On this date in 2005, Iran “desert vampire” was flogged to the point of collapse and hanged before a bloodthirsty throng in Pakdasht.

Mohammed Bijeh collapses during his flogging (top); then, as he is hoisted by a crane — with what one would take to be the stab wound from a victim’s brother visible on his back. More frightful photos of this execution here.

Bijeh confessed to raping and murdering 16 boys age 8 to 15 over a yearlong spree.

His modus operandi? Lure them into the desert on the pretext of hunting animals.

Unsurprisingly a figure of intense public hatred, Bijeh stolidly endured his own death before a jeering mob.

Riot police held back the angry crowd, but at one point a brother of one of the victims managed to break through and stab Bijeh in the back.

After 100 lashes, the desert vampire was noosed to a crane arm by one of the victims’ mothers, and hoisted 10 meters into the air for public strangulation, to the cheers of onlookers who had to be restrained from savaging the body when it was finally brought down.

An accomplice, Ali Baghi, somehow avoided execution and got off with whipping and a prison term.

On this day..

• 1968: My Lai Massacre
• 1984: James Hutchins
• 1841: The Jewboy's Gang
• 1946: Max Blokzijl, voice of Dutch fascism
• 1868: Eleven samurai, for the Sakai Incident
• 1773: Lewis Hutchinson, "the most detestable and abandoned villain"
• 1789: Not Mary Wade, 11-year-old thief
• 1649: Saint Jean de Brébeuf, missionary to the Huron
• 1677: Thomas Sadler and William Johnson, mace thieves
• 1244: Two hundred-plus Cathars at Montsegur
• 37: Some poor wretches, despite the death of Tiberius
• 1457: László Hunyadi, the death before Hungary's rebirth