On March 27, 1977, a nineteen-year-old named Ali Marjek was hanged in Damascus for the rape and murder of three young boys. The official announcement of his execution called the case the only one of its kind in Syria's history.
That is almost all that has ever been published. The account comes from a single paragraph in Michael Newton's encyclopedia of modern serial killers, Hunting Humans, which itself begins by noting that few details are available. It names none of the boys, gives no date or place for any of the killings, and says nothing about how they died, how Marjek was caught, or what happened at his trial.
His birth year, 1958 or thereabouts, can only be worked back from his age at the gallows. The years of the killings are unknown. In the Syria of 1977, where executions were announced by the state and the press answered to the government, the announcement itself is the record, and no court papers from the case have come to light.