Abdul Latif Sharif

Childhood and youth

Sharif was born into a Muslim family in Egypt as an only child, and during his childhood he suffered constant sexual abuse from his father and several male relatives.^[3] Although his father was opposed to him attending school, Sharif showed signs of intelligence, spending his time training carrier pigeons and fishing in the river. At age 12, at his father's behest, he agreed to marry to his 10-year-old cousin, but three years later Sharif would abandon that promise to instead propose travelling to the United States. His family disapproved of this and his aunt allegedly cast a spell upon him.^[4]

He studied Chemical Engineering at Cairo University, where he achieved an average of 9.9. Working as a high school and university teacher, he spent some time in the Soviet Union then travelled to New York to find work in pre-chemistry, cosmetics, paints and skin care companies. He was considered to be professional, attractive and successful. Women became his obsession during his 21-year stay in the United States, he married 2 times and had 5 sentimental companions with whom he lived for long periods.

Arrival and life in America

He emigrated legally to the United States in 1970, arriving in New York, where he began to work. He was employed in the same job for 8 years, when, in 1978, he was fired because of his alcohol problems. He then moved to Pennsylvania, where he resided for 3 years. In 1981, he moved to Florida, where he was employed in the company Cercoa Inc. During this time, the first sexual assaults of Sharif began; in 1982, he got married but quickly divorced because he beat his wife.^[2] He remained a prominent chemist, and during his stay in Mexico he kept his patents on various petrochemical processes he had invented.^[5]

Imputation for sexual abuse

According to official accounts, Sharif was a promiscuous alcoholic and pedophile. He allegedly tortured dying animals during his hunting expeditions and collected girl's clothes. It should be noted that according to other sources, this characterization of Sharif was an invention of the prosecution to make credible accusations against him.

Abdul's first alleged sexual assault took place on May 2, 1981 in North Palm Beach, Florida, where he tricked a woman by promising her a job as a housekeeper. He kidnapped the woman, beat her and sexually assaulted her. After that he simply let the woman go, with the woman claiming that he said:

Sharif's defence was provided by Cercoa Inc. Under the allegation that it was a consensual meeting, he only charges of assault, and for rape and illegal deprivation of liberty, and was released on parole.

Almost immediately after leaving prison, in August 1981, he assaulted another woman. This occasion was condemned to 45 days in prison, his defence was again financed by Cercoa Inc.^[3] Curiously, Sharif was not dismissed until 1982.

In 1982, after his dismissal, he moved to Gainesville, Florida, where he married. His wife soon divorced him, after he had beaten her to unconsciousness. On March 17, 1983, Sharif's third rape was recorded, again with the deception of the job as a housekeeper, he lured the woman to his house. He hit, raped and threatened her, but she managed to escape and denounced him. This time, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1984.

After spending only 5 years in prison, he was released in 1989, but Sharif was not deported to Egypt even though the judge ruled that this would be the case. That year he moved to Midland, Texas, where he was hired by the transnational company Benchmark Research and Technology. In 1991, he was arrested for drunk driving, and despite this was again not deported. In 1993, he allegedly raped a woman again, his defence was sponsored by Benchmark Research and Technology, and in an act of total impunity, he was released on parole with the promise that he would never step on American soil again.

So on May 14, 1994, Sharif moved to Ciudad Juárez, still technically working as a Benchmark employee.

The incidents in which he was involved in the US were the following:

• Joanne Collins Poldesmink (March 3, 1981 in North Palm Beach, Florida)

Joanne was Sharif's girlfriend, and allegedly was verbally insulted by him. She later withdrew all charges.

• Janet Stroven sexual aggression

Sharif met this woman in a hotel bar where he attended a chemist convention, and was chatting and drinking at the bar. He invited her to his house, which she accepted. On the way, the woman told Sharif about the cost of her services, to which he told her "You were not a petroleum professional?" Are you just a vulgar prostitute?". The woman felt mocked and filed charges of sexual violence. He appeared before the court and told to the judge what had happened, with the ruling being that he did not have the right to call her a prostitute.

• Molly Fleming sexual aggression (May 2, 1981)

This woman was Sharif's neighbour and knew each other by sight. On one occasion, she knocked on Sharif's door and he invited her to come in. They chatted and drinked until she decided to leave because she felt drunk. A few minutes later, she called Sharif to come to her apartament, which he agreed to. When he entered, she wore suggestive intimate clothing. They had sex, but shortly after the woman's boyfriend called saying that he would come by to see her, which changed her attitude towards Sharif completely. He fled the apartament, but when the woman's boyfriend arrived he realised what had happened. She invented that Sharif had drugged her, and called the police on him. When the authorities entered they found the glasses with which the pair had drunk vodka. Sharif was only given 5 years of conditional release.

