I’ve been grappling with the story of Said Ali Khan, trying to make meaning of it.

In 1913, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Said Ali Khan strangled and murdered Rosa Domingo, an 18 year old Portuguese woman he was involved with.

He weighted down her body with iron and threw it in the San Francisco Bay.

It was all over the news. I found 20 stories about the case in the San Francisco Call alone.

The stories described Khan as a mystic and hypnotist, who used “thuggee” techniques.

Khan was Punjabi, 27 years old at the time of his arrest. He had a wife and mother back in India.

He and Domingo met while working together at the Metropolitan Match Factory near Richmond, California. He would have Charles E. Riley, Domingo’s “former sweetheart,” write letters to Rosa Domingo on his behalf.

Rosa said that she was afraid Khan would kill her if she didn’t marry him.

Khan told people that he’d spent $750 on her, that she demanded money from him.

He told people his patience was wearing thin after he asked her to live with him, and she said no.

So he strangled her with his necktie as she slept.

And then he escaped.

Police looked for Khan, searching through South Asian communities across the East Bay, San Francisco, and Peninsula. South Asian students at UC Berkeley were asked about him, but they had no idea who he was. Khan’s roommate Musa Khan was arrested, but eventually released without a charge.

Said Ali Khan escaped south, trying to get to Mexico. After a 9 day manhunt, he was arrested in Calexico, near San Diego.

Khan made a full confession, and then recanted. There were threats of lynching, but the trial went ahead.

He pled guilty. And in the end, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at San Quentin.