Murder Monday - Moses Sithole

I would sentence you to death for the heinous crimes you have been found guilty of. Instead, I am sending you to prison for a term of 2,400 years, with only the possibility of parole after 930 years.

In today’s Murder Monday, we head on over to South Africa and delight ourselves with a clown who goes by the name of Moses Sithole. A slightly unfortunate name for a man who while being a man of colour, despised black women and became known as the ABC murderer. Because he began his murder spree in Atteridgeville, he then moved onto Boksburg and at the time of his capture, he was murdering in Cleveland which is a borough of Johannesburg. He raped and killed thirty-eight women in an eighteen-month killing spree and we’re going to dive deep into the heinous world of Mr Sithole.

Moses was delivered into the bosom of humanity on the 17th November, 1964 in a township called Vosloorus in the Transvaal Province.

When at the age of five, his father died and soon after, his mother abandoned the family. The only place Sithole and his siblings could go was to an orphanage whereas per the unusual back in those days without proper auditing, the kids were mistreated, abused and some disappeared. He later blamed his crimes to the abandonment he felt from both of his parents (isn’t that a thing?) and the abuses he suffered in the children’s home. Which was centred around overbearing black ladies mistreating all of the children.

Absconding from the orphanage, Sithole went to work in the gold mines. From an early age, he was promiscuous. His level of expectations women ought to put out whenever asked was a mystery to him. If they refused his advances, he would take it by force which left to him being arrested for rape and found guilty. He was sent down to serve a prison term of seven years. Which doesn’t seem a lot.

When Sithole was released, he went to work for a non-profit called Youth Against Human Abuse. A charity which focused on the abuse of children and the eradication of child abuse. Something which in South Africa was rife.

He was a good employee for the charity. Demonstrated strength and compassion to children who had been abused and was an asset to the organisation.

It was while working for the charity, the murders became evident. The press taking it on and branding the murders the work of a serial killer.

At the time the press had picked up the trend, Moses had already killed thirty women.

Communities were in panic.

A serial killer on the loose in the townships which were by default, impossible to police.

The victim choice was consistent. They were all black and female. Age ranges spanned between 20 and 45 years of age and the police hadn’t realised all of the women who had been killed had all been interviewed for jobs by Moses Sithole.

It’s believed by psychologists, Sithole realised women he raped and were left alive were able to tell the story.

Killing them was an easy decision.

The victims would attend the interview, already nervous and vulnerable. Sithole, as part of the interview would take the victims on a tour of the township. In a remote part of the town, usually in a field. He would strangle the woman and rape her dead body. In one case, a two-year old child of the victim was left in the heat with a bleeding head wound. Lying next to their dead mother. Strangled with her own knickers, her body defiled.

The police finally realised who the prime suspect was.

Moses Sithole, in a position of authority and who prime responsibility was to interview new candidates for the charity was in fact murdering the candidates and raping them.

Sithole realised the game was up and headed off the police by calling a national newspaper.

Tamsin de Beer picked up the phone and received a call from a mild-mannered male who had openly admitted to the murders.

He stated while interviewing these women, they reminded him of the mistreatment at the orphanage he was placed in and the women he was wrongly convicted of raping. He had claimed seventy-six victims of rape and murder. He gave sensitive information about where some of the bodies were still concealed. His methodology which wasn’t widely known by the public.

With the help of the newspaper, Sithole was apprehended in a shoot-out when a police officer went to arrest him.

Sithole came out fighting, wielding an axe. Another officer shot him but unfortunately, not killing him.

Sithole was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery; and of course, he was positive with HIV and Tuberculosis.

The classic mix of the absence of a mother figure in his life nor father figure, along with an inbuilt psychopathy led Sithole down this degenerate path.

title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>He displayed all the characteristics of a psychopath, charming, intelligent. Speaking with women with a level of ease which lured them in. He was handsome and physically attractive to boot.

The ladies loved him but he took what he wanted from whom ever. If they struggled, he killed them without even skipping a beat.

Sithole’s first day in court was on the 22 October 1996. The charge was for thirty-eight murders and forty rapes as well as six counts of robbery.

Sithole was found guilty by a jury of his peers unanimously. The judge, deeply troubled by the crimes wanted to sentence Sithole to death. But as the capitol punishment had only recently been abolished in South Africa the judge sentenced Sithole for a total of 2,410 years. With the possibility of parole after 930 years. A move to keep Sithole behind bars for the rest of his life.

And good job too. I hope the viruses which course around his body wreak havoc and cause this degenerative a lot of discomfort.

Next week, we take a look at the Third Wave. Nothing to do with murder, but fascinating non the less.

Stay frosty.