health conditions masked the poisonings as natural causes. Her final husband's suspicious death prompted an investigation after his son, alerted by family friends, recognized Akbari, leading to her arrest and confession. Despite conflicting accounts on the exact number of victims, court documents confirm she murdered 11 men and attempted to kill another, with cases spanning several cities in Iran's Mazandaran province. Akbari's first two marriages involved personal hardship, including abuse, and after her second husband's death, she actively sought out elderly men to marry for financial gain, inspiring media coverage and reportedly influencing a state TV character.