• Susan Wait sexual aggression

She was a university student who lived in Sharif's house, and from the beginning they both agreed to have sex because neither of them had a partner. Sharif had to leave on a work trip once, and at one point called her on the phone. While talking with her, heard another voice in the distance, and when he returned home, he saw indications in the bedroom that she had slept with somebody else, as there were liquor residues, but she denied it. The next day Sharif and Wait were dining and drinking when they began to argue, with Wait confessing that she indeed had had sex the night before. Sharif then hit her. Feeling guilty, he confessed that he had hit to police, and they soon arrested him. In addition, he was punished for transferring the parole order from the previous incident, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison of which he served 5 years and 4 months. While imprisoned he was model prisoner, teaching others what he knew best - chemistry.

• Nancy Díaz sexual violation (Midland, Texas)

On Halloween, Sharif decided to go to a bar to celebrate. There he met Nancy Díaz and her cousin. After the bar closed, he invited the woman to his home and she agreed. They had sexual intercourse 4 times in a row, and at dawn, Sharif was taking the woman home. Meters before reaching her house, she asked him to stop, as her husband's car was there. He did not hear from her until days later, when Nancy presented herself with her husband, who was Sharif's co-worker, and was asked to pay up. When Sharif questioned them what for, they asked for $20,000 to not report the incident to the police. He refused to pay, and the couple denounced him to the police. However, the accusation fell through due to lack of evidence.

Due to these 5 incidents, he was deported and expelled from the United States. The Chihuahuan authorities would later claim that Sharif had up to 15 legal proceedings for rape, a false claim that the US authority cleared up, saying that no charges were brought against him after his expulsion.

Murders

The first alleged murder occurred in Mexico in March 1995, but there were indications that Sharif was a scapegoat of the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office, who made him a serial killer. It was claimed that he could have begun killing from 1978 to 1981 while still residing in Pennsylvania, when the unsolved disappearances of several women and girls occurred. However, Sharif was never related to these mysterious events.

Upon his arrival in Mexico in 1994, he settled in the luxurious and exclusive Rinconadas de San Marcos neighbourhood of Ciudad Juárez, with all the expenses sponsored by the company he worked for. Sharif distinguished himself as an intelligent man who patented 25 chemical formulas. It was here that his prolific career as a serial killer allegedly lasted from 1994 to 1995.

Scapegoat

Sharif was known in Ciudad Juárez as a sexual criminal with a long history of assaulting women, and it was not difficult for all to believe that he was responsible for the murders. In addition to the prosecution and the Chiahuahuan government, the people believed that one person could be put in place as the sole perpetrator. This claim calmed the families of the murdered and not the national, but the international press that had its sights on Ciudad Juárez - Sharif did not speak Spanish, was a foreigner, without family and with a history of sexual assaults; he was the right person to point as the killer. One day, however, Sharif summoned the media to give a press conference in which he would say the names of the real murderers of the women found dead in Lote Bravo. Under pressure from the press and because of his scarce Spanish, names like and Alejandro and Melchor Máynez came to light. Alejandro had come to fall in love with a dark, thin and humble girl, and he, as he was known through Juárez, was the adopted son of a prominent Juárez businessman who owned gambling houses, bars and leisure spots on the border with El Paso, Texas. After Alejandro murdered the girl, Sharif claimed to have met him in a bar where he had boasted about raped and murdered the girls with the help of his cousin Melchor. The authorities inquired about that information because he knew that Maynez's father had paid them off so his son could enjoy total immunity. It indeed had happened, because Alejandro was never questioned or bothered to give his version of the facts regarding what was said by Sharif. Sharif began to hold constant press conferences, a situation that was deemed inconvenient by the High commanders of the Attorney General's Office in Chiahuahua, so they transferred him to the Chihuahua prison as a highly dangerous prisoner. They denied him the right to see his defense attorney many times with any kind of pretext. Meanwhile, the situation in Juárez worsened, because even with Sharif in jail, bodies of raped and strangled young girls under the same modus operandi continued to appear.

Irene Blancas, defense attorney for Sharif, pointed out that she suffered constant threats inside the prison, that the story about him was absurd, and even the same judge who had sentenced him to 60 years, in a personal conversation with the defender of Sharif, admitted to not having enough evidence to convict him. However, the same judge knew that he would not be released, that Sharif would die in prison in strange circumstances, with the authorities later revealing that he had died of a heart attack.

New Crimes

Between October 1995 and April 1996, while Sharif was already imprisoned, a further 12 feminicides were registered in the city. In 1995, a group of serial killers who acted in a group, The Ciudad Juárez Rebels, were arrested and charged with murdering 17 women.

That same year, another serial killer group, The Ruteros of Ciudad Juárez, were arrested.^[9] According to the authorities, all of them were hired by Sharif to commit the murders and thus divert the investigations.^[10]

In 1996, Sharif faced 17 charges of aggravated material homicide, 24 counts of intellectual homicide, dozens of charges for kidnapping and rape, and charges of organized crime and illegal human trafficking.^[11]