Moses Sithole AKA ABC Strangler, South Africa

[Eat Shit And Die]

Moses Sithole

Category: Serial Killing
Location: South Africa
Date: 1964-ongoing

Crime: Moses Sithole has the dubious title of South Africa's most notorious serial killer and his reign of terror certainly made the country aware of aspects of public safety. His crimes were known as the ABC Murders, because his method was to commit his murders in the towns of Atteridgeville, Boksburg and Cleveland.

Biography: His technique involved gaining the confidence of a victim, before luring them out to abandoned places such as open fields, before overpowering, raping and murdering them. Still in prison, it has since transpired that Sithole has contracted AIDs while serving his sentence.

[Eat Shit And Die]

Background information

Also known as: The South African Strangler
Born: November 17, 1964 (1964-11-17) (age 46) Vosloorus, South Africa
Conviction: Murder/Rape
Sentence: 2,410 years imprisonment

Killings

Number of victims: 38+
Span of killings: 1994–1995
Country: South Africa
Date apprehended: August 1995

Early life

Sithole was born in Vosloorus, a poor neighbourhood of Boksburg, Gauteng in apartheid-era South Africa. When he was five, his father died, and his mother abandoned the family. Sithole and his siblings spent the next three years in an orphanage, where he later said they were mistreated. He ran away back to his mother, who sent him back to the orphanage. He eventually moved in with his older brother.

He began raping women in his twenties, claiming three victims before one finally testified against him. He was sent to prison, during which he himself was sexually assaulted by other prisoners. His murder spree began in 1994, shortly after his release.

Murders

Sithole would gain access to victims by pretending to be a businessman and offering them work, going so far as to invent a fictional charity organization. Once he had gained their trust, he would offer to walk them through a veld (an Afrikaans word literally meaning "field") to the "business headquarters" until they were out of sight and hearing range; he would then overpower, rape and strangle them. By 1995, he had claimed over 30 victims, igniting a nationwide panic. In some cases, he would call the victim's family and taunt them.

Capture

In August 1995, Sithole was identified as having been seen with one of the victims; police soon discovered details of his fake business and previous rape conviction. Panicked, he went on the run. He called journalist Tamsen de Beer and identified himself as the killer. At the third call he gave de Beer a number to call back. The police rushed to the pay phone he was calling from, but they were too late. Shortly after that Sithole contacted his brother-in-law, who promised him to help him get a gun and arranged a meeting. The brother-in-law notified the police, but Sithole sensed a trap at the meeting spot 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.

Trial and imprisonment

On December 5, 1997, Sithole 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 effective sentence is thus one of 2,410 years. Justice David Carstairs ordered that Sithole would 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 at the prison, it was found that he contracted the HIV virus. He receives treatment for the virus while in prison, but his wife and child died of the disease because they could not afford treatment