Hello, my Freaky Darlings!

Today’s serial killer is Moses Sithole, who committed the ABC Murders. They were called the ABC murders because of where the victims were killed – Atteridgeville, Boksburg, and Cleveland (a suburb in Johannesburg).

Moses was born in Vosloorus, a suburb in Boksburg on the 17th of November 1964. His father died and his mother abandoned him when he was five. He and his siblings ended up in an orphanage. He raped three women in his twenties, one of which testified against him, sending him to prison where he himself was sexually assaulted. His murder spree started just after he was released in 1994. So … the question is, was the sexual abuse he suffered in prison karma or did it turn him into a more vicious predator? Or would he have progressed to being a killer without his stint in jail?

Moses gained access to his victims by pretending to be a businessman and offering them work, he even invented a fictional charity organization. Once he got them to trust him, he offered to walk them through a field to the “business headquarters”. Once they were out of sight and hearing range; he overpowered, raped and strangled them. By 1995, he had raped and killed over 30 women, causing a nationwide panic. He sometimes called the victim’s families and taunted them.

In August 1995, Moses was identified as being seen with one of the victims. Police discovered details of his fake business and previous rape conviction. Moses panicked and ran. For some inexplicable reason which is probably only obvious to a shrink, he called journalist Tamsen de Beer at The Star newspaper and identified himself as the killer, claiming that he wanted to give himself up. During the third call, he gave de Beer a number to call him back on. The police rushed to the pay phone he was calling from but were too late. So I guess he really didn’t want to turn himself in. Shortly after that Moses contacted his brother-in-law, who promised to help him get a gun and arranged a meeting. The brother-in-law, in turn, notified the police like a good little citizen, but Moses sensed a trap and ran. Police shot him twice when he charged them with an axe, wounding him before taking him into custody. He eventually confessed to the murders. During the interrogation, he told detectives that he masturbated on the crime scenes when his victims took too long to die. He also masturbated while he was being interrogated. It’s amazing what turns serial killers on.

On the 5th of December 1997, Moses was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment for each of the 38 murders, 12 years imprisonment for each of the 40 rapes, and five years imprisonment for each of the six robberies. Since his sentences run consecutively, the total sentence  2,410 years. Justice David Carstairs ordered that Moses be required to serve at least 930 years before being eligible for parole (in around 2927). He was incarcerated in C-Max, the maximum security section of Pretoria Central Prison; upon his arrival, it was discovered that he had contracted the HIV virus. Now, that’s Karma!

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If you’re fascinated by serial killers, you may enjoy my serial killer thriller – Requiem in E Sharp.

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