On the evening of December 22nd 1932, a farmhouse in the Jewish colony of Nahalal, six miles to the west of Nazareth in northern Palestine, was firebombed. Two of the home’s inhabitants – Joseph Yacoubi and his nine-year-old son David were killed. Over the next few weeks and months five suspects were arrested for the crime and charged with murder. One of the suspects, Mustapha Ali Ahmed, was questioned intensely by police that spring and gave a bizarre, five-page confession that he signed on March 29th in Haifa’s Central Police Station. In this confession, in a peculiar non-sequitor, he admitted to being a part of an organization that received instruction from some individuals who would, years later, form the nucleus of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam band, including al-Qassam himself. Notwithstanding being fingered by his supposed co-conspirator in a signed confession al-Qassam was never charged in connection with the murders or membership in the secret gang. Instead, he assumed higher profile positions in Haifa before launching his ill-fated armed rebellion in 1935. The connection between al-Qassam, the supposed confession, and the murders has never been explored. The investigation of the murders, which included forensic examination of explosives and Holmesian detective work, was followed by a sensational trial that included allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct. This paper will detail the events surrounding the murders at Nahalal, which in the historiography of the period is typically referenced only in passing as the first act of organized violence by a secret group associated with the Young Men’s Muslim Association, and lead by Sheikhs in and around Haifa, most notably al-Qassam. This event deserves a great deal more scrutiny. The narratives given by witnesses during the trial call into question a number of the assumptions historians have made not only about the incident itself, but the very existence and composition of the “secret organizations” themselves. This paper draws on British archival accounts of the crime as well as the activities of the gang that is alleged to have carried it out. It will also examine the trial itself drawing largely on contemporary newspaper accounts in the English, Hebrew and Arabic press.