Jakarta. Two men in their 60s accused of killing at least nine people in West Java gave the gruesome details on Thursday of how they eliminated some of their victims, including a two-year-old boy who was killed because “he was such a crybaby”.

Wowon Erawan, aged 60 upon arrest, admitted to having ordered the murder of his own son identified only as Bayu.

“The boy was such a crybaby, he cried every hour, every second that I felt unpleasant for my neighbors,” Wowon said when he was presented to the press at the Jakarta Police headquarters.

He said he had asked Solihin aka Duloh, 65, to strangle the boy to death and buried the body at his home. He didn’t say when exactly the murder was carried out.

The duo is accused of murdering at least seven of Wowon’s family members and two women who police said had been tricked into believing that the elderly men had the supernatural ability to multiply money but were killed after surrendering cash to them.

With the help of a third suspect named Dede Solehudin, 35, they have allegedly killed Wowon’s three wives, son, two stepsons, and mother-in-law.

The family members were killed because they had become aware of Wowon’s murderous behavior, police have said. At least three victims were killed by poisoned coffee.

At the same news conference, Solihin claimed that he had been ordered to murder Wowon’s mother-in-law Noneng Suryati and wife Wiwin Winarti on the same day sometime last year.

He killed Noneng at his home in Cianjur after having sexual intercourse with her, and a few hours later Wiwin arrived accompanied by Wowon and she too was strangled to death. The bodies of the mother and her daughter were buried in the same hole at Solihin’s house.

Solihin said Wowon had accused his wife of cheating on him so he wanted the two women to be killed.

Police said Wowon has married at least six times and killed three of his wives.

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Police arrested Wowon after they discovered his wife Ai Maimunah, 40, and his stepsons Ridwan Abdul Muiz, 23, and Muhammad Riswandi, 17, dying from poisoned coffee at a boarding house in Bekasi on January 12. 

The three eventually died at a hospital while his five-year-old daughter survived the murder attempt.

The two-year-old boy who was murdered around two months earlier was Wowon’s son from his marriage with Ai.

Dede, the third suspect, was also found suffering from coffee poisoning at the same Bekasi house and put in police custody after being treated at the hospital and interrogated by police. His accounts led to the arrest of Wowon and Solihin.

According to police, Dede drank a small amount of the poisoned coffee to convince the victims that it was safe for them to drink.

Believed to be Wowon’s brother, Dede is accused of helping the two killers collect money from the victims who bought Wowon’s claim that he could multiply money.

Police later learned that Wowon had previously ordered the murder of another wife named Halimah, bringing the total known number of victims to nine. Her body was returned to her family in Cilicin, West Java, and the unsuspecting relatives accepted the explanation that she had died of natural causes.

After Halimah's death, Wowon married her daughter, Ai, who was a widow with two sons during that time.

According to police, Wowon had managed to convince his accomplices that there was a powerful figure with magic power named Aki Banyu who instructed all the murders. 

It’s actually a fictional character invented by Wowon by changing his voice when speaking with Solihin and Dede over the telephone, police said.

During the news conference, Wowon demonstrated to journalists how he impersonated Aki Banyu with a different voice.

The three suspects are charged with premeditated murders that carry the death sentence.

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