He was the man who terrorised border villages for a year—brutal, unpredictable, and unrepentant. But what unfolded after his conviction was unlike anything India had seen.

For four long years on death row, Muthukutti Chandran—later dubbed Ripper Chandran—lived in the shadows of the gallows, slipping through execution dates, hiding sleeping pills to end his life on his terms, and then giving them away as a token of friendship.

This episode of Kerala Crime Files peels back the layers of a chilling case—one that saw the court’s verdict delayed by public sentiment, rare rope shortages, missing hangmen, and a convict’s astonishing transformation behind bars